On the Lighter Side with Limis Ward

 

A Day in the Life

 

As a public service, we present a day of King Hussein Obama's "tweets" from the popular social networking service, twitter.com

 

King Obama: (7:10 a.m.)  Matt Lauer is tearing up that half Chink, Michelle Malkin  http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=32914

 

King Obama:  (7:10 a.m.)  What the hell is Kabuki theater?

 

King Obama:  (7:11 a.m.)  Matts's one of the good ones.  A true friend of the administration.  Of course most of the media is a friend these days with the exception of…

 

King Obama:  (7:15 a.m.)  Quick check of Fox & Friends.  No low cut blouse today.  Too bad.  The only two reasons I watch Fox is Gretchen Carlson.

 

King Obama:  (7:25 a.m.)  Kicked Michelle's sleeping butt on the way out.  She's getting so big these days.  How could I miss that fat ass?

 

King Obama:  (7:35 a.m.)  Out back with the boys from the kitchen.  First cig of the day. 

 

King Obama:  (7:40 a.m.)  God damn Jerome.  He's a chef.  Reminds me I owe him a hundred bucks on last night's Sox game.  Better have another cig.

 

King Obama:  (7:50 a.m.)  Nicotine flowing.  Ready to face the day.

 

King Obama:  (8:00 a.m.)  Staff meeting.  Hooray!!!

 

King Obama:  (8:03 a.m.)  Rahm Emanuel just farted!!!  What the hell did he eat last night?  Gross!!!!!

 

King Obama:  (8:08 a.m.)  First stupid comment of the day by my spokesman, Robert Gibbs.  Eight minutes.  That's a record for him.

 

King Obama:  (8:22 a.m.)  What a shock.  Meetings all day.  I can't wait.

 

King Obama:  (8:29 a.m.)  Here comes Joe Biden.  Remind me to kick the shit out of Caroline Kennedy for recommending this a-hole.

 

King Obama:  (8:37 a.m.)  Trying to talk to this guy is like trying to build a house out of Jell-O.

 

King Obama:  (8:40 a.m.)  He still wouldn't admit saying we didn't know what we were doing when we passed the Stimulus Bill was stupid.  WTF!!!

 

King Obama:  (8:43 a.m.)  He's getting pissed now.  Somebody call the Secret Service.

 

King Obama:  (8:48 a.m.)  Joe's girlfriend called.  He's not pissed off anymore.  Saved by the bell.

 

King Obama:  (8:52 a.m.)  Joe left early to hook up with his girl at the secret location.  I hope his wife wasn't listening when he disclosed the address.  LOL.

 

King Obama:  (9:02 a.m.)  More trouble.  The Blue Dog Democrats are here.

 

King Obama:  (9:05 a.m.)  Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandin (South Dakota) is running her mouth.  She's more dog than blue.

 

King Obama:  (9:08 a.m.)  Boring.

 

King Obama:  (9:13 a.m.)  Boring

 

King Obama:  (9:16 a.m.)  Oh no.  I'm getting tired.

 

King Obama:  (9:18 a.m.)  Help.  I'm getting tired.  I'm getting…

 

King Obama:  (9:52 a.m.)  HOLY SHIT.  Somebody just smashed a book down right in front of me.  I must have dozed off.  Better do something.

 

King Obama:  (9:53 a.m.)  Offering them all a beer didn't work.  They're still pissed that I fell asleep.

 

King Obama:  (9:57 a.m.)  Promised each of them a $500 million stimulus project for their district.  I'm popular again.  Back to work.

 

King Obama:  (10:10 a.m.)  Can you believe these guys?  I just gave them half a billion bucks and they're worried the health plan will cost a trillion dollars.  Talk about ungrateful.

 

King Obama:  (10:15 a.m.)  Savings.  Savings.  Savings.  That's all these guys talk about.  Don't they think I know what I'm doing?

 

King Obama:  (10:22 a.m.)  I just accused them of wanting to ruin my presidency.  That shook them up.  They're mouths are hanging open.

 

King Obama:  (10:22 a.m.)  I'm outta here.  Drop the bomb and don't give them a chance to respond.  Smoke break!!

 

King Obama:  (10:30 a.m.)  Hanging with Charlotte from the cleaning service.  Third cig.

 

King Obama:  (10:35 a.m.)  Charlotte's got a nice ass, unlike my bloated wife.  Time for one more cig.

 

King Obama:  (10:50 a.m.)  Quiet moment in the Oval Office before the next meeting.  Wish I was back in Kenya..  These meetings suck.

 

King Obama:  (11:03 a.m.)  That was quick.  Tim Geithner got here at 11.  I asked him if he could do anything about the economy. He said no and left. 

 

King Obama:  (11:03 a.m.)  Nothing to do now until lunch.  Think I'll check out The Price Is Right.

 

King Obama:  (11:07 a.m.)  Drew Carey is alright but I think Bob Barker was better.  I guess change isn't always better.

 

King Obama:  (11:12 a.m.)  I hate Plinko!!!!

 

King Obama:  (11:25 a.m.)  Must be Brandi's day off.  That sucks.

 

King Obama:  (11:35 a.m.)  If I hurry I should be able to get in a quick smoke break before the showcases.

 

King Obama:  (11:50 a.m.)  Made it.

 

King Obama:  (11:56 a.m.)  How in the hell can you bid $60,000 on a trip to Spain and a Honda Civic?  STBY

 

King Obama:  (11:58 a.m.)  I called it.  It was only $25,000, less than one week on the Vineyard for me.  LTS.

 

King Obama:  (12:01 p.m.)  Lunch is served and here's my wife right on time.  She's never late when food's concerned.

 

King Obama:  (12:06 p.m.)  She's really stuffing it in.  I just saw a spark coming off her fork when she hit the knife.  I just lost my appetite.

 

King Obama:  (12:08 p.m.)  Never fear.  She's eating my lunch too.

 

King Obama:  (12:12 p.m.)  Lunch is over and she's off.  Thank God.  Time for another cig.

 

King Obama:  (12:20 p.m.)  It's a nice day.  Think I'll take a stroll on the grounds and smoke a few more.  The press won't take any pictures.

 

King Obama:  (12:30 p..m.)  Son of a bitch.  I just stepped in dog shit.  Where's that damn dog?

 

King Obama:  (12:36 p.m.)  There's Bo, that black bastard.  I'm going to kick his ass.

 

King Obama:  (12:40 p.m.)  Hard to run and text.  Bo chase.  Mean.  Never kick again.

 

King Obama:  (12:41 p.m.)  Those Secret Service guys are good.  I'm not sure if dog bites are in their contract though. 

 

King Obama:  (12:55 p.m.)  Back in time for the next meeting with my new Surgeon General, Dr. Regina Benjamin.

 

King Obama:  (1:06 p.m.)  OMG!!!  You wouldn't believe what this fat chick Benjamin is saying.

 

King Obama:  (1:07 p.m.)  She wants to BAN twitter as a public health hazard!!  WHYYYYYY

 

King Obama:  (1:10 p.m.)  This isn't good.  She's starting to make sense.

 

King Obama:  (1:20 p.m.)  I'll try and sum it up.  Basically she feels once everybody tweets all the details of their life…

 

King Obama:  (1:20 p.m.)  they'll realize what a boring existence they lead and want to kill themselves.

 

King Obama:  (1:21 p.m.)  I can understand.  Most people are sheep.  That's why we have to provide their health care and their houses and their cars, etc…

 

King Obama:  (1:21 p.m.)  I think I'm going to authorize her to ban twitter.  I better stop tweeting.  I don't what to look like a hypocrite.

 

King Obama:  (1:22 p.m.)  See ya!!  Smoke break!!!  J

 

 

View from the Top: The Founding Fathers

 

Ben Franklin reporting:

 

Thanks to the liberal hacks in education, most of you only think of me as a lecherous, old man who hung out in France nailing hot chicks all the time.  I'm not denying the truth of this statement but would like to point out something that your card-carrying member of the teacher's union didn't tell you, to wit, I was able to party like this in my old age because I worked my ass off as a young man.  I basically retired from my printer's shop in my forties because I'd made, and more importantly, saved so much money.  Of course, we didn't have thieves like King Hussein Obama the First to slap onerous taxes on us either so I'm not necessarily blaming you if you're forced to continue working at an advanced age.

 

As I said, my business was publishing and over the years I developed a talent for creating pithy sayings to express universal truths.  After watching Democratic Congressman John Conyers make an ass of himself the other day, http://www.cnsnews.com/public/content/article.aspx?RsrcID=51610&print=on, one of these sayings came to mind:

 

Good sense is a thing all need, few have, and none think they want.

 

I can barely find the words to express how profoundly stupid Conyers' statement is.  In essence, Conyers claims that it's not worth reading the bill because it would take him two days and the advice of two lawyers to understand it.  How can this man, whose sole job is the people's business, not find two days to understand one of the most important pieces of legislation in decades?  Couldn't he have read the goddamn bill by July 1^st, talked to the lawyers on July 2^nd and 3^rd, and still have time to get to the weenie roast on July 4^th?  Reminds of another saying:

 

Tis easy to frame a good bold resolution;

but hard is the Task that concerns execution.

 

To be fair, Conyers' comments were a short excerpt from a long address so I thought I'd try to put them in their proper context.  Here's the video of the speech Conyers gave at the National Press Club on July 24, 2009.  http://www.press.org/video/player.cfm?type=lunch&id=18298

 

Don't let the 49 minutes of the clip scare you from watching it.  The first 10 minutes is the president of the club flapping her gums and Conyers' remarks end at about the 35 minute mark so the speech is only about 25 minutes long..  As you watch this doddering old man ramble on and on, keep repeating to yourself that this fool in a high ranking member of your government.

 

Around the 23 minutes mark of the video, Conyers starts talking about the desirability of a single payer health plan.  He's claims that the current health system is complicated because there are 1,200 different health insurance plans and even if you read your insurance plan, you'll never understand it.  Of course, he never bothers to convince his listeners that the government health plan will be any easier to understand.  Anybody who has ever read the wonderfully easy to understand documents produced by the Internal Revenue Service can vouch for the ability of our government to produce plain language, simple to understand prose.

 

Then, after admitting that he hasn't read the bill and he couldn't understand it without time and help, he goes on to say this: 

 

But what I'm saying is that too much is the same.  We're not making enough changes.  We're not covering everybody.  It's not really universal. 

 

So in essence he's saying that even though he hasn't read the bill, he knows it's missing crucial provisions.  How he knows this he never bothers to explain.

 

In one sense I feel sorry for this man in that he is 80 years old and clearly not up to the task of governing.  When I was 81 years old I was a delegate to the Constitutional Convention and let me tell you, some days it was pretty rough.  But unlike this clown, I actually read the Constitution before I voted on the damn thing.  I would have resigned if I couldn't have even read the document we were entrusted with creating.  Perhaps a few words from my speech to the Convention on September 17, 1787 might be useful advice for Representative Conyers:

 

For having lived long, I have experienced many instances of being obliged by better information, or fuller consideration, to change opinions even on important subjects, which I once thought right, but found to be otherwise. It is therefore that the older I grow, the more apt I am to doubt my own judgment, and to pay more respect to the judgment of others.

 

And by the way, as long as I'm pulling out some of my old sayings, here's one that sums up all you need to know about our current president, King Hussein Obama the First:

 

            He that lives upon Hope, dies farting..

The Righteous Lib

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

 

I think the seating of that distinguished intellectual Al Franken as our 60^th senator, thereby ensuring a filibuster proof majority and complete control of the government, was the breaking point for the ever-dwindling minority of people who dare to call themselves Republicans.  For example, check out the latest from the flat-Earthers spiritual leader, Rush Limbaugh, who is speeding up Barack's voice during his daily, three-hour hate screed.  http://dancingfromgenesis.wordpress.com/2009/07/21/rush-limbaugh-speeds-up-faster-higher-pitch-barack-obamas-voice-near-chipmunk-speed-sound-bytes-clips-recordings-rushes-rushing-universal-national-health-care-coverage-plan-legislation-through-congr/  Totally bereft of any serious criticism, the Grand Old Party's fat, drug addict has descended to sophomoric antics not even worthy of a clever 8 year old.  What's next for the Hillbilly Heroin abuser?  Playing fart noises and belches over Barack's altered "chipmunk" voice? 

 

For some reason I've never understood, Rush carries a lot of weight (Ha! Ha!) in Republican circles, so his naked disrespect for our nation's lawfully elected leader (too bad you can't say that about Bush you losers) means it's open season on Barack these days among his knuckle-dragging minions.  Now of course my man Barack is way too cool for these idiots.  He just lets their crap roll right off his back and keeps moving on, spreading hope and change throughout the land.  Barack doesn't need my help to deal with these Republican haters. 

 

What bothers me about their dumping on Barack is that for eight long miserable years we treated that worthless villain Dubya with respect, despite his nearly ruining the goddamn country.  After all the illegal, dangerous stuff Dubya did, we would have been within our rights to call him a loser, a racist, a war criminal, and demand his removal from office.  But we patiently waited, calmly explaining to the deluded morons that voted for Dubya and his fellow flat-Earthers why they were stupid idiots for during so and gradually won them over.  And what did we get for turning the other cheek?  A kick in the ass, that's what.

 

I know I speak for many of my fellow Democrats when I say that I'm tired of treating Republican leaders like Dick Cheney and Sarah Palin with respect when they continue to heap abuse on our guys.  Only Barack's calm patient example is holding me back from going off on these obstructionist Republicans.  If we didn't need the Republicans to pay for all of Barack's programs, I'd say to kick their asses out of the country so we can get back to having a free exchange of ideas instead of hate.  But Barack says he wants to start a new politics and I guess that includes the flat-Earthers.  I'm not sure why he wants to do this but I'm with him because he's always right.

The Voice of Experience

Big Mouth

 

Once again, the smartest man to ever serve our country in the capacity of President, King Hussein Obama the First, is backpedaling from another stupid comment; in this case from his misinformed condemnation of the police in Cambridge, Massachusetts over the arrest of Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr., a renowned expert in African American studies.   http://www.abcnews.go.com/Politics/Story?id=8163051&page=1  Just in case you'll been dead for the past few days, here's a quick recap.  Cambridge police were called by a concerned neighbor who saw two black men breaking into a house.  Sgt. James Crowley responded to the call and confronted Gates inside the house.  The Professor reacted harshly, accusing Crowley of being a racist.  Ultimately Professor Gates produced identification to prove he belonged in the house but continued to berate Crowley and was arrested for disorderly conduct. 

 

During his press conference on Wednesday the King, responding to a question about Gates' arrest, said the Cambridge Police "acted stupidly" and conjured up the specter of racism as potentially playing a role in incident.  Now before I go on any further, don't forget that the Obama press conferences are not a spontaneous exchange of information but are staged performances in which reporters submit their questions ahead of time and the King decides which questions he will answer.  He specifically chose this question and carefully crafted his answer to defend Professor Gates, whom his Majesty indentifies as a friend.

 

Well, the King stirred up quite a reaction from the Cambridge Police, who have a recording of the incident that may yet be released.  My guess is that this recording will prove that Gates was the instigator in this situation.  Condemnations from police organizations from across the country rained down on Obama and public opinion quickly turned against his Majesty. 

 

So today, two days after his self-righteous condemnation of Sgt. Crowley and his fellow officers, now Obama has said that he didn't intend to malign the Cambridge Police, that maybe his buddy Professor Gates overreacted, and Crowley, Gates, and his Majesty should all sit down and have a beer at the White House.  And of course, like the ignorant clown that he is, King Hussein Obama the First claimed to be "surprised by the controversy surrounding my statement." 

 

Well I'm not surprised because I've seen it many times:

 

1.  Reverend Wright

 

Obama's erstwhile spiritual advisor, Wright's racist and anti-American comments stunned the nation during the primary last year.  At first Obama supported Reverend Wright.  In a speech on race that the liberal idiots in the media praised ad nauseam http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/03/18/obama-race-speech-read-th_n_92077.html , the King pointed out that Wright was not perfect but:

 

As imperfect as he may be, he has been like family to me. He strengthened my faith, officiated my wedding, and baptized my children. Not once in my conversations with him have I heard him talk about any ethnic group in derogatory terms, or treat whites with whom he interacted with anything but courtesy and respect. He contains within him the contradictions - the good and the bad - of the community that he has served diligently for so many years.

 

And he went on to say:

I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community. I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother - a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe.

These people are a part of me. And they are a part of America, this country that I love.

Touching huh?  Kinda of gets your right here.  (I'm touching my chest near my heart if you hadn't guessed that because you're a stupid liberal). 

 

Within two weeks though, Rev. Wright continued to spew his hate and Obama was forced to cut ties with the man  http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/30/us/politics/30obama.html .  Suddenly all the sappy talk about the good work of Wright and his racist grandma was out the window:

 

His comments were not only divisive and destructive, but I believe that they end up giving comfort to those who prey on hate, and I believe that they do not portray accurately the perspective of the black church," Mr. Obama said, his voice welling with anger. "They certainly don't portray accurately my values and beliefs."

 

 

2.  Bitter Americans

 

Sometimes the King is like a little kid who closes his eyes and thinks you can't see him.  Such was the case during last year's Pennsylvania primary when the dumb ass spit out the following gem while talking to a bunch of worthless liberals in San Fran Sicko:

 

you go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them  And they feel through the Clinton administration, and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not.  And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations

 

Well the smartest man to ever serve as President found out that the dumb hicks in Pennsylvania were actually aware of events way out there in San Fran Sicko and they were pissed.  His Majesty had to admit that he didn't mean what he had plainly said.  http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2008/04/yet-another-exp.html

 

"I didn't say it was well as I could have," Obama confessed today during a town hall in Muncie, Ind., in response to the controversy he described as a "political flare-up because I said something that everyone knows is true."

 

This response was an early example of what is common Obama tactic.  After he says something really stupid, he claims that people are pissed because he's right and only he has the courage to speak the truth.  This is a text book example of chutzpah.

 

 

3.  Meeting without Preconditions

 

Community organizers don't spend much time thinking about foreign policy issues so the King's primary opponents quickly identified this area as a potential weak spot and it didn't take long for Obama to prove them right.  During the CNN/YouTube Debate in 2007 Obama foolishly replied, "I would" to the following question:

 

Would you be willing to meet separately, without precondition, during the first year of your administration, in Washington or anywhere else, with the leaders of Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba and North Korea in order to bridge the gap that divides our countries?"

 

The King spent months explaining this one and was still coming up with new spin in May 2008.

http://justoneminute.typepad.com/main/2008/05/obamas-clarific.html  And in a foreshadowing of another common tactic, the King said:

 

I think if we lay out repeatedly and clearly my position, ultimately I think I've got the majority of the American people on my side on this issue.

 

In other words, the King's argument is that regardless of how stupid my comments are the majority of Americans (whether they really do or not) agree with me so shut up.

 

 

4.  An Undivided Jerusalem

 

The King has a bad habit of telling his audience what they want to hear which doesn't serve him very well when he treads onto bitter disputes between warring groups.  So when during the Democratic primary his Majesty addressed the American Israel Public Affairs Committee he thought he'd throw a bone to his audience:

 

            Jerusalem will remain the capital of Israel, and it must remain undivided.

 

He basked in the glory of the roaring applause but when his Muslim brothers heard this one, they were pissed.  The next day, the King had to once again clarify his remarks.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1212659672984&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

 

Jerusalem is a final status issue, which means it has to be negotiated between the two parities (as part of) an agreement that they both can live with.

 

Doesn't quite have the same ring to it as the first comment does it?  Nevertheless, well over 70% of the Jewish population voted for this two-faced loser in the general election.

 

 

5.  Insults Nancy Reagan

 

After Obama won the general election, he was at his insufferable worst:  smug, completely full of himself.  It was time to settle old scores and since Ronald Reagan was already dead he decided to take a cheap shot as his 87 year old widow.  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/11/07/obama-apologizes-to-nancy_n_142280.html

 

At a news conference in Chicago, Obama said he had spoken with all the living presidents as he prepares to take office in January. Then he smiled and said, "I didn't want to get into a Nancy Reagan thing about doing any séances."

 

As the article points out, Mrs. Reagan never held séances and in fact it was his future Secretary of State, Hillary Rodham Clinton that did such things in the White House.

 

After the predictable outrage, Obama, by now used to this routine, called Nancy Reagan and apologized.

 

6.  Special Olympics

 

My good friend Limis Ward covered this infamous gaffe in his column on March 20, 2009.  http://delta-man.blogspot.com/2009_03_01_archive.html  In short, while on The Tonight Show, the King joked about how his poor bowling was "like the Special Olympics." 

 

The King didn't even bother to defend this one and quickly called the head of the Special Olympics, Kennedy clan member Tim Shriver, to apologize.  http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0309/20268.html

 

 

7.  Bows to the Saudi King.

 

I covered this incident, in which Obama shamefully humbles the United States by bowing to the Saudi King, as part of a post on Citizen Gibbs on April 10, 2009.  http://delta-man.blogspot.com/2009_04_01_archive.html  In this incident, Obama didn't apologize but instead ran away, leaving his spokesman to lie about the obvious bow by claiming Obama was actually trying to shake the Saudi King's hand.

 

 

Unfortunately we still have at least three and half years to go in the Obama Disaster and this is not even close to a complete list of all the dumb things his Majesty has been forced to clarify.  I'm sure this list will expand exponentially as the inevitable decline in the King's political fortunes gains steam.  Like a wounded animal, he will lash out at the American people, no doubt calling us stupid and/or stuck in the politics of the past. 

 

And before I leave this subject, here's one more screw up that I'm sure he apologized for but for which we'll probably never know for sure.  http://www.timeswatch.org/articles/2009/20090709135708.aspx

As you can see, during his recent trip to Russia, the smartest man ever to serve as President forgot where he met his wife and even how old his youngest daughter is.  I usually don't give the King advise but I will in this case.  Your ever-loving wife is getting rather big these days.  If I was you, I wouldn't cross her. 

 

The Voice of Experience

Gimmie Five!!

 

In his new book, Liberty and Tyranny, the Great One, Mark Levin sites as an example of the heartlessness of government-run health care the plight of Barbara Wagner, a women from Oregon diagnosed with lung cancer (see pages 109-110) who was denied medical coverage for this illness by the state health plan but informed that the state of Oregon would pay for the drugs necessary for her to kill herself.   For you conservatives out there who desire a more detailed account of this women's story, here's a link to an ABC News story.  http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Story?id=5517492&page=1  For you liberals out there I recommend you go to the Daily Kos website to learn what you're supposed to think.

 

Before I get to the main point of this post notice how Comrade Susan Donaldson James of ABC News sometimes leaves the impression that Ms. Wagner was covered by private insurance instead of the government plan.  At the very beginning of the story, Comrade James says,

 

The news from Barbara Wagner's doctor was bad, but the rejection letter from her insurance company was crushing.  

 

And then in short order she reiterates: 

 

Her last hope was a $4,000-a-month drug that her doctor prescribed for her, but the insurance company refused to pay.

 

In the next paragraph she mentions the name of the government-run health care plan without clearly stating that it's a government plan.

 

What the Oregon Health Plan did agree to cover, however, were drugs for a physician-assisted death. Those drugs would cost about $50.

  

Finally eight paragraphs later, she indentifies the Oregon Health Plan as "state-run".  Now I'm sure that Comrade James knows her business and she's aware that not everybody reads the whole article.  In fact I'd probably bet a fair number of people probably only read the first few paragraphs and came away thinking that some ruthless insurance company had once again screwed somebody out of the care they thought they would receive for their premiums. 

 

And who's kidding who anyway?  Nobody refers to a government agency as a company.  Do you go the Motor Vehicle Company to get your license mug shot or run to the Police Company after some wacko that a liberal judge freed robs your house?  Of course not.  Comrade James is carefully manipulating language to deceive her readers.  I don't what to belabor this point but you'll note that further into the article Comrade James drudges up condemnations of private insurance practices without bothering to find similar examples, such as this very one, of government abuses.

 

What I find so interesting in this story is the "Five Year, Five Percent" rule that the government plan uses and more generally, how this plan operates.   As King Hussein Obama the First tries to ram government-run healthcare down are throats, his minions might look to the Oregon Health Plan as an example to emulate.  And as you'll see, the government's interest doesn't necessarily coincide with yours.

 

The Oregon Health Plan started out like most liberal ideas, with a worthy goal but with no way to pay for it.  http://www.oregon.gov/DHS/healthplan/data_pubs/rates-costs/cap-rates/pcc-0911.pdf   (See Section 1 Program History starting on Page 21 of the pdf)  Note how over the years, more and more people are added to the program.  First only those below the federal poverty level were covered.  Then in 1995, the disabled, elderly, and children were added.  Drug addicts and mental patients joined in 1997.  In 1998 two more groups got on the gravy train.  Not only did pregnant women and children with incomes up to 170% of the federal poverty level join but illegal aliens "Citizen/Alien-Waived" who needed emergency medical treatment got coverage.

 

2003 was the big year.  Coverage was significant expanded "if funds were available in

the State's budget."  Included in this expansion were Medicaid eligible citizens, children, and pregnant women up to 185% of the federal poverty level.  In addition, the State offers its own insurance for the uninsured that don't qualify for the program for which they pay a premium, referred to as OHP Standard.   Governments selling health insurance, sound familiar House Democrats?

 

I've included this lengthy history as an example of what will probably happen under Obama care.  No matter what promises are made to the Blue Dog Democrats today about limiting the program and paying for it in a responsible manner, in the future, the politicians will come back and gradually expand the program and shoot the funding to hell.

 

As we're seeing with California, states don't live in the money-printing fantasy world that the federal government does so Oregon was faced with the challenge of how to pay for this service.  Their solution was to limit care by creating a priority list of services.  http://www.oregon.gov/DHS/healthplan/priorlist/main.shtml.  Let me repeat that, Oregon controlled costs by limiting services.  And as governments always do, they created a separate bureaucracy, the Oregon Health Services Commission, to draw up the list of services and the state then determines how many of these services they can cover. 

 

So for example, http://www.oregon.gov/OHPPR/HSC/current_prior.shtml is a link to the current list, which contains 680 ranked services.  If you refer back to the previous link that we obtained the program history from, you'll find on page 14 of the pdf a chart showing how many services the state has covered since the list was first created in 1994.  Currently the Oregon Health Plan pays for the first 503 services on the list.  Note how in prior years the state paid as many of 606 services on the list in use at that time.

 

And this need to live within a budget is also the reason for the "Five Percent, Five Year" rule.  On page 97 of the pdf listing the current ranked services is the following from the Statement on Intent on Comfort/Palliative Care:

 

It is the intent of the Commission to not cover diagnostic or curative care for the primary illness or care focused on active treatment of the primary illness which are intended to prolong life or alter disease progression for patients with <5% expected 5 year survival.

 

There it is in cold, hard print.  And since Ms. Wagner did not have greater than a 5% chance to live 5 years it was not the intent of the Commission to provide her care.  Instead she was eligible for Comfort/Palliative Care, which includes:

 

Services under ORS 127.800-127.897 (Oregon Death with Dignity Act), to include but not be limited to the attending physician visits, consulting physician confirmation, mental health evaluation and counseling, and prescription medications.

 

It doesn't take a lot of imagination to see Obama care adopting a similar approach.  And I'm sure some of you are saying so what?  Maybe we should be looking more closely at the costs of providing care versus the benefit received.  Take Ms. Wagner's case for example.  Despite receiving the drugs her doctor recommended for free from the pharmaceutical company that the Oregon Health Plan refused to pay, Ms. Wagner died anyway within nine months of her denial of coverage.  http://www.tothesource.org/3_10_2009/3_10_2009.htm   Economically, one could argue that denying her treatment was the rational decision. 

 

What people who believe this argument are forgetting is that in a free market, consumers are at liberty to choose the level of care they want.  For some, they would prefer a lower premium and hence a lower level of coverage, gambling in essence that they wouldn't be in the same position as Ms. Wagner, who after all contributed to her problems by smoking for years.  Others, who like Ms.. Wagner, that engaged in risky behaviors and/or who preferred a higher level of insurance, could pay a higher premium.  And ultimately the insurance companies have to offer a certain level of care or they will go out of business because nobody will want their insurance.  The effect of all these factors is that the market offers a variety of services, providing at least some minimum level of care, which consumers are free to choose based on their own needs, desires, and ability to pay.

 

Under Obama care however all leverage of the consumer is lost.  If you don't like it, you can't pay for different insurance or find another job with better insurance benefits.  You'll be screwed because there is no other insurance.  If you need service 504 and Obama is only covering up to 503 on the priority list, I guess you out of luck for that year.  And as you might expect, this monopoly power also allows the government-run plan to treat the citizens like crap.

 

First of all, it's an outrage to send a potentially terminally ill person a cold impersonal letter letting them know that if they'd like to kill themselves the State of Oregon is willing to pay for it.  Oregon Health Plan spokesman James Sellers says that from now on the plan will call these types of patients instead of just sending the letter.  I'm sure that will be a big improvement.  A bored bureaucrat who's only thinking about their next smoke break calls you to let you know if you feel like killing yourself, it's a covered service.  I'm sure the Oregon Health Plan will get a lot of thank you letters from the next of kin.

 

More telling is the attitude of the administration of this government run plan.  Listen to Dr. Jeanene Smith, administrator for the Office for Oregon's Health Policy and Research staff; explain the priority list of services:

 

It's challenging because health care is very expensive, but that's not the real essence of our priority list…We need evidence to say it is a good use of taxpayer's dollars

 

Somehow I can hear Citizen Gibbs giving the exact same answer when some reporter points out the fate of some unfortunate victim of Obama care.

 

 

 

 

 

The Defense Budget

The King and Defense

The North Koreans have launched Four short range missiles this morning. One wonders if they are a prelude to the threatened attack on Hawaii on Saturday.

King Barack Hussein Obama I is methodically cutting the defense budget including the missile defense system. This is a stunning miscalculation.

Mitt Romney covered the ground well in a recent speech to the Heritage Foundation, including what we should be spending on defense.

http://www.freestrongamerica.com/press/item/release_romney_speech_the_care_of_freedom