Country Store

eBay retains its title as the joke of online shopping sites

2009-11-07T22:10:00.001-05:00

I used to be an extensive eBay shopper, but have tapered off over the years as the grasping nature of the management team has ruined the ambience. Still, I can't help marveling at how they have managed to kill the golden online auction goose and consequently I got a chuckle out of their latest faux pas - eBay Payment Reminders: eBay screws up again:

Do you remember when eBay was the Great White Shark of online auction sites? Now they seem to be more like Bozo. The latest evidence is the great eBay Payment Reminder debacle which started on Friday. Instead of sending out a "You’ve Won…" notice to winning auction bidders and purchasers from eBay stores, they are waiting 48 hours and then sending out collection agency style emails that are fetchingly titled "Please pay for your…".

...

The problem with this is that many eBay sellers encourage buyers to shop around for multiple days amongst their other auctions and eBay store items to buy more and save on combined shipping. Sellers woke up Saturday to find irate emails from customers they had encouraged to keep shopping, but who had exceeded eBay’s arbitrary 48 hour limit and were hit with the "Please pay…" emails for their purchases over the past few days.

The sellers can't change the emails or opt out of them so they are suffering from outraged buyers who can't discern that the emails came from the robots at eBay and not the sellers themselves. Undoubtedly eBay sees some money in this for themselves, but it is hard to see how. Meanwhile the sellers are scrambling to figure out how to tell their customers that it is yet another eBay screw-up.

Keep the pressure on to KILL THE BILL

2009-11-06T13:23:00.001-05:00

After yesterday's House Call on Congress, Obamacare is punch drunk and reeling. Get on the phone and call your congressional representatives, particularly if they are on the "leaners list". If they aren't on the list, tell them why they should be:

Today's Hoot: Dede Scozzafava comes out of the closet

2009-11-03T18:52:00.001-05:00

Some of the wags at Free Republic came up with this snap of porcine Dede Scozzafava coming out of the closet.

Of course, the real question is what she got from the White House for endorsing the Democrat candidate in the NY-23 congressional race after she ended her faux Republican campaign. From the looks of ole Dede, I'm betting she is going to be Obama's Pizza Czar. "Every American deserves large pies with 2 meat toppings and triple cheese."

Don't let the garage door hit your wide load on the way out, Dede.

How can you tell if Michelle Obama is wearing a Halloween costume?

2009-11-01T21:18:00.012-05:00

I have to admit that when I saw the photos of the White House Halloween party I thought that Emperor Obama and his consort Michelle had decided to skip the costumes. Emperor Barack looked like Urkel as usual and Michelle was wearing something that looked like it was looted from a Salvation Army store as usual.

Boy, was I shocked to find out that Michelle's outfit was really a "Cat Woman" costume!

Therefore, to prevent further mistakes of this type I consulted with the Country Store's crack team of fashion consultants and came up with this handy guide to whether or not Michelle Obama is wearing a Halloween costume.

Q: Does Michelle Obama's outfit vaguely resemble the skin of a wild animal?

If the answer is yes, then Michelle is wearing a Halloween costume.

Q: Is Michelle Obama wearing something that looks like it was made out of Nick Nolte's old Hawaiian shirt?

If the answer is yes, then Michelle is wearing one of her high fashion outfits.

Q: Is Michele Obama wearing something that looks like the couch your aunt had back in the 1970's?

If so, then it it is another of Michelle's regular outfits.

Q: Does Michelle Obama look like Flip Wilson when he was dressed up as Geraldine?

This is another indication Michelle is wearing a haute couture outfit some con artist designer sold her and it is not a Halloween costume

Q: Is Michelle Obama wearing a very wide belt just under her negligible bust and twirling a hula hoop?

Hey, the wide belt is a primo fashion accessory and like Michelle you have to have no chest (or be a cross dresser) to wear it so it is plenty exclusive and NOT a Halloween costume no matter what it looks like.

Whew! That was sure exhaustive and I thank my fashion consultants, but I'm still not convinced that I won't make the same mistake again. Maybe next year Michelle can just go for the Joker clown make-up at Halloween:

Today's Hoot: Frank Rich gets all dewy eyed over Dede Scozzafava

2009-11-01T00:14:00.001-04:00

Michelle Malkin kicks fat fool Frank Rich's butt:

Make Frank Rich cry: Donate to Hoffman for Congress.

Ned Lamont is still an airbrain

2009-10-27T20:25:00.001-04:00

Remember goofy Ned Lamont, the sock puppet of Markos "Mickey" Moulitsas and Jane "Hamster" Hamsher? Well, the butt kicking that Joe Lieberman gave him apparently hasn't increased ole Ned Lamont's IQ:

It amuses me that millionaire Ned Lamont wants "the option" of opting in to discount welfare reduced-benefits Sub-Medicare. I'm sure he'll be the first on the sign-up sheet.
In related news, Ned Lamont also wants to opt-in to government housing. Some of those joints have sweeet concrete balconies. And the stairwells will give him plenty of room for his illegal pit-bull-breeding business.
Ned Lamont fever: Catch it!

Must be like the swine flu.

The Great Swine Flu Hoax - It's Looking More Like Bull Flu Every Day

2009-10-27T11:59:00.001-04:00

The other day I mentioned the fact that at the end of August the US Center for Disease Control stopped reporting swine flu deaths separately from the usual seasonal flu deaths. That was sure convenient since the numbers actually show that the swine flu is rather less lethal than ordinary seasonal flu:

News flash: Swine flu is a massively overrated threat -- overrated not only in the media but by the World Health Organization, the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology and others who have a duty to know better.
The presidential science council warned in late August that, "in a plausible scenario," swine flu might kill 90,000 Americans with the epidemic peaking in "mid-October." But it's now obvious that this won't happen.
...
Total deaths since Aug. 30 from "Influenza and Pneumonia-Associated" illness are 1,397, reports the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Web site FluView (cdc.gov/flu/weekly/). But only 192 of those have been laboratory-confirmed as flu of any type. (And yes, people die of pneumonia from many causes other than flu.) In fact, FluView reports that deaths from influenza and pneumonia are well within the normal bounds for this time of year -- or, as the CDC puts it, "below the epidemic threshold."

Golly, even adding the flu strains together doesn't provide any basis for panic. And look when happens when you really do try to separate out the swine flu cases:

The CDC no longer publishes specific data on swine-flu cases or deaths. But the FluTracker Web site (flu- tracker.rhizalabs.com/) does. As of last Friday, it listed 680 total US deaths compared to 644 the week before. That's just 36 deaths in a week -- or about the number the CDC estimates die every four hours of "regular" flu during the season.
FluTracker also provides a graph that shows new worldwide cases and deaths -- and that tells us deaths are occurring less often than they were a month ago. They were lower in the past week than in the previous three.
New York City data indicate that swine flu is perhaps a tenth as lethal as the seasonal variety. Plus, government Web sites from such southern hemisphere countries as Australia and New Zealand, whose flu season is now ending, show fewer flu deaths than normal.
And the Swine Flu Count Web site shows about 4,100 deaths worldwide in the last six months, fewer than die every six days from seasonal flu.

They're dropping like flies! Not.

But here's the real puzzle:

Note that, when it issued its "up to 90,000 deaths" report, the presidential council had ample access to the preliminary data from all these sources (and many more) showing the mildness of swine flu. Some scientists.

So you tell me. Are Obama's science advisors merely incompetent or are they working yet another big government hustle like the kleptocrats at The UN's World Health Organization?

Why not call the Swine Flu the Bull Flu?

2009-10-25T22:03:00.001-04:00

Or even the Bulls**t flu:

So You Think You Have Swine Flu? Am I the only one--besides Michael Fumento--who finds reports like NBC's last night on the spread of swine flu ("galloping its way across the country") to be wildly unconvincing? The NBC piece claims "90 dead" last week under the rubric "swine flu cases." [See about 1:10 in] This is almost certainly BS. As this CDC report makes clear, that figure includes both the swine flu and the regular annual flu. Indeed, NBC promiscuously conflates a) swine flu (H1N1); b) regular flu and c) "flu like symptoms" which may not be any kind of flu at all. ... That may be because the CDC itself has decided to conflate at least the first two categories, as noted in this seemingly damning CBS story and confirmed in the CDC report itself:
This new system was implemented on August 30, 2009, and replaces the weekly report of laboratory confirmed 2009 H1N1-related hospitalizations and deaths that began in April 2009. Jurisdictions can now report to CDC either laboratory confirmed or pneumonia and influenza syndromic-based counts of hospitalizations and deaths resulting from all types or subtypes of influenza, not just those from 2009 H1N1 influenza virus. [E.A.]
I think this means the CDC does not really know how many cases are swine flu and how many aren't. (The regular flu kills many thousands of people every year.)

There's nothing bureaucrats like better than a crisis because it allows them to a) justify their existence and b) ask for money from any likely sucker. The United Nations is probably the all time champ in this regard since they are so woefully inept and so wildly profligate, but the Obama bureaucrats are coming on strong since they have the American taxpayers' pockets to pick and a lapdog Congress to let them get away with any hare-brained scheme they dream up. Of course, lack of a crisis is no problem - they'll just make one up like global warming and now the Bull Flu.

Former NC Governor Mike Easley (D) even stole water

2009-10-18T12:20:00.001-04:00

Former NC Governor Mike Easley (more commonly referred to as Sleazley) has been in a world of hurt since he left office and his wife Mary Sleazely refused to give up her taxpayer funded no-show job with the state university system. Mary Sleazley was famous for her taxpayer funded European travel and a no-show job while ole Mike was in office, but the fertilizer didn't hit the blower until he left office and she arranged another no-show job which ultimately resulted in top state university administrators resigning and her getting fired.

This got folks to digging in Easley's term in office and all kinds of sleaze is showing up. The latest is In drought, Easley's club got water:

As a four-year drought parched North Carolina into the middle of 2002, then-Gov. Mike Easley and his administration called it a major disaster. The governor urged people everywhere to save water, and he imposed stiff restrictions.
Except at Easley's exclusive private golf club in northeastern Chatham County.
New records and interviews show that Old Chatham Golf Club pumped millions of gallons from a creek leading to Jordan Lake, diverting water from one of the region's major sources to keep greens alive.
The records show that a state water resources chief questioned the pumping but that higher-level officials -- including at the Governor's Office -- got involved.

Gov. Sleazley cares about even the smallest things in making life better for the citizens of North Carolina.

It all took place a year after golf club leaders provided Easley with a major benefit: Club directors had voted in 2001 to waive the governor's monthly membership dues. That saved Easley about $50,000 while he was in office, a break he did not reveal on financial disclosure forms.

Hmmm - maybe it's because ole Mike is such a swell guy? And look who else was a member of the club:

Their club boasts many prominent businessmen among its 300 members, including Charles Sanders, the former Glaxo chief and state lottery chairman; state Sen. Tony Rand, the majority leader in the Senate; former Department of Transportation secretary Lyndo Tippett; and Frank Daniels Jr., former publisher of The News & Observer.
...
Both Mead and Fransen said in interviews that the golf club had made it clear that the purpose of the pumping was to save the club members' investment in grass.

Nice - think of it as a verdure stimulus plan.

Two days later, Easley issued a controversial directive that local water systems and businesses, including in Chatham County, take quick steps to reduce their water use by 20 percent. Easley spent the next week urging people to save water, including during a visit to a farm in Knightdale on July 17 where he called the drought a major disaster and sought federal aid.
But Old Chatham Golf Club's water was not affected by Easley's water-saving directive.

Even better, Gov. Sleazley was telling everyone not to let the water run while they brushed their teeth. There's more in the article about how "The Governor's Office" applied the pressure to get 6 million gallons of water and they even got the state Department of Transportation to agreed "to let Old Chatham run a pipeline along the state's right-of-way to an irrigation pond on the golf course's property."

Mike Easley - just another Democrat looking out for the little people.

Another big Democrat Wall Street donor gets busted

2009-10-16T19:19:00.002-04:00

Shades of Bernie Madoff! This time the big bucks Wall Street Democrat donor was Raj Rajaratnam seen here doing the perp walk after being busted today over a bit of insider trading:

And who were Rajaratnam's favorite politicians?

Rajaratnam and his wife were also major contributors to a number of Democratic campaigns, giving a total of $118,000 to, among others, the Senate campaigns of Hillary Clinton and Chuck Schumer and the presidential campaigns of Mrs. Clinton and Barack Obama.
"He was big with Hillary and then jumped over to Obama after Hillary lost," said one Democratic party figure involved in fundraising.
...
Rajaratnam is also a major trustee of the American India Foundation, which is a member of the Clinton Global Initiative. President Clinton is the Foundation's honorary chair, and has publicly thanked Rajaratnam and his wife for their multi-million dollar support.

There's more about ole Raj's support for Tamil terrorists by following the link and Hillary's whitewashing of it.

"You shouldn't lump all terrorists together," Sen. Clinton said in 2007.

Look what money will buy when you go shopping at the Democrat store.

As for Obama, as I read Rajaratnam's contributions, most went to Barack: Obama ($30,800) followed by the Democrat Senatorial Campaign Committee ($26,700), and then Hillary and a bunch of the worst Donk Senators you can think of including Chuckie Schumer, Maria Cantwell, and Robert Menendez. Do you think they'll be returning their ill-gotten gains anytime soon and shutting down the usual Donk piety about those evil wealthy Republicans? I'm not holding my breath.

Hot times on Oprah Winfrey's plane!

2009-10-11T07:27:00.001-04:00

Oprah Winfrey, the rotund Queen of daytime TV, is being sued by a former stewardess on her personal airplane who was fired:

The plaintiff Corrine Gehrls alleges that Gayle King's daughter, Kirby Bumpus, and the other flight attendant on the jet, Myron Gooch, told Oprah Winfrey directly that Gerhls and the pilot, Terry Pansing, engaged in "inappropriate intimate conduct" during a June 14, 2009 flight.

Bumpus and Gooch?

Gehrls states in the complaint that no such conduct took place and, furthermore, there is no way anyone could have witnessed such conduct since Winfrey and the other passengers ingested sleeping pills and slept throughout the flight.

Oprah is taking sleeping pills? That might explain why she looked like a bag lady (with bag) when she flew over to Denmark to persuade the IOC to give Chicago the Olympics.

Gerhls also claims in the lawsuit that Winfrey favored Gooch and turned a blind eye when Gooch and Gayle King shared the jet's double bed on another flight.

Woohoo! Unless Gayle goes both ways, I guess that puts to rest the rumors that Gayle and Oprah are longstanding lesbian pals.

The complaint points out that Winfrey's only gripe with Gooch was his food ordering skills and that Winfrey allegedly said "[W]hite folks don't know what southern food should taste like."

Who knew that someone who fed at a trough was such a gourmet?

According to the complaint, Gerhls and Pansing passed a lie detector test and the results are attached to the complaint as exhibits.

The full text of the lawsuit is available at the link.

Norwegian jokes: lutefisk and Barack Obama

2009-10-10T13:56:00.001-04:00

Those pesky Norwegians love their practical jokes. First there was lutefisk, now they give Barack Obama the Nobel Peace Prize. Only the American left doesn't realize the joke is on them and BO.

Got curious about how the media in Norway is playing the Nobel Peace Prize decision (I read/write Norwegian fluently), so I check out the Aftenposten (largest daily) this morning. Found one of those opinion poll widgets on their site- vote on if you think the prize to Obama was correct. 62% of Aftenposten's own Norwegian readers voted not vs 37% who voted yes. Just thought you'd be interested in how it plays out over there. Swedish dailies are pretty much skewing this as a stupid joke the Norwegians have created (to be expected...Swedes love to laugh at dumb stuff their next door neighbors do).

Buffoon Obama wins Nobel Peace Prize confirming its comedic value

2009-10-09T12:50:00.001-04:00

Hey Lars, let's give the clown the Nobel Peace Prize!

Gosh Sven, that'll be even funnier than Arafat!

The Seinfeld Award: Obama Should Turn the Prize Down, But He Won't

This is so embarrassing. It highlights Mr. A-'s odd propensity to be given grades, degrees, book deals, law review editorships, presidencies, and now Nobel Prizes based on doing nothing.
...
The Nobel committee has not done Obama any favors here. This is going to make him more of a joke.
Under such circumstances, he should decline the award and state he wants to win it after he's, I don't know, healed the earth and lowered the oceans, as promised. The Nobel committee will be just itching to give him three or four more of these anyway.
But he's a malignant narcissist and so he won't. The most he can bring himself to do is accept the award on behalf of those wise enough and filled with enough hope and change to vote for him -- sharing the award with those virtuous enough to vote him another beauty pageant prize.
Good God. Laughingstock.

Heck, maybe next year the Eurotards will give Hussein another Nobel for literature. Or maybe not.

Tell me that Barack Obama isn't a dork

2009-09-26T22:07:00.001-04:00

Click for full size Obama dorkiness

I happened to visit whitehouse.gov today and what currently slaps a visitor in the face first is this weird photo of Obama with his chin a mile in the air. Do you think he's posing for an "El Presidente of a third world country portrait" or is he just a flaming dork? I'm voting for the latter although I wouldn't be surprised if BO dreams of the former.

The caption is comedy gold too - "Your WEEKLY ADDRESS. Recorded on his way back from the G-20 Summit in Pittsburgh, the President discusses how engagement produced tangible results in several areas. " I always wondered what happened to all the purveyors of stilted content-free prose when the Russians dumped communist dialectic for pure thuggery. They must have all got gigs with the Obama administration.

Rush Limbaugh runs over Al Gore - backs up, does it again

2009-09-25T00:20:00.001-04:00

Watch the video:

Under the reign of the glorious Obama opportunity abounds

2009-09-24T15:30:00.001-04:00

Golly, check out this new offer from the Federal Art Instruction Institute for all you wannabe artists:

From heath care to the economy to the environment, Washington has become infested with pesky state enemies who are clogging up the legislative pipeline and making life miserable for our cool, art-loving president. That's why he has ordered the NEA to fund obsequious bohemians to help him exterminate the competition and drive traffic to his hip new website Servile.gov. The Federal Art Instruction Institute will show you how to get off funemployment and on the payroll of this exciting $3.6 trillion growth industry!

Such a deal and no artistic ability is required to rake in taxpayer bucks to facilitate your lifestyle!

Now if art really isn't your thing, forget the National Endowment for the Arts and hook up with the other NEA - the National Education Association teachers' union! Soon you could be leading your impressionable students in praise of Barack Obama:

No need to know anything about reading or writing or arithmetic - you won't have to teach any of that boring stuff. Just make your students sing “Jesus loves the little children” with new Obama-affirming lyrics and substituting Barack Obama for Jesus. C'mon if even a no-talent affirmative action hack like Charisse Carney-Nunes can do it, so can you!

Obama energy bozo Steven Chu says Americans are like unruly teenagers

2009-09-22T17:47:00.001-04:00

Steven Chu, the global warming lunatic that Barack Obama selected to be Energy Secretary, got all cranky yesterday because those pesky American citizens aren't signing on to wear ashes and sackcloth over global warming:

When it comes to greenhouse-gas emissions, Energy Secretary Steven Chu sees Americans as unruly teenagers and the Administration as the parent that will have to teach them a few lessons.
...
“The American public…just like your teenage kids, aren’t acting in a way that they should act,” Dr. Chu said. “The American public has to really understand in their core how important this issue is.”

About what you would expect from this arrogant weasel and this arrogant administration, but heck, why not show these clowns what unruly really is?

Another "Let them eat cake" moment from Queen Michelle Obama

2009-09-19T12:51:00.001-04:00

Michelle Obama on Thursday took time out from her busy schedule of power shopping to bestow her grace upon the peasants:

Let's say you're preparing dinner and you realize with dismay that you don't have any certified organic Tuscan kale. What to do?
Here's how Michelle Obama handled this very predicament Thursday afternoon:
The Secret Service and the D.C. police brought in three dozen vehicles and shut down H Street, Vermont Avenue, two lanes of I Street and an entrance to the McPherson Square Metro station. They swept the area, in front of the Department of Veterans Affairs, with bomb-sniffing dogs and installed magnetometers in the middle of the street, put up barricades to keep pedestrians out, and took positions with binoculars atop trucks. Though the produce stand was only a block or so from the White House, the first lady hopped into her armored limousine and pulled into the market amid the wail of sirens.
Then, and only then, could Obama purchase her leafy greens. "Now it's time to buy some food," she told several hundred people who came to watch. "Let's shop!"

Queen Michelle's favorite expression.

The first lady picked up a straw basket and headed for the "Farm at Sunnyside" tent, where she loaded up with organic Asian pears, cherry tomatoes, multicolored potatoes, free-range eggs and, yes, two bunches of Tuscan kale. She left the produce with an aide, who paid the cashier as Obama made her way back to the limousine.
There's nothing like the simple pleasures of a farm stand to return us to our agrarian roots.

Indeed.

The first lady had encouraged Freshfarm Markets, the group that runs popular farmers markets in Dupont Circle and elsewhere, to set up near the White House, and she helped get the approvals to shut down Vermont Avenue during rush hour on Thursdays. But the result was quite the opposite of a quaint farmers market. Considering all the logistics, each tomato she purchased had a carbon footprint of several tons.
The promotion of organic and locally grown food, though an admirable cause, is a risky one for the Obamas, because there's a fine line between promoting healthful eating and sounding like a snob. The president, when he was a candidate in 2007, got in trouble in Iowa when he asked a crowd, "Anybody gone into Whole Foods lately and see what they charge for arugula?" Iowans didn't have a Whole Foods.
For that reason, it's probably just as well that the first lady didn't stop by the Endless Summer Harvest tent yesterday. The Virginia farm had a sign offering "tender baby arugula" -- hydroponically grown, pesticide free -- and $5 for four ounces, which is $20 a pound.
Obama, in her brief speech to the vendors and patrons, handled the affordability issue by pointing out that people who pay with food stamps would get double the coupon value at the market. Even then, though, it's hard to imagine somebody using food stamps to buy what the market offered: $19 bison steak from Gunpowder Bison, organic dandelion greens for $12 per pound from Blueberry Hill Vegetables, the Piedmont Reserve cheese from Everson Dairy at $29 a pound. Rounding out the potential shopping cart: $4 for a piece of "walnut dacquoise" from the Praline Bakery, $9 for a jumbo crab cake at Chris's Marketplace, $8 for a loaf of cranberry-walnut bread and $32 for a bolt of yarn.

Let them eat Bison steak?

The first lady, in gray slacks and blue sweater, marveled that the people were "so pumped up" despite the rain. "I have never seen so many people so excited about fruits and vegetables!" she said. (Must be the tender baby arugula.)

At least she wasn't wearing one of her usual Halloween costumes.

She spoke of the global reach of her cause: "The first thing world leaders, prime ministers, kings, queens ask me about is the White House garden. And then they ask about Bo."

They are undoubtedly aware of Queen Michelle's room temperature IQ.

She spoke of the fuel fed to the world's most powerful man: "I've learned that when my family eats fresh food, healthy food, that it really affects how we feel, how we get through the day . . . whether there's a Cabinet meeting or whether we're just walking the dog."
And she spoke of her own culinary efforts: "There are times when putting together a healthy meal is harder than you might imagine."

Please - the White House chefs do all the cooking there. Queen Michelle doesn't have to do anything but whine. Of course, she's good at that.

How is Barack Obama like Kanye West?

2009-09-14T03:55:00.001-04:00

Q: How is Barack Obama like Kanye West?

A: They are both whiny untalented punks with no class and overweening egos.

A million patriots clog Washington DC to save their country

2009-09-12T14:58:00.001-04:00

With crowd estimates as high as 2 million, patriots are thronging Washington DC today to express their displeasure with the Congress and President Obama. There are too many blogs and forums with reports and photos to count, but here are some great sign slogans from Stephen Green:

Congress are you foolish enough to bet against our vote in 2010?
If you’re not outraged you’re not paying taxes.
Obamanomics – our dollars, no sense, trickle up poverty.
2009 Intolerable Acts – Cap & Trade, Bailouts, Obamacare.

Of course, there is the obligatory hat tip to the Democrats and the MSM:

9/11 - Never forget, never forgive despite the whackos in the White House

2009-09-11T13:07:00.001-04:00

Click the picture for the Remember the Blood of Heroes slideshow which serves as a useful reminder of reality while the evil clown in the White House staffs the government with hard core radicals who believe that the USA deserved the 9/11 carnage and want to convert 9/11 into some goofy ecoweenie festival.

Update: See New Yorker Allahpundit's memories of 9/11.

Teleprompter to give big Obamacare speech tonight

2009-09-09T17:16:00.001-04:00

Golly! I'm sure excited about what the teleprompter will tell us tonight!

(hat tip: Exurban League)

James Taranto has the pre-bloviation buzz and he's all excited too:

Are you as excited as we are? Can you feel the electricity in the air? Tonight's the big night! President Obama is giving an address to a joint session of Congress, in an effort to rally support for . . . well, we're not sure what exactly.
The Hill quotes "a Democratic leadership aide who sat in on an administration briefing Tuesday" and who "said that while Obama will offer support Wednesday for a public option, the president will not insist on it":
"He's going to say it's the best tool for reducing costs," the aide said. "I think he's going to be a bit noncommittal."

The Associated Press reports that the president himself told ABC's "Good Morning America": "We do intend to get something done this year." Politico puts it this way:
Obama will give a STRONG ENDORSEMENT to a public option--or government health-insurance plan--as a route to choice and competition, using phrases similar to his Labor Day speech in Cincinnati. But aides are sticking to their longtime plan: He will NOT draw a line in the sand, and will NOT say that a bill wouldn't be real reform without it. Obama thinks it would be hard to get to true choice and competition without a public option or a fallback to a public option (the so-called trigger, which would kick in based on the insurance market). But his remarks will leave WIGGLE ROOM FOR HORSETRADING as the bill moves through Congress.

So he's making a STRONG ENDORSEMENT, albeit a noncommittal one that leaves WIGGLE ROOM FOR HORSETRADING, because he intends to get "something" done.
Remember during the campaign when Obama's critics faulted him for having voted "present" so often as a legislator? In retrospect, it's clear that this line of attack was totally unfair. Voting "present" was bold and decisive leadership compared with this.

Ole Barry would really love to be Chairman Mao, but doesn't want to get his hands dirty which is good news for us average citizens. For some realistic analysis of Obamacare see Sarah Palin's op-ed in today's WSJ.

Teddy Kennedy goes to Hell

2009-08-26T10:04:00.001-04:00

(Hat tip: People's Cube)

The ugly face of Obamacare

2009-08-21T10:31:00.001-04:00

Mark Steyn on how government health care works out in the real world:

The problem with government health systems is not that they pull the plug on Grandma. It’s that Grandma has a hell of a time getting plugged in in the first place. The only way to “control costs” is to restrict access to treatment, and the easiest people to deny treatment to are the oldsters. Don’t worry, it’s all very scientific. In Britain, they use a “Quality-Adjusted Life Year” formula to decide that you don’t really need that new knee because you’re gonna die in a year or two, maybe a decade-and-a-half tops. So it’s in the national interest for you to go around hobbling in pain rather than divert “finite resources” away from productive members of society to a useless old geezer like you. And you’d be surprised how quickly geezerdom kicks in: A couple of years back, some Quebec facilities were attributing death from hospital-contracted infection of anyone over 55 to “old age.”
...
I had an elderly British visitor this month who’s had a recurring problem with her left hand. At one point it swelled up alarmingly and so we took her to the emergency room. They did a CT scan, X-rays, blood samples, the works. In two hours at a small, rural, undistinguished, no-frills hospital in northern New Hampshire, this lady got more tests than she’s had in the last decade in Britain — even though she goes to see her doctor once a month. He listens sympathetically, tells her old age often involves adjusting to the loss of mobility, and then advises her to take the British version of Tylenol and rest up. Anything else would use up those valuable resources. So, in two hours in New Hampshire, she got tested and diagnosed (with gout) and prescribed something to deal with it. It’s the difference between health “care” (i.e., going to the doctor’s every month to no purpose) and health treatment — and on the latter America is the best in the world.

Is it a guy or a girl?

2009-08-21T10:12:00.001-04:00

No, not South African runner Caster Semenya who has "a muscular build, wispy facial hair and a deep voice." This uncertain gender case was spotted much closer to home getting out of a US government limo: