op ed review 3/21

OBAMACARE

If Congress passes the Senate health-care plan, American families will be required by federal law to buy a federally approved health insurance plan that will cost a minimum of $12,000 per year--and, on average, will cost $15,000 per year -- whether their employer or the government helps them with the premium or not. Beginning in 2014, the Senate plan would require all individuals to buy health insurance. Anyone who does not obtain insurance through an employer would be forced to buy it out of their own pocket.

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/63012

Nearly one-third of all practicing physicians may leave the medical profession if President Obama signs current versions of health-care reform legislation into law, according to a survey published in the latest issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/62812

On Intrade, the largest prediction market, the betting is swinging in favor of the health care takeover, with the latest odds giving Democrats a 70 percent chance of passing it. Stopping this travesty depends on voters expressing their outrage to Democrats on Capitol Hill.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/mar/16/the-health-care-bill-can-be-defeated/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter_must-read-stories-today

The Obamacare vote will be Sunday. Michelle Malkin: “If you can make it to D.C…, there’s a Tea Party effort to “Take the Town Halls to Washington”, surround the Capitol and let Pelosi et al feel our wrath. Rush Limbaugh just interviewed Rep. Paul Ryan who said a busload of Floridians have arrived and descended on one of the House office buildings, hurling verbal assaults at the Dems hiding under their desks. These “seasoned citizens” are furious. Mike Pence, Michelle Bachmann, Steve King (IA) are all calling for a march. Glenn Beck on his radio program is asking for one million, says he’s thinking of covering it live on TV. Hannity will have info on his show tonight. The National March on Washington is intended to shut down the city and kill the bill. It will begin on Friday with an all night vigil. Pray, tell people, help any way you can. Pack a toothbrush… our country needs you.”

http://michellemalkin.com/2010/03/18/take-the-town-halls-to-washington/

Actor Jon Voight: “I am calling to all of you freedom-loving Americans to come once again to Washington D.C. to gather on the Capitol steps on Saturday, at 12 o’clock noon. We must come by the thousands. Speaker Pelosi will stop at nothing to fulfill her corrupt conquests. She will bring all of the corrupt ACORN liars to try to bully all the Democrats that may be having pangs of guilt…. If they’re bullied into saying “yes,” it will destroy America. Be there in Washington DC at 12 noon EST”

http://bigjournalism.com/jvoight/2010/03/18/call-to-arms-join-me-in-dc-saturday-to-stop-obamacare/#more-37746

Rush Limbaugh: Folks, you know, I very seldom….encourage phone calls and e-mails and letters to members of Congress. The reason that I don't do it is that I never want the charge to be leveled that whatever response you gave was not genuine, that you had been talked into it or motivated and inspired or manipulated into doing it. I think it is pedal-to-the-metal time, and even if you have been e-mailing and faxing and calling, I think it's time to intensify it.” Call the Capitol Switchboard: 877-762-8762 or 202-224-3121
http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_031610/content/01125106.guest.html

Petition: Warn Congress that “November is coming”

http://novemberiscoming.com/

The GOP health care count right now: 209 no, 204 yes,18 undecided

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/The-GOP-health-care-count-209-no-204-yes-18-undecided-88247587.html

List of representatives who are undecided:

http://www.nrcc.org/CodeRed/targets/

Send blast faxes to undecided representatives.

https://fs8.formsite.com/cfiforg/form368400959/secure_index.html

In a conference with left-wing bloggers, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that passing the current Democratic health care bill is the beginning, not the end, of the process of creating a national government health care system. "Once we kick through this door, there'll be more legislation to follow," Pelosi said.

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/GOP-on-Pelosi-Whose-door-is-she-kicking-in-87782582.html

Caterpillar Inc. said the health-care overhaul legislation being considered by the U.S. House would increase the company's health-care costs by more than $100 million in the first year alone.

http://www.chicagobreakingbusiness.com/2010/03/caterpillar-health-care-bill-would-cost-it-100m.html

Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson gets another “Cornhusker kickback” reward for supporting Obamacare. A half-billion dollars for a new veteran’s hospital in Omaha.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/mar/18/nebraska-scores-again-health-care-endgame/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter_must-read-stories-today

Republicans from both chambers are working to rally opposition in the House and lodge procedural challenges in the Senate that could tie up the Democrats' health care overhaul. "The American people want no part of it. So they can tweak this thing and tweak it, but still it's a trillion dollars they're going to spend," said House Minority Leader John A. Boehner, R-Ohio. Boehner urged voters to complain to Democrats: "They need to yell a little louder."

http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?docID=cqmidday-000003571953

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) is going a step beyond simply pledging to fight efforts to pass the health care bill -- she's openly pronouncing that people should personally declare it unconstitutional and defy it, depending on how it ends up getting passed.

http://www.thefoxnation.com/michele-bachmann/2010/03/16/bachmann-we-wont-obey-illegitimate-health-care-bill

Idaho took the lead in a growing, nationwide fight against health care overhaul Wednesday when its governor became the first to sign a measure requiring the state attorney general to sue the federal government if residents are forced to buy health insurance. S

http://www.azdailysun.com/news/national/govt-and-politics/article_1742b9b9-082d-5c50-be1e-54b50543ae7a.html

More of this to come if Obamacare passes: effective April 16, Walgreens drugstores across (Washington) state won't take any new Medicaid patients, saying that filling their prescriptions is a money-losing proposition. Walgreens said its decision stemmed from a "continued reduction in reimbursement" under the state's Medicaid.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2011367936_walgreens18m.html

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IN OTHER NEWS

Barack Obama has told the U.S. relief forces in Haiti not to fly the U.S. flag over its own military compounds because it will “send the wrong message.”

http://biggovernment.com/wthuston/2010/03/16/obama-orders-army-not-to-fly-u-s-flag-in-haiti/

Virginia Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, is aligning herself with the Tea Party movement and has formed a new organization to promote its ideals.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=124708036&ft=1&f=1003

A billboard has appeared in Minnesota featuring a photograph of former President Ronald Reagan and the words, "Remember real hope and change?"

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20000495-503544.html

A new campaign by the Girl Scouts, with the help of Planned Parenthood, is offering girls ages 10 to 14 the inside details on how to be "hot." This week, the World Association of Girl Scouts and Girl Guides held a no-adults-allowed panel at the United Nations in which Planned Parenthood distributed a brochure entitled "Healthy, Happy and Hot." The brochure targets young people and contains graphic details on sex. It also encourages casual sex in many forms.

http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=128389

In the UK, households could be fined up to £1,000 if they fail to comply with complex new rules on sorting recyclables. Food scraps, tea bags and vegetable peelings thrown into the wrong bin could land them with hefty penalties.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1258755/1-000-fine-using-wrong-bin-Families-face-new-crackdown-household-waste.html

The Obama administration is poised to ban offshore oil drilling on the outer continental shelf until 2012 or beyond. Meanwhile, Russia is making a bold strategic leap to begin drilling for oil in the Gulf of Mexico. While the United States attempts to shift gears to alternative fuels to battle the purported evils of carbon emissions, Russia will erect oil derricks off the Cuban coast.

http://washingtontimes.com/news/2010/mar/18/obama-surrenders-gulf-oil-to-moscow/

A wealthy businessman who raised money for leading Democratic Party politicians, including Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, pleaded guilty on Thursday to defrauding three major banks out of $292.2 million in loan transactions.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN1820602220100318?type=marketsNews

Whose side are they on? The ACLU is suing the federal government over the use of unmanned drones to kill terrorists.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0310/34529.html#ixzz0iSXlue0i

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THIS WEEK’S FEATURED COLUMN

Bill O’Reilly 3/20

If Obamacare becomes law, about 30 percent of the primary care doctors in America will consider leaving the medical profession.

That bit of brightness comes from a survey by The Medicus Firm, the results of which were posted by The New England Journal of Medicine. Medicus interviewed more than a thousand American physicians, and 55 percent of them believe the quality of medical care in America will decline if the Democrats pass the current health care reform proposals. Apparently, many of them want no part of it.

Although the media largely ignored the Medicus study, the story is huge. Perhaps as many as 30 million more Americans may have access to health insurance. The question is: Who will treat them?

The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects a 22 percent increase in practicing physicians over the next decade. But that will not be enough to treat the universal health care crush, especially if a bunch of doctors now on the job pack it in.

There are essentially two reasons why Obamacare nauseates some doctors. First, control. Medical people simply do not want federal pinheads telling them how to treat their patients. The medical profession attracts intelligent, assertive people who are motivated to help others. This is not a docile crowd.

Second, money. Right now, many doctors are already seeing too many patients in order to pay the bills and provide a decent living for their families. Obamacare does nothing to bring down the outrageous expense of medical malpractice insurance, and it is likely to cut Medicaid and Medicare reimbursements.

Doctors can do the math. Their expenses remain high; their incomes decline. Again, these are smart people who could make good money doing something else.

In Canada and Great Britain, where socialized medicine is practiced, it is difficult to actually see a doctor in some places. Instead, nurses, physician assistants and other medical personnel fill the need. That is what could happen in the United States if the feds begin calling the health care shots.

Not since the Iraq war has America been so divided on an issue. Yes, ideology is playing a part. Conservatives despise government intrusion in the marketplace, but liberals love it. Right now, however, most polls show that the majority has turned on Obamacare. The latest Wall Street Journal poll, for example, found 48 percent opposing and just 36 percent supporting.

Here's my question: What would Marcus Welby, M.D., and Dr. Kildare say? These guys usually had the answers, back when wise doctors were the subjects of TV programs and health care seemed to be a glamorous profession.

Would Ben Casey support Obamacare? We know the "M*A*S*H" guys would. Dr. Jekyll might like it, but Mr. Hyde? I don't know.

What I do know is that many Americans are sick of the whole health care thing. And no prescription on earth will change that.

http://townhall.com/columnists/BillOReilly/2010/03/20/paging_doctor_kildare

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FROM OTHER COLUMNS

"The debate over health care reform has been messy and often chaotic, but here we are a year later and Barack Obama and his radical agenda might yet win. If it does, he will have put in place the structure for taking over everything else."

-Wesley Pruden

"It's all supposed to be voluntary, those 'home visits' that are tucked into the mammoth Obamacare bill. If you have a strong stomach, and a stronger bottom, you can find home visitation on pages 568-595. That's Section 2951 of H.R. 3590, the Senate [health care] bill.... The bill provides for federal funding and supervision for this vast expansion of government intrusion into family life. This is the Nanny State on steroids. Is your family being 'targeted' for such home visitations? Let's see if you fit into one of these very broad categories: Families where Mom is not yet 21. (No mention here whether she is married or not.) Families where someone is a tobacco user. (Does this include the White House? Watch out, Sasha and Malia! Does Grandpa, whom you love and have taken in, enjoy his after-dinner pipe?) Families where children have low student achievement, developmental delays, or disabilities. As if that list were not wide-ranging enough, here's the net that can encompass tens of millions: Families with individuals who are serving or formerly served in the armed forces, including such families that have members of the armed forces who have had multiple deployments outside the United States. [Emphasis added.] ... Do you spank your children? You should know that HHS bureaucrats think you are an abuser. Do you support the Second Amendment? How would you like HHS bureaucrats asking your children if you maintain firearms in the home for family protection? Do you home-school your kids? Take care. Members of Congress who have tried to abolish home-schooling are big backers of this health care bill. Do you wonder why? ... One thing is clear: For life and liberty, we must defeat ObamaCare."

-Ken Blackwell

"In his book 'Dreams From My Father' Obama gives the distinct impression that his gifts are too great for the smallness of our political stage. He regrets not having been born during the civil rights era when the grandness of the cause would have measured up to the grandness of his ambition. He is in search of something big that will allow him to make his mark on the world as Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King did. Hence, the defeat of ObamaCare would not just be par for the course in the rough-and-tumble world of politics for him. It would be sign of his ordinariness, his mortality, and that, to him, is unendurable.”

-Shikha Dalmia

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GLOBALONEY

If there’s a drought – it’s global warming. When there’s a hurricane – it’s global warming. If there are heavy snows or even blizzards – it’s somehow global warming. And amazingly, the latest round of rainy and windy weather in the Northeast, well that’s consistent with this phenomenon as well, so says former Vice President Al Gore.

http://www.businessandmedia.org/articles/2010/20100316061540.aspx

American's concerns over environmental worries are at the lowest level in two decades, according to a new Gallup poll. "Many environmental issues are at a 20-year-low concern," the poll found. It also found that public worries over eight green-related issues — from air pollution to the state of rain forests — have dropped by as much as nine percentage points in the last year alone. "Americans worry most about drinking-water pollution and least about global warming," said Gallup analyst Jeffrey Jones.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/mar/17/poll-fewer-americans-worry-about-global-warming/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter_must-read-stories-today

Interesting chart from 1990-2008 showing air pollution down 41% while economic growth increased 64%.

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2010/03/graph_of_the_day_for_march_18.html

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LEFTIST WATCH

The new and much-publicized Coffee Party movement sports a fairy tale narrative about being a spontaneous uprising of concerned Americans appalled at the Tea Parties, and determined to restore civility. The truth, easily researchable on the internet, is that plenty of left wing establishment fingerprints are all over the birth of this supposedly spur-of-the-moment operation.

http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/03/the_coffee_party_con_1.html

Annabel Park, the purported creator of the Coffee Party movement does damage control with the help of CNN, claiming that her movement, aided by Soros-funded organizations and planned at RootsCamp, a left wing organizing workshop held at the teachers union NEA Headquarters, is actually a spontaneous, self-organizing movement.

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2010/03/coffee_party_founder_in_astrot.html

“(Bill Maher)… leftist social critic, anti-Christian crusader, and HBO comedy show host warned God at the end of last week to back off, to allow smart people like himself and Barack Obama and the New York Times editorial board to push the God-fearing "ignoramuses" aside this week and take control of the nation's health care….For Maher, God is behind the mass stupidity of the American people. Or rather, it's belief in God, a fairy tale that refuses to go away. Obamacare, in which educated atheists make decisions for the God-fearing masses, Maher says, will be the biggest step our elites can take to fix the stupidity emanating from religious America.”

http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/03/bill_maher_to_god_stand_aside.html

The Democratic Socialists of America explain it very clearly in their publication, What is Democratic Socialism. “We are not a separate party. Like our friends and allies in the feminist, labor, civil rights, religious, and community organizing movements, many of us have been active in the Democratic Party. We work with those movements to strengthen the party’s left wing….”

http://www.dsausa.org/pdf/widemsoc.pdf

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ARTICLES

“Let’s face it, chivalry and respect in young men are hard to come by these days. Radical feminism has taught our boys that door-holding and other such gentlemanly behavior are insulting and smack of “gender rules” that should be obliterated from society. Further eroding our ability to teach young males the virtues of civility and just plain thoughtfulness is a media culture steeped in crude, selfish and foolish male images. Battling a culture that devalues civility in general and purposefully attacks tradition makes it seem impossible to teach our sons how to be gentlemen. Where can a parent go for help? Join the Boy Scouts of America. This year marks the 100th anniversary of one of the finest organizations the world has ever known. As a mother of two Eagle Scouts, I can personally attest to how Scouting reinforced my husband’s and my efforts to teach our young boys to become men of honor.”

http://townhall.com/columnists/RebeccaHagelin/2010/03/16/boy_scouts_of_america_still_americas_best?page=full&comments=true

''Nonpaying status used to be a sure sign of poverty,'' says Tax Foundation President Scott Hodge. ''But thanks to increased use of the tax code to deliver social benefits, incentivize behaviors and funnel money to targeted groups, middle-class families have now been pulled into the growing pool of nonpayers. We're now in a situation where a record number of tax filers are completely disconnected from the cost of government.''..

http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article.aspx?id=527490

New Jersey's Republican Governor Chris Christie may be the best thing to come out of the Garden State since The Sopranos ended its run. Christie has given the GOP faithful not just a reason to hope but to exult. We conservatives are programmed to take deep breaths even after favorable election results, especially in the blue Northeastern states.. When the state's leading newspaper, The Star-Ledger, can post a headline that reads, ''Action Leaves Democrats Seething,'' you know the right person is in charge.

http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/03/chris_christies_new_jersey_rev.html

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NOTEWORTHY WEBSITES

Obamacare rules and regulations:

http://lucianne.com/article/?pageid=obamacare_rules

The Citizen’s Alliance for Property Rights

http://www.capr.us/

Liberty Central is activating informed American patriots who are seeking knowledge of the core founding principles and passionate about preserving freedom and liberty. By providing tailored information, encouraging civil discourse, and inspiring activism, Liberty Central brings people together to protect the core founding principles. In as little as 3-5 minutes a day, everyday citizens can connect through LibertyCentral.org to meet like-minded others, get their voices heard and direct America’s future course.

http://libertycentral.org/

The 4,700-word Manhattan Declaration speaks in defense of the sanctity of life, traditional marriage, and religious liberty. It issues a clarion call to Christians to adhere firmly to their convictions in these three areas.

http://www.manhattandeclaration.org/

Dogs playing in the snow.

http://www.dogwork.com/snow2/

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WISE WORDS

"[G]iving [Congress] a distinct and independent power to do any act they please which may be good for the Union, would render all the preceding and subsequent enumerations of power completely useless. It would reduce the whole [Constitution] to a single phrase, that of instituting a Congress with power to do whatever would be for the good of the United States; and as sole judges of the good or evil, it would be also a power to do whatever evil they please. Certainly, no such universal power was meant to be given them."

-Thomas Jefferson