5.16.12
Wednesday

Good afternoon...

It's a cloudy day in downtown Jacksonville...

I went to Winn-Dixie this morning and bought groceries... I am stocked up...

I'm wearing my infusion pump... Chemo on the go...

I feel good... Part of my pre-meds are steroids... It's like taking viagra and speed at the same time...

The infusion pump comes off tomorrow and I get a one-hour infusion of Avastin...

And then starts the chemo crash...

I love the folks at the cancer center... My oncologist and my nurses...

I'm getting the very best healthcare!!!

Three more rounds of chemo and then another laproscopic surgery...

Did the White House cut a backroom deal with drug companies to get Obamacare passed?

Obamacare cronyism: The First Lady’s patient-dumping, privacy-meddling scheme!!!

The stench of Chicago cronyism over the White House just got fouler. Inhale this:

A shadowy $10 billion Obamacare agency with zero oversight just awarded first lady Michelle Obama’s pet patient-dumping scheme at the University of Chicago Medical Center a $5.9 million taxpayer-funded grant.

It will enable Mrs. Obama’s cronies to build a government-sponsored electronic medical record-sharing system.

The Chicago program, known as the Urban Health Initiative, is run by one of President Obama’s closest golfing buddies, scandal magnet Eric Whitaker, who has been entangled with Illinois corruption celebrities Rod Blagojevich and Tony Rezko over the past decade.

Fun fact: Whitaker recently was named by author Edward Klein as the man who purportedly offered hate-mongering Rev. Jeremiah Wright $150,000 in hush money during the 2008 campaign. (More here.)

The nearly $6 million grant was announced last week by the “Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation” at the Department of Health and Human Services.

White House watchdog journalist Keith Koffler notes that “some 3,000 applications were received for a share on the $1 billion in 3-year grants available. Only 26 programs were included in the first batch of awards doled out.”

The administration grants circumvent any and all congressional deliberation as part of Team Obama’s election-year “We Can’t Wait” initiatives.

The grant recipients will help fulfill the mandated Obamacare vision of a centralized patient-record database with unprecedented federal oversight.

The provision is being challenged in court by the Goldwater Institute for forcing Americans to share “with millions of strangers who are not physicians confidential private and personal medical history information they do not wish to share.”

HHS denies any favoritism, citing a “competitive, objective” process. But as I first reported in March, a Congressional Research Service analysis concluded that Obamacare’s Innovation Center is subject to no administrative or judicial review.

The Innovation Center director is, in effect, a super-czar without any checks or balances on his grant-making decisions, methods or results.

I warned two months ago that the Obamacare Innovation Center and its multibillion-dollar slush fund smacked of “another pipeline for political payoffs and Chicago-style boodle that will result in less patient autonomy, fewer health-care choices, more government intrusion and lower-quality care.”

The University of Chicago Medical Center grant walks and talks like just such a political payoff. I have reported extensively on how Mrs. Obama helped engineer the Urban Health Initiative’s plan to offload low-income patients with non-urgent health needs.

With consulting help from Obama senior adviser David Axelrod’s Chicago-based PR firm and the blessing of fellow Chicago pal Valerie Jarrett (who chaired the hospital’s board of trustees), Mrs. Obama sold the scheme to outsource low-income care to other facilities as a way to “dramatically improve health care for thousands of South Side residents.”

The program guaranteed “free” shuttle rides to and from the outside clinics. In truth, it was old-fashioned cost-cutting and favor-trading repackaged by a nonprofit, tax-exempt hospital as minority aid. Clearing out the poor freed up room for insured (i.e., more lucrative) patients.

The American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) blasted MichelleObamacare, expressing “grave concerns that the University of Chicago’s policy toward emergency patients is dangerously close to ‘patient dumping.’”

The group concluded that the Urban Health Initiative “reflected an effort to ‘cherry pick’ wealthy patients over poor.” That practice was made illegal by the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) signed by President Ronald Reagan.

Bipartisan complaints about impoverished South Side Chicago patients getting the shaft led GOP Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa and Democratic Rep. Bobby Rush of Chicago to challenge the crony hospital’s abuse of its nonprofit status and lucrative tax breaks. But the probe went nowhere.

And now, Whitaker will have $6 million more to play with when he’s not vacationing with Obama or grappling with subpoenas over possible kickback and pay-for-play schemes while he served as a top health official under now-jailed Illinois.

Gov. Blagojevich. One of the probes involves Whitaker’s oversight of medical facilities construction projects exploited by now-convicted real-estate shark Tony Rezko.

Whitaker was also under federal investigation for misuse of funding for faith-based minority programs. President Obama recommended Whitaker to Rezko, who was a top Blago’s bagman.

Anyone who isn’t concerned about the privacy implications of this government-funded records-sharing network hasn’t been paying attention to how Team Obama and its surrogates are digging for dirt on private citizens who donate to GOP campaigns.

Nothing to see or smell here? Discerning eyes and nostrils beg to differ!!!

Michelle Malkin

Making Life Fair!!!

Filmmaker Michael Moore took this notion about fairness to its intuitive conclusion during an interview with Laura Flanders of GRITtv, saying of rich people's fortunes: "That's not theirs! That's a national resource! That's ours!"

As is typical, Moore was confused or disingenuous.

In our corporatist economy, some fortunes are indeed made illegitimately though political means.

The privileges that produce those fortunes should be abolished. But contrary to Moore, incomes are not "national resources." If he's concerned with illegitimate fortunes, he should favor freeing markets.

Fairness is related to justice, the recognition of people's rights to their own lives.

A free market will create big differences in wealth. That wealth disparity is simply a byproduct of freedom -- vastly diverse individuals competing to serve consumers will arrive at vastly diverse outcomes.

That disparity is not unfair -- if it results from free exchange.

The free market (which, sadly, America doesn't have) is fair. It also produces better outcomes. Even "losers" do pretty well.

A more astute observer than Moore might show how unfair government intervention is. Licenses, taxes, regulations and corporate subsidies make it harder for the average worker to start his own business, to go from being a "little guy" to being an independent owner of means of production.

Most new businesses fail, but running your own business is the best route to prosperity and -- surveys suggest -- happiness, too.

John Stossel

Have a great day!!!

5.14.12
Monday

Good afternoon...

I had a great weekend...

It looks like we may have some rain soon...

Everybody talks about the weather...

But now some sundry items that may or may not stir your angry muse...

What happened to showing respect for the deceased?

In Jacksonville,Florida...

3 cyclists hit in 1 week.

2 dead.

1 that was a hit-and-run, the cyclist suffering critical injuries.

I’ve been encouraging folks to ride bikes in a city where not only do our drivers not understand the rules of sharing the road, but are also the kind of drivers that feel the need to make heartless comments on stories about dead cyclists – even dead children who were riding bicycles.

I don’t know what to do here in Jacksonville as an advocate. Damned if I encourage more bike riding and damned if I don’t.

The man whom I love dearly has chosen to give up the burdens of car ownership and willingly rides his bike all over this town.

He makes mistakes just like every human being and has already been severely injured by a car – an accident where both he and the motorist were at fault.

He risks his neck out there every day. If he were to ever get struck again, whether it was his fault or not, I’m sure there would be whole slew of heartless comments coming from a bunch of anonymous internet pussies who don’t know what they’re talking about.

So before you start thinking insensitive things about cyclists, think about this:

First off, everyone needs to be responsible behind the wheel of a car and while riding your bike. Use common sense.

It’s not always that simple, but common sense goes a long way if you’re still learning all the rules of the road as a driver and cyclist.

One example of using common sense: When you see a cyclist, child, or pedestrian in your sights, slow down, give them room if you’re trying to pass them, stop if you have to. Keep your eye on them and your foot on the brake.

After you safely pass them, if you’re the kind of person who finds themselves to be impatient and ticked off when you have to be safe around cyclists and pedestrians, ask yourself some simple questions to help you calm down:

Was that really so difficult for me? Was it really such a big deal to slow down for that person on a bike so they could safely reach their destination just like what I’m trying to do?

Was it really such a big deal to stop for that pedestrian so they could cross this busy road?

Did that really take up so much of my precious time?

Does my blood boil every single time I have to stop or brake for any reason?

As an expert on these matters, I can very easily answer all of those questions for you:

No.

Secondly, to those who have anything nasty to say about dead cyclists… What is wrong with you? Show some respect.

Stop watching so many violent movies and playing violent video games. Obviously you’re so wrapped up in the sensationalism of unedifying, modern entertainment, you’ve grown completely desensitized toward your fellow man.

That goes for those of you who say “Oh that’s so sad… BUT… (insert shallow validation point here)”. Would you want someone saying “Oh I’m so sorry for your loss.. BUT…”? Probably not.

So keep your opinions to yourself, unless you were an actual witness at the scene, in which case take your comments about what you witnessed to the proper authorities. If you weren’t there, you don’t know anything.

Thirdly, before you spout off about what you think the rules of the road are, make sure you actually know the rules. I’ve found a need to correct every single solitary comment regarding what a typical motorist thinks the rules are as they hastily type out their ignorant comments on Facebook or on news stories for all the world to see.

But if I actually attempted to enlighten every car-centric person who feels the need to write ignorant comments about pedestrians on foot or on bikes, I’d have no time for anything else.

Some things to consider before typing out that ignorant comment:

Did you know that cyclists have just as many rights to the road as motorists in Florida? A bicycle is a vehicle, and to some, it’s their only vehicle.

Did you know that pedestrians always have the right-of-way? Did you know that you have to yield to, and look out for, pedestrians and cyclists no matter what the situation is? It’s true.

No matter who’s making what kind of mistake, you as a driver of a large dangerous vehicle must drive safely anyway.

It’s as simple as that. Drive safely. Period.

Do you think cyclists think they own the road and thus, should be hated and deserve to be struck? Let me ask you something: Do you ever act as if you own the road while driving your car sometimes? I’d bet my left ovary you do.

So in that respect, if you think that cyclists deserve to die because they think they own the road, think again. Because that would mean that you deserve to die too, doesn’t it? And lastly...

What if one of your loved ones was a bike rider? When a person loses the sensation of feeling, they lose their ability to empathize with others.

They lose their ability to connect.

They lose their conscience.

Think before you make an insensitive comment about the deceased.

Jennifer Kubicki

The First Gay President!!!

NY Senator: Honor Mother’s Day by supporting pro-abortion group!!!

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, a New York Democrat, had a great idea for you when it comes to honoring your mother for Mother’s Day.

She thinks the best thing you can do is make a donation to one of the wealthiest pro-abortion groups in the country.

In an email Gillibrand primes the pump for donations for Emily’s List, a leading pro-abortion political action committee, using Mother’s Day as the reason for supporting them.

“This Mother’s Day, I can’t think of a better way to honor all the mothers in the country — past and present — than with a contribution to EMILY’s List,” Gillibrand writes. “They’re the ones working tirelessly to elect the pro-choice Democratic women who are making sure that our freedoms are protected for generations to come.”

Free Our Kids From Arne Duncan!!!

Obama now commands center stage following his formal announcement that, yes, he supports same sex marriage.

But for perspective on how we got to this point, we should shift our sights to three days before the president’s announcement. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan appeared on MSNBC where he responded “yes, I do” when asked if he supports same sex marriage.

Duncan at best raised a few eyebrows by stating his support for same sex marriage.

If he had said that homosexuality is immoral there would have been demands for his ouster.

How have we gone from a nation where our first president, George Washington, admonished that religion and morality are “indispensable” to ‘political prosperity” to one, today, in which our president says “same-sex couples should be able to get married?”

On the marriage issue, the national transformation has been breathtaking.

A new Gallup poll shows the nation evenly divided – 50 percent saying same-sex marriage should be valid and 48 percent saying it should not be.

When Gallup asked the same question in 1996, 68 percent opposed legalization of same sex marriage against 27 percent in favor.

In just 16 years the gap between those opposed and in support of same sex marriage has gone from a 41 point difference to practically zero.

Our public schools are controlled locally. But the influence of the federal government is substantial. The Department of Education, per its website, “administers a budget of $68.1 billion dollars in discretionary appropriations…” serving “…nearly 16,000 school districts and approximately 49 million students…”

It’s not trivial that Duncan, the man who oversees this massive enterprise molding the minds of our nation’s youth, publicly rejects the traditional definition of marriage in favor of one saying it just takes two (so far) warm bodies of any gender combination.

The president brandishes one of his favorite words in explaining his support for same sex marriage. “Fairness.”

Actually, this is about unfairness.

We have bought into a grand illusion that we can make our public spaces value neutral. But this is impossible.

The struggle in our public spaces is about competing world views. Not neutrality.

As one court ruling after another has purged religious expression from our public spaces, we have unfairly suppressed traditional values in favor of promoting alternative secular views.

As we have sanitized our public schools from prayer, from displays of the Ten Commandments, from any teaching that can be associated with biblical sources, we’ve put government monopoly power behind moral relativism.

California, for instance, has a new law mandating teaching gay history in public schools. A similar mandate to teach Christian history would be challenged constitutionally.

2011-2012 Resolutions of the National Education Association, the nation’s largest teachers union, include support of same sex marriage and sex education programs that appreciate “diversity of …sexual orientation and gender identification.”

Randi Weingarten, president of the nation’s second largest teacher’s union, American Federation of Teachers, lives in an open lesbian relationship.

It should come as no surprise when President Obama says he sees much of the growth in support for same sex marriage as “generational,” with strong support coming from our youth.

Attitudes reflect education. We have created a world in which it is illegal to teach youth in our public schools traditional religious values but it is not illegal to teach them competing values of nihilism, materialism, and relativism. And these competing values are actively promoted.

As elsewhere, the main victims are poor, minority kids, often from broken families, held hostage in these public schools and prohibited from being taught the very values that could save their lives.

Is there a way out? I only see one. Universal school choice. Liberate parents and kids from government and union controlled schools.

In a free America, parents who don’t share Arne Duncan’s values shouldn’t have them forced on them.

Star Parker

Have a great day!!!

The Messenjah

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