Monthly Archives: February 2010

This vid has everything: pathos, humor, horror, “The Carpenters”. You’ll be on the edge of your seat!

The Beast came away with too many conflicting emotions to count. His twelve year old daughter burst into tears.

UPDATE: Dead rodents can be fun!

The soon-to-be-ex Speaker of the House (November, 2010) tortures logic beyond all recognition:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Sunday that Republicans have left their mark on the healthcare bill and should accept that the bill will go forward.

“They’ve had plenty of opportunity to make their voices heard,” she said on CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday morning. “Bipartisanship is a two-way street. A bill can be bipartisan without bipartisan votes. Republicans have left their imprint.”

She argues that because a few Republican-sponsored items have been added to the Health Care bills currently receiving legislative CPR in Washington, the entire initiative can be considered “Bipartisan” even without a single GOP “Yea” vote. This would be like your wife purchasing a car against your will while you were at work (true story) and then claiming it was a “Joint” decision because the vehicle has the kind of cup holders you like.

Coffee Party activists say their civic brew’s a tastier choice than Tea Party’s

Behold, the rise of  “Coffee Party.” Stunned by the virtual overnight mobilization and organization of an angry, high-tech,  middle class right wing uprising against Obama’s rapid march towards European socialism, the Left has crashed from its hopey-changey high to find itself faced with some serious problems. Progressivism is an ideology of continual movement. It is protest marches and gatherings, lesbian brown bag lunches,  and speeches about “the struggle” for (insert favorite cause here – civil rights, gay rights, equality, nuclear disarmament etc). With the pinnacle finally reached by what they saw as the election of one of their own they seemed to have finally collapsed from exhaustion as they declared a paradigm shift, the exile of anyone to the right of Hillary to wander in the political wilderness for a generation, and the thousand year reign of He who slow the rising of the oceans. But by doing so they seemed to have passed the mantle of energy, rebellion against the status quo, and anti-establishment anger to the peasants who had been working the fields and serving as the backbone of the state all along even while the agitators agitated and the community organizers organized.

The TEA party types on the other hand have re-emerged from their brief stint in the political wilderness with a rightious indignation that has frightened the ruling classes and shaken the corrupt cabal that controls the capitol. Armed with tweets and facebook, pitchfork and torch, they are the most visible aspect of the Right-wing uprising against those who would force us down the road to serfdom. The Teaparticans stand for fiscal responsibility, free markets, limited government, and lower taxes. It will be interesting to learn what the Coffee Party people think they stand for…

Welcome all ye who enter here for health care.  This is MY interpretation…. if you don’t like it, don’t read it.

What does this have to do with Job?  Well Pelosi did a boo boo and said something about how the “jobs” were to take care of the healthcare bill.  Interesting… but how is healthcare going to be dealing with “jobs”?

Well interestingly enough I am taking some courses on healthcare, concerning medical coding and such.  I like to keep my options open in the job market.  And man am I learning stuff.  Like Social Security is the head of the Dept. of Health and Human Services who is in charge of Medicare and so on.  But what is more then interesting is how they hire individuals to audit Doctors offices who “accept” Medicare for their clients.  What do I mean?

Well if a Doctor takes on Medicare patients, they only get a very small amount per visit depending on type of visit.  Lets say about 45% of the actually visit… so around 45 dollars from the Government.  Okay, you have the start of an idea.  Nobody but the doctor is being paid for that.  The Doctor doesn’t get reimbursed for supplies, using instruments if need be nor does his staff get reimbursed for these patients.  The staff is mainly working for free on anything Medicare related.. including billing out the patient.

Now, the DHHS (Dept of Health and Human Services) contract people called Medicare Admin Contractors to AUDIT these Doctors if they see an issue concerning the codes that are sent to them for reimbursement.  Now, do you see a problem with this?  I do.

You have these people who sit there have to look up codes for certain issues and problems associated with the patient (which BTW can take a while if there is a patient who is not healthy in any degree) and don’t get paid for it.  So FYI these coders won’t care about all the codes and try to get the billing done to send out to the patient (if there is a need to bill the patient) as well as the Medicare dept.  So that is when the MAC’s (Medicare Admin Contractors) come in an audit the doctors office with no say so as to why.  But here is the kicker, not if but WHEN they find a problem with the billing (as they only audit codes and billing) they fine you for every single problem found. 

Nice how that 4 million jobs is going to be only for health care jobs… isn’t it!  If I were a Doctor, I would dump Medicare (and any government health associated venue) and be my own practice.

Good Luck to the Physicians’ concerning Government Health Care!

Ed at HotAir.com has a few links and a video if you care to see it.  I don’t have to stutter on how interesting the video is, so you can be your own judge.

Funny to watch… and Biden should refresh his memory on the subject.

Dems complain bitterly about the “tyranny of the majority.”

Colorado State University has recently decided to turn its Fort Collins campuses into criminal safe zones and completely disarm the student population. Deciding that the warnings and lessons of Virginia Tech are to be ignored the powers-that-be have decided to violate state law and forbid those with concealed carry permits to carry their firearms on campus. Thankfully, the local sheriff (who happens to be a big distributor and fan of concealed carry permits) has openly stated that he refuses to arrest violators of said ban or enforce any aspect of it.  Here is the garbage such sad, misguided policies are based upon.

IACLEA Position Statement
Concealed Carrying of Firearms
Proposals on College Campuses

Caption this photo.

Theodore Roosevelt riding a moose. – LIFE.

Last week 10,000 howling conservatives descended on Washington D.C. to attend the Conservative Political Action Conference. A yearly event hosted by The American Conservative Union CPAC has moved from what was once seen as on ‘the fringe’ of the conservative movement to the pre-eminent gathering place of ‘who’s who’ on the Right. This year conservatives smell blood in the water and the atmosphere was somewhere between incredibly excited to downright giddy. What is good about this annual conference is that it brings the many tribes, factions, interests, movements, and clans of the Right together to find common cause, network, and focus their energies not against one another, but against the common enemy. It is a time to move past petty squabbles and disagreements to find come together shoulder to shoulder to wage the righteous war against those progressives who would lead us down the road to serfdom. Last year Rush Limbaugh was honored with the closing keynote speech and this year that honor was bestowed upon the founder of the 9-12 movement, Glenn Beck.

A year ago the adherents to conservatives were derided as the last, pathetic followers of an ideology that had been defeated and destined to wander in the political wilderness for a generation. We were told that the country had undergone a paradigm shift and that progressivism and the prophet Obama would lead us into the promised land. I can tell you one thing, the conservative movement didn’t die in the last presidential election, it was reborn. It was resurrected with new hope, new leaders, and new passion.

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Will’s political commentary has always been a bit bloodless and wonky for This Beast’s taste, despite the elegance of his prose. But when he’s on target nobody does it better. His speech at CPAC is getting rave reviews and deservedly so – this is Will at his best and the Beast recommends everybody with a modicum of political awareness (left and right) watch.

Part One

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 The Mount Vernon Statement

  Constitutional Conservatism: A Statement for the 21st Century 

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That’s the question that PG and I have been debating.  Now, Anne Applebaum offers her own views, and specifically how it relates to Greece.

She points out that Greece’s fiscal woes have existed for a long time, but there wasn’t much politicians could do about it.

More to the point, Greece has borne all these burdens for a long, long time. Yet nothing has been done, because the country’s deeply partisan political system is totally paralyzed. Try to carry out any social security reform in Greece—raise the pension age, stop early retirements—and watch what happens: Mass rioting followed the passage of a pension reform bill in 2008, and the government became so unpopular it lost the next election. The land registry cannot be modernized, because those who possess land illegally will fight back. The barriers to investment cannot be lowered, because business lobbies are more powerful than politicians.

The more ominous news according to Applebaum is that the United States is more like Greece than you think.

But in a different sense, Greece’s weaknesses are also shared by the United States. Though we do not have precisely the same problems, we do have a similar level of political paralysis and a similar level of partisanship. It is not possible to reform U.S. Social Security: President Bush tried halfheartedly and gave up before he started. It may not be possible to reform health care, either: Hillary Clinton failed, and President Obama, despite throwing in expensive sweeteners, may well fail. The influence of lobbyists cannot be reduced. The power of interest groups to influence legislation cannot be tamed. We might not have farmers squatting on state land, but we do have farmers dependent on huge, distorting agricultural subsidies that apparently cannot be reduced.

You’d think their freak reflex would have burned out by now, but Monday brings yet another shock to the democratic system.

Citing partisan rancor in Congress, Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., said today he will not seek a third term this year, opening a potentially huge battleground in the conservative Hoosier State, The Indianapolis Star reports here.

Bayh has scheduled a news conference for 2 p.m. ET in Indianapolis.

Bayh, a moderate who has never lost an election and occasionally flirted with running for president, faced a challenge from Dan Coats, a former Republican senator. Analysts such as Cook Political Report had listed the race as leaning Bayh’s way, so his announcement comes as a surprise.

Following the news of Bayh’s decision, Cook updated its ranking and now lists the race as “lean Republican.”

Bayh was raising campaign cash at decent clip and had nearly $13 million in cash on hand. According to USA TODAY’s Fredreka Schouten, Bayh’s bankroll put him in third place for campaign money among senators up for election this year.

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The director of “Clerks,” “Mallrats,” and “Chasing Amy” was removed from a Southwest flight from Oakland to Burbank today. No, he’s not the latest drunk, belligerent celebrity to harass a stewardess. Seems he’s just too damn fat!

Now, Silent Bob isn’t taking this so quietly. He’s all aTwitter at Southwest, and is podcasting at them besides. I’ve always thought that Kevin Smith was one of the coolest celebs, and behind his understandable fury, the humorous way he’s responding to this only makes me like him even more. And he even gave Southwest fair warning what was coming. “You (screwed) with the wrong sedentary, processed food eater!”

AUTHOR’S NOTE: Yes, I know that he has more famous movies than “Chasing Amy,” but that is his best film and so I always include it. Also, I’d like credit for coining the term aTwitter as an adjective describing someone who uses Twitter to go ape about something.

“Technically, every dispensary in the state is in blatant violation of federal law. The time is coming when we go into a dispensary, we find out what their profit is, we seize the building and we arrest everybody. They’re violating federal law; they’re at risk of arrest and imprisonment.”

-Special Agent Jeffrey Sweetin, who is in charge of the DEA’s office in Denver

I had been wondering why the feds have been amazingly quiet in Colorado and elsewhere as the ‘pot shops’ have been popping up by the hundreds around the state. Maybe they are trying to lure everyone out in the open so they can swoop in and catch them all at once or maybe, in fact, they really just don’t care. My stance is less than concrete on the issue. I feel that plants are made for us to be used as medicine, but that those who abuse medicinal products really ruin it for everyone else. If cannabis is really medicine, then those who are potheads and pushing for total legalization are really no different than those who are doctor hopping for Oxy-cotin or downing entire bottles of cough medicine in one sitting. Abusing what can be beneficial is detrimental to society. Those who are hiding behind ‘medical’ marijuana as a backdoor to legalization lose people like me because I see through their thin agenda and am not fooled by their simple rhetoric.

In 2007, the Texas Board of Education had a major controversy over the teaching of evolution in schools. The result was a mish mash policy that caused scientific groups from across the country to condemn the Board. Last month, the Board took on Language Arts. They decided to ban Bill Martin, Jr., author of the popular children’s book Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See because, as one of the board members revealed, Bill Martin had written a different book entitled Ethical Marxism. The Board member who made the motion, and those who voted it in, all admitted that they had never the read Ethical Marxism. If they had, they might have known that the author of that tract was a different Bill Martin, a professor at Depaul University, still alive and writing today. The Board members might also have done some research by just making a quick phone call or two, since Bill Martin, Jr. of Brown Bear authorship actually lived and died in Commerce, Texas, and Texas A&M is home to the Bill Martin, Jr. Memorial Library, which hosts the annual Bill Martin, Jr. Symposium, and distributes the Bill Martin, Jr. Scholarship. But no matter. Even after being informed that they had the wrong guy in mind, the Board stuck by its decision. No Brown Bear for Texas children.

Now, the Board is preparing to tackle the state social studies curriculum, and you can just imagine what’s coming down the pike. This week, the New York Times Magazine published an excellent in-depth look at the Board and the controversies surrounding it. The main battle may well come down to whether the United States is or is not “a Christian nation.”

Yeehaa!

Olympic Torch Relay nearly complete – The Big Picture – Boston.com.

Let the money losing begin.  Remember the money making 1984 Olympics?

Sign the Petition Opposing the UN “small arms treaty”

And now a brief word from our old friend Dudley Brown. Damien, E, and myself all attended school with Dudley and Damien and I were later chairman of the CSU College Republican chapter that he founded. Always kind of fun to see him popping up from time to time on the web.

Political Correctness gone wild!

This sounds like somthing straight out of The Onion. But sadly it is not. He shouldn’t be a cheerleader to begin with and the fact that we are even talking about this whatsoever is ridiculous. Has everyone gone completely mad? What a bunch of idiots. If I were the school administrator I’d tell him to sit his butt down and bring on the lawsuit if you wish but you aren’t waving around pom poms. Case closed. I am so tired of all this “tolerance” nonsense. It is the death knell of common sense and standards of any kind.

Does this school not have frickin’ tryouts? I mean really. But at least they’ve got all their quota’s covered. And personal note to said gay, mentally-challenged biracial male who wants to be just like the girls… you aren’t a girl so quit trying to act like one. Geez.

Gay, Mentally Challenged Biracial Male Cheerleader Claims Discrimination

By my friend Warner Todd Huston…

Marvel Comics: Captain America Says Tea Parties Are Dangerous and Racist

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John Murtha passed away today due to a perforated intestine, which was a complication due to gall bladder surgury.

I don’t really care for Murtha, as a person he was a jerk.  But as a Marine as well as a family man… there is something to say.  Yes he said some stupid things about our troops which he knows were wrong.  But as a Marine he did volunteer his services for Veitnam and was also a Korean War Vet.  He was also married to the woman for over 50 year.  Just because he was a complete jerk…. doesn’t mean he wasn’t the worst person in the world. 

I can think of a few who are FAR worse then Murtha.

http://congress.blogs.foxnews.com/2010/02/08/murtha-dead-at-77/

Some of the '09 gourd and pumpkin harvest

I got out my various boxes of seeds today to do a bit of inventory and review what I have. The last couple of years I have begun to “self-harvest” seeds which saves a ton of money and is kind of fun to boot. This last year all my zucchini, gourds, and cucumbers (and most of my pumpkins) were all from self-harvested seeds. Overall they turned out pretty good. I grew approximately 15 or 16 types of gourds and after aggressively acquiring different varieties from a variety of sources I am now on track to probably attempt to raise an additional fifteen or more types this year as well as about four or five types of pumpkins including the very rare white pumpkin variety. It’s gettting out of hand but it is lots of fun. Let’s be honest for a minute. Everyone needs a “gourd guy.” And this last fall I was the gourd guy for a large number of people. I can’t wait for spring and Farmer Dave is planning to raise two varieties of lettuce, strawberries, several varieties of tomatoes, carrots (self-harvested), cucumbers, zucchini, Indian corn, a huge variety of gourds and pumpkins (probably about thirty altogether), cantalope, and possibly some cauliflower and broccholi. And I planted a grape vine in the fall as well. We’ll see if it survived the winter. Wish me luck and may the spring come quickly.
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The bill passed by a 217-212 vote, with no Republicans voting in support. The increase of $1.9 trillion is the largest in American history, and adds $6,500 in debt for every man, woman, and child in the country. Nothing more than theft from my children. Shameful.

Sarah Palin finally got to deliver her speech at the much heralded and scrutinized Tea Party convention in Nashville. I thought the speech was pretty good. I have my own issues with Sarah Palin but I’m glad she went somewhat out on a limb here to provide an incredible amount of publicity and legitimacy to the grassroots Tea Party movement. The 9-12 and Taxed Enough Already groups are still in their political infancy but have showed they do have some staying power, the ability to raise millions of dollars to target specific races, and now the attention of both political parties. Not bad for just some ordinary citizens using the internet to organize some rallies and “crash” some health care “townhall meetings.” Good for them and good for her. I’m glad someone, anyone, is standing up and saying the kind of things that need to be said.

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Republican US Senator Richard Shelby has put a blanket hold on all 70 of Obama’s pending political appointees to government positions, unless the administration releases $40 billion in earmarks for his state, Alabama. Among the most relevant issues of the last few months or so are 1) the crushing national debt and the need for congressmen to be able to trim it; 2) the political efficacy of Republicans simply blocking as much of Obama’s agenda as possible; and 3) Which party is really serious about addressing American problems, irrespective of politics.

On all three counts, Shelby’s actions are destructive. He makes  any conservative profession of fiscal restraint a joke. He makes the party look stupid. And he undermines any claim the GOP has to be the grown-up party.

The tea party activists were moved to conduct protests, ostensibly because they just couldn’t abide the growth of government that we are seeing since Obama and the Democratic Congress consolidated their power. If they are even serious about just looking serious, they must roundly condemn Shelby. I tried to contact FreedomWorks, one of the organizations behind the tea partiers, but haven’t heard back. I went to the site of their Alabama affiliate, and sure enough, there was an article on Shelby right at the top of the feeds. It was from five years ago praising him for his supposed committment to a flat tax.

The liberals claim that all of the apparent rage among the right is based not on principle, but on animus. Those Republicans don’t really believe in fiscal restraint, they just hate Obama. The tea partiers, Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, ConClub, etc. are offended, and insist that this is nothing less than the issue that will determine the existence of our Republic. So… if that be the case, then all of these organizations should bash Shelby. I’m not holding my breath waiting for Hannity, O’Reilly, or Rush to say anything, but the tea partiers are supposed to be more “organic” and thus more authentic. We’ll see. ConClub has it’s own tea party representatives. I wonder if Dave and Mo are planning to tote their cardboard signs to Birmingham.

I’ve been looking for a good piece to post on Reagan’s birthday. This is from Mark Alexander at The Patriot Post…

The Reagan Model for Restoration

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Real Clear Politics is a daily read for the Beast – he never misses it. Apart from the fact that it features the best commentary, a nice mix from both left and right, the Beast particularly enjoys the way they set opposite opinion pieces in tandem. Today, for example, we see:

Blame the Childish, Ignorant American Public – Jacob Weisberg, Slate

Followed by

Why Are Liberals So Condescending? – Gerard Alexander, Washington Post

How wonderful is that? Point – counterpoint!

The Beast has long marveled at the cognitive dissonance at work in a leftist ethos that postures itself as the movement of the common man that nevertheless regards him with deep scorn.  Leftist policies are tanking with the public, yet the problem is not the policy, the problem is the public. Presumably these morons were brilliant a year ago when they handed Obama and the Dems all levers of power in government, but not anymore.

From a raw political perspective, one hopes the left continues this strategy – attacking the voters is sure to pay off in the long run, right?

Right?

LeBron James Says Complicated Enrollment Form Prevented Him From Signing Up For Slam Dunk Contest | The Onion – America’s Finest News Source.

Let the Lindsey hype begin: Vonn is Sports Illustrated cover girl – Fourth-Place Medal – Olympics Blog – Yahoo! Sports.

Some women’s groups are up in arms claiming that is pose objectifies her, rather than celebrating her athletic prowess.  What do you think?

"Retracto" The Correction Alpaca

Breitbart’s “Big Journalism” site is a delight. But even if every single post were utter dreck, its existence would still be justified if only for “Retracto”!

Don’t be fooled by his fuzzy loveableness, Retracto has a talent for the jugular. He’s already forced multiple publications to withdraw incorrect statements and scurrilous smears.

One has to wonder how the editors at “Salon”, for example, react when Retracto shows up in the inner sanctum? It must be galling to have to give in to an Alpaca with a silly name, but they do it.

The latest:
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 The amount of money raised has been amazing, and the need to rebuild an entire nation from the ground up will continue for years to come. For those who care to donate to help during this humanitarian crisis here is the definitive list of aid organizations working in Haiti and how you can contribute.
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