Tuesday, February 21, 2012

That's the ticket


WSJ slams Romney as 'compromised'
Politico
By: Juana Summers
May 12, 2011 06:58 AM EST

The Wall Street Journal's editorial board is painting Mitt Romney as a “compromised and not credible” candidate for president, a harsh blow from the conservative mainstay just hours before Romney delivers a major health care speech.

“The health reform Mr. Romney passed in 2006 as Massachusetts Governor was the prototype for President Obama's version and gave national health care a huge political boost,” the paper says in an editorial this morning. “Mr. Romney now claims ObamaCare should be repealed, but his failure to explain his own role or admit any errors suggests serious flaws both in his candidacy and as a potential President.”

Romney is set to address deep-seated conservative skepticism toward the state health care law he enacted during his speech in Michigan today, while also outlining his plans to repeal the federal law. His White House hopes could hinge on a satisfactory tight-rope walk on the issue.

“Like Mr. Obama's reform, RomneyCare was predicated on the illusion that insurance would be less expensive if everyone were covered," the Journal write. "Even if this theory were plausible, it is not true in Massachusetts today.

“In reality, his ostensible liberal allies like the late Ted Kennedy saw an opening to advance their own priorities, and in Mr. Romney they took advantage of a politician who still doesn't seem to understand how government works,” the editorial says. “It's no accident that RomneyCare's most vociferous defenders now are in the White House and left-wing media and think tanks. They know what happened, even if he doesn't.”

Noting the similarities between Romney’s plan and the president’s plan, the editorial scoffs that if Romney is unable to change his message on the health care issue, “he might as well try to knock off Joe Biden and get on the Obama ticket.”

 ********


Obama's Running Mate

Mitt Romney's ObamaCare problem. 

MAY 12, 2011

Mitt Romney travels to Ann Arbor today to deliver what his campaign bills as a major address laying out his "2012 principles for health-care reform." These are likely to be sensible, but what we'll be listening for is how he explains his health-care principles of five years ago.

As everyone knows, the health reform Mr. Romney passed in 2006 as Massachusetts Governor was the prototype for President Obama's version and gave national health care a huge political boost. Mr. Romney now claims ObamaCare should be repealed, but his failure to explain his own role or admit any errors suggests serious flaws both in his candidacy and as a potential President.

***

There's a lot to learn from the failure of the ObamaCare model that began in Massachusetts, which is now moving to impose price controls on all hospitals, doctors and other providers. Not that anyone would know listening to Mr. Romney. In the paperback edition of his campaign book "No Apology," he calls the plan a "success," and he has defended it in numerous media appearances as he plans his White House run.

Mr. Romney has lately qualified his praise, saying in a speech in New Hampshire in March that "our experiment wasn't perfect—some things worked, some things didn't, and some things I'd change." He's mostly avoided specifics other than retreating to the cover of state experimentation, but we can fill in the details based on interviews with Romney staffers as well as others present at the creation.

When Mr. Romney took office in 2003, the state was already enforcing public utility-style regulation of insurers for premiums and multiple benefit mandates. The resulting distortions were increasing rates fast, along with the natural increases from good but expensive Massachusetts medicine.

Mr. Romney applied the approach that succeeded when he was a Bain & Company business consultant: He convened an expert task force. His health-care commission immersed itself in data, crunched the numbers and came up with a technocratic solution.

The conceit was that a universal reform would cover everyone and all but pay for itself by reorganizing the state's health-care finances. Since 1985, Massachusetts footed most of the bill when the uninsured showed up for treatment through a $800 million fund for uncompensated care. That money, along with extra federal Medicaid dollars under a special waiver, would subsidize lower- and middle-income residents.

In the name of personal responsibility, Mr. Romney also introduced the individual mandate, first in the nation, requiring everyone to buy coverage or else pay a penalty. Free riders, he said, transferred their own costs to others, either through higher premiums or taxes. This is the same argument the Obama Administration is now using to justify the coercion of the individual mandate in the federal courts. Because the states have police powers under the Constitution, Mr. Romney's plan posed no legal problems. His blunder was his philosophy of government.

The people who don't buy coverage though they can afford it aren't really a major fiscal problem—unless the goal of the individual mandate is to force them to subsidize others. People who are priced out of coverage require subsidies—so in practice the logic of the individual mandate is that it is a government mandate too. Entitlements automatically grow and grow, and then the political class begins to make decisions that used to be left to markets and individuals.

Massachusetts took off on this entitlement trajectory after Mr. Romney signed the bill in 2006 and stepped down to run for President two years later. Let's go to the data, all of which are state-reported, in search of evidence of Mr. Romney's "success."

The only good news we can find is that the uninsured rate has dropped to 2% today from 6% in 2006. Yet four out of five of the newly insured receive low- or no-cost coverage from the government. The subsidies will cost at least $830 million in 2011 and are growing, conservatively measured, at 5.1% a year. Total state health-care spending as a share of the budget has grown from about 16% in the 1980s to 30% in 2006 to 40% today. The national state average is about 25%.

The safety-net fund that was supposed to be unwound, well, wasn't. Uncompensated hospital care rose 5% from 2008 to 2009, and 15% from 2009 to 2010, hitting $475 million (though the state only paid out $405 million). "Avoidable" use of emergency rooms—that is, for routine care like a sore throat—increased 9% between 2004 and 2008. Meanwhile, unsubsidized insurance premiums for individuals and small businesses have climbed to among the highest in the nation.

Like Mr. Obama's reform, RomneyCare was predicated on the illusion that insurance would be less expensive if everyone were covered. Even if this theory were plausible, it is not true in Massachusetts today. So as costs continue to climb, Mr. Romney's Democratic successor now wants to create a central board of political appointees to decide how much doctors and hospitals should be paid for thousands of services.
The Romney camp blames all this on a failure of execution, not of design. But by this cause-and-effect standard, Mr. Romney could push someone out of an airplane and blame the ground for killing him. Once government takes on the direct or implicit liability of paying for health care for everyone, the only way to afford it is through raw political control of all medical decisions.

Mr. Romney's refusal to appreciate this, then and now, reveals a troubling failure of political understanding and principle. The raucous national debate over health care isn't about this or that technocratic detail, but about basic differences over the role of government. In the current debate over Medicare, Paul Ryan wants to reduce costs by encouraging private competition while Mr. Obama wants the cost-cutting done by a body of unelected experts like the one emerging in Massachusetts.

Mr. Romney's fundamental error was assuming that such differences could be parsed by his own group of experts, as if government can be run by management consultants. He still seems to believe he somehow squared the views of Jonathan Gruber, the MIT evangelist for ObamaCare, with those of the Heritage Foundation.

In reality, his ostensible liberal allies like the late Ted Kennedy saw an opening to advance their own priorities, and in Mr. Romney they took advantage of a politician who still doesn't seem to understand how government works. It's no accident that RomneyCare's most vociferous defenders now are in the White House and left-wing media and think tanks. They know what happened, even if he doesn't.

***

For a potential President whose core argument is that he knows how to revive free market economic growth, this amounts to a fatal flaw. Presidents lead by offering a vision for the country rooted in certain principles, not by promising a technocracy that runs on "data." Mr. Romney's highest principle seems to be faith in his own expertise.

More immediately for his Republican candidacy, the debate over ObamaCare and the larger entitlement state may be the central question of the 2012 election. On that question, Mr. Romney is compromised and not credible. If he does not change his message, he might as well try to knock off Joe Biden and get on the Obama ticket.

Monday, February 20, 2012

Ron Paul's Stealth Campaign

AP photo

 

Ron Paul's Stealth Campaign

Feb 16, 2012 7:45 AM EST




It's a worthwhile question to ask, whether Ron Paul, the firebrand libertarian candidate, is still running for his party's nomination. On paper, he certainly is, gearing up toward more state primaries and Super Tuesday next month. But he's lately gained virtually no media attention—nor appeared to want much. His fundraising has lagged, as well. And he's now locked in a bitter battle over Maine's paltry 24 delegates. Yet still, he retains extremely high favorability online, higher than any other candidate.

So what gives? According to the Election Oracle, Paul has played online with remarkable consistency, staying entirely in positive territory and avoiding the volatile shifts and dips of his opponents. One reason is obvious: The 20- and 30-somethings who ardently support the free-market platform of the aging candidate are heavy web users who gush about him on political blogs, in news comments and on Twitter. But less clear is how for weeks, Paul, despite his controversial and provocative ideas to massively reign in the size of government, has escaped any online controversy or sustained attack.
16-storychart-v2

To determine its favorability ratings, the Election Oracle tracks 40,000 news sites, blogs, message boards, Twitter feeds, and other social-media sources to analyze what millions of people are saying about the candidates—and determines whether the web buzz is positive or negative. That rating is weighted, along with the Real Clear Politics polling average and the latest InTrade market data, to calculate each candidate’s chances of winning the Republican nomination. (See methodology here.)

The downside of Paul's web popularity is that it isn't quite a representative sample. The positive web rating comes from his enthusiastic fans, but few others are talking about him. That means that instead of being universally celebrated, Paul has been sidelined by his party's more boisterous noisemakers.

That, however, might be all part of Paul's plan. Having let it slip that he doesn't share his opponents’ daydreams about one day occupying the White House, Paul's campaign has always been one of ideas, not momentum. Recognizing the statistical long shot of winning the presidency, Paul has instead tried to change the debate. Online, at least, he certainly has.

Email the Election Oracle at Oracle@newsweekdailybeast.com, or find us on Twitter at @ElectionOracle.

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Poll-itics

The major media belongs to the Obama syndicate


By Sher Zieve Wednesday, February 15, 2012

In order to sway the vast majority and growing number of Americans who have finally faced up to the fact that Obama is purposefully trying to destroy the United States of America, the Obama Media have begun their side of the Obama syndicate’s overall strategy of lying to us. Polls now show 50% of voters would vote for Obama. Intelligent people—even those few on the Left—know this is a lie. But, it’s what all third-world countries have done since their inception.

This is what we said would happen, at least a year ago. This is what is happening now. The polls are being used to convince the more uninformed amongst us that there is no real hope of regaining our country and we’d better get used to submitting to the dictator already in office. Obama does not intend to leave—under any circumstances—so we may as well accept our enslavement as the good sheeple Obama plans to herd off the cliff. Obama has told us via his actions over and over again that he will decimate our country and we can do nothing about it.

Note: As there are now myriad Marxist-plants in the Republicans Party (we who have actually followed their shenanigans for years know who they are) the Marxist-Dems have pretty much all of the support they need to pass one unconstitutional bill after another. And—if by some miracle these bills do not pass—they still have Obama who will unconstitutionally and therefore illegally issue an Executive Order for anything he wants. As I’ve mentioned before, we’re already living under a dictatorship.

Obama plans to reduce our nuclear weapons to virtually nothing
Today, it was announced that Obama plans to reduce our nuclear weapons to virtually nothing (an 80% reduction) and less than either China or Russia possesses. The dictator-in-chief is bent upon making the USA a target for both nukes and takeover by hostile forces as soon as possible. Our own corrupt Congress and US military leaders are currently silent…with only crickets being heard in the distance. In this, silence=concurrence.

Earlier this year, with his canceling of the (already contracted) Keystone pipeline deal with Canada and virtually forcing Canada to sell their oil to China, and his shutting down one coal mine after another, Obama has (in no uncertain terms) essentially told We-the-People “No more energy for you! It’s time for your country to die and make way for my real purpose and ascendancy. You have already learned that I can do anything I want to you and your country and no one will stop me. I AM Obama!”

We know about all too many of the other horrors Obama has already leveled upon us including (but, not limited to) ObamaCare, open borders (in order to destroy our border States), placing our enemy the Muslim Brotherhood in very high level security positions within the US government, allowing Iran to become nuclear-weaponized (while he guts the USA of its nukes), removing virtually all of the money in the US Treasury for his own reasons and setting up one after another “green” companies as shells for his own personal and Democrats’ slush funds and money laundering operations. Each day Obama remains in office he takes more away from us then gives it to himself and his friends. Congress and the leftist courts are smiling with him as they, too, work to instill and install as many perversities as possible and help him shred what was left of the US Constitution.

We have already been informed that if Obama seizes another term in office, he will remove the entire Bill of Rights—with the Second Amendment as his first target. Note: He has already done away with the First Amendment’s freedom of religion clause. Telling the Catholic Church (which would include other Churches and Synagogues) that they must comply with the provision of contraceptives, abortions and sterilizations is in direct conflict with the First Amendment. It is also illegal (which hasn’t stopped Obama from doing anything thus far), as the POTUS has no authority to make any decisions regarding the First Amendment—whatsoever—or any other Amendments in our Bill of Rights. It is forbidden by our now-almost-defunct Constitution. But, our elected officials seem to either stand in agreement with him or are cowering in silence at these escalating outrages. I’m sure that—after its decades of following the Marxist-Democrat line of “social justice”—the Catholic Church was shocked by Obama. They really didn’t think the Obama crocodile would try to eat them. But, it did…and may still do so.

As I have said many…many times (even talk show hosts now openly agree with me and are repeating what I’ve written) ‘if no one stops Obama, it’s as if the law no longer exists’. Sorry this cannot be more positive, folks. But, we are allowing Obama to steal everything we have, destroy our God-given rights and become our slave master. This is profoundly serious. He truly must be stopped.

As the 2012 General Election looms closer the bogus poll numbers will increase
As the 2012 General Election looms closer the bogus poll numbers will increase. BTW, the economy is not doing better. It‘s actually doing worse. Those numbers are also being manipulated by the Obama machine. In order to even begin to report numbers that would help Obama, the ObamaGov and the major media had to drop all essentially important data. The actual facts, as reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and reiterated by Tyler Durden, are: “…the people not in the labor force exploded by an unprecedented record 1.2 million. No, that’s not a typo: 1.2 million people dropped out of the labor force in one month! So as the labor force increased from 153.9 million to 154.4 million, the non institutional population increased by 242.3 million meaning, those not in the labor force surged from 86.7 million to 87.9 million. Which means that the civilian labor force tumbled to a fresh 30 year low of 63.7% as the BLS is seriously planning on eliminating nearly half of the available labor pool from the unemployment calculation.” The Obama government is continuing to fake employment numbers, as well as removing other detrimental to his ruling syndicate.

The major media belongs to the Obama syndicate. I suspect they actually believe the crocodile won’t eat them either. Apparently, they have short memories as to what happened to the press under the Perons, Stalin, Hitler and, most recently, Hugo Chavez. But, if we let it, we already know the crocodile is going eat us.


********

Sher Zieve is an author and political commentator. Zieve’s op-ed columns are widely carried by multiple internet journals and sites, and she also writes hard news. Her columns have also appeared in The Oregon Herald, Dallas Times, Sacramento Sun, in international news publications, and on multiple university websites. Sher is also a guest on multiple national radio shows.

Sher can be reached at Sher_Zieve@yahoo.com

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

RON PAUL FOR PRESIDENT!!!!!!!!

!!!!VOTE RON PAUL, NOT THE ROMNEY KEN DOLL!!!!

This is in response to the comments I've received on my post, "USOC:  OLYMPIC MITT".

I don't know if Romney's a robot, or a clone...if bonked his head so hard he lost a portion of his wits, endured a lobotomy, or what - maybe he got one o' them Chinese vaccinations and went and contracted autism...

But there's something missing in Mitt...something not lifelike.  In Dutch the word would be "kunst."  I've always understood that word to mean artificial life...like a cloth plant or plastic manekin.  like a doll, mask or mannekin [lit. "little man"].  

I dunno what his problem is per se, but it's not a small matter to me - and please, THOUGH NONE OF US CAN PUT OUR FINGER ON PRECISELY WHAT IT IS ABOUT ROMNEY, WE *ALL* KNOW WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT. 

Romney was quoted in my OLYMPIC MITT post as having said, somewhat ominously, "You don't want me for an enemy."  Well, mahybe not...but I wouldn't want him for a friend, either.  He reminds me of David in the movie "AI - Artificial Intelligence" - a little boy robot whose story calls to mind Pinnocchio and Frankenstein all at once.

I don't care HOW rich Romney is, he couldn't buy my company.  I would be unable to relax around him - indeed, I start getting uneasy just  looking at him.  Mitt's known to be HELLA cheap anyway - at least, when he's not placing $1O,OOO bets on the table - but while money might buy Mitt a firmware revision to improve the function of his personality module, a different and more special magic is needed in order to transform Romney into a real, live boy.

Whatever it is about Romney, it's a lot like what's wrong with Obama.  When we tell ourselves that Romney's Mormon faith isn't an issue...well, that's what a bunch of you said when speculation ensued about Obama's faith.  And what have we come to learn from that matter is that YES, IT IS AN ISSUE. 


Then remember when I asked in my post "Born Yesterday", "Where are the women who have slept with Obama?"  I mean, there are pictures of Obama smoking a joint, and he allegedly attended an Ultra-liberal arts college - so there should be at least ONE woman besides Michelle Chewbacca Obama...and if not a woman, then at least one man.  But I *don't* believe that Obama saved himself for marriage to that hairy behemoth Michelle...do you?  But there are no former girlfriends...so what does that mean?  Well, there are some who maintain that Obama *does* hsve a history of male lovers...but they've either met with untimely deaths, or been dismissed as drug-addled crackpots.

OK, nevermind the insight an old flame could provide us on either the Obama or the Romney androgynes.  How about a couple of chums from school [and no, not just that one guy from Columbia]?  No...?  Poker buddies maybe? Still a no...?

I was rather shocked when I learned that the Colorado Springs Independent's John Weiss sat on the board of directors for Fair Test WITH Barack Obama as recently as 2OO7.  Fair Test is an outfit that essentially claims that standardized testing - like the SAT and ACT - are biased toward this and that group of disadvantaged somebodies.  Weiss has done everything possible to make Colorado Springs a gayer city.  To learn they worked together to usher into our nation's public schools the outrageous Age of Teaching Kindergartners What "Gay" Means. I

It's called "guilt by association"...or "one bad apple spoils the bunch"...

Romney's association with Dominos Pizza narrows to one degree of his separation from Jan Tanner.  Jan is the president of the School District 11 Board of Educators, where she's been a fixture since 2OO4.  D11 is one of Colorado's largest public school districts, and manages a quarter billion annual budget. I discovered that Jan has raked in more than $1M off of a lucrative, no-bid contract with the District to provide lunchroom pizzas by way of her family's Dominos Pizza franchise.  Jan has yet to provide financial disclosure of the quiet, ten year arrangment, as Colorado campaign finance law requires.

Jan managed to wriggle her way out of questions that arose amid that cheesy situation because she is secretly SO RICH, having gotten in at the ground floor of Dominos.    The business model of their first location near Fort Carson is studied for its gangway success...  As a matter of fact, Mitt Romney is from the same part of Michigan as the brothers Mark and Carl Tanner...the latter who it's safe to say is OBSCENELY WEALTHY, also like Romney.   Long story short - those of you who follow my blog know that Jan is a leftist and a cheerleader for everything gay, as well as a cheapskate who owes me sixteen grand [you'll have to search my blog for details].

Romney's role in bringing gay marriage to Massachusetts, the Michigan roots he shares with the Tanner men, and the Dominos Pizza connection combine to form an awful triple-Jan stamp of approval.  That's. Not. Good. Folks.


Mormon Romney fans - prepare yourselves for the scrutiny that's about to be focused on your faith.  If the continued slams against Christianity are any indication, the Godless will take the tenets of your faith to twist and stretch all out of proportion...to make you all sound like a cult of crazy polygamists who believe  they are promised an afterlife as supreme rulers of their own planets somewhere in the universe. The guy who linked to OLYMPIC MITT apparently takes issue with the unflattering view I take on Mitt, who we're to believe is the nation's Mormon amigo.

Don't be lookin' at me all crazy and offended, ether, so quick to foist upon me your accusation of "wayout religious fundamentalist."   You are free to visit my Web, and your comments are unmoderated...but this is your only warnin - if you can't stand the heat, better get up out the kitchen, because Spydra will dish it out and taKe it, too.  I'll go no easier on Mormonism than I have on Paganism or Islam.

I'll post some more video to illustrate my contentions eventually - in many cases I already have, you just have to search my blog for it.

When Obama's teleprompter goes down and he's speaking extemporaneously...I'm telling you, it's not just strange, it's downright creepy - as though Obama's speech was on some kind of scratched vinyl LP that causes the needle to skip.  Weird.  Well, Mitt Romney skips, too...frequently [see my ost "At Ease"].

My boy Ron Paul is an understated Constitutional badass - he's not perfect, but then neither am I, neither are you.  Ron Paul has my vote, for better or worse.  Gingrich, too, has plenty of good mixed in with the bad.  But both men strike me as decidedly HUMAN...whereas Obama and Romney DON'T...both of them an image of perpetual youthful perfection portrayed by Mattel's Black Ken doll and White Ken doll. 

Yes,  the strange plasticity worries me.  I mean, what kind of person "likes" to fire people?  Well, a person without a heart, or a conscience, or a soul - either a mean person or a machine. What has the robot clone Obama done for any of us lately, or any of us EVER? When you find yourself asking the same sorts of questions about the Great White Hope that is Mitt Romney...well friend, you WILL feel an uncomfortable sinking sensation in the pit of your stomach...IF you're human, that is. 

I'm a black NOBAMA mama - never liked him, never supported him, never will.  If only because I don't wish to ever see Michelle Obama's HELLA FUGLY FACE for another four years. I pray that Obama won't be re-elected - he already slithered into the White House under false pretenses.

That said, electing Romney to office will be something akin to leaping from the frying pan into the fire.


In closing, I HAVE uncovered information that directly links the Driggs brothers to Romney...which basically links Bain Capital to Silverado, Western Savings, and Banning Lewis Ranch. Most people in Colorado Springs are all too familiar with the decades-long smoke and mirrors swindle that's ongoing with the fifty-mile area that lies east of the city.  Among the concerns are water, fracking, Free Trade Zones, China and the United States Olympic Committee.  If you want to learn more about it, search my blog for "BLR".

I haven't even mentioned the Romney connection to Intel, who came and left Colorado Springs in a dizzying and expensive flash...or Colorado Springs-based Dynamic Data.  Betcha didn't know that Herman Cain and Colorado Springs' Ray Marshall bothmade financial contributions to Romney's campaign...and how about this one - Bain owns Clear Channel Communications.  HEY, don't they enjoy a media monopoly here in Colorado Springs...aren't they the same ones who air Rush?  Well, no wonder everyone keeps saying that Romney's a shoo-in...MITT'S THE BOSS.

Hey, if you don't believe me, discover for yourselves the veracity of my statements.

I could go on and on, and I will, eventually...but this is what I have to say in conclusion -

WHAT UP, MY CONSERVATIVE TEA PARTY PATRIOTS?  IF YOU LOVE AMERICA AND FREEDOM AND OUR CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS AS MUCH AS YOU CLAIM, THEN FOR GOD'S SAKE, HAVE THE COJONES TO VOTE YOUR *HEART*!!!  JUST BECAUSE THE MEDIA IS TELLING US THE MOMENTUM IS BEHIND ROMNEY, DOESN'T MEAN IT'S TRUE.  DIDN'T WE LEARN ANYTHING FROM 911???

RON PAUL HAS CONNECTED TO MORE OF THE ELECTORATE THAN THE ESTABLISHMENT WOULD HAVE YOU BELIEVE.  VOTE RON PAUL, PEOPLE, IF AMERICA IS TO HAVE ANY HOPE -- OTHERWISE, START MAKING PLANS FOR WHAT YOU'RE GOING TO DO ***WHEN*** THE SH*T REALLY STARTS HITTING THE FAN, WHICH I BELIEVE WILL BE A FALSE FLAG ATTACK ON THIS SUMMER'S LONDON OLYMPICS.

I, Spydra, am a fierce and fearless truth-teller and humble warrior for God.  The Holy Spirit opens my blind eyes, and helps me to connect the dots.  I made a promise to God to calls 'em likes I sees 'em...and I am keeping that promise. 


!!!!!!!VOTE RON PAUL!!!!!!!!!

[Sorry about the typos in my OLYMPIC MITT comment...I was typing in the dark and wee morning hours, plus there's something wrong with my keyboard.  I would have made corrections and re-posted but I'd rather it just stay up as is, warts and all. That's just how some humans *do*.]