If you receive this and you hate it and you don’t want to ever read it no matter what...that is fine; email me back and you will be deleted from my list (which is almost at the maximum anyway).

I attempt to post a new issue each Sunday by 2 or 3 pm central standard time (I sometimes fail at this attempt).

I try to include factual material only, along with my opinions (it should be clear which is which). I make an attempt to include as much of this week’s news as I possibly can. The first set of columns are intentionally designed for a quick read.

I do not accept any advertising nor do I charge for this publication. I write this principally to blow off steam in a nation where its people seemed have collectively lost their minds.

The White House is calling upon its followers to forward emails to them with rumors about the health care system:

Townhall meetings on health care reform have begun to erupt in chaos and even some minor violence, as very frustrated people do not believe their voices are being heard by their representatives. One participant at a St. Louis townhall, Kenneth Gladney, who claims to not have a political affiliation, was beat up by 3 men and kicked by 1 woman, all wearing blue SEIU shirts outside a townhall meeting. There were many witnesses to this. The police arrested 6 in all, include a Post-Dispatch reporter.

At another townhall meeting on healthcare, while the general public waited for entry, a large number of participants were let into the meeting first, who went to a side door (marked handicapped) instead (those at the main entrance suggested that these people seemed to know where to go for entry). Some of these were wearing union shirts. At least one fist fight and some shoving and scuffling marred this meeting.

Bill Clinton goes to North Korea, meets with Kim Jong-Il and brings back our 2 imprisoned journalists.

GE heads apparently misled their investors about the GE books and GE’s future. So, the investors sued GE and won. Who will pay the judgment? The GE investors, of course.

On August 1^st, there was a TEA party in Columbus, Ohio, with estimates of 8000–10,000 in attendance. Of course, there is very little media attention given to this event. However, if two dozen anti-war protestors go and camp out in front of Bush’s ranch, you can be sure that will be all over the news for several days.

Unemployment numbers came in, which the White House touted as the economy turning a curve. Less than 300,000 people lost their jobs in July and unemployment dropped to 9.4%.

The number of people who have been out of work for more than 15 weeks is now a record (at least, for the 61 years that these numbers have been kept)

“They are just helping us understand the fringe that is trying to mess up our [health care townhall] meetings,” said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

“These folks [the rowdy ones at townhall meetings] are there about YouTube to get a little clip [onto the internet].” Dick Durban.

Nancy Pelosi: “I think they're Astroturf; You be the judge...Just because someone opposes their understanding of what this health care is, that's not a bad thing. But some of what is orchestrated to prevent the opportunity of presenting the plan, that's a different story.”

Mike Huckabee: “Most protests have some level of organization—e.g., the civil rights movement or the anti-war movement—it is not the typ of organization, it is the content of the protest.”

Michelle Malkin: “They misunderstand the roots of this [anti-Obama-care] movement. It is not directed from the top down. The Republican party could only wish they were this competent.”

When speaking of the reactions that Democrats are getting at these townhall meetings, deputy chief-of-staff Messina said, "If you get hit, we will punch back twice as hard."

"There is unprecedented insurance reforms - things that have never been done," said Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.), a member of the Health, Energy, Labor and Pensions Committee, which approved its health care bill last month. "In our committee, we had to vote, and 10 Republicans voted against all those insurance reforms - every single one of them. Not many people know that but if I have anything to do with it, they will know it."

President Obama: “I don't want the folks who created the mess to do a lot of talking. I want them to get out of the way so we can clean up the mess”

Charles Krauthammer: “[For Democrats] under Bush, dissent was the highest form of patriotism in America and now, it is a form of Nazi insurrection.”

“Playing politics with health reform is simply unacceptable. We must fight back against lies and fear-mongering to drown out the opposition--and send the message that health care reform must happen this year.” Kate Thomas, blogger at the SEIU website.

“I’m a registered Democrat...why would you guys try to shove a health care bill through in 3 or 4 weeks when the president took 6 months to choose a dog for his kids?” Townhall participant.

Crowd chanting at Tampa Bay health care townhall meeting: “You work for us” and “Read the bill.”

Roger Simon: “[The elite of the Republican party] believe, as do some in the media, that the highest form of political skill and authenticity today is to flawlessly read a speech from a teleprompter that someone else has written for you.”

Rush Limbaugh: “A community organizer can’t start bitching when communities begin to organize.”

Joe Biden: "I can tell you today, without reservation, the Recovery Act is working,"

From Wall Street Journal Report: “You can generally figure out what Democrats have been up to based upon whatever they accuse Republicans of doing.” [not an exact quote]

We do not yet know what the trade-off was for the two reporters. This Clinton meeting might be what is necessary for Kim Jong-il to put his son up as ruler.

Some townhall vids; if you have not seen them, then you decide...are these real people or a part of some organization which sent them to yell at Congressmen?

This is hilarious—Paul Krugman, very liberal newsman, asks the wrong question (33 seconds):

Check out the AARP meeting (the meeting continues after their leaders walk out):

Linda Douglas, a message from the white house; and the videos which were supposedly taken out of context (plus some other things):

1) Byron York made the astute observation that (1) the House and or Senate, if they pass nothing related to health, then they are seen as losers; or (2) they pass some anemic measure which has no real affect upon the health system, except for maybe onerous regulations; and it will be something which can be taken apart on their recess and thrown back in their faces.

2) I forgot who made this point, but can you imagine if George Bush had tried any of these Obama tactics in trying to reform social security?

3) There is nothing wrong with a news organization questioning what sort of organizational effort is behind those at the townhall meetings on health care. A truly competent news organization would do more, however, than find one website where one conservative suggests that the public attend the health care townhalls. People who attend ought to be interviewed. Furthermore, the same should be asked of union people who have just begun to attend these townhall meetings—some of whom seem to get preferential seating. And, a news organization which calls this into question, should also add, as a postscript, that Obama was a community organizer.

4) Here is the problem most people have with Democrat-run townhall meetings—they are given Democratic talking points, many of which they know to be wrong—with the impression that Congress is going to pass this legislation no matter what the people say. This is not all Democrat-run townhall meetings, however, According to one article I read, in Memphis, when it became apparent that the doctors on the panel there represented different points of view, the crowd calmed down considerably.

5) So far, Democrats have called those who are showing up to townhall meetings and who oppose the Democrat plan a mob, astroturf, not a real grassroots movement, and dupes of insurance and drug companies. They ignore the fact that people with their views are in the majority.

6) Democrats are claiming that taxpayer dollars will not pay for abortions under Obama-care. Here is an easy way to prove that: add an amendment which will specifically exclude abortion from paid-for health care services.

7) So far, 2 simple tests have been suggested before passing Obama-care: (1) first fix Medicare and Medicaid so that these institutions are financially solvent. (2) Try Obama care on one of the blue states and check back in a few years to see how things are going.

(this is from the time you decide you need to procedure to the time that the procedure takes place)

Speaking of which, the 3^rd largest employer in the world is the British Health Care System (after China’s Red Army and India’s National Railways). They employ 1.4 million people (most of which are sdministrators, rather than doctors and nurses) which forms an electoral bloc which cannot be defeated (so, public health care in Britain cannot be repealed). From Daniel Hannan.

$8500/taxpaying household could be paid, using the funds not yet obligated under the Stimulus Bill and those returned TARP funds. I wonder if that migh tnot have some stimulative effect? From the Glenn Beck Show.

71% of U.S. voters say President Obama's policies have increased the size of the federal deficit

68% of American voters have health-insurance coverage they rate good or excellent

50% fear that if Congress passes health-care reform, it will lead to a decline in the quality of that care.

23% believe passage of the reform legislation will lead to lower health care costs,

Nancy Pelosi, when shown video of various townhall meetings, identifies the real grass roots movement and the astroturfers. “Those in the blue SEIC shirts with the manufactured sign—that is how you identify a true grass roots movement. Those 60 yea-olds with their handmade signs? Now that is astroturf!”

A Democratic Senator stands before his constituents in a townhall meeting, explaining how bad health care is today; and then he holds up a large sign of the huge bureaucracy that Obama-care would create, explaining, “Now, this is what compassion looks like.”

[New Regular Feature: More than any president that I recall, President Obama tends to use language very carefully, to, in my opinion, obfuscate what he is doing rather than to clarify.

This seems to part and parcel of the Obama campaign and now of the Obama presidency. This has become a mainstay of the Democratic party as well. Another aspect of this is offering up a slogan or an attack upon some villain rather than to make a clear statement or to give a clear answer.]

Will you commit to adding an amendment which would prohibit public funding of abortions?

Will you lay out specifically what exactly these end-of-life counselors are going to do when counseling seniors ho are 65 and older?

Will you add an amendment to the health care bill to insure that, Seniors will be able to get the same health care options as they have right now?

If you really think most of the townhall participants have been ginned up by healthcare insurance companies

If you think that senior health care will not appreciably change if Obama-care passes.

I mentioned this last week, that I have no idea where this health care bill is going to go. Here is the problem: Obama is a far, far left liberal ideologue, and he has no reason, in his own mind, to compromise or to walk back anything that he has said or done. A chief difference between Obama and Pelosi or Reid is, even though they are of the same political vein, Pelosi and Reid recognize that they are going to say some things which they may or may not believe; but things which advance them politically or advance their cause. Obama is not there. He will fudge now and again, but he believes in what he says. That is not to say that Obama won’t use conservative words to advance a very liberal cause; but he won’t continually lie. What is working against this is, the American people are very much against this health care bill because of its cost, size, bureaucracy, and the public option. So, Democrats—those who are realists—know that if they vote for a bill with these characteristics, they will very likely not get reelected. It is to the point where some of them might not even feel altogether safe. Obama’s people are telling him, he cannot be defeated on this bill, or his power as president is toast. So, he has to pass something. Here is the irony: the Republicans could put together a good health care bill which deals with issues like torte reform, and this bill would be reasonably well-received by the people, and it would pass with Republican votes. Obama will be seen as bipartisan and victorious, even though this bill would not be anything like what he wants. Pelosi and Reid could do this, and tell the far left, this is the first step, even though they might grimace to say that. Obama cannot do that. He is far too much of an ideologue. What he says is right. What he believes is true. He is too arrogant (or, if you would rather, too self-confident) to accept a conservative bill on health care reform, even though it would turn his presidency around.

As poll numbers for Obama go down, the poll numbers for George W. Bush will go up. People will eventually realize that 7.5+ years of prosperity during 8 years of a president is actually a pretty good record. Some people will also begin to realize that, dissent under George W. Bush was tolerated far more than it is under Barack Obama.

Rush is predicting something ver similar to what I predicted 2 weeks ago: Rush: Double-digit unemployment is going to have a magic effect on polling.

If there are more townhall meetings, more and more people are going to show up carrying pink slips (for the candidate giving the townhall meeting). This has already been done, but people will catch on that this is quite an effective statement.

Unemployment is officially about 9.4% and Obama’s approval numbers are right around 50%.

First of all—and this is an observation which someone else made—the public is beginning to realize that this healthcare bill could potentially affect everyone for the rest of their lives. No matter what you believe, politically speaking, you need to let this sink in: what Obama tried to pass in 3 weeks would affect you personally for the rest of your life. I don’t care if you are rich or poor or working or between jobs or right or left or anywhere on whatever spectrum, Obama-care will not just affect your life, but it may have an impact on how much pain you have in your life, how long you live with pain, and whether or not there will be a cut off point for the reception of the best care you can get.

Just in case you are one of those who has been propagandized, and you believe it, that these loud types who are attending health care town halls are somehow this mobilized army of Republicans and those who are health care insurance robots, these are people who realize that, what the Democrats and Obama are trying to get passed in a 1000+ page bill that few have read (certainly not those voting on it), that this bill will affect them dramatically for the rest of their lives.

Let’s think about this; when health care reform was first proposed by candidate Obama, the agent of change, most people figured that Obama would fix a few problems in health care insurance, perhaps regulate it more; insure those who were not insured, and that all of this would happen by taxing the rich just another percent or so (and some expected, maybe, a few dollars might be taken out of their pockets). But that is not what Obama is proposing. He and members of Congress, people who have never run a business before, plan to organize, set up and run 1/6^th of our economy, and part of that is going to include a public health care option, which may turn out to be your only choice when it comes to health care insurance.

People recognize that Obama and his administration have made many promises in the past, and almost the exact opposite has occurred (remember, the stimulus bill had to be passed quickly, without debate, without reading it; and that there would be immediate results). So, no matter what Obama is promising, people are naturally suspicious (well, the press isn’t that suspicious, but the folks are).

Here are the things which logically will be the result of passing any one of the health care plans which are out there (but, can you find them?):

1) Because a business could face a fine for not carrying health insurance for its employees, if the fine is smaller than their contribution to the employee’s health care, some business will simply drop their health care coverage and pay the fine. That means hundreds of thousands of people will be dumped into the health care system within months of this bill passing.

2) Since government tends to be slow, corrupt and bureaucratic, there is no reason to assume that a public health care option will be slow, corrupt and bureaucratic. Slow and bureaucratic are not adjectives we want associated with our health care (and this is found everywhere there is a government-run health care system).

3) It is well-known that Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid are unable to meet their financial obligations, and experts are simply estimating when each of these entities will go broke; there is not reason to think that another government-run system will do anything but run up a lot of red ink.

4) There is nothing which Obama has done so far to indicate that deficit reduction is a part of his short-term or long-term plan. He talks about deficit control, but what he has done so far suggests just the opposite. Therefore, expect government health care to run a huge deficit.

5) If we take the present number of physicians and add to the mix an additional 10–40 million patients, that means, it is going to take longer to see your doctor (or any doctor). This is borne out again and again in other countries with a government-run system.

6) If health care use and access is completely separate from a person’s ability to pay, then there will be a lot of people who flood the system with all of their ills. When I get sick, I rarely go immediately to the doctor. Whether it is a cold, the flu or allergies, I either take what has worked in the past; or I do some investigation on the internet. However, for some people, when money is no longer a factor, then, instead of going to a pharmacy and picking up an over-the-counter remedy, many will simply go to the doctors and get a paid-for prescription drug. Again, this will mean more people in the system, and a longer wait.

7) The profit motive will be removed from medical research. There will be government grants, of course, but less independent medical research, which is the source for most of our medical discoveries.

8) The profit motive for doctors will be greatly reduced and what doctors will face instead is a massive bureaucracy that they must learn to navigate. This will lesson the number of doctors in the system, increasing wait times and face to face time with your doctor.

9) And most importantly, since most health-care costs occur at the end of one’s life, government is going to be in charge of determining who gets health care and who doesn’t get it. If you are 50 or 60 or 70, and you are looking at a set of very expensive procedures, some bureaucrat is going to have to make some dollar and cents decisions. Right now, most of us expect, when we are old, that we are going to get excellent medical care (and we do). Although there is some fighting with insurance companies, for the most part, people get the care that they need, no matter what their age is. Think for a moment about who Democrats are: they are government people, for the most part, and many of them believe that, if a mother wants to end the life of her child in the womb, that is fine by them. Now, if they treat potential life so cavalierly, how are they going to treat the lives of those who are old?

10) One more thing: people who participate in these townhall meetings recognize a couple of things right away: their Congressman or Senator is not looking to get input from them to take back to Washington; and they are there, for the most part, simply to sell a bill which they themselves have not read.

11) By the way, private health care will not disappear in the United States. There will always be a system here for the very rich and for politicians. No politician is going to put himself into a public program.

Several prominent news organizations began their coverage of the health care meetings by including the allegation that the angry participants were ginned up by some organization, like the Republican party or medical insurance companies. If there is evidence of this, then it should have been a part of the story. Simply saying that others suggest this, is not really reporting, but attempting to shape the news.

Look at the signs. In almost every townhall meeting, it is obvious that the signs carried by the participants are homemade. This, right away, should alert you to the difference between a grass roots organization as opposed to what which has been ginned up by a political organization. When ACORN goes and demonstrates somewhere, look at their signs. They are manufactured signs for the most part.

I want you to give this some serious thought: do you really think that the various health insurance companies are able to gin up massive numbers of people to go and complain to Democrat politicians who are trying to sell Obama-care?

The White House wants the public to inform them of emails received which carry rumors about the health care system.

Find your favorite article on health care (and there have been hundreds), use your junk email address, and cut and paste it, and send it to the White House at flag@whitehouse.gov

Or, in the alternative, you can email the white house a list of their talking points:

I have heard the rumor that if we like our doctor and like our health insurance, then we will be able ot keep that. However, if there is a government option, and the government also fines businesses at an amount less than what they pay for health care, then they will drop their health care insurance and their employees will end up in the government program.

I have heard from on Senator that, after a few years, the government expect to save billions of dollars through the health care bill. I know that cannot be true because government programs are good at wasting money, but they never save money.

I have heard that this government health care reform bill will be deficit neutral. I know that cannot be true, because no government program of that magnitude could be deficit neutral.

I have heard that one of the purposes of the government health care option is to foster competition, but if the government can choose to pay whatever they want to pay and they make the rules and they can use as much taxpayer money as they want to use, then that is not really competition.

I have heard the rumor that this health care reform will cover all people without health care insurance, but the CBO has been saying that it will cover only a third of those without insurance.

This comes from Organizing for America, which has at he very top, an Obama logo, dated 8/6/09:

Gary --

Members of Congress have been home for just a few days, and they're already facing increased pressure from insurance companies, special interests, and partisan attack organizations that are spending millions to block health insurance reform.

These groups are using scare tactics and spreading smears about the President's plan for reform, trying to incite constituents into lashing out at their representatives and disrupting their events.

The goal of these disruptions is for a few people to get a lot of media attention and hijack the entire public discourse. If they succeed, all Americans -- Democrats, Republicans, and Independents -- will continue to struggle under the broken status quo.

It's up to us to show Congress that those loudly opposing reform are a tiny minority being stirred up by special interests, and that a huge majority strongly supports enacting real health insurance reform in 2009.

Your representative, Ted Poe, needs to hear that voters are demanding health insurance reform this year. Can you call the local office in Humble? Let the person who answers know that you're a constituent. Then tell them: "Please fight for real health insurance reform in 2009. Americans are suffering under the current system and need change."

According to our records, you live in Texas's 2nd congressional district. Please call:

Rep. Ted Poe at 281-446-0242.

Once you've made your call, click here to report it.

(Not your representative? Click here to look yours up.)

Calling should only take a few minutes, but it's a huge help. These local offices serve as the main connection between a member of Congress and voters in the district. And with representatives home on recess, the staff there are in daily contact with your member, keeping them updated on how many calls they receive that are for or against reform.

Once you've called, please tell us. Knowing how many calls are coming in from all around the country will help us better plan our campaign -- and help us show that the American people overwhelmingly want health insurance reform this year. Let us know you called:

http://my.barackobama.com/districtcall3?district=TX2&postal_code=77339

Thanks,

Mitch

Mitch Stewart
Director
Organizing for America

This comes directly from Obama (not from the White House, but from www.barackobama.com, dated 8/5/09):

Gary --

This is the moment our movement was built for.

For one month, the fight for health insurance reform leaves the backrooms of Washington, D.C., and returns to communities across America. Throughout August, members of Congress are back home, where the hands they shake and the voices they hear will not belong to lobbyists, but to people like you.

Home is where we're strongest. We didn't win last year's election together at a committee hearing in D.C. We won it on the doorsteps and the phone lines, at the softball games and the town meetings, and in every part of this great country where people gather to talk about what matters most. And if you're willing to step up once again, that's exactly where we're going to win this historic campaign for the guaranteed, affordable health insurance that every American deserves.

There are those who profit from the status quo, or see this debate as a political game, and they will stop at nothing to block reform. They are filling the airwaves and the internet with outrageous falsehoods to scare people into opposing change. And some people, not surprisingly, are getting pretty nervous. So we've got to get out there, fight lies with truth, and set the record straight.

That's why Organizing for America is putting together thousands of events this month where you can reach out to neighbors, show your support, and make certain your members of Congress know that you're counting on them to act.

But these canvasses, town halls, and gatherings only make a difference if you turn up to knock on doors, share your views, and show your support. So here's what I need from you:

Can you commit to join at least one event in your community this month?

In politics, there's a rule that says when you ask people to get involved, always tell them it'll be easy. Well, let's be honest here: Passing comprehensive health insurance reform will not be easy. Every President since Harry Truman has talked about it, and the most powerful and experienced lobbyists in Washington stand in the way.

But every day we don't act, Americans watch their premiums rise three times faster than wages, small businesses and families are pushed towards bankruptcy, and 14,000 people lose their coverage entirely. The cost of inaction is simply too much for the people of this nation to bear.

So yes, fixing this crisis will not be easy. Our opponents will attack us every day for daring to try. It will require time, and hard work, and there will be days when we don't know if we have anything more to give. But there comes a moment when we all have to choose between doing what's easy, and doing what's right.

This is one of those times. And moments like this are what this movement was built for. So, are you ready?

Please commit now to taking at least one action in your community this month to build support for health insurance reform:

http://my.barackobama.com/CommitAugust

Let's seize this moment and win this historic victory for our economy, our health and our families.

Thank you,

President Barack Obama

To be fair, this is the email which I got from Media Research Center, a conservative group:

From the Desk of:
David Martin, Executive Vice President

MEDIA RESEARCH CENTER
8/3/2009

gary,

As members of Congress head back to their districts for the August recess, they do so without a socialized national health care deal in place…

…thanks to grassroots Americans like you who saw through the misinformation and distortions of the liberal media.

Yet despite this great moral victory, grassroots Americans cannot afford to rest during this Congressional recess. Sensing the historical significance of the moment, MRC founder Brent Bozell has recorded a special video message and call to action for you and all Action team members!

Click here now to hear what Brent wants to do during this critical August recess.

+ + Don’t Buy the Liberal Media Lies About “ObamaCare”

The liberal media are reporting that the President and Congress are going to slow down the ObamaCare train, and iron out all the details after the recess.

Don’t buy the lie!

This is nothing more than a ploy to diffuse the intense grassroots angst against Obama’s socialized health care takeover. That’s right, gary, the details of the plan are being ironed out now, and they don’t want any outside interference from you!

That’s why with Congressmen back home in their district offices it’s imperative that we increase our opposition to the one-sided debate on ObamaCare, loudly voicing our opposition to ANY attempt by our government to steal away our right to make our own personal health care decisions.

Don’t forget to click here to hear Brent Bozell’s message. Videos of town hall meetings are already starting to pop up online. (Click here for a great example from Sen. Specter’s recent town hall.) If you attend one of these meetings and capture it on tape, please send the video to MRCAction@mediaresearch.org, and we will post it to Eyeblast.tv for the world to see.

In addition to Brent’s action items, we are urging Action team members to continue to visit our exclusive ObamaCareTruth.org resource site for the very latest details on ObamaCare, all in one convenient location. The facts you won’t find in the liberal media.

++ Demand the Media Tell the Truth About ObamaCare!

Additionally, we’ve also just launched our national petition, demanding the media “Tell the Truth!” about ObamaCare. gary, if you haven’t yet signed this important petition, please do so right now by clicking here.

After adding your name, please forward this message to your friends and family, and encourage them to follow your lead by clicking here.

Throughout the entire month of August, we must keep America focused on the truth about the government’s plan to takeover health care in the U.S. And we’re counting on you and the rest of the MRC Action team to lead the way!

Thank you for standing with the MRC in all that we are doing!

David

P.S: Become a fan of Brent Bozell on Facebook and follow him on Twitter.

I also went to www.thinkprogress.org, where I knew that suggestions were posted, but I could not find them. My memory, from a show on FoxNews, was to determine in advance what questions to ask; be aware the politicians will give non-answers or weasely answers, so to be prepared with follow-up questions. However, I was unable to locate on that site where my marching orders were.

Dick Army is supposed to have a website where he tells conservatives what to do.

The whole idea that these thousands of people showing up to townhall meetings are sent there as an arm of the drug or health insurance companies is completely preposterous. Even if they had my email address, do you really think a message from a drug company or from a health insurance company is going to get my butt off the couch?

In any case, I have not come across a single instance of an organization or conservative website encouraging me to go to a townhall meeting for the purpose of disrupting it. That may be out there, but just because you tell thousands of people to do something does not mean that they will go out and do it.

All the problems with the American health care system come from government intervention, so naturally the Democrats' idea for fixing it is more government intervention. This is like trying to sober up by having another drink.

The reason seeing a doctor is already more like going to the DMV, and less like going to the Apple "Genius Bar," is that the government decided health care was too important to be left to the free market. Yes -- the same free market that has produced such a cornucopia of inexpensive goods and services that, today, even poor people have cell phones and flat-screen TVs.

As a result, it's easier to get your computer fixed than your health. Thanks, government!

We already have near-universal health coverage in the form of Medicare, Medicaid, veterans' hospitals, emergency rooms and tax-deductible employer-provided health care -- all government creations.

So now, everyone expects doctors to be free. People who pay $200 for a haircut are indignant if it costs more than a $20 co-pay to see a doctor.

The government also "helped" us by mandating that insurance companies cover all sorts of medical services, both ordinary -- which you ought to pay for yourself -- and exotic, such as shrinks, in vitro fertilization and child-development assessments -- which no normal person would voluntarily pay to insure against.

This would be like requiring all car insurance to cover the cost of gasoline, oil and tire changes -- as well as professional car detailing, iPod docks, and leather seats and those neon chaser lights I have all along the underbody of my chopped, lowrider '57 Chevy.

But politicians are more interested in pleasing lobbyists for acupuncturists, midwives and marriage counselors than they are in pleasing recent college graduates who only want to insure against the possibility that they'll be hit by a truck. So politicians at both the state and federal level keep passing boatloads of insurance mandates requiring that all insurance plans cover a raft of non-emergency conditions that are expensive to treat -- but whose practitioners have high-priced lobbyists.

As a result, a young, healthy person has a choice of buying artificially expensive health insurance that, by law, covers a smorgasbord of medical services of no interest to him ... or going uninsured. People who aren't planning on giving birth to a slew of children with restless leg syndrome in the near future forgo insurance -- and then politicians tell us we have a national emergency because some people don't have health insurance.

The whole idea of insurance is to insure against catastrophes: You buy insurance in case your house burns down -- not so you can force other people in your plan to pay for your maid. You buy car insurance in case you're in a major accident, not so everyone in the plan shares the cost of gas.

Just as people use vastly different amounts of gasoline, they also use vastly different amounts of medical care -- especially when an appointment with a highly trained physician costs less than a manicure.

Insurance plans that force everyone in the plan to pay for everyone else's Viagra and anti-anxiety pills are already completely unfair to people who rarely go to the doctor. It's like being forced to share gas bills with a long-haul trucker or a restaurant bill with Michael Moore. On the other hand, it's a great deal for any lonely hypochondriacs in the plan.

Now the Democrats want to force us all into one gigantic national health insurance plan that will cover every real and mythical ailment that has a powerful lobby. But if you have a rare medical condition without a lobbying arm, you'll be out of luck.

Even two decades after the collapse of liberals' beloved Soviet Union, they can't grasp that it's easier and cheaper to obtain any service provided by capitalism than any service provided under socialism.

You don't have to conjure up fantastic visions of how health care would be delivered in this country if we bought it ourselves. Just go to a grocery store or get a manicure. Or think back to when you bought your last muffler, personal trainer, computer and every other product and service available in inexpensive abundance in this capitalist paradise.

Third-party payer schemes are always a disaster -- less service for twice the price! If you want good service at a good price, be sure to be the one holding the credit card. Under "universal health care," no one but government bureaucrats will be allowed to hold the credit card.

Isn't food important? Why not "universal food coverage"? If politicians and employers had guaranteed us "free" food 50 years ago, today Democrats would be wailing about the "food crisis" in America, and you'd be on the phone with your food care provider arguing about whether or not a Reuben sandwich with fries was covered under your plan.

Instead of making health care more like the DMV, how about we make it more like grocery stores? Give the poor and tough cases health stamps and let the rest of us buy health care -- and health insurance -- on the free market.

We have entered uncharted territory in the fight over national health care. There's a new tone in the debate, and it's ugly. At the moment the Democrats are looking like something they haven't looked like in years, and that is: desperate.

They must know at this point they should not have pushed a national health-care plan. A Democratic operative the other day called it "Hillary's revenge." When Mrs. Clinton started losing to Barack Obama in the primaries 18 months ago, she began to give new and sharper emphasis to her health-care plan. Mr. Obama responded by talking about his health-care vision. He won. Now he would push what he had been forced to highlight: Health care would be a priority initiative. The net result is falling support for his leadership on the issue, falling personal polls, and the angry town-hall meetings that have electrified YouTube.

In his first five months in office, Mr. Obama had racked up big wins-the stimulus, children's health insurance, House approval of cap-and-trade. But he stayed too long at the hot table. All the Democrats in Washington did. They overinterpreted the meaning of the 2008 election, and didn't fully take into account how the great recession changed the national mood and atmosphere.

And so the shock on the faces of Congressmen who've faced the grillings back home. And really, their shock is the first thing you see in the videos. They had no idea how people were feeling. Their 2008 win left them thinking an election that had been shaped by anti-Bush, anti-Republican, and pro-change feeling was really a mandate without context; they thought that in the middle of a historic recession featuring horrific deficits, they could assume support for the invention of a huge new entitlement carrying huge new costs.

The passions of the protesters, on the other hand, are not a surprise. They hired a man to represent them in Washington. They give him a big office, a huge staff and the power to tell people what to do. They give him a car and a driver, sometimes a security detail, and a special pin showing he's a congressman. And all they ask in return is that he see to their interests and not terrify them too much. Really, that's all people ask. Expectations are very low. What the protesters are saying is, "You are terrifying us."

What has been most unsettling is not the congressmen's surprise but a hard new tone that emerged this week. The leftosphere and the liberal commentariat charged that the town hall meetings weren't authentic, the crowds were ginned up by insurance companies, lobbyists and the Republican National Committee. But you can't get people to leave their homes and go to a meeting with a congressman (of all people) unless they are engaged to the point of passion. And what tends to agitate people most is the idea of loss-loss of money hard earned, loss of autonomy, loss of the few things that work in a great sweeping away of those that don't.

What the town-hall meetings represent is a feeling of rebellion, an uprising against change they do not believe in. And the Democratic response has been stunningly crude and aggressive. It has been to attack. Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the United States House of Representatives, accused the people at the meetings of "carrying swastikas and symbols like that." (Apparently one protester held a hand-lettered sign with a "no" slash over a swastika.) But they are not Nazis, they're Americans. Some of them looked like they'd actually spent some time fighting Nazis.

Then came the Democratic Party charge that the people at the meetings were suspiciously well-dressed, in jackets and ties from Brooks Brothers. They must be Republican rent-a-mobs. Sen. Barbara Boxer said on MSNBC's "Hardball" that people are "storming these town hall meetings," that they were "well dressed", that "this is all organized," "all planned," to "hurt our president." Here she was projecting. For normal people, it's not all about Barack Obama.

The Democratic National Committee chimed in with an incendiary Web video whose script reads, "The right wing extremist Republican base is back." DNC communications director Brad Woodhouse issued a statement that said the Republicans "are inciting angry mobs of . . . right wing extremists" who are "not reflective of where the American people are."

But most damagingly to political civility, and even our political tradition, was the new White House email address to which citizens are asked to report instances of "disinformation" in the health-care debate: If you receive an email or see something on the Web about health-care reform that seems "fishy," you can send it to flag@whitehouse.gov. The White House said it was merely trying to fight "intentionally misleading" information.

Sen. John Cornyn of Texas on Wednesday wrote to the president saying he feared that citizens' engagement could be "chilled" by the effort. He's right, it could. He also accused the White House of compiling an "enemies list." If so, they're being awfully public about it, but as Byron York at the Washington Examiner pointed, the emails collected could become a "dissident database."

All of this is unnecessarily and unhelpfully divisive and provocative. They are mocking and menacing concerned citizens. This only makes a hot situation hotter. Is this what the president wants? It couldn't be. But then in an odd way he sometimes seems not to have fully absorbed the awesome stature of his office. You really, if you're president, can't call an individual American stupid, if for no other reason than that you're too big. You cannot allow your allies to call people protesting a health-care plan "extremists" and "right wing," or bought, or Nazi-like, either. They're citizens. They're concerned. They deserve respect.

The Democrats should not be attacking, they should be attempting to persuade, to argue for their case. After all, they have the big mic. Which is what the presidency is, the big mic.

And frankly they ought to think about backing off. The president should call in his troops and his Congress and announce a rethinking. There are too many different bills, they're all a thousand pages long, no one has time to read them, no one knows what's going to be in the final one, the public is agitated, the nation's in crisis, the timing is wrong, we'll turn to it again-but not now. We'll take a little longer, ponder every aspect, and make clear every complication.

You know what would happen if he did this? His numbers would go up. Even Congress's would. Because they'd look responsive, deliberative and even wise. Discretion is the better part of valor.

Absent that, and let's assume that won't happen, the health-care protesters have to make sure they don't get too hot, or get out of hand. They haven't so far, they've been burly and full of debate, with plenty of booing. This is democracy's great barbaric yawp. But every day the meetings seem just a little angrier, and people who are afraid-who have been made afraid, and left to be afraid-can get swept up. As this column is written, there comes word that John Sweeney of the AFL-CIO has announced he'll be sending in union members to the meetings to counter health care's critics.

It's going to be a long August, isn't it? Let's hope the uncharted territory we're in doesn't turn dark.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin called President Barack Obama's health plan "downright evil" Friday in her first online comments since leaving office, saying in a Facebook posting that he would create a "death panel" that would deny care to the neediest Americans.

"The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama's 'death panel' so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their 'level of productivity in society,' whether they are worthy of health care," the former Republican vice presidential candidate wrote.

"Such a system is downright evil," Palin wrote on her page, which has nearly 700,000 supporters. She encouraged her supporters to be engaged in the debate.

The claim that the Democratic health care bills would encourage euthanasia has been circulating on the Internet for weeks and has been echoed by some Republican leaders. Democrats from Obama on down have dismissed it as a distortion. The nonpartisan group FactCheck.org, a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania says the claim is false.

The allegation appears to be based on a provision of the House bill that would require Medicare to pay for end-of-life counseling sessions, on a voluntary basis, for beneficiaries who want the service. Medicare already covers hospice care. And legislation passed by Congress in 1990 requires that patients be asked if they have a living will.

"Nobody is going to be forcing you to make a set of decisions on end-of-life care based on some bureaucratic law in Washington," he said.

An e-mail sent to Palin's spokeswoman to confirm authorship of the Facebook posting was not immediately returned Friday. There was no immediate reply to phone messages left late Friday with the White House and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office seeking comment on Palin's remarks.

Republican criticism has also included claims that the reform plans will lead to rationing, or the government determining which medical procedures a patient can have.

However, millions of Americans already face rationing, as insurance companies rule on procedures they will cover. Denying coverage for certain procedures might increase under proposals to have a government-appointed agency identify medicines and procedures best suited for various conditions.

Palin resigned as Alaska governor on July 26 with nearly 18 months left in her term. She cited not only the numerous ethics complaints that had been filed against her also her wish not to be a lame duck after the first-term governor decided not to seek re-election next year.

Palin, popular with conservatives in the Republican party, has said she wants to build a right-of-center coalition, and there is speculation she will seek the presidency in 2012. In the two weeks since she resigned, Palin has made only one public appearance, giving a Second Amendment rights speech last Saturday before a gun owners group in Anchorage.

Palin or her aides post notes on her Facebook account about once or twice a week, usually to set out policy statements, issue news releases or refute rumors circulating on the Internet.

Palin also has been largely silent before Friday's Facebook post. She was a voracious user of the social networking site Twitter, and promised to keep her supporters updated with a new private account after she left office. But that hasn't happened, leaving some of her fans begging for updates in the past two weeks.

[This is from a blog at the SEIU—Service Employees International Union—website]

Now that we're closer than ever before to reforming our health care system, the opposition is ratcheting up the fear-mongering and deception. They'll say anything to dominate the public conversation and disrupt productive dialogue, and do anything to block reform--including harassment, intimidation, and physical violence.

For several days now, radical-fringe right-wing opponents bent on blocking any reform legislation have disrupted town hall meetings conducted by members of Congress. At the same time they're engaging in Astroturf [read: fake grassroots] activism, these radical-fringe groups are disseminating discredited myths about health care reform bills that were adopted by four Congressional committees. Astroturfing by conservative opponents of reform is particularly dishonest because it masks the true motivations of the powerful interests--like the desire of industries to maintain the status quo.

These conservative lobbyist-run groups are leading the way orchestrating town hall mobs.

[In case you do not know, Jim DeMint is the Republican Senator from South Carolina, so obviously this is going to show a Republican bias; however, he makes some good points]

On the floor this morning, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid attacked Sen. Jim DeMint, saying, "Just this week, the Senator from South Carolina said we just need to `get out of the way and allow the market to work.' In other words, he says, let's do nothing." Reid continued, "Allowing the market to work is code for letting the greedy insurance companies" continue to deny care to sick and elderly Americans.

Interesting that the Majority Leader mentions "Greedy Insurance Companies," because in 2006 and 2007, Sen. Reid and then-Sen. Barack Obama joined those "Greedy Insurance Companies" in opposing market-driven, freedom reforms of our health care system. Reid and Obama defended the status quo and the insurance companies by voting NO on legislation that would have created a truly national, competitive market for private health insurance, and allowed small businesses to pool their insurance plans to reduce costs and offer improved plans to their employees.

Sen. DeMint is one of the most vocal and active advocates for real health care reform, a dedicated opponent of the status quo who has introduced major health care reform legislation every year since he came to the Senate. Just last month, he introduced the "Health Care Freedom Plan" to guarantee all Americans access to a health plan personally tailored to their needs, that they can afford, own, and keep, that government can never take over or take away.

Reid/Obama voted NO on Allowing Americans the Freedom to Purchase Health Insurance Across State Lines. H.R. 976 (110th Congress, 1st Session, Roll Call 305). The Senate rejected an effort to allow Americans to purchase individual health insurance across state lines. The amendment offered by Sen. DeMint (R-SC) failed on August 2, 2007 by a vote of 37-62.

Reid/Obama voted NO on Expanding Access to Small Business Health Plans. On Motion to Invoke Cloture on the Committee Amendment (110th Congress, Session 2, Roll Call 119). The Senate rejected an effort to allow for the expansion of health care access and reduced costs through the creation of small business health plans and through modernization of the health insurance marketplace on May 11, 2006 by a vote of 55-32.

I. Thou shalt have no God in America, except for me. For we are no longer a Christian nation and, after all, I am the chosen One. (And like God, I do not have a birth certificate.)

II. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, unless it is my face carved on Mt. Rushmore.

III. Thou shalt not utter my middle name in vain (or in public). Only I can say Barack Hussein Obama.

V. Honour thy father and thy mother until they are too old and sick to care for. They will cost our public-funded health-care system too much money.

VI. Thou shalt not kill, unless you have an unwanted, unborn baby. For it would be an abomination to punish your daughter with a baby.

VII. Thou shalt not commit adultery if you are conservative or a Republican. Liberals and Democrats are hereby forgiven for all of their infidelity and immorality, but the careers of conservatives will be forever destroyed.

VIII. Thou shalt not steal, until you've been elected to public office. Only then is it acceptable to take money from hard-working, successful citizens and give it to those who do not work, illegal immigrants, or those who do not have the motivation to better their own lives.

IX. Thou shalt not discriminate against thy neighbor unless they are conservative or Christian.

X. Thou shalt not covet because it is simply unnecessary. I will place such a heavy tax burden on those that have achieved the American Dream that, by the end of my term as President, nobody will have any wealth or material goods left for you to covet.

In case you want to contact your blue dog and give them your opinion of the healthcare debate:

If you don’t realize that it is going on, here is a reasonable article on health care:

Violence is now erupting at many of these meetings (this article is not very helpful, however, when it comes to pointing fingers; however, this is video at the end of the article):

Nancy Pelosi thought that she saw Nazi Swastikas at a health care townhall meeting. Rush Limbaugh suggests that the Obama health care symbol resembles the German swastika. You be the judge. I would not have seen the similarity on my own, but when they are side-by-side, I can see it.

One of the Obama czars, Peter Singer, has said, in 1993, that infants lack "rationality, autonomy and self-consciousness....[since] Infants lack these characteristics, killing them, therefore, cannot be equated with killing normal human beings, or any other self-conscious beings." Here is an article written by Singer about taking the lives of certain types of people:

Under the heading, have I stepped into a parallel dimension? there is now a face book group called "I am scared of the girl in the Apoliva commercial." It is just a supermodel in a dumb Swedish commercial. There eis a video of the commercial.

Rush: What [healthcare] plan? The president has never offered one. The only plan we have is the House plan, another reason why the president won't talk about it.

He doesn't have one, and he doesn't know what's in the House plan. "While the president says his plan will reduce costs, 53% believe it will have the opposite effect." So we finally as a group know the government doesn't accomplish what it says and lies about it. If this report with Rasmussen is true, it could be a tipping point. And these poll numbers are fine for what they ask, but I would like to see what happens to the numbers in the health care poll if the questions were more informative. For example, what if the question in Rasmussen's next poll was worded like this: "Would you be strongly in favor of or strongly opposed to the provision on Page 435 of the Democrat health care bill that allows the government to garnish your bank account to pay for medical procedures?”

“Would you be strongly in favor of or strongly opposed to the provision on Page 401 of the Democrat health care bill that mandates end-of-life government counseling every five years for those 65 years and older?”

"Would you be strongly in favor of or strongly opposed to the provision in the health care bill that allows the government computer access to your bank records to transfer money from your account to their account to pay for whatever they think you owe?"

In other words, this polling has got to go beyond the vague philosophy -- the overall philosophy of government running the health care and whether or not deficits are going to go up. We all know that the government can't run anything. They can't even run a $1 billion trade-in program for old cars. They can't run anything right. The Post Office is down $4.2 billion.

"They are thinking about closing 100 post offices. The polling needs to go beyond these vague, nonspecific, philosophical questions about deficits and spending and government competence and get to the specific questions in the bill. And I guarantee you if Rasmussen would do this, if he would run around -- and his polls, he does his polls as telephone polls. If he would put in questions like that... All he's gotta do is go, "Page 16: Are you strongly in favor or strongly opposed to the provision on Page 16 of the bill that would force you out of your private insurance plan?" Ask them that, and you are not going to find just 63% or 58% oppose it. You are going to find in the 70s and 80s. And it wouldn't be that hard for a pollster to do and it'd be perfectly honest.

RUSH: I want to repeat the essentials of something I said on Wednesday on this program. I really, I'm optimistic about what is happening here and I want to talk to those of you who may be pessimistic about it for various reasons. I've heard from a couple of people who are, who are pessimistic simply because you think the message and momentum's been lost -- the subject of the argument has been changed with the thugs, the intimidation of the union -- and you're afraid that the American people are believing that the people showing up at the tea parties are an unruly mob or that they're Nazis or something. Nothing can be further from the truth. The majority of the American people do not think that. You can see it in the polls. The problem the administration has in trying to make the case that all of you are an unruly mob is the polls agree with you. You are the polls.

There's a vast majority of people that don't like this health care plan in any way, shape, manner or form and don't like an increasing amount of the Obama agenda. We'll know soon enough. I think Obama may well be destroying the Democrat Party. Don't forget the Rasmussen Report generic ballot came out this week. Generic ballot, this is where they go out and ask people: "In the 2010 Congressional election, are you going to vote for Republican or Democrat?" They don't give a name, just give them party. The Republicans have a 5-point lead in the generic ballot. I mean, it's just six months since George Bush the Hated was in office. It's just six months since everything in the country was going to hell in a hand basket, and all of a sudden the Republicans are up 5 in the generic ballot. Here's why. The Democrat Party leadership is hard left-wing, including Obama, including Pelosi, including Harry Reid. But much of the Democrat Party grassroots is not.

We've been talking about this I think the whole period of time since Obama's immaculation. "How many Democrats really believe this?" we've been asking ourselves. I look at the polling data, I look at other things, and much of the grassroots of the Democrat Party is not anywhere near as radical left as its leadership. The left-wing of the party controls its mechanisms, but the voters are not all Obama and Pelosi ideologues. They are not all Greenpeace wackos. They are not all a bunch of people that want to go out and destroy jobs to save animals or the planet. They are not all people that want to destroy the US health care system. And what the liberal media, State-Controlled Media are not reporting is that it's the Democrat Party that is marginalizing itself here. It's the Democrat Party that is not reaching the middle class and independents. It is the Democrat Party that's become a narrow, ideological party -- and this is very important.

The Democrat Party represents an ever shrinking percentage of the population. Trust me when I tell you -- and I can cite data if you want -- the American people are at their core liberty-loving, they are competitive, they are innovative, they are independent. They want to be optimistic. They want the same opportunities in this country, for their kids that they had when they were growing up. And this is... Folks, this is really crucially important. The American people are not Obamaites. They are not radical leftists. They love freedom. They love liberty. They're competitive. They're innovative. But this is why Obama and Pelosi have to lie about what they're doing. They have to lie about saving jobs when we're losing them. They have to lie about their cap-and-trade bill. They have to lie about the deficits. As they get larger and larger, they blame it on Bush. They lie about what they are actually trying to do about health care, because they don't dare tell anybody the truth. If they tell people the truth, they're dead politically.

If Obama had told the people the truth of what his agenda was going to be, he would not even come close to winning. But people believed him when he said he had an idea for post-racial, post-partisan job creation, bringing people together, no more red-and-blue state divide. He could speak well. He was "clean," as Joe Biden said, and he was "articulate." But he's a major disappointment. There is buyer's remorse, and as the imperialists in Congress order five -- five, now, Snerdley, five -- new jets now, not three. Three G550s and two Boeing business jets which are 737s. Speaking of Michelle and the kids, Michelle and the kids just went out for burgers and fries. While everybody's focused on obesity as the number one problem with health care reform. The Democrat Party's a narrow ideological party.

Now, it's led by people who spend their every waking moment conspiring against the public and lying to the public, and you've seen it starting yesterday. The White House had to convene an emergency crisis meeting and get their union agitators in gear. They are conspiring against American citizens. The president of the United States and his party are conspiring against citizens! Listen to this. "The Senate's most powerful Democrat yesterday scolded health care protestors dogging his party's lawmakers at local meetings." This is Harry Reid. "He argued that some critics on the political right have run out of ideas and have ditched their civic manners. Majority leader Harry Reid said that the protestors are trying to sabotage the democratic process," sabotage the democratic process!

Do you realize there was no violence at any of these town meetings until Obama's thugs from the unions showed up? There was not one. Not one incident of violence, not one incident of intimidation until Obama's thugs show up. So now Harry Reid accuses you of trying to "sabotage the democratic" process. Stop and think about that. You are sabotaging the democratic process by showing up and asking your member of Congress, "What the hell are you doing?" That's sabotaging the democratic process. How can that be? Are we just supposed to stand aside and let these people do what they want to do? This is why they are conspiring against the public. The president of the United States...

I cannot emphasize for you how unreal this is. This has never happened in my lifetime: A president and his party conspiring against the people and lying to them. So now the latest round of this: Attack the insurance companies, attack the attendees at town hall meetings. Make wildly irresponsible promises about government health care while claiming not to be promoting government-run health care. You keep the legislation secret until the last minute, you don't get specific about what drugs and treatments and procedures will or will not be covered. It's in the bill, but you won't say so publicly. The Democrat leadership must do these things because it is a narrow, ideological party that claims to be otherwise, while they are trying to advance its radical agenda as fast as possible before more and more Americans see what it is.

I mean, the health care bill, if passed, doesn't get implemented for four years, 2013. So why the hell get it done before the August recess? So it's before you could find out what's in it. But that's gone. You know what's in it now. It's time for Plan B. And now again I want to say to you Blue Dog Democrats -- Mike Ross, you guys in Arkansas and everywhere else, let me tell you -- it's not just Obama that's going to bring you down. It's Nancy Pelosi. You take a look at the Congressional approval numbers and her personal approval numbers. You can have George Bush all you want. People do not like this woman and they don't like her leadership. Congress in general has low numbers. You Blue Dog Democrats, you run around and you fancy yourselves as "fiscal conservatives."

That's what makes you a Blue Dog. You're not for big budget, you are not for big deficit, you want to rein in spending and so forth. And you run around; you repeat that mantra to your constituents back home. You are going to decide your own political fate with how you vote on this government-run health care bill because your constituents are going to know. If you decide you want to throw in with the hard left ideologues who run the party or with the citizens who sent you to Washington, that's the simple choice that you have. You cannot continue to vote for hard-left policies, massive debt, massive expansion of government and then claim to be anything other than a leftist. You can't go home...

Talk to Republicans. What happens to them when they promise one thing and campaign one way and go to Washington and govern in a different manner? They're not there. Ask Republicans 2004, 2006, 2008 what happened to them when they were not true to their promises and their intentions as they campaigned. Now, you Blue Dogs, you are going to have a big choice to make when you come back and vote on this thing in the fall. There's no place to hide anymore. There's no middle ground on this. You can't vote for this and say you are "fiscal conservative" anything. You can't vote for this and say you're anything other than a hard radical leftist.

You can't say one thing at home and one thing in Washington. It won't work anymore. From the big cities, the inner suburbs, outer suburbs, more rural areas, you're going to have to make a choice. Either you represent people that sent you to Washington or you throw in with Obama and Pelosi. And let it also be known who else you are throwing in with. You are throwing in with public sector union big shots and the tort lawyers. These are the people Obama is armying up with. These are the people Obama is marshaling to prevent you from engaging in the democratic process while saying you're sabotaging it. No incidents of violence until Obama's crowd showed up. I can't sit here and express to you how shocked and stunned that this is happening in the United States of America, that we have a president who has abandoned the office now.

He may as well be back on the campaign trail. His speeches are cocky, nasty, arrogant. He's out there inciting violence. White House officials say, "We're going to punch back twice as hard." The Chicago way: "You bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun." That's the president of the United States. Now, you look at the polling data. Nobody wants this, folks. The vast majority of the country does not want this health care bill. Are they listening? No. They don't want to hear it. They are going to ram it down our throats, and for what reason? It should be obvious. It's about them. It's about Obama who's about nothing more than building monuments to himself. Legacy! FDR! He wants to be remembered for this and that. What he will be remembered for is destroying the economy of the United States if he's not stopped, politically stopped.

RUSH: We have Beth and Jerry from Tampa, Florida. They are on two phones in their home, and they were at the Kathy Castor town hall meeting last night where the SEIU people showed up and there was a lot of thuggery going on. Welcome to the program. What can you tell us?

BETH: They already had the room half filled -- with Obama supporters, union organizers, whatever they were -- when they opened the doors to let us in. We managed to get to the front where the --

RUSH: And they put the SEIU thugs in through a side door. They got them in there advance, under handicapped or some sort. Maybe that was --

RUSH: So they stacked the room with Obama supporters, which are union thugs, half of the room which had a 250 capacity, right?

BETH: No. Well, we had waited an hour in line and we were right at the doors where you are going in and they had the doors open into the union hall, into the meeting room. And they had a speaker outside but it wasn't working. And people in the hallway were yelling, "Let us hear," and they thought we were saying, "We want Obama," but it was "Let us hear." And they couldn't get the speaker to work. So we're all standing there. Well, people outside were going, "Open meeting! Open meeting! Take it outside," so everybody could hear because there were so many people there. Well, they decided too much noise was going on in the hallway and decided to close the doors. Well, somehow I got pushed into the room, into the meeting room when the thugs came out. They came out four abreast with their arms up. I got pushed in, and my husband, who was right behind me in the green shirt, then was pushed against the wall. My daughter managed to get over to him to try and get them off of my husband.

BETH: Because they wanted to shut the door to the room. They were shutting the doors. And the doors open into the hallway.

BETH: Yeah. And at that point they had my husband pinned against the wall, but I was trying to get out to him and they wouldn't let me out of the room.

RUSH: Are you there, standing next to a cop who is not doing anything about this, anything about it? Is that you that I saw or is there a different frame to the video?

RUSH: No, there was a cop inside the room who was not... There was a woman begging this cop to get out there and stop something going on outside the room, and the cop just shrugged his shoulders.

BETH: Oh, inside? I don't remember. I don't know that I've seen that video. I know I was begging people to let me out and they told me I couldn't go out through that door; I could only go out through the back door.

BETH: Right. At any rate, when they had my husband pinned against the wall, I was going hysterical. We went to ask specific questions on health care. I have read the bill. There was no addressing of any questions. I was in the meeting hall after they shut the doors. I did not leave because I wanted to hear what was said.

RUSH: Yeah. From the video I saw, Kathy Castor just tried to make speech. She wasn't entertaining any questions and people were standing up and disagreeing when she said various things, correct?

BETH: That's correct. And when people were standing up agreeing, members that were supporting her were in the audience taking our pictures. It was almost like intimidation. Well, it was intimidation --

RUSH: Because you're out there "sabotaging" democracy, Harry Reid says. They are out there to get your picture to send it to the Obama snitch website probably.

BETH: Well, I'll report myself, thank you very much. (laughs) I love that idea. But my husband is not a big man, in the green shirt?

BETH: He's about 5' 9", weighs about 170. He has Stage 4 cancer. He has a severed rotator cuff, a port in his chest and an ileostomy. When they shoved him against the wall, I was telling them this: "Let me out! Let go of him! You're hurting him. He's sick." They kept right on doing it and wouldn't let me out and wouldn't let him go. The man with the ripped shirt then came in to help my husband and his shirt got ripped then by the thugs.

RUSH: All right, now I know who you are. Your husband was wearing a button-down green shirt. This guy was in a T-shirt, green shirt.

BETH: Yes. Yes. So the initial attack was against my husband, because he was standing at the doors as they closed and they didn't want him in. So they shoved him back.

RUSH: You've heard about what happened in St. Louis. You've heard about what happened in Detroit and Houston, some of these other places.

JERRY: I'm a union member, and I went there specifically for my cause of cancer.

RUSH: So you're a member of a union and you went to find out what the health care plan was about?

RUSH: Okay, so final question. Did what happened to your husband intimidate you? Are you going to shut up and slink back down into the background now?

BETH: No. We're angrier than ever. That's why we're calling you and you can put our last name on the air.

JERRY: Well, I did talk to my union chieftain here, and he is very distressed over exactly what happened.

RUSH: Well, thanks much. I'm out of time, but I appreciate the story and I'm glad you're more fired up than ever.

RUSH: A "community organizer" cannot complain when communities organize, yet that is exactly what is happening. The community organizer-in-chief is all bent out of shape because people are organizing against him and against his lies and against his policies. July 23rd of 2007, Barack Obama said that it was a qualification to be president to be a community organizer. Now his White House and his party is attacking communities of Americans, organized and otherwise. Are you kidding me? This was the badge of honor! That's the sum total of his career, other than 150 days in the Senate. This is what Barack Obama said was the best education he ever had was community organizing for ACORN. It was the highest good of public service -- and he's now trying to swat down citizens who have grievances? Of course! Because he's a statist. He's an authoritarian. Here is a new Democrat National Committee ad targeting the protesters of Barack Obama. You'll hear Senator DeMint and me in the ad.

[Here’s the video]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtTBkxvBq88

(cheesy dramatic music)

AMERICAN CITIZENS: (chanting) Just say no! Just say no!

DNC ANNOUNCER: The right-wing extremist Republican base is back. They lost the election. They lost on the Recovery Act, the budget and children's health care. They've lost the confidence of the American people after eight years of failed policies that ruined our economy and cost millions of jobs.

AMERICAN CITIZENS: (chanting) Just say no! Just say no!

DNC ANNOUNCER: Now, desperate Republicans and their well-funded allies are organizing angry mobs -- just like they did during the election. Their goal? Destroy President Obama and stop the change Americans voted for overwhelmingly in November.

DEMINT: It will break him.

RUSH: I hope he fails!

DNC ANNOUNCER: They have no plan for moving our country forward, so they've called out the mob.

RUSH: I predicted this. You are a mob. This is the president of the United States who ran as a unifier. He has now resorted to nothing more than a raw political campaign, as president, against a majority of the American people who oppose him. The president of the United States is running ads referring to 52% of the American people as a "mob." This is beneath the dignity of the White House. It's typical of the Democrat Party, but it is beneath the dignity of the Oval Office.

Henry Waxman was on the Daily Show last night. They had this exchange, Jon Stewart and Henry Waxman, about town hall protesters -- and, of course, me.

STEWART: You have the overwhelming majority now. Can't you get something that is condensed a little bit more clearly and concisely so that you can sell it? Because without that you've got town halls where the people come and they shout and they are not saying anything other than, "Hey, we're -- I'm mad."

WAXMAN: That's not spontaneous. People show up in an organized way often sponsored by the Republican party or Rush Limbaugh or some other group.

STEWART: Right. In democracy, to be fair, they are allowed to, uhhh -- to do that.

RUSH: "Just keep it in perspective." He's "not trying to silence them." That's exactly what they are trying to do! Intimidate you, call you a mob. They are trying to silence all this opposition. You know, Jon Stewart makes more sense here than most of the State-Run Media. The American people aren't buying what the Democrats are selling -- and, of course, the Democrats and the president of the United States blame you! They hold you in contempt while they throw their bones to the trial lawyers and the public sector union bosses. This morning on MSNBC, the host is talking to Democrat strategerist Keith Boykin about the town hall meeting protests and the host says, "Is this cheap propaganda?"

BOYKIN: It's being orchestrated by the Republican Party's organ like Fox News and -- and people like Rush Limbaugh who are out there putting this message out now.

BOYKIN: They are putting out the message to these people, the birth conspiracies. These people coming together. It's a coalition of cranks who have basically created this.

RUSH: You know, I would... I'm going to issue a challenge here to all you Democrat strategists and you people at Democrat National Committee -- and I'm going to include in this challenge the hapless White House spokesman Robert Gibbs. I want you to give us the name of one person who has been hired by a lobbyist working for an insurance company to show up at a town hall meeting. I want you to produce evidence of one person who is at one of these meetings because I have sent them there. It's obvious? If it's so obvious, Mr. Boykin, that all of this is trumped up, then tell us and show us who's behind this. Give us the names! Tell us which insurance companies are putting this together and making it happen. But remember this, Mr. Boykin: The community organizer who thinks it's the greatest experience he's ever had can't start bitching when communities organize.

RUSH: I'm going to go back and play this ad again, the DNC ad bought and paid for, by the way, by public sector union bosses and their allies. That's who's paying for this campaign, public sector union bosses and their allies. This is an ad sanctioned by President Obama, run by the Democrat National Committee attacking American citizens. Listen to it again.

DNC ANNOUNCER: They have no plan for moving our country forward, so they've called out the mob.

RUSH: We sure as hell do have a plan for moving the country forward. It's called stopping Obama, stopping Reid, stopping Pelosi, stopping the trial lawyers and stopping the public sector union bosses. It's called stopping the Democrat Party. It's called saving this country. The same party that passed a phony stimulus bill giving ACORN community organizers billions of dollars to organize and protest and agitate, the same party is complaining when private citizens attend town hall meetings on their own, on their own dime and question what the government is wanting to do to their health care. I'm telling you Blue Dog Democrats, beware. Much of this campaign of lies by Obama and his cronies is aimed at convincing you that the people are not boiling over with contempt for what is being attempted here. And if you allow yourselves to be convinced by this propaganda put out by your party and your president and Axelrod and Emanuel and all the rest, you will pay the ultimate political price. I promise you, you will. You have no idea what's simmering out across the heartlands of this country. And it is rank pure opposition to what this president is attempting to do to this nation's economy and people's health care.

Let's go back in time, shall we, September 17, 2008, Elko, Nevada. During a campaign event here is the community organizer-in-chief, Dr. Chicago himself.

OBAMA: I need you to go out and talk to your friends and talk to your neighbors. I want you to talk to them whether they are independent or whether they are Republican. I want you to argue with them and get in their face.

RUSH: Argue with them and get in their face from the unifier, from the man who is going to bring this country together. We forget all of these things that he said during the campaign to largely union audiences. And they have the nerve to call you and all of us a mob, an unruly mob after he is urging his own supporters to get in your face and argue with you. Back in March when the target then was AIG, Obama said he didn't want to quell the angry mobs back then. March 18th, an unidentified reporter: "Mr. President, a new round of bonuses from these contracts are coming out for AIG. What could you say to the American public to quell the anger, because people are angry about this new round that's coming out. There's more bonuses. It's said to be coming for AIG executives."

OBAMA: I don't want to quell anger. I think people are right to be angry. I'm angry. What I want us to do, though, is channel our anger in a constructive way.

RUSH: Yeah, he wants you arguing with people, he wanted you protesting in the front yards of AIG executives. He was out there saying to bank executives and these other people on Wall Street that he was the only one standing between them and the pitchforks. This man is not who he claims to be. He is not at all similar to the core of the American people and that is why he has to lie with virtually every statement that he makes about his health care plan or the stimulus or the state of the economy. He has to lie. He has to lie about his plans because the people of this country would reject him by a landslide if he were honest. Wall Street Journal, June 14th, 2008: "Mobster wisdom tells us never to bring a knife to a gun fight. But what does political wisdom say about bringing a gun to a knife fight? That's exactly what Barack Obama said he would do to counter Republican attacks 'If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun,' Obama said at a Philadelphia fundraiser Friday night. 'Because from what I understand, folks in Philly like a good brawl. I've seen Eagles fans.'" If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun.

He's calling you an unruly mob. He has encouraged his union bosses and the trial lawyers to get in your face. He has encouraged them to try to intimidate you. He's trying to intimidate you. If anybody on our side ever said, "You bring a gun, we're bringing a knife, you bring a gun, we're bringing a knife, two knives," anything like this at all, what would be done? Now, ladies and gentlemen, let's just stay with the sound bites here because now your anger is manufactured by the insurance companies. Here is yesterday's press conference briefing at the White House, Robert Gibbs. Jake Tapper from ABC: "Is it the White House contention the anger that some members of Congress are experiencing at town hall meetings, especially over health care reform, is manufactured?"

GIBBS: Some of it is, yes. In fact, I think you've had groups today, Conservatives for Patients' Rights that have bragged about organizing and manufacturing that anger. What you've seen is they have -- they've bragged about manufacturing to some degree that anger.

RUSH: No, no, no. There's no manufactured anger, Mr. Gibbs. The anger is legitimate and real and it is boiling over. And you all know it because you are running ads trying to impugn the honor and character of American citizens who have the audacity to stand up, oppose and criticize this un-American agenda that you are trying to force down their throats and every other bodily orifice. And more and more of them have had it. So Mr. Gibbs, give me the name of the insurance company and give me the name of the insurance company lobbyist that's out there sending people to these meetings. If it's all manufactured, if it's not real -- and, by the way, you guys know all about that because your guy, Axlerod, invented this whole thing. It's called Astroturfing. It's called manufacturing fake grassroots. Your guy has a business that does it. You just don't like it when something that looks like your trick is played against you. However, this is no trick. There's nothing manufactured. These people are not making up their anger. They are genuinely ticked off. Steny Hoyer was heckled at an event in New York, Utica to be exact. He was there with Michael Arcuri, Democrat representative. They held a press conference to talk about funding for high speed rail and during the press conference Hoyer and a protester, Don Jeror, have this exchange about health care reform.

JEROR: Why would you guys try to stuff a health care bill down our throat in three to four weeks when the president took six months to pick what he wanted for a dog for his kids?

HOYER: The bill that we passed was a recovery to bring us out of this deep recession, brink of depression. For the last three months housing starts are up in America.

JEROR: You're lying to me! I don't have sophisticated language. I recognize a liar when I see one.

RUSH: This is a Democrat meeting. This is a Democrat meeting. And it's supposed to be some giant hooray for light-rail or high speed rail and instead it descends into a discussion of the economy and health care. These people in Washington, they have no clue. They have no clue. The Democrats in Washington have no clue. Well, you know they can read the polls. They do have a clue. They don't care is the bottom line. They are going to force this on you regardless.

RUSH: A community organizer cannot start bitching when communities organize, even if they are organizing against him.

RUSH: Steve Driehaus (I hope I'm pronouncing his name right) he's a member of congress in Cincinnati, a Democrat held a town hall to talk about health reform on Monday and during the Q&A, an unidentified woman shouted. This is very hard to hear. It's very bad audio. I'll tell you what she says after I play this.

CITIZEN: There's plenty of competition out there. We don't need government in our face.

RUSH: We cut the cheers down to save some time. What she said is, "There's plenty of competition out there. We don't need government in our face," and the audience erupted in supportive cheers.

Here is the talking point that's been spread to all of the State-Run Media and elected officials. This is a montage.

MATTHEWS: Well-dressed, middle-class people in pinks and limes, the Brooks Brothers brigade.

BOXER: The last time I saw well-dressed people doing this was when Al Gore asked me to go down to Florida when they were recounting the ballots and I was confronted with the same type of people.

LLOYD DOGGETT: Like that crowd of Republican staffers that showed up for Bush against Gore down in Florida. It's the same kind of approach.

RUSH: So, once again a talking point has gone out and a State-Run Media dutifully reports it and repeats it along with all of the others in the elected ranks of the Democrat Party. So, you're not real, folks. You are too well dressed. You are wearing a uniform. You look too much like Brooks Brothers, when the truth is most of you are in economic circumstances such that you couldn't afford to go in the door at Brooks Brothers.

RUSH: So it's the Brooks Brothers brigade, eh? I haven't seen the photos. I haven't seen the pictures of the Green Bay "mob" that showed up. But I'll bet you that less than 15% of them were wearing Brooks Brothers. And I also know this: I've been to Green Bay, I know people in Green Bay, and I know that "lime green" and "pink" are not popular colors in the Northwoods. These people are blowing it big time. The Democrat Party and President Obama are unable to tell the truth and now rip American citizens as a mob?

RUSH: Now, back to the town hall meetings. Something interesting is going on out there as you've heard Dick Turban and others say that these are all trumped up, they're phony, they're not genuine, they're sponsored by and promoted by the evil insurance companies. These are just people that are agitators, don't even know what they're talking about, they're organized and they're driven in there and they're just designed to harass. Now, there's a term for this. It's the opposite of grassroots, astroturf. These town halls they're claiming are not grassroots, they are astroturfed. Astroturfed is a plan, it's a mechanism invented by David Axelrod. From a very approving BusinessWeek, March 14th of 2008 story on Axelrod: "'The Secret Side of David Axelrod' -- The Obama campaign's chief strategist is a master of 'Astroturfing' and has a second firm that shapes public opinion for corporations. David Axelrod has long been known for his political magic. Through his AKP&D Message & Media consultancy, the campaign veteran has advised a succession of Democratic candidates since 1985, and he's now chief strategist for Senator Barack Obama's bid for President. But on the down low, Axelrod moonlights in the private sector.

"From the same address in Chicago's River North neighborhood, Axelrod operates a second business, ASK Public Strategies, that discreetly plots strategy and advertising campaigns for corporate clients to tilt public opinion their way. He and his partners consider virtually everything about ASK to be top secret, from its client roster and revenue to even the number of its employees. But customers and public records confirm that it has quarterbacked campaigns for the Chicago Children's Museum, ComEd, Cablevision, and AT&T. ASK's predilection for operating in the shadows shows up in its work. On behalf of ComEd and Comcast, the firm helped set up front organizations that were listed as sponsors of public-issue ads. Industry insiders call such practices 'Astroturfing,' a reference to manufacturing grassroots support," that doesn't really exist. You create the image of grassroots supporters and organization, you create it. It's fake.

"Alderman Brendan Reilly of the 42nd Ward, who has been battling the Children's Museum's relocation plans, describes ASK as 'the gold standard in Astroturf organizing. This is an emerging industry, and ASK has made a name for itself in shaping public opinion and manufacturing public support.'" Mr. Obama's top handler and speechwriter runs a company that's the gold standard of astroturfing, and just to give you a simple definition of astroturfing: manufacturing grassroots. He invented it. It's phony. It is a fraud. It is deceit. It is the creation of dummy organizations that exists supposedly out of a genuine heartfelt interest for a cause or in opposition to a cause, whatever is necessary for Axelrod's client. If Axelrod's client wants something to happen, Axelrod's company goes out and creates massive astroturf organizations that are fraud. They may look real but they're not people who genuinely care about the issue, they're just made to look that way on television. Rent-a-mob, if you would like to look at it in another way. Astroturfing.

This is not to be confused, however, with the genuine astroturf Bill Clinton bragged about having in the flatbed of his El Camino truck. Yeah. He bragged about it. There's only one reason he had it in there and it wasn't for the luggage. So once again the libs accuse us of doing what they invent and do every day. The problem is there's no astroturfing going on here. These are genuine grassroots organizations or people who are genuinely opposed to the fraud and the deceit that is literally being jammed down everybody's throats, something they do not want.

And another thing, I think the reason the left keeps insinuating that we're "astroturfing" these town halls is because they think we're like they are. They think everybody is as duplicitous and deceptive as they are. They think everybody is as snarky and as schemy as they are. They think everybody is as trashy and lying and misrepresenting and all that as they are. But we're not.

90 physicians went to the townhall meeting in the Woodlands, Texas (just outside of Houston).

Ford’s Explorer’s cross-over SUV is the winner of the most popular vehicle purchased in the Cash for Clunkers program:

It takes awhile to get to this important information, but, many paragraphs down in a story touting our recovery, we find these two paragraphs:

If laid-off workers who have given up looking for new jobs or have settled for part-time work are included the unemployment rate would have been 16.3 percent in July. All told, 14.5 million were out of work in July.

Job-seekers are finding it harder to get work because there are so few openings. A record 4.97 million people had been unemployed six months or longer in July. And the average length of unemployment grew to 25.1 weeks, also a record.

There is a lot of disinformation about health insurance reform out there, spanning from control of personal finances to end of life care. These rumors often travel just below the surface via chain emails or through casual conversation. Since we can't keep track of all of them here at the White House, we're asking for your help. If you get an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to flag@whitehouse.gov.

Emphasis added. Given the near certainty that no one will be stripping from emails the names of the people forwarding on the information, the White House is most likely engaged in unlawful activity.

According to 5 U.S.C. § 552a, United States agencies, including the Executive Office of the President shall, "maintain no record describing how any individual exercises rights guaranteed by the First Amendment unless expressly authorized by statute or by the individual about whom the record is maintained or unless pertinent to and within the scope of an authorized law enforcement activity."

The Climate Change Bill will reduce the number of jobs; it is not going to be a job-creator:

If you oppose Obama-care, even in casual conversation, the White House needs to know:

Since there are some links you may want to go back to from time-to-time, I am going to begin a list of them here. This will be a list to which I will add links each week.

This is an outstanding website which tells the truth about Obama-care and about what the mainstream media is hiding from you:

Politico.com is a fairly neutral site (or, at the very worst, just a little left of center). They have very good informative videos at:

On Obama (if you have not visited this site, you need to check it out). He is selling a DVD on this site as well called Media Malpractice; I have not viewed it yet, except pieces which I have seen played on tv and on the internet. It looks pretty good to me.

Conservative Review
Issue #87	Kukis Digests and Opines on this Week’s News and Views	August 9, 2009