Barack Obama’s administration is handling their power and influence like a Chicago bully rather than like a United States President. And the White House’s bullying of Fox News is getting way out of hand. No surprise that Obama and his Chicago crew are not enamored with Fox News but they have crossed a line into very scary territory.

The White House war on Fox News seemed to take a new turn after Fox was the first, and for a while only, news media to show the public the disgraceful films of ACORN employees. Fox then had the audacity to run negative reports on Van Jones, a White House environmental adviser, one of many advisers who were never vetted. Therefore it came as a surprise to the WH to see that Fox discovered Jones had signed a statement indicating the government was involved in the 9-11 collapse of the Twin Towers. With Van Jones’s quiet resignation, Fox is continuing to investigate other Czars and unvetted advisers. To add insult to injury, the MSM (mainstream media) are now paying more attention to the stories that Fox News breaks and quicker to go after the stories themselves.

To make matters worse Chris Wallace, the Fox Sunday New’s host, actually had the gall to have someone fact-check what the assistant secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs said. Chris Wallace explained “She criticized ‘Fox News Sunday’ last week for fact-checking — fact-checking — an administration official,” Wallace said Sunday. “They didn’t say that our fact-checking was wrong. They just said that we had dared to fact-check.” Wow. What kind of people is Obama hiring? Isn’t shutting down the media that disagrees with you the first thing a dictator does?

Shortly after the fact-checking debacle, Obama, acting more like a spoilsport, then a President, announced that on a single Sunday morning he would be on every major network, including the Spanish network, but not on Wallace’s Fox Sunday News show.

In the latest attack on Fox News, the White House senior advisor David Axelrod and White House Communications Director each separately reiterated the new Obama lie that Fox New is “not really a news station”. On Sunday, White House chief of staff Rahm Emanual provided a telling insight into what the core group running Obama’s presidency is thinking “It’s not so much a conflict with Fox News,” Emanuel told CNN’s John King. “I suppose the way to look at it and the way … the president looks at it, we look at it is: It’s not a news organization so much as it has a perspective. And that’s a different take. And more importantly, is not have the CNNs and the others in the world basically be led in following Fox, as if what they’re trying to do is a legitimate news organization …”

Wow. They are afraid that the MSM networks, which basically glorify Obama’s presidency with no questions asked, might be influenced by Fox and who knows, the MSM then might even do a negative story. But the frightening part is that as in typical Chicago style politics, the chief of staff is warning the MSM that if they ever act like Fox News, which I guess means to stop deifying Obama, then the White House will go after them, too. As a further signal of how the White House treats their enemies; the number of interviews the President has granted to each network stands as: NBC-12, CBS-11, ABC-9, CNN-7 and Fox News just 2.

But the blatantly unfair treatment of Fox News by the White House has not gone unnoticed. First, ABC’s Jack Tapper asked the following of White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs “It’s escaped none of our notice that the White House has decided in the last few weeks to declare one of our sister organizations “not a news organization” and to tell the rest of us not to treat them like a news organization. Can you explain why it’s appropriate for the White House to decide that a news organization is not one.” Gibbs couldn’t explain it. And even the venerable Helen Thomas, who is as liberal as they come, has chastised Press Secretary, Robert Gibbs, for trying to control and manipulate the media.

This week, however, the White House went too far. According to an article by the NY Times; The Obama administration on Thursday tried to make “pay czar” Kenneth Feinberg available for interviews to every member of the White House pool except Fox News. But to their suprise ABC, CBS, NBC and CNN all stood up to the White House’s and in a united front said either all of us, including Fox interviews Feinburg or else none of us will.

Perhaps the MSM finally remembered the Freedom of the Press and how the media is supposed to react to being manipulated even if the person manipulating them is ordered by Obama, himself. And how did Obama’s administration react to this surprising stand? By punishing all of the networks! They said that by not including the Fox network each journalist would only have two minutes for their interview instead of the five minutes as promised when they were excluding Fox. How childish can you get? And doesn’t the President have more important issues to worry about, like two wars, increasing unemployment, etc. etc.

Unless, of course you get the flu shot. Getting this shot seems like a no brainer and yet I have overheard a number of conversations where people are saying they refuse to do so. This gets me extremely angry with their stupidity, especially since I am one of the few legitimate folks who can’t get the shot. Why am I exempt? Well about 10 years ago, I would make sure that I got the shot every year. But the last few shots made me ill, not in the normal way of giving you flu like symptoms but instead gave me severe stomach cramps. Long story short, I had developed an allergy to eggs. I learned that the flu shot is egg based and apparently I became allergic to both the shot and eggs. So I now can not take any shot that is egg based.

Even without the shot I wasn’t feeling very worried about this flu for my sister who is a nurse had said that it was hitting younger people a lot harder than older people. She said older folks had lived through similar strains of flu in the past. She was basically correct except for one small detail, her definition of old. The 60 Minute show said the same thing she did except that they defined old as anyone born before 1950. Oops. Turns out that I am not in that protected group of “old people” as I had thought because I was born in 1958 which is after the cutoff date. So again, anyone born since 1950 needs to get the new flu shot.

Then this morning the Drudge Report had an article from yesterday’s Sun Sentinel. This report was about the health officials from my state, Florida, drawing up a plan to deal with critically ill flu patients. I was reminded of something I first learned about by watching MASH – the TV show about a mobile hospital during the Korean War. In the show, when the doctors were inundated with wounded soldiers they would first do a triage, separating the soldiers into three categories: soldiers who were dying or couldn’t be saved were put in one group; the second group contained soldiers who were severely injured but could be helped and the third group were the soldiers without life threatening problems. The first group was made comfortable while they were dying, the second group was immediately rushed into surgery and the third group was assisted only after they were done with the first group.

It now appears as if my state, and probably yours, too, is looking into doing its own triage to meet the growing H1N1 problem. As much as I hate to admit it, I have to agree with the health official’s idea of triage. We have limited number of beds and hospitals and more importantly a scarcity of ventilators so the doctors have to make hard choices.

Today’s triage is really no different than the old TV show. The report stated that the Florida Health official’s goal would be “to focus care on patients whose lives could be saved and who would be most likely to improve”. So just as in the TV show, patients who are critically ill, who aren’t responding to the ventilator and who they deem have a slim chance of recovering will be made comfortable but will not be placed on any of the scarce ventilators. On the other hand, patients who show no life threatening problems, only typical flu like symptoms will be told to go home, drink fluids and rest. The patients, however, who do have life threatening problems, which are primarily respiratory, and have been deemed to have a strong chance of survival will be admitted to the hospital and will be put on one of the few ventilators.

Triage requires making some very difficult life and death decisions. Could you imagine being told that your elderly grandmother or your son with AIDs or your sister with cerebral palsey would most likely be denied life-saving treatments? Conversely, normally healthy people, who have developed severe breathing problems from the flu, will be provided hospital beds and ventilators. However they will be monitored every 2-3 days and if the patient isn’t responding or is getting worse they may end up in that first group and their ventilator given to someone else with a better chance of survival.

The H1N1, according to 60 Minutes is not nearly as virulent as the flu pandemic of 1918 which killed over 50 million people worldwide. This flu is expected to kill less than 1 percent of the population but this is still a significant number. And it assumes that people act responsibly and get the flu shot. After learning all these new flu facts I almost think not getting a shot should be criminalized because many of those without shots will end up hospitalized and using scarce resources that could have saved someone else’s life. So please, get the shot, to save not just your own life but somebody else’s life, too.

In addition to my mother, I have known half a dozen or more women who were diagnosed with breast cancer. All of them caught it early and are doing fine now. So on one hand I agree with the push for early diagnosis. But this is something that every woman knows. And if she doesn’t her doctor or OBGYN will be after her to get a mammogram. By now everyone knows about breast cancer, so do we really need an entire month devoted to this one disease?

Actually this is beginning to remind me of Jerry Lewis’s annual telethon to raise money for Muscular Dystrophy. Jerry Lewis has been holding a telethon for 44 years, that’s right ever since 1965 he has been on TV in September begging for money. And each year he raises millions and millions of dollars, in fact he received a record $65 million last year alone. Good heavens. What do they do with all those millions? You would think by now that they would have found a cure what with all those donations each year.

Jerry Lewis and MDA have less than 24 hours to beg for money. Breast cancer has been given an entire month. A little online research showed me that Breast Cancer Awareness Month (BCAM) has been going on for 25 years now! Again, like MDA, where has all the money collected from those walks and donations for the past 25 years gone? Yet unlike MDA, they do know how to cure breast cancer if caught in time, so why do they still need all these millions? Not surprisingly, on the website for BCAM I couldn’t find any mention of how much money has been raised in the past Octobers. But with all the corporate sponsorships I am sure it is probably more than what Jerry raises for “his kids”.

I realize that Muscular Dystrophy and breast cancer are terrible diseases. But there are other diseases out there which are overshadowed by these bigger, much publicized diseases. It is wonderful that more and more women are surviving breast cancer but if an infant is diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis the diagnosis is death. Maybe not immediately but a parent of a CF infant knows that their child will lead a difficult life full of pills, breathing treatments, hospitalizations, diabetes, lung transplants and operations and even then if the baby is lucky she or he will die in their mid thirties, although many still die in their teens and twenties.

Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now or ACORN is supposed to help minority communities with housing, voter registration and other issues. Although they have recieved millions of dollars of tax payer funds and are eligible for additional millions in stimulus money they have frequently been found to be corrupt, illegal, and misusing our money. To find out just how far they could go, two conservative activists went undercover and visited ACORN offices with an outrageous request….

James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles, both young white twenty somethings, posed as a pimp and prostitute wanting to buy a house with ACORN’s help to use as a brothel for 10-13 under aged El Salvadorian girls and to raise enough money for the “pimp’s” future congressional campaign. Really! They even dressed their parts in over the top outrageous outfits that were parodies of the movie version pimp and whore. He went so far as to wear a fur coat while she wore next to nothing with huge heels and earings. Dressed like this they entered ACORN’s offices where they taped what happened next. And you wouldn’t believe it if it wasn’t on video. (To see for yourself, all of the videos can be found at: http://biggovernment.com/ )

After hearing the couples outrageous request for a house, did ACORN employees throw them out? Did they even try to dissuade Hannah from her life of prostitution? Did anyone mention any of the legalities or rather illegalities of their intentions? Did anyone speak up for the young girls who were supposedly being imported for prostitution? No, No, No and No. In fact, just the opposite. At each office, the ACORN employees went out of their way to assist Hannah in not only applying for a house but also in doing her income taxes and even hiding what she does and her money so that it wouldn’t hurt the pimp’s future congressional run. And the Baltimore office gave out hugs to their prostitute client.

But first, the Baltimore ACORN employee helped the couple to find a legitimate line of business or “code” since prostitution is illegal. They suggested she say she was a performing artist. This same employee then brings in their “tax expert” who later determines that the prostitute could claim upwards of $7,000 of her supposedly $9,000 monthly income as expenses and that she could claim some of the girls as dependents.

In Washington DC, the ACORN employee also councils how to get around being a prostitute by telling them to “create false company name to disguise ‘Lady of the Night Thing’” and encourages her to not put prostitute down as business but to set herself as a Sole Proprietor of her own business such as Marketeer or Consultant. When asked by the pimp if he could be the one to put up the money for her and she can do the tricks in the new house, the ACORN employee agrees with a “Yep”. They then tell him that he needs to be just the landlord and shouldn’t have any knowledge of what is going on in the house and he should stay away from that house if he wants to go into politics. The Washington DC ACORN employees go so far as to tell the “pimp” to lie to the police if he is ever asked about what happens in that house.

After these two films were released late last week even though the MSM ignored them, others are finally starting to take some action. Personally, I was thrilled to hear that the Census Bureau will not use ACORN to help with the upcoming Census. Yes! Then yesterday, Congress passed a law which stops million dollar funding to ACORN.

To try to limit any more damage, ACORN has fired most of the employees involved in the sting. The Chief Organizer of ACORN, Bertha Lewis then spoke out saying “This recent scam, which was attempted in San Diego, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Philadelphia to name a few places, had failed for months before the results we’ve all recently seen.” And so with obvious glee, O’Keefe released yet a third video, this time from Brooklyn, New York.

The New York ACORN office reacted the same way that the Baltimore and Washington DC ACORN office’s reacted. Although this office suggested that the prostitute put her earnings in a tin and buries it in the backyard of her new house! This office also suggests that the prostitute buy the house then transfer it to a third party who then sells it to the pimp so that there is no direct link between the pimp and the prostitute. As for Hanna’s profession, the ACORN employee tells her “If you are going to do it then do it well, and start thinking for yourself.” Enough. You get the drift.

To repeat myself, as outrageous as this story is, the bigger outrage is the fact that NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC, The New York Times, The Washington Post and almost every other MSM has yet to provide a detailed story on this even though it has all the elements of a great scandal: sex, brothels, under age prostitution, corruption, etc. I also wouldn’t be surprised if there are more videos to follow.  And yet, could you imagine what they would do if this was a conservative group and not ACORN with its close ties to the President?

I mention this because in the current discussions of health care I wonder how the government’s plan for health care would affect charities and those with chronic illnesses? There’s been a lot of talk about how the elderly will be treated, but what about those like my niece, Aubrey Rose? Will the government continue to allow her to get expensive medications, participate in clinical trials or go to specialists, particularly if there isn’t a cure? Who will make these decisions? Today it is between you, your doctor and your insurance company. Do you want to have the government become a part of these painful, emotional decisions?

If we had national health care then I could easily see how the government would feel it is looking at the “big picture” and using your dollars to provide the care that would benefit the most. They might ask - is it fair to spend all this money on one child when there is no cure for her disease? Hell yes, if it is your child! And can’t you just see the health care panel denying a CF teen a new lung thinking that she will probably die in another 10 years so let’s give the lung to someone with a longer life expectancy. Wow. This is not what America is all about. A cost-benefit approach is an awful path to go down and we must never take even a first step in that direction. For didn’t some other governments start off with just this kind of questions? First, it was the mentally ill and chronically ill but it went on from there… And even in America, how far might this line of questioning go and where might it lead us?

As I said in the beginning, I am writing about this not only as a concerned citizen but also as “Aunt Patti”. My niece, Aubrey Rose, was diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis a few days after she was born. The family was horrified to learn that there is no cure and she was destined to have a difficult and shortened life. In fact, right now her life expectancy is only 37 years old. Can you imagine all that you have done or might miss in your forties, fifties, sixties and even seventies if you were to die in your mid thirties?

Yet my niece is lucky that she was born in America. If she had been born in Ireland, where there is national health care, her life expectancy drops from 37 all the way down to 27! CF patients have ten years taken from an already shortened life because of the lack of care in a country with socialized health care. This should be a huge warning to our country as to the detrimental impact of socialized health care.

Of course, one way to avoid the whole nationalized health care problems is to be healthy. To that end, a lot of people are working very hard to find a cure for CF or to at least give CF patients the means to live a healthier longer life. And we are working hard, too, through our annual 65 Roses Golf Classic. When Aubrey was diagnosed we decided that since government doesn’t give a penny to help the CF Foundation then my family would raise money to help find a cure. But unlike other charity functions which raises money, every dollar donated would go to the CF Foundation and not to some dubious “Trust Fund”, plus 90 cents of every dollar donated to the CF Foundation goes straight to research and not to exorbitant salaries or fancy trips. So you know when you donate money that it is going to truly help out.

Eight years ago my family, friends and the Orlando Chapter of CF started the 65 Roses Golf Classic. About 6 of us worked hard to put on this event but it is worth the effort as we have raised tens of thousands of dollars each year for the CF Foundatoin. Now it’s time for the next tournament. But we need your help. The economy is making it tough on all charities, including our own event. Yet if we help each other than there will never be a need for government to step in. Now that is what America is truly all about – people helping each other without any government interference. And here is how you can help us raise money to find a cure for CF…

If you live in Central Florida, we would love if you could join us at our 65 Roses Golf Classic in honor of Aubrey Rose to be held on November 23, 2009 at the Heathrow Country Club in Lake Mary Florida. Many of our golfers return each year for the golf, great food, drinks, good auction items and for the overall comradery of the group. Plus as a special treat, before the tournament begins, the golfers also enjoy a clinic by professional golfer Chris DiMarco. That is just the start to what is always a fun and rewarding day. Click on this link for more information http://orlando.cff.org/65rosesgolf .

If you can’t be here, you can still help out by giving a donation to this wonderful cause. Your donation, no matter the size, is important since every single dollar is making a real differenced in the search for a cure for Cystic Fibrosis. My family and I would appreciate whatever your budget allows, be it your charitable donation of $10, $25, $50 or $250. Plus this donation is 100% tax deductible. To donate to the 65 Roses Golf Classic to help find a cure for CF, click on this link www.cff.org/lwc/auntpatti.

Aubrey Rose is smart and funny and sweet and stubborn, in other words just like most kids her age. Except as you saw in the video (http://www.wftv.com/video/17788642/index.html) her life is different from her classmates Yet she deserves, as does every CF child, to have a long and healthy life. And it is up to us to help her do just that. So please, help us find a cure for Aubrey Rose and the 30,000 others with Cystic Fibrosis by donating to our 65 Roses Golf Classic at www.cff.org/lwc/auntpatti. And join me in my prayer for my beautiful niece, Aubrey Rose; that some day a cure is found so that that this terrific little girl who is just starting second grade, will live a long life and will die of old age surrounded by her children and her children’s children in the far far future. Wouldn’t that be wonderful?

I agree, up to a point. In fact I was a bit angered to learn that a friend’s 87 year old mother-in-law had just had a hip replacement operation. This elderly woman suffered from dementia, diabetes, extreme arthritis and a multitude of other ailments plus her family ignored her the one time she spoke out against the operation since they thought they knew best for her. Or at least most did since some family members argued to stop everything and simply let her die but these voices were drowned out by those wanting her to have the operation. Plus I am sure that the nursing home also encouraged the operation for the practical reason of wanting her to be mobile and able to go to the bathroom on her own and not to require diaper changes. Yet all of the family infighting about treatment could have been avoided if she just had a Living Will. But at this point it was too late as she wasn’t capable of making decisions.

So yes, I agree that this woman probably should not get more medical treatment and should simply be made comfortable as she dies. But this puts you on a very slippery slope. For what is the cut off point? If my 51 is too young but there is a need for end of life options for this 87 year old patient then perhaps at 80 people should be denied treatment. Except I look at my own 81 year old mother. If she were to fall I would be one of the ones arguing for a hip replacement operation. Am I being hypocritical? No. For unlike the first elderly woman, my mother is a sharp, active, intelligent older woman who neither looks nor acts her age. My mother at 81 is as active as many a 65 year old. So you can’t use age as the criteria. What might have worked for my friend’s parent certainly would be wrong for my mother.

In fact, my father was only 65 when he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. After only one chemo treatment we realized he was dying and we then wanted to make what little time was left to be as easy as possible for him. In this case we turned to Hospice to help him. If a family member is dying then Hospice is wonderful. So why does the government need to create a whole new panel and one more bureaucratic department? Wouldn’t it make more sense for them to provide government grants to this organization which is already in place and functioning quite well?

The final argument was the costs associated with health care for the elderly. Wow. How cold is that? Liberals actually worry that keeping mom and dad alive and paying for their health care will bankrupt the government. The same problem of lack of funding concerns treating uninsured people. Who is more important – the people or the government? For if the former, we can find the money. Hell, let the banks pay back their bailouts, take the majority of the stimulus money not spent and gee here’s a thought, fire the 30+ highly paid Czars (the Energy and Environment Czar is getting $172,000 for example) and let the Cabinet do its job instead. Money is not an issue. If Obama could find all these trillions for people to buy a car then he can find the money to take care of our parents. Besides, using existing groups such as Hospice would save billions in the projected salaries for new government employees.

Conservatives have made their point about the major problems with HR3200. Now is the time to start offering alternative ideas. Here are a few suggestions; some are already being discussed while others are my own ideas:

Yet it has occurred to me that in all the debates about end of life counseling I have yet to hear anyone mention how your perspective and reasoning changes when you are ill or injured. For example, I am a political junkie who loves to keep up on what is happening in Washington and then to write about it in my blog. And yet since I learned that I have blood clots in my lower aorta which has already nearly destroyed my right leg I no longer care very much about what is happening elsewhere and I have opted out of the politics and discussions whirling around about the health care bill. In fact, I was very surprised to realize just how long it has been since my last blog. That really shows how caught up I am in my own personal drama and ignoring the rest of the world.

I think I am typical in that the world narrows when you are ill. All your focus and energy are inward and you simply are unaware of anything else. So I wonder, how would I react if a stranger, a government official, were to council me about end of life decisions right now? How many people who are ill and weak and tired will simply agree to give up when that is presented as a viable choice in the end of life discussions? I know that I was in so much agony this spring before my last surgery that I am not sure what I would have agreed to in order to stop the pain. While we are in the throws of pain or caught up in an illness or simply physically run down we do think and act differently.

Now try to factor in having someone from the government step into the lives of people who are in pain or ill. They say it will be voluntary but when you are that ill you are in no condition to request this so I don’t doubt that others, including the hospital social worker, might call them in for you or even the panel might stop by as a matter of routine to walk through the hospital. Sure you could tell them to go but you simply don’t care and frequently aren’t totally aware of the surroundings around you.

In April I recall being rushed to the hospital and sitting in the waiting room but after that I have no memory for the next six days other than occasional glimpses of what was going on. I was told I talked and interacted with others but I have no memory of this. So just imagine if an official should happen to stop by or even be called by a family member, who knows what I might have said or which choice I might have agreed to but whatever it was I wouldn’t have had any memory of it later on. And by the time someone tells me what I did, it might be too late.

Even if you are alert, it is still a time when confusion reigns as you grapple with what is wrong with you, what the doctor will do, what is the outcome, how you will cope when you get back home, if you will still have a job, who’s taking care of your family, etc. To add to the confusion is the government expert who would present you with five different choices, including end of life services. This last choice would not only take away your pain but would also allow you to avoid all this hassle and confusion you’re encountering right now and yet end of life is probably not something a person would choose if they were in their right mind.

I thought I read that this end of life counseling was going to be discarded from the health plan. But I just heard Obama’s Saturday radio address. He started off by saying he wanted to debunk the health care myths which are spread by those who would benefit the most. Then a minute or so into his speech he says that death panels are not true and not in the plan. Obama is correct in that the phrase “death panel” is not in the plan but there is a section outlining end of life counseling. So once again he is being a lawyer and specifically calibrating his words to confuse the public.

Obama is also correct when he says that those who have the most to gain are fighting the health plan. For it is every day people like you and me who are protesting this outrageous government take-over of our health care because we know we have the most to lose if it is implemented. And if you think hearing about this is tough, just try to listen to this garbage when you are sick, ill, injured or hurt and require help from the health care system. You want your health care system to make you better, to allow you to get the tests you need, to see doctors who can help you and undergo the operations to make you better. The last thing you need is to have some government stranger butt into your life to tell you that one of your choices is to give up and die. ]]> http://pcfugitive.hypocrisy.com/2009/08/22/a-patients-view-of-hr3200/feed/ http://pcfugitive.hypocrisy.com/2009/08/11/obamas-organizing-america/ http://pcfugitive.hypocrisy.com/2009/08/11/obamas-organizing-america/#comments Tue, 11 Aug 2009 14:55:22 +0000 PC Fugitive http://pcfugitive.hypocrisy.com/?p=441 I received an email this week from Obama that caught my attention. In it President Obama stated that “All this week, OFA (Organizing for America) members like you will be stopping by local congressional offices to show our support for…]]> I received an email this week from Obama that caught my attention. In it President Obama stated that “All this week, OFA (Organizing for America) members like you will be stopping by local congressional offices to show our support for insurance reform.” It goes on to say “As you’ve probably seen in the news, special interest attack groups are stirring up partisan mobs with lies about health reform, and it’s getting ugly. Across the country, members of Congress who support reform are being shouted down, physically assaulted, hung in effigy, and receiving death threats. We can’t let extremists hijack this debate, or confuse Congress about where the people stand.” And ends with “Earlier this week, the President wrote that “this is the moment our movement was built for” and asked us all to commit to join at least one event this month. This is the way to answer that call, and rise to the challenge of this moment together.”

This alarming language feeding the fear and anger of the far left is totally unbecoming of a President. Sure Obama should encourage his followers to stand up for what they believe in but he is only inflaming the situation by referring to the right as partisan mobs. And I don’t recall hearing that any congressman or woman was physically assaulted, have you?

Voters wanted to trust in this newly elected President and Congress and allowed them to push through the stimulus bill, and cap and trade with little to no resistance within the first 100 days. But that is how the American people act – we believe in giving everyone a chance. Even if you didn’t vote for the man, the country was hurting and most of us wanted him to help this country. We didn’t agree with how he wanted to help us but we were willing to give him a chance. We are now realizing that there was a fatal flaw in our generous and naïve trust in President Obama.

You see, it would have never occurred to most citizens that our leaders would enact legislation that would purposively hurt our country. Obama and Congress swore to serve and protect us, right? So we tried to understand the benefits of saddling this country with trillions in debt for economic stimulus bills which might not even implement these jobs for years in the future. We wanted to believe that the cap and trade would help the environment and couldn’t fathom the darker side that it was a way to redistribute wealth and punish successful companies.

But in the past month, Obama has acted in such a manner and Congress has drafted such astonishing legislature that we can’t ignore our misgivings any more. People began to finally wake up when Obama sided with the angry black man vs. law enforcement and when Congress tried to ram through a 1000 page Health Care Bill that would dismantle every existing health plan we have today. Perhaps the epitome of the stupidity found in Washington is the Cash for Clunker program which ran out of money in the first few days. And people are realizing that there can only be some hidden disreputable reason as to why Washington won’t let the banks pay back the bailout money.

I keep thinking of the classic movie Network and the much quoted line “I’m mad as hell and I won’t take it any more.” And it has always been to their own detriment when leaders or other countries dismiss angry citizens. We are basically a friendly and forgiving group of people but when we are angry, we become an entirely different animal altogether. Just ask Japan or Germany or Iraqi’s. We believe in fairness but we also believe in justice. And Washington has not acted fairly to us and we are now out for justice.

Chills now run up my spine as I listen to average citizens confronting their Congressmen. I cheered when the crowd booed Senator Specter when he said they needed to pass the health bill “fast”. I am thrilled when I hear protesters chanting “Just say no” at a Representative’s rally in Texas. I laughed when I read that Senator Diane Feinstein’s office threw out a group of senior citizens who refused to leave her CA office. And I am elated when citizens stop being passive and now are standing up to Washington.

All of this is reflected in the downward spiral of Obama’s popularity. And we must be succeeding because Obama is now going after those who speak out. It is truly scary that Obama wants people to snitch on those who are protesting against him. On Aug 4 a White House website posted the following statement:

And yet they do have a point. I recently had a discussion about a 93 year old woman who had a hip replacement surgery and I must admit that I thought it was a bit much at that age. I was even more disturbed when told that they had found bone cancer and were reviewing all kinds of treatments to extend the poor old woman’s life for another six months or so. In this case I thought it was a waste of money and the doctor’s time; that the best treatment was to make the elderly woman comfortable and out of pain and let her end her life with dignity.

So in this case I agreed with the proposed health care plan. But this was about cutting off surgeries to a 93 year old. How do you determine what that cut off age should be? Should treatment be stopped at 90 or maybe 80 or perhaps go down to 70? In actuality, the health care plan was written where they could refuse treatment to anyone over 59 years old! Hell, Tom Watson, who will turn 60 in Sept. nearly won the British Open and yet this health care bill will consider him as old and potentially unworthy of medical treatment in 2 months!

Think about the implications of this odious bill. A healthy 60 year old man who has a heart attack could be given minimal treatment while a 64 year old woman with breast cancer could be denied chemo treatment since keeping these “old” people alive would be deemed “too expensive” especially if they lived to the current average age of 78. It would instead be much cheaper and we would free up surgeons and medical centers if we simply give these sick people pain meds and let them die. And yet, one of the first things Obama did upon becoming president was to restore a provision in the Endangered Species Protection Act that Bush had removed that would provide greater protection to animals.

What does this tell us? That liberals seem to be more concerned about the welfare of the spotted owl, titmouse, American burying beetle and other obscure animals than they are for your grandparents, parents, diabetic Uncle, chronically ill sister, paraplegic friend or Cystic Fibrosis niece? And at a time when Obama promises new jobs with shovel ready federal projects he has just hamstrung those very federal projects by reinstating that clause in the Endangered Species Protection Act which would require any federal project to undergo an independent scientific review that might affect a protected species. So these new federal projects needed to provide jobs could be delayed or even stopped because of some mouse or fish or bird. Yet while denying jobs in order to save a damn bug the government is condoning euthansia by denying medical treatment to the elderly. This is insane!

What makes it even more preposterous is if you factor in the liberals religious beliefs. For it almost is forgivable to let the elderly die if, as in most religions, you believe that they will be going to a better place. But liberals tend to be atheists. So they don’t have this comforting belief that those who are dying will go to heaven. To the atheists, when you die, you are dead and gone and that’s it. Believing there is nothing after death makes their proposal to take away expensive treatments from seniors (defined as over 59, mind you) and to simply let them die that much crueler than if they thought the dying would go to heaven. Think about it. How cold is that?

We have got to stop this insanity. Mankind must come first and people should recognize that each life is precious. For if we start to deny aid to the elderly then who will be next? Liberals already deplore using animals to test potentially life saving drugs so they might decide we could save a lot of money (and animals) by not funding research to find cures for chronic illnesses and simply let them die, too. Or will expectant mothers one day be required to take tests to determine if their fetus’s have any chronic illness and therefore the pregnancy must be terminated before the child is born and all the health costs are incurred? What might they decide to do with the mentally ill? Once started how far down that slippery slope will we go?

This is still America. The health care reform is the very antithesis of why this country was founded. For remember that each of us was promised Life, not death, in our country’s Declaration of Independence:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.