Obama-related Ad Company gets contract for Health Care PR push

This isn't too surprising... is it?
Bloomburg.com should get some kind of Pulitzer for covering this story. Why hasn't anyone else picked up on this?

Two firms that received $343.3 million to handle advertising for Barack Obama’s White House run last year have profited from his top priority as president by taking on his push for health-care overhaul.

One of those companies is David Axelrod's old company.
I'd call this a kickback, but that would be redundant to suggest that a Chicago Democrat was arranging for their own kickback.

To make this even more funny, Obama was completely hypocritical when he accused insurance companies of funding the 'opposition'.

“In some cases what we’ve seen is also funding in opposition by some other insurance companies to any kind of reform proposals.”

$343 Million is being spent to sell us on Universal Health Care, and Obama is complaining that the insurance companies are spending too much money to defeat it? What a jackass.

Newsweek: 'Socialism Is the Best Medicine'

Okay, so we always knew that Newsweek felt that way. But this time they said it out loud.

Most Americans have heard horror stories of long waits for health-care services in other countries. But according to a study by the Commonwealth Fund, Americans wait longer to see primary-care physicians than patients in Britain, Germany, Australia, or New Zealand all countries with strong public-health systems.

How did they come to the conclusion that socialist health care is better then other countries? Oh, that's simple. They quoted a study from the Commonwealth Fund.

From their 'about us' section of their website:

The Commonwealth Fund is a private foundation that aims to promote a high performing health care system that achieves better access, improved quality, and greater efficiency, particularly for society's most vulnerable, including low-income people, the uninsured, minority Americans, young children, and elderly adults.

The Fund carries out this mandate by supporting independent research on health care issues and making grants to improve health care practice and policy. An international program in health policy is designed to stimulate innovative policies and practices in the United States and other industrialized countries.

Did anyone expect them to come up with any other conclusion?

The Joker Artist is a Chicagoan

When I first saw this poster, I thought it was awesome! I still do.

I know that some people don't get the social commentary. They don't get why someone would compare the joker to someone who believes in socialism. But to people like me, its not that the joker = socialism.
The joker was someone who pronounced himself to be something that he wasn't. He kept insisting that he was an agent of anarchy, but all along, he had a plan. Remember how he tried convincing the district attorney that he had little to do with the death of Rachael? How he tried to use fear against the people of Gotham to get them to kill each other?

Anyway, someone did their homework and found out who did the original poster. According to the Los Angelos Times, the original artist is Firas Alkhateeb from the University Of Illinois. It appears that Firas isn't a Republican, but just a guy who was bothered by the celebrity worship of Obama. So he created the following cover of Time.

Apparently, someone photoshopped out the Time Logo and kept the original image... adding the "Socialism" tagline.

Firas kept quiet about the whole thing, even though he's not the guy who called Obama a socialist. Seems that he was a little worried about the Obama fanatics going a little nuts. Which is a valid fear.

I'm pretty impressed with what Firas did on many levels. But mostly because he took on a cultural icon in Chicago. As a person who lives here, I can only compliment him on his courage.

What does the country care about the most?

In January of 2009, the Pew Research Center asked the American public what their main policy priorities were. The results might surprise you, given what the administration is spending its time on.

Here are the priorities, as given then:
Economy
Jobs
Terrorism
Social Security
Education
Energy
Medicare
Health Care
Deficit Reduction


The list goes on.
I put it here to remind people that Medicare and Health Care were not the top things on the list. And they were right next to 'deficit reduction' in the priorities of the people.

5 Health Care Freedoms you'll Lose

From CNN Money:

1. Freedom to choose what's in your plan

The bills in both houses require that Americans purchase insurance through "qualified" plans offered by health-care "exchanges" that would be set up in each state. The rub is that the plans can't really compete based on what they offer. The reason: The federal government will impose a minimum list of benefits that each plan is required to offer.

I've talked about this before.

Anytime the government is able to give specific details on the way a business is run, its disaster.

I hate everything about this bill. Please read CNNs article.

Obama's Town Hall was literally bussed in at New Hampshire

According to the White House, the people who oppose his health care program are pre-fabricated protests, and not real.
Yet, in New Hampshire, a lot of the people supporting his plan were bussed in.

Don't believe me?
Go watch this video, and listen to the reporter. At around 40 seconds in, she says that 'busloads' of 'supporters' arrived.
Thanks to WMUR in New Hampshire for reporting that.

Tampa Bay incident, accorrding to HuffPo

I'm just adding a permanant link to my blog so that I can find this story when I need it again.
This is about a town meeting in Tampa Bay, and how the protesters were confronted by union goons who threw them out of the town hall meeting.
Pay close attention to the guy with the video camera, recording everyone. You'll note that HuffPo blames the protesters for the escalating violence. But its clear to anyone who follows the links to the Tampa Tribune that Randy Arthur was violated by the 'pro health care' thugs.

Obama as Hitler... not

Here's a blogger who runs down the source of a 'protestor' with a Hitler poster.
It turns out that the 'protestor' is more likely a universal health care fan, rather then a foe. Go figure.

11 yo reporter interviews Obama; -inset joke here-

The full story is here.

Possible punch lines:
"No, this time it wasn't Matt Lauer."
"For the first time, hard questions"
"Reporter, unlike president, doesn't know how to use a teleprompter"

The possibilities are endless...

There is the deficit, and then the Deficit

Almost a decade ago I took an accounting class. I own my own business. I realized that I was horrible at keeping records, and I wanted to become better at it.

I hated accounting. So much of it seemed common sense to me. But there were a few aspects of the class that really resonated with me: like the concept of running a deficit.

I had taken a basic economics class previously, when I earned by Bachelor's degree. I was familiar with the idea of how the government ran a deficit, and how dangerous it was. The accounting class reiterated the problems of running a deficit, and how many businesses would try to hide the deficit with accounting tricks.

I knew - at the time - that the biggest company is the US that hides the true cost of their deficit is the US government.

I've tried explaining this to a lot of people. The hardest part to explain is how - in the years that we were running a 'surplus' - there was no surplus. The debt continued to go up. Yet, its been reported everywhere that there was a surplus and economists will tell you that our country ran a surplus.
But anyone who took economics or accounting knows this is a lie. You can't run a surplus and have your debt increase.

Anyway, when someone forwarded me this old article by USA Today, it was heartening to me. It explains what you need to know about the 'real' federal deficit. Keep in mind, this is from August of '04:

The set the government doesn't talk about is the audited financial statement produced by the government's accountants following standard accounting rules. It reports a more ominous financial picture: a $760 billion deficit for 2005. If Social Security and Medicare were included — as the board that sets accounting rules is considering — the federal deficit would have been $3.5 trillion.

The reason for this disparity is because the government doesn't include all of their liabilities on the books. The USA Today article explains it very well, and I don't want to impinge on their copyright... but I wish that everyone would read it.

G550s, the only way to fly

Everyone dreams about winning the lotto.
The last time I did, I wondered how much money it would cost to buy a personal jet. I kept going to different websites until I found the jet of choice: A Gulfstream 550.

Of course, the problem was that I couldn't afford it. Beyond the cost of initial aquisition ($65 million), the jets are pretty costly to keep. Most websites put the yearly upkeep at anywhere from $1 to $2 million to own a jet like that.

So I shelved my dream for now.

But most recently, I found out that if you really want a personal jet that you can share with friends, you can always become a member of congress:

Last year, lawmakers excoriated the CEOs of the Big Three automakers for traveling to Washington, D.C., by private jet to attend a hearing about a possible bailout of their companies.

But apparently Congress is not philosophically averse to private air travel: At the end of July, the House approved nearly $200 million for the Air Force to buy three elite Gulfstream jets for ferrying top government officials and Members of Congress.

I love irony.

Air Force One Document Dump

NBC had the story about the photos from the Air Force One flyover of New York:

The photos are posted right on the Pentagon's Website, defense officials said today. The Pentagon also released a heavily redacted flight manifest.

Check it out, and the redacted files.

Paul Krugman finds out about Canadian Health Care

Paul Krugman, famous economist from the New York Times (who doesn't seem to understand basic economics) was served at a discussion panel.

http://www.thehopeforamerica.com/play.php?id=1592

When he asks Canadians if they feel that their health care is 'terrible', they all seem to answer 'yes'.
Hilarious.

Red pill vs. the Blue pill

Its almost like the blue state / red state thing.
Here's an article about Obama's health care speech the other night. Obama tried making an analogy that was epic fail:

"If there's a blue pill and a red pill, and the blue pill is half the price of the red pill and works just as well, why not pay half price for the thing that's going to make you well?" -- President Obama

In last night's press conference, President Obama seemed to be reliving that famous scene from The Matrix. The main character is offered a choice between a red pill that makes him see reality for what it is, and a blue pill that allows him to continue living in a pleasant world of illusions.

I think that the Matrix got it right. Obama wants us to swallow his blue pill.

The Biggest Lie Ever: 'My economic plan worked as intended'

That took cajones to say that.

President Barack Obama said his $787 billion stimulus bill “has worked as intended” as he pushed back against Republican criticism that his recovery program has failed to rescue the economy.

Obama;
If your plan all along was to convince us that spending $787 BILLION dollars was a severe waste of money? Then your stimulus bill worked as intended.
If your intention was to soar unemployment over 9%? Worked as intended.
If your plan all along was to make your economic crew look like idiots? Mission accomplished.

Transparency, redefined

This week, Newsweek finally noticed that the Obama Whitehouse isn't as transparent as, well, what they said it was going to be. In an article called "Obama Closes Door On Openess", they write:

Since Obama pledged on his first day in office to usher in a "new era" of openness, "nothing has changed," says David -Sobel, a lawyer who litigates FOIA cases. "For a president who said he was going to bring unprecedented transparency to government, you would certainly expect more than the recycling of old Bush secrecy policies."

Its written in a strange way. As if Newsweek can't figure out who in the Obama administration is keeping him from being as open as he wants to be. For instance, this sentence:

The hard line appears to be no accident.

So it wasn't just an accident??
I'd love to know how someone 'accidentally' gets secretive.

In upcoming weeks, I'll be watching to see if Newsweek wakes up and smells the coffee, as the people from the LA Times have.
In this blog, they openly mock Biden's private meetings:

And we've wondered aloud how this Democratic VP's private meetings with unnamed people on unnamed subjects differs from the private meetings with unnamed people that his evil predecessor had that got so many Democratic senators and representatives worried about nefarious secrets.

Its a good read. And good for the LA Times to take notice.

Obama's teleprompter commits suicide

In an apparent attempt to avoid further embarrassment, Obama's teleprompter leapt to its death today.
You can see the gruesome video here. CNN decided that it would be okay to show a close-up of its shattered and lifeless body on the floor.

Even more shocking then the video of the teleprompter committing Hari Kari? As the president continues talking about how the porkulus bill was necessary to save our cities, some hypnotized reporter in the foreground is caught nodding his head in agreement.

Actual headline: "Mrs. Obama bringing glamor to Moscow this weekend"

Punchline: And she didn't even leave the White House.

(headline & story here)

Helen Thomas Pwns Gibbs?

Actually, it was another reporter who started it.
But then Helen Thomas chipped in. I have to admit, I never thought I'd see Helen Thomas give any kind of criticism to this administration. I'm glad she stepped up to do it.



Personally, I think the reporters are sick of feeling like pawns.
My only question is: what took them so long?

Admitting that the Stimulus bill failed?

Nope.
The Obama administration won't do that.
Instead, they will redefine what their timeline is:

Back in February, with Congress moving swiftly to approve President Obama’s $787 billion stimulus package, White House budget director Peter Orszag said the benefits of the stimulus would “take weeks to months” to be felt.

But now, the council of Economic Advisors to the president is telling us a different story:

“We always knew we were not going to get all that much fiscal impact during the first five to six months. The big impact starts to hit from about now onwards,” Romer said.

Of course, Romer is lying.
This is a chart that they put out a while back. You can find a copy here:

I think the most telling thing is that the unemployment rate was never supposed to go above 8% in 2009. Heck, if the chart is right, the unemployment rate is supposed to be at around 8% towards the 3rd quarter of 2009.

Who thinks that's going to happen?
If anything, the chart seems to be predicting that the unemployment rate would track... well, about where it is now, without all of that pork.

I'm keeping this chart alive. Because I want to see if our unemployment rate strays from it... at all.