Blog Talk Radio

Today's Blog Talk Radio episode was about Ted Kennedy's liberal legacy and the Democrats push to pass Obamacare in his memory. Listen by clicking on the player on the right.

Mmmm. . .New York Times Admits Rationing of Health Care Could Happen

Robert Pear, writing in the New York Times on the 20th, discovers that conservative concerns about the rationing of health care, if reform should pass, are legitimate.

Wow, what will the Times think of next...maybe they can pursue actually investigating conservative concerns before publishing stories that rubber-stamp the White House line?

h/t Newsbusters

"Death Panels"

Michael Cannon of the Cato institute writes in the Detroit Free Press and defends Sarah Palin's assertion that a universal health care plan would create death panels.

She is not the only one to believe this. Most universal health care systems like Canada's or Great Britain's use a QALY-like system to determine whether or not someone will receive treatment.

To give an example:

Under QALY, say you are 80 years old and you need a hip replaced. The surgery is slated to cost $30,000 but you are expected to live maybe only another five years (based on government estimates, of course), "experts" would take the number of your life-years remaining and amortize the cost of the surgery over that time. In other words $30,000/5 = $6,000 per year. They may decide the cost is too great for the return of only five more productive years.

However, if you are 55 years old and need a hip replacement, you are likely to have 30 years left to live. So the "expert" again takes $30,000 and divides this time by thirty. This stretches the cost out to $1,000 per year and from a cost/benefit analysis makes sense so the "expert" signs off on the surgery.

QALY stands for Quality-adjusted life year and is more complicated than what I just described. For example, if you are in a wheelchair you likely would get only .5 years adjusted for every year you have left because you are not in "full" health, etc.

The QALY systems basically looks at cost/benefit analysis but it's not for experimental space planes or vortex cannons, we are dealing with living, breathing human beings, not things.

h/t Sister Toldjah

The Snitch List?

Michelle Malkin writes about the latest coming out of the office of one of the many White House czars:

This week, President Obama's health care overlord, Nancy DeParle, launched a taxpayer-funded initiative to recruit an Internet Snitch Brigade that will combat "disinformation about health insurance reform." As the White House explained in a special online bulletin:

"These rumors often travel just below the surface via chain e-mails or through casual conversation. Since we can't keep track of all of them here at the White House, we're asking for your help. If you get an e-mail or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to flag@whitehouse.gov."

What will health care czar DeParle do with this information? Where will it be stored? Who has oversight of the czar's powers, budget and personnel? Concerned citizens, alas, will have a hard time tracking down the "Office of Health Care Reform" created by executive order in April. There is no central website for the office, no direct channel for transparency and no congressional accountability.

Czars report directly to the president, and as Malkin points out, they have no accountability to Congress only to the president. This is troubling especially in light of the villification ordinary citizens are experiencing if they oppose ObamaCare.

Supporter of ObamaCare Strikes Back--Literally

Not surprising ya'll...


h/t Sister Toldjah

Blog Talk Radio Show Tomorrow AM

Don't forget--I will be broadcasting live at 7:30 a.m. for 15 minutes. I will be looking at health care reform and in particular the fact that the Associated Press reported what we knew all along: ObamaCare includes abortion. If you can, please listen in. If you are unable to join me live, I'll be posting the link on this website.

Where to start....

I'm really not sure where I should start. More importantly, I don't know where all of this will end.

This week the pro-life movement and conservatives in general have been hit from nearly every angle. A new senator takes his place representing Minnesota and the joke is on us, Sotomayor has managed to make it through the confirmation hearings nearly intact (granted the dirt-digging groups that have destroyed or nearly destroyed the reputations of other appointees are sitting behind this nominee so that helps her) and ObamaCare will signal the death knell for the excellent health care and research we enjoy in this country.

I'm still surprised by how many people think universal health care is a great idea. There isn't a single country in the world with socialized health care that works even remotely as well as our system. Add to that the fact that our health care industry accounts for a large lump of our nation's industry ratio that would then be under the 'care' of the U.S. government and...well, we know how that goes.

It is imperative that you call your representative and senators and let them know that they need to vote against universal health care. Our system isn't broken, it just needs tweaking to help those who fall through the cracks. We can tweak it without destroying it.

The number for the capitol switchboard is 202-224-3121. If you don't know the name of your representative, just give the switchboard operator your zip code and he or she will connect you with the proper office. Here is a link to Roll Call's instructive page on how to communicate with your representatives and senators.

Back From Orlando

We are back from visiting the happiest place on earth. Granted, my husband and I had to apologize to each other at least once a day for getting snarky. But, hey, family vacations are more stressful than we think, aren't they? Especially in the Disney World where you pay a fortune to relax in 100 degree heat and eat food that could be better-- if you want to pay $15.99 an entree for the kids and $39.99 an entree for the adults. And you want to get every last bit out of it and that means being tired, hungry and grumpy for part of the time. Also, we had two special needs children in tow so worrying about getting separated from them or whether they were disturbing others (we have one that doesn't recognize personal space) was a concern.

Of course, while we were in the happiest place on earth, several things happened, including a number of celebrity deaths that were startling to say the least. In addition, it seems that ObamaCare is heating up.

There are a number of problems with ObamaCare and yet health care reform is being rammed down our throats anyway. For some reason people think dealing with a federal health care system will be easier than dealing with their current insurance company. Let me ask, when was the last time you had to wait in line at the DMV to get sorted so you could stand in another line to get what you need?

Folks, there has to be some kind of mathmatical formula for the ratio between wait time and the number of federal bureacrats involved. If anyone knows that is, let me know.

ABC Again

Here's the deal. ABC is apparently not accepting any paid advertising during the ObamaCare show so that means opposing viewpoints can't buy any airtime. Conservatives for Patients' Rights tried to buy airtime and couldn't. They released the following statement:

Rick Scott Statement On ABC News's Decision To Reject Paid Ads For White House Health Care Program
By CPR Staff on June 17, 2009 3:28 PM
ABC News is refusing paid ads for its health care program at the White House. Conservatives for Patients Rights (CPR) inquired about purchasing ad time and was willing to do so. As of now, ABC is not accepting paid advertising, thus they're refusing even a paid-for alternative viewpoint. Here is statement from Rick Scott, chairman of Conservatives for Patients Rights. We remain hopeful ABC News will reconsider.

"It is unfortunate - and unusual - that ABC is refusing to accept paid advertising that would present an alternative viewpoint for the White House health care program. Health care is an issue that touches every American and all potential pieces of legislation have carried a price tag in excess of $1 trillion of taxpayers' money. The American people deserve a healthy, robust debate on this issue and ABC's decision - as of now - to exclude even paid advertisements that present an alternative view does a disservice to the public. Our organization is more than willing to purchase ad time on ABC to present an alternative viewpoint and our hope is that ABC will reconsider having such viewpoints be part of this crucial debate for the American people. We were surprised to hear that paid advertisements would not be accepted when we inquired and we would certainly be open to purchasing time if ABC would reconsider."

ABC Refuses to Run Opposition Ads During "ObamaCare" Infomercial *cough* Report

RedState reports that ABC is doing an infomercial, um, report on ObamaCare and opposition ads cannot be purchased. Well, I'm not surprised.