Showing posts with label QUIT BITCHING. Show all posts
Showing posts with label QUIT BITCHING. Show all posts

Thursday, October 18, 2007

Sinking SCHIP

I'm Brian A. Maloney and I approve this message.


Cue the music!

You know, that deep bass, I'm about to grow a tail in my shorts, suspenseful music that make you feel like dropping a deuce on the spot?!

Cue it up.....

It's about to get nuclear, or is nukelar, or is nuc......

Oh #$% it all....

Just cue the music......


Today, the House of Representatives will vote on a measure to override President Bush's veto of SCHIP (which is a massive government-subsidized health insurance entitlement expansion plan). I agree with the Democrats on one thing: This is indeed a "defining moment."

The left-wing elite is in high dudgeon over conservatives who have dared to question the wisdom of extending SCHIP to middle-class families, adults and even illegal aliens to the tune of $35 billion -- funding dependent on saddling millions of smokers with regressive taxes and maintaining their nicotine addictions.

Liberal columnists have called people like me (as well as way more famous people than me) "meanies and hypocrites" (you know that whole compassionate conservative moniker people like to throw around right now) who are "sliming" children. Even political stalwarts such as Joy Behar took their pot shots to condemn people like me as a "selfish b------." Why? For challenging Harry Reid's use of a SCHIP expansion poster family, the Frosts of Baltimore, last week. Cable TV Bush-basher Keith Olbermann paraded the Frost parents on television and coaxed them into displaying photos of their children in their hospital beds after a horrible car accident while they castigated conservatives for "distraction" techniques. Never mind that the president's veto does not affect families like the Frosts covered by existing policies.

But here's what the hysterical tantrum-throwers really don't want to reckon with: The Frost parents' status as two property-owning, three vehicle-driving, "intermittent" and "part-time" workers raises fundamental policy questions about which families should benefit from government-subsidized health insurance in the first place -- and whether even better-off families than the Frosts should be added to the public health insurance dole.

That's what Harry Reid and his socialized health care minions are telling us. And now they demand that we shut up lest we be accused of "Swiftboating" innocent children.

Are Democrats capable of defending their reckless, inequitable agenda without tot-sized human shields? Apparently not. In advance of the override vote, they simply switched flak jackets and brought out a 2-year-old child with a heart defect, Bethany Wilkerson of Florida, to lobby for the override. But like the Frost children, little Bethany would have been covered regardless of the entitlement expansion veto.

The Democrats may believe their Romper Room politics are working. And some queasy Republicans may be tempted to abandon fiscal conservatism for electoral expediency. But a majority of Americans polled by USA Today/Gallup this week -- 52 percent -- agree with President Bush that most benefits should go to children in families earning less than 200 percent of the federal poverty level -- about $41,000 for a family of four. The polls showed that "only 40 percent say benefits should go to families earning up to $62,000, as the bill written by Democrats and some Republicans would allow."

Defining moment indeed: Who represents the truly needy? Who represents responsible taxpayers? Who represents future generations, who would be forced to send their hard-earned money to fund this hugetastic middle-class entitlement explosion? The GOP is already responsible for passing the obscene Medicare prescription drug entitlement expansion -- the largest in the program's history and the true costs of which were suppressed until after it became law.

If Republicans don't have the guts to torpedo the Democrats' SCHIP Trojan Horse permanently, they deserve to lose their seats.


Paid for by the committee to educate people on the real meaning of Compassionate Conservative.

Friday, October 05, 2007

Healthcare

Michael Moore loves government.

OK, he doesn't love a government headed by George W. Bush, but he believes that once the Democrats are in charge, government will do a better job providing health care.

In his new movie, "Sicko," he praises government-controlled health care systems in Canada and Europe. He suggests that Americans pay more for health care but have a shorter life expectancy than people in other countries because our health care is driven "by profit."

He is wrong in so many ways.

First, life expectancy is no measure of a country's medical system. Lifestyle and culture matter more, and Americans are different.

In a recent interview shown on ABC's News Magazine show 20/20, Moore was taken to task on this issue by John Stossel. Stossel said, "In America we kill each other more often. We shoot each other. We have more car accidents. Forgive me, more of us look like ... you."

Moore smiled at that, but still argued that that people live longer in Canada "because they never have to worry about paying to go see the doctor. That means at the first sign of being sick they go right away to the doctor cause they're not worrying about whether or not they can afford it."

Are you serious!!

Freedom brings anxiety, but its other rewards are so superior to passive care from a smothering government.

America's medical system has problems, but profit is the least of it. Government mandates, overregulation and a tax code that pushes employer-paid health insurance prevent the free market from performing its efficient miracles. Six out of seven health-care dollars are spent by third parties. That kills the market. Patients rarely shop around, and doctors rarely compete on price or service.

But his ignorance doesn't end there. He would go on to say, "Government can do things right. ... My dad gets his Social Security check every month. Comes not only every month, it comes on the same day through the so-called 'dilapidated' U.S. mail. ... [A]sk your grandparents what they think of Medicare. Although it has its flaws, although it may be underfunded, it's a much better program than the HMO that somebody has."

Underfunded? Medicare has a 75-year $34 trillion unfunded liability! Its costs are growing faster than inflation. Social Security has a 75-year $5 trillion unfunded liability. These are schemes that will be bankrupt before Moore reaches retirement age. The U.S. mail manages to deliver his dad's checks, but compare its performance to FedEx or UPS. The Post Office said it wasn't possible to deliver packages overnight.

I want "FedEx" health care: innovation, new cancer treatments, hip replacements and pain relief. We get that from private-sector competition, not government lethargy.

Moore said, "You don't introduce profit into your city water department."

Stossel took that time to tell a story from one of his books "Give Me a Break", Basically it goes like this -- Jersey City, New Jersey's water tasted foul and failed safety tests. City workers said there wasn't much they could do. In fact, water prices would have to be raised ... just to maintain the lousy service they had.

So Jersey City turned its water system over to a for-profit company. Within months it had fixed the pipes government workers said couldn't be fixed, and for the first time in years, Jersey City's water met the highest cleanliness standard. And the kicker...


Taxpayers saved $35 million!!!!

The private company could do it better and cheaper because their skills were honed by constant competition.

Private competitors innovate or die. Government workers do what they did last year. That's why I want the private sector to provide my health care. Pursuit of profit will give us our best medicines and medical devices. I'll pay you $1,000 if you can name one thing government does more efficiently than the private sector.

Sometimes it's puzzling.

The same people who crucify government for Katrina and for bridge collapses want the same government to run health care. Remember Walter Reed?

Thursday, September 13, 2007

Throwing a Hissy Fit

MoveOn.org threw a hissy fit, taking out a newspaper ad suggesting Gen. Petraeus is "General Betray Us." Good stuff, if you like semi-snappy language that libels a soldier at war. And this, days before he even presents his findings to Congress.

MoveOn leaders pretend to know more about Iraq than the general who lives there. MoveOn was founded as a special interest group amid the bitter partisan warfare in Washington in the late 1990s. But now the organization itself vomits up partisan bile.

In a recent poll, 63 percent of Americans say they have confidence in Petraeus, who holds a Ph.D. in international relations from Princeton. His 63 percent is substantially higher than the numbers for Bush and the Democrats in Congress.

So, Moveon.org took out a full page ad in the most influential paper in the country to impugn the integrity of David Petraeus - a highly decorated four star general who has spent his life in service to America and is currently leading 160,000 of our citizen-soldiers in war - and to call him a liar two days before he offered testimony to the United States Congress. Yes, it generated "buzz." But it was still a truly slanderous, repugnant thing to do.

Mitt 2008?...getting closer now.



And one more 9/11 item......

Here is some sentiment from 6 years (it is a PDF file) and right on.

Monday, September 10, 2007

Politics, Fans are Stoopid!

Matt Hasselbeck and Mack Strong attended a recent Republican fundraiser where they presented President Bush with a Seahawks jersey. Naturally, people were self-righteous dipshts about it.

"How dare Hasselbeck declare Bush an honorary Seahawk," wrote one. "Who is
Matt speaking for? Bush is no Seahawk. He is the worst president of my lifetime,
and I'm almost 60. Shame on you, Matt."

"To learn that two of the most popular Seahawks are strong (Bush)
supporters ruins the season for me and my family," wrote another

...Added Hasselbeck: "I don't understand. This is America. We're not going
to agree on everything."
Whoa, whoa, whoa. Did he not get the memo? Athletes aren't allowed to have opinions on politics. He should have done something less damaging to his reputation, like cheating on his wife or getting a DUI. At least that wouldn't have ruined the season for fans.

Friday, July 13, 2007

Remember it is all the Republicans fault.

Gas prices....freakin a.

On the verge of leaving on vacation for the week, gas prices skyrocket again and Michigan leads the pack. What are the odds that in the middle of July prices would go up? It's never happen before. It has to be those greedy, money grubbing, deep pocket, lighting Cuban's with their Benji's Republicans.

Anyway, here's an article in today's Detroit News explaining a lot of it:

"Michigan's gasoline prices, the highest in the nation on Thursday, have motorists fuming and the tax man smiling."


Read the rest here

Saturday, May 19, 2007

It's all for Me

We all blog for one reason...Me. I blog for myself. You blog for yourself. I read your blog for me. "What kind of crazy ass shit is Gary going to write about this time?" We just determine how transparent we want to be in our blogging and our commenting with others. No one blogs for others. Sure we may ellicit advice, ask questions, and engage each other over a blog. But it's still because we felt it was important enough to "blog it."

It cracks me up that people believe there are rules and guideposts to blogging. Are there rules and guideposts to keep your own journal or diary? Why should there be to blogging? Actually there are rules to blogging. What you, the author of the blog, set up as the rules. Everyone blogs differently. Some bore us with everyday tidbits and munitia of their trivial lives. Others wow us with their creativity and immerse us in awesome stories and charcacters. Some of us piss each other off and rant and rave. And all of us are "real smart" and post what we believe and why we believe it. Our blogs become our very own dogma and propaganda machine. It's why I also crack up when people cry afoul about dogma, authority, and propaganda on their blogs. All they are doing is spreading their own version of it.

And you know what.....FAN-FREAKIN-TASTIC GREAT FOR YOU!!!! I am happy for you.

I do it to and I love it. I like upsetting people and taking them out of their comfort zones. I like reading the frustrating comments my posts ellicict. It is creating the purpose I want it to. Drop the gloves, drop the borders, drop the walls and be honest. You hate church? Well I think you are being a baby because of that. You disagree? Good, let's argue over it (the word "conversation" jumped the shark a week ago...time you catch up). You hate the fact that I like George W. Bush as my and your president? (see how I bolded "you" to piss you off, I did it on purpose knowing full well it would irk you). Congratulations on forming your own opinion. You are human, you have the right. It doesn't mean I think any less of you. It doesn't mean I am not going to stick up for my opinions sometimes. And I expect the same from you. Tell me on my blog. If you make a good point and piss me off, I'm going to say "Damn It Toby, you got me", good for you. If I piss you off good for me. Listen, it's ok to have your feelings hurt because we bring up good points and argue over these things. If I make a comment to every response, deal with it. The blog is called:

MY PERCEPTION

I called it that for a reason, any guesses to what it means?

Also,

Get over the fact I don't blog everyday. I am not a "bore you with my trivial life" kind of guy.

I have a job that takes roughly 10 hours of my day bewteen normal work hours, commuting, and lunch time. I am married with a 3-month old child and I own my home. So when I get home from work, the work isn't done. And I have a life outside of blogs. I actually get together with my friends and family face-to-face and talk and argue over many, if not all, of the exact same things I write about here. There are 4 or 5 of us that are near legendary status at McCaffery's bar here in Lincoln Park for the lively debate and discussions we hold together. Sometimes bringing in "the townies" as well. What's more fun and way more cool? Going to an old Irish Pub and debating politics, arguing the narcissism level of Hemingway, how true is Global Warming, should you home-school your children, is hell real, how do you raise your boy to not be a sissy, guns, sex, rock and roll. Or typing on a blog, by yourself (maybe bitching to your wife about what Corey said this time, as she rolls her eyes at you) and then just sitting back and letting the "conversation" unfold?

What?

Typing thoughts..oops, I mean propaganda out on a keyboard only gets me so far. Human interaction and intimcy is what is needed. Sorry, I can't spend hours in front of a computer pounding out a manifesto everytime something strikes my fancy. Sometimes I find a few spare moments at work to do this. Very rarely I find time at home to do it as well. Friday nights and Saturday mornings about narrows it down for me.

I read a lot of good stuff by all the friends, people, and blogs I have listed to the right sidebar. For as much as I fire off comments there are more times I want to but just don't have the time. Scot McKnight, Steve McCoy, Michael Spencer, et. al have the time and profession to post all day long and think out loud on a blog and monitor their own comments and reply to comments and on and on. I do not. Actually, I don't want that.

Do not get me wrong. I want regular readers to my blog. I want to raise hell and argue over our life views. But it does me no good to hold back myself just to keep "readership." My goal is not to avoid hurting your feelings. But I do not want anyone to never want to read what I have to say. I'm too narcissistic for that, as are all bloggers. Let me say this too, being exasperated over your dogma and propaganda doesn't give me or anyone else the right to call names, but insuating you are being a child is not being done to offend you.

This blog is about me, your blog is about you. There's nothing wrong with that and it's ok. Outside of accosting me or my wife and family, anything you have to say is welcome here, but expect me to respond to it, and you may not like the response.

Get over it!