A peek at government health care in today's Dispatch

There's a brief article in the Dispatch today that is a peek at what we all can expect when the government controls our health care: lawsuits, people not signed up, information arrives too late to be useful, appointments are not set up, qualified recipients don't receive their medicine or services, or they are lost in the system.

Now this story involves a very small group, incarcerated mentally ill. How hard can they be to keep track of and serve with medication? It seems one in four declines post release services, but that hasn't kept advocates for nine former inmates from suing Ohio for more services. More of the mentally ill refuse post-prison help | The Columbus Dispatch

When you hear the sob stories in the MSM about Americans who die without health care (which is untrue because we have laws that require their treatment, even for the illegals and no amount of "preventive" medicine helps alcoholics, overeaters and smokers if they refuse to change), keep in mind that many people eligible for services either don't apply, or find the process so complicated and daunting they give up. There is so much red tape strangling the poor, the homeless, the mentally ill, the confused and the elderly, it's not surprising that millions don't use the health programs to which they are entitled. Without a family member advocate, many of the programs are useless. That won't change regardless of the trillions Obama throws at the problem. His intentions are evil; the results won't be any better because this take-over has nothing to do with health.

White House Felonies? Obamagate?

Interesting time line at American Spectator with the similarities to other backroom deals, fixers and criminals 40 years ago. The evasive Robert Gibbs is just another Ron Ziegler (Nixon's press secretary).

"These days, Charles Colson is one of humanity's good guys. He has spent decades creating a ministry called the "Prison Fellowship" in which he looks after the souls of America's prison population. But it will be remembered how Colson got to this point. Once upon a time he was the feared Nixon White House political aide who famously was said to be capable of running over his own grandmother for his president. In a pre-Watergate 1971 story, the Washington Post described Colson as one of the "original back room boys…the brokers, the guys who fix things when they break down and do the dirty work when it's necessary."

And how has the Denver Post described Obama's Deputy White House Chief of Staff Jim Messina? The man at the center of the Romanoff story and possibly the Sestak story as well? The Denver paper tellingly said Messina was "President Barack Obama's deputy chief of staff and a storied fixer in the White House political shop."

Which is to say, Messina is Barack Obama's Chuck Colson. The fixer.

With a senior Democratic United States Senator (Arlen Specter, March 12, 2010), a former chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, now ever so not delicately suggesting the players in this drama could all go to jail, it would seem that perhaps Mr. Messina and his Chicago buddies in the White House have fixed things for President Obama in a fashion that was unimaginable on inauguration day in January of 2009.

On that day many of these people sat just yards from the very spot on the Capitol grounds where Richard Nixon -- seemingly invulnerable -- landed in the glow of the klieg lights to bathe in the applause of an admiring nation as he reported on the results of his diplomatic triumphs with the Soviet Union and Mao's China."

The American Spectator : Specter Opens Door on White House FeloniesUnfortunately, transforming politics as usual is not part of Obama's dreams for our country that he promised during the campaign.

Another cat story

Our current pet is our third cat, and we think she is about 11 years old--perhaps born in 1999. She had been homeless, declawed and spayed and was turned in at Cat Welfare Association. Her past on the mean streets of Columbus gave her reason to have eating issues. Poor thing. For years she would attack our garbage disposal even after a full meal. You didn't dare leave any food out. Our second cat was our loveliest--a part lynxpoint Siamese--purchased from a pet store. We thought she just had an odd personality--chewing up the underside of the furniture and racing toward water whenever she heard it running--and smart--could open the bathroom door by turning the knob with her paws. But in fact, she had bad kidneys, and died when she was four. Mystery, our first cat (1976), was our lover with sensitive ears. In those days I had an electric typewriter and when she heard it from another room she would race to me and leap into my lap and try everything to get me to turn it off. I think she saw it as competition for my affection. If I raised my voice, she would put her paw over my mouth--and if that didn't work, would nip me.

All this is to say you don't need to be a vet to see that pets are born with their personality and quirks (just like people) and can also learn bad habits (just like people). You see things the vet doesn't see.

Around the time we returned home from Lakeside last September our cat began a hacking cough and started to sneeze. I suspected she was back to her old tricks of eating inappropriate items, like twisty ties and plastic plants. I figured it would end up in the litter box. The cough would come and go. I also noticed she no longer spit up hairballs. Probably age, I thought. When I could no longer tolerate being sprayed with her sneezing every time she came near, I finally took her to the vet 2 weeks ago. Of course, she didn't display any of these symptoms for the doctor. She just did her terrorized "help me, help me, they're going to kill me" routine. The vet recommended an x-ray, because if she had a tumor, the medication she was about to prescribe wouldn't make any difference, and I knew what that meant. The x-rays were clear. Well, the antibiotic had to be compounded and the faxed order went astray (she probably had a virus, but had developed an infection the vet speculated, a virus gone dormant that she came with in 1999). So she didn't really get that until a week ago, plus some ear stuff and a nutritional supplement. All this came to over $300, but we love her, and if it's not terminal and will make her more comfortable, I can handle that.

I had vacuuming on my Monday to-do list, so Thursday I got around to it. Under the dining room table was a big pile of dried yuk. Lots of patterns in that rug, so it just blended in. I should have inspected it, but didn't, but as the quiet Panasonic ran over it I realized it was a piece of clear plastic encased in a lot of hair.

We haven't heard her cough or sneeze in a few days. Maybe it's the medication, or may it's my first guess. Or prayer--my women's group prayed for her Monday and Kendra's horse and Sharon's cat.

CBO crumbles under health workload

Unfortunately, collapsing the entire government is the final goal for Obama. That's what he meant by the "fundamental transformation" he announced in 2008. That's what this "constitutional" lawyer meant when he said our Constitution was flawed. After he exhausts us all with health hysteria (over 85% already have insurance they like and many eligible for gov't insurance haven't applied or are wading through red tape), he moves on to amnesty for illegals, and destroying the energy system with cap and trade. In his latest campaign speeches he ridiculed all the points the opposition makes without correcting a single charge or even claiming they are lies. He just swats, as though we are gnats buzzing around his head.

"The budget office is responsible for providing Congress nonpartisan analysis and cost estimates for legislation, but the CBO has been in the limelight in a much greater way as Democrats desperately try to keep the cost of the health care bill in check.

But the CBO admits that the quantity of analysis hasn’t been enough to meet the needs of Congress.

Wasserman Schultz said she was concerned that Elemendorf’s office had recently sent a scored legislative summary to a House office that later needed to be significantly amended."

Read more: CBO crumbles under health workload - Erika Lovley - POLITICO.com

Congressman Mike Rogers, "This is a travesty."

YouTube - Congressman Mike Rogers' opening statement on Health Care reform in Washington D.C.

Friday Family Photo--The bicentennial cat

This is probably a repeat--but that's what old people do. Besides, I like the photo.

Mystery our first cat was a bicentennial baby, so that would place this photo in 1976, because she is still a traumatized kitten here desperately trying to escape my children.

My husband and daughter brought Mystery (so named because she was so tiny we didn't know her sex) home from an Indian Princess camp out at Camp Akita. The little girls found kittens at a near-by farm and they all ran away, except the little black one who was too sick to run. That's the one they brought home. She lived for almost 18 years, and when she could no longer see to jump up on my lap, I carried her to the vet and said good-bye. Never let a faithful pet die alone in a strange place. Hold her and whisper sweet things.

The children are apparently playing dress-ups, because my son is wearing the jacket of one of my suits from the 60s, and has one of my belts around his neck. So they dressed up the cat too who is wearing the clothes of Sue the doll.

Message for The Narcissist in Chief

I'm sorry Mr. President, this isn't about you. It's not about the office you hold and it's not about the Speaker. This is about the American people and the health care system that they want for our country.



Boehner has never been my favorite Republican, but he nailed it this time.

In the footstep of Maude

In the 1970s, Maude was a plump, flashy, mouthy TV liberal character, married to her 4th husband, who let it all hang out--her female health problems, plastic surgery, her advocacy for better race relations, her adult daughter's love life and the tension between them. She got her start as a neighbor of the Jeffersons as I recall. Somehow, liberals (myself included since I was a Democrat then) were able to see the humor in her over-the-top extravagances. But if the shoe is ever on the other foot, the only conservative writers and producers could possibly find amusing is the straw woman--created for them to laugh at and knock down. If conservatives were presented as real people with black friends, gay sons or parents with AD, someone would jump in with more regulation and christen the show "hate speech" because real people aren't allowed on their political planet. Television's Strong Women Characters - WSJ.com

Bret, Barry and Brit--A Fox among the chickens

Taranto writes in today's column about the Baier interview: ". . .perhaps the first time Obama has ever faced a tough interview. The interviewer was Bret Baier of Fox News Channel, and the president was clearly unprepared, coming across as petulant and evasive."

MediaMatters and HuffnPuff of course went crazy that their guy looked so bad. Fox can't be a "real" news channel if it doesn't bow and scrape. I have underestimated Baier who took over for Brit Hume--haven't seen him as having the experience, or even an authoritative voice. But he definitely had Obama's number, who also had underestimated him and was unprepared. Or was it just a lack of the teleprompter?

We've lost an important political ally in the loss of the objectivity of our main stream press reporters and editors, owners and advertisers. They've been so enamored of this president and so fearful of his Chicago goon squad that they are losing viewers and readers right and left (no pun intended). Taranto observes that if the MSM had been a little tougher on him in 2008, or even honest, Obama would have been prepared for these questions. But then, he wouldn't have been president if the press hadn't constantly pitched the soft balls. Smart President, Foolish Choices - WSJ.com

Andrew Cline writes at American Spectator: "If the president were true to his campaign promises, he would immediately nix the Slaughter scheme and demand a real, fair vote on health care legislation. But everyone who went looking for those health care meetings on C-SPAN already knows he isn't true to his campaign promises." The American Spectator : Democrats Against Democracy

And Brit Hume thinks Bret did a good job, too. Hot Air » Blog Archive » Brit Hume gives his successor an attaboy on Obama interview

Tea Party Rally on Capitol Hill against Health Care Bill

Kill the Bill. Start over. If reform is worth doing, it's worth doing right. This Congress is the worst example of sleaze and corruption that I can remember in my lifetime. Obama keeps reciting the same lie--but did tell the truth in his interview on Fox. It's incremental--the take-over of one sixth of the economy won't all happen at once. Oh, that must make the take-over he admitted to, OK.

FOXNews.com - Tea Partiers Rally on Capitol Hill in Opposition to Health Care Bill

And what do you talk about with your friends, Donna?

Donna Butts is executive director of Generations United which according to her letter to President Obama in 2008 has 4 priority areas: "maximizing tax dollars through intergenerational shared sites and resources; supporting intergenerational caregiving and family structures; engaging children, youth and older adults as resources to communities and families; providing access to quality health care coverage for all people in the U.S." Just off the top of my head after 5 minutes research, I'd say GU is one of thousands of non-profits which exist to get grants from the government and other non-profits (foundations, churches, etc.) to provide a living for their staff. (Most churches have provided for this since the beginning of the first century A.D.) And although they might not be living with their parents or children, I know very few boomers who aren't pitching in to either help their parents or their adult children and grandchildren.

However, I just want to draw attention to a quote of Donna Butts which appeared in papers today in heralding the Pew Research report about multigenerational households on the increase (they are no where near as common as 1940, but up a little between 2007 and 2009).

"All they (older people) do is talk about who died, what hurts, and what medication they're on." It's not that she's incorrect. I'm 70, and I've learned a lot about recovering from mastectomies, stroke, laproscopic robotic surgery, bronchitis, and pulled muscles just from listening to people over 45. And I've regaled a few with my story of sleeping on airport floors sicker than I've ever been in 2009. But I've also heard about apps for my I-Touch, volunteer opportunities, Twitter and Facebook, free concerts, 9-12 political events, the best travel deals and new restaurants to try.

And Donna--have you ever stood in line behind a group of teen-age girls and overheard the fascinating topics they discuss? 1) boys, 2) texting, 3) boys, 4) clothes, 5) boys. Or how about that group of millennials who were at the next table where we ate last week, meeting after work to unwind? 1) Unintelligible screeching, 2) Ear splitting howls, 3)Oh. My. God. 4) Dirty joke, 5) Workplace gossip. Or a Jane Austen fan club? Or BMW owners? Or generation 2 point 0 anything?

People talk about what they know and experience--at any time in life. If you're not into motorcycle cross country trips or saving dolphins, you'll probably be bored. Donna may talk about generation research to anyone who will listen, regardless of age.

The Health-Care Wars Are Only Beginning

"House Speaker Nancy Pelosi believes ObamaCare would have a more congenial fate—that it will become as popular as Social Security and Medicare with voters. She's kidding herself. Social Security and Medicare were popular from the start and passed with bipartisan support. ObamaCare is unpopular and partisan. It's extremely controversial. Its passage is far more likely to spark a political explosion than a wave of acceptance." Fred Barnes

Fred Barnes: The Health-Care Wars Are Only Beginning - WSJ.com

SS and Medicare like many government programs started small, became bloated and over extended, always with the intention of government controlling our lives. They have contributed to our enormous health care bills, and are the weak, crumbling foundation for Obamacare.

Mia Farrow writes from Chad

You can read today's editorial in the Wall Street Journal by Mia Farrow here, dated March 16, 2010. It's short and simple, but a cause she is quite passionate about, and unlike some celebrities who seem to have the knack of touching down with hurricanes and earthquakes, she has stayed with this one.

She calls Chad "desolate and powerfully beautiful." I suspect she admires their simple and primitive culture--certainly different from her own. But it's that culture which is starving those babies and children staring back at us from her web page. Their leader is 90 years old; their development minimal to non-existent. No big carbon footprint here--not even green technology. Nothing. And they are dying. And if a few are saved with infant formula, what about next year and the next? Will they be struck down with malaria or some other vector borne disease that Western environmentalists won't let them fight with pesticides?

She says, "The numbers of starving children far exceed the capacity of Unicef's emergency feeding center. Cases of formula and life-saving nutrients are arriving, but many children are already too weak to swallow. The Chadian government must urgently take action, along with the World Food Program and other relief agencies before it is too late." Unfortunately, corrupt African governments combined with 50 years of guilt-ridden Western hand-outs and food programs have destroyed the local economies--especially the farmers and small businesses. Who can compete with free food or free clothing, so the land goes untended, and the cycle is repeated. We're already hearing about this in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, where the food donations for the desperate and battered people are destroying the little food stands that support families.

I certainly don't have the answer--but neither do UNICEF and the World Food Program and the clutch of non-profits and Christian agencies who have served in these areas for half a century.

A letter to Senator Brown

Murray received a funds appeal from Senator Scott Brown. So did I. I think I scribbled across mine and mailed it back, something to the effect that I wasn't pleased with his first vote, but I'd wait and see. Murray actually sent him a letter which he's allowing me to reprint here (under U.S. copyright law, he owns the content, not Sen. Brown)

March 17, 2010

Senator Brown:

I received your letter today thanking me for my contribution to your successful victory in the Massachusetts Senate race. You need to understand that my contribution, among thousands of others, was for a specific purpose. Thankfully, that purpose was realized.

"We The People" need your help to not only stop Obamacare but to stop the recklessness that's taking place every day with our legislators. This means Obamanomics needs to be stopped in its tracks. As I write, Obama is readying himself to sign the just passed $18 billion stimulus/jobs/hire bill while he has $500 billion of the stimulus left yet to spend. You know. . . the billions that we needed quickly a year ago for "shovel ready" jobs. You voted for the stimulus/jobs/hire bill while it was $15 billion and watched it grow to $18 billion practically overnight. I guess that's strike one on you!

Anyway, if you help the taxpayers of this country during your next year by stopping the spending frenzy, government's takeover of anything else, cap & trade and raising taxes, then I'll consider helping you extend your political career along with many of the other taxpayers. I'll be holding on to your request for donations until then.

Please help this great country survive.

Murray

Good job, Murray. Couldn't have said it better myself!

Slaughter the Senate Bill

House Rules Committee Chair Louise Slaughter (D-NY) wrote this about the Senate health plan--the only plan we have at the moment and which they are planning to "deem as" passed without voting on it (that's even worse than the Obama Senate record of voting present so he wouldn't have to commit):

Under the Senate plan, millions of Americans will be forced into private insurance company plans, which will be subsidized by taxpayers. That alternative will do almost nothing to reform health care but will be a windfall for insurance companies. ... Supporters of the weak Senate bill say "just pass it -- any bill is better than no bill."

I strongly disagree -- a conference report is unlikely to sufficiently bridge the gap between these two very different bills. It's time that we draw the line on this weak bill and ask the Senate to go back to the drawing board. The American people deserve at least that.

Also, when Obama was in Ohio this week I'm pretty sure he promised his teensy-weeny audience (before I could switch channels) that they could have the same plan that Congress has! Well, folks, Congress gets to choose from a variety of private health plans and get to keep it after they leave Congress. Where will their Cadillac plans be after Obama destroys the private carriers?

The only reason left to pass this bill (reconcile, slaughter, deem) is to save Obama's reputation so he can move on to grab even more of the economy. Many Americans are talking recalling their representatives or voting them out of office, forgetting that Congress has made itself irrelevant--Obama just goes around them.

Morning Bell: There Is No Bill But the Senate Bill

What may be the saddest war song ever

Today my husband played the 3 cd set of "The Dubliners; Ireland's No. 1 Folk Group" in exercise class. Irish songs are minor key and very sad. Our "cool down" song must be the world's saddest war song. It's about the Irish-Australian soldiers who returned from WWI, a war when losing 7-8,000 men in one battle over several days wasn't unusual. And even so, more American soldiers died of the flu than from the war. Here's just part of it:

They collected the wounded, the crippled, the maimed
And they shipped us back home to Australia
The armless, the legless, the blind and the insane
Those proud wounded heroes of Suvla
And when the ship pulled into Circular Quay
I looked at the place where me legs used to be
And thank Christ there was no one there waiting for me
To grieve and to mourn and to pity

And the Band played Waltzing Matilda
When they carried us down the gangway
Oh nobody cheered, they just stood there and stared
Then they turned all their faces away

Now every April I sit on my porch
And I watch the parade pass before me
I see my old comrades, how proudly they march
Renewing their dreams of past glories
I see the old men all tired, stiff and worn
Those weary old heroes of a forgotten war
And the young people ask "What are they marching for?"
And I ask myself the same question.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Of course, today "everyone is Irish," but some of us really can trace our ancestors across the pond to Ireland. Mine beat the crowd of the famine ships of the 19th century and crossed in the 1730s, signing on to fight in the American Revolution against their hated British rulers, stopping a generation or two in Pennsylvania and Virginia, and then moving on to Tennessee, with later generations leaving Appalachia for Illinois, Texas and California as various misfortunes gave them a push to seek a better land and life. After 7 or 8 generations in the U.S., my German-English and Scots-Irish bloodlines got together in an outdoor farmhouse wedding in August 1934, and the rest is my history, as we say.

At the coffee shop I was refilling my cup and next to me was a young man with a blinking St. Pat's pin on his baseball cap (hate to see people wearing those inside). "Any Irish in your genealogy?" I asked. He said he didn't think so but wasn't sure (most 20-somethings don't know much about genealogy, so it really wasn't a fair question). "My mom's Hungarian-German, but my dad's adopted, so we don't know anything about his family." I didn't pursue that story line--after all, we are total strangers, and for all I know his parents could be divorced or deceased. But here's my opinion.

If his grandparents were willing to adopt his father, a life changing event for him over which he had no control, then it's perfectly OK for his dad to "adopt" his ancestors from his adoptive parents' genealogy. Over this he does have a choice. It's not fair that the state of Ohio still has laws hiding his father's past, but there are a few things his father does control, and that's to climb that family tree with all its roots and branches, his grandparents, great-grandparents, great-greats, cousins, nephews, nieces and so forth.

Capitalist and Populist Architecture--Eero Saarinen

Eero Saarinen's father, Eliel Saarinen, was a prominent architect in Finland. We visited several of his sites in 2006. In 1923, when Eero was 13, the family moved to the United States where Eero became one of the most prominent architects of the 1950s. We've also visited some of his sites, the closest to us being Columbus, Indiana. But you may have been in the TWA terminal, or seen the John Deere building in Moline, IL. The video continues with other topics, you may have to search for the Saarinen piece, which today is at the beginning, but who knows tomorrow? Or you can click on the link.



Exhibition Tour: Eero Saarinen

Repealing Obamacare Will Be Easier If Congress Skirts Normal Process

On the road for his “Courage and Consequence” book tour, Rove chatted with The Heritage Foundation about Obamacare, his defense of President George W. Bush’s conservatism, the growth of Tea Parties and anger toward government spending.

Karl Rove: Repealing Obamacare Will Be Easier If Congress Skirts Normal Process | The Foundry: Conservative Policy News.

Everyone Shouldn’t Go To College

About four years ago I blogged about the cost of a college education, private vs. public, and whether some college bound young people might be financially better off not to attend college. I followed up that link today looking at a 2008 update of the information. It contained information not in that first report (if you invest the money you would have spent on a child's education, the life time (40 years) average of earnings is higher than attending college, and a public school education is a better deal in life time earnings that a private school).

REEF » Everyone Shouldn’t Go To College

What the recession has done to this mix, I have no idea. The REEF website doesn't appear to be current.

Update: I found Michael Robertson who authored REEF material at another website. Robertson knows a bit about education and making money--he invented the MP3 player.