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One of the things that the Federal Government is actually supposed to be involved in is National Defense. Today we’ll hear Bob Barr’s thoughts on the National Defense and America’s role in the world.
Stuff like this is the reason I don’t have a “McCain ’08″ sign in my yard:
The Republican platform may include a first-ever plank on global warming, an examination of a draft document indicated.
“Increased atmospheric carbon has a warming effect on the Earth,” The Hill reported the draft document as saying. “While the scope and long term consequences of this warming effect are the subject of ongoing research, we believe the United States should take measured and reasonable steps today.”
Sen. John McCain, poised to become the party’s presidential nominee next week during the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn., is a proponent of tackling global warming.
John McCain wants to implement a cap and trade system in American similar to the Kyoto Protocol. This scheme will do nothing to stop the carbon dioxide emissions. The Kyoto Protocol hasn’t resulted in a decrease in emission, but it has shifted a lot of money from rich countries to the United Nations.
This year appears set to be the coolest globally this century.
Data from the UK Met Office shows that temperatures in the first half of the year have been more than 0.1 Celsius cooler than any year since 2000.
The principal reason is La Nina, part of the natural cycle that also includes El Nino, which cools the globe.
I know, it’s only eight years into the century, and I know the article also says “2008 is set to be about the 10th warmest year since 1850,” but I also know that “despite the increase in CO2, the temperature of the world has not increased over the last 10 years.”
If we are at critical mass, and the only solution is a socialist wealth redistribution plan, why is the temperature not going up and natural phenomenons like La Nina cause the temperature to drop? Not only that, but now the temperatures are supposed to hold steady for ten years, then it’s gonna get hot again.
But it’s all CO2.
And Republican party wants me to sign onto this. Sorry. You ask too much.
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| Navin R. Johnson was mistakenly arrested. Police later arrested Nathan Johnson. Navin was reportedly sad he was not photographed in his Broncos jersey. |
The Aurora police have uncovered a plot by four meth heads who plan to best the United States Secret Service. It all started with the obligatory traffic stop:
Sources told CBS4 police found two high-powered, scoped rifles in the car along with camouflage clothing, walkie-talkies, wigs, a bulletproof vest, a spotting scope, licenses in the names of other people and 44 grams of methamphetamine. One of the rifles is listed as stolen from Kansas.
Aurora police alerted federal officials because of heightened security surrounding the Democratic convention, Aurora police Det. Marcus Dudley said.
The four suspects are Tharin Gartrell, Shawn Robert Adolph, Nathan Johnson and his girlfriend, Natasha Gromek.
Authorities say they are not a credible threat. Hard to believe.
Avastin is “a cancer medicine that interferes with the growth of cancer cells by blocking the formation and growth of new blood vessels in the tumor which slows their growth.
Avastin is used to treat cancers of the colon, rectum, lung or breast. It is usually given as part of a combination of cancer medicines.”
It has been in the center of controversies in Great Britain because the NHS refuses to provide it to British cancer patients, patients like Debbie Hirst.
Avastin is an expensive drug, which is the main reason NHS won’t provide it:
The Financial Times “A dose of reality†explores the controversy over the British National Health Service’s (NHS) refusal to pay for medical services for patients who use certain high cost drugs. The National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) advises the NHS on the cost-benefit of drugs. Genentech’s (DNA) Avastin cancer treatment is approved for sale in the UK, but NICE has determined that it is not cost-effective.
The solution? Just don’t tell the patients about the treatment:
The poll by charity Myeloma UK reveals doctors are now actively keeping information from cancer sufferers as a result of the drug rationing system.
Its findings are likely to reignite criticism of Nice, which is already under fire for a ruling earlier this month that certain drugs for kidney cancer are too expensive.
More than 103 specialists across England, Wales and Scotland took part in the survey, which shows how they struggle with NHS bureaucracy and cost-cutting.
In 96 per cent of cases where the specialists chose to keep quiet, they said they did so because it might “distress, upset or confuse” their patients.
You have to understand that even if the patient knew about the drug, most still couldn’t afford it. They may be able to afford the drug, but NHS policy is to then force them to pay for all their NHS treatment out of pocket. This is to avoid that nasty two-tier treatment plan. Instead they either get the bad news that there is a treatment the government won’t pay for, or they get no news at all.
Americans also face high drug costs. That’s no secret. But at least we know the treatment exists, and are not penalized for trying to get it.
Hat Tip: Secondhand Smoke
Today we hear from Bob Barr about his history and feelings on religion and religious tolerance.
Why is the federal government getting involved in social issues like marriage? What is the government’s role in our personal lives?
Barack Obama has a plan for fixing the American health care system. Posted on his website, he has laid his plan out for everyone to review. Only, he has left out a few details.
Obama starts by naming three distinct issues with American health care. First, there are a lot of people who are without insurance. According to Obama’s website, there are “47 million Americans” without insurance, including about 9 million children.
But there are a few details he forgot to mention. Out of that 47 million people, about 10 million of them are not Americans. According to page 29 of the Census Bureau report “Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2005 (pdf),” 9.487 million people in America without insurance are “not a citizen.”
Out of the 37 million Americans without insurance, the same page of the report shows 8.3 million who are uninsured make between $50,000 – $74,999. Another 8.74 million make over $75,000 or more. Is it fair to say that these folks should be able to afford health insurance? Understand there are different costs of living across the country, but if you make $50,000 in Newark, New Jersey, that’s like making $35,000 in Des Moines, Iowa. There are people in Des Moines making less than that with health insurance.
I know. I was one of them.
After dropping those 17 million people, we are left with 20 million people without health insurance, or 6.66%. That is no small number, but it is a detail that needed to be pointed out. Also worth pointing out is that means 93.34% of Americans are insured in some manner.
Obama’s second issue is “Health insurance premiums have risen 4 times faster than wages over the past 6 years.” An article from Reuter’s supports that claim. How will Obama’s plan address this problem? He will simply create “a new national health plan” with “affordable health coverage” and “affordable premiums, co-pays and deductibles.”
The question is how?
According to The Cato Institute, Obama’s plan is similar to the law Mitt Romney signed in Massachusetts, which called for “increased regulation, a government-designed standard benefits package, and a new pooling mechanism.” Obama calls his the “National Health Insurance Exchange.” Romney’s was called The Connector:
The Connector is not actually an insurer. Rather, it is designed to allow individuals and workers in small companies to take advantage of the economies of scale, both in terms of administration and risk pooling, which are currently enjoyed by large employers. Multiple employers are able to pay into the Connector on behalf of a single employee. And, most importantly, the Connector would allow workers to use pretax dollars to purchase individual insurance. That would make insurance personal and portable, rather than tied to an employer-all very desirable things.
These are things mentioned in Obama’s plan. According to his website, the “National Health Insurance Exchange” will:
When you see the similarities between the two plans, it is distressing when you see what has happened with The Connector:
the Connector’s board has seen itself as a combination of the state legislature and the insurance commissioner, adding a host of new regulations and mandates.
For example, the Connector’s governing board has decreed that by January 2009, no one in the state will be allowed to have insurance with more than a $2,000 deductible or total out-of-pocket costs of more than $5,000. In addition, every policy in the state will be required to phase in coverage of prescription drugs, a move that could add 5–15 percent to the cost of insurance plans. A move to require dental coverage barely failed to pass the board, and the dentists-along with several other provider groups-have not given up the effort to force their inclusion. This comes on top of the 40 mandated benefits that the state had previously required, ranging from in vitro fertilization to chiropractic services.
Thus, it appears that the Connector offers quite a bit of pain for relatively little gain. Although the ability to use pretax dollars to purchase personal and portable insurance should be appealing in theory, only about 7,500 nonsubsidized workers have purchased insurance through the Connector so far. On the other hand, rather than insurance that “fits their needs,” Massachusetts residents find themselves forced to buy expensive “Cadillac” policies that offer many benefits that they may not want. (Emphasis mine.)
This is just the opposite of what is needed to solve the problem with high insurance premiums. The Wall Street Journal shows how different states have created insurance mandates and how those mandates affect the cost of coverage:
New York requires every insurance policy sold there to cover podiatry. Acupuncture coverage is mandated in 11 states, massage therapy in four, osteopathy in 24, and chiropractors in 47. There are an estimated 1,800 or so such insurance “mandates” across the country, and the costs add up. “It is always the providers asking for the mandate; it is never the consumer,” says health policy guru John Goodman, who has testified before legislatures considering such rules.
What’s more, states like New Jersey and New York add two more ultra-expensive requirements: “Guaranteed issue” allows people to wait till they are sick and then buy insurance; “community rating” prevents insurers from charging different prices to people of different ages and health status.
It’s important to note that Obama’s plan features “guaranteed eligibility. No American will be turned away from any insurance plan because of illness or pre-existing conditions.” It is features like this that make “insurance so expensive that millions of people are exposed to financial ruin because they aren’t allowed to buy basic policies focused on catastrophic costs.”
How expensive? A 2004 study by eHealthInsurance.com found that a typical insurance policy ($2,000 deductible, 20% co-insurance) for a family of four could be had for as little in as $172 per month in a reasonably regulated locality like Kansas City, Missouri. But in New York that family’s only option–managed care–would run $840 per month, and in New Jersey family policies run a whopping $1,200-plus.
Rather than break down the barriers between the states and foster competition between the companies, Obama’s plan threatens to abolish the barriers and create a universal mandate, which would not lower premiums, but raise the cost to the taxpayer, as seen in Massachusetts.
According to MedicalNewsToday, the cost of the plan rose from an expected $472 million in the first year to $625 million. This was because of “higher than expected enrollment in government-sponsored programs.” Governor Deval Patrick has asked for “$869 million for the program for fiscal year 2009, compared with previous estimates of $725 million.”
How does this affect the Massachusetts taxpayer?
Costs also have increased for residents. Monthly premiums for partially subsidized coverage increased by an average of 9.4% going into the second year of the program, according to state figures. Premiums for people purchasing private coverage without a subsidy increased by an average of 5.1%.
And they don’t even have everyone covered yet. Obama’s plan is estimated to cost “$50 billion to $65 billion a year, when fully phased in.” His campaign said “the revenues from rolling back the tax cuts were enough to cover it.” He is going to raise taxes to fund it. He has also added that savings from implementing the plan will help fund it. It is impossible to predict how much they have underestimated the cost, but the government rarely comes in under budget, especially with new programs. This one will be no different.
Obama’s third issue tackled in this plan is the lack of emphasis “on prevention and public health.” Ironically, there is very little in his plan concerning this problem. Aside from initially mentioning that “less than 4 cents of every health care dollar is spent on prevention and public health,” the plan doesn’t really address this issue in detail.
When initially reviewed, the Obama plan seems well thought out, but when closely examined, it doesn’t get into the details on how the plan will be implemented. There are words such as “require” and “force,” which should cause even liberals to stop and consider the power of such terms when wielded by the federal government.
But what it boils down to is huge federal bureaucracies attempting to control the price of health care. And as I have written before, when you have price controls, you will have shortages, followed by rationing.
We already have health care rationing in America, though it is currently limited to one state. With Obama’s plan, it could easily spread across America like a virus.
I was over at a friend’s house last night for a bar-be-que, and a fantasy football draft broke out. Good thing I brought a cheat sheet with me, because next thing I know, I have the first draft.
Here’s my team this year:
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| Photo by Jayel Aheram |
Quarterbacks
Running Backs
Wide Receivers
Tight Ends
Defense
Kicker
Anyway, that’s my draft last night. How did I do?
By the way, it’s NFL week over at Virtual Bird’s Eye. You can get a look at a bunch of NFL stadiums from the air. Check it out.
Do parents have any rights to choose how their children are raised? In California, not so much. But it seems like it’s a battle worth fighting when it comes to parental rights. Here is Bob Barr’s position on education and homeschooling.
Obama announced the pick on his Web site with a photo of the two men and an appeal for donations. A text message went out shortly afterward that said, “Barack has chosen Senator Joe Biden to be our VP nominee.”
Biden, 65, has twice sought the White House, and is a Catholic with blue-collar roots, a generally liberal voting record and a reputation as a long-winded orator.
Across more than 30 years in the Senate, he has served at various times not only as chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee but also as head of the Judiciary Committee, with its jurisdiction over anti-crime legislation, Supreme Court nominees and Constitutional issues.
In selecting Biden, Obama passed over several other potential running mates, none more prominent than former first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, his tenacious rival in dozens of primaries and caucuses.
McCain’s response to Obama’s selection is really quite brilliant:
Now, seeing who Obama chose, I fully expect McCain to pick a female running mate as his second. There is one name that would help me vote against Obama:
Even then I don’t know, but it would be a move in the right direction.
It’s nice when a politician gives his position in a straightforward way. If you’re looking for rhetoric, you’ve come to the wrong place. Bob Barr’s position on immigration is pretty simple, and I like it. Immigrants should come into the country legally, by the proper legal channels, and be subject to simple checks and examinations to make sure they would be welcome additions to our society. What do you think about it?
Tim Kaine and Evan Bayh have both been told to have a nice career, but they are not vice presidential material. Meanwhile the Secret Service have a new person to take care of:
The United States Secret Service has dispatched a protective detail to assume the immediate protection of Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., a source tells ABC News, indicating in all likelihood that Biden has been officially notified that Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, has selected him to be his running mate.
Joe Biden is a strong choice, but a walking gaffe machine. I wonder how long it will take to hear about the need for an Indian accent to work at a 7-11, or about how clean Barack Obama is.
By the way, did you know he was from a slave state?
This should be an interesting campaign.
This is something of a milestone for us here at All American Blogger, we’ve finally got a problem with trolls! Yes, we’ve gotten large enough that the trolls have started taking notice and they’re leaving their droppings scattered throughout the comments of our posts.
To celebrate this rite of passage, I’ve now made it a requirement that you be registered with Intense Debate (the great free service that handles our comments system) in order to be able to comment on a post. I’ve been holding off on doing this, but over the past couple of days I’ve seen an increase in the amount of comments that had nothing to do with the post, or were nothing more than an insult aimed at the author. In a word: pointless.
We encourage commenting on articles because we often learn from the comments that people leave. Sometimes we even have to rethink the position taken in the article. This is good. This is what the comments are for.
So to our regular readers (and commenters) we thank you for taking the time to register with Intense Debate and share in the discussion via the comments. To the trolls, we encourage you to check out the All American Blogger Forums, where you will be free to spew your insults and profanities with complete and total freedom.
Thanks Everyone.
Andrew, the Webmaster / Comment Nazi
Barack Obama’s potential running mates ducked, dodged and semi-denied their way through a day of political intrigue Friday as the Democratic presidential contender readied a high-tech announcement of his pick for vice president.
Source.
It is my understanding that at least four candidates have been texting back and forth today, and a blogger has been able to get the messages. He posted them here.
I really don’t want to come across as questioning his patriotism, but it is confusing to me how a person can be striving for the highest office in America, while at the same time comparing Russia’s invasion of Georgia to America’s invasion of Iraq.
The Illinois senator’s opposition to the Iraq war, which his comment clearly referenced, is well known. But this was the first time the Democratic presidential candidate has made a comparison between the U.S. invasion of Iraq and Russia’s recent military activity in Georgia.
“We’ve got to send a clear message to Russia and unify our allies,†Obama told a crowd of supporters in Virginia. “They can’t charge into other countries. Of course it helps if we are leading by example on that point.â€
Did we charge into Afghanistan? Not even remotely. Did we charge into Iraq? Hardly.
There was no rush to war in either conflict, and for Obama to give Russia the moral equivalence is simply stupid and inexcusable. Now, Putin can simply justify his actions by referring to a United States Senator and presidential nominee and saying, “Even Obama says America did it also.”
What’s worse is he is placing some of the blame for Russia’s actions on the United States, because we are a bad influence on Vladimir and the other KGB folks running Russia.
In addition to somewhat excusing Russia’s actions, he has recently praised China as an economic wonderland, a place he would go were he a business man:
Everybody’s watching what’s going on in Beijing right now with the Olympics. Think about the amount of money that China has spent on infrastructure. Their ports, their train systems, their airports are vastly the superior to us now, which means if you are a corporation deciding where to do business you’re starting to think, “Beijing looks like a pretty good option.”
Is he really thinking that comparing the United States to Russia and praising the Chinese are tactics that are going to help him win the election in November? If anything, it is a look at his far-left beliefs, that America is wrong and others, including repressive Communist governments, are more attractive alternatives to what we are doing.
Barry is his own worst enemy these days. The more peeks behind the curtain he gives the American public, the more he hands this election to McCain.
