I WANT Ted Kennedy Health Care

[Frisco_Slug_Esq]

If we're to memorialize Teddy by putting his name on Obama's signature bill, then let's do it correctly...

So let's go with the flow on this. The greatest tribute would be that every American, every man, every woman, every child would get the same health care options that Ted Kennedy got. Ted Kennedy did not have to face death panels. Ted Kennedy didn't have to face government-run end-of-life counseling. Nobody said to Ted Kennedy's family, "Give him a pain pill." I think if you want to move the health care debate forward, let's do Tedcare for all, forever, and make sure that every man, woman, and child get the same health care options that Ted Kennedy got.

 

[Frisco_Slug_Esq]

For busybody, why Obama Pharaoh is using the NEA for self-serving art...

There has been no lack of writing about the influence of Marxist Saul Alinsky on Barack Obama's political ideology. But what appears to have escaped notice is the influence of the political culture of Chicago on Barack Obama. These influences, of course, are not the same. Alinsky was a formidable opponent of the Chicago Democratic Machine. Obama was, when necessary, a consummate machine insider.

Alinsky for all his flaws would never have gotten into bed with the likes of Tony Rezko or joined a law firm that represented slum lords.

If you want to understand the political agenda of Barack Obama, forget Alinsky, stop calling Obama a "socialist," and start thinking of Barack Obama as a guy who received his political baptism, not from the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, but from the Chicago machine.

Chicago politics is not about ideology. It is about, "Who Gets What, When, and How," to quote the inimitable Harold D. Laswell, one of the outstanding political theorists of the last century.

The sine qua non of Chicago politics is power, getting it and keeping it. Everything else is incidental. Even corruption is a byproduct of power and is functional only if it enables you to stay in power.

In Chicago politics, you don't make waves, you don't back losers, and you "don't talk to nobody nobody sent." Chicago politics is always about hierarchy and centralization.

Chicago politics is also parochial. In the City of Neighborhoods, ethnic consciousness is strong. An Irish machine, for years, ran a Polish city by making sure that the Poles got a big piece of the pie. There is seldom a perception of a common good. There is the amalgamation of different ethnic interests. In Chicago, the whole is clearly the sum of its parts, and the lubricants for the parts are political spoils.

If you want to understand Obama's health care policy, you need to start where Obama starts. You need to start with Chicago. You need to look at constituent interests.

Obama won in 2008 because, among other things, he mobilized the electoral periphery. He mobilized young voters and minority voters, people who traditionally had a lower probability of showing up on Election Day. Chicago politics is about mobilizing the vote. "Vote early and often" is the city's sardonic refrain.

Obama needs his newly socialized base. He needs them to keep coming to the polls. In the vein of Chicago politics, he needs to deliver benefits to them.

Unrewarded, the electoral periphery will revert back to apathy. Health care is a reward to this base of people who are on the economic as well as political periphery.

Talk-radio host Sean Hannity can trumpet medical savings accounts on one day and talk about the forty percent of Americans who don't pay taxes the next, and he will be immune to the inconsistency because Hannity's listeners are taxpayers. But a medical savings account means nothing if you don't pay taxes.

If you don't pay taxes and don't have health insurance, you want a card in your wallet that says someone else is going to pay. You want a medical savings account and tort reform about as much as you want another Chicago winter in an unheated apartment.

If you grow up poor and minority, everyone else's gain is ill-gotten. You expect the people you elect to take from them and give to you. If they don't, then there is no point in electing them. You might as well stay home on Election Day.

Michele Malkin is upset that David Axelrod's firm is doing the public relations for Obama Care. Michele Malkin is a superb intellectual analyst of Chicago politics, but she has no visceral feel for it. When Mayor Richard J. Daley was confronted about the city's insurance business going to a sole-source brokerage run by his sons, he responded that there would be no point in being in politics if he couldn't throw a little business to his children. Why would Axelrod be in politics if he couldn't profit from it?

Chicagoans understood that just as Obama understands that his objective is to provide his base with the spoils of power -- in this case insurance. To do this, he has to massage liberal guilt and delude the great majority of Americans, who are content with their health insurance, into thinking their insurance is not going to be changed and that they have a moral obligation to acquiesce to a remaking of health insurance.

A government option means government jobs, more rewards for the base. These jobs will be spread, as are those of all government programs, throughout the states. Each potential job holder is a voter, so too are his immediate family members.

Yes, the current health care program does have problems. To fix them requires a series of repairs -- tort reform, portability, elimination of prior conditions as an impediment to insurance, and a safety net for people who don't have insurance or lose their jobs.

Health reform does not require a complete remaking of the system. If all that Obama wanted were to insure those who fall between the cracks, he could put them into the same wonderful program that Congress created for itself by subsidizing their premiums. This would neither require a thousand pages of legislation nor a new series of bureaucracies.

But building a new power base resulting from the mobilization of the political and economic periphery requires redefining the nation's health problems as the nation's health catastrophe.

Health reform is Chicago politics on a national level. Welcome to the city.

Abraham H. Miller is emeritus professor of political science, University of Cincinnati. He is the author of a novel about the Chicago machine, Vorshavsky: A Chicago Story and has written extensively about ethnic politics.

American Thinker

 

[Frisco_Slug_Esq]

I'm getting lots of e-mail. People are frustrated as they can be over the slobbering media coverage today over the passing of Senator Kennedy. Folks, you're going to have to put up with it for a week. It's just the way it is. It shouldn't surprise any of you. But I think we need to look at Senator Kennedy in a number of ways. I think Senator Kennedy... It would serve us well to remember that Senator Kennedy is a perfect example of the redeeming aspect of liberalism. If a politician is liberal, and if the politician uses the government to take money from people who work and gives it to people who don't work, they are redeemed for every bad act on earth they commit.

It's no more complicated than that. "Why is Kennedy being so lionized after what he said about Bork and these other things?" It's because he took money from people who worked, used the governor to do it, and gave the money to people who don't work, and that simple action is the redemption that all liberal politicians get -- on earth anyway. It's sort of like a chit for any bad behavior that they engage in. That's how they are designed as compassionate and caring and saintly, virtuous. It's all because they support liberal policies. They take money, use the government to take money from people that work, give it to people who don't. It's that simple. Now, when you look at Ted Kennedy, I think particularly where we are as a nation today, I think that Kennedy's struggle to live is what should be lionized, not his politics, and not his work in the Senate, but his struggle to live.

Will there be a single liberal come forward and embrace Senator Kennedy's example of seeking and securing the best medical care available? For those who truly respect and admire Ted Kennedy the man, I ask you to put politics aside today. Forget the words. Embrace the actions of Ted Kennedy. Learn from the way he chose to live and die. Why support the rationing of health care when Ted Kennedy, the lion of the Senate, did not? Why not look at the example Ted Kennedy set and learn from that? Liberals will do Ted Kennedy, a man they love, a great disservice, if they turn his death into a metaphor for hypocrisy. It's not too late to make Senator Kennedy a symbol for life. Chappaquiddick and rationed health care are not how Ted Kennedy should be remembered. His own struggle to live is what should be lionized.

How in the world can people who support rationed health care and everything that's in that monstrosity of a bill in the House of Representatives dare put Ted Kennedy's name on it? Ted Kennedy did not use any aspect of that health care legislation to try to survive. It would be an insult to the memory of Ted Kennedy to put his name on a bill that has rationed health care based on someone's age and the extent of their illness. Ted Kennedy didn't let any of that stand in his way, in his effort to live. His spirit was for life, and I think it would be a tremendous disservice. I'm being dead serious here. I think it would be a tremendous disservice to come up with a health care bill that we have now in the House and that's floating around the Senate, the one that Obama's talking about, where the government is going to decide whether people like Ted Kennedy get to go through every aspect of survival that he did.

Exercise their spirit! He had a spirit, he wanted to live, he did not want to die. Now, Obama has said, well, we can't look at that because costs just are too high. Looking at somebody's spirit and will to live... Well, Ted Kennedy's spirit was to live and he chose to exercise as many options as were available to him to prolong his life. And to put his name on a health care bill that denies that to other people and say, "We're doing this in his memory" is hypocrisy, and it would be insulting to his memory. I am dead serious about this. The United States government was never a "partner" in Ted Kennedy's death. Remember what Obama said. Obama said this week, "We are partners with God in decisions of life and death." Remember him saying that? Well, I'll tell you this: The United States government was never a partner in Ted Kennedy's death.

Ted Kennedy's life, if it stood for anything, was a thundering rejection of President Obama's statement to hundreds of rabbis in trying to recruit them to sell his public option: "We are God's partners in matters of life and death." The US government was not a partner in Ted Kennedy's death and it should not be a partner in anybody else's death. As they say, you know, actions speak louder than words. The lion of the Senate, Ted Kennedy, never invited any bureaucrats into the decision-making process regarding the medical care he received in his desperate and human and wholly admirable struggle to remain alive. Ted Kennedy's spirit was to live. And he didn't bring any bureaucrats in. And he didn't have any end-of-life counseling with people -- at least, mandated by the government. You see, my friends, there are lessons to be learned on life, lessons to be learned in death.

Senator Kennedy's last days and his death were a powerful manifestation of the survival instinct, the will and the spirit to live. God bestowed on each of us the miracle of life. It is a gift that is personal and it is priceless, and no government of ours should ever become a partner in snuffing out a life. Slavery was a sin because governments approved the imposition of a monetary value on a human being's life and they seized the right of individuals to be in charge of their own destiny. Rationing health care I think is a comparable sin because it imposes a value on human beings' life and it allows a human beings' life to become nothing more than a mere budget item, and in the process it denies the individual the right to determine their own destiny. We're not the property of the state. One of the great lessons of the United States of America is that the state is not God's partner in anything, much less matters of life and death.

We are servants of God. The suggestion that such a partnership exists -- "partnership with God in matters of life and death," said President Obama. The suggestion that such a partnership exists is vulgar. It is a debasement of life, and it is itself un-American. The state's right to permit a value to be placed on a human being's life was the central issue of the Civil War. Hundreds of thousands of lives, 500,000 lives, were lost to ensure forever the rejection of that inhumane practice, a practice in which states were a partner. One of God's many gifts is the miracle of life. The government does not have the right to take what God has gifted, and Ted Kennedy's passing reinforces that simple, self-evident and larger-than-life fact. Ted Kennedy's passing is a powerful reminder of the respect and dignity of the intensely personal will to live that we all possess.

Ted Kennedy didn't have a death book. Ted Kennedy wasn't asked to say, "Is my life worth living?" His life was worth living, to him and his family. He did everything he could to survive it. The state was excluded from that part of Ted Kennedy's life, and it speaks well of the country and government Ted Kennedy was elected to serve that the state had nothing to do with his end. So placing his name on a health care bill in memoriam or using his name as a sympathy ploy to advance a health care bill that would deny Americans the choices Senator Kennedy had, is an insult and is supreme hypocrisy. I doubt that any of this will have any effect on anybody because passing the bill is what's first and foremost on the president's mind and on the Democrats' mind.

And sadly, Senator Kennedy now becomes a pawn. His death becomes something they can use to facilitate a political aim. And they will be saying things and doing things, claiming, "This is what he wanted. This is what he inspired." Well, he did not inspire a health care plan to deny people their own right to die, and seek to live, in their own way by their own choice. He didn't. He was not limited in any way. "But, Rush! But, Rush! We can't afford it for everybody. We can't afford it." Ah! So we're going to have elites get one way of being treated and the rest of us another way? I thought it was a right. The point is: God's gift of life is priceless. We are not partners. No government is a partner with God in matters of life and death, and no government was a partner with God in Ted Kennedy's death. To put his name on this current health care bill would be to insult what he stood for.

This ought to bring out the BEST of our lib loon contingent...

 

[Frisco_Slug_Esq]

Barack Obama Doesn't Care What You Think

Don't believe me? Just pay attention to the next two weeks. The organization Barack Obama developed to get elected and still leads, Organizing for America, is attempting to hold pro-healthcare rallies throughout the country right before Congress reconvenes. Said another way, the president who swore to represent you is sending his promoters to tell you to support his agenda. Americans, Obama neither listens to you nor cares what you think.

I'm not too worried about the rally-goers. I've seen a pro-healthcare rally recently. It was at one of the town hall meetings. It consisted of five people. I talked with four of them. One had a story about having to pay a few thousand dollars more for a surgery than he thought he should have. One didn't think it was fair that her uneducated daughter should have to pay for insurance, because it was expensive and she didn't make much money. One was the teenage son of a local politician. One was a college student who did nothing but brag about "turning people in" to the White house (remember flag@whitehouse.gov?). I'm not concerned about these people, the believers in nationalized healthcare. I expect many of them believe in UFO abductions too.

What I am concerned about, and warning everyone about, is the media machine that uses these organized events to broadcast the agenda. Framed differently, these activities aren't meant to convince attendees that healthcare is good; these activities are meant to manufacture the news, spread propaganda tropes, and over-inflate the image of the pro-socialized healthcare forces. PR stunts. The Obama modus operandi is to make his goons look bigger than they are. These are the people who will make a group of twenty conservatives appear diminutive with a far-away camera angle, and then give individual interviews to all three liberal attendees. It's just like a real estate agent photographing a small house from the best angle. Organizing for America is an illusion. It is the Wizard of Oz.

The operating methods are predictable enough. Health Care for America Now is the other group involved, and they've enlisted union leaders to send their grunts along. You'll recognize Obama-style unionists when you see them; they are good at getting media attention; they're frequently loud, make for good angry mobs, and get bulk rates from Kinko's on the signs their illiterate members carry. I'm just grateful many unionists aren't this way, and oppose this bill, too.

http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/08/barack_obama_doesnt_care_what.html

 

[Frisco_Slug_Esq]

The Obama campaign machine is about to explode on to the scene again. Obama is sending his campaign comrades to tell you what to think. Look forward to many more pro-healthcare articles in the coming weeks. Look forward to massive media mania around Democrats' large and fabricated or small and sparsely attended rallies. And look for the media to ignore key events from the opposition, like the Cincinnati tea part on September 5th (by last count nearly 2000 Ohioans had RSVP's, I am told. And they don't even need a concert).

Entrench yourselves. The media will put in overtime these next few weeks telling us we're a minority again. Look for the words "fringe," "ultra-conservative," and their kin to resurface. Remember all that has changed in the last few weeks -- we are the majority, and we are the power base. Our weakness is our disorganization, and it is their strength, but we do outnumber them. Stay strong in our beliefs and stand up, wherever you can, in your respective home towns and rally against government-run healthcare. They will attack your fiercely in the coming weeks. Band together with friends, keep the conversation going. Be heard, be seen, be public. Public opposition is as American as the revolution itself, and it is what the radical left, like their socialist founders, fears. If we stand still and quiet they can push us over, but if we push back, they can not win.

Those words went away???

Drew Brown is a consultant for a global consulting firm.

 

[LaserLemon]

The irony of Rush's comments is that those who attack him for flunking out of college will not understand the genuis of that monologue. I scrolled around the Huffing and Puffingtonpost site this morning and their was an article which linked an audio from Rush's show yesterday where he asked why he came under such attack for commenting earlier this year that the health care legislation will probably be adorned with Ted Kennedy's. The comments were hilarious and scary at the same time.

 

[off2bed]

Rats have enough sense to leave a sinking ship. Hell, even people in the WTC chose to jump rather than burn. Let the Fantasyland Socialists have their way and wait it out somewhere comfortable. If Germany could bounce back from lunatic tyrrany, so can the US.

 

[Frisco_Slug_Esq]

Costa Rica???

 

[zipman]

Rats have enough sense to leave a sinking ship. Hell, even people in the WTC chose to jump rather than burn. Let the Fantasyland Socialists have their way and wait it out somewhere comfortable. If Germany could bounce back from lunatic tyrrany, so can the US.

http://ballooneffect.co.uk/images/Bon-Voyage.jpg

 

[Frisco_Slug_Esq]

Zip,

We hope your health care system works better than your link...

 

[TurdFergeson]

The Lit Neocons need Universal Mental Healthcare.

 

[off2bed]

The Lit Neocons need Universal Mental Healthcare.

Do you know what the word Neocon means? Didn't think so.

 

[TurdFergeson]

Do you know what the word Neocon means? Didn't think so.

Hypocrite.

That's what it means. People who claim to be conservatives but beg for Government handouts to corporations in the forms of subsidies, tax breaks, grants and interest free loans, no-bid contracts, etc, but hate the red tape that goes along with it , and at the same time decry individuals getting the same treatment.

 

[JohnnySavage]

Do you know what the word Neocon means? Didn't think so.

Big spending pseudo liberals who support government intervention into every private aspect of the citizen's lives, who hijacked the word "conservative" to make them appear otherwise?

 

[off2bed]

Big spending pseudo liberals who support government intervention into every private aspect of the citizen's lives, who hijacked the word "conservative" to make them appear otherwise?

Finally, an intelligent person to converse with.

 

[RobDownSouth]

If we're to memorialize Teddy by putting his name on Obama's signature bill, then let's do it correctly...

Still whorin' the "death panel" lie, eunuch-el head?

 

[RobDownSouth]

This ought to bring out the BEST of our lib loon contingent...

Quotin' your Sensei, Grandmaster Limbaugh?

someday grasshopper, you'll be able to lie with a straight face just like ole Rush.

Eunuch-el head.

 

[RobDownSouth]

http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/08/barack_obama_doesnt_care_what.html

Quotin' the numbskulls at Amurican Thinker?

Oh that's right, Thinkin' for yourself is hard when your a wingnut.

Eunuch-el head!

 

[unregistered]

 

[Slowlane]

Ted Kennedy is dead.



Public health care is ever so much more important now.

 

[Frisco_Slug_Esq]

Hypocrite.

That's what it means. People who claim to be conservatives but beg for Government handouts to corporations in the forms of subsidies, tax breaks, grants and interest free loans, no-bid contracts, etc, but hate the red tape that goes along with it , and at the same time decry individuals getting the same treatment.

Israel... Damn, you can be thick at times...


... as a brick.

 

[TurdFergeson]

Israel... Damn, you can be thick at times...


... as a brick.

What about it?

They have socialized healthcare.