Category: Gateway Pundit

You Stay Classy, LGF

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Left to right: Jason Mattera, Michelle Malkin, Jim Hoft and me
covering the Democratic National Convention, August 2008.

Jim Hoft of Gateway Pundit is one of the nicest guys in the blogosphere and when he got sick this summer, I was happy to help by guest posting at his site. However, I had no idea of how sick he really was:

In August 2013 I became very sick with what I thought was a cold. After a few days I lost vision in my left eye and I checked into the hospital. I soon found out that what I thought was a summer cold was actually Strep bacteria poisoning my blood stream. The bacteria blinded my left eye, ate a hole through my heart, caused five strokes on both sides of my brain and forced the removal of my prosthetic left knee.
Dr. [Richard] Lee was the surgeon assigned to perform open heart surgery. What was originally scheduled to last four hours ended up lasting twelve. My heart was severely damaged. Dr. Lee later told me the surgery was one of the most difficult of his career. He also said I only had a few days to live without the surgery.
Thanks to the excellent insurance I carried I was able to receive life-saving medical treatment at St. Louis University.
This week I found out I am going to lose my insurance. The company that carried me is leaving the Missouri market. I will have to find something else.

Jim Hoft is one of millions who are losing their insurance because of ObamaCare’s centralized regulatory scheme. By substituting government mandates for the risk-based business decisions of insurers, ObamaCare effectively abolishes certain insurance plans and in other cases — including Jim Hoft’s — drives insurers out of certain markets.

These problems were entirely predictable and were, in fact, predicted by opponents of ObamaCare, but the media never questioned Obama’s repeated promise, “If you like your plan, you can keep your plan” — now recognized as The Lie of the Year.

For some reason I’ve never understood, Jim Hoft has always been hated by Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs, one of whose ignorant minions posted this despicable hatefulness:

This is as dishonest as it is cruel — “thanks to ObamaCare,” my ass!

What these deluded fools would have you believe, basically, is that there was no such thing as “decent” health care in America until Obama and Democrats invented it. According to these idiots, cancellations caused by ObamaCare are actually good news, because hey, the government will force other companies to issue you a policy. But this isn’t the same as, “If you like your plan, you can keep your plan,” is it?

No, it’s not. As Jim says, he had “excellent” insurance that gave him access to the best treatment. Jim paid extra for that plan, because it was the plan he wanted, and the regulatory mandates of ObamaCare have now taken Jim Hoft’s plan away from him.

ObamaCare is a redistribution scheme that in order to insure the uninsured, also uninsures the insured by eliminating some choices and forcing everyone into a government-controlled system.

It’s one thing to discuss this as a policy in terms of statistics, but quite another thing to confront what it means to real human beings. Of course, no one should ever expect human sympathy from any of the vile selfish left-wing creeps at Little Green Footballs.

Go hit Jim Hoft’s tip jar — I just did.

 

Hey, Has Anybody in Virginia Noticed That Terry McAuliffe Is a Lying Scumbag?

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Well, he’s a Democrat, and I would have called Terry McAuliffe a “lying scumbag Democrat,” but that would be kinda redundant. Anyway, the latest polls show the lying scumbag is actually leading the race for governor of Virginia, and maybe everybody’s too distracted by the lying scumbag Democrat in the White House — “Red line? What red line?” — to pay attention to Terry McAuliffe’s scummy lies:

Never believe anything a Democrat tells you:

The tagline of that ad — “You can’t trust Terry McAuliffe” — has become a campaign theme for Republicans, repeated in speeches by Cuccinelli as well as his surrogates. Stumping for Cuccinelli in southwest Virginia, where Democrat-backed environmental regulations are a major threat to the coal industry, Del. Israel O’Quinn (R-Bristol) said Tuesday, “Terry McAuliffe cannot be trusted. He said four years ago he didn’t want another coal plant built in Virginia so I’ll take him at his word.”

Read the rest at Gateway Pundit, where I am honored by the request to help fill in while Jim Hoft is in the hospital. Get well soon, Jim.

 


‘It’s Only Ever an Issue If …’

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“. . . the politician is Republican,” says Jim Hoft, speaking in particular of polygamy, but you could apply it to many “scandals.”

John Kennedy’s father was arguably pro-Hitler in the 1930s, but you don’t hear much about that, do you? Bobby Kennedy authorized J. Edgar Hoover’s wiretaps of Martin Luther King Jr., another subject you don’t hear much about.

One of the weirdest things is how almost everyone under 40 has been taught to think of Vietnam as “Nixon’s war,” when in fact U.S. military involvement began under Kennedy, was escalated by Lyndon Johnson and was ended by Nixon.

 

California Broke, Blames Redmond, Threatens #Occupy Road Trip In The Name Of ‘Fairness’

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by Smitty

The state of California woke up in a gutter after a two-week bender, to discover that there isn’t enough room left on the plastic to make it to the end of the fiscal year.

“It’s not fair,” said California. “2011 really sucked, and so I partied a little bit over the MLK weekend. Is that really so wrong?

Oh, it’s February? No waaaay! How could all that time have been slipping, slipping, slipping. . .into the future? It’s that evil Bill Gates’ fault: I heard there was a Windows bug that, like, let’s some dude in Bulgaronia hack your computer’s clock, and stuff.

Killer idea, man–road trip! We can go #OccupyRedmond, and show that evil Bill Gates that we’re not putting up with his 1% software oppression.

It’s really not fair that those little computer dweebs who sat at their keyboards all day have managed to bogart all the money, anyway. They should be fair and share.”

Then Oregon said to California: “You know, there sure are a lot of Second Amendment fanatics with an amount of ammunition that some might consider excessive living in the woods here. Not to dissuade you, mind, but I just thought you might find the data point helpful as you consider your options.”

via Gateway Pundit

Usefully Dealing With Birtherism

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by Smitty

It’s really cool of The Donald to go all high dudgeon about the birther nonsense this late in the presidential term. Dealing with it in a useful way, in contrast, is Arizona, whose ‘fool us once’ measure goes to the Senate.

As with checking for valid ID at a polling place, checking for valid eligibility of people getting on the ballot is one of those common sense measures. It’s a good litmus test for idiots, too: why would anybody oppose this with wholesome motivation? Seriously, such could exist, but it’s hard to imagine what they would be.

I Dig Getting Paid, But Which Is Cheaper: Five Months Pay Lost, Or ObamaCare?

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by Smitty

Again cribbing the Mighty Instapundit, “I’ll believe it’s a crisis when the people telling me it’s a crisis start acting like it’s a crisis.” Up to the plate steps Michele Bachmann, and the baseball (not to mention the foppish excuse for a pitcher cluttering the mound) weeps in fear:

shes_packing_a_sizeable_pair“Because of this discrepancy between the pay of our troops and Members of Congress, I will personally be donating my pay to a non-profit organization serving our military families.”

Ms. Bachmann said that after

vot[ing] against the Continuing Resolution because, she said she made the promise that she’ll not vote for a CR that does not include defunding Obamacare.

Now, es liegt mir fern to speak for the wallet of anyone else, but I’m willing to bet that eating the five months of pay until the end of the fiscal year would be the cheaper route over dealing with ObamaCare. Truly, I’d work free for the rest of the year to be emancipated from these bogus entitlement programs that I do not want, cannot afford, and with which I’d rather not afflict my offspring.

Ms. Bachmann, you rock!

At the ignoble end of the spectrum, Bluegrass Pundit has Sir Jesse of Jackwagon waxing incoherent:

“[T]his really is a Civil War fight,” Jackson said. “This is making the federal government dysfunctional on the 150th anniversary of the Civil War. These guys will support three wars. They’ll support tax dodgers. They’ll support the wealthiest Americans getting tax breaks. They want to cut into education and health care. This is an ideological battle.


No, Jesse, this is not a Civil War fight. Retire, wouldya? Oh, and take Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton with you, please:

“We are absolutely outraged. This is the functional equivalent of bombing innocent civilians.”

No, ma’am, it is not.
Bonus Bachmann at Gateway Pundit.

More On Lindsey Graham (Don’t Speak Those Four Words Too Quickly)

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by Smitty

Gateway Pundit stands at the brink of a pit and peers over at a US Senator ignoring the First Rule of Holes. It wouldn’t be so bad if Graham wasn’t in an elected office.
Like a flag burner or torcher of anyone’s scripture, Graham should be allowed to make a colossal ass of himself it it makes him happy. Unlike the first two flavors of fool, Graham is in a position to abet the scuttling of liberty via legislation.
In a Twitter conversation with Jimmie Bise a few hours back, it occurred to me that the argument about idiotic actions like flag burning and scripture torching has three dimensions:

  1. Theological–how you feel about your personal, subjective understanding of the Almighty.
  2. Political–how behavior is regulated amongst men through a State.
  3. Practical–how the subjective behavior of others plays into the discussion.

Feel free to accuse me over over-thinking the problem. Every problem has its intrinsic complexity. Oversimplification is as unhelpful as obfuscation. Let me grade Terry Jones in the three categories above.
Theologically, for Nicene Creed values of Christianity, I don’t think the guy has a leg to stand on. Show me, in the Gospels, where Jesus went further than verbal mention of Baal or Mammon. However, it’s not clear where Jone is on the traditional Christian creed.
Politically, you’re either for liberty, or not. Even when actions of that liberty are repugnant. Permitting the government to regulate stupid is, itself, un-bright. I will criticize Jones’ actions as moronic even while defending his right to undertake them.
Practically, the causal relationship argument that person B‘s moronic reaction to the actions of A can be turned into an indictment of A is an excellent litmus test. Maybe there is an exception, but I thought that in general A is responsible for A and B for B, at least among mentally competent adults. So to go connecting A to B, and saying the government should manage those connections, is about the dumbest pile of hooey imaginable. The government can’t balance its godforsaken books, and Senator Graham thinks it can handle some book burning?
Just retire, Senator Graham. You’ve identified yourself as a clueless. Your non-grasp of what the First Amendment is trying to do seems to permeate the policies you support. You seem to care about freedom of speech as much as you care about the integrity of the borders.
Terry Jones, your grasp of Christianity seems dodgy. We all need to repent more, sir. The Beatitudes states “Blessed are the peacemakers”, not pacemakers, though, by your actions, your prescription may require renewal.

Why Does It Shock Us That GE Paid No Taxes For 2010?

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by Smitty

So GE paid not taxes last year, per Gateway Pundit quoting the NYT. This really is nothing new. As Ancient Commenter Jesus of Nazareth noted:

of whom do the kings of the earth take custom or tribute? of their own children, or of strangers?
—Matthew 17:25

Really, this situation is problematic only if you hold to that transient notion of a separation between public and private sector. The acquisitions of General Motors and health care, as well as the friendly merger of General Electric with the Federal government, merely show that the sun has set on the historical aberration of free markets and capitalism.
The remaining question is whether the 22nd Amendment will have to be explicitly repealed in a (hopefully more successful change than Mel Zelaya‘s), or whether 22 can be safely ignored like the 10th Amendment in preparation for BHO’s 2016 election ‘win’.