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The Obama Watch
Unhinged from Reality
How can President Obama possibly get away with spouting so many shameless falsehoods to the entire nation?
President Obama told the nation last Wednesday night:
Some of people’s concerns have grown out of bogus claims spread by those whose only agenda is to kill reform at any cost. The best example is the claim made not just by radio and cable talk show hosts, but by prominent politicians, that we plan to set up panels of bureaucrats with the power to kill off senior citizens. Now such a charge would be laughable if it weren’t so cynical and irresponsible. It’s a lie, plain and simple.
The prominent politician who first complained about the death panels in the Obama health plan was Sarah Palin. Later on CNN, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs was asked, “You pull out the dictionary, and the person who tells a lie is a liar. Does the President think Sarah Palin is a liar?” Gibbs answered:
I think that for whatever reason despite many media outlets saying what Sarah Palin said was untrue, she continued to say it. I’ll let Webster define what one calls her. I think in the absence of fact sometimes what happens is we fill the void with stuff that quite frankly isn’t true….It’s obvious and true there aren’t death panels.
But people who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones. Calling Sarah Palin a liar was most unfortunate given the speech on health care Barack Obama gave last Wednesday night. In that speech, President Obama accused his critics of spreading “misinformation” and “bogus claims,” of “demagoguery and distortion,” and of “scare tactics” instead of honest debate. But all of that was most prominently featured in his own speech.
Obama’s Calculated Deception
President Obama said that his health overhaul plan includes no Medicare cuts, telling seniors: “[D]on’t pay attention to those scary stories about how your benefits will be cut.” He continued, “The only thing this plan would eliminate is the…unwarranted subsidies in Medicare that go to insurance companies — subsidies that do everything to pad their profits but don’t improve the care of seniors.”
What Obama is talking about here is $177 billion in cuts for Medicare Advantage — the private insurance options that almost one-fourth of seniors have chosen for their coverage under Medicare. Republicans enacted this choice for seniors, and close to 10 million retirees have chosen one of these private insurance options because they get better benefits from it than from standard Medicare.
At a minimum, Obama’s cuts will force these plans to cut back on their benefits for seniors. Or the Medicare Advantage plans may just go out of business altogether, dumping all the seniors who have made that choice because they are getting a better deal. Does Obama’s quote above regarding this component of his health plan honestly explain to you what is involved? Or does it seem calculated to deceive you?
Obama’s health overhaul plan also includes cuts of “hundreds of billions of dollars in waste and fraud” in Medicare. What Obama is talking about here is over $300 billion in additional Medicare cuts, for a total of $500 billion, for payments to doctors and hospitals. In response, doctors and hospitals will cut back on the services and care they provide to seniors. This is the beginning of the health care rationing in the Obama plan. Calling this just cuts in “waste and fraud” is again a calculated deception.
Obama promises seniors in his speech “not a dollar of the Medicare trust fund will be used to pay for this plan.” But what Obama doesn’t tell you is that only Medicare payroll taxes are devoted to the Medicare trust fund. Medicare is largely financed in addition by general revenues, and Medicare cuts can provide general revenue savings that do not involve taking money out of the Medicare trust fund. The general revenue savings just don’t have to be put into the trust fund in the first place. Again, does Obama’s discussion of this sound like calculated deception?
Obama even endorses in the speech the idea for an Independent Medicare Advisory Council, saying, “And we will also create an independent commission of doctors and medical experts charged with identifying more waste [in Medicare] in the years ahead.” Sarah Palin accurately explained what that is in a September 9 article in the Wall Street Journal, writing that such a commission would be
an unelected, largely unaccountable group of experts charged with containing Medicare costs. In an interview with the New York Times in April, the President suggested that such a group, working outside of ‘normal political channels,’ should guide decisions regarding that “huge driver of cost… the chronically ill and those toward the end of their lives.”
In other words, this unelected, unaccountable commission operating outside of “normal political channels” would have the power to adopt still more Medicare cuts, focused especially on the most sick and those toward the end of their lives. Palin concludes:
Given such statements, is it any wonder that many of the sick and elderly are concerned that the Democrats’ proposals will ultimately lead to rationing of their health care by — dare I say it — death panels? Establishment voices dismissed that phrase, but it rang true for many Americans.
About the Author
Peter Ferrara is Director of Entitlement and Budget Policy at the Heartland Institute, General Counsel of the American Civil Rights Union, Senior Fellow at the National Center for Policy Analysis, and Senior Policy Advisor on Entitlements and Budget Policy at the National Tax Limitation Foundation. He served in the White House Office of Policy Development under President Reagan, and as Associate Deputy Attorney General of the United States under President George H.W. Bush.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (81) | Leave a comment
More Articles by Peter Ferrara
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Appleby| 9.16.09 @ 7:23AM
In one of the Star Trek movies, at several different points characters accused Spock of lying. His response was to substitute a less contentious word -- meaning to be funny, as far as Vulcans can be funny. *I exaggerated* he would say drily, for one example.
I am sure king Zero would have a thesaurus full of substitutions for the word *liar* at his fingertips, er, loaded into his teleprompter, handy for such corrections.
Had Enough| 9.18.09 @ 9:01AM
Sounds like "Logan's Run" (movie from the 80's) has come to the USA...and when will these grown-up flower children learn they have a few grey hairs and saving their lives won't be cost effective for our society..perhaps they figure they'll sent enough dissentors to their graves ("Obama Care--It's shovel ready") they'll have free reign--oops! Guess I was momentarily confused with Nazi Germany...are you sure the Health Care Bill doesn't allow for government doctors to try to change eye color, etc?????
Karibou Kid| 9.16.09 @ 7:34AM
Bill Clinton is a habitual liar. He now seems almost a choir boy compared to this current occupant of the White House.
TJK| 9.16.09 @ 7:52AM
How can Obama get away with spouting so many falsehoods? Simple, just ask Joe Wilson. You call him out on it, you get censured. And the media will not report what the original falsehood was, they will only report that another Republican member of Congress "misbehaved." The media are all fighting with each other to get in the best lick of Obama's butt, and any of us who dare try to raise our voice in protest are looked upon as being mobsters, Nazis, and now racists. I am digsusted beyond words. Anyone know of an available island somewhere far away in the south Pacific? I love my country, but that country is being torn down piece by piece by Obama and his minions.
Robert Rosencrans| 9.16.09 @ 7:57AM
Here's how it's done and it's been covered many times. You have alleged news entities like the Washington Post cover up their own poll results as in Link 1 when those results indicate that Obama is failing. Then you have ex-Presidents like James Carter wake up from his zombie like liberal existence and claim that if anyone disagrees with Obama racism is to blame. We have a society permeated with morons and this is just two examples of thousands.
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/53997
A Washington Post-ABC News poll conducted in the three days following President Barack Obama’s speech to Congress about his health care plan found that 54% say the more they hear about the plan, the less they like it.
This particular poll result was not mentioned anywhere in the story about the poll that was posted by the Washington Post on its Web site on Monday. The result did appear in the data sheet from the poll that was linked to the story.
The 54% who now say that the more they hear about Obama’s health-care plan, the less they like it is larger than the percentage who answered a similar question about then-First Lady Hillary Clinton’s health-care plan back in 1993 and 1994.
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/54115
Former President Jimmy Carter said Tuesday that U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson's outburst to President Barack Obama during a speech to Congress last week was an act "based on racism" and rooted in fears of a black president.
"I think it's based on racism," Carter said in response to an audience question at a town hall held at his presidential center in Atlanta. "There is an inherent feeling among many in this country that an African-American should not be president."
The Georgia Democrat said the outburst was a part of a disturbing trend directed at the president that has included demonstrators equating Obama to Nazi leaders.
Becky| 9.16.09 @ 7:58AM
The free press failed first. They seem to be functionally stupid in their profession.
People can tell lies when everything is theoretical. The problems with health care now can be traced to government intervention years ago. It is now involved in over 1/2 of health care. It's 1/2 is subsidized by the private sector.
The only way the govt health care lie will be found out is when the govt owns it 100 %
Louis Jenkins| 9.16.09 @ 8:20AM
The Messiah is operating under the premise that if you tell a lie big enough, and often, the citizenry will believe it. Hmmmm... Wonder where we've heard that before? While he refers to the public as the salt of the earth, the common folk who are the life blood of this nation, both he and his advisors agree on a common thought- "They're morons!!" Hmmm...wonder where we've hear that before?
GringoBob | 9.16.09 @ 8:24AM
Becky - if ObamAcorn takes over healthcare, all of our freedoms go with it, so we must continue to expose Obama and his ACORN thugs till we get rid of every last one
http://Group912.org
Jim O'Brien| 9.16.09 @ 8:30AM
It's obvious that Obama and Congress plan to screw senior voters. Congress wants to pay for its $1 trillion + socialism with new taxes and a $500 billion cut to Medicare. There will be far more patients with less money available, which will result in rationing: i.e., denial of care to senior citizens. Will these cuts also apply to old, rejected U.S. Congressmen, or just to us suckers they call "constituents"?
Tim| 9.16.09 @ 8:36AM
If it wasn't so serious it would be laughable.
I suspect that by the time this whole corrupt can of worms(Obama Presidency) is exposed, you will have Carter and others saying they could have sworn seeing Night Riders on horse back with rope in hand wearing white hoods riding on horseback down each Main Street of every major City in America.
The man living in the white house is a pure lefty....and to any religious lefty(Saul Alinsky disciple) the ends always justify the means regardless of how many lies it takes to do it.
This Carter Racism....BS....is right out of Saul Alinsky's Rules for Radicals.
The real damage being done to the far left is that now millions of folks know what just one year ago only very few knew about true far left radicalism and their vision and heros that they worship for a knew Socialist/Lennin....America.
Michael L. Hauschild| 9.16.09 @ 8:41AM
Mr. Rosencrans,
I can assure you that the most wasted line of space at American Spectator is a link to CBS.
Michael Tomlinson| 9.16.09 @ 8:45AM
For fear of being called racists many conservatives and Republicans have shunned going after Barack Obama personally for his fabrications, distortions and outright lies. Rep. Joe Wilson spoke truth to power and it is time Obama's lack of honesty and integrity be highlighted. The man makes Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton look like paragons of virtue and honesty.
Obama, a corrupt Chicago politician, is one of the leaders of the criminal conspiracy known as ACORN who trained its "workers" to cheat on their taxes (as seems to be a regular occurence among Democrats and liberals) and promote illegal activities. Every attack on ACORN should be used to remind voters Obama was one of its organizers and leaders. This should go for every pronouncement against Democrat sweet heart land deals and mortgages too. Obama is corruption personified and we need to make that abundantly clear to the American people since we cannot depend on the MSM to report the facts or truth.
Becky as for the "free press" they're nothing more than Democrat propagandists. Since the 1930's depression, made worse by the policies of FDR, the media have been willing accomplices to spreading Democrat lies and propaganda. Conservatives need to stop buying the left's news rags and watching their news readers.
As for Jimmy Carter calling Rep. Joe Wilson a racist who cares. Carter an anti-Semitic bigot descended from Jim Crow lynching Democrats is projecting onto Wilson his own twisted and perverse vision of the world and humanity. The man is an insignificant loser whose only "accomplishments" in the White House were promoting the neo-fascist Democrat agenda, nearly destroying our economy (Obama is on the same track), abetting the Soviet Union's tyranny, creating the current reactionary despotic Iranian cabal and acting as PR front man for dictators and tyrants around the world.
Obama is a liar, cheat and fraud. We need more conservatives like Joe Wilson speaking truth to power.
justasimplepatriot| 9.16.09 @ 8:47AM
Lets take a brief inventory:
- Blacks are not held accountable for voter intimidation.
- Black organizations (Acorn) are not held accountable for voter fraud.
- Black organization are not held accountable for promoting prostitution and housing grant fraud.
- Black politicians who are Obama supporters (Kevin Johnson) are not held accountable for embezzlement - instead we fire the white auditor who reveals it.
- This Black President is not held accountable for lying to the American public.
Any pattern here....... Nah! /sarc
Mattled| 9.16.09 @ 8:48AM
If you aren't doing everything you can to get family, friends, neighbors to stop watching ABCNBCCBSCNNMSNBC and stop subscribing to Time, Newsweak, NYT, WaPo, AJC, LA Times and their local papers (especially if they are affiliated with NYT whcih many are) ......
.......then you haven't done enough.
The ONLY thing they are doing now is calling everyone who disagrees with Dear Leader a racist (They have no clue that the 9/12 folks were Democrats, Libertarians AND Republicans) .
The media fails, Obama fails. It's that simple. Without the media's 5 Billion dollar PR effort, he would be back in Ill. Senate voting "present" shaking down the next hospital for wifey.
Ken (Old Texican)| 9.16.09 @ 8:50AM
I don't like the title of this article.
Not at all! Mr. Ferrara is giving our president a "not guilty by virtue of insanity defense".
Wrong!
The man is absolutely sane. Unless of course we label all the other dictators in the world and history "insane".
That is why I cut through all the verbiage and call Obama a "Communist". In the Soviet Union, "truth" was defined as whatever helped the state. Insanity was defined...and punished by commitment to an aslyum..."not understanding and abiding by the truth the state found convenient".
This is precisely the topsy turvy dictionary from which Mr. Obama and crew get their definitions.
It is very similar to the thought processes of any serial murderor.
I hope Mr. Wilson in congress enjoys the heck out of whatever "censure" is handed him. It is a badge of honor.
I am personally sick and tired of all that smarmy "collegiality" going on in congress and the Senate. This is NOT politics as usual.
Ladies and gentlemen, this is "WAR" in the sense that war is "politics by other means"....and each of you had better pick sides. www.myteamusa.org
owyheewine| 9.16.09 @ 9:33AM
Clinton and Obama are both lawyers. I have said before that lawyers lie by deception as a badge of occupational honor. These two have achieved Eagle Scout status with their accumulation of badges.
G.K. Chesterton| 9.16.09 @ 10:03AM
It is terrible to contemplate how few politicians are hanged.
ARealist| 9.16.09 @ 10:22AM
Peter Ferrara;
You are asking a very stupid question;
paraphrasing, "...... how can Obama lie repeatedly and get away with it?"
Simple, his Ministry of Propaganda, aka, the Mainstream Media, is covering and lying for him, and will not report anything at all - a lie or the truth - if it sheds the slightest bit of doubt on their Fuhrer, Obama.
As a result , his lies go unchallenged, and in fact, are perpetuated by his Ministry of Propaganda, the MSM.
Thus the use of the term, health care "reform." It is no such thing ; it is in fact the imposition of price controls on medical care.
Price controls have a 100% perfectly consistent record of producing shortages, rationing and degradation of services. Whether for food, housing, oil, gas, and, oh yes, for medical services - it makes no difference wherever or whenever in the world it has been tried.
The Marxist-Leninist Chicago thug, Obama, knows this full well, but it does not matter to him at all.
It is all about power.
As to your statement that he is "divorced from reality," he is not.
"Repeat a lie often enough, and it becomes the truth." So said Joseph Goebbels, Hitler's propaganda minister. Obama is merely following the script of any good bolshevik nazi thug.
You can expect this to continue.
PolishKnight| 9.16.09 @ 11:05AM
I called my FDR/Democrat loyalist mother and discussed with her my attending the freedomworks protest in DC and she was amazed that I claimed that the healthcare bill would provide benefits for illegal aliens.
"Obama says that's not in the bill!" she claimed.
I pointed out, in response, that the Democrats had explicitly voted down a specific requirement in the bill to that effect and she changed the subject.
There's a certain subset of Democrat voters who can't, in the classic phrase "handle the truth". They don't care. They just need to be told what they want to hear and that's what the truth is.
Never underestimate people's ability to believe what they want to believe in the face of all evidence otherwise. They like believing that health care will be "free", that someone else will foot the bill, that they can be generous with OPM (other people's money), and that everything bad is some other jerk's fault.
Gill O’Teen ✝✡| 9.16.09 @ 11:39AM
owyheewine, you owe me and all other Eagle Scouts an apology. While I am in full sympathy of any description of the racist liars on the left which accurately describes their natures, using Eagle Scouts as your analogy is insulting to those of us who worked long and hard to attain a noble goal.
“On my honor, I will do my best
To do my duty to God and my country and to obey the Scout Law;
To help other people at all times;
To keep myself physically strong, mentally awake and morally straight.”
“A (Boy) Scout is: Trustworthy, Loyal, Helpful, Friendly, Courteous, Kind, Obedient, Cheerful, Thrifty, Brave, Clean, and Reverent.”
Exactly what in the Scout Oath and Law even slightly resembles the code followed by mr. hillary and the golden calf?
Gill O’Teen ✝✡
Proud to be an Eagle Scout!
gill.Oteen07041776@gmail.com
Don’t Tread on Me!!
S.L. Toddard| 9.16.09 @ 1:15PM
"How can President Obama possibly get away with spouting so many shameless falsehoods to the entire nation?"
I know. There is nothing worse than a president spouting faleshoods shamelessly.
"We recently found two mobile biological weapons facilities which were capable of producing biological agents." Source: President Talks to Troops in Qatar, White House (6/5/2003).
"Here's what -- we've discovered a weapons system, biological labs, that Iraq denied she had, and labs that were prohibited under the U.N. resolutions." Source: President Bush, Russian President Putin Sign Treaty of Moscow, White House (6/1/2003).
"We found the weapons of mass destruction. We found biological laboratories. You remember when Colin Powell stood up in front of the world, and he said, Iraq has got laboratories, mobile labs to build biological weapons. They're illegal. They're against the United Nations resolutions, and we've so far discovered two. And we'll find more weapons as time goes on. But for those who say we haven't found the banned manufacturing devices or banned weapons, they're wrong, we found them." Source: Interview of the President by TVP, Poland, White House (5/29/2003).
"We know that Iraq and al Qaeda have had high-level contacts that go back a decade. Some al Qaeda leaders who fled Afghanistan went to Iraq. These include one very senior al Qaeda leader who received medical treatment in Baghdad this year, and who has been associated with planning for chemical and biological attacks. We've learned that Iraq has trained al Qaeda members in bomb-making and poisons and deadly gases." - President Bush Outlines Iraqi Threat; Remarks by the President on Iraq, White House (10/7/2002)
"This is a man who has got connections with Al Qaida. Imagine a terrorist network with Iraq as an arsenal and as a training ground, so that a Saddam Hussein could use this shadowy group of people to attack his enemy and leave no fingerprint behind. He's a threat." - Remarks by the President in Texas Welcome, White House
"He's a threat because he is dealing with Al Qaida. In my Cincinnati speech I reminded the American people, a true threat facing our country is that an Al Qaida-type network trained and armed by Saddam could attack America and leave not one fingerprint." - President Outlines Priorities, White House (11/7/2002)
"Evidence from intelligence sources, secret communications, and statements by people now in custody reveal that Saddam Hussein aids and protects terrorists, including members of al Qaeda. Secretly, and without fingerprints, he could provide one of his hidden weapons to terrorists, or help develop their own." - President Delivers "State of the Union", White House (1/28/2003)
"Saddam Hussein has longstanding, direct and continuing ties to terrorist networks. Senior members of Iraqi intelligence and al Qaeda have met at least eight times since the early 1990s. Iraq has sent bomb-making and document forgery experts to work with al Qaeda. Iraq has also provided al Qaeda with chemical and biological weapons training. We also know that Iraq is harboring a terrorist network, headed by a senior al Qaeda terrorist planner." - President Bush: "World Can Rise to This Moment", White House (2/6/2003)
"He has trained and financed al Qaeda-type organizations before, al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations." - President George Bush Discusses Iraq in National Press Conference, White House (3/6/2003)
"The regime . . . has aided, trained and harbored terrorists, including operatives of al Qaeda. The danger is clear: using chemical, biological or, one day, nuclear weapons, obtained with the help of Iraq, the terrorists could fulfill their stated ambitions and kill thousands or hundreds of thousands of innocent people in our country, or any other." President Says Saddam Hussein Must Leave Iraq Within 48 Hours, White House (3/17/2003)
Dixie Pixie| 9.16.09 @ 1:18PM
Prove you are not a racist by snuffing your grandmother. This is not the slippery slope into the abyss. This is free falling in the abyss.
Nonusya | 9.16.09 @ 1:59PM
He said truth.
Louis Jenkins| 9.16.09 @ 2:43PM
"I didn't have sex with that woman." Bubba Clinton. Now that was the lie to top all lies. Just like today, we know someone is getting screwed!!
"It is terrible to contemplate how few politicians are hanged. " (previous post)
Hanging is too good for 'em.
Mattled| 9.16.09 @ 3:29PM
PolishKnight,
Same thing with my mother-in-law:
Her: You got that from your fringe right wing websites!.
Me: no, this is from the Venona Tapes released in 1994 (regarding Communists in our government circa 1950'). Silence.
Her: You got this from one of those right wing smear sites.
Me: No, it's actually from CBS News. Silence.
Me: YOUR own newspaper just reported XYZ story.
Her: "Much ado about nothing". Denial and embarrassment to follow.
Now: I don't even bother.
Father-in-law recently asked about Tom Delay--Me: Don't know him.
Father-in-law upon Teddy's passing:
What do you think of Ted Kennedy passing away?
Me: Never heard of him.
And so it goes. After three years of vacationing with them during the summer, this was the last (HURRAY!).
ARealist| 9.16.09 @ 3:51PM
To S.L. Toddard:
Not sure of your point.
Is it OK for a president to lie because other presidents have lied?
Not a very good reason, really.
By the way, the lies you presented re: WMD, Iraq, etc., were said by Bush. You forgot to mention all those comments about WMD, Iraq and Terror, etc., as stated President Clinton, Al Gore, Hilary Clinton, Jay Rockefeller and a host of other democrats when Clinton was president.
Recall that under Clinton the congress passed a resolution aiming for regime change in Iraq. This resolution received bi-partisan support in Congress and was supported by President Clinton.
By the way, most - if not all - of Bush's most zealous critics in congress re: Iraq war, ALL VOTED to go to war in Iraq. Only after events there went down the toilet did these same folks become critics, calling Bush a liar, etc.
The lesson here is that politicians of any stripe cannot be trusted, and will literally say and do anything to get publicity, fame, campaign contributions and re-elected. It seems that one must be a crook and a liar to be a politician.
Just for the record, I thought the US never should have invaded Iraq.
Liberal Reader| 9.16.09 @ 4:06PM
So .. let me get this straight.
Are conservatives now fighting FOR Medicare?
Because you fought us tooth and nail on it when we came up with the idea. You said it would lead to "socialism." (Sound familiar.)
O.K.
Here's the truth.
Medicare Advantage is NOT Medicare. It's corporate welfare worse than anything every doled out to inner city mothers.
It delivers health care -- using tax payer dollars -- to seniors at rates 12-15% HIGHER than Medicare.
It's stupid and it must be terminated. When this happens, it will save hundreds of billions of dollars over 10 years.
This entails NO CUTS in spending on actual health care for seniors, since ALL qualify for Medicare.
There are no freaking DEATH PANELS. That WAS a lie, and the people who repeated that nonsense WERE LYING, making them LIARS.
If you are in the middle class, you should favor what ought to be called MEDICARE PART E, where E stands for EVERYBODY.
Have you ever heard a senior complain about Medicare?
Why shouldn't EVERYONE have it?
Liberal Reader| 9.16.09 @ 4:12PM
I strongly resist claims that Bush "lied" about WMD.
Since Truman, presidents have been given wide latitude in this matter. Nuclear and chemical weapons radically alter how we think about war and possible attacks on the United States.
If the president thinks the United States is under threat, and he's willing to go in front of the public and say, "This is a threat," I don't see how we have a choice BUT to believe him.
The democratic process has its own inherent genius: it found us FDR when we needed him; and alas, I suppose I'd have to admit it found us Reagan when we needed him.
If we start down the road of claiming Bush "lied" to get us into war, it leads to very bad, very uncivil places. It does not GAIN anything, and loses much.
Did Bush always present this country with the tough realities? No. Did you articulate the causus belli in a sound, effective way. No, he did not.
That's the liberal critique. I battled many on my side on this matter for years, while being called an unpatriotic traitor by people on the right.
Liberal Reader| 9.16.09 @ 4:14PM
Louis Jenkins --
If I understand your post right, you are a perfect fool.
Margie| 9.16.09 @ 4:16PM
If our President had a conscience, and finally faced his lies, he'd have to throw up.
But this man has no conscience. Neither did Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, Idi Amin, Hitler, nor does Fidel, Chavez, Jung Il, or Ahmadinejad. Welcome to the Communist State, all.
Yet there will still be many who will still raise their hands and say "Heil Obama!"
Now how on earth does Obama call himself a "Committed Christian?" Are committed Christians deceitful? Do they honor Allah, the false god? Do they side with terrorists? Do they make themselves dictators by destroying free Republics?
Committed Christians fear God. "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom." ~Prov. 1:7
.."But for the cowardly and unbelieving, and disgusting ones, and murderers, and fornicators, and sorcerers, and idolators, and all the lying ones, their part will be in the Lake burning with fire and brimstone, which is the second death." Rev. 21:8
Liberal Reader| 9.16.09 @ 4:18PM
Margie --
Name me three -- just three -- things that Obama has done that make it fair for you to compare him to Stalin, Hitler, or any of these other monsters?
Do you actually KNOW anything about these figures you allude to?
You're sound like an ignoramus to me. I'd like some specifics and some explanation of your reasoning.
Gill O’Teen ✝✡| 9.16.09 @ 4:30PM
I’m tired of this no weapons of mass destruction distraction. saddumb had them. He used them to exterminate a Kurdish village. The question is not did he have them. Ask the Kurds. The question is what happened to them. As far as Medicare is concerned, I am not in favor of any government funded welfare whatsoever. However, in the specific cases of Medicare and Social Security, Americans have been paying government mandated hard-earned cash for these pigs-in-a-poke since the kommie FDR stuck us with the check. Those who have paid into these systems, by force, should get what they were promised.
Gill O’Teen ✝✡
gill.Oteen07041776@gmail.com
Don’t Tread on Me!!
Richard Baker| 9.16.09 @ 4:32PM
Because he thinks we're all stupid. That's the reason for the serial lying. That and he can't help himself.
Ken (Old Texican)| 9.16.09 @ 4:45PM
Margie
May I take a whack at Libtard's question?
1. "Death panels" by any name...still smell like a rose
2. " I want an internal security service equal to our present military."
3. "The constitution is a negative document..."
Margie,
Hitler would never be an example, if the German people had rejected him.
Stalin would never be an example...if the Russians had put him in prison for life early on.
See, Margie, Libtards around the country simply cannot get their arms around what Obamites want to do to our country. They seem to want to wait until the deeds are already accomplished, our country is in the toilet, and you and I are silenced or dead.
Libtards may try to intimidate you with their straw premises, but trust me on this...the authors here at American Spectator are some of the best educated...brightest people in our country.
Shucks, I am one of the best educated, brightest people in our country. I am still the youngest (successful) fortune 500 CEO in history that did not inherit the job.
You and me, Margie. I thought your comment was darned near perfect.
God's speed
Michael Tomlinson| 9.16.09 @ 5:06PM
What a wonderful article about the unwillingness and/or inability of Obama and by implication Democrats to tell the truth. As the country collapses under Democrat stewardship the Obama apologists continue to defend what they know are lies and half-lies.
In contrast when honest, but poor communicator George W. Bush was President America was better off than it is now or will be under Obama and Democrats.
According to the Bureau of Labor, jobs created under President Bush averaged 19,000 per month from January 2001 through January 2009. During the time Republicans held Congress with President Bush in the White House, jobs grew from 132.469 million to 137.180 million. That’s an increase of 4.7 million jobs for an average of 65,000 per month for 72 months. (That period includes the impact of the 2001 recession inherited from Clinton as well as the 2001 terrorist attacks.) Since Democrats took over Congress in 2007 the country has lost 6 million jobs half of that number during the 8 months Barack Obama has been President and the number is predicted to continue rising well into the next fiscal year with massive unemployment to continue for years if Obama’s economic policies continue.
Under President Bush taxes were never raised and there was no threat that they would be. Tax revenue soared. Job productivity was the highest since 1945. His Supreme Court appointees were not only respected conservative jurists, but they didn’t have to use children’s books as primers while in law school like Obama’s embarrassing appointment. More illegal immigrants were deported than during any previous administration, the drug prescription program for seniors has been a success, anti-second amendment laws were reversed and serious pro-life legislation was enacted into law.
Under Bush we won our first major war since World War II with fewer casualties than Americans killed in 2007 in a few Democrat controlled cities – Baltimore City, Philadelphia, Richmond, Detroit, St Louis, Flint, Oakland, Camden, Birmingham, North Charleston, Memphis, Cleveland, Orlando, Little Rock, Compton, Youngstown, Cincinnati, Gary, Kansas City (MO & KS), Dayton, Newark, Atlanta, Jackson, MS, Buffalo and Washington DC. We also secured WMD at the Muthana chemical storage facility and fulfilled the Clinton policy of regime change in Iraq.
In Iraq and Afghanistan US, Coalition and NATO forces have killed tens of thousands of Muslim extremists like those who attacked the US on 9/11. Terrorists have not only been killed, but safely detained. One can only guess what will happen when Obama and Holder let the terrorists go and we cut and run from Afghanistan, because of the vaginal Obama Presidency.
All in all while there were problems in the Bush years (like the failure to overcome Democrat roadblocks to reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that precipitated our current financial crisis and were controlled by Obama Democrats Franklin Delano Raines, Jamie Gorelick and David Kellerman; reforming Social Security; controlling pork spending; TARP and like Reagan failing to reduce the deficit with massive tax revenue gains thanks to supply side economics) life then may soon seem like a golden age as America struggles economically, internationally and politically under the autocratic heel of Barack Obama and Democrats.
S.L. Toddard| 9.16.09 @ 5:17PM
Hey Mike Tomlinson - the United States Constitution - which you pretend to revere - declares that "all Treaties made... under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land", and the Convention Against Torture treaty - the "supreme Law of the Land" according to the Constitution - compels prosecution of *alleged* torture crimes. Torture crimes have been *alleged*.
So, Mike, should we follow the Constitution and proceed with investigations/prosecutions, or do you agree with Obama that the Constitution is a quaint relic to only be adhered to when politically convenient?
You must have forgotten to respond in the other thread.
S.L. Toddard| 9.16.09 @ 5:19PM
"I strongly resist claims that Bush "lied" about WMD"
That's a very politic thing to do. Whether or not you believe he consciously "lied", there is simply no doubt that he spouted "many shameless falsehoods to the entire nation". Falsehoods which cost thousands of American lives and the lives of hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians.
S.L. Toddard| 9.16.09 @ 5:26PM
And that's not to mention, LR, that it is a *lie* to say you *know* something for a fact when you only suspect it.
Margie| 9.16.09 @ 5:37PM
Old Tex,
The holier-than-thou Liberal Leftists don't really WANT their "examples" that they pretend to want to know. They just want you to answer back so that they can't insult you some more. "Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest you become like him." ~Prov. 26:4. Believe me, I have been around the block a few zillion times to know this fact. These "intellectuals" can only attack your core being because they so hate you, what you stand for, and that you dare to speak it. They already know the truth but refuse to agree with it. "Agree with God and be at peace." Job 22:21. It's always about the bottom line with these people. And they hate it when you go to it. What is the bottom line with Obama? He is acting as a lying dictator, isn't he? Well, he can try and take the freedom out of America, but he can't take the Freedom out of the individual. No one can do that. He is powerless toward that! ""And not anyone shall pluck them out of My hand." Jn. 10:28. So rage on, all you Liberals, and continue on in your lost battle againt the King!
S.L. Toddard| 9.16.09 @ 5:47PM
"honest, but poor communicator George W. Bush"
So very honest.
"We recently found two mobile biological weapons facilities which were capable of producing biological agents." Source: President Talks to Troops in Qatar, White House (6/5/2003).
"Here's what -- we've discovered a weapons system, biological labs, that Iraq denied she had, and labs that were prohibited under the U.N. resolutions." Source: President Bush, Russian President Putin Sign Treaty of Moscow, White House (6/1/2003).
"We found the weapons of mass destruction. We found biological laboratories. You remember when Colin Powell stood up in front of the world, and he said, Iraq has got laboratories, mobile labs to build biological weapons. They're illegal. They're against the United Nations resolutions, and we've so far discovered two. And we'll find more weapons as time goes on. But for those who say we haven't found the banned manufacturing devices or banned weapons, they're wrong, we found them." Source: Interview of the President by TVP, Poland, White House (5/29/2003).
"We know that Iraq and al Qaeda have had high-level contacts that go back a decade. Some al Qaeda leaders who fled Afghanistan went to Iraq. These include one very senior al Qaeda leader who received medical treatment in Baghdad this year, and who has been associated with planning for chemical and biological attacks. We've learned that Iraq has trained al Qaeda members in bomb-making and poisons and deadly gases." - President Bush Outlines Iraqi Threat; Remarks by the President on Iraq, White House (10/7/2002)
"This is a man who has got connections with Al Qaida. Imagine a terrorist network with Iraq as an arsenal and as a training ground, so that a Saddam Hussein could use this shadowy group of people to attack his enemy and leave no fingerprint behind. He's a threat." - Remarks by the President in Texas Welcome, White House
"He's a threat because he is dealing with Al Qaida. In my Cincinnati speech I reminded the American people, a true threat facing our country is that an Al Qaida-type network trained and armed by Saddam could attack America and leave not one fingerprint." - President Outlines Priorities, White House (11/7/2002)
"Evidence from intelligence sources, secret communications, and statements by people now in custody reveal that Saddam Hussein aids and protects terrorists, including members of al Qaeda. Secretly, and without fingerprints, he could provide one of his hidden weapons to terrorists, or help develop their own." - President Delivers "State of the Union", White House (1/28/2003)
"Saddam Hussein has longstanding, direct and continuing ties to terrorist networks. Senior members of Iraqi intelligence and al Qaeda have met at least eight times since the early 1990s. Iraq has sent bomb-making and document forgery experts to work with al Qaeda. Iraq has also provided al Qaeda with chemical and biological weapons training. We also know that Iraq is harboring a terrorist network, headed by a senior al Qaeda terrorist planner." - President Bush: "World Can Rise to This Moment", White House (2/6/2003)
"He has trained and financed al Qaeda-type organizations before, al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations." - President George Bush Discusses Iraq in National Press Conference, White House (3/6/2003)
"The regime . . . has aided, trained and harbored terrorists, including operatives of al Qaeda. The danger is clear: using chemical, biological or, one day, nuclear weapons, obtained with the help of Iraq, the terrorists could fulfill their stated ambitions and kill thousands or hundreds of thousands of innocent people in our country, or any other." President Says Saddam Hussein Must Leave Iraq Within 48 Hours, White House (3/17/2003)
Ken (Old Texican)| 9.16.09 @ 5:51PM
Spectator editors (Sent direct)
Please check if Toddard ia posting from the United States.
If so, does he have a current Visa?
Mr. Stoddard, one of my former employees was in charge of removing the WMDs, (quietly), so as not to engage in a "holy war".
Right or wrong, Mr Bush...Dubyah... chose not to describe it that way.
Nevertheless, Mr. Dubyah KILLED the taliban in three months.
Seven and one half years...no attack here. Oh wait, eight years and counting.
What will you say when WMD are...are used on the US?
I will LMAOL...not at the innocents, but at you idiots.
If you live in a possible target area, Stoddard, please leave there soonest. We want to hear your bleats afterwards.
Personaly, I am ready for "holy war"...to the knife.
Those ignorant savages never met up with a hundred million 12 guage shotguns!
You, of course, will hide in your computer hole in order to "didcuss".
Cowardly person that you are.
Our VOLUNTEER ARMY kicked arse., and you get to be prissy.
Liberal Reader| 9.16.09 @ 5:56PM
Margie --
Are you then telling me that you have good REASON to believe that Obama is as bad a man as Stalin or Mao or Hitler, but you refuse to say what that reason is?
Who is the person with no conscience here?
I think it is YOU who has no conscience.
Again: I challenge you to give me three reasons based in FACT that license you to make this outrageous comparison. If you have any honor whatsoever, you will either comply or withdraw your rash and irresponsible claim.
Margie| 9.16.09 @ 6:04PM
Gestapo says: " I challenge you to give me three reasons based in FACT that license you to make this outrageous comparison. If you have any honor whatsoever, you will either comply or withdraw your rash and irresponsible claim."
~~or what? He'll throw me into the "Re-education" camp?
c. j. acworth| 9.16.09 @ 6:18PM
Of course the bills currently before congress do not mandate "Death Panels". Yet. But when the costs of this government takeover of 1/6 the economy skyrocket it will be the weakest who suffer first and most. At that point, grandma will be encouraged to "take the pill". And I wouldn't even put more active measures past our ACORN-in-chief. Can anyone give me one reason to believe he wouldn't wink at eauthanasia? After all, some "doctors" are willing to pull a nearly full-term baby most of the way out of its mother's womb, stick a pair of scissors into its skull and suck its brains out, and the Big O has no problem with that. When he had a chance to vote for legislation requiring care be given to an infant born alive as a result of a botched late-term abortion he fought it. He apparantly has no problem with requiring said infant to be left to die while struggling to draw a breath, surrounded by an entire hospital full of "health care". So you tell me, Liberal Reader, if your Chosen One has no moral qualms about savage atrocities like those, why shouldn't I believe that he wouldn't be willing to go to a nursing home and personally unplug grandma?
Gill O’Teen ✝✡| 9.16.09 @ 6:49PM
I’m tired of this no weapons of mass destruction distraction. saddumb had them. He used them to exterminate a Kurdish village. The question is not did he have them. Ask the Kurds. The question is what happened to them. As far as medicare is concerned, I am not in favor of any government funded welfare whatsoever. However, in the specific cases of medicare and Social Security, Americans have been paying government mandated hard-earned cash for these pigs-in-a-poke since the kommie FDR stuck us with the check. Those who have paid into these systems, by force, should get what they were promised.
Gill O’Teen ✝✡
gill.Oteen07041776@gmail.com
Don’t Tread on Me!!
Ken (old Texican)| 9.16.09 @ 8:00PM
Margie, you are a class act. Thank you!
Pingback| 9.16.09 @ 8:11PM
Tech Flash Vol. 5 No. 16 — Food Engineering's E-Newsletter … | Food Health Wisdom links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Alan Brooks| 9.16.09 @ 8:14PM
hopefully, a Gingrich-- sans the Tofflerism-- will become Speaker a year and a half from now.
Susan| 9.16.09 @ 8:16PM
In your article "Unhinged" you said that Sarah Palin's remarks about 'Death Panels' was not true. The fact is that although that term is not in the wording of the bill, Palin was correct.
The House Bill, as written, is a confusing maze of legal speak, and there was no doubt that the cuts to medicare along with the coverage of additional people, would have led to rationing.
President Obama, at one town hall meeting, clearly stated that at a certain age one must consider the medical option of a pain pill instead perhaps life saving surgery.
I will also refer you to the August 15, 2009 article by Joseph Ashby, in American Thinker, 'Death Panel Is Not In The Bill it Already Exists'.
$1.1 BILLION funding was provided in the Recovery and Reinvesting Act for the Federal Coordinating Council for Comparative Research.
This 'Council' (Daschle's brain child) is to empower an unelected bureaucracy to make the hard core decisions about health care RATIONING that politicians are unable to make.
Wouldn't call you a liar, but get ALL the facts out .
There has been so much 'chitchat' about Health Care Reform that the above FACTS about this Council are not being reported.
nick| 9.16.09 @ 8:18PM
Libreader and Toddard are tools - there is really no point in speaking with them - Toddard is still lost in Bush land and will not engage on the issue at hand - I ask the Libreader if he really understands the end result of government control of health care - the size of that part of the economy - the constant push by the current administration for more and more control - then put this in the context of your leader's concepts of life and government over his life - his major influences - his record of being the most leftist senator while he had that job - the people he chooses to surround himself with now and in the past - if you cannot see the implications then you are in denial or part of the problem - throughout history these actions (the steady accretion of power) have alway lead, necessarily, to what has happend in the past. Perhaps it is only fear - but history is on the side of this fear - and for good reason.
Curtis Rasmussen| 9.16.09 @ 8:25PM
Margie,
Thanks for the comments. Obama can be judged by his associations like
Former green Tsar Van Jones, a world class self-proclaimed Marxist scumbag.
Climate Tsar Carole Browner, a leader ofthe socialist Commission for a Sustainable World Society (recently scrubbed from their website)
FCC communications Tsar Mark Lloyd, a Hugo Chavez lover to wants to implement draconian limitations on free speech.
Science Tsar John Holdren who believes in the sterilization of undesireables and government enforced population control.
Etc....
Although he will never admit it, we can all see Obama's political leanings from the people he draws to himself, all government control MARXISTS AND SOCIALISTS.
Lib reader, stop talking to yourself.
Liberal Reader| 9.16.09 @ 8:38PM
Nick --
Is that you, Nick? You've lost a) your grammar; b) your clarity; c) your sense; d) your reason; and, most unforgiveably, e) your wit.
Pingback| 9.16.09 @ 8:43PM
Twitter Trackbacks for The American Spectator : Unhinged from Reality [spectator.org links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
nick| 9.16.09 @ 8:46PM
Lib non-reader - is that the best you can do? Oh - but of course the message is not important - only the way it is presented - just like your leader.
Liberal Reader| 9.16.09 @ 8:48PM
The Liberal Reader is relieved to learn that in a recent poll AS MANY Republicans said they "weren't sure" Obama is the anti-Christ AS said they were sure he was.
I'm delighted to learn critical thinking and skepticism are alive and well on the right.
(See National Review Online)
Keep it up, folks!
Liberal Reader| 9.16.09 @ 8:49PM
Yes, Nick. That's the best I can do.
What happened to your capital N, and does that have anything to do with the lameness of your posts tonight?
Alan Brooks| 9.16.09 @ 8:56PM
Good news.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama's spokesman publicly disagreed with former President Jimmy Carter on Wednesday over Carter's contention that some conservative opposition to Obama is based on race.
"The president does not think it is based on the color of his skin," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters.
al| 9.18.09 @ 12:50PM
after labeling assertions about illegal aliens misinformation and lies (and knowing amendments with wording to expressly deny coverage to illegals had been voted down by Dems) the White House quietly published a statement the other day that enrollment processes will be monitored to ensure illegals cannot register for health care. yup........this is all above aboard and nothing but the facts.
who the H are you kidding Liberal Reader?
as you should know...unless like many other libs you're special metier is to employ evasive language.....there is the immediate matter of whether the phraseology of death panels appears in the sundry health car bills and non-existant Obama Plan that are publicly available, and the substance of the accusation: regardless of final implementation, health care is a resource constrained activity. placing government in control of managing that scarcity is what people object - especially in view of 60 years and more of demonstrable incompetence and corruption when it comes to large scale problems. "death panels" is just a convenient, if perhaps hyperbolic, wording to crystalize the issue. it gathers extra emotive force when one considers the history of the people - many unelected or Congressionally vetted - who surround this President. The record is out there for everyone to see. why in the world should anyone trust this President? he's glib and evasive - as lawyers are wont to be when it serves their purposes. people are figuring out his MO - and more so that of his hoplites in Congress and have decided "NO MAS".
preach to someone else. let's examine this racism canard for a moment. I have watched this particular farce my whole life.....while there are legitimate racially based problems to tackle...the Left has essentially been unprincipled in its usurpation of this issue. The Left doesn't care one iota about racism or gender for that matter. forward a conservative Black or female for an elevated position of influence and the whole history of the last 60 years has highlighted an organized, vicious, unprincipled effort to undermine and destroy every one of these individuals. in fact, this extends into domains far beyond just the political. the Left, in the end, is all about power. their whole worldview, moral calculus and intellectual foundations are predicated on flexible assumptions and language that admit of any conclusions that suit the temperament of the moment. that is what "judicial activism" is all about...and that is what these people are all about. they have no real firm principles. it's all "evolution"...."an experiment"..."progress". they stand for nothing except power and the expression of their will over others. they are not about democracy and comprise - dirty as those concepts might be in practice. and they have hijacked that Democratic party.
with all due respect....myself and others are now hoisting the dubious digit......"NO MAS". you missed your opportunity to navigate toward common ground.
nick| 9.16.09 @ 8:59PM
Lib non-reader - you really don't see that your ad hominen attack is exactly my point - address the issues I raised - don't know how old you are - but I recall much more freedom as a young man than we have today - I don't care which party is in power - they always do the same thing - get more power - if you cannot see that, then you cannot see or accept that - then I don't know what to say - why the distraction of comment on some poll that no one cares about? Don't you see the absurdity?
Pingback| 9.17.09 @ 3:55AM
Bridgeville man arrested for hunting violations | Hunting Leisure Knowledge links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
John| 9.17.09 @ 10:17AM
Laying all these debates and discussions aside, Obama should not be calling the shots anyway. He still has yet to prove he is a true American citizen.
Ann McErlane| 9.17.09 @ 2:46PM
I have said from the start of Obama's Health Care plan, that this looks a lot like a movie I saw back in the 70's called: Soylent Green - I call this Obama's Soylent Green Health Care. When the government gets health care - they get everything! This includes our food. Look what the extremist have done to California's central valley. When food becomes scarce there will be some one telling us what we can and can't eat. When they have you on their health care program you will have to do as they say. Maybe not next year but it opens up a pandora's box. Maybe this administration says, rediculous we aren't out to do that. Maybe so, but what about the next one or the one after that? This will not go away with the next administration or the next. This will only grow. It is up to we Americans who understand what Liberty is all about to fight this not just for ourselves but for the next generations to come. We have to be vigilant, never again should we Americans sit back and leave it up to our elected officials to take care of things for us. This is why we are where we are. We as Americans have been enjoying the good life too long and stopped paying attention. The left hand was doing a lot of no good, while the right hand was keeping us distracted. Just stay vigilant .
Small Town Surgeon| 9.17.09 @ 6:19PM
I think we may be able to take a cue from the Leftists soon:
Obama lied, Grandma Died.
wtw| 9.18.09 @ 11:18AM
One other point. Mr. Obama also said illegal immigrants would not be eligible under "The Plan." Hmm. How do we differentiate illegals from citizens? I believe Mr. Obama has again used a legal technicality to lure the American People into thinking one thing, when in actuality, quite another happens.
It seems the determination of citizenship must be adjudicated. Until such time, one is merely "accused" or "suspected" of being here illegally.
Absent a legal ruling, how is it possible to differentiate "us" from "them?" Did we keep those HillaryCare cards waved about back in the Clinton administration? Driver's licenses or state identity cards may be problematic since some municipalities offer them to illegals.
alf| 9.18.09 @ 1:02PM
how about the Congress and WH emphatically state illegal immigrants are off the table...and then grant blanket amnesty 2-3 years down the road? does anyone seriously believe that this stratagem isn't in the playbook?
alextk77 | 9.19.09 @ 2:40PM
Don't you see the absurdity?
jacky | 3.21.11 @ 3:37AM
Don't you see the absurdity?
jacky | 3.21.11 @ 3:38AM
Don't you see the absurdity?