A couple treats in the comments today.
From Fortuneate:
Democrats, realizing the success of the President’s “Cash For Clunkers”
rebate program, have revamped a major portion of their National Health Care
Plan.
President Obama, Speaker Pelosi, and Sen. Reed are expected to make this
major announcement at a joint news conference later this week. I have
obtained an advanced copy of the proposal which is named….
“CASH FOR CODGERS” and it works like this… Couples wishing to access
health care funds in order to pay for the delivery of a child will be
required to turn in one old person. The amount the government grants them
will be fixed according to a sliding scale. Older and more prescription
dependent codgers will garner the highest amounts.
Special “Bonuses” will be paid for those submitting codgers in targeted
groups, such as smokers, alcohol drinkers, persons 10 pounds over their
government prescribed weight, and any member of the Republican Party.
Smaller bonuses will be given for codgers who consume beef, soda, fried
foods, potato chips, lattes, whole milk, dairy products, bacon, Brussel
sprouts, or Girl Scout Cookies.
All codgers will be rendered totally useless via toxic injection. This will insure that they are not secretly resold or their body parts harvested to keep other codgers in repair. You heard it hear first…
And from VJ:
see more Engrish” />
“White House confirms it used taxpayer dollars to hire private company to distribute e-mails, including unsolicited spamming to push health plan”. And the beat goes on.
Just where have we arrived?
Sen. Arlen Specter on Sunday called for hearings to scrutinize a guide for veterans’ end-of-life care which one former Bush official says sends a “hurry-up-and-die” message to injured troops.
The guide, called “Your Life, Your Choices,” was suspended under the Bush administration but has been revived under the current Department of Veterans Affairs.
Jim Towey, former director of the White House Office of Faith-Based Initiatives, said that the pamphlet makes injured veterans feel like a burden, encourages the severely injured to die and should be tossed out.
Asked about the document, Specter, a member of the Veterans’ Affairs Committee, said it raises “a lot of questions” and that he would call for hearings immediately.
“I think consideration ought to be given right now to suspending it pending hearings,” Specter, D-Pa. said.
I haven’t seen the book but I found the following excerpt on another blog and this lists those parts that he found objectionable. I don’t get it. These are the types of things a person should consider and communicate if they want to maintain control of their life. What is wrong with that?
Page 24 – “cant shake the blues” “I rely on a kidney dialysis machine to keep me alive.” “If you checked “not worth living,” does this mean that you would rather die than be kept alive?”
Page 25 – “I believe that controlling pain is very important, even if the pain medications might hasten my death.”
Page 26 – Imagine that you are very sick and have been told that you will very likely die soon. I would want all possible treatments, even though my doctors don’t think they will help me, because I would hope for a miracle cure that would prolong my life.
Page 40 – “These forms are very specific about your wishes. You can attach them to your advance directive to provide a detailed picture of your preferences.”
Page 41 – It asks you to rate how you view your current health and quality of life.
Page 46 – Asks you to rate your life just in case you cannot communicate your feelings.
Page 50 –
5. Your Vision Of A Good Death-If you hope to die in a certain way whether it’s at home, in your sleep, with family by your side, or free of pain-tell people.
Page 51 –
Make a special appointment To make sure you’ve got their attention, make a special appointment with your health are provider to talk about this. Health care providers are people too-some are uncomfortable talking about end-of-life issues, or have other things on their mind. You don’t want to be in a hurry when you have this conversation. If your health care provider wants to just file your advance directive in your chart without discussing it, don’t let that happen! Make sure they know why you feel the way you do. This will make it easier for them to understand and follow your wishes.
Page 53 – Here is the FAQ section:
Q: Is withdrawing treatment considered suicide?
A: Most people would say “no.” Withdrawing or stopping a treatment after it has been started, is one way that patients can exercise their right to refuse treatment especially if the treatment does not seem to be achieving the desired goal. However, some religions believe otherwise. You may want to check with your religious advisor to be sure.
Fortune: And you accused me of being a blog reader…lol I think the last line of my post was what I was trying to say. People need to really look at the whole picture and discuss these issues. Your post goes into more detail, page numbers and exact wording. But that is only a portion and can certainly not paint the picture. As I have said before I am nowhere near an expert or right on every point. But, when you have at least a good portion of the population saying whoa. Then we really need to make sure where we are going with these type of things. I do not like Specter. I think he is a piece of trash and is a perfect example of what is wrong with our congress. I do give him credit (which was the point) to say let’s really analyze this before we go forward. There is a TV program on called Sharks. Where these small business, inventors try and sell their ideas to gain capital investment from the panel of capitalist. This administration reminds me of that. Obama is very likeable and a great salesman. However, where’s the beef? He has trippled the deficit if not quadrupled it and I don’t see the profit. When people ask the really tough questions, at times, there seems to be no answers. “I won”, “This is what the American people want”. “This is a major crisis”, “If we don’t do this now the world will end”. I’m an American and I’m not at all convinced this is where we need to be going. End of life counseling? Do these people not have families? Is the American population so ignorant the Goverment needs to tell them what to do? “Oh this is voluntary”. “We are providing a service”. All I’ve seen is a bunch of bull. Just thoughts. But from what I see and hear is that I need to give the goverment more money so the goverment can decide what’s best. I don’t think so.
Weighing in, here…….
Specter, Schumer, Clinton, Reid, Dodd, Frank, Panetta, Pelosi, Rom Emmanuel……and Fortuneate…… all have similar outlooks, STM.
A poll in Arizona released yesterday has Reid with less than half percentage likelihood of reelection over nearest Republican rival. Another female republican in Arizona is apparently going to throw her hat in the ring too. Of course the 2010 election is more than a year away so those numbers will change, but it sure does seem that he’s on somewhat of a slippery slope after all this trash talk since the January. Notice how quiet he is being these days? Pelosi too. I know a guy who is still in DoD Intel who told me that he heard a rumor that after Pelosi’s trip to the Middle East where she showed her ass quite well to the Arabs and the rest of the world, that on her return the FBI briefed her that they had so many death threats against her that she was advised to keep her head down for awhile cause if someone really wanted to get to her they would probably be able to, even against their best efforts to protect her. You may have noticed, as I have, that she has been somewhat quieter since then….. and has only flared up once or twice since. BTW, another point that has escaped most people was that the vote taken on the stimulus package that she jammed through cutting off debate, she jammed it through for purely personal reasons, as well as to simply stick it up the Republicans noses…….. her personal reason, though, for the rushed vote was that she had to take a trip to Italy, you may remember, where she received a some sort of recognition from the Italian government for her Italian heritage……gag me with a spoon here. I used to like Italy alot, having lived there for two years, till I heard that – It’s pretty hard to hold them in quite the same favor, since, though.
If you guys can get Glenn Beck on Fox news channel over there try to watch it every day this week even if you have to record it, which you should do everyday anyway, given the time difference. Glenn is running a five day special where he is laying out what his research team has uncovered about the Obama administration, the nearly 30 Czar’s Obama has hired, several of whom are avowed communists…..(BTW, many top political appointee posts remain vacant, whereas the functions they would ordinarily have have been subsumed by these “Czar’s” who report directly to Obama and are not similarly politically footed as a regular government employee would be………interesting, huh???? ..but to continue, the reasons for the run up of the deficit…….the attacks on US Intelligence agencies, from the Democrat party and the Attorney General……….confirmed despite his own political baggage……to include declining to prosecure the black panthers who kept voters away from the -polling places by gun point…….. decided not to prosecure them on intereference with polling violations OR gun violations……. cool huh………great AG we have there, huh……………also BTW, Obama already said some time back that Intelligence officials would not be investigated for allegations of misconduct regarding the war on terror……….. but today the AG, Eric Holder, same guy I used to coordinate DoD Psyops correspondence with when he worked for DoD JAG, he announced that he was organizing aninquiry into the allegations of CIA misconduct, ………..even after Obama said there would be none……….. and word is Panetta is ready to quit and won’t last the year…………. the WH is already re-interviewing candidates for the CIA post who were originally vetted with Panetta…….but I digress……….. to continue………..Beck has learned many things…… to include……. the reason for Obama’s declaration that he wants his own National Militia similar and equal to the US Military, no shit……. and many other things. Every day Beck is listing a series of to the point penetrating questions on his program, and posting them on his web site too, that every American should be asking themselves and their elected representatives. Glenn says what his research team has have been able to piece together is pretty much a long complex but well concealed plan, unfolded systematically to undermine the government and literally bring it down, by virtue of the collapse of the economy and the dollar and the deficit, where the infrastructure they want to replace the current government with will already be in place, via such mechanisms as the stimulus package……. and other legislation they have already passed or have poised to introduce…… so to thereby essentially, if and when the economy and or nation goes down on it’s knees, they will quickly replace the current government with what will turn out to be a socialist one – all enforced by the national militia that reports to Obama. Cool huh? The interesting and even incredible thing is that Obama told us what he had planned and would do without delay when he was running for the Oval office. Glenn has played back excerpts of his speaches which leave no question what he would do and is now doing. But he presented his views in non-threatening ways and as solutions to problems…………..and the public bought it hook line and sinker. It’s all there for anyone to see……anyone who would care to take the time to lokok, that is.
A note of significance Beck has learned is that the stimulus package, 1600 pages long, we all know, was not written by congress at all (which is part of the reason none of them knew anything about it at all) – rather it was written by an organization by the name of The Apollo Group. Google it. This group is a vast complex group which is silently working to undermine the existing government and to systematically replace it with a socialist one.
Alright, I’ll take a breather here. Please look at Glenn Beck, Fox news channel, this week and take notes if you can. Also look up The Apollo Group and try to see what it is.
Fortuneate probably already knows all about these things and can clarify all my mistakes and errors though, so we should probably wait for his clarification and comments.
Have a great day and try to enjoy yourselves before it all comes crashing down…… with a whimper or a wail……I wonder…….
Given the complacency of the American Electorate, I suspect it might be a whimper…… we’ll see.
Wanna know what this guy, Obama, is all about.
Get your hands on this:
http://www.amazon.com/Culture-Corruption-Cheats-Crooks-Cronies/dp/1596981091/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1251161375&sr=1-1
She names names and lays it out. Word is it’s all true or she would have been sued through her nose……..
Take a look, but don’t put too much stock in the liberal shout down, in the amazon book reviews against her – one thing about the Dems……they always cry foul long and loud whenever even a suspicion or semblance of a dis on them is made.
I wonder where they learned that tactic……could it have been the civil rights movement….???…. they were cheek to jowl with it….. so it was either the chicken or the egg…..huh?
While I’m wearin you out, here is the Editorial Description of Malkins, book, Culture of Corruption, above. save you digging for it if you were inclined to, which you probably weren’t.
Editorial Reviews.
Descriptio:
In her shocking new book, Malkin digs deep into the records of President Obama’s staff, revealing corrupt dealings, questionable pasts, and abuses of power throughout his administration. –This text refers to the Audio CD edition.
From the Inside Flap:
The era of hope and change is dead….and it only took six months in office to kill it.
Never has an administration taken office with more inflated expectations of turning Washington around. Never have a media-anointed American Idol and his entourage fallen so fast and hard. In her latest investigative tour de force, New York Times bestselling author Michelle Malkin delivers a powerful, damning, and comprehensive indictment of the culture of corruption that surrounds Team Obama’s brazen tax evaders, Wall Street cronies, petty crooks, slum lords, and business-as-usual influence peddlers. In Culture of Corruption, Malkin reveals:
* Why nepotism beneficiaries First Lady Michelle Obama and Vice President Joe Biden are Team Obama’s biggest liberal hypocrites–bashing the corporate world and influence-peddling industries from which they and their relatives have benefited mightily
* What secrets the ethics-deficient members of Obama’s cabinet–including Hillary Clinton–are trying to hide
* Why the Obama White House has more power-hungry, unaccountable “czars” than any other administration
* How Team Obama’s first one hundred days of appointments became a litany of embarrassments as would-be appointee after would-be appointee was exposed as a tax cheat or had to withdraw for other reasons
* How Obama’s old ACORN and union cronies have squandered millions of taxpayer dollars and dues money to enrich themselves and expand their power
* How Obama’s Wall Street money men and corporate lobbyists are ruining the economy and helping their friendsIn Culture of Corruption, Michelle Malkin lays bare the Obama administration’s seamy underside that the liberal media would rather keep hidden.
From the Back Cover:
Praise for Culture of Corruption
“Culture of Corruption, by my good friend and intrepid reporter Michelle Malkin, reveals all the sordid details the Obama Administration would rather you not know–the sleaze, corruption, and self-dealing of the Chicago Machine that lets no `crisis’ go to waste. A powerful and necessary indictment of what `hope and change’ really means.”
–Mark Levin, author of the New York Times bestsellers Liberty and Tyranny and Men in Black
“Dogged, fiercely independent, and with a brilliant eye for the telling detail, Michelle Malkin has now turned her formidable skills to the bright new dawn of the Obama era, and the ever widening gulf between the hopey-changey rhetoric and the murkier reality. Her riveting portrait of unsavory cronies parceling out the spoils of government is somewhat at odds with the impression you may have gained from the besotted Tiger Beat correspondents of the mainstream media. I will leave it to the reader to decide which view is more persuasive, but let’s just say that, if more journalists were like Michelle Malkin, American newspapers might still have a future.”
–Mark Steyn, author of the New York Times bestseller America Alone
About the Author
Michelle Malkin is the author of three bestselling books, including the New York Times bestseller Invasion. She is the founder of two of the Internet’s top conservative blogs, MichelleMalkin.com and HotAir.com. Malkin has worked in daily newspaper journalism since 1992, penned a nationally syndicated column for Creators Syndicate since 1999, and served as a FOX News Channel contributor since 2001. While working as an editorial writer/columnist for the Seattle Times, she won the Council on Governmental Ethics Laws (COGEL) national award for outstanding service for the cause of governmental ethics and leadership, and for investigative columns that exposed campaign finance abuses and corruption by Washington State Democrats, Republicans, and political organizations. After nearly a decade, Malkin escaped the Beltway swamp and now lives a much healthier, happier, uncorrupted life with her husband and two children in Colorado.
—————-
I implore you, get the book, read it.//DWS
Yeah, ok. “After nearly a decade, Malkin escaped the Beltway swamp and now lives a much healthier, happier, uncorrupted life with her husband and two children in Colorado.”
And aside from her brillance, she’s fine as hell.
Happy Birthday Old Man!!!!!!!!!!
Duke you jumped the gun. His birthday is the 27th but since you brought it up…Happy Birthday John!
Frank I am forced to google much of what you write about and that usually takes me to blogs not news articles. I confess I am not much a newspaper reader and I rarely watch TV news. I skim the The Express and do the sudoku puzzle. I have been following the health care debate/debacle and the happenings in Afghanistan but that is about it.
Like any sane American I am alarmed at the bleeding of the public coffers. Bush made the deficit irrelevant and Obama seems to have happily embraced this notion. I know that sometimes you have to spend a little to make a little and that this is a period of readjustment for our nation. However, it is scary and there is no guarantees that this course of action to jump start the economy and provide future protections (health care reform is part of the future protections as much for business as it is for people)is going to work.
But to focus for a minute, our topic was the end of life counseling. Start with the premise that our returning injured vets and our elderly are of sound mind and average intelligence, to assume anything less would be patronizing. Those questions above would not convince me that I am worthless or that I should end my life. They do provide a framework of the types of things one should consider. I don’t understand why you think the elderly would be more susceptible or negatively influenced than you or I, unless of course you equate getting older with getting dumber, and if you do, shame on you.
Fortuneate, I think the goverment should not be in the health care business. They have made a mess of Medicare/Medicade and the VA Hospital System. I prefer they stay out of mine.
Fortuneate – I know it is early since mine is the 26th and his was the next day. Use to celebrate it together in a very long 2 days of partying. Just wanted to make sure that he saw it prior to his birthday. Sometimes John I think forgets his Blog is being read. (Alzheimers). LOL
Jezu Christe……..guys…….
Hello……..hello……..over here, chopped liver waving his hand…….
What the hell is the point of posting for discussion if the posts are summarily ignored and the ole boy’s club prattles on about birthday’s past and future….and earlier points made and unmade and mis-understood and that’s not what I said anyway…….
My goodness………… I give the freak up….
Well Happy Birthday Duke!
Frank I see your point. Those that benefit from these programs might not. Medicaid is rife with abuse and I see no evidence that Medicare has controlled health care costs for seniors. I had hoped that revamping health care in this country would include at a minimum Medicaid. It doesn’t make sense to have multiple programs.
You aren’t being ignored Dennis. Your posts did not show up until sometime this evening. In any case I am afraid I would not know where to start with responding. The topic is health care but you are not talking about health care.
To the best of my knowledge Glenn Beck and Pat Cadell are TV personalities who make a living out of making provocative statements attributed to other people. I guess that way they can’t be held liable. They make their living slinging mud and getting the fringe riled up. Michele Malkin also makes her living stirring up the fringe base. She has proven to be successful at what she does and you are right she is cute. I just can’t get excited over these folks or their message.
And for the record, I’m a she.
Fortuneate a guy? Maybe its because I know my own gender, but really don’t you think Fortuneate as a handle would be a bit gay for a guy? Hell, its too gay for a gay guy.
Well, thanks for puttin up with me none the less.
But, more accurately I believe, the discussion in this and other posts has actually been all over the board, Ms Fortuneate, and well you know it – to include the birthday stuff……..
I have not yet discerned where you are located and what you have access to regarding current media but I have to assess that either you don’t have much access or that your judgment is off IMO by at least half in your assessment. It’s probably the latter because your judgment has been at least that far off for nearly everything I have read posted by you. You are clearly quite sympathetic to Obama and his excesses and manage to find excuses for most of what he does. I am, however, on occasion interested to find your display of humor and a bit of what could almost pass for near fair-mindedness on more rare occasion – and this is probably a good thing.
Your assessment of Glenn Beck shows you to be a liberal, in my view, because if you had tracked his program for more than a short time you would probably know better than to say that. I don’t know where the comment about Pat Caddell came from because Pat is a total admitted Liberal Democrat and to my knowledge has only been on Glenn’s TV program one time, and that was yesterday. On that occasion though, as you apparently saw, Pat was adamantly opposed to many aspects of Obama’s actions – in fact it was he who noted the double standards of the AG, Eric Holder, in several examples. I wouldn’t give two cents for the majority of liberal political pundits but I have to say that I find Pat Caddell to be, generally, very fair minded and I find myself wondering what the hell ever happened to him to push him into the liberal camp. I only make this post limitedly about you because of your views as expressed. I don’t agree with nearly anything you say, politically, though mostly I’ve tried to hold my tongue, but I note that on occasion you display the democrat talent for muddying the water on issues where the liberal reasoning is clearly lacking – a guy who does that similarly on the Fox political news programs, particularly the Special Report w/Bret Baird, is Juan Williams, the black guy, also senior correspondent for National Public Radio – I used to nearly despise to see him on the air or to even hear his voice but then I realized that he does more damage to the liberal cause with his fallacious reasoning then any ten conservatives could similarly do, so it’s probably a good thing to have him aboard. He is clearly a lightweight, though, compared to Fred Barnes, Charles Krauthammer, Morton Kondrake and even Mara Liasson, who as you probably know is also a Liberal Dem, but very, very bright, IMV.
You probably already know it but I’ll mention it in case you don’t – Glenn Beck is on AM talk radio from 9AM till Noon daily, the third largest talk radio audience (behind Sean Hannity and Rush) and of course is now on TV at 5PM on Fox Cable News as well. Since he’s been in that time spot he has broken all records for ratings and audience size, apparently the 5PM slot not being very lucrative in the past. I have been listening to him on radio for several years and I note that the behavior and techniques you speak of, though I don’t agree with your assessment of them, has only been in evidence since the run up to the national elections and since – a time frame and unfolding era where such truth and call to action is clearly called for. It’s pretty interesting to me how widely differing views of people can have – you apparently think Glenn is full of it and I think he is a national treasure.
Anyway, so it goes – no offense intended.
>>>”provocative statements attributed to other people so they can’t be held accountable???? Slinging mud, as in a contrived technique to make a living……. and riling up the fringe….” you can’t get excited over these people or their messages (as though you would receive what they say fairly, given your political bias)…….. but you can get excited over all sorts of other contrived liberal bull-shit as shown by your discussions on this board. Amazing…….
Shame on you, you can do better…… well……..maybe not.
Dennis –
I apologize for confusing you and throwing your prattling responses for a loop. I also know that since this is John’s Blog and that he enjoys any and all comments; that is what I did.
Fortuneate, I agree that name would be to gay even for a gay guy but for a woman of intelligence and wit; fits just right.
What the hell does Fortune_ate mean?
Does it mean you ate the Fortune Cookie, (spelling,etc, not to be picky…)…????
Fortunate was taken so aol suggested an alternate spelling or perhaps it was my husband. He chose the “handle” for me. As to the meaning I guess he thought I was a lucky girl being married to him.
Well, I’m sure it’s he, who’s the lucky one…..
(Do a YouTube search on Allison Krauss, “The Lucky One”….. and lemme know what you think…..
I generally never cared much for “Blue Grass”, I didn’t think…….till Allison came along…….
She’s a favorite.
She is a favorite of mine too. I was sold on her after the movie “Oh Brother Where Art Thou” (which is a classic in my book) but fell in love all over again with Raising Sand.
As for bluegrass, I was exposed as a child (dad) but kind of left it behind. However, after my oldest gave me an ipod I decided I needed some Lester Flat and Earl Scruggs and that led me on a bluegrass quest to round out my collection. In fact on a raining day like today good for nothing but cooking I think I will put on some bluegrass while I make lasagna. Doggy play date today and I’m the deswignated cook. Still don’t know what I will make for dessert. Buttermilk pie? Banana Pudding?
She is a favorite of mine too. I was sold on her after the movie “Oh Brother Where Art Thou” (which is a classic in my book) but fell in love all over again with Raising Sand.
As for bluegrass, I was exposed as a child (dad) but kind of left it behind. However, after my oldest gave me an ipod I decided I needed some Lester Flat and Earl Scruggs and that led me on a bluegrass quest to round out my collection. In fact on a raining day like today good for nothing but cooking I think I will put on some bluegrass while I make lasagna. Doggy play date today and I’m the designated cook. Still don’t know what I will make for dessert. Buttermilk pie? Banana Pudding?
New sides of you showing, Fortuneate….. ur shaping up to be quite a gal………no condescension intended….
On Allison Krauss….. the first weekend I spent with my fiancé….soon to be wife….about three years ago, maybe…… she put a DVD of Allison Krauss and Union Station on…… and played the cut…… Now That I Found You……. and sang along with it, hanging on to my arm…. actually brought tears to my eyes…….
That DVD if you get it will become one of your favorites……all of the cuts from the DVD are on YouTube……..
This is the link to the cut from the DVD
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvKtxTsVoMo&feature=related
The Lucky One is performed within a cut or two of the above one on the DVD, which is the first time I heard it actually.
Hope you are able to enjoy it and your Doggy play date……… our mix ShiTsu/Lhasa Apso (barely a year and a half now), “Naty”, named for Heidi’s mom….. whose name is Natividad, having been born on Christmas Day……. but Naty is laying at my feet, waiting for me to turn off this computer and go to bed…… she gives a low growl now and then just to let me know she’s serious…..
Ain’t life grand…………????
All the best to you and yours.