tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4726844761468242273.post2520865378609630002..comments2023-10-07T05:29:20.923-07:00Comments on McClatchy Watch: Tuesday November 3 -- Got news or an update?Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger33125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4726844761468242273.post-3441362032936491502009-11-04T13:22:08.040-08:002009-11-04T13:22:08.040-08:00Just seeing how many posts have been deleted tells...Just seeing how many posts have been deleted tells me how the radical leftists feel about their trouncing yesterday. O’Barry is over, even the one-note media cannot save him. Even my ultra-liberal friend wants to buy back his vote, and stop the nightmare Democrats in their socialist tracks. We’re talking a sea change election in 2010 if this congress does not “Change” back to what the people actually want.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4726844761468242273.post-36490236052744404582009-11-03T19:37:50.738-08:002009-11-03T19:37:50.738-08:00Man it must suck to be a marxist knowing what is c...Man it must suck to be a marxist knowing what is coming down after a short 12 months in power. The defeat of Communism - Part II.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4726844761468242273.post-9590138110544518832009-11-03T13:04:06.505-08:002009-11-03T13:04:06.505-08:00Tue Nov 3, 11:11 am ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – The Chi...Tue Nov 3, 11:11 am ET<br /><br />WASHINGTON (AFP) – The Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times and other newspapers owned by the Tribune Co. plan to cut back on use of the Associated Press (AP) next week to test whether they can do without content from the US news agency.<br /><br />More....<br />http://tinyurl.com/yjf3y3aAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4726844761468242273.post-72837294526186993142009-11-03T06:19:22.543-08:002009-11-03T06:19:22.543-08:00This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4726844761468242273.post-90793800139941093122009-11-03T05:44:05.264-08:002009-11-03T05:44:05.264-08:00This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4726844761468242273.post-67411892960801290392009-11-03T05:43:09.367-08:002009-11-03T05:43:09.367-08:00This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4726844761468242273.post-46714502645206500572009-11-03T05:36:38.634-08:002009-11-03T05:36:38.634-08:00Media Pick Up on Seemingly Never-Ending Obama Camp...Media Pick Up on Seemingly Never-Ending Obama Campaign (Fox News)<br /><br />President Obama continues to face criticism over what some say is a campaign that seems like it never ended.<br /> <br />The London Telegraph’s U.S. editor, Toby Harnden, writes: “Beyond the grand announcements, fine speeches and his eager acceptance of the Nobel Peace Prize, Mr. Obama has yet to achieve anything of substance. <br /><br />It is time for the campaign to end.” The Politico newspaper says the president’s trip to Florida this week: “Looks like a campaign swing... the strongest sign that Obama is in campaign mode is that his scheduled events sidestep controversial issues.” <br /><br />The stimulus and health care reform are not on the focus of his Florida speaking agenda. And so far this year, the Politico reports the Democratic National Committee has, “paid at least $5.9 million... to do a range of work that will boost the party as a whole, and also lay the foundation for Obama’s re-election campaign.”Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4726844761468242273.post-56689702563735169132009-11-03T05:33:32.853-08:002009-11-03T05:33:32.853-08:00One year on, Obamamania gives way to luke warm sup...One year on, Obamamania gives way to luke warm support (AFP via Breitbart) <br /><br />A year on from a historic election, the spirit of popular goodwill that yielded America's first black president has retreated to tepid support for Barack Obama as he presses his change agenda. <br /><br />Since the November 4 poll, Obama's visage has been everywhere, conspicuously on the streets of the nation's capital where millions of foreign and domestic tourists have visited over the past year, many of them snatching up poignant souvenirs. <br /><br />SNIP <br /><br />"They stay in the truck," grumbled a vendor who identified himself as "Dick," as he pointed to a rusty vehicle behind him. "They don't sell anymore." <br /><br />Indeed, Obama's honeymoon with the American people lasted less than six months.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4726844761468242273.post-68326469531204483202009-11-03T05:32:22.832-08:002009-11-03T05:32:22.832-08:00Leftist 'Media Reform' Outfit Free Press a...Leftist 'Media Reform' Outfit Free Press and Their Marxist Co-Founder Robert McChesney<br /> <br />Robert McChesney, Enemy of Free Speech<br /> <br />The broader public is finally being introduced to Leftist "media reform" outfit Free Press and its co-founder, avowed Marxist Robert McChesney. (I appeared on the October 7, 2009 edition of the Glenn Beck television show to discuss one and all.) <br /><br />Founded in 2002, McChesney's Free Press seeks to transform the media landscape - on radio, television and the internet - via (amongst other ways) sweeping rules changes at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). <br /><br />Changes that would dramatically decrease private ownership of the means of news and information delivery, with the federal government assuming an ever greater replacement role. <br /><br />One intended effect of this shift away from free market media to government-owned media is to diminish what Free Press sees as the inherently right-wing slant of the news that results from corporate ownership. (Have they watched NBC, ABC or CBS - ever?). And in their warped view of the media landscape, conservative and Christian talk radio (which is not news but self-identified opinion) is the most egregious example of this alleged corporatist taint. <br /><br />Free Press has spent the last seven years developing policy prescriptions and working with like-minded policy and public officials that would make this hoped-for transformational change a reality. And their allies are now in place and in power - at the FCC and in the White House.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4726844761468242273.post-21757032796345033422009-11-03T05:31:20.871-08:002009-11-03T05:31:20.871-08:00New Anti-Limbaugh-Beck Group Tied To Ex-Obama Czar...New Anti-Limbaugh-Beck Group Tied To Ex-Obama Czar Van Jones (NewsBusters)<br /><br />A new left-wing organization created specifically to attack Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Lou Dobbs, Pat Buchanan, and Paul Brown has ties to ex-Obama green jobs czar Van Jones.<br /><br />As NewsBusters reported Thursday, StopTheWitchHunt.org was formed to "call out" what it considers "mischaracterizations and hate speech" by the aforementioned quintet.<br /><br />Our investigation began with who was listed as the contact person on the STWH press release reported by Reuters Thursday:<br /><br />For those unfamiliar, the Center for Media Justice (CMJ)is "a media strategy and action center that uses strategic communications and media activism to build a powerful movement for racial justice, economic equity, and human rights.<br /><br />Its address is 1611 Telegraph Avenue, Suite 510, Oakland, California.<br /><br />According to Issue Lab, the Center for Media Justice used to be the Youth Media Council:<br /><br />Center for Media Justice (Formerly Youth Media Council) 1611 Telegraph Ave Oakland , California <br /><br />Mission Statement: Youth Media Council builds communications power and defends the communication rights of youth, communities of color, and organizing groups working for racial and economic justice. <br /><br />The web address "http://www.youthmediacouncil.org" does indeed redirect to CMJ.<br /><br /><br />A Scarleteen article about YMC revealed the following: Youth Media Council (YMC) was founded in 2001 as a two-year pilot project at We Interrupt This Message (Interrupt). A media strategy center for the racial justice movement since the early 90s, Interrupt founded the YMC to increase the media strategy and capacity of the youth organizing sector. <br /><br />Who's listed first on the Board of Directors of Interrupt? <br /><br />Van Jones, Ella Baker Center for Human Rights<br /><br />Putting the pieces together, an organization that Jones is on the board of founded the Youth Media Council which is now the Center for Media Justice. <br /><br />A representative of CMJ is the contact person for this new coalition looking to target Limbaugh, Beck, Dobbs, et al.<br /><br />Coincidence? <br /><br />Not likely, for a look at CMJ's Facebook page revealed an interesting post on September 29:<br /><br />Tell Fox News to Stop the Witch Hunts! Join CMJ and Color of Change to stop Glenn Beck's program!<br /><br />As NewsBusters reported on August 12, Jones was a founding member of Color of Change, the group that started an online petition calling for advertisers to stop sponsoring Glenn Beck's television program. <br /><br />But this gets better, for CMJ's Facebook post sent readers to its "Actions" page. There, readers can find a September 11 headline, "Tell Fox News to Stop the Witch Hunts!" The embedded link sent readers to -- wait for it!!! -- Color of Change's Beck petition.<br /><br />This was posted at CMJ's website just five days after Jones was forced to resign as Obama's green jobs czar.<br /><br />Now, roughly seven weeks later, a new coalition has been created using the same phrase "Stop the Witch Hunt" for its name, and its contact person works for CMJ which was not only founded by an organization whose Board of Directors includes Jones, but also worked with Jones's Color of Change to get advertisers to stop sponsoring Beck. <br /><br />If you still think this is all just a coincidence, might I interest you in some swampland?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4726844761468242273.post-30158295680682976682009-11-03T05:28:22.121-08:002009-11-03T05:28:22.121-08:00This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4726844761468242273.post-71662997575229542852009-11-03T05:25:42.274-08:002009-11-03T05:25:42.274-08:00This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4726844761468242273.post-10101117707449326722009-11-03T05:23:24.555-08:002009-11-03T05:23:24.555-08:00Obamateurism of the Day (Hot Air)
Part of the job...Obamateurism of the Day (Hot Air)<br /><br />Part of the job of a President is to sound, well, presidential. That means being taken seriously. When Barack Obama hit the hustings for Jon Corzine this weekend, he seems to have forgotten that he’s not a comedian: <br /><br />"Obama called on the audience to vote, and to make sure others do. “You’re going to need to get cousin Pookie off the couch, and say, ‘Pookie, it’s time to go vote,’ ” POTUS said. “You’ve all got a cousin Pookie, you know who I’m talking about.”<br /><br />I remember Van Jones referring to “Pookie” in a speech about green jobs - “Give Pookie a job!”.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4726844761468242273.post-61042216976561602632009-11-03T05:22:46.220-08:002009-11-03T05:22:46.220-08:00Make a House Call on Congress on November 5th and ...Make a House Call on Congress on November 5th and Stop the Government Take Over of Health Care! (Michele Bachmann.com)<br /><br />Democrat leadership in the House wants to pass a government run health care bill before Veteran's Day, and it's up to us to make sure this prescription for socialized medicine doesn't pass. <br /><br />If you can come to Washington to look your Member straight in the eye and tell them to keep their hands off your heatlh care, do it. <br /><br />If you can't make it to Washington, go to your Member's district office. And, if you can't do that at least call and email. <br /><br />Also, Americans for Prosperity is organizing a House Call to legislators district offices on Thursday at noon, and I encourage you to check out their website at www.americansforprosperity.org to see how you can take part in their efforts if you can't make it to D.C.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4726844761468242273.post-37575812968059047182009-11-03T05:21:05.143-08:002009-11-03T05:21:05.143-08:00Larry Summers Takes Out an Obama Commie (Economic ...Larry Summers Takes Out an Obama Commie (Economic Policy Journal)<br /><br />Sounds a bit late, but at least some movement away from us all having to wear Mao suits. <br /><br />American Spectator tells the story: <br /><br />White House senior adviser Susan Crawford resigned last week to little fanfare, but some White House insiders say her leaving may reveal growing tensions inside the Obama Administration about just how radical the administration has become in developing policies. <br /><br />Crawford, who was one of the leading voices during the Obama transition period, and then stayed on as Obama's key adviser on technology and communications policy, was credited with putting in place the general policy overlays in those subject areas that guided many of the Administration's hiring and appointments to the Federal Communications Commission and the Commerce Department. <br /><br />She was a strong proponent of Net Neutrality regulations, which would allow the government to regulate the Internet, and in her role sitting on the president's councils on economic policy, she supported strong government interventions and controls of private business. <br /><br />But White House sources say that she ran afoul of senior White House economics adviser Larry Summers, who claimed he and other senior Obama officials were unaware of how radical the draft Net Neutrality regulations were when they were initially internally circulated to Obama administration officials several weeks ago. "All of sudden Larry is getting calls from CEOs, Wall Street folks he talks to, Republicans and Democrats, asking him what the Administration is doing with the policies, and he isn't sure what they're talking about," says one White House aide. "He felt blind-sided, and Susan was one of those people who heard about it." <br /><br />In the end, the proposed regulations were slightly moderated from the original language FCC chairman Julius Genachowski, a Crawford ally, circulated. <br /><br />Crawford resigned, citing the need to return to her tenured position at the University of Michigan law school...,. <br /><br />Crawford's exit comes at a time when some Obama Administration aides, after seeing the fallout from the resignation of Van Jones and the spotlight placed on leftists inside the administration, like Anita Dunn, wonder if it is too late to pull back many of the more radical aides now placed in a number of different cabinet level departments, including the Department of Justice, and the Energy and Education departments, and federal agencies. <br /><br />"They haven't done us any good on any level," says the White House aide. "And now they are just a bunch of targets on our back that we can't shake."Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4726844761468242273.post-19546483152387315872009-11-03T05:19:05.521-08:002009-11-03T05:19:05.521-08:00NYT: Al Gore Making A Fortune Spreading Global War...NYT: Al Gore Making A Fortune Spreading Global Warming Hysteria <br /><br />"Few people have been as vocal about the urgency of global warming and the need to reinvent the way the world produces and consumes energy. And few have put as much money behind their advocacy as Mr. Gore and are as well positioned to profit from this green transformation, if and when it comes."<br /><br />For years I have personally challenged mainstream media outlets to admit how much money Nobel Laureate Al Gore HAS and WILL make by spreading global warming hysteria.<br /><br />On Tuesday, the New York Times will feature a front page story that discusses exactly that.<br /><br />Readers are strongly encouraged to strap themselves in tightly, for the Times' John Broder is about to take them on a journey beyond their wildest dreams:<br /><br />Former Vice President Al Gore thought he had spotted a winner last year when a small California firm sought financing for an energy-saving technology from the venture capital firm where Mr. Gore is a partner. <br /><br />The company, Silver Spring Networks, produces hardware and software to make the electricity grid more efficient. It came to Mr. Gore’s firm, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, one of Silicon Valley’s top venture capital providers, looking for $75 million to expand its partnerships with utilities seeking to install millions of so-called smart meters in homes and businesses.<br /><br />Mr. Gore and his partners decided to back the company, and in gratitude Silver Spring retained him and John Doerr, another Kleiner Perkins partner, as unpaid corporate advisers.<br /><br />The deal appeared to pay off in a big way last week, when the Energy Department announced $3.4 billion in smart grid grants. <br /><br />Of the total, more than $560 million went to utilities with which Silver Spring has contracts. Kleiner Perkins and its partners, including Mr. Gore, could recoup their investment many times over in coming years.<br /><br />What? <br /><br />Kleiner Perkins and its partners, including Mr. Gore, could recoup their investment many times over in coming years?<br /><br />I thought Gore was doing all this out of the goodness of his heart to save the planet. You mean he actually could benefit financially?<br /><br />Knock me over with a feather. Who would have thought it?<br /><br />But it gets better...MUCH better: <br /><br />Few people have been as vocal about the urgency of global warming and the need to reinvent the way the world produces and consumes energy. And few have put as much money behind their advocacy as Mr. Gore and are as well positioned to profit from this green transformation, if and when it comes.<br /><br />What? <br /><br />Few have put as much money behind their advocacy as Mr. Gore and are as well positioned to profit from this green transformation, if and when it comes?<br /><br />You're kidding, right? This can't POSSIBLY be? Alas, it is: <br /><br />Critics, mostly on the political right and among global warming skeptics, say Mr. Gore is poised to become the world’s first “carbon billionaire,” profiteering from government policies he supports that would direct billions of dollars to the business ventures he has invested in.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4726844761468242273.post-49301729801588111392009-11-03T05:16:54.746-08:002009-11-03T05:16:54.746-08:00Minnesota’s Green Energy Plan Means 20% Rate Hike
...Minnesota’s Green Energy Plan Means 20% Rate Hike<br /><br />A new “greener” energy program in Minnesota means residents will see an almost 20% rate increase on their electricity bill.<br /><br />The Duluth News Tribune reported:<br />Minnesota Power is seeking an almost 20 percent increase in rates for its residential customers to cover investments made in cleaner, greener energy.<br /><br />For the average residential customer, that amounts to $13 per month.<br /><br />“We know this is unwelcome news at an unwelcome time,” said Pat Mullen, the company’s vice president of marketing and public affairs. “These are improvements that need to be made. It is creating an environment that we all value.”<br /><br />News of the sought rate hike caused some shoppers at Miller Hill Mall on Monday to lament they’ve been hit by one increase and fee after another in a bad economy, from real estate taxes to new fees for street lighting and sewers.<br /><br />“The average citizen in Duluth is not going to be able to afford an increase like that,” said Sue Siverson of Duluth. “To me it’s bad news. People can absorb a 2 or 3 percent increase, but 20 percent is substantial.”<br /><br />In related news… Al Gore is poised to become the world’s first “carbon billionaire,” profiteering from government green energy policies he supports.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4726844761468242273.post-79469106325579299432009-11-03T05:16:07.925-08:002009-11-03T05:16:07.925-08:00Too busy for liberty: Behind O's Berlin Wall s...Too busy for liberty: Behind O's Berlin Wall snub (NY Post)<br /><br />In his first year in office, Bar ack Obama has visited more foreign countries than any other president. <br /><br />He has touched ground in 16 countries, easily outpacing Bill Clinton (three) and George W. Bush (11). It's an itinerary befitting a "citizen of the world." <br /><br />But there's one stop Obama won't make: He has begged off going to Berlin next week to attend ceremonies commemorating the fall of the Berlin Wall. His schedule is reportedly too crowded. <br /><br />John F. Kennedy famously told Berliners, "Ich bin ein Berliner." On the 20th anniversary of the last century's most stirring triumph of freedom, Obama is telling them, "Ich bin beschäftigt" -- i.e., "I'm busy."Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4726844761468242273.post-13553244282524415522009-11-03T05:15:24.955-08:002009-11-03T05:15:24.955-08:00Judicial Watch: ‘NEA Propaganda Effort Grew Out of...Judicial Watch: ‘NEA Propaganda Effort Grew Out of Obama Campaign’<br />(Big Hollywood) <br /><br />Press release from Judicial Watch: <br />“(Washington, DC) — Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, announced today that it obtained more documents from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) in response to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests related to the NEA’s controversial August 10 conference call encouraging artists to create work that promotes the Obama agenda. <br /><br />The documents consist of internal NEA emails indicating the idea for the NEA propaganda effort grew out the Obama campaign while also providing new details regarding White House involvement. <br /><br />The Corporation for National and Community Service, which runs the AmeriCorps program, was represented during the call. <br /><br />The agencies and the White House were supposedly promoting the administration’s United We Serve political initiative. The emails include the actual conference call invitation, which details the controversial policy agenda that was being promoted. <br /><br />(The controversial call was first uncovered by www.BigGovernment.com. Other documents about the call were first released last week by Judicial Watch.)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4726844761468242273.post-38159789463812032009-11-03T05:14:06.949-08:002009-11-03T05:14:06.949-08:00‘3,000 die’ in cancer shambles (thanks to socializ...‘3,000 die’ in cancer shambles (thanks to socialized medicine)<br />(The Sun UK)<br /><br />THREE thousand Britons a year die because of a lack of lung cancer treatment, it emerged yesterday. <br /><br />Vital areas of care are "woefully inadequate" and there are shortages of key surgical staff, according to new research. <br /><br />A review has revealed a shambolic postcode lottery where treatment varies from one part of Britain to another. <br /><br />In some areas, fewer than one in TEN patients get any kind of treatment at all and there are "huge variations and vast inequalities" in others, the UK Lung Cancer Coalition reported after a review of services. <br /><br />There are only 44 thoracic surgeons - specialists in chest problems including lung conditions - spread thinly over 240cancer teams. <br /><br />The NHS is failing to fast-track thousands of patients to consultants every year or prescribe them life-prolonging drugs. <br /><br />And a third of people stricken by lung cancer never have biopsies carried out. <br /><br />Dr Mick Peake, head of the UKLCC's clinical advisory group, said: "Alarmingly, patients who are fit for surgery are being turned down. <br /><br />"We are calling for a 70 per cent active treatment rate across the board, which would mean a massive reduction in the number of deaths. Up to 3,000 lives could potentially be saved each year." <br />Lung cancer is the second most common cancer in the UK with around 39,000 diagnosed each year. <br /><br />The UKLCC's chairman Dame Gill Oliver said: "We are still letting down lung cancer patients."Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4726844761468242273.post-26427156196739504272009-11-03T05:13:04.197-08:002009-11-03T05:13:04.197-08:00AP sources: House health bill totals $1.2 trillion...AP sources: House health bill totals $1.2 trillion (Yahoo)<br /><br />The health care bill headed for a vote in the House this week costs $1.2 trillion or more over a decade, according to numerous Democratic officials and figures contained in an analysis by congressional budget experts, far higher than the $900 billion cited by President Barack Obama as a price tag for his reform plan. <br /><br />While the Congressional Budget Office has put the cost of expanding coverage in the legislation at roughly $1 trillion, Democrats added billions more on higher spending for public health, a reinsurance program to hold down retiree health costs, payments for preventive services and more. <br /><br />Many of the additions are designed to improve benefits or ease access to coverage in government programs. The officials who provided overall cost estimates did so on condition of anonymity, saying they were not authorized to discuss them.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4726844761468242273.post-85386516704501071802009-11-03T05:12:00.566-08:002009-11-03T05:12:00.566-08:00The Worst Bill Ever: The Pelosi health bill (WSJ)
...The Worst Bill Ever: The Pelosi health bill (WSJ)<br /><br />Speaker Nancy Pelosi has reportedly told fellow Democrats that she's prepared to lose seats in 2010 if that's what it takes to pass ObamaCare, and little wonder. <br /><br />The health bill she unwrapped last Thursday, which President Obama hailed as a "critical milestone," may well be the worst piece of post-New Deal legislation ever introduced. <br /><br />In a rational political world, this 1,990-page runaway train would have been derailed months ago. With spending and debt already at record peacetime levels, the bill creates a new and probably unrepealable middle-class entitlement that is designed to expand over time. <br /><br />Taxes will need to rise precipitously, even as ObamaCare so dramatically expands government control of health care that eventually all medicine will be rationed via politics. <br /><br />Yet at this point, Democrats have dumped any pretense of genuine bipartisan "reform" and moved into the realm of pure power politics as they race against the unpopularity of their own agenda. <br /><br />The goal is to ram through whatever income-redistribution scheme they can claim to be "universal coverage." The result will be destructive on every level—for the health-care system, for the country's fiscal condition, and ultimately for American freedom and prosperity.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4726844761468242273.post-7101761489114837892009-11-03T05:09:50.716-08:002009-11-03T05:09:50.716-08:00Obamacare’s Medical-Device Tax (Higher taxes, lowe...Obamacare’s Medical-Device Tax (Higher taxes, lower research spending, pink slips for scientists)National Review<br /><br />Obamacare promises to make medicine cheaper by making it costlier. Case in point: The Senate Finance Committee proposes a brand-new tax on medical devices. <br /><br />Manufacturers of pacemakers, stents, heart valves, artificial hips, motorized wheelchairs, and other therapeutic instruments may have lobbied this tax in half. <br /><br />But whether they endure the $40 billion now in the Finance Committee’s bill or a $20 billion backroom bargain, Obamacare foolishly would hike taxes on companies that generate health-advancing, life-saving mechanisms. <br /><br />This Senate measure would slap a ten-year, $4 billion annual tax on medical implements that retail for $100 or more. “The $4 billion excise tax works out to a surcharge equal to $11,000 per year for every American worker employed by our industry,” Braun Medical CEO Carroll Neubauer wrote in October 22’s Huffington Post. <br /><br />This $4 billion yearly tax exceeds the industry’s $3.7 billion in venture-capital receipts for 2007 and is more than 40 percent of that year’s sector-wide research-and-development outlay of $9.6 billion. <br /><br />This tax approximates one-sixth of annual industry profits. How exactly will those who make hearing aids, extended-wear contact lenses, and more manufacture today’s products, pay current staffers, hire new employees, and invent tomorrow’s cures — all while this tax devours nearly 17 percent of profits?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4726844761468242273.post-31921998443515133272009-11-03T05:08:47.243-08:002009-11-03T05:08:47.243-08:00After all the fuss, public health plan covers few ...After all the fuss, public health plan covers few (ONLY 2 Percent!)<br />Yahoo<br /><br />WASHINGTON – What's all the fuss about? After all the noise over Democrats' push for a government insurance plan to compete with private carriers, coverage numbers are finally in: Two percent. <br /><br />That's the estimated share of Americans younger than 65 who'd sign up for the public option plan under the health care bill that Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., is steering toward House approval. <br />The underwhelming statistic is raising questions about whether the government plan will be the iron-fisted competitor that private insurers warn will shut them down or a niche operator that becomes a haven for patients with health insurance horror stories. <br /><br />Some experts are wondering if lawmakers have wasted too much time arguing about the public plan, giving short shrift to basics such as ensuring that new coverage will be affordable.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4726844761468242273.post-16290474697803885842009-11-03T05:07:53.070-08:002009-11-03T05:07:53.070-08:00House Health Care Bill Has Death Panels, Assisted ...House Health Care Bill Has Death Panels, Assisted Suicide Promotion <br />(LifeNews.com)<br /><br />The new House health care reform bill unveiled last week by Speaker Nancy Pelosi contains more than the controversial "death panels" panned in the previous legislation. <br /><br />The new bill, H.R. 3962, contains direct taxpayer-funded promotion of assisted suicide in the states where it is currently legal.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com