Snopes And The Media On The Bozeman Town Hall

Occasionally, circumstances work to create a good teaching point, and I hope you can hang on to the end because I have a point to make here.

A good friend forwarded an e-mail that had an account of President Obama's recent Town Hall in Bozeman, Montana. No problem so far. To research, I googled and ran across several links like this link in a TownHallBlog Post that had the letter posted in full form. Following is an example of the letter:

This was sent to me by a friend in Bozeman , MT who was there.
Hello All,
By now you have probably heard that President Obama came to Montana last Friday. However, there are many things that the major news has not covered. I feel that since Bill and I live here and we were at the airport on Friday I should share some facts with you. Whatever you decide to do with the information is up to you. If you chose to share this email with others I do ask that you DELETE my email address before you forward this on.
On Wednesday, August 5th it was announced locally that the President would be coming here. There are many groups here that are against his healthcare and huge spending so those groups began talking and deciding on what they were going to do. The White House would not release ANY details other than the date.
On about Tuesday Bill found out that they would be holding the "Town Hall" at the airport. (This is only because Bill knows EVERYONE at the airport) Our airport is actually located outside of Belgrade (tiny town) in a very remote location. Nothing is around there. They chose to use a hangar that is the most remotely located hangar. You could not pick a more remote location, and you can not get to it easily. It is totally secluded from the public.
FYI: We have many areas in Belgrade and Bozeman which could have held a large amount of folks with sufficient parking. (gymnasiums/auditoriums). All of which have chairs and tables, and would not have to be SHIPPED IN!! $$$$$
During the week, cargo by the TONS was being shipped in constantly. Airport employees could not believe how it just kept coming. Though it was our President coming several expressed how excessive it was, especially during a recession. $$$$$
Late Tuesday/early Wednesday the 12th, they said that tickets would be handed out on Thursday 9am at two locations and the president would be arriving around 12:30 Friday.
Thursday morning about 600 tickets were passed out. However, 1500 were printed at a Local printing shop per White House request. Hmmmm......900 tickets just DISAPPEARED.
This same morning someone called into the radio from the local UPS branch and said that THOUSANDS of Dollars of Lobster were shipped in for Obama. Montana has some of the best beef in the nation!!! And it would have been really wonderful to help out the local economy. Anyone heard of the Recession?? Just think...with all of the traveling the White House is doing. $$$$$ One can only imagine what else we are paying for.
On Friday Bill and I got out to the airport about 10:45am. The groups that wanted to protest Obama's spending and healthcare had gotten a permit to protest and that area was roped off. But that was not to be.
A large bus carrying SEIU (Service Employees International Union) members drove up onto the area (illegal)and unloaded right there. It was quite a commotion and there were specifically 2 SEIU men trying to make trouble and start a fight. Police did get involved and arrested the one man but they said they did not have the manpower to remove the SEIU crowd.
The SEIU crowd was very organized and young. About 99% were under the age of 30 and they were not locals! They had bullhorns and PROFESSIONALLY made signs. Some even wore preprinted T-shirts. Oh, and Planned Parenthood folks were with them.....professing abortion rights with their T-shirts and preprinted signs. (BTW, all these folks did have a permit to protest in ANOTHER area)
Those against healthcare/spending moved away from the SEIU crowd to avoid confrontation. They were orderly and respectful. Even though SEIU kept coming over and walking through, continuing to be very intimidating and aggressive at the direction of the one SEIU man.
So we had Montana folks from ALL OVER the state with their homemade signs and their DOGS with homemade signs. We had cowboys, nurses, doctors you name it. There was even a guy from Texas who had been driving through. He found out about the occasion, went to the store, made a sign, and came to protest.
If you are wondering about the press.....Well, all of the major networks were over by that remote hangar I mentioned. They were conveniently parked on the other side of the buildings FAR away. None of these crowds were even visible to them. I have my doubts that they knew anything about the crowds.
We did have some local news media around us from this state and Idaho . Speaking of the local media...they were invited. However, all questions were to be turned into the White House in advance of the event. Wouldn't want anyone to have to think off the top of their head.
It was very obvious that it was meant to be totally controlled by the White House. Everything was orchestrated down to the last detail to make it appear that Montana is just crazy for Obama and government healthcare. Even those people that talked about their insurance woes........the White House called our local HRDC (Human Resource and Development Committee) and asked for names. Then the White House asked those folks to come. Smoke and mirrors...EVERYTHING was staged!!!!!!!!!!!
I am very dismayed about what I learned about our current White House. The amount of control and manipulation was unbelievable. I felt I was not living in the United States of America , more like the USSR !! I was physically nauseous. Bill and I have been around when Presidents or Heads of State visit. It has NEVER been like this. I am truly very frightened for our country. America needs your prayers and your voices. If you care about our country please get involved. Know the issues. And let Congress hear your voices again and again!! If they are willing to put forth so much effort to BULLY a small town one can only imagine what is going on in Washington DC . Scary!!
K
Bozeman , Montana

Further, I checked out Snopes. Their rating came back as mixed (some truth-some fiction). You can follow this here and make up your own mind.

Here is what I think from what I read on Snopes and their conclusions:

• Like many forwarded e-mails, Snopes finds that this one has variations on authorship, but was unable to find even early-variation clues as to the author. (I noted from my e-mail that the author requested anonymity. Anonymity only matters or is credible when someone like the CIA releases something that is detrimental to the Bush Administration).
• No confirmation was available for the lobster shipment.
• Nothing was conclusive as to the breakdown of tickets due to varying accounts and how they were distributed. Even so, Snopes believes that the "audience packing" was not a "majority" as the letter writer insinuated.
• The media had coverage of rallies and protests outside the town hall, but was not covered as heavily as the questioning of the president inside at the meeting.
• The crowd outside, though loud and raucous, was adequately controlled by police and authorities.

Now, let me bring up the letter items about which I still had questions not covered at Snopes (with my own thoughts included):

• Did the items in the letter get covered by larger media outlets? (Nothing other than happy natives)
• Why was a remote hangar chosen instead of using a local gymnasium or auditorium as the meeting place? (Stagecraft requires an open pallet)
• Why were the local officials excluded from planning? (I dunno. Secret Service concerns possibly. But this certainly cuts local officials out from selling their city. Folks where I live would want to have the ability to put on a good show)
• How much did shipping all the extra stuff due to the remote location cost and why was this not covered by the press? (They weren't using private planes)
• Nothing on the lobsters, was local beef brought in to feed the attendees? Was there any catering? (People paid to protest gotta eat)
• What about the SEIU protesters that were bussed in? (They were probably deputized)
• Did the SEIU protesters encroach on the town hall protesters permitted area and push them out?
• Did the local authorities enforce check out the SEIU protesters' permit?
• The letter states that there was local media coverage, but where was the major media covering the rallies outside? (Access limited and probably did not fit the narrative anyway)
• Were the questioners in the meeting screened prior to the town hall meeting? (You betcha)
• These are not hard questions. And there sure were a lot of different accounts.

Seriously, I have a lot of faith in Snopes, and in their defense, this event just occurred recently so this mixed-rating report may be product-in-work. Googling, I found this from Hoguenews with people using their own names describing the events outside of the town hall. You can, on your own, keep looking further if you want to, but I want to stress the following:

• I did this on a lark using the Snopes bibliography and what I could google. Research on your own.
• This takes a ton of time. I'm glad I am not Snopes.
• The major media reporting covered the "show" inside the hangar, but did not spend too much time on the protesters outside or the preparations for the event.
• Snopes and Factcheck are not infallible. Investigation can limit meanings and the Snopes' investigation appears to be limited because the reporting was so selective.
• The major media outlets have no credibility. This event obviously was a dog and pony show. Even Snopes could not find where any major press reported with great depth on town hall protesters and what went on here. To see what I mean, check this.
• For right now, I figure this is one of those e-mails that just went viral and can't be disproved.

I went a lot further on this than I originally intended, but it dawned on me while googling that I sure was running into a lot of things that I could not find. As the official scribe to the great unwashed, there is danger here and let me let you in it. Nope, not President Obama and his fantastic stagecraft of which we already have formed our own narrative. But instead, I want to rag on the press because that is the underlying theme message of the letter. Read it again from the start if you have to, but the major press sources did not fully report this story. One or the other, this letter is either true as written or it is so masterfully written that it cannot be disproved by the folks that we normally depend on to disprove these things. Either way, I am glad that the letter author is on my side and I am not a reporter who fell on his ass with this story.

Super-Genius President and "Ultimate Man" Still Reading the Same Book He Supposedly Read Last Year

From Ace of Spades. Heh!

"Selling Drives Everything" - Palin Facebook-Success And Obamacare-Sorriness

There are only a few writers today that I wait impatiently to read. That's probably because I see very few pieces written that once begun actually deserve to be read all the way to the end. But every week, I go out of my way to read Peggy Noonan and Charles Krauthammer. I am now adding Dr. Zero to the list.

To say that both Peggy Noonan and Charles Krauthammer have little regard for Sarah Palen is a gross understatement. I have so much respect for each writer's individual perspective and pretty much agree with all their viewpoints, but for the life of me I cannot understand why the mere thought of Sarah Palin expressing her opinions forces them to pull on the asshat. I read Charles Krauthammer's Let's Be Honest About Death Counseling, and noticed the following slight toward Sarah Palin:

We might start by asking Sarah Palin to leave the room. I've got nothing against her. She's a remarkable political talent. But there are no "death panels" in the Democratic health care bills, and to say that there are is to debase the debate.

Now, I keep a steno pad by my keyboard and jotted down a note to go back to this at some date. But lo and behold, Dr. Zero has beat me to the ultimate takedown with Why Sarah Palin Should Not Leave The Room. Follow the link and read the whole thing. Special note to the following quote:

Those Facebook pages she’s tossing around like ninja throwing stars are eloquent proof that no one has the right to pat Sarah Palin on the head and send her out of the room, while the grown-ups settle down to serious talk. She isn’t just writing snarky rants. She’s providing both devastatingly effective criticism, and substantial policy alternatives. It’s fairly obvious the White House paid a great deal of attention to her infamous “death panel” column. I haven’t seen that many people turned into nervous wrecks by Facebook since the last time the “Mafia Wars” servers went down.

The highlight is mine but the metaphor presented shows the power of a well-phrased metaphor. "Death Panel" could have been referred to as a "Dying Panel," "End of Life Panel," or any other colorful term, but it succinctly labels the inescapable fact that the government is further involved in a way that we have never seen. It is hard to believe that abortion or end-of-life decisions will be a matter of choice and not be a recommendation that will further work toward favoring the collective. A collective, I may add, that will be stressed for funds.

Also note the following from Dr. Zero's article:

When was the last time you heard a leftist intellectual belittle a popular liberal politician, the way Charles Krauthammer treated Sarah Palin?

The answer is never. They know that to discredit the messenger is to discredit the message.

As you may know, I come from the perspective of residential construction and spent many early morning hours in a construction trailer. I eventually was promoted and moved out of the trailer, but only after learning that "Sales Drives Everything." I may have been one heck of a builder, but until I made the extra effort to tailor my actions to selling, I would have never got beyond the trailer. Selling and marketing is the difference between products that are seen or unseen.

To have truth and facts on you side is good but we saw from the last presidential election that having substance was not enough. To succinctly communicate in the language of the great unwashed should only be encouraged as we accumulate more under our philosophical tent.

You Can't Stop The Signal

I was visiting RIGHTWINGSPARKLE and observed a post with a link to a video by Bill Whittle. The video is thirteen minutes long and is well worth watching on the origins of the political correct mindset.

The title of this post is from the video and I believe you will tend to remember it. Maybe forever.

If we had an honest press that based its reporting on truth and facts, there would be one hell of a story here to report.

Two Degrees Of Separation From Being Famous

I was reading this post on Althouse this morning where she had the following:

I never believe Presidents are actually reading the books their people tell us they're reading, so, for me, the only question is what they thought they were saying with these titles and why they thought it was a good idea to say that.

If you could pick a book for Obama to read — actually read — what book would you pick? If he could make you read a book of his choice, what do you think it would be? If you picked political books or history books or economics books, please pick again and be more out there so this late night discussion isn't too boring.

So being the once-successful construction manager who is now an out-of-work-deadbeat blogger that also think rules are for other people, I decided to post the following comment:

I'm not sure that the President, as well as many Americans, get what this "America" deal is all about. Therefore for this vacation, his reading should be a learning experience that could also be very entertaining. I recommend Sen. James Webb's "Born Fighting."

With this, the President may find clarity into the Scotch-Irish (redneck) mindset of the not too "Typical White Person." Here he will find out why Americans challenge authority, pioneer new frontiers, and eventually accept all who also adopt their mindset.

8/25/09 7:41 AM

And lo and behold I take a look at Instapundit who posted the following:

August 25, 2009
ANN ALTHOUSE: “If you could pick a book for Obama to read — actually read — what book would you pick?” It would have to be Amity Shlaes’ The Forgotten Man. Or, if that’s too obvious, James Scott’s Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed.

UPDATE: One of Althouse’s commenters recommends Sen. James Webb’s Born Fighting as explaining a side of America that Obama clearly doesn’t “get.”

Folks, I am that commenter. Your scribe of the Great Unwashed is within a gnat's-ass of being famous.

Talking Is Not Doing, Doing Is Doing Or Why Conservatism Works

I started out as a Classical Liberal. I only learned of this when I had to take Sociology 101 at Purdue and it came as a complete shock as I had just cast my first vote for President Ronald Reagan. I considered myself a conservative and had to stretch to accept this. But even back then, we were confusing modern liberalism with the older version. Limited central government, individual sovereignty, private property rights, and constitutional guarantees are beliefs of the classical liberal. Now, the question is, how did the term classical liberal become morphed into modern conservatism?

First off, conservatism is not some large monolith with congruent opinions running throughout. The terms neo, paleo, libertarian and small government are just a few of the prefixes that you see bandied about in modern discussion. It is surprising how this big tent of opinions allow so many contrasting viewpoints. In fact, our movement looks at all options, and by and large accept opposing views with an eye for the resultant implications. That is a good thing, folks.

Now if you can accept what I think is mistaken media perception of the main objective of all that they label conservatism, you may be able to follow me here. You see, folks, conservatives always go for what they believe works. There is no utopia and there is no free ride. Reality rules the day and programs or beliefs that no longer apply or work can be and often are ruthlessly discarded. Generals and governmental leaders can and often are fired. New directions and plans are implemented. Our constitution and constitutional republic appears to be one of the few things that always has worked just fine and have stood the test of time. Further, we can have differences on such topics as national diplomacy, governmental intervention or national defense, but all ideas have to work not only in concept, but also in reality.

One of the first colloquialisms that I heard when I first came to Texas was, "Talking ain't doing. Doing is Doing." Texans, like conservatives, are doers. And just because you talk or discuss something, that only prepares the stage for doing. If you can poke holes at the concept stage, there is very little chance that that fantastic idea you have will work. Unfortunately, conservatives have not always been in charge, so we end up with things like the Great Society or the stimulus package passed last February. Both of which, by the way, never had much of a chance to fulfill their intended(?) purposes of eliminating poverty or stimulating the economy. So if you want to get something by a conservative, show how it will meet its intended purpose. An idea, implemented for its own sake (say a failed ideology), with no thought to results or implications just won't fly with us.

I Think Glenn Beck Can Take Care Of Himself

Here is another reading nugget that I only wish I could write: Glenn Beck and the Unforgivable Curse. I have no idea who Dr. Zero, the author, is and where else he works but this is good. From the article:

Perhaps we could defuse the tension by asking the boycott organizers if they think someone who sat quietly at Klan rallies for twenty years could credibly be accused of racism. I’m sure they would say “no”… and since that’s an accurate analogy for Obama’s decades at Jeremiah Wright’s Church of Racial Hatred, Beck would doubtless be moved to offer a polite apology, and we could call the boycott off. Maybe Beck could give President Obama an autographed copy of his book, with a “Sorry, dude!” inscription. Beck’s thoughtful gift would doubtless secure a place of honor in the White House library, alongside Rules for Radicals by Saul Alinsky, Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent by Eduardo Galeano, and Fugitive Days: A Memoir by Bill Ayers.

The rest of Beck’s comment, asserting that Obama has “deep-seated hatred for white people of the white culture,” should be easy for the President’s defenders to disprove. All they have to do is cite one positive thing Obama has said or written about white culture. Anywhere. Ever. Hopefully they can get back to us before GMAC needs another taxpayer bailout, to address the self-inflicted financial damage from its participation in the boycott. I wouldn’t recommend wasting any time going through Obama’s university compositions, assuming you can find where they’re buried, and get past the three-headed guard dog. He graduated from Columbia and Harvard, where “deep-seated hatred for white people of the white culture” is written in green on your thesis when the professor hands it back to you, along with “excellent sentence composition!” and “good use of original sources!”

Let me clue you in on boycotts if you are so inclined with a few pointers:

• They only work if you are truly aggrieved. Glenn Beck has listeners and they are not aggrieved. The boycott of the Dixie Chicks worked because the listeners of their venue actually were pissed and were able to force their music from country radio stations. I don't think the boycotters are Fox's main demographic.
• Advertisers get caught in the middle. They only want to get their name out in the public square with no negative connotation. But as sure as a miner kicks his rented mule, they are trying to target and sell to Fox viewers. Fox delivers them a reliable audience, and it appears that Fox is allowing them to move their ad spots to different programming on their station. Everyone wins.
• Make sure the decision-maker is the one getting hurt. Fox is kicking every one's ass in ratings and this is in large-part due to the popularity of their hosts. Fox, also, is not a good target at this time because certain demographics (typical white people) have no other venue to go to for a fair shake. Give a certain demographic an even break on other channels and they would go there. Everyone wins again (except the boycotters).
• Boycotts can turn on you. We are living in strange times. In-laws and Grandmas who would never attend a political rally are presently making homemade signs as you are reading this. Public opinion is not predictable right now. I would fear for a WalMart pulling their support may run the risk of their own boycott.

From the comments section of the article, the following jewel caught my eye:

Obama isn’t a racist; he just judges people without knowing the facts, based
on the color of their skin.
Jim Treacher on August 19, 2009 at 8:01AM

Now for the bigger picture. This whole Glenn Beck boycott is a reaction to the present state of the Obama Brand. Despite a sycophant news media, the Obama brand has taken some hits that would have been unthinkable last year. A diminished brand leads to a lack of trust and produces the plausibility of the very worst kind of thoughts. Rumors stick and grow legs. Details become suspect and get picked apart. The only course of action left tends to be to attack and vilify the brand's supposed enemies.

Now, as the official scribe to the Great Unwashed, I can tell you that we are a poor targets when if comes to boycotts. Why, do you ask? Because we are loyal to those who are loyal to us. Just that simple. I just don't believe that Glenn Beck thinks I am an object of derision. And as a member of the Great Unwashed, we notice those who think we are and those folks we tend to not forget.

Forget The Pen, Sarah Palin's Laptop Is Mightier Than The Sword

From Gateway Pundit: PALIN SLAMS OBAMA Over Funding For Brazilian Offshore Oil Development. From her Facebook page:

So why is it that during these tough times, when we have great needs at home, the Obama White House is prepared to send more than two billion of your hard-earned tax dollars to Brazil so that the nation's state-owned oil company, Petrobras, can drill off shore and create jobs developing its own resources? That's all Americans want; but such rational energy development has been continually thwarted by rabid environmentalists, faceless bureaucrats and a seemingly endless parade of lawsuits aimed at shutting down new energy projects.

There was no way I could resist this. Sarah Palin is getting the best bang for the buck on her messaging. Her Facebook postings are widely distributed and disseminated. You know somewhere there are people in the political class that are seething at the buzz generated. How long will this last? I don't know, but count nothing out.

It's Better To Look Good Than To Be Good -- New Home Salesperson in The White House

Prior to a few weeks ago, our President was considered to be articulate, reasoned, smooth and smart. But beginning with the 'Gates-Crowley' remark, the shine has started to recede from the jewel and the smoothness that we were accustomed to hearing is just not there. After reading Obama's ignorance during his healthcare press conference and town halls more than cancels Palin's bad interviews.

There is a name for a person with a talent like this: He is an expert bullshitter. And I will be honest and tell you it’s a talent I share. Deploying this talent can be a lot of fun, and I don’t have a big problem with it if it’s used innocuously. Many a great con artist will stand there and talk with such confidence about this or that, you are absolutely convinced this guy knows exactly what he’s talking about. The truth is that he doesn’t have the slightest idea, but he’s very smooth in his use of the language and his tone of voice, so he convinces you he’s on solid ground when he really isn’t.

President Obama is one of the most talented bullshitters I have ever seen. He knows all the tricks. He reframes every issue so he can keep it focused on the stuff he wants to talk about, and avoids having to address things he knows nothing about. He tells you what you already think, and he does it so convincingly that you don’t remember you never mentioned thinking any such thing. And most impressively of all, he blatantly makes things up, and says them with such conviction, you can’t imagine they’re not true.

This quote of a quote jarred in me a recollection of what I have been thinking for quite some time. The President could be an excellent New Home Sales Counselor. He is smooth and articulate; wears nice clothes well; tries to be all things to all people; and most of all is a total bullshitter. All hat and no cattle.

Before I tick off the people sitting out in model homes as I speak, please realize that these folks have a hard job. And in today's business climate, even harder. The emotion of selling (and I do mean emotion) affects both the buyer and seller and the ability to read your audience or customer is a true talent. But any young superintendent in a housing project learns quickly to get any direction from a sales counselor in writing. The reason is that for the wheelers and dealers of the world, the truth, in many cases, becomes a negotiable item and no detail can be so cloudy as to be misinterpreted. And that's with everyone within their sphere.

Now, the health care debate has shown that details are this guy's Kryptonite and the light of clarity is not kind to those who subsist on sparkling generalities.

Update:
I have hit a nerve with this and wish to apologize for attaching such a questionable figure to Sales Counselors. Further, since sales drives everything, I hope that my association with Sales Counselors do not negatively affect my brand.

When Was The Last Time That You Heard About The War On Terror?

I am ashamed to say that I have never had a blog post about Iraq or Afghanistan. I have not forgotten, but it sure feels like we have fallen back to a Pre-9/11 mindset.

Read For the Left, war without Bush is not war at all Washington Examiner. From the article:

Not too long ago, some observers worried that Barack Obama would come under increasing pressure from the Left to leave both Iraq and Afghanistan. Now, it seems those worries were unfounded. For many liberal activists, opposing the war was really about opposing George W. Bush. When Bush disappeared, so did their anti-war passion.

Lets see how much coverage we get of Cindy Sheehan's protest from Martha's Vineyard. I will be surprised if we see any.



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No Treats from Obama

Words fail on this video. From The Corner at NRO.

No Treats from Obama

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There Is Nothing Wrong With The Great Unwashed

Writing, for my part, is the ultimate form of self-expression and I always hope to improve. But every so often, I read something that I only wish that I had written.

If you get a chance, follow the link to: What we want from the Republicans . I do not know who Doctor Zero, the author, is, but I have become a fan. This following paragraph jumped out at me:

Every politician runs on a platform of “change.” We want change in 2010… but, for once, we want the government to change. We’ve had enough of people like Obama trying to use the government to change us. We’re tired of being slammed with thousand-page bills that tell us what we have to sacrifice, and what we’re not allowed to do. We want to see some one-page bills that list things the government is not allowed to do.

The citizenry is not the problem. There is nothing wrong with us, folks. I just want the best for my family, friends and me, and if everyone can get that opportunity then everything will work itself out. I expect it's going to be the citizenry who corrects the wrongs of our betters.

Health Care Reform

Got some of my joking out of the way with the last post, but I have to wonder if we are going to see any kind of real reform. Real logical reform. You know. The kind that will improve illogical elements of something that is not really broken.

Here are some of my thoughts:

• Why are health costs so high? Everything involved should be looked at. It's obvious that certain Democrat 'sacred cows' (i.e. trial lawyers) are excluded from the discussion. (Akin to homeland security ignoring the borders).
• Why do we not discuss the business costs of health care? Just the costs related to setting up and operating a practice can be astronomical. Can we expect that these costs are not passed on to the consumer?
• How much does fraud and frivolous litigation contribute to the rising cost?
• Can the great unwashed expect that this coverage will extend to all citizens. Will politicians and our betters exclude themselves from participation?
• What about competition? And does the reliance on insurance company control limit competition? How many of you go to a certain doctor only because he or she is approved on your plan?
• Can I make a side deal to a pharmaceutical company? Or hospital or clinic system?
• What ever happened to catastrophic health (hospitalization) insurance? Is plain old catastrophic health insurance even available? You know, a lot of us are old enough to remember when hospitalization insurance was all that you carried. If you think about it, the threat of something catastrophic or major that requires a hospital stay is really the only thing that should cause worry. If I was younger, I also would worry about the cost of childbirth. But other than that, I can take care of myself and at the present time, I am.
• Can and should Physicians Assistants and Nurse Practitioners become the backbone of our health care system. My last check-ups involved ninety per-cent of the time spent with a Nurse Practitioner drawing blood. Seems like this would work well for rural counties and urban neighborhoods.
• What about Medicare? A lot of people have paid into these systems for a good portion of their working lives and this becomes something akin to a social contract between citizen and government. This is why we want to think any thoughts of socialized medicine through so that the next generation that spends into a program for thirty or so years won't be so ready for insurrection when the system is scrapped for being unsustainable. I could write more about this but I'll just state that with 401K's going to hell, housing prices falling and unusually high-unemployment for people with degrees, many of the things that people believed in are gone.
• I can't tell you exactly when, but dying is going to be in my future. I don't know about you, but all I want is a little dignity at the end. I don't want my family to watch me suffer and I really don't want to have anything extraordinary done if the end is near. I do, however, want to be the person who still makes that decision if I still have my wits about me or I want it to be the decision of the person that I designate if I am permanently addled.

Folks, I just want to hear what I have not heard so far. Now, I don't know all the answers (this is not my field), but my trust of my government (this is not their field) is at an all-time low. And what I am hearing at the moment is not alleviating my lack of trust.

Sunday Rule 5 - Health Care Reform

What we want:

What we expect:

This Guy Needs Nasty Things Said About Him

When I first started this blog, I came up with some "Blog Rules" and I just may make an exception about one of them. I don't care if I can't walk this back.

I noted today that Robert Reich sought to put down town hall protesters with his Op-Ed, How To Fight Health Care Fearmongers and Demagogues. In this piece, he stumbles on the truth about the administration's incompetence that is also pretty well summed up in this Instapundit post. In my words, the Obama administration is trying to defend what rubes like me refer to as a 'pig in a poke.'



"Just trust us," they say, "you'll be fine."

Now what really has me pissed off comes from way back in February before I started this blog. This I believe explains the entire problem that this administration has at the moment. It all goes back to the Stimulus Package and it's formulation. Watch this video at YouTube, No stimulus money for high skilled professionals or white male construction workers. This is repeated at Robert Reich's blog post titled The Stimulus: How to Create Jobs Without Them All Going to Skilled Professionals and White Male Construction Workers. This is one of the guys that had input to the stimulus package. This reeks of picking winners and losers with a jobs bill.

All thoughts, back then, on the stimulus that weren't part of some left-wing wish list were ignored. And don't tell me that the republicans didn't have anything to offer up. They did. In fact, Representative Walter Minick, a democrat from Idaho's first district had an alternate plan.

To you of the great unwashed, how stimulated does the stimulus make you feel right now? Not very, right. Well, that's because the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 does not contain honest stimulus that contains the incentives to immediately get things going.

You remember how this had to be passed quickly. So quickly that congress could not even thoroughly read it before passage. Does this kind of remind you of the past few weeks and how the health care system, as we know it now, may not make it till tomorrow? Thank God for the people who spoke out and protested. Otherwise, we would be picking up our aspirins from the Post Office.

Now, I got skin in this game. The construction downturn has hit me hard and I make no apologies for my bias. We, of the great unwashed, actually have electric lights, internet service and school systems where we learned how to read. Hell, I've even had a couple of economics classes. We have seen close to three decades of what works when it comes to stimulating the economic activity and nothing that we have seen since January makes sense.

To finish up with Robert Reich. This guy represents the worst case of sorriness that I have ever seen. This President could have worked on a stimulus with moderate democrats or even republicans and had a good chance of uniting the country on at least this front. But no, guys like Robert Reich and others who wanted to reward some and punish others were the people that had the ear of this president.


Good luck, Mr. President, on getting any trust from the great unwashed.

Libs Are Gonna Love WalMart

From The Moderate Voice: Whole Foods Boycott Picks Up Steam.

Follow me on this:

• Whole Foods CEO writes an Op-Ed in the Wall Street Journal which I find to be pretty reasonable.
• Liberals take exception as the Op-Ed calls for reform as opposed to the 'public' option.
• They threaten boycott because their aim is not health care reform, but instead government take-over of the whole system.
• WalMart Supports Health Care Employer Mandate.

Why does WalMart support the public option? Because their costs are higher than their competitors. That's logical.

Am I going to boycott WalMart? No, Whole Foods does not sell knit boxer shorts and bullets.

What The Press Gets Wrong

It is an only-too-regular event to see reporters in the MSM refer to things about which their knowledge is severely limited. I particularly notice it when any reporter starts writing about guns, farms, motorcycles, cars, trucks, construction, the military, or airplanes. I am pretty well-versed on these things and can spot a guy who doesn't know what he is talking about.

From Just One Minute, Don't you love it when libs go hunting? This post refers to an an article from the New York Times that describes the problem that Michael Vick is having in getting back into the NFL. The main point of the original article is that like Jackie Robinson, Michael Vick is depicted by Jesse Jackson as a victim of owner collusion because he is not getting any job offers after serving time for dogfighting. Buried deep in that original article was the following comment that was picked up by Just One Minute:

For many, the nonnegotiable issue in the Vick case is cruelty to animals. But let’s climb off our high horses. We know many fans hunt. They track down innocent animals, blast them with shotguns, shoot them out of the sky with rifles — for sport. Some take off animals’ heads and mount them as trophies.

Perfectly legal.

But the issue here is that Vick served his time in prison for breaking the law. The issue is degrees of cruelty. Who is worse: someone who tortures in the name of sport and then apologizes, or the one who kills in the name of sport and continues to hunt?

An obvious dig at hunters and hunting, for sure. But shooting rifles at the sky? Now, all of us have picked up expertise from our experiences from work and hobbies and my experience as an upland hunter tells me that hunting birds with a rifle is pretty impractical as well as dangerous. I can't think of a single upland or waterfowl hunter who does it.

Now this may be considered nitpicking, but I don't think it is a stretch to infer the following;

• The Times writer is ill informed not only about upland hunting, but hunting in general.


• No editor caught it.


• It is still online even though a major blogger pointed it out.


• MSM reporters make stuff up to justify a silly (my opinion) point of view.

Twenty-five years ago I would have read this in a newspaper and would have personally noted this but would not have taken the time to write about it. The press would have gotten away with it. But now we have the internet and the great unwashed can speak out.

I was personally struck prior to the 2004 election that Sixty-Minutes ran with an erroneous story about President Bush's Texas Air National Guard service. No professional journalists discovered the false documents and it was amazing how long it took the MSM to actually pick up on it. But most noticeable was the number of guys that had expertise with typewriters and word processing programs who stepped up to investigate and report.

Face it, folks. We are a nation of specialists with expert skills and knowledge while the Main Stream Media is made up of generalists that have such a limited view that they see no reason to research the things they write about. Keep that in mind.

To finish here, I present my expertise on dogs. Here is Woodrow, the world's greatest bird dog, doing what he did in the late stages of his life. He helped raise two kids and was a good friend. I wonder what the Times guy would say about him.

Back to Blogging

Sorry, folks, for not getting after the writing. I think that I just had my first bout of writer's block.

Now, I always thought that writer's block was all about not having a creative thought come to mind. My problem here is the inability to coherently put down all the things that I see from the news and the web. I can't tell you how many posts that I started that just kind of fizzled away. I would move on to something else and when returning, they just did not seem timely anymore. And I deleted them.

So please forgive me. I can't say it wont happen again. At least not consciously.

Opportunity Costs for Dummies

As we discussed during a previous post, we noted that our betters in charge do not have the slightest clue as to how people actually respond with their own money when an economic incentive is thrown their way. Economics just doesn't stand still. If it did, we could pick and choose legislation as we now do , make it law and everything just might turn out all right. But since there is nothing static in our economy, the best that we can do is set sensible guidelines that will encourage known trends to move in an expected direction. Not understanding this is the reason why there has not been any other incentives from the 787 billion dollar stimulus program that even appeared to cause any visible economic movement.

This 'Cash for Clunkers" may even be more illustrative of just the total madness that we are now witnessing. From the Ace of Spades, Video: Cash for Clunkers Destroying Perfectly Good Cars. This should bug you.

For direct viewing of the video, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waj2KrKYTZo.

Now, from this video, there appears to be a pretty decent late-model Volvo having its engine destroyed by operating at high constant rpm's after pouring in a sodium silicate additive. It's obviously a pretty good car because it took so long to burn up the engine. It really is tough to watch.

'Cash for Clunkers' should be named the Intentional Asset Destruction Act of 2009. That Volvo was an asset, if not for the previous owner, then at least for someone who would like to drive a decent used car like we saw in the video. It didn't appear to be worn out and past its useful driving life. And even if it was ready for the scrap yard, in salvage the engine parts would still have some value in supplying repair parts to other car owners. However, it's value is minuscule after being burned up, and therefore what we have actually done is destroy just a little bit of wealth.

This madness apparently will continue. We'll burn up good car engines, deny farmers a consistent water supply in central California, and tell Alaskans that they cannot thin out predators in their own back yards. But just consider the opportunity cost that is incurred in both time and money by pursuing economic growth in the wrong direction. We now have lost six months and we will see more lost time and money because most funds in the stimulus went to public sector programs that do not create wealth. This is opposed to stimulus to the private sector where it would have done more good by creating a larger, more active economy. I should say, more good, only if the private sector incentives make sense. Otherwise, if we see more of this same kind of logic in legislation, we are going to have to create the 'dummy version' about sunk costs.

Public Servants - Which Politician Has The Heart Of A Servant?

(Hat Tip to Althouse and Luciannne.com)

To be honest, words fail here when you look at the contrast in humanity displayed in these two photos.

I can only add that Public service is just that. Serving the citizens. Politicians are a peg below the citizenry and should never believe otherwise. That's why they should serve a couple of terms and then get back to their private lives.