I was going to do a post on how historically pathetic the Pelosi-Reid 111th Congress is – but someone at the WSJ beat me to it:

The 111th Congress began with an $814 billion stimulus that blew out the federal balance sheet, so we suppose it’s only fitting that the Members want to exit by passing a 1,924-page, $1.2 trillion omnibus spending bill. The worst Congress in modern history is true to its essence to the bitter end.

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Democrats have had 11 months to write a budget for fiscal 2011, which began on October 1. But Majority Leader Harry Reid and Appropriations Chairman Daniel Inouye have dumped this trillion-dollar baby on Senators at the very last minute, when everyone is busy and wants to go home for the holidays. No doubt that was the plan. The continuing resolution to fund the government expires on Saturday, so Mr. Reid wants to squeeze Senators against the deadline.

Incompetence followed by extortion. The criminals are still in charge of the federal treasury.

It is truly amazing how destructive government run solutions are when they are put into practice. And it is amazing anyone in their right mind would put their lives in the hand of faceless, unaccountable bureaucrats. But both facts are still true, and clearly at work when it comes to Obamacare.

This is a compendium of recent articles and blogger posts, which when pulled together show a full picture of what is happening to health care as government mismanagement destroys this critical human service. Beginning with the blow dealt to sick children:

In an unintended consequence of the new health care law, drug companies have begun notifying children’s hospitals around the country that they no longer qualify for large discounts on drugs used to treat rare medical conditions.

Taking medicine from a sick child – and people say there are no death panels? Poor sick children, with rare diseases. That is where Obamacare went to get some needed money to cover people who don’t even want to buy insurance? This is how a cold, heartless, budget driven government bureaucracy decides priorities. Which is why it should never be involved in life and death decisions and be the arbiter of who lives and who dies (or who gets the money to live or die).

The next target of Obamacare is the elderly of course – whose reward for a long and productive life feeding the bureaucratic beast is to be short changed at the end, when their needs arise:

Want an appointment with kidney specialist Adam Weinstein of Easton, Md.? If you’re a senior covered by Medicare, the wait is eight weeks.

How about a checkup from geriatric specialist Michael Trahos? Expect to see him every six months: The Alexandria-based doctor has been limiting most of his Medicare patients to twice yearly rather than the quarterly checkups he considers ideal for the elderly. Still, at least he’ll see you. Top-ranked primary care doctor Linda Yau is one of three physicians with the District’s Foxhall Internists group who recently announced they will no longer be accepting Medicare patients.

“It’s not easy. But you realize you either do this or you don’t stay in business,” she said.

More death panel thinking. It is called triage – deciding who shall be sacrificed when medical resources are short and cannot be applied to all. Usually it means withholding resources from those with very little chance to recover. But in the bureaucrat’s world, it means cutting off those who use up the most resources – regardless of impact on the individual. The bureaucrat gets to play God and decide the fate of all of us.

Government run health care has been running on the cheap since it inception. It has never paid full price for services rendered. Instead, health care providers have covered the government short fall with revenues from those of us who pay our own way (either through employer or individual policies). But the government’s latest plan cut so deep that it has become a decision of dumping those on the stingy government plans or stop serving those who have carried their own weight up to now.

Death panels can force a result by harsh financial coercion. Either dump those expensive seniors or stop all together – that is the key choice Obamacare has given this nation. It is a pack with the devil, plain and simple.

Was this unforeseen? Hell no! One only needs to look at the results of government run care in the UK to see the pending disaster waiting us if we don’t undo Obamacare ASAP:

Financial pressures may mean junior doctors are not given training posts within the NHS and the overall number of places at medical school could drop, a report has said.

This is despite extra burdens on the health service, including European rules limiting doctors’ hours, more hospital admissions and people living longer than ever before, according to the study from the UK Royal Colleges of Physicians (RCP).

Those specialties dedicated to looking after very ill people are facing particular strain, it said.

Bureaucrats ran the UK NHS into the ground. There are endless horror stories of patients left to die in long lines, or left to rot in substandard facilities, or who died to botched surgeries. In the UK the health care service is designed to try and ward off illness, not address it once it hits. Being old and in need of care is treated as a bad life style, undeserving of the public’s support – like smoking, eating or drinking to excess.

This is the madness of socialized medicine. This is the proven result of giving your medical power of attorney over to the bloated and heartless bureaucracy. This is Obamacare.

Addendum: Is this the kind of people you want running your health care? At least insurance companies are not above the law (like politicians and bureaucrats).

Well, we finally get an openly arrogant, elitist liberal in the White House. Someone who is certain she is superior to all the sad common folk. Someone who has open and unabashed disdain for all us lesser beings:

Speaking at Monday’s signing ceremony for the “Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act”– a law that will subsidize and regulate what children eat before school, at lunch, after school, and during summer vacations in federally funded school-based feeding programs — First Lady Michelle Obama said of deciding what American children should eat: “We can’t just leave it up to the parents.”

The law gives the federal government for the first time the authority to regulate the food sold at local schools, including in vending machines.

The federal government does NOT need to be determining what our kids can eat. This is one step from telling us all what to eat, when to sleep, what to speak, who to have relationships with ….

It is clear now why ol’ Michelle was for the first time proud of her country when she and her husband were elected to lead this nation in a media manipulated election process. She finally was going to be able to show us all how superior she is, and that made her proud. Wait until she feels the rejection. That will be quite a historic accomplishment too. Telling us how to feed our kids? Is she crazy?

This episode more like a bad episode of Atlanta House wives. The Obama’s are such a prime example of liberal arrogance they will be the rallying call for dismantling our bullying, busy-body and incompetent federal bureaucracy. Their overreach will be the catalyst that gets us back to MINIMAL government, where the individual, family and community decide what is best, and only use the federal bureaucracy to provide for the national defense and equal protection across state lines.

The best act a GOP led DC could do is address the mess that is the Commerce Clause. In this day and age, the government has gone from ensuring equal and free commerce to enslaving our commerce and our people. If the left is going to be radical, then radical responses may be required to stop and role back the left’s penchant for dictating to others how the people should live in their warped images. I think Stalin is a bit envious at the moment. Time to put severe limits on the government’s role regarding interstate commerce.

Just like the government cannot demand you buy and eat vegetables for lunch and dinner or else pay a fine, it is obvious the government cannot mandate an individual own health insurance of a certain limited and fixed type (or else get one of those marvelous waivers from Team Obama – campaign donation required of course). So says a federal Judge from the home state of the US Constitution:

A federal judge declared the Obama administration’s health care law unconstitutional Monday, siding with Virginia’s attorney general in a dispute that both sides agree will ultimately be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court.

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Virginia Republican Attorney General Kenneth Cuccinelli filed a separate lawsuit in defense of a new state law that prohibits the government from forcing state residents to buy health insurance. However, the key issue was his claim that the federal law’s requirement that citizens buy health insurance or pay a penalty is unconstitutional.

Hudson, a Republican who was appointed by President George W. Bush, sounded sympathetic to the state’s case when he heard oral arguments in October, and the White House expected to lose this round.

The left has gone way too far in dictating how Americans must live their lives. This is why there are limits on pre-existing conditions and caps, so no one can walk in after 20 years of not paying premiums and acquire top end coverage. The truth is, everyone can access insurance – the question is can they afford it.

I agree with limits on pulling insurance if someone has payed in and been covered over their life. Pre-existing conditions should not impact those who are forced to switch jobs and coverage. Enough people pay in without being paid out for anything significant that this employee churn should not be a issue.

But those who don’t pay for coverage over time should pay a heavy penalty when they finally want to get coverage. Such is life and the ramifications of individual choices. If people want choice, they need to accept responsibility.

The most exposed poster-child issue out there for the GOP to showcase as the prime example of left wing idiocy is the global warming farce. The science behind the claims is truly pathetic. There has been testimony in the UK under oath that includes the admission that:

• The historic temperature and proxy data does not have the accuracy to determine whether our current climate is significantly warmer or cooler than the Roman and Medieval Warm periods. Therefore we may not be experiencing anything but normal climate variance. Only data that has been ‘adjusted’ or run through hypothetical models indicates modest warming
• There has been no warming trend for the past 15+ years, even though CO2 levels continue to rise. Solid scientific research (as opposed to the crap peddled by the IPCC, CRU, NASA GISS, etc) indicates we are, in fact, possibly facing a 3 DECADE decline in global temperatures. This will impact the ability to feed the world’s population. After which there will most likely be panicked calls to try and raise the global temperature – such is the madness of panic.
• It is clear the climate models that produced the predictions of runaway warming are simply wrong. They have not been able to take historic data and create the actual historic record. This led the head of one UK investigative team to concluded humanity does not have the ability to predict the future climate with any accuracy.

There you have it. No evidence in the past, no evidence in the here and now, and no way to predict the future. If one wants to point to a motive for such a grand delusion, one only has to remember the cure for this mythological catastrophe was the confiscation and control of most of the world’s finances and business. In hindsight it was not Gaia who was trying to punish humanity for evolving to where it is, it was greedy liberals wanting to pick more pockets. Gaia herself has signaled her unhappiness with the Church of Al Gore:
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I think we should give the far left what they want – a Pyrrhic victory by delaying the hold on current tax rates until February, after the GOP takes over the House. Let Americans personally experience the joy of liberal insanity, as everyone would see massive tax increases in their paychecks for 4-6 weeks. Let everyone get a taste of Pelosi’s madness – as if we need anymore after the bitter taste left by massive deficits, endless unemployment and the destruction of our health care.

Once the Democrat tax hikes go into effect, it will be the GOP House that will be seen as coming to the rescue. They will get the credit for halting the cancer that is the federal bureaucracy right now, and for any economic easing to come.

The liberal left has finally come out of the closet – and its ugly. Ugly with the typical 3rd grade grasp of reality and simpleton ideology that is at the core of the babbling left these days. Sadly, it is this same trait that has brought humanity all sorts of pain and suffering throughout time. In a lot of ways, what is transpiring around Assange and Wikileaks reminds me of how Hitler and Stalin got their starts – with envy and hate wrapped around Walter Mitty delusions of being the saviors of humanity. Bin Laden and al Qaeda have the same mental illness. Unimaginable arrogance tortured by envy and insecurity. A need to freeze the world to the mad individual comfort zone. This is not the best of humanity, as these whack jobs like to claim. It is the worst.

The common denominator in these people – beyond the usual delusion of grandeur – is the belief that their pious acts means they are above the laws of civilization. In their warped views they believe they must break the laws (and therefore the foundation) of civilization to save it from their personal demons. Twisted logic cannot get more tightly wound.

Julian Assange and his high tech thugs are threatening lives, freedoms, peaceful stability among nations, financial institutions and who knows what else to bend us all to their petty will. Their crimes against society and we puny humans know no bounds:

But in an exclusive interview with ABC News’ Jim Sciutto, Wikileaks’ spokesman Kristinn Hrafnsson insisted Assange’s arrest won’t alter the site’s calculated release of thousands of secret government cables, which still continues according to plan. The site published a new slate of cables Wednesday.

“It is not derailing us in any way,” said Hrafnsson, adding that a group of five to six people is running Wikileaks’ operations in Assange’s absence. “This is a turning tide and starting a trend that you can’t really stop unless you want to shut down the Internet.”

They want to make the world in the image they carry around in their geeky little heads (spoken by the professional geekster that I am). This is extortion on a grand scale. Not only are the lives of very brave people – who have risked everything to try and stop wars and stop mass murderers – now at risk, but all of us are. When a few rogues make demands based on these kinds of threats, they have sunk to the lowest of all – criminals.

If you attempt to challenge these cyber-thugs, they will attack you:

The website and personal credit card information of former Gov. Sarah Palin were cyber-attacked today by Wikileaks supporters, the 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate tells ABC News in an email.

Hackers in London that the Palin team believe to be affiliated with “Operation Payback” – a group of supporters of Julian Assange and Wikileaks – have tried to shut down SarahPac and have disrupted Sarah and Todd Palin’s personal credit card accounts, SarahPAC aide Rebecca Mansour said.

“No wonder others are keeping silent about Assange’s antics,” Palin emailed ABC News. “This is what happens when you exercise the First Amendment and speak against his sick, un-American espionage efforts.”

This is how Hitler started. He carved out a strawman enemy in the Jews and then used escalating intimidation to pull in those brutal tools who cannot wait to pay back the world for their own insecurities. He then unleashed his thugs on those who dared stand up to Hitler’s saviors of humanity.

In the world of the lunatic left it is the ‘rich’ who are now evil. How many ranting, rich liberal Democrats do we have to listen to before we realize that success and money does not make one evil? People are much more sophisticated than the sophistry we hear from the angry, petulant left. There are many decent good people who have made it to the ranks of the wealthy, who share their successes with others. Even Dickens knew the difference between Scrooge and Fezziwig, two very wealthy men who lived very opposite lives.

Hitler, Stalin and apparently Assange all felt inferior to successful people. It is why the Jews were so evil to Hitler and the Nazis, they were so successful and capable by comparison. The Jews made the envious feel even more inadequate. So they grabbed power to show how superior they were – and demonstrated pure evil.

Assange is just a modern variant on an old theme. He could not live with his mediocrity. He could not live without is personal crusade from God. He could not help but destroy civilization so he could save it – and reform the world in his image.

Assange and his merry band of like thinkers are as insane and sick as all the rest of thugs from history. I personally suggest we start rounding them up and putting them on trial, even if we can’t stop the initial onslaught. It will at least serve as evidence of their depravity when sentencing time comes. Whatever happens, we cannot allow them to destroy all humanity has fought for and built.

Update: Of course some ideological fool on the right is prepared to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

They expect several defections from the right flank of their party. Sens. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) and Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) have expressed concern about extending the jobless benefits without paying for them. Sen. Jim Bunning (R-Ky.), as the first Republican to wage this fight earlier this year, could also go against the deal…

I cannot express how much DeMint is an albatross around the GOP’s neck. One dumb move after another. A pure minority in his private echo chamber. We don’t need to drag everything out in endless grandstanding – do we? DeMint’s unique measurement of ‘perfection’ is definitely the evil of any and all progress. Mr. Moth strikes again. – end update

Some on the left are wondering why the GOP was happy to get all forms of tax cuts out of Obama this week:

If you look at the numbers alone, the tax cut deal looks to have robbed Republicans blind. The GOP got around $95 billion in tax cuts for wealthy Americans and $30 billion in estate tax cuts. Democrats got $120 billion in payroll-tax cuts, $40 billion in refundable tax credits (Earned Income Tax Credit, Child Tax Credit and education tax credits), $56 billion in unemployment insurance, and, depending on how you count it, about $180 billion (two-year cost) or $30 billion (10-year cost) in new tax incentives for businesses to invest.

The only item of any issue to fiscal conservatives on this list is the unemployment extension – which is actually not bad. Instead of allowing people to sit on unemployment for three years, this extension allows those with less than 99 weeks of unemployment under their belts to attain 99 weeks. Apparently all the extensions were scheduled to sunset. So if you were just starting your extended unemployment payments you would not see the 99 weeks so many were able to take advantage of. Fair enough.

The deficit for next year is now going to balloon well beyond its current $1.3 trillion, because none of this was paid for. Which will give the new GOP run House plenty of reason to start cutting back on bloated and useless agencies and programs.

So why are liberals mad? The candy jar was taken away, and soon all the things they bought with the candy jar will be taken away as well.

Want proof Obamacare is a disaster? Just look at how many people would be losing their good health care if it was actually being enforced:

The Obama Administration has quietly granted even more waivers to one provision of the new federal health reform law, doubling the number in just the last three weeks to a new total of 222.

One of the more recognizable business names included on the newly-expanded list of waivers issued by the feds is that of Waffle House, which received a waiver on November 23 for health coverage that covers 3,947 enrollees.

Another familiar name was that of Universal Orlando, which runs a variety of very popular resorts in the Orlando, Florida area. Universal was given a waiver for plans that cover 668 workers.

These waivers deal with limited health benefit plans, sometimes referred to as “mini-med” policies, which companies as large as McDonald’s use for some its employees.

The plan have limits on how much can be paid out in coverage, limits which would be phased out under the new health reform law.

The feds though have granted waivers from that law, amid concern that certain groups would drop their health insurance programs entirely. Those waivers are good for one year, and can be considered for renewal.

These companies have the money and clout to get waivers. Most small companies (like ours) do not have the ability. We seriously are considering which is less dangerous to us, keeping our top end policies (we need to attract dwindling engineering talent) or not. We cannot afford penalties on top of premium benefits. We are not (and will not) become a union run shop. That leaves us only two horrible options.

Which is the truth of Obamacare. What was once a good health care plan is now either dangerous to our company or something we must toss out in favor of government-rationed care. And for this I am to be grateful?

While I totally disagreed with the woman’s politics, I definitely feel for Elizabeth Edwards because of the jerk she married. If anyone deserved to be sued for malpractice it was the two-timing John Edwards – who infamously promised that if he and John Kerry were elected Christoper Reid would walk again. The guy was a lying piece of ….

Anyway, it is clear Elizabeth was dealt a tough hand in life. On top of her infamously pathetic husband, she had to deal with cancer. She seemed to rise above it all and seemed to be a wonderful role model. My prayers go out to her, and I truly hope she is in a better place now.

And if liberals need any more proof life is not fair and there is nothing you can legislate to make it fair – look at this woman and what she had to deal with.