I remember that I was not a big fan of Ronald Reagan prior to his being elected president, but he won me over with (mostly) sensible policies. I also remember the liberal media portraying him as some kind of blithering idiot. The bar is set so much lower now—He’s an absolute genius compared to the progressive elite nowadays, and quite prescient in forcasting where the liberal/progressive agenda will lead us.

Perhaps it is futile to believe that legislators will listen to the people, but at least this woman is trying. Somehow, our legislature has determined that the Tea Party is some kind of a fringe, radical, extremist movement that needs to be put down. Well, only if low taxes, balanced budget, and adherance to the U.S. Constitution is extreme. When did simple common sense become such a radical concept?

Future posts will revisit both the Tea Party principles/suggested legislation and Congresswoman Bachmann’s performance in the House of Representatives.

Of course all they did was expose their own ignorance and incompetence. It appeared that not a single one of the administration’s attackers had actually even read the law in question. And remember that Arizona’s law would have been unnecessary if the feds had been doing their jobs in the first place. Instead of mobilizing his people, Obama has stalled and made jokes about the predicament of the border states.

Mr. President sir, the executive branch of the government is the branch that is responsible for enforcing, or executing, our laws (hence the name). If you do not want the job, please step aside and allow somebody else to do it. The Arizona law is no more intrusive than the existing federal law that you have sworn to uphold. SB1070:  Read the Arizona law.

More recently, didn’t our president promise Arizona Governor Jan Brewer that he would send additional National Guard to the border? So far, there have been no additional Guard deployed, but here’s the Governor showing us what the federal government has done.

Their answer is to keep Americans off of American soil. Instead of keeping foreigners from encroaching on our soil, the feds have issued warnings to U.S. citizens to keep off U.S. territory because it may be too dangerous. That sounds pretty backwards to me. How about keeping foreign intruders off of our land instead of our own citizens? Great job Mr. President.

We have an important topic today—the U.S. Constitution. Knowledge is power… and we should use it for the good of society and ourselves. Our government is based on an assumption of an informed electorate. We cannot let it slip away—whether Democrat, Republican, Independent, Libertarian, Green, Whig, or whatever—we all need to understand history.

I’d like to invite all to visit this web site  :: Constituting America ::  and read the Constitution along with the Federalist Papers in the next 90 days (that’s about three pages per day). It’s like the Oprah book club for constitutional history. The site offers a discussion blog for the enthusiastic. It also offers contests for school children, including $2000 college scholarship money to a high school student.

Let’s get the kids involved. Do they even teach this in school any more? Back in the day (prehistory) I recall studying the Constitution but never the Federalist Papers, so maybe even my generation could learn something.

Mission Statement:
Constituting America’s mission is to reach, educate and inform America’s youth and her citizens about the importance of the U.S. Constitution and the foundation it sets forth regarding our freedoms and rights.

I think we can all get behind that. But if it isn’t your thing, I understand. No obligation on your part, but I hope some of you will join me on this educational journey.

An enlightened America regarding her roots, her basis, and her thesis is the key to America’s pertinent survival. Americans have rights. Americans must have knowledge to understand them.

Constituting America’s mission is to reach, educate and inform the youth and all citizens through modern technology and modern means, because we must not let those who devalue freedom dominate the debate.
~ Janine Turner, cofounder

Liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge of the people.
~ John Adams

We the People:  It’s not just a good idea, it may be the best idea ever.

Cordially,
Brooster

Often it’s not the patient’s fault that he has a preexisting condition (although one could argue this in cases of AIDS or lung cancer or cardiovascular disease secondary to smoking). At the same time, it’s not everyone else’s fault, either. Mandating same-cost coverage for preexisting conditions is not insurance. It is, in fact, public welfare, and it could be managed more effectively, efficiently, and affordably independent of the insurance industry that serves most of the population.

With regard to preexisting conditions, let’s be careful what we wish for. No doubt, under the recently passed health care reform, insurance premiums will soon be going up as we are all forced to pay for high-risk patients.

If state governments really want to help, there should be programs to deal with such high-risk patients who cannot receive charity or any other form of local assistance. We would still be paying (in the form of state taxes) but the entitlement would be better understood for what it was—forced charity—and as most states must have balanced budgets by law, taxpayers would really feel the cost of the entitlement/charity programs. This would create a better chance for taxpayer oversight of the cost… as opposed to having a huge federal bureaucracy backed by unlimited national debt and very limited accountability.

Another excerpt from American Thinker:

What politicians fail to recognize is that benefits paid by private insurance subsidize the underpayments from Medicare and Medicaid. When there is no longer a private insurance industry to shift costs to, severe shortages in the availability of health care will emerge. We’re already seeing an increasing number of physicians who are opting out of accepting Medicare. Walgreens in the state of Washington is no longer accepting new Medicaid patients.

There is no reason (or constitutional authority) for the federal government to mandate or interfere with personal health care. Wouldn’t it be better for the various states and private enterprises to tackle the issue in their own way and see which methods work best? I’m tired of hearing how successful the large federal entitlement programs have been. Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid are clearly unsustainable in their present forms. If not for continuing federal deficits, taxpayers long ago would have grown tired of the increasing taxes it would’ve taken to keep all those entitlements adequately funded.

More from American Thinker:

At the same time, the insurance industry is not guiltless. Insurers should not be able to cancel insurance coverage for those patients who suddenly find that they need the benefits for which they have paid. The insurance industry has also played a huge role in establishing the third-party-payer, comprehensive-coverage paradigm which has served as the single greatest driver of increased health care costs.

No doubt some insurance reform is needed, but a big government takeover just kills any creative solutions before they are ever born. Medical malpractice reform (tort reform), individual tax credits for medical coverage (as opposed to business tax credits), more open competition among insurance companies, health savings accounts, and more creative local programs and charities would be much more effective and manageable solutions. The current law addresses none of these adequately and, frankly, does little to control cost at all, it merely creates a confusing way of redistributing the cost.

Here’s a link to the full article:

American Thinker A Look at Preexisting Conditions

Anyone can make a mistake but only a fool refuses to learn from his. It turns out that this wasn’t the first time:

The White House Staff doesn’t even bother to point out his mistakes so that he can avoid future embarrassment. Is that because he won’t listen?

It’s a corpse, man.

It’s not Ted Kennedy’s seat, it’s the people’s seat.

Scott Brown (R) defeats Martha Coakley (D) in Massachusetts.

Obama blames Bush.

Brit Hume tells it like it is.

This is the best news I’ve heard since the Navy SEALS shot some pirates in the head.

Here is what Wikipedia says about the origin of C-SPAN:

Brian Lamb, C-SPAN’s chairman and CEO, conceived of C-SPAN while working at Cablevision, a cable industry trade magazine, as their Washington, D.C. bureau chief. C-SPAN was created as a cable-industry financed, non-profit network for televising sessions of the U.S. Congress and other public affairs event and policy discussions. Bob Rosencrans, a cable industry pioneer, was alone in providing the initial seed funding of $25,000 to start up C-SPAN. It receives no funding from any government source, has no contract with the government, and does not sell sponsorships or advertising. It strives for neutrality and a lack of bias in its public affairs programming.

So where did Obama get the right to promise C-SPAN’s coverage in the first place? It would be totally up to C-SPAN, not him. Does he even understand that C-SPAN is a private company and not an arm of the government? It appears that he was just using C-SPAN as a cheap prop in a shallow campaign promise.

But now that C-SPAN has offered to cover the health care debates, both the Executive and Legislative branches of the government are suddenly shy about letting We The People see what they are up to.

Now that’s change (and transparency) I can believe in.

It’s great that both of these people can have a little fun with their public images. I suspect that, politically, they are not on the same page but they are adult enough to show repect for each other. A great lesson for us all.

Beam me up Sarah.

Sidebar

I’ve always thought that the beatnicks were cooler than the hippies. The beatnicks were artists, musicians, writers, and poets who rejected society and were interested in self exploration—while exhibiting a live and let live attitude. The hippies, however, turned their anger outward, demanding societal changes while contributing little (with the exception of some great music) to American society. I still believe the bubbling anger and willingness for violence is what stopped many of the “Beat Generation” from crossing over into the “Hippie Counterculture”.

Live long and prosper.

High—Larry—Us!

A funny parody and a subtle reminder that the same idiots who think one man ruined our country think one man can save it. What about Congress? What about the Supreme Court? Federal regulators? State legislatures? Lobbyists? Government spending? Corporate greed? Labor union greed and corruption? Community organization corruption? Voter registration fraud? Voter fraud? Public ambivalence? Personal responsibility? Hey, we all blew it—now we all need to fix it.

A good start would be to vote out all but a few, select, incumbents. More on that in later posts…

And might I add, “Gee Thanks, Norway! I needed a good laugh. He he! Ha ha!”