PrezBo "Borrows" Survivor Tactics In Campaign

For those that watch the reality show Survivor you may recall an incident from one season where a guy named Johnny Fairplay concocted a story about his grandmother dying to help him move on in the competition. Tell me this story from Byron York about Obama's characterization of his mothers fight with a health insurance company doesn't smack of the same ploy.

A dozen years later, her son turned her ordeal into a campaign pitch for national health care. But the story Obama told, Scott writes, was "abbreviated" -- the abbreviation was to leave out the fact that Ann Dunham had health insurance that paid for her treatment. "Though he often suggested that she was denied health coverage because of a pre-existing condition," Scott writes, "it appears from her correspondence that she was only denied disability coverage."

Obama and Johnny has something else in common. "Promises are like wicker furniture and fat ladies, easily broken."

By any means necessary, it's not just for breakfast anymore.

Country With Worst Health Care In The World Wins Nobel Prize

Healthcare in America is in crisis, Republicans want you to die, 44,000 people a year die because of lack of insurance, and on and on it goes. So how is it that the country with such an abysmal health record can generate 3 people who win the Nobel Prize in medicine?

Americans Elizabeth H. Blackburn, Carol W. Greider and Jack W. Szostak won the 2009 Nobel Prize in medicine on Monday for discovering a key mechanism in the genetic operations of cells, an insight that has inspired new lines of research into cancer.

Granted this Nobel Prize is awarded for research in medicine, but think real hard, when was the last time you heard of a major medical breakthrough from a country other then the US? Why do we insist on tampering with something that works?

Sure there are issues that need fixing, but government control is not the answer to any of them. Let's not kill the patient and call it good medicine.

Obamabots Heed The Call To Arms

We knew the debate over this healthcare legislation was going to get heated, and this morning when I woke up I was greeted with a couple of stories involving some heated exchanges at a couple of these townhall meetings, so I immediately went to the web to get the rest of the story that the soundbites on tv couldn't. Of course it didn't take long to find stories of union thugs getting preferential treatment at one townhall meeting and at least one incident of a woman who lost her cool and slapped a man in her vigorous defense of socialized medicine.

One of the representatives from my area, Hank Johnson (D-GA/4) is holding a townhall meeting on Monday August 10th from 7 PM to 9 PM. Hank now holds the seat formerly held by Cynthia McKinney so you already have a good idea of the makeup of the district.

A blog that writes about politics in Georgia, Peach Pundit, put up a post announcing this meeting, no comment about it, just an announcement. BTW Peach Pundit is run by the same guy who runs the Redstate blog, Eric Erickson.

Well some of the comments are very revealing to say the least.

ByteMe August 5, 2009 at 7:50 am

Yes, please show your lily white behinds down in Clarkston after dark and yell loud obscenities at Hank in a crowd filled with his friendly supporters.

Can we pre-call to schedule the ambulances you’ll need?

USA1 August 4, 2009 at 11:43 pm

Since the healthcare protesters I’ve seen are usually older conservative white folks, I’ll be amazed if that demographic is anywhere near Memorial Drive around sunset.

If you think these comments are made lightly here is a news report from March 2008, but things haven't changed, if anything they have gotten worse in this liberal stronghold.

It looks like there might be another "teachable" moment here.

Home Depot co-founder opens wallet to vets' plight

Bernie Marcus (right), who built the Georgia Aquarium, is stepping up to help wounded vets. Susan Johnson (left) of the Shepherd Center talks with Brig. Gen. Donald Bradshaw.

In a move meant to help injured soldiers and send Washington a message, Atlanta businessman Bernie Marcus stepped up Monday to help veterans get top-flight medical care. But he warned there was a limit to his generosity.

I applaud the gesture and I support his intent, I just don't want him to go off into left field with the rhetoric. The health care of veterans is an important issue and something that should be addressed and I support all who support our troops not just with words but deeds.

I profiled Piers Morgan who is on Donald Trump's show Celebrity Apprentice and has so far managed to win close to $100K, I believe, for his charity, Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund, even though after seeing the man in action and learning about his less then stellar past I don't necessarily like the man.

Marcus offered to underwrite the costs — care, transportation and housing — of any wounded soldier, sailor or Marine whom the Shepherd Center, a renowned Atlanta clinic for brain and spinal injuries, approved for treatment.

At a press conference Monday at the Shepherd Center, Marcus said he wanted to set an example for his fellow philanthropists. He aims to bring financial help and possibly shame the Pentagon and Congress into covering all medical treatment costs for its vets.

Note to Michelle Obama, he is one of those corporate types you wish people would not want to become.

No AP photos were used in the creation of this post.

Universal Health Care....Not so fast

Doctor's old-fashioned medical care starts with a $1,600 price tag
Now here is a novel idea. I wonder why somebody didn't think of it before? Can everybody afford $1600 a year for a doctor? That breaks down to a little more then $100 a month or what you are probably paying for cable. Sure the liberals will scream about this only benefits the rich but think about this for a minute. If by taking patients away from the regular practices they are easing the burden on the clinics by reducing the number of patients seen there wouldn't that be a good thing?

Imagine having a doctor who’s available by cell phone 24 hours a day, who handles your care personally if you’re hospitalized, who doesn’t rush through your appointment so he can see his next patient.
Gainesville has that doctor. But if you want to be one of his patients, it will cost you extra.
Dr. Jeffrey Terry, an internal medicine physician at Northeast Georgia Diagnostic Clinic, is the first doctor in the area to offer "concierge" medicine.

And least you think he just pulled that $1600 figure out of the air, think again. He met with his current patients and discussed it.

"Their main concern has been the cost," he said. "When I made the decision, I knew it would be difficult for a number of patients to be able to afford the service. We settled on an amount we thought would be acceptable to (most of) our patients."
There also have been a lot of questions about Medicare and private insurance. Terry said patients’ insurance plans will continue to be billed for any of services normally covered.
He said older patients and those with numerous health problems seem most enthusiastic about DirectCare.

So while the Dems want to wrap us in the blanket of their various Universal Health care plans it looks like the private sector is coming up with unique and innovative ways of dealing with the issue, just like they always do.

More Anti-U.S. Bias From Reuters

Reuters editors put their anti-U.S. bias on display again today. They cite a subjective study to shill for socialized medicine, praise France and rip the United States. Get this:

France best, U.S. worst in preventable death ranking

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - France, Japan and Australia rated best and the United States worst in new rankings focusing on preventable deaths due to treatable conditions in 19 leading industrialized nations, researchers said on Tuesday.

If the U.S. health care system performed as well as those of those top three countries, there would be 101,000 fewer deaths in the United States per year, according to researchers writing in the journal Health Affairs.

Okay, so what kind of "study" did these researchers do to come to this conclusion?

Researchers Ellen Nolte and Martin McKee of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine tracked deaths that they deemed could have been prevented by access to timely and effective health care, and ranked nations on how they did.

So, the whole study comes down to subjective evaluations made by these two researchers.

Then Nolte quotes a flawed statistic to back up their determination on the U.S.:

Nolte said the large number of Americans who lack any type of health insurance -- about 47 million people in a country of about 300 million, according to U.S. government estimates -- probably was a key factor in the poor showing of the United States compared to other industrialized nations in the study.

That 47 million number has been shown by many others to be a false statistic; for example, it includes people covered by a spouse's plan. But Nolte readily says that flawed statistic was a key factor in their determination.

I would not accept work this shoddy from a freshman undergrad. But it's enough for the Reuters editors to run with.

Rove Now Accepting Filthy Murdoch Lucre

Talk about a confluence that's sure to drive the left into apoplectic fits. Public Enemies 1 and 1A, Karl Rove and Rupert Murdoch.

They reveled with glee when Rove departed the White House, figuring Bush's Brain had been silenced.

Yet they neglected to see the inevitable. Because Rove has strong opinions, he's sure to be in high demand. That and he's much more intelligent than his enemies.

Which brings us to today's Opinion Journal, where he opines on health care, stressing the logical and proven approach--a market-based system--as opposed to the oppressive government run systems proposed by the left, most recently Mrs. Clinton.

Republicans Can Win on Health Care

All around America, families are grappling with health-care concerns. They wonder if they'll have insurance at a price they can afford. They worry about how much out-of-pocket health costs take from the family budget. They question if they'll be able to pick their own doctor. Some feel trapped in jobs they don't like out of fear of losing their health insurance.

As the latest government-heavy plan announced by Hillary Clinton yesterday once again shows, the answers politicians offer on health care highlight the deep differences between liberals and conservatives. This is a debate Republicans cannot avoid. But it is one we can win--if we offer a bold plan. Conservatives must put forward reforms aimed at putting the patient in charge. Increasing competition will ensure greater access, lower costs and more innovation.

Liberals see the concerns of families as a failure of private insurance, and want the U.S. to move toward a government-run, single-payer model. This is a recipe for making problems worse. Socialized medicine inevitably leads to poor quality, inefficiency, rising taxes and rationing. The waiting lines and poor care that cause people from other countries to come here for treatment are not the answer.

Of course, the Republicans face tremendous challenges in getting their plans out there. Look at the nonstop coverage of Mrs. Clinton from Monday; do you think for a second any Republican who offers a plan will get a fraction of the coverage?

Rove goes into a detailed plan and how the GOP needs to make it a central issue, summarizing:

Mrs. Clinton may think Americans want to trade freedom and innovation for the illusory security of government regulation and surrender control of their health decisions to government bureaucrats. My bet is 2008 will teach us something different if Republicans make health care a centerpiece issue

And with that, I say good luck. Regardless of what happens between now and next fall, there's only one issue the media and Democrats will want to talk about: Iraq.

That and getting hung up on abortion and gun control at every debate.

It's a given any GOP plan will be preferable to socialized medicine, but whoever the GOP candidate is, he needs to hammer away constantly and effectively at how detrimental the Democrat plans will be to both our healthcare system and economy.