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Friday, August 14, 2009
Greetings from the RightOnline Conference
Posted by: Matt Lewis at 3:31 PM
Greetings from Pittsburgh, PA where conservative bloggers are meeting at the RightOnline conference, sponsored by Americans for Prosperity (AFP). 

I just finished speaking at a session sponsored by The Leadership Institute, titled "Blogging 101."

If you weren't able to attend, you can read the notes for the presentation here.

Check for updates at Twitter.com/mattklewis -- and search for conference info with the tag #righton.





Thursday, August 13, 2009
Jim Traficant's Prison Release to be Celebrated at Minor League Game
Posted by: Matt Lewis at 10:23 PM
This is too good not to blog about. 

Former Congressman Jim Traficant is about to be released from prison, and ...
On the day of Traficant’s scheduled release, the Mahoning Valley Scrappers minor-league baseball team will observe Traficant Release Night at its 7:05 p.m. home game against the Jamestown Jammers at Eastwood Field in Niles.
"Traficant Release Night"?  Gotta love it...





Thursday, August 13, 2009
Top Ten “Fishy” Truths about a Government Takeover of Health Care
Posted by: Matt Lewis at 3:37 PM
Rep. Mike Pence, Chairman of the House Republican Conference, has released the "Top Ten 'Fishy' Truths about a Government Takeover of Health Care. 

They are as follows ...

Truth #1:  Abolishes the Private Market for Individual Health Insurance

What the bill does:  Section 102(c) of the bill states that after 2013, “individual health insurance coverage…may only be offered” through the government-run Exchanges established in the bill.

What this means for Americans:  Purchasing private individual coverage will be outlawed.  Individuals will likely have fewer, and more expensive, coverage options—a “Hobson’s choice” allowing Americans to choose any plan they like, so long as it’s the “bureaucrat-approved” one.

Truth #2:  Federal Grants to Care for Pets; Federal Debt for People

What the bill does:  Section 2231 of the bill creates a new Public Health Workforce Corps, complete with its own scholarship program.  Among those eligible for scholarships—which include “tuition, fees, books, equipment, and laboratory expenses,” as well as a stipend that could exceed $15,000 per year—are individuals studying at “an accredited graduate school or program of…veterinary medicine.”  Veterinary students are also eligible for loan forgiveness of up to $35,000 annually through the Public Health Workforce Corps.

What this means for Americans:  At a time when this year’s annual budget deficit could top $2 trillion, the federal government will spend additional money it does not have to train veterinarians to care for pets—even as the Democrat health “reform” legislation would still leave 17 million Americans uninsured, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

Truth #3:  Federal Bureaucrats Will Teach Americans How to Write in “Plain Language”
Read More...





Thursday, August 13, 2009
YouTube Videos Highlight Kay Bailey Hutchison's Flip-Flops
Posted by: Matt Lewis at 2:06 PM
In a series of YouTube videos, the Rick Perry campaign is highlighting what they see as the many flip-flops of their rival, Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison.

One episode highlight's Hutchison's vow to not serve more than two terms in the US Senate. In 2006, she broke that vow, saying she "still supports term limits but would also not bind herself unless senators from other states also left after two terms.” That caveat was never given back in 1993, though.

 

Another episode deals with earmarks, her statements that all earmarks should be transparent, and her refusal to release her own earmarks.




The latest episode deals with conflicting statements regarding Hutchison's desire to help Republicans. She once promised to “work her heart out” for Republicans, but also said she would not support any candidates running against Democrat Senator Diane Feinstein, one of the most liberal members of the Senate.






Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Disagreement, Distraction, and Dishonesty
Posted by: Matt Lewis at 5:57 PM
Over at Fox, Ken Blackwell has a good column up titled "Disagreement, Distraction, and Dishonesty." 

Here's an excerpt:

We are in danger of not achieving Rev. Neuhaus' kind of disagreement about health care. Nobody should mob Members of Congress or shout them down. By the same token, Americans with serious and well-thought out objections to the health care takeover proposed by our representative government should not be demonized by national leaders as Nazis or sneered at as being too well dressed.

It does not help to have President Obama dismiss legitimate concerns about taxpayers being forced to pay for abortion-on-demand through his health care plan. Asked by Katie Couric about federally-funded abortion in his health proposal, Mr. Obama indicated he didn't want to "get distracted by the abortion debate..."  The 3,000 unborn children aborted daily are a "distraction?" 







Wednesday, August 12, 2009
More Townhall Meeting Fodder ...
Posted by: Matt Lewis at 1:22 PM
A couple of interesting videos from town hall meetings ...

First, Indiana Rep. Baron Hill speaks frankly about health care, admitting it's "all theory" that "may or may not work" and that he thinks we will have to "tinker around" for ten years or so to get it right...




And Texas Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee takes a cell phone call in the middle of a townhall question in Houston ...






Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Michael Moore Admits to Rolling Stone: Obama 'Fakes Right and Goes Left'
Posted by: Matt Lewis at 5:55 PM


The cover story in the current edition of ROLLING STONE is titled "Obama So Far."  It features a "roundtable" with David Gergen, Paul Krugman and Michael Moore. 

Despite the obvious lack of ideological diversity, the part I found most interesting was Michael Moore's admission that he admires Obama's "craftiness" and that Obama always "fakes right and goes left."  This, of course, is something we've been saying for a long time now. 

Moore is also forthcoming about the so-called "public option", admitting,

"If a true public option is enacted -- and Obama knows this -- it will eventually bring about a single payer system, because the profit-making insurance companies won't be able to compete with a government run plan and make the profits they want to make."

Moore concludes by saying,

"I probably shouldn't be saying this, but I'm counting on the fact that Republicans won't be reading this ROLLING STONE." 





Monday, August 10, 2009
A Plan to Die For?
Posted by: Matt Lewis at 4:30 PM
I was on CNN.com/Live today talking about Sarah Palin's "death panel" comments.  As usual, it was one conservative versus two (or possibly three) liberals -- which is pretty much standard on cable these days ...





Monday, August 10, 2009
Any Truth to Palin's 'Death Panel' Concerns?
Posted by: Matt Lewis at 11:37 AM
Here's a truism of life:  The person who pays the bills is boss. 

When you live at home with mom and dad, they get to tell you how to live.  When a company pays you for work, they generally get to tell you what to do when you're there -- and in some cases -- what to do when you are not there.

Despite all the talk about health decisions being made by doctors and patients -- when government runs health care -- let's be honest -- government will get to make the decisions. 

And so, with the economy slumping and more programs to be funded than money, government would presumably make strategic choices regarding where to find savings.  Some have suggested this may mean that the old or feeble would be less likely to receive expensive operations and procedures.  After all, the logic goes: why put new wine in old wineskins?

President Obama recently alluded to this when -- regarding a question about a 100 year old lady getting a pacemaker -- he said: "Maybe you're better off not having the surgery, but taking the pain killer."

Sarah Palin's controversial comments about a "death panel" were unfortunate, inasmuch as they probably did more harm than good to the cause she was advocating.  I cannot find any "death panel" mentioned in any of the proposed health care bills, and so her rhetoric sounds extreme.  Instead, what I can find is that we are in grave danger of creating a system in which the logical conclusion would be government rationing of care.

It's also fair -- and honest -- to say that there are, in fact, top scientists advocating that the government pick an choose health care winners and losers

As I noted a while ago, in his appropriately titled column, 'Why We Must Ration Health Care,' noted bioethecist Peter Singer recently wrote,

"The death of a teenager is a greater tragedy than the death of an 85-year-old, and this should be reflected in our priorities."

While Singer is fortunately not advising the White House, Doctor Ezekiel Emanuel, is.  Ezekiel, of course, is the brother of powerful White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel.  He is also Health Policy Advisor for the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

As The New York Post recently wrote of Dr. Emanuel,

Savings, he writes, will require changing how doctors think about their patients: Doctors take the Hippocratic Oath too seriously, "as an imperative to do everything for the patient regardless of the cost or effects on others" (Journal of the American Medical Association, June 18, 2008).

Yes, that's what patients want their doctors to do. But Emanuel wants doctors to look beyond the needs of their patients and consider social justice, such as whether the money could be better spent on somebody else.

Many doctors are horrified by this notion; they'll tell you that a doctor's job is to achieve social justice one patient at a time.

Emanuel, however, believes that "communitarianism" should guide decisions on who gets care. He says medical care should be reserved for the non-disabled, not given to those "who are irreversibly prevented from being or becoming participating citizens . . . An obvious example is not guaranteeing health services to patients with dementia" (Hastings Center Report, Nov.-Dec. '96).

Translation: Don't give much care to a grandmother with Parkinson's or a child with cerebral palsy.


So while Sarah Palin's comments probably struck the average person as having come out of nowhere, those who mock the notion that government could -- and would -- eventually ration health care are either being intellectually dishonest -- or are simply not paying attention.






Saturday, August 08, 2009
Ex-DNC Chief on Obama's Problems
Posted by: Matt Lewis at 7:04 AM
I thought it would be interesting to get a different perspective on Obama's slipping popularity.  So yesterday, I interviewed former Democratic National Committee Executive Director Brian Lunde.

Here's an excerpt:

Take Obama's initiative to overhaul health care , he says.

Obama "outsourced his health care policy, deferred to the congressional wing -- and now it's his. And he's now trying to sell something that wasn't his," says Lunde.

Lunde knows the insiders as well as anyone. As executive director at the DNC, he mentored a young Rahm Emanuel. As campaign manager to Paul Simon's presidential campaign, he hired David Axelrod as media adviser. He was also close with White House Communications Director Anita Dunn; the two worked together in 1981 to organize a breakfast club for new Democrats. Though he considers himself a Democratic Leadership Council "Blue Dog" Democrat, Lunde angered many Democrats when he supported George W. Bush for president.

Read the whole thing here.







Friday, August 07, 2009
This Weekend in American History...
Posted by: Matt Lewis at 4:31 PM
This weekend marks thirty-five years since President Richard M. Nixon resigned the presidency.  On August 8, 1974, Nixon announced to a televised audience that he would resign the presidency (this is also the first scene of the movie "Frost / Nixon"). 

The next day, August 9, 1974, Nixon officially resigned after giving his famous "farewell" speech, which is below:



Transcript -

I think the record should show that this is one of those spontaneous things that we always arrange whenever the President comes in to speak, and it will be so reported in the press, and we don't mind, because they have to call it as they see it.

But on our part, believe me, it is spontaneous.

You are here to say goodbye to us, and we don't have a good word for it in English -- the best is au revoir. We'll see you again.
Read More...





Friday, August 07, 2009
Thoughts on the MO Townhall Meeting Clash
Posted by: Matt Lewis at 2:53 PM
Red Dirt Report's Andrew Griffin has some interesting thoughts on yesterday's health care town hall in St. Louis.  He is friends with the reporter who was arrested...




Friday, August 07, 2009
Do You Twitter?
Posted by: Matt Lewis at 12:06 PM
C-SPAN asks the media.  (Most responses kind of pathetic, actually ...)



H/t: David All





Thursday, August 06, 2009
Where’s Kay? Senator Absent from Key Senate Hearings
Posted by: Matt Lewis at 5:28 PM
The Dallas Morning News is reporting that Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, who recently announced she will announce her intentions to run against incumbent Republican Governor Rick Perry, has a track record of missing key committee meetings as per her responsibility of being a U.S. Senator:

Legislation to permit law enforcement to jam prisoners' cell phone calls easily cleared a Senate committee on Wednesday, the latest example of how Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison has used her seniority to push Texas-centric issues that translate directly to her run for governor.

Yet Hutchison has been absent from the committee's work on two top priorities of Congress: health care legislation and consumer protection. When she recently announced her departure from the Senate in the fall, she said she'd stay in Washington long enough to participate in the health legislation.

The problem is she isn’t even participating while in Washington. As I noted before, Senator Hutchison is making an issue the length of time Rick Perry has served saying “for him to try to stay on for 15 years is too long" despite he fact she herself has been in the Senate for 16 years. KBH supporters, however, will tell you that Senate Seniority is important, and those in who come in front of her committee agree:

"It's very helpful and in the interest of consumers when the chairman and ranking member are able to be there, because it gives us a perspective on what both sides of the aisle are concerned about," said Sally Greenberg, executive director of the National Consumers League, who testified at two of the consumer hearings.

But she isn’t even showing up to her own committee meetings.  More from the Dallas Morning News:

“Hutchison missed all four Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee hearings that explored problems with health insurers, including one that showed insurers "purge" small-business beneficiaries if their claims exceed underwriters' expectations.”

So why is she missing these meetings?  ... Because apparently she can’t use it to her benefit in the race against Perry.

"When she looks at the health care debate, she just doesn't see how you can really turn that to advantage in a governor's race in Texas," said Cal Jillson, a professor of political science at Southern Methodist University. "I think she's deciding she has better ways to spend her time."

... Unless it does benefit her:

The committees are integral forums for lawmakers, who use meetings to build legislation, conduct oversight and press a case for pet issues that sometimes never result in legislation.

In April, Hutchison used a Commerce hearing to promote one of the latter – her proposal to let Texas opt out of the federal system that funds highway construction. She called as a witness a Texas transportation commissioner, Ned Holmes, a Perry appointee who broke with the governor's strategy to finance most new highway construction through tolls.
Rick Perry has made DC the forefront of his campaign and most Texans agree with him that it is the problem, and not the solution. This has been a winning strategy thus far, and one can anticipate the Dallas Morning News article will only serve to reinforce his message -- while simultaneously preventing Senator Hutchison from distancing herself from DC.




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