The Poster, More on the Certificate, and Health non-Care

First, I had a great time in Atlanta with the Southeast Homeschool Association parents and kids. Thanks for your support of Patriot's History of the United States.

Second, just before I left, Kelly Emick on this list sent me the following link

http://www.dripbook.com/geoffalbores/book/words-shapes-colors

which shows New England Patriots star quarterback Tom Brady on a jet, and in his lap is . . . A Patriot's History of the United States! I know, it's hard to see, but some friends have blown this up, and my fine artist pal, Barney Geary, has promised to shoot me another version that makes the title clear. How cool. Of course, as a Cowboy fan, I would have wished it was Tony Romo, but I'll take it!

Third, there is the "Joker"/Obama poster going around. Wow. Rush Limbaugh said we'd know we were starting to win when it no longer was "cool" to support this bozo, and the phenomenal popularity of posters like this tell me we are very, very close. And it fits: in "The Dark Knight," the Joker, as the butler Alfred said, "just like to watch things burn." He loves chaos, because it makes him more powerful. Obviously, however, "the people" are starting to get the message about this Joker. We see the town halls erupting---one I saw this morning from (I think) Green Bay, Wisconsin, was full of OLD PEOPLE. These are typically Dem voters. So slowly, the Dems are losing both ends
of the voter spectrum. Moreover, this is the kind of image that completely defines and re-defines the public persona so carefully crafted over the last four or five years by the Obamanistas.

Fourth, an update on the birth certificate issue: I am now leaning to thinking Obama was in fact born in Hawaii. I base this on a) the Hawaiian official, Fukino, who has seen the certificate (yes, the "long certificate") and said it was authentic and that Obama was a citizen. Now, I admit you can wordsmith Fukino's comments and somehow probably claim that it said something else, but I don't think so because b) there is a birth announcement in the Honolulu Advertiser in August 1961, which would be hard to fake and impossible to think, back then, that it would be needed. It is true that that announcement has the wrong address on it! Still, taken with Fukino's statement, I'll for the moment concede that Zero was born here.

All that is irrelevant because it is merely a symptom of the arrogance of this bunch that Obama will not produce any documents---his birth certificate, his Occidental College records, his Harvard records, his health records, or much else. What happened to "transparency?" There never was any, as we know. So I'll stipulate that Obama is a natural born American if the Obamanistas will concede that he has done everything in his power to cover up or obscure EVERY other document.

Finally, the Health (non-) Care debacle rolls on, despite growing and heated opposition everywhere. I watched the youtubes of the Green Bay forum, the Pennsylvania town meeting, and heard the New York congressman facing his critics, and two things are clear: 1) a slim majority of the public really, really, really don't want this and a much larger majority are becoming uneasy; and 2) the Dems simply don't care. They are going to give it to you, whether you want it or not, because it's not about health care, it's about locking in a generation of voters and putting into place a system that will be damn near impossible to unravel or repeal. It's the legislative equivalent of begging forgiveness rather than asking permission, and don't think for one second these people will ask your permission for anything.

My prediction is that unless these meetings get so numerous that they can't be avoided by the congressmen, so loud and angry that they can't be ignored, and in some way force themselves on the media, we are going to get universal health non-care. Again, it's not about health care, it's about erecting a bureaucracy that can't be repealed, destroyed, or rescinded. It's the equivalent of creating the Income Tax and the IRS in 1913. I plan to speak, to write, to march or whatever, but I am not optimistic because our opinions---even the opinions of their own Democrat voters---are irrelevant. Their goal isn't reelection, it's permanent quasi-dictatorship. I know that's tough to hear, here in America because we just don't DO that here . . . do we?

The Certificate

I believe men landed on the moon.

I believe Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in shooting JFK.

I do not believe that the Bilderburgers or the CFR or any other international body (and certainly not "the Joooooosssss" control world affairs.

I KNOW that Muslim radicals flew planes into the WTC, and that it was NOT the work of the U.S. government, and particularly not George W. Bush.

And for a long time I believed there was nothing to this business of where Barack Obama was born. Now, I'm not so sure.

In the past two weeks, there has been a veritable blizzard of screeching diatribes against the so-called "birthers," namely those who question Obama's citizenship. What's amazing is that half of these howls have come from people on the "right," such as Debra Saunders and Ann Coulter. There is an old, WW II maxim for bomber pilots: "When you start seeing flak, you're over the target." Based on the amount of "flak" that this issue is suddenly generating, I'd say maybe there's a target there.

Not long ago Lou Dobbs of CNN (!, yes, CNN!), while not explicitly endorsing the issue, had on guests who were actually allowed to raise it. This birth certificate issue is so toxic that mainstream shows---even on Fox---refuse to touch it. Many conservatives are afraid of being labeled kooks. (That didn't seem to bother Ron Paul or Dennis Kucinich in the campaign. True, neither got many votes, but you never questioned where they stood!) But this is not a kooky issue.

Do I think Obama was born in the U.S.? Honestly, I don't know. But what troubles me is that it is so damn easy to prove it, and that Obama has not done that: get the original, paper copy and display it. The confusions by the "deniers" on this are remarkable: they say it has been verified, but some critics say that this "verification" took place after Hawaiian officials claim the records "were destroyed." Then there is the issue of the "Certificate of Live Birth" vs. a "birth certificate," and it appears you can be a non-citizen and get the former. Then there is the matter of the passport. Supposedly, Pakistan was on a no-go list when Obama went there; other officials say that's not true, that it was never on such a list. But what NONE of them have done is to produce Obama's passport!!!

Now, folks, this is real simple. I'm sitting next to my desk drawers. On one side I can pull out my passport in 5 seconds. On the other, I can produce a physical version of my birth certificate in the same amount of time. I have not spent $1 million dollars trying to hide either, as Obama has.

So let me repeat: I'm not a "birther" yet. But I am a thinking person with a skeptical mind and, for something so easy to lay to rest, I find it deeply troubling that Obama has chosen to skirt the issue as he has. And to you conservatives who think this is a "problem" for our side, it's only a problem because of the constitutional chaos the REALITY of a foreign birth could cause . . . and ya'll know what I'm talking about. We'd have to get rid of the guy who is in there (an impeached Obama would become a martyr), we'd get that utter buffoon Joe Biden, we'd have to determine the legality of every single law or executive order this Marxist has signed. It would be a nightmare---and I suspect this, more than anything, is really why many conservatives don't want to "go there." But sometimes, you have to do what needs to be done.

The "birthers" are getting lots of flak. Does that mean they are near a target?

************ADDENDUM: Ok, I did some quick, but pretty detailed, investigation into this. I asked some direct questions and got some direct answers, some of which came from this site: http://www.westernjournalism.com/?page_id=2697

I'm sure many of you have seen this before, but there is the upshot of this long and detailed analysis:
*There actually IS a clear difference between a "Certification of Live Birth" and an official "Birth Certificate." Using the former, you cannot get a passport, among other things. (Now, the terms Birth Certificate 3 and Birth Certificate 4 are from the Western Journalism Center, and not government terms.)
*According to the site, a "Birth Certificate 3" form involves the folling: "In 1961, if a person was born in Hawaii but not attended by a physician or midwife, then, up to the first birthday of the child, a “Delayed Certificate” could be filed, which required that “a summary statement of the evidence submitted in support of the acceptance for delayed filing or the alteration [of a file] shall be endorsed on the certificates”, which “evidence shall be kept in a special permanent file.” In other words, a government official of some sort can issue this based on the statement of a family member up to one year after the fact and can even be issued on the word of one of the grandparents, and the mother or father do not have to be present (!)
*But . . . a "Birth Certificate 4" type can be issued if "a child is born in Hawaii, for whom no physician or mid wife filed a certificate of live birth, and for whom no Delayed Certificate was filed before the first birthday, then a Certificate of Hawaiian Birth could be issued upon testimony of an adult (including the subject person [i.e. the birth child as an adult]) if the Office of the Lieutenant Governor was satisfied that a person was born in Hawaii, provided that the person had attained the age of one year.
*So Western Journalism Center concludes the certificate in question is either a BC3 or, if forged, BC4. Why would anyone think it might be forged? Because there was no internet in 1961, so there is no digital file. Therefore, "Given the statutes in force in 1961, the Certification of Live Birth proves nothing unless we know what is on the original birth certificate. There are several legal areas (involving ethnic quotas and subsidy) for which the state of Hawaii up until June 2009 did not accept its computer-generated Certification of Live Birth as sufficient proof of birth in Hawaii or parentage."

Have you seen what's in this bill? CHILLING!

Obama says idiotic stuff like "You'll still keep your doctor" or "You'll keep your existing health care." Has he even READ this monster?

http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2009/07/whats-in-healthacre-bill.html

Pg 22 of the HC Bill MANDATES the Govt will audit books of all employer that self insure!! Can you imagine what that will do to small businesses? Everyone will abandon “self insurance” and go on Gubment insurance. So when Obama says that there will still be private health care, it’s simply a lie: this mandate will force employers to just abandon their private plans.

Pg 30 Sec 123 of HC bill – a government committee (!) will decide what treatments/benefits a person can receive.

Pg 29 lines 4-16 in the HC bill - YOUR HEALTHCARE IS RATIONED!!! (We all knew this, because health care is rationed in Canada and Britain, but Obama kept saying it was not).

PG 50 Section 152 in HC bill - HC will be provided to all non US citizens, illegal or otherwise (!!)

PG 91 Lines 4-7 HC Bill - Govt mandates linguistic appropriate services. Example - Translation for illegal aliens

pg 124 lines 24-25 HC No company can sue the Gubment for price fixing. No "judicial review" against Gubment monopoly

pg. 127 Lines 1-16: Doctors will be told what they can make. Period.

Pg 167 Lines 18-23 ANY individual who doesn’t have acceptable HC accordng to the Gubment will be taxed 2.5% of income. (Now, my question: what if you sign up for the insurance and don’t pay? Will we have yet another bureaucracy to track down healthcare deadbeats?) Young people don’t use many medical services---why shouldn’t they put their money where they need it? Education, or housing?

PG 253 Line 10-18 Gubment sets value of a doctor’s time, professional judgment, (Literally setting the value of humans).

Page 280 Sec 1151 The Gubment will penalize hospitals for what Gubment deems “preventable readmissions” (translation: if the Gubment doesn’t think you should be admitted, forget it! You won’t be admitted because a hospital will be penalized for taking you!)

Pg 354 Sec 1177 - Gubment will RESTRICT enrollment of “special needs” people (i.e., the very people who need medical care!)

Pg 425 Lines 1-9 – Gubment will provide required “end of life” consultations, i.e., lobbying old people on their responsibility to die.

Pg 429 Lines 13-25 – “advanced care consultation” may include an order for “end of life plans” (i.e., an order from government that you’re done).

Same pg, Lines 13-25 –The Gubment will specify which doctors can write an “end of life” order, i.e., those whom they can control.

Better speak up now before you are on the "advanced care consultation" list.

Angry? Maybe It's Time

Recently I had a talk with a colleague (one on my side of the aisle) about the increasingly dire threat posed to this country by the unholy trinity of Obama/Reid-Pelosi/ and the media. The upshot of this person's question to me was, "What can you say that will give me some hope? Some optimism? Is there a way we can reach the kids, the students, and the younger people?"


We aren't quite "done" yet, but the old thermometer is edging up by the day, and I don't mean global warming. Cap and Trade (i.e, "cap and tax") has passed the House and our hopes of avoiding federal enviro-nazis swooping into your homes and clamping down "do not sell" restrictions on your house until you comply with their inane regulations hangs on the votes of a few left-wing Democrat senators who in the past have shown no inclination to challenge Harry Reid. (You see, the Democrat Party has this habit of actually punishing so-called "mavericks" who criticize Dem leadership. Real-life Gong-Show refugees such as Al Franken now will vote on your right to drive what you want and eat what you want. But that's only the tip of the iceberg. There is new twitter about the C02 pollution of computers. Once the computer becomes the next SUV, what sites, exactly, do you think will be deemed the most "polluting?" You got it: Drudge, FreeRepublic; Redstate; and a host of conservative sites. Guess which ones will be ok? Huffington Post, MSNBC, and Daily Kos.

But it gets worse: the National Socialist (that would be Nazi, if you were in Germany) Health Care system that is now about to come up for a vote will absolutely eliminate private health care options. Do not kid yourself: They are going to say that they aren't going to interfere with your right to go to your "own doctor" or have your own "private health insurance." But there won't be non-government doctors or private health insurance if the government mandates them out of existence. Do not forget that this was a major goal of Hillarycare just 15 years ago. Once people found out, it caused a firestorm---but times have changed. The media was atrocious then, but it's a 100% propaganda machine for the Left today. A few holdouts, such as Fox and Rush, remind me of the brave Dutch shouting at the stormtroopers before they were gunned down. If health care or cap and tax fail, the media will see it as the failure of their guy, and in their view, Obama must not be allowed to fail.

Even still, I hear people who want to "get past all this partisanship." Sorry, but GROW UP. Our system from the beginning has pitted one group against another out of fear of the very giant government that is metastasizing before our eyes. James Madison didn't like "parties" or "factions," but he finally admitted that they were absolutely necessary to fragment power. In Washington today, however, we nearly have one political party: the Democrats, who march in lock step with Obama, and the cowardly Republicans who, aside from a few heroes (John Kyl, Jeff Sessions, Jim DeMint come to mind in the Senate, and most of those remaining in the House) are merely "me-too Democrats."

For our system to work, there has to be a clear choice, not a mushy middle, because the mushy middle always, always, always gravitates left. There is a "presumption of power" on the Left---conservatives, by nature, do not like government, don't trust it, and do not want to use it to advance their ends, which they see as advanced through liberty, individual achievement, and entrepreneurship. If Republicans do not unite 100%---and soon---behind the idea that the unholy trinity must be stopped dead or we will not have the American Republic that we have all known all our lives, it may soon be too late. Maybe it's time all of you got just a little mad.

Zero's numbers starting to drop

The latest Rasmussen poll has O's numbers at the lowest they've been, 52%-47%; Rasmussen's goofy, but somewhat useful "strongly approve/strongly disapprove" number is now at -3 (also the lowest it's been, or 33 strongly approve and 36 strongly disapprove); and Quinnipiac has a poll out today on Ohio, always a key state, showing Obama at under 50% (49) for the first time. Remember he took OH with over 52%.

To quote Rev. Wright, "the chickens have come home to rooooossssssttt." What to look for: that 33% strongly approve are the kool-aide drinkers and African-Americans. That number wouldn't change if Obama stood on a platform in Jerusalem and said, "I am the Anti-Christ. Now let's go to Babylon!" George W. Bush simply did not enjoy that same race-based frothing support, or, to put it another way, his supporters actually evaluated what Bush did and they didn't always like it.

There was never a question in my mind that he would fall into negative territory. The issue has always been, "How far would he go to destroy the country before he got there?" I think we see the answer, namely, "a long, long way." This is why the Dems are moving so ridiculously fast on "cap and trade," health care, and soon, immigration reform (i.e., amnesty). The longer any of the takes, and the more people actually examine the policies, the less they like them. And the less they like his policies, the more likely they are to start to take a second look at the man. (I know: "The Man, the Messiah").

Restaurants heading south

Some of us have been marveling at the way travel and restaurants appear to be showing no signs of the recession. How can so many people be eating out and going to Vegas if things are so bad? One explanation has been a "whistling past the graveyard" approach that denied reality---until it caught up. Well, perhaps things are catching up.

Yesterday, new unemployment numbers were bad, and the consumer confidence numbers were worse. Today, we have this news from the restaurant industry that for the first time in five months, the index of restaurant activity is down (Business Insider). Once the reality of the bad economy starts to hang on Obama, his already sagging poll numbers will start to look like President Bush's.

In the end, he was no longer thrilling but goofy

In a searing commentary, recalling the quip that it's wrong to speak ill of the dead, but it's ok to comment favorably on the obituary, Mark Steyn ("Beyond the Pale" click here ). Steyn noted that Jackson was invited to speak at Oxford, where "he called on the world to adopt his Children’s Bill of Rights, including 'the right to be thought adorable' and 'the right to be listened to without having to be interesting'. The right to a $30 million out-of-court settlement, won by a 13-year old former playmate of his, was not mentioned."

As one who has fond memories of the album "Thriller," I was saddened to learn of Jackson's death---but the Michael Jackson of 2009 was not the Jackson who sang and danced his way into the title the "King of Pop." That Jackson died sometime in the 1990s, drowned in a sea of weirdness. In the end, he was no longer thrilling but merely goofy. Appearing in a burqa? Dangling a baby off a balcony? A bazillion plastic surgeries? (You know you've gone overboard when Joan Rivers starts doing jokes about your plastic surgery).

So let us remember the Michael Jackson of "Thriller," of "Smooth Criminal," of "Billie Jean." Heck, let us remember the Michael Jackson of "I Want You Back" and "I'll Be There." As for that other guy, God have mercy on his soul.