Dull Pharma.
This is said to be the first of the $12 million campaign launched on behalf of Big Pharma in support of the Obama administration's healthcare ambition. The script is bland, aimless, repetitive, colorless, dull and timeless.
"What does health insurance reform mean for you? It means you can't be denied coverage for a pre-existing condition or dropped if you get sick. It means putting health care decisions in the hands of you and your doctor. It means lower costs, a cap on out-of-pocket expenses, tough new rules to cut waste and red tape and a focus onpreventingillness before it strikes. So what does health insurance reform really mean? Quality, affordable care you can count on."
"Health insurance before they vote in Soylent Green," would have been much more convincing -- and would have at least suggested there is a brain in Big Pharmaville. If this is the quality of material that has signed on to support the Obamacare program, then the town halls have already overwhelmed the narrative. POTUS goes to Montana for another town hall scenario in the next news cycle. It is not a promising development. If it is good news, it will be lost on a Friday news dump. If it is bad news, the Sunday shows will score on POTUS. And even in the best of circumstances, the White House has sent POTUS out twice in two weeks and still the Turfers dominate the news cycle. The polls are not going to bottom until POTUS gets to the Vineyard.
Defense.
In correspondence with a colleague, we puzzled at how Rahm Emanuel, the man who loves the expression "Put some points on the board," shows no skills at playing defense. POTUS and his Politburo have allowed the "death panel" trope to dominate the conversation. Each day, the "death panel" fantasy begins and ends the day of yelling. POTUS cannot get away from the grandma scenario. Comedy Central has failed so far to transform the moment. A panel of grandmas flashing thumbs up or thumbs down to orchids? Why is the White House sluggish? Why are the Obama forces acting pompous, demoralized, predictable? Aged and cranky old Chuck Grassley, without trying very hard, slipped a punch into the White House today at his own town hall. The blow landed hard:
Grassley carefully navigated the issue. "I wanted to make sure that people understood that I was not for rationing and having a government bureaucrat decide when Grandma's going to die," he later told reporters.
Overall, 47% of voters say they at least somewhat approve of the President's performance. That’s the lowest level of total approval yet recorded. The President’s ratings first fell below 50% just a few weeks ago on July 25. Fifty-two percent (52%) now disapprove.
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/obama_administration/daily_presidential_tracking_poll
If they were 100% fascist and dictated the caloric and fat intake, amount of exercise, what one can drink, banned smoking, and reduced legal activities based on risk assessment, they possibly would get more support. Else who really cares.
The real problem is how can they justify stealing(taxes) anybody's money to give to somebody else for anything?
-Sharpening a shiv for grandpa
P.S. Which line is for the provolone?
Back when I was working as purchasing agent for a small NJ firm, I was charged with purchasing a dozen new PC’s for the company. My boss asked me to contact a man who had PC’s in stock and was selling them at a huge discount. Further investigation revealed that the computers in question had essentially ‘fallen off a truck’.
I subsequently wrote a letter to a higher boss detailing my concerns. I did not want to be implicated in something that appeared clearly shady in the event it should ever come to light.
My (higher) boss called me into his office and closed the door. He thanked me. I was told that I would remain out of the loop re this particular the purchase; that he would handle it personally. Additionally, he took out my letter and ripped it up. He said that it’s best not to put such things in writing as words tend to assume a life of their own. It was then I came to understand the importance of reading ‘the fine print’.
Curiously, our elected representatives seem not to have learned this lesson yet (or, perhaps, they have learned it too well). They’re expecting us to endorse the passage of a thousand-plus-page comprehensive health care bill which will affect every one of us (except members of Congress themselves) without anyone having read it, or intending to read it, not knowing what it says and, (as I understand it) which, in large part, has not even been written yet. It reminds me of how Democrats view the Constitution as a living, breathing; constantly evolving document to be amended, changed and ignored at will to suit every purpose.
Such shenanigans opens the way to innumerable contradictions which, in turn, lead to conflict that can be easily exploited to introduce additional binding clauses. This is how Chavez runs his shop. Already, it has come to light that our representatives are lying when they try to assure us that no one will be left out of the scheme; that the aged will receive the care they’ve come to expect under the old system; that no one will have to pay more; and that the system will be administered fairly and efficiently. The ‘cash-for-clunkers’ deal has already proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that the Obama-controlled Congress lacks the expertise to efficiently manage even the most pedestrian enterprise.
Words do have meaning, as does a failure to convey. There’s plenty of both coming out of this administration. On the Democrat side, it’s no longer about health care. It’s gone way beyond that. It’s about sowing dissent – dividing the populace along ideological lines. Those of us who’ve connected the dots are now forced consider overall intent in an effort to reconcile differences. …and we don’t like how it smells.
http://peterkoelliker.blogspot.com/
To build on Peter K's comments-
Clunkers demonstrates the gov's inability to set up a dirt simple system. The fact that perhaps 10% if the stimulus money has hit the ground is another. (Didn't they/should they have known the money would meander the apparatus for months and years.)
I conclude that even if they managed to pass this silly bill, it would be chaos and even more money for these clowns to get it in place, let alone working like a well oiled machine. (It's laughable to even write that last phrase.)
We may (repeat: "may") be witnessing a real come to jesus period in our history. the time when the great unwashed of the country finally are fed up with the flim flam in DC.
I am struck by the anecdotal data appearing these days:
gun sales through the roof.
reports that militias are more active then they've been in 15 years.
real folks yelling in the face of congressional royalty.
town halls exposing the degree to which congressman are out of touch.
BO cheerleaders are tempering their cheerleading and finding little nuances to separate themselves from him.
ABC touring the empty John Murtha airport on prime time news.
BO's repeated gaffs ranging from "AARP endorsement" to misstating by 30 times the cost of amputation surgery.
accusing doctor's of preferring to amputate a foot rather than manage patient disease. misstating Billy Jean King's grand slam count by 3x. some of this is bad staff work of course but it also shows he will say whatever the ventriloquist programs in as he has not common sense of the world.
He's out of his league and the citizenry is starting to feel it.
HIs only claim to fame is waring out: he's not George Bush. But he isn't what they though either.
We get the government we deserve. The election isn't even a year ago yet, and the same electorate that gave Obama a comfortable victory margin is now at least 10 points against his health plan? When the health plan was the centerpiece of his platform? Who's on first? What's on second? I don't know is in the voter's booth....
Sometimes, some people say that Obama is inept, naive, failing, unfocused, teleprompter reliant, incomplete, careless, incompetent, and every other description of a hapless vagabond flailing about in search of direction.
But then, when they need him to be, the same people say he's omnipotent, conniving, ruthless, formidable, and determinedly involved in an elaborate scheme to RULE the World! (Or at least, pillage the United States)
How wonderful it is to have such freedom of imagination!
*If he is Stanley... who be Leopold?*
"They have told how I planned and prepared my establishment and selected my horde of officials -- "pals" and "pimps" of mine, "unspeakable Belgians" every one -- and hoisted my flag, and "took in" a President of the United States, and got him to be the first to recognize it and salute it. Oh, well, let them blackguard me if they like; it is a deep satisfaction to me to remember that I was a shade too smart for that nation that thinks itself so smart. Yes, I certainly did bunco a Yankee -- as those people phrase it. Pirate flag? Let them call it so -- perhaps it is. All the same, they were the first to salute it."
The American taxpayer has a choice to either remain his Leopold, or turn into his John Galt. I'm cautiously optimistic from the events of the last week that the tide is turning towards the latter.
Nice oblique reference to Obama and Africa in the same message, by the way. Years from now some eighth grade English class will study your bloggings and the teacher will ask, "Who can find the symbolism in this last paragraph? As a bonus question, can anyone tell me what the political climate was in the United States in PlainInjun's time that forced people to resort to such baroque hyperbole to express their thoughts?"
Oh, that dastardly King of such a blight
Believing that God approved of his right
Now, I can't lay clain' (though I wish I might)
It was old Mark Twain I thought of 'ther night
After all, he did bring to them the Word
And they understood, when it was heard
As clever a convection as time e'er see
A read of "King Leopold's Soliloquy"
Maybe it's better said like this... Sorry!
Oh, that dastardly King of such a blight
Believing that God approved of his right
After all, he did bring to them the Word
And they understood, when it was thus heard
No, I can't lay clain' (though I wish I might)
It was old Mark Twain I thought of 'ther night
Clever a convection as time e'er see
A read of "King Leopold's Soliloquy"
Perhaps "death panel" is inflammatory rhetoric, but you can trust that trade-offs are being made now, and will continue to be made, with costs as the driver. My mother was fortunate to be a Depression-era saver and therefore had enough money for quality care thru the 7 grinding years of her Alzheimer's nursing home care. Unless citizens save sufficient money to manage their own end-of-life care, cost will dominate the calculations, just as they do now, and this is a fact whether we have state paid for insurance, like Medicare, or private insurance, or no insurance.
Awright, people. Ya see those all familiar colored helicopters coming in. That's the US Army.
They're lending us some medical teams.
They're with us, man. Not against us.
Be honest, now... who didn't want to "have a little talk" with Grace Slick?
White Rabbit Woodstock '69
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=16341908