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Infidel woman stops jihadist’s murder rampage

noreply@blogger.com (Mark K. Sprengel) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 13:04:01 PST

The death toll and injury could have been higher at Fort Hood if not for the actions of a police officer.

… the police officer who gunned him down, Kimberly Munley, a civilian Fort Hood police officer, is in stable condition. (source)

Her bravery and quick action should be commended. Fortunately, she had training in "active-response tactics", which teaches aggressive action against a threat.

As for this jihadist, there is already too much passing by of Nidal Malik Hasan’s developing Jihadi mindset.

Apparently the truth is at odds with the desired narrative. We must not upset CAIR after all.

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Filed Under: Terrorism -- News – MSM

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Obama decides to escalate the war

noreply@blogger.com (Mark K. Sprengel) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 12:32:55 PST

The war on Fox News that is, never mind our troops in harms way in Afghanistan, who are waiting for the support and resources they need in an important theater for the war on terror. Never mind that defeat is looming if we do not do what is necessary to achieve the victory that is still possible, Barack Obama has more important priorities.

The White House has taken the war on Fox News to a strange new level. Bitterly complaining that the news channel does not provide a balanced presentation of the issues, the Obama administration has now warned strategists from the Democratic Party that they won’t work with them any longer if the strategists appear on Fox’s programming as guests: (source)

Be sure to read it all.

I’m sure that saying something about Barack Obama’s skin will be construed as racist by some nitwit, but this guy sure is thin-skinned. Unfortunately this character flaw is expressing itself by suppressing a news agency for not towing the line like others. Clearly, this also intends to send a message to others in the media to keep sucking up.

Considering only a few data points, the lack of in depth investigation or coverage of the ongoing discovery of ACORN corruption, and the incredibly late and whitewashed reporting on Van Jones, do they really need the encouragement?

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Filed Under: Obama -- NewsPolitics -- News – MSM -- Politics

Technorati tags: Obama -- FoxNews -- White House -- Democrats -- MSM

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ACORN Philadelphia video available

noreply@blogger.com (Mark K. Sprengel) — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 10:31:50 PDT

ACORN had claimed that Hannah and O’Keefe had been thrown out of their Philadelphia office. The short video that has been released, with promise of the entire video and audio being available later, shows otherwise.

At Biggovernment.com – FYI it seems that traffic is slowing down the servers

Breitbart, Hannah and O’Keefe held a press conference earlier today. The reason for the dropped audio in the video was explained as addressing Pennsylvania record and consent laws.

Even with just this introductory video we can see that ACORN lied about the following:

1. Prostitution was not mentioned – YOU LIE!

2. Only talked to them for a few minutes – YOU LIE!

3. They caused a disturbance – YOU LIE!

As O’Keefe and Breitbart have noted, the media has repeated these lies. Will they correct their stories now?

ACORN has been revealed once again to be a criminal organization from top to bottom. While there can be no doubt that there are still some good people somewhere in the organization, they are constrained by the culture of corruption that is ACORN. This organization needs to be completely defunded at all levels of government and investigated thoroughly. Good people need to find other organizations that actually help the poor, rather than seek political power with liberal Democrats and using the poor as mere cannon fodder while people at the top benefit from the political corruption.

And let’s not forget that our Community Organizer in Chief has long and substantial ties to ACORN.

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Filed Under: MSM -- Politics -- News -- ACORN

Technorati tags: ACORN -- Obama -- biggovernment -- Andrew Breitbart -- Okeefe -- Hannah Gills

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About those Rush Limbaugh quotes

noreply@blogger.com (Mark K. Sprengel) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 20:57:56 PDT

A youtube video has been made by BraveNewFilms that features some of the racist quotes by Rush Limbaugh. The only problem is that the most inflammatory quotes have been made up out of thin air.

Lee Doren has a video in response that addresses the outright dishonesty.

Rush has been targeted as racist for some time now. The sad fact of the matter is that the claims have been based on out of context quotes. Now we have liars making things up simply because they can.

While that is certainly evil, it is not much better to push the BraveNewFilms video and assume it must all be true because you don’t like Rush, Conservatives or Republicans. Unfortunately, being as stupid, willfully ignorant and biased as some myspacetards is not limited to that social website. Mainstream media outlets and others in the sports world have perpetuated the lies. Jesse “Hymietown” Jackson and Al “Tawana Brawley” Sharpton have also encouraged these lies but informed people are not surprised at their behavior. If anything, they are simply being consistent with their past racial demagoguery.

It has become quite clear that electing a black President, rather than healing the racial divide, has only encouraged some to call anyone they disagree with a racist. While it may be a convenient weapon, throwing the charge of racism around so often, carelessly and lying to do so, only destroys the power of the word.

We have come a long way but the fact is that we still have racism in this country. Those who seek to accuse everyone who disagrees with this or that policy as being racist only make it more difficult to confront real racists. They may win some battles on policy or who can purchase a sports team, but what they do to the country should concern everyone regardless of what side one falls in politics.

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Filed Under: Politics -- MSM -- News – Culture

Technorati tags: BraveNewFilms -- Robert Greenwald -- Lies -- Rush Limbaugh -- Racist -- Lee Doren -- HowTheWorldWorks

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Global warming hockey stick dead?

noreply@blogger.com (Mark K. Sprengel) — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 14:10:42 PDT

An interesting development regarding the well known global temperature graph with the twentieth century hockey stick like uptick has possibly added another reason for rejecting the accuracy of the graph and with it the alarmism concerning global warming.

To summarize, tree rings have been used as proxies for historical temperature data. What has now been shown by Steve McIntyre is that when a larger pool of tree ring data is included, the hockey stick disappears. Barring reasonable explanations, if this does not kill the hockey stick, then actual science in climates studies is dead.

An important context to all of this is that the data had, until now, not been publicly available. This is contrary to standard scientific journal requirement for the archiving of data. It is rather difficult to peer-review in a meaningful manner when the underlying data or even the program code that assembled the data is unavailable. It took much fighting to achieve this public disclosure, which now allows others to see how much of tree ring data was rejected and the result of including this in the temperature plot.

As CA readers also know, until recently, CRU staunchly refused to provide the measurement data used in Briffa's Yamal reconstruction. Science(mag) acquiesced in this refusal in connection with Osborn and Briffa 2006. While the Yamal chronology was used in a Science article, it originated with Briffa 2000 and Science(mag) took the position that the previous journal (which had a different data policy) had jurisdiction. Briffa used the chronology Briffa et al (Phil Trans B, 2008) and the Phil Trans editors finally seized the nettle, requiring Briffa to archive the data. As noted before, Briffa asked for an extension and, when I checked earlier this year, the Yamal measurement data remained unarchived. A few days ago, I noticed that the Yamal data was finally placed online. With the information finally available, this analysis has only taken a few days.

If the non-robustness observed here prove out (and I've provided a generating script), this will have an important impact on many multiproxy studies that have relied on this study. (source and more here about this, Thanks to AoSHQ)

Be sure to read it all. It is quite technical but the graphs make the situation very clear.

Unfortunately, it seems this unwillingness to allow open examination of methods and data sources is rather common for some in the climate studies field. Despite that, we still have those who claim the science is settled and that we need to do whatever it takes to avoid climate catastrophe.

That we don’t have catastrophic climate change that we must attempt to avoid does not mean that the environment is a free fire zone. Portraying all skeptics of man made global warming/climate change as motivated only by a desire to wantonly rape and destroy the environment is as dishonest as it is mistaken. Instead of attacking skeptics in such fashion, how about the various agencies and scientists have open and honest discussion about the data and methodologies used before we rush into destroying economies and limiting freedoms? Once we’ve gained certainty about the process and data, and determined what really is necessary, there would still be left many discussions about what is actually achievable and what are reasonable tradeoffs to accomplish the goals.

With this additional demonstration of less than professional and sound scientific work underlying the hysteria, what’s the hurry?

*Update:

A less technical summary of this story for the layman is available at the Bishop Hill blog.

The story of Michael Mann's Hockey Stick reconstruction, its statistical bias and the influence of the bristlecone pines is well known. McIntyre's research into the other reconstructions has received less publicity, however. The story of the Yamal chronology may change that. (source)

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Filed Under: Politics -- News -- Global_warming

Technorati tags: Steve McIntyre -- climate change -- tree rings proxies -- hockey stick

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ACORN sues activist journalists

noreply@blogger.com (Mark K. Sprengel) — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 18:09:23 PDT

We shall see if they actually go all the way to court, but for now, ACORN is suing Giles, O’Keefe and Breitbart.

Community activist group ACORN is suing the makers of a hidden-camera video that showed employees of its Baltimore office giving tax advice to a man posing as a pimp and a woman posing as a prostitute.

The liberal group contends that the audio portion of the video was obtained illegally because Maryland requires two-party consent to create sound recordings. […]

So the game is on. How much discovery will be allowed by the judge? Was there really any expectation of privacy? Two parties involved obviously offered their consent, that being Giles and O’Keefe. Is that enough to satisfy the law? According to one online resource, with Maryland law:

To recover civil damages, however, a plaintiff must prove that the defendant knew it was illegal to tape the communication without consent from all participants. MD. Code Ann., Cts. & Jud. Proc. § 10-410. (source)

ACORN must be trying to win an irony award or something with this:

The two employees seen in the video were fired after it was posted online. The lawsuit says the employees, Tonja Thompson and Shera Williams, suffered "extreme emotional distress." […] (source)

Yes, that happens when you get fired for offering help with tax and mortgage fraud, money laundering and the trafficking of minors for sexual exploitation. The fired employees should be suing ACORN, by rolling them into this it could complicate legal matters for that criminal enterprise.

ACORN has now talked out of one side of its mouth about cleaning up but now out of the other side sues the very people that demonstrated so clearly that serious cleansing was necessary. With such actions is there any wonder that Congress and an ever increasing number of states are moving to defund ACORN? The IRS has severed its relationship with the organization as well.

ACORN of course runs the risk losing but even more important, that discovery will go much further than they currently expect. There is also the risk that Breitbart will release more videos as a first volley in reply to this.

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Filed under: Politics -- Obama -- News -- Crime – ACORN

Technorati tags: ACORN -- Hannah Giles -- James O'Keefe -- Maryland ACORN -- Tonja Thompson -- Shera Williams

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National Endowment for the Arts links to partisan grant recipients

noreply@blogger.com (Mark K. Sprengel) — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 10:59:51 PDT

This story follows on the audio showing that the NEA had lied about the nature of the conference call. The links and pages will probably soon be scrubbed but Big Hollywood tells the story with pictures of the web pages.

Are we to believe that mobilizing artists to contact Congress and demand “affordable guarantee-issue insurance” is “unbiased” and not an attempt to “influence legislation as a substantial part of its activities”?

And why is the NEA funneling artists ONLY to this single “resource?” Where are the links to sites calling for tort reform? Why not a link to the cheapest private carriers of health insurance or information on affordable catastrophic plans that are perfect for young, healthy artists?

The NEA is essentially saying to those looking for help regarding health insurance: Lobby!

The lawyers can decide how ethical or legal that is, but it doesn’t take a law degree to understand that the NEA couldn’t be any less helpful if it tried. (source)

Needless to say, if President Bush had tried this the past tense media would be all over it. There would be panels featuring media and Hollywood celebrities discussing the chilling affect this would have had on the arts and our culture. Certain Democrats would call for investigation into the waste of tax dollars and to determine if any laws were broken.

An interesting aspect of this is that the artists had already helped on the campaign, why see the need to encourage them to do so through a government agency that distributes our tax money via grants to artists? Are they really that stupid to miss the legal implications or merely that arrogant?

This President and his cronies might have the gift of combining both flaws in large proportion.

Those of us who paid attention during the election and did not rely on the past tense media for information are not surprised. We considered Obama’s actions when it came to his legislative record and his associations. His actions during the campaign consisted merely of words that deflected or distorted the truth on those matters. In other words, actions really do speak louder than mere words. Perhaps more people will realize that is the case even when certain media sycophants continue to leg tingling, lavish praise or despite those words being read from a teleprompter, while the reader is backed up by Styrofoam Greek columns.

This is only the second day of Breitbart’s addressing the NEA matter. Is there more? Time will tell.

An update before I post:

The White House is trying to get in front of this now:

White House officials say they are enacting specific steps to make sure such a call never happens again.

Today White House officials are meeting with the chiefs of staff of the executive branch agencies to discuss rules and best practices in this area, a conversation during which they will be told that that while White House lawyers do not believe that the NEA call violated the law, “the appearance issues troubled some participants,” Burton said. “It is the policy of the administration that grant decisions should be on the merits and that government officials should avoid even creating the incorrect appearance that politics has anything to do with these decisions.” (source, Thanks to Big Hollywood)

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Filed Under: Obama -- Politics -- News -- NEA – Culture

Technorati tags: Artists Unite -- 501(c)(3) -- health insurance -- IRS -- NEA -- White House -- Obama -- liberals

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NEA conference call is propaganda for Obama with your tax dollars?

noreply@blogger.com (Mark K. Sprengel) — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 10:18:49 PDT

Audio and transcript of this call are available and seem to undercut the NEA’s original claims that this was not about political campaigning. As they say, the cover up can be worse than the crime.

Big Hollywood introduces the new audio and transcript here.

The context of the NEA conference call is laid out in another very detailed article that follows at Big Hollywood.

All evidence points to the fact that the conference call was a ruse, a front for a White House using Skolnik as a kind of beard in order to put an innocent spin on their abuse of the NEA and two non-partisan volunteer organizations (United We Serve – an initiative overseen by The Corporation for National and Community Service – a federal agency, and the White House’ Office of Public Engagement).

The goal: To motivate a group of hand-picked pro-Obama artists (grant recipients or those wanting grants) to push the President’s flagging agenda, especially health care — and to funnel this promotion through the ACORN related- Serve.gov website. (source)

Be sure to read it all.

It seems the crime may be using federal funds, the granting or threat of withholding NEA grants to artists based on how politically useful they have been. It will be interesting to see what else Breitbart has due to his drip, drip, drip release of the ACORN videos. At the very least is the implication of reward followed by the NEA covering up the purpose of the call.

drip, drip, drip…

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Filed Under: Politics -- Obama -- News -- NEA – ACORN

Technorati tags: ACORN -- Buffy Wicks -- health care -- Michael Skolnik -- national endowment for the arts

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NEA conference call next for Breitbart?

noreply@blogger.com (Mark K. Sprengel) — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 20:50:01 PDT

It would appear that’s the case based on Andrew Breitbart’s hint and the follow up “Pre-game” post.

First an excerpt from his article that offers a hint:

At the very least, filmmaker James O’Keefe and actress Hannah Giles deserve a Pulitzer Prize for their expose of deep corruption and unspeakable immorality at the ACORN housing division. But more important, I won’t rest until they receive a grant to continue their partisan artistry from the National Endowment for the Arts.

That’s this week’s mission. (source)

Be sure to read it all for an explanation of the ACORN video roll out strategy.

His post is then followed by, “Pregame Report: The NEA Conference Call”.

So what did happen on that call? Was the NEA coordinating with the White House to push their agenda on a group of artists eager for and reliant upon the NEA for grants, or is the NEA telling the truth that this call “was not a means to promote any legislative agenda”?

Tomorrow at noon ET, explosive new information will answer that question and raise many others. (source)

Again, be sure to read it all to get all the background about that conference call. The information we already have is disturbing enough, it will be interesting to see what more Breitbart has.

Usually I hate Mondays, but this one looks like it could be better than normal.

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Filed Under: Culture -- Obama -- Politics -- News – NEA

Technorati tags: NEA -- Obama -- ACORN -- James O'Keefe -- Hannah Giles -- propoganda -- Arts -- politics

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Mayor encourages criminals to run

noreply@blogger.com (Mark K. Sprengel) — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 11:50:55 PDT

Of course that is not the intent, but Wellford Mayor Sallie Peake seems not to have thought through the necessary implications of her policy proclamation very well. (Thanks to HotAir Headlines)

Video source

ACORN CEO Bertha Lewis has since chimed in by stating that Mayor Sallie Peake was simply playing along with the racist reporter because Peake was scared and that asking a minority Mayor a question about making it easier for criminals is also racist.

I might have added that last part. (Thanks to AoSHQ for that literary device)

BTW, I don’t have any Hannah Giles in a bikini photos although there is a rumor of photos existing of Hannah Giles in a bikini and wearing a lace wig.

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Filed Under: News – Crime -- 4GrinsNGiggles -- ACORN

Technorati tags: Mayor Sallie Peake -- criminals -- Wellford -- Bertha Lewis -- ACORN -- Hannah Giles -- bikini

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Another State shuts down ACORN funding

noreply@blogger.com (Mark K. Sprengel) — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 19:16:26 PDT

This snowball is getting bigger and moving faster.

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal today cut off state funding for the community activist group ACORN.

Jindal has also blocked any state agency for entering into contracts with the organization.

The executive order also cuts off any future state funding of ACORN, on the heels of a series of embarrassing incidents for the organization.

The governor's action follows a subpoena of documents from the group's national headquarter office in New Orleans. […] (source, thanks to Michelle Malkin)

Let’s take the opportunity of reinforcing a point I made in a previous post:

This new scandal is only on top of the former scandals of embezzlement and cover up, voter registration fraud convictions in multiple states, shaking down businesses, campaign finance illegalities, to name a few off the top of my head.

Anita Moncrief adds more detail to ACORN’s long-standing corruption with her post ACORN: The Roots of a Scandal, be sure to go through earlier posts at her personal blog as well. She makes an interesting point with:

Some may find it disturbing that ACORN Housing is a landlord after watching the videos on the ACORN scandal at BigGovernment.com …

I can’t tell from what is presented if ACORN or one of the subsidiaries in its web actually has ownership or management of any housing. If they do own or are involved in managing such properties, perhaps there should be an investigation into the conditions at those locations? It’s not like there has never been a housing or real estate scandal in Chicago or other cities. ACORN has shown from top to bottom that it cares little for ethical standards. Even if just involved in development and not as landlords, their ever worsening reputation gives reason for concern. If the line is not drawn at covering up embezzlement at the top, or the trafficking of minors for sex at the bottom, is there really any reason for giving ACORN the benefit of the doubt in any project?

It seems the more one looks, the more thorough the corruption shows itself to be. Sadly, while there are undoubtedly sincere people within ACORN simply trying to help the poor, the organization over all appears to be far less concerned with its stated mission and more focused on gaining power and money no matter the cost, even if it hurts those it is supposedly trying to help.

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Filed Under: Obama -- Crime – ACORN

Technorati tags: ACORN -- Obama -- liberals -- crime -- Louisiana -- Bobby Jindal -- Anita Moncrief

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ACORN kicked in the nuts by House vote

noreply@blogger.com (Mark K. Sprengel) — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 17:35:35 PDT

Despite the pathetic attempts by some to deflect from ACORN’s corruption, the message is getting around. We now have the House following the Senate and voting to defund ACORN.

Pamela at Atlas Shrugs has details, including the names of those who voted to continue funding an organization that is so corrupt that it’s front line employees, without hesitation, offered advice to help with the sexual exploitation and trafficking of minors, mortgage fraud, money laundering, tax fraud etc. Their ease with and certainty of the steps needed for such illegal actions naturally leads to the question of, how many times have they done something like this before?

Ace has information about how certain and complete this de-funding really is and what is being attempted to ensure that it is thorough enough to stop funding this organization and it’s affiliates with our tax dollars.

The pressure needs to continue. It is obvious that ACORN is hoping for this to blow over with it’s talk of suspending operations and being audited. And about that audit, which anyone with a brain would be skeptical of, we now have data to confirm our skepticism. Allahpundit at HotAir begins his post with a good bit of snark:

I can’t do better than Karl’s summary so I’m going to steal it: “A Soros hack, an SEIU thug, someone who pleaded to lying to the FBI, and a Kennedy.” All that’s missing are a few pimps and prostitutes for “technical expertise.” Hardest-hitting internal investigation evah: […] (source)

We now have California and New York looking into investigating the matter.

Now that the supreme community organizer himself, via his spokesdork Gibbs, has distanced himself from the organization, perhaps certain individuals will stop with the distractions.

Don’t hold your breath though, some people just can’t stop themselves. It’s almost as if they like punching themselves in the nads or something.

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Filed Under: Politics -- Obama -- News -- Crime – ACORN

Technorati tags: ACORN -- Obama -- liberals -- biggovernment.com -- Hannah Giles -- James O'Keefe -- sex trade

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An embarrassing attempt at defending ACORN

noreply@blogger.com (Mark K. Sprengel) — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 17:43:08 PDT

I would feel a little sorry for this individual if I had not been exposed to his intellectual dishonesty so many times before.

In an update to a previous post I had linked to a Myspace thread Shawn Wilkinson created when he saw that I had encouraged people to catch a new ACORN video on Glenn Beck. Of course there was no substantive rebuttal to the videos released thus far which resulted in my criticizing his comment. The following would be his idea of a reply that has substance.

Shawn in bold font

My replies in regular font

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Markie mark,

I made fun of you and your postering of Glenn Beck as an informative source.

He still offers nothing to show the information is not accurate. ACORN has suspended operations, and fired employees, such actions indicate they know things went bad, the videos are true and they need to delay so this blows over. My words “as if that would matter anyway” were clearly broad enough to cover any ad hominem fallacy, but of course Shawn has nothing to criticize the actual information so has to resort to it again. As for ACORN threatening to sue, the people involved had said, bring it on. A number of us are looking forward to the discovery phase of such an action.

Concerning the conent of your post...

Why not the content of the videos? *chirp* *chirp*

These two "journalists" managed to successfully catch several bad apples in a large pile. Have they disucssed their Philadelphia trip? Of course not.

I was already aware of ACORN’s claim regarding Philadelphia. What will be interesting is to see what actually happened. Considering that ACORN has been wrong about it being only one incident with Baltimore, wrong about being turned away in New York and San Diego thus far, and it’s up to five offices, at this point, leaves Hannah and O’Keefe with far more credibility than ACORN. They also have the videos.

But since you are an avid FOX News watcher, surely you saw Hannity’s show today?

As if this is relevant to the truth or falsity of the videos which do not require having cable or watching FOX News, but only an internet connection to Big Government, youtube and various blogs.

You know, the one with Giles and Breitbart discussing how EVVVIL ACORN is, but it was Hannity (of all people) who pushed Giles into admitting that they had failed to fact check their story before coming out with it. No? Perhaps you should catch the podcast.

Then show where the facts are wrong. Shawn is desperately trying to stomp out the chirping crickets now.

More and more we see the duo as amateurs,

No one has argued otherwise. The Jon Stewart video criticizes the press for being scooped by amateurs and yet Shawn thinks their being amateurs is the negative point.

who when pressed to divulge all their video, refuse to.

So? They have their schedule. Notice Shawn still offers no evidence to counter what has been presented, just tries to imply something nefarious.

There’s a term for this type of behavior...

Hilarious, Shawn’s link has a five point definition for yellow journalism and this reporting doesn’t match up at all with any of it.

1. This fails as it is clearly not a minor story, unless one does not mind the under-age sex trade.

2. Would apply to any investigative undercover journalism with video if he foolishly wants to apply it to this case.

3. Is decimated by the fact that we have video and the very words of the ACORN workers and ACORN higher ups early statements showing they are not about being truthful about any of this.

4. Not really applicable in this case.

5. With this matter we have the supposed champions of underdogs and who they use as a shield and cannon fodder defrauding the system, this point fails as well.

But on a more serious note.

I guess he got tired of the the ad hominem fallacies and attempts at deflection.

I guess FOX news is a child porn mill and supportive of sexual harrassment if we make the charge that a few bad apples spoil the enitre bunch.

I was wrong, he is going for more deflection, doubling down even. Let’s first review what Shawn has tried thus far. One, go after Glenn Beck, as if that actually addresses the content of the videos. Two, attack Hannah and O’Keefe despite the five point definition of yellow journalism failing and the Philadelphia claim, which currently lacks details, already being overwhelmed by the five ACORN locations and ACORNS initial lies, with perhaps more videos in the future. And again, the actual content of the videos is not.rebutted.at.all.

Now he tries for deflecting with a ridiculous attempt at moral equivalence. He first has to distort the charge against ACORN to have a chance at this, in other words, a straw man fallacy. Once the actual complaint is taken into account the rest just falls away. There has been evidence for some time that ACORN is a corrupt organization from the top. This new scandal is only on top of the former scandals of embezzlement and cover up, voter registration fraud convictions in multiple states, shaking down businesses, campaign finance illegalities, to name a few off the top of my head.

That it takes this to wake up Congress, with the media still asleep, shows that we have additional problems with uprooting corruption in this country when it comes to liberal institutions. The charge is clearly not that a few bad apples spoil the entire bunch, but rather, that an organization that has long been corrupt at the top demonstrates this all the way to the bottom and that government and the media would rather look the other way until forced to act.

Best of luck in your parallel universe!

This coming from someone who can only respond with fallacies, deflections, distortion of the actual charge against ACORN and a pathetic attempt at moral equivalence.

Apparently Shawn did not watch the end of the Jon Stewart video or he refused to comprehend the criticism of shallow responses to this serious matter.

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Filed Under: Politics -- Obama -- News -- MSM -- Crime – ACORN

Technorati tags: ACORN -- Obama -- liberals -- biggovernment.com -- Hannah Giles -- James O'Keefe -- sex trade

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ACORN suspends services, orders audit

noreply@blogger.com (Mark K. Sprengel) — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 13:07:02 PDT

With the uncertainty of whether or not there are more videos and revelations forthcoming, ACORN has tried another tactic in response to the shocking undercover videos that have been released thus far. ACORN is obviously trying to get in front of the growing scandal.

ACORN says workers conduct 'indefensible'

ACORN, calling the actions of some of its employees "indefensible," has suspended advising new clients as part of its service programs and is setting up an independent review to see what happened.

ACORN chief executive Bertha Lewis said in a written statement that she was "ordering a halt to any new intakes into ACORN's service programs until completion of an independent review."

[…] (Thanks to HotAir Headlines)

What needs to be remembered is how their response progressed.

This was just one office, it was tried at a number of others and failed

The video is doctored and doesn’t show the true story. Despite that claim, they fired the employees.

This is a racist attack.

We are just community organizers like the President was.

Considering, as noted in that story, ACORN already had an advisory panel in place to deal with previous management problems, much skepticism is warranted towards their latest reaction. It is more likely that they are trying to create time to buy more paper shredders and to find out if any other offices were tagged so they can preemptively fire those employees.

Considering how far this could go, with serious criminal indictments, convictions and federal money already in danger of being denied, admitting to some failures now is certainly much less damaging.

Let’s also not forget that President Obama was very involved with ACORN, including during his campaign for President. Jill Stanek recounts some connections that really do make one wonder if that scandal could reach the White House.

[…] Now it turns out ACORN, the SEIU, Obama, and even Blagojevich are all somehow connected. There is a reason why both IL senators - Burris and Durbin - were among the 7 voting to retain funding of ACORN yesterday. I knew it before I scanned the roll call. Many State of IL officials are in bed with the SEIU, even AG Lisa Madigan. […] (source)

But of course for some, it is only about hating Glenn Beck, or this is all about being racist. Illegal activities, aiding child prostitution/slavery, etc. are minor matters that just need to be put aside. Such a position is so pathetic and morally bankrupt that even liberal Jon Stewart awakens slightly to say Are you f*** kidding me!?! as he chides the mainstream media for being scooped on such an explosive and important story. The Beck haters linked to earlier should stick around for the end of that Stewart video. It might be hoping for too much but maybe the correct lesson will sink in this time.

**Update:

More about the SEIU and ACORN relationship here at Big Government.

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Filed Under: Politics -- News -- Obama -- MSM -- Illinois -- Crime -- ACORN -- Blagojevich

Technorati tags: ACORN -- Obama -- politics -- liberals -- Illinios -- Blagoevich -- biggovernment.com -- Hannah Giles -- James O'Keefe -- sex trade

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Obama’s nuts getting dipped in hot grease

noreply@blogger.com (Mark K. Sprengel) — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 09:07:39 PDT

And then it gets worse. Let’s get some important information out of the way first. Be sure to tune in to Glenn Beck’s show at 5pm and check out the Big Government site today at 4pm (both Eastern) as a new ACORN video is going to be released. Per Ed Morrissey:

According to Twitter chatter, this one has some politicians named, as well as a surprising admission from the ACORN staffer on tape. (source)

Yep, that would be the getting worse part, now back to the hot grease for Obama’s buddies. As previously noted, the Senate passed an amendment to removed funding for ACORN. Republicans in the house are also pushing to add this amendment to their version of the bill. There is also pressure for a full investigation of the organization.

All of this is covered in the HotAir post linked to above. Be sure to read it all as there is at least one update since I’ve been typing.

Another matter that adds to ACORN’s woes is that they may be operating illegally in Maryland. I’ll link to another HotAir post as Ed Morrissey has experience with State compliance issues.

I can’t think of a state with tougher compliance laws, with the possible exception of Virginia. We practically built our compliance group just for those two states.

With that in mind, ACORN’s ability to maintain its operations without valid registration — if indeed that’s what happened here — should get considerable scrutiny. Were their operations merely overlooked, or was there something more deliberate in keeping compliance enforcement off of their backs? Could it be because partisan hacks like Jessamy are more interested in protecting their political allies than actually enforcing the law? (source)

One has to marvel that all of this has come about despite the overall see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil attitude of the mainstream press. Primarily because of the initial work of Hannah Giles and James O’Keefe, we are now finally moving to dismantling this criminal enterprise.

We are now up to four videos. Are there any more? Whatever the case may be I’m sure much paper shredding and deletion of electronic records is well under way at ACORN offices. I’m sure much overtime is required so those who have helped with this exposure of ACORN’s criminality should be congratulated for their efforts at helping stimulate the economy.

**Update:

An embed of the video from BigGovernment.com. Note, “This is a Part I of the ACORN San Bernardino exposé.”

**Update:

HotAir has full, unedited video from Fox News here.

**Update:

See how some on the left respond in this myspace thread. Notice there are no refutations or even discussion about what is presented in the videos along with the assumption that because Glenn Beck is mentioned in this post, that is who this information was initially derived from, as if that would matter anyway. But then Shawn Wilkinson has shown he is intellectually dishonest a number of times already, see here, here and here.

Not that the typical non-conservative in that thread will bother to read this. They obviously don’t care that ACORN is a criminal enterprise and are probably too lazy to scroll this far on top of it. The evidence showing support of under-age sex/slave trade, laundering money, mortgage fraud, etc. are just not important enough to them.

And here is the previous post about the videos that preceded these for those who are interested in what is being exposed about ACORN.

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Filed Under: Politics -- MSM -- News -- Obama – Crime

Technorati tags: ACORN -- Obama -- biggovernment.com -- Hannah Giles -- James O'Keefe -- sex trade -- liberals

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Obama’s nuts are getting squashed

noreply@blogger.com (Mark K. Sprengel) — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 12:13:10 PDT

Those nuts being his ACORN buddies. If you’ve been watching only ABCCBSNBCCNN then you are probably unaware of what has been happening to ACORN due to the work of two activist journalists, a new website by Andrew Breitbart, various blogs, Fox News and Glenn Beck. This is what we have thus far.

Andrew Breitbart started a new website Big Government that features a video of ACORN employees helping a prostitute and her pimp/boyfriend figure out how to commit mortgage fraud, tax fraud and money laundering for a political campaign. It only gets worse. These same employees then offer advice on how to hide the fact the the prostitute is bringing in under age girls from El Salvador to turn tricks. They go so far as to say declare three as dependants but no more as that would look suspicious. Video of all this is here.

ACORN responds by saying this only happened at one office, these people tried it a number of places and were turned away. One problem with that, there is another video of the same thing happening at a different office. ACORN still claims it is an isolated incident and begins throwing the race card and threatening to sue. You can see how this has progressed by going to the ACORN category at Big Government. There is now a third video from another ACORN office. Here is the link, just click newer entries at the bottom to get the updates and then read from the bottom up to see how the story unfolds.

As of today the latest is that ACORN has been dropped from the census, and a Senate funding bill for HUD/Transportation has had an amendment added that prevents ACORN from receiving federal funds until this is investigated. Sadly, seven Senators voted against the amendment, six were Democrats and one is an Independent. HotAir has the names which includes little Dick Durbin and Roland Burris, hardly surprising in my opinion.

So can we assume that Illinois and Vermont are especially sympathetic to child-whoring pimp assistance? (source, which has the rest of the names and several updates)

Glenn Beck has been all over this story and has promised more to come. ACORN is a criminal enterprise that receives millions of our tax dollars. Besides what you can find at biggovernment these days you can also find some interesting background at Anita Moncrief’s blog under the ACORN category.

Let us not forget that Obama cut his teeth working with ACORN and paid them for services during his campaign. That money was “mislabeled” originally but of course Obama received a pass on that matter, as he has on others. More about ACORN during the election here.

Michelle Malkin covers other ways that ACORN receives support from our taxes.

If the Census Bureau no longer trusts ACORN to collect data as a result of these videotapes, why is Congress still allowing taxpayer money to be funneled to the ACORN Housing Corporation?

AHC has received an estimated $16 million in taxpayer funds between 1997-2007, according to the Employment Policies Institute.

Last week, I noted that ACORN is now managing apartments in Bedford-Stuyvesant for the newly completed Atlantic Avenue Apartments.

In April, I noted that the bone-headed Bush administration shoved another $1.6 million into AHC’s pockets to subsidize the left-wing mortgage counseling racket.

AHC has a long history of abusing federal housing funds and Americorps grants for political activities. Thanks to the Consumer Rights League and brave ACORN whistleblowers, we also know their shady practices include working to obtain mortgages for illegal aliens and relying on undocumented income, “under the table” money, that may not be reported to the Internal Revenue Service. (source, read it all as they say)

The pressure needs to not only be maintained but increased. This should only be the start. ACORN should long ago have been the target of a RICO investigation. It may be that the ingenuity and guts of two activist/journalists may be the spark that finally removes this race baiting, radicalizing, criminal enterprise, which treats the poor as throw away facemasks and cannon fodder from the position of power and influence it has held on to far too long.

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Filed Under: Politics -- MSM -- News – Obama

Technorati tags: ACORN -- Obama -- biggovernment -- Andrew Breitbart -- Okeefe -- Hannah Gills -- Anita Moncrief

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Illegal immigrants not covered by ObamaCare?

noreply@blogger.com (Mark K. Sprengel) — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 12:13:32 PDT

I noted in a previous post about Obama’s healthcare speech that he did lie when he said illegal immigrants would not be covered. Shawn’s attempt at a rebuttal is below, with my reply interspersed throughout.

Shawn in bold font

My reply regular font

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The claim concerning illegal immigrants is half-true. The House bill prevents access to tax credits for the impoverished. This system could easily be policed by the IRS, which would be nearly impossible to game by illegal immigrants.

Though it is true that there is no citizenship verification to enter the public option, this is also true for private insurance. Thus, it is the status quo. Secondly, the public option is designed to be funded only by premium holders, and therefore no taxpayer funding.

There are a number of things wrong with this attempt. Notice that he tries to diminish my point in his first paragraph before admitting that I was correct in the next. He then adds several errors to his rather lame argument.

The claim is not half-true, as his second paragraph admits. What he has to conveniently ignore to support his half-true claim is that attempts to include a verification method were rejected. Furthermore, we already have evidence of what government run healthcare programs result in when it comes to illegal immigrants.

When it comes to the question of whether government-run health-care programs will be used to subsidize illegal aliens, we need not confine ourselves to the realm of the hypothetical and the speculative. Helpfully, the government itself has taken a look at the issue from time to time. […] (source)

So, yeah, Wilson's right to believe that the Democrats are not telling the truth when they say the programs they want to establish aren't going to shunt money into the pockets of illegal immigrants. (source)

Since Shawn’s reply, the Senate has taken up the task of trying to include such verification in their version of healthcare reform.

The controversy over Republican Rep. Joe Wilson’s shouting out “You Lie!” at the President over his claim that illegal immigrants wouldn’t benefit from health-care reform apparently sparked some reconsideration of the relevant language. “We really thought we’d resolved this question of people who are here illegally, but as we reflected on the President’s speech last night we wanted to go back and drill down again,” said Senator Kent Conrad, one of the Democrats in the talks after a meeting Thursday morning. Baucus later that afternoon said the group would put in a proof of citizenship requirement to participate in the new health exchange — a move likely to inflame the left. (source, thanks to HotAir which has additional commentary)

An odd action if what Joe Wilson said was not true or if it was only half-true.

Now let’s focus on the additional errors. Shawn had said:

Though it is true that there is no citizenship verification to enter the public option, this is also true for private insurance.

Because private insurance and government subsidized insurance are the exact same thing. /sarcasm

Thus, it is the status quo.

Which is completely irrelevant as to whether or not illegal immigrants will be covered by ObamaCare.

Secondly, the public option is designed to be funded only by premium holders, and therefore no taxpayer funding.

Right. Because government projections on the cost of government run programs always come in under budget, entitlements never grow larger and larger, and paying less than market value for services never has negative affects on the availability of the services. Furthermore, the government option cannot be separated from all else contained in the bill(s) because a number of the proponents have stated the government option is intended to be a step to eliminating private health insurance and creating a single payer system. This is why there are various revenue schemes floating around including burdensome fines on employers who do not provide enough health insurance, and for individuals who choose not to get insured and adding a tax to high wage earners.

Let’s also keep in mind that Medicare and Medicaid are facing massive revenue shortfalls. The private health insurance industry is not. Obama and his allies want to eliminate the one system out of the three that is not failing and roll everyone into the two that are. (That is paraphrased from a comment at Ace’s blog)

You should fact check better.

That is hilarious considering the source.

You mentioned me not getting the number of uninsured correctly several times now, so here is the defense of the figure. Though I used 2007 census data, the economy was much stronger then. Recall that a DHH survey placed 57.7 million uninsured during the first half of 2008, which is when the economy began receding. Since then, unemployment has risen several percentage points, and so any mathematics done to remove overcounting of illegal immigrants is offset by the undercounting of current economic conditions. Click for more details.

All of which completely ignores the studies already presented that show how many of the “uninsured” can afford health insurance or already qualify for existing welfare and that many are uninsured for only 4 months or so. That fact check admonition is looking even more silly now. But let’s look at analysis of the latest Census Bureau numbers. Once one goes through the exercise again of removing those who can afford it or qualify for existing programs we have:

The general scope of the problem is between 17 and 20 million uninsured at worst, not 46 million or 30 million, as Obama tried to argue on Wednesday. (source)

Keep in mind this is based on the less reliable Census Bureau data and that a previous study used the less unreliable Congressional Budget Office data and resulted in smaller numbers for the year studied.

Finally, Shawn noted that I criticized his uninsured number several times. Since he admitted to that, it is revealing that he didn’t also address the breakdown that I included in a previous post.

But this debate shouldn't also be concerned with the number of uninsured, but other aspects of heathcare in this country, such as costs.

Yes, because we all know that the number of people who will be/need to be covered has no affect on the overall cost that will be spread to everyone else. /sarcasm

If I recall, the President did mention removing interstate barriers to allow private insurers to compete in markets that are currently monopolized.

No, Obama mentioned that some states have few or only one company dominating the market and that was justification for creating his version of competition, i.e. the government option. What did Shawn say earlier about fact checking?

This would be why Wolf Biltzer did not get a straight answer from David Axelrod on the matter of removing interstate barriers. Video and transcript here.

But that alone wouldn't cut the costs associated with health care.

I don’t know anyone that’s offering that as the only thing that needs to be done. I’ve covered some of these other reforms before and/or linked to articles that have. Since Shawn has read some of those previous posts, I’ll leave it up to the reader to decide about his intellectual honesty, or lack thereof, with his insinuation that this is being presented as the only thing to do.

Other forms of reform will be needed to curb the current rate of increasing cost before it becomes twice the rate of growth of our GDP.

Duh! I’ve noted some in other posts. Off the top of my head we need to include tort reform, reduce/eliminate mandated benefits, eliminate tax preference for employer provided insurance, allow for health status insurance, reform Medicare and Medicaid so that there can be competition with fee for service payment methods and to reduce waste and fraud. Moving to a voucher or HSA system that the government contributes to would cover a lot of that for the poor. In addition to that, the FDA needs to be reformed as it is been more about protecting pharmaceutical company profit rather than protecting health. Medical professionals need to also stop being so biased against OTC products. When you can get vitamin D3, fish oil and niacin for 10 to 20 times less at Walgreens than for what the prescription versions cost, there are vast amounts to be saved, including the improvement in health that those supplements would encourage.

I think Shawn should be complimented for his consistency. He still ignores points already made, uses incomplete data and deflects from the actual arguments being made.

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Filed Under: Politics -- Obama -- Healthcare_reform

Technorati tags: Obama -- healthcare reform -- democrats -- illegal immigrants -- liberals -- single payer system

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About Obama’s healthcare speech

noreply@blogger.com (Mark K. Sprengel) — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 20:35:09 PDT

It would seem that President Obama thinks endless repetition of his already debunked talking points is all that Americans need to fall in line with his healthcare reform. After all, he said some time ago that time for talking is over and made that point again in his speech tonight. Yes, shocking isn’t it?

A good way for someone to get informed about some of the new and repeated inaccuracies in the speech is to go to the Cato Institute website and replay their live blogging of the speech. Be sure to follow their links for more in depth analysis.

The live blogging is available here, just click on replay.

To summarize just a couple of points they address.

Obama was very wrong about private insurance being more expensive than employer provided insurance.
30 million “cannot get” coverage? The number is much, much lower.

Be sure to read it all and as I said, follow their links for further information.

Let’s also address his claim that the Democrat healthcare bill(s) in Congress will not cover illegal immigrants. Yes, the house bill says the funds are not to be used for those who are not legally in the country. There is an incredibly huge problem with that little sentiment. There is no mechanism in the bill to enable that and that is by design.

President Obama assures the American people that illegal immigrants will not be covered; however, recently the House Ways and Means Committee rejected an amendment that would have required the government to verify that those enrolling in the "public plan" are not illegal immigrants.

Without a system in place to verify an individual’s immigration status, how will we identify those here illegally? We can’t, that may just be the point. […] (source)

The President said he would call out anyone making inaccurate claims about his healthcare plan. Judging from the multiple distortions he threw at us tonight, Obama apparently plans to call himself out in the near future. He probably is narcissistic enough to do that if the mirror were splendid enough and the lighting just so, but I’m sure his BFF Rahm Emanuel would put a stop to that. Maybe Joe Biden will do it, no one messes with Joe!

One final point from Thomas Sowell, made a day before Obama’s speech.

One plain fact should outweigh all the words of Barack Obama and all the impressive trappings of the setting in which he says them: He tried to rush Congress into passing a massive government takeover of the nation's medical care before the August recess— for a program that would not take effect until 2013!

Whatever President Obama is, he is not stupid. If the urgency to pass the medical care legislation was to deal with a problem immediately, then why postpone the date when the legislation goes into effect for years— more specifically, until the year after the next Presidential election? (source)

As they say, read it all.

It used to be that actions speak louder than words. Sadly, many people have thrown that aside simply because this man has given a couple of decent speeches.

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Filed under: Politics -- Obama -- Healthcare_reform

Technorati tags: Obama -- healthcare reform -- medicare -- medicaid -- free market -- health insurance -- democrats -- liberals

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Did you bwake your widdle wed wagon?

noreply@blogger.com (Mark K. Sprengel) — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 14:50:57 PDT

The reaction from some on the extreme left to Van Jones shooting himself in the foot multiple times, reminds me of a child crying over a broken toy.

Just a taste:

Now he's been thrown under the bus by the White House for signing his name to a petition expressing something that 35% of all Democrats believed as of 2007 -- that George Bush knew in advance about the attacks of 9/11. Well, that and calling Republicans "assholes." I'm pretty sure that if you search through the histories of every single liberal leader at the CAF dinner that night, they have publicly said that and worse.

So where are all the statements defending Van Jones by those who were willing to exploit him when it served their purpose? Why aren't they standing up and defending one of their own, who has done nothing that probably the majority of people in the Democratic party haven't done at one time or another? Is he no longer "one of their own?" (source)

The comments serve up additional treats, this one standing out for obvious reasons:

Sadly, the picture that Jane paints emanates from Obama himself. Campaigning on a fuzzy platform of “Change and Hope” allowed him to capture the goodwill of millions. Having achieved the objective, those millions are no longer necessary, and have been dispensed with.

Now we are left with the Obama who craves universal approval from his counselors, teachers, editors, peers. Unfortunately, that group now includes irrational actors called Republicans. And in negotiating with them, he’s negotiating with terrorists. …

Thanks to RightWingSparkle who also makes the following observation:

And as much as people on that side are angry that the Democrats get into bed with big money in D.C., they know that they themselves are still the base of the party. They are just a bit angry with their daddy. Because taking over the banks, the car companies and our healthcare isn't enough for these guys. It isn't 'liberal' enough. … (source)

More, more, more. Just like a child who has little discretion or understanding of what their desires can bring forth. All this, despite having history and current experience to inform and guide us. Even worse are those who understand what must be the results and still push those views. But of course they are the non-terrorists in these discussions. Heaven forbid they provide arguments and data to support taking over industry and healthcare. But then they don’t do very well when they make that attempt. It is so much easier and more satisfying to just call names, deflect to other subjects, use flawed data, etc., though it is hardly very mature.

Normally I would help a child fix a broken toy. In this case, pointing and laughing is much more appropriate.

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Filed under: Politics – Obama

Technorati tags: progressives -- Van Jones -- liberals -- Democrat party -- George Bush -- Obama

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Healthcare reform – empower the consumer

noreply@blogger.com (Mark K. Sprengel) — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 20:08:27 PDT

Health savings accounts and high deductible health insurance can provide benefits to the consumer without increasing government control that inevitably leads to unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats rationing your healthcare. This isn’t speculation but the conclusion of research into 10 years of consumer driven healthcare in the United States.

The benefits include cost reduction, cost containment and at least equal or greater use of preventative care than the current system.

Cost-savings in the first year of instituting a CDH plan relative to a traditional plan ranged from 12% to 21%, remarkably large figures. Moreover, costs appear to grow more slowly under CDH plans than under traditional plans.

The knock on CDH plans has always been that they could cause people to avoid preventative case. Not only does this appear to be false it's the opposite of the truth […] (source)

Thanks to Patient Power which makes a necessary point:

And no, I am not saying that high-deductible insurance plans are right for everyone. Government should not punish people for buying them by enforcing a tax code that encourages people to buy excess insurance. Nor should government make high-deductible plans illegal, as Massachusetts has. (source)

And Marginal Revolutions concludes it’s post with:

It's remarkable that in the current debate over how to control health care costs so little attention is being given to the important results of our 10-year experiment with consumer driven health plans.

Well yes, it’s rather hard to discuss anything when one is being called a political terrorist or racist because of disagreeing with Obamacare, and we are being told to quit talking and just get out of the way.

Obama likes to talk about increasing competition with health insurance companies, yet no plan the Democrats have offered works to remove barriers to competing across state lines, or reduce mandated benefits which eliminate high deductible insurance from markets. That this 10-year experiment is also not being mentioned is hardly surprising.

All of that and the initial rush for passage of a bill with such far reaching effects, stopped (so far) only by citizen participation in the public square, makes one wonder if improving our health care is really the goal.

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Filed Under: Politics -- Obama -- Healthcare_reform

Technorati tags: healthcare reform -- obamaCare -- health insurance -- consumer driven healthcare -- HSA -- ObamaCare -- democrats

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Free economic theory lessons

noreply@blogger.com (Mark K. Sprengel) — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 12:50:45 PDT

It will take some time to read the literature but if one is wondering why the economic plans of the Obama administration are failing, or would simply like to gain a better understanding of free markets, the effort will be rewarded.

“Vox Day” has a post with numerous PDF downloads concerning Austrian economic theory. This would be counter to the Keynesian like economic philosophy so in vogue within our government and the media today.

His post and recommendations were in response to an inquiry by a reader:

My reason for writing today is related to your views on economics. I have been sceptical of Keynesian economics ever since I went to university (at the LSE, no less- one of the chief incubators of both Keynesian and Austrian thinking), and my move to America for graduate school, along with recent events, have only contributed to my growing distrust and dislike of an over-mighty and overly large public sector. After doing some reading, it appears to me that only Austrian economics seems capable of predicting, understanding, and- crucially- solving financial crises, panics, manias, and bubbles. As such, I would like to explore a more rigourous and thorough analysis of Austrian economic theory. Therefore, would you be able to recommend a list of 5-10 books that you believe all prospective Austrian economists should read? The universe of Austrian economic literature is vast; a starting point would be useful.

Here is his post with links to the PDF downloads.

And since I’m sure that someone might claim that Austrian economic philosophy is dead, since they’ve dismissed it before, it will be instructive to read Vox Day’s reply to Paul Krugman’s criticism of the Austrian model as Krugman has dismissed the Austrian theory in similar fashion. It does have an entertaining start:

A Keynesian who rejects the Austrian theory of the business cycle is no more credible than an alcoholic who doesn't believe in hangovers or a rocket scientist who doesn't believe in gravity. (source)

As Vox Day points out in scathing fashion, it’s rather pathetic that a Nobel Prize winner would so misunderstand what he is trying to criticize.

In what may be dangerous for this country, such misunderstanding of economic matters seems endemic to the Obama administration. But then a question comes to mind. Is it really just an intellectual failure and therefore correctable, or rather, a deep-seated animosity to free markets and a natural inclination towards more control and government that is more intrusive, facts and evidence be damned?

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Filed Under: Politics – Obama

Technorati tags: Obama -- economics -- Krugman -- Kenyesian -- Austrian economic theory -- business cycles

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Reverend Wright represents the best of what the black church has to offer

noreply@blogger.com (Mark K. Sprengel) — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 21:28:54 PDT

Thus saith Barack Obama in 1995. That’s not the only OMG! WHAT DID HE SAY?!! comment one will find in the video below. What’s especially interesting is how some of this plays now against Obama’s allies constantly claiming criticism of Obama is racist.

So, was Obama just young and foolish, young and radical, or willing to pander to and work with anyone to get ahead? Considering that his method of campaigning and governance thus far still consists of foolishness, radicalism, and kissing up to the likes of Chavez, his stooges and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, youthful naivety is simply not an option. But hey, at least Barack Obama has remained consistent throughout the years. Got to give him props for that.

Swiped from HotAir:

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Filed Under: Politics – Obama

Technorati tags: Obama -- Wright -- racism -- 1995 -- Barack Obama -- Dreams of My Father -- liberal -- radical -- Chavez -- Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

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A glimpse of Obamacare, except it will be worse

noreply@blogger.com (Mark K. Sprengel) — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 15:46:04 PDT

A critic of this blog recently stated we should look at proven healthcare systems around the world and model our reform after those. It was rather hilarious that he included Canada and Britain in that list of successful systems while ignoring that a lot of our problems are due to current government interference, not the free market. However, looking at relevant past performance on a matter can give us insight into future performance.

Barack Obama is proposing spending at least $1 trillion over 10 years to reform healthcare, which accounts for 16% or so of spending in our economy.

Let’s look at how he’s done when he has spent significantly less.

The “stimulus” at $787 Billion

More unemployment after passing stimulus then they had predicted we would have if it was not passed. (graph)

The money has been released even more slowly, after Obama said it would speed up. (source)

In summary, our debt dramatically increased on top of the lack of positive effect on the economy.

Cash for clunkers at $3 Billion

Ran out of money early and may be out of money again. (total of $3 billion promised thus far)

One locale has had only 2% of rebates approved. (source)

Dealers opting out because they've had to wait so long for the refunds. (source)

“But it’s in the hands of this enormous bureaucracy and regulatory agency,” he added. “If they don’t get out of their own way, this program is going to be a huge failure.”

The needless destruction of property that will reduce supply in the used car market and thereby raise costs. (source)

Clearly, Obama and the Democrat’s programs have faired very poorly while drastically increasing our debt and helped raise the costs of products for those who can’t afford brand new cars.

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How can there be any doubt that the performance of Obamacare will be much worse?

The amount of money to be spent is greater. At least $1 trillion over 10 years.

A further government takeover of healthcare in this country is the takeover of $2.2 trillion in spending for 2007.

Some of our states are larger than European countries that already have failing Obamacare type systems. That, combined with the diversity of our country adds a complexity that practically ensures massive failure.

The Massachusetts model has failed.

Oregon rations healthcare, resulting in odd priorities, to put politely.

*update* I forgot this about Oregon government healthcare. The Oregon Health Plan funds assisted suicide rather than chemotherapy.

As previously noted, the language of the bill is so complex that unconstrained regulators are about the only certain guarantee.

With Obama and the Democrat’s recent history on the economy is there any reason to suspect they will do any better grabbing control of 16% of the economy consisting of 80,000 doctors and 5,700 hospitals, let alone every consumer of healthcare, with a scheme that intentionally creates a larger bureaucracy and unaccountable regulatory minefield?

For those who inexplicably think the answer is yes they will do better despite their recent history on other smaller and less complex intervention in economic matters, I have some “lovely riverside property in Brooklyn” to sell. I can guarantee that Biden, Pelosi, Reid, and Barney Frank have demonstrated the intellect to buy this property so you had better hurry.

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Filed Under: Politics -- Obama -- Healthcare_reform

Technorati tags: ObamaCare -- Healthcare reform -- Reid -- Pelosi -- Barney Frank -- Massachusetts -- Oregon -- Democrats -- Liberals -- Cash for clunkers -- Stimulus

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MSNBC trying to start a race war?

noreply@blogger.com (Mark K. Sprengel) — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 19:34:04 PDT

One has to wonder when they go through the hassle to edit video that contradicts their narrative that white people carry firearms to events when a black man is President.*

I’m going to direct everyone to Ace’s site for the complete story. He has all sorts of contact info so we can light up the phones and write letters. They can not be allowed to get away with this.

It will be interesting to see how Obama tries to one up the news station over this. After all, considering his racial agitation regarding Gates and Crowley it’s hard to imagine his narcissistic self enjoying second place in the trying to stir up racial animosity category.

Your move Barry!

*putting aside the fact that in some places this is perfectly legal.

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Filed Under: Politics -- MSM -- Obama – News

Technorati tags: MSNBC -- NBC -- race -- obama -- firearms -- Open carry -- MSM -- propoganda -- lies

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Infidel woman stops jihadist’s murder rampage

Obama decides to escalate the war

ACORN Philadelphia video available

About those Rush Limbaugh quotes

Global warming hockey stick dead?

ACORN sues activist journalists

National Endowment for the Arts links to partisan grant recipients

NEA conference call is propaganda for Obama with your tax dollars?

NEA conference call next for Breitbart?

Mayor encourages criminals to run

Another State shuts down ACORN funding

ACORN kicked in the nuts by House vote

An embarrassing attempt at defending ACORN

More ACORN videos will be released

ACORN suspends services, orders audit

Obama’s nuts getting dipped in hot grease

Obama’s nuts are getting squashed

Illegal immigrants not covered by ObamaCare?

About Obama’s healthcare speech

Did you bwake your widdle wed wagon?

Healthcare reform – empower the consumer

Free economic theory lessons

Reverend Wright represents the best of what the black church has to offer

A glimpse of Obamacare, except it will be worse

MSNBC trying to start a race war?