Dakota Beacon

Hearing the viewpoint of ND People Executive Director Don Morrison regarding his support for the proposed ObamaCare health care reform is a nearly daily (at least weekly) occurrence on KFYR radio news. At the same time the lack of opposition from either of North Dakota’s U.S. Senators in the form of their silence has been amazing in light of the scope of the ObamaCare agenda. Why is that?

From the website of ND People where they assert that those of us who oppose socialization of 17% of the American economy are just mistaken about a number of things that they claim are just, Myths. Note that their refutation of the “Myths” are not accompanied with any factual corroboration. They do not cite the Congressional Budget Office cost estimates. They do not take into account that like all government entitlement programs that after being initially established the politicians, as they have in all major industrial nations where this model of health care has been put in place, electioneer on who is going to provide you with more health care goodies. And, thus the costs go through the ceiling. ND People does not address the fact that medical technology research is led by the American medical system. Americans are not flying to Canada, UK, Sweden, Cuba or any of their other models of medical utopia to get medical treatment. As you read what ND People assert, ask yourself what, if anything that the designers of this so called “reform” have ever said that turned out to be true? From the ND People (what percentage of the finances that sustains ND People do you suppose actually is supplied by ND people?) website:

Reality Check

Myth busters

Americans voted for change in health care and now the airwaves, print and grapevine are full of stories of what could happen. Some of it is misleading; some is downright false. Here is a handy guide to set some of the record straight.

Myth: Health care reform will limit choice.

Reality: Currently proposals in Congress would increase choices, not limit them. You will have the choice to keep your employer plan you currently have if you want to or choose a quality, affordable public health insurance plan.

Myth: The government is going to take over health care.

Reality: This isn’t even on the table in Washington, D.C. President Obama and the Congressional committees working on legislation are building on the current system. Again, people who want to keep what they have can do that. There will be a choice of a plan to buy into that would provide coverage much like Medicare. For businesses and families struggling to afford care, this will offer a choice of quality, affordable care. Private sector medical providers, clinics and hospitals will stay that way. Those who say otherwise are blowing smoke.

Myth: Government bureaucrats will decide who gets health care and when they get it, just like in Canada.

Reality: First, medical decisions in Canada are left entirely up to doctors and patients. There is no pre-authorization in Canada. In the US, insurance companies make these decisions. In fact, in the US, rather than health care decisions being based on health care needs, the first question is usually, “what does your insurance cover?” With reform, we’ll be able to focus more on health than on insurance company bureaucracy.

Myth: There are long waits for care in other countries.

Reality: There are no waits for urgent or primary care in Canada. There are waits for most specialists’ care, and longer waits for elective surgery. The waits in Canada are often similar to those in Bismarck for some specialists. Despite the waits in Canada, it is noteworthy that Canada has lower incident and mortality rates than the US for all cancers combined, according to the U.S. Cancer Statistics Working Group and the Canadian Cancer Society. Moreover, fewer Canadians (11.3 percent) than Americans (14.4 percent) say they have unmet health care needs.

Myth: We can’t afford to tackle this problem now.

Reality: While we are in the middle of a recession, the most expensive thing we can do is nothing. If we do nothing, the cost of our health care will double by 2017. Businesses, families, and government cannot afford the current system. The US system has by far the highest bureaucracy costs. Health care is the number one cause of bankruptcy. Fixing it now will be one of the greatest things we can do to balance our budgets in the future.

It’s time to stop playing politics and solve the health care crisis. Health care reform will stop the insurance companies from denying coverage for an illness you had 5 years ago or some other pre-existing condition, or denying you care because of your age. It will be a uniquely American solution that gives you the peace of mind of knowing you will always have quality affordable health care.

Send the link to this page to your family and friends!

Speakers at the HCAN (Health Care Now) press conference at the North Dakota state capital building, July 8, 2009, were Don Morrison (far left), NDPeople.org; Wade Schemmel (ponytail, center), Northern Plains Conference of the United Church of Christ; and Mark Berntson, North Dakota Education Association.

Reality Check! Does ND People have it right or are they doing what they accuse others of: Perpetrating A Myth?

What is really in the bill from the Economic Policy Journal:

Peter Fleckstein (aka Fleckman) is reading it and has been posting on Twitter his findings. This is from his postings (Note: All comments are Fleckman’s)

Pg 22 of the HC Bill MANDATES the Govt will audit books of ALL EMPLOYERS that self insure!!

Pg 30 Sec 123 of HC bill - THERE WILL BE A GOVT COMMITTEE that decides what treatments/benes u get

Pg 29 lines 4-16 in the HC bill - YOUR HEALTHCARE IS RATIONED!!!

Pg 42 of HC Bill - The Health Choices Commissioner will choose UR HC Benefits 4 you. U have no choice!

PG 50 Section 152 in HC bill - HC will be provided 2 ALL non US citizens, illegal or otherwise

Pg 58HC Bill - Govt will have real-time access 2 individs finances & a National ID Healthcard will b issued!

Pg 59 HC Bill lines 21-24 Govt will have direct access 2 ur banks accts 4 elect. funds transfer

PG 65 Sec 164 is a payoff subsidized plan 4 retirees and their families in Unions & community orgs (ACORN).

Pg 72 Lines 8-14 Govt is creating an HC Exchange 2 bring priv HC plans under Govt control.

PG 84 Sec 203 HC bill - Govt mandates ALL benefit pkgs 4 priv. HC plans in the Exchange

PG 85 Line 7 HC Bill - Specs for of Benefit Levels for Plans = The Govt will ration ur Healthcare!

PG 91 Lines 4-7 HC Bill - Govt mandates linguistic approp svcs. Example - Translation 4 illegal aliens

Pg 95 HC Bill Lines 8-18 The Govt will use groups i.e., ACORN & Americorps 2 sign up indiv. for Govt HC plan

PG 85 Line 7 HC Bill - Specs of Ben Levels 4 Plans. #AARP members - U Health care WILL b rationed

-PG 102 Lines 12-18 HC Bill - Medicaid Eligible Indiv. will b automat.enrolled in Medicaid. No choice

pg 124 lines 24-25 HC No company can sue GOVT on price fixing. No “judicial review” against Govt Monop

pg 127 Lines 1-16 HC Bill - Doctors/ #AMA - The Govt will tell YOU what u can make.

Pg 145 Line 15-17 An Employer MUST auto enroll employees into pub opt plan. NO CHOICE

Pg 126 Lines 22-25 Employers MUST pay 4 HC 4 part time employees AND their families.

Pg 149 Lines 16-24 ANY Emplyr w payroll 400k & above who does not prov. pub opt. pays 8% tax on all payroll

pg 150 Lines 9-13 Biz w payroll btw 251k & 400k who doesnt prov. pub. opt pays 2-6% tax on all payroll

Pg 167 Lines 18-23 ANY individual who doesnt have acceptable HC accrdng 2 Govt will be taxed 2.5% of inc

Pg 170 Lines 1-3 HC Bill Any NONRESIDENT Alien is exempt from indiv. taxes. (Americans will pay)

Pg 195 HC Bill -officers & employees of HC Admin (GOVT) will have access 2 ALL Americans finan/pers recs

PG 203 Line 14-15 HC - “The tax imposed under this section shall not be treated as tax” Yes, it says that

Pg 239 Line 14-24 HC Bill Govt will reduce physician svcs 4 Medicaid. Seniors, low income, poor affected

Pg 241 Line 6-8 HC Bill - Doctors, doesnt matter what specialty u have, you’ll all be paid the same

PG 253 Line 10-18 Govt sets value of Dr’s time, prof judg, etc. Literally value of humans.

PG 265 Sec 1131Govt mandates & controls productivity for private HC industries

PG 268 Sec 1141 Fed Govt regulates rental & purchase of power driven wheelchairs

PG 272 SEC. 1145. TREATMENT OF CERTAIN CANCER HOSPITALS - Cancer patients - welcome to rationing!

Page 280 Sec 1151 The Govt will penalize hospitals 4 what Govt deems preventable readmissions.

Pg 298 Lines 9-11 Drs, treat a patient during initial admiss that results in a readmiss-Govt will penalize u.

Pg 317 L 13-20 OMG!! PROHIBITION on ownership/investment. Govt tells Drs. what/how much they can own.

Pg 317-318 lines 21-25,1-3 PROHIBITION on expansion- Govt is mandating hospitals cannot expand

pg 321 2-13 Hospitals have oppt to apply for exception BUT community input required. Can u say ACORN?!!

Pg335 L 16-25 Pg 336-339 - Govt mandates estab. of outcome based measures. HC the way they want. Rationing

Pg 341 Lines 3-9 Govt has authority 2 disqual Medicare Adv Plans, HMOs, etc. Forcing peeps in2 Govt plan

Pg 354 Sec 1177 - Govt will RESTRICT enrollment of Special needs ppl! WTF. My sis has down syndrome!!

Pg 379 Sec 1191 Govt creates more bureaucracy - Telehealth Advisory Cmtte. Can u say HC by phone?

PG 425 Lines 4-12 Govt mandates Advance Care Planning Consult. Think Senior Citizens end of life

Pg 425 Lines 17-19 Govt will instruct & consult regarding living wills, durable powers of atty. Mandatory!

PG 425 Lines 22-25, 426 Lines 1-3 Govt provides apprvd list of end of life resources, guiding u in death

PG 427 Lines 15-24 Govt mandates program 4 orders 4 end of life. The Govt has a say in how ur life ends

Pg 429 Lines 1-9 An “adv. care planning consult” will b used frequently as patients health deteriorates

PG 429 Lines 10-12 “adv. care consultation” may incl an ORDER 4 end of life plans. AN ORDER from GOV

Pg 429 Lines 13-25 - The govt will specify which Doctors can write an end of life order.

PG 430 Lines 11-15 The Govt will decide what level of treatment u will have at end of life

Pg 469 - Community Based Home Medical Services=Non profit orgs. Hello, ACORN Medical Svcs here!!?

Page 472 Lines 14-17 PAYMENT TO COMMUNITY-BASED ORG. 1 monthly payment 2 a community-based org. Like ACORN?

PG 489 Sec 1308 The Govt will cover Marriage & Family therapy. Which means they will insert Govt in2 ur marriage

Pg 494-498 Govt will cover Mental Health Svcs including defining, creating, rationing those svcs

Check out the actual bill that as a member of the House Ways and Means Committee, Representative Earl Pomeroy helped craft. Has he read any of this stuff? Does he know who is creating a MYTH?

Please compare what ND People asserts and what the Economic Policy Journal claims is their analysis. Go to the pages indexed above and see if the interpretation is correct. There is a reason why the ND People exposure of “Myth” is lacking specificity. Also, if you have been wondering why, with a huge portion of the U.S. economy seemingly in the cross-hairs of congress, why not a peep from Senator Dorgan? Then do a little Google homework and see if you are more successful than this author. Oddly, nothing can be found of the good Senator opposing ObamaCare, nor will you find any pictures of him with people that think that this ObamaCare is a bad idea.

Senator Dorgan will likely be in ND during the upcoming congressional break. But no one but his supporters knows where he will be having meetings. There are no schedules of the vast majority of functions he will participate in during the break. Of course the media will get the heads-up just before the meetings so that they can dutifully arrive, record the adulation from the invited supporters to the carefully controlled and orchestrated meeting, and the N.D. population need not know or believe otherwise! Pretty Cool, NO?

The ObamaCare bill is H.R. 3200 and is at: http://docs.house.gov/edlabor/AAHCA-BillText-071409.pdf

Let’s talk about The Federal Reserve. Consider the following facts:

A) From 1776 to 1912 (136 years), the value of the dollar, relative to the Consumer Price Index, increased by 11%. A dollar could buy 11% more goods in 1912 than in 1776. Thus, if in 1776, you sat on your savings pile of $1,000,000 for 136 years, it would then be worth $1,110,000 in purchasing power (it will have appreciated in value by 11%). A loaf of bread for Thomas Jefferson cost the same as a loaf of bread for Lincoln 50 years later and again the same for J.P. Morgan 50 years after that.

B) The United States Federal Reserve was created in 1913. The stated purpose of the Fed, by its own definition taken from its website, is to “conduct the nation’s monetary policy by influencing money and credit conditions in the economy in pursuit of full employment and stable prices.” Note that “stable prices” is another way of saying “stable dollar,” they are two sides of the same coin (couldn’t resist the pun).

C) Then after The Fed’s creation, from 1913 to 2008 (95 years), the value of the dollar, relative to the Consumer Price Index, decreased by 95%. A dollar could buy 95% fewer goods in 2008 than in 1913. Thus, if in 1913, you sat on your savings pile of $1,000,000 for 95 years, it would then be worth only $50,000 in purchasing power (it will have depreciated in value by 95%). One would now need to pay about 20X more than J.P. Morgan for one’s bread. Think of how much the price of milk has increased just in the last ten years alone.

In other words, the value of the dollar remained extremely stable for 150 years, then The Fed was created in order to “stabilize the value of the dollar” and the result has been a 95% devaluation of the dollar in less than 100 years following its creation. While we all take inflation as a “given” - as something that “just happens” in the economy - we would do well to remember that this belief is utterly incorrect. Inflation, which is the loss of value in your saved dollars, is caused by The Federal Reserve through its management of the money supply. Next time you see Ben Bernanke on the television, telling you that they “will take the necessary steps” to help the country, consider their track record so far, and their dismal failure at their stated objective - preserving the value of America’s money.

Outrage doesn’t even begin to describe what Americans should feel in response to this. Yet, Americans aren’t very upset, and indeed the vast majority has no idea about any of this information. I would wager that this is because Americans are educated in Government schools, which barely teach basic accounting, let alone macroeconomic monetary theory. In public school I was forced to memorize the names of every country in Africa, yet never was there a discussion of the nature of money. Half the nations of Africa have been renamed since, but the economic principles which cause such political turmoil remain the same.

The Federal Reserve System is fraudulent. Whatever its stated purpose, its effective purpose is to create a mechanism of deficit spending by politicians, through the insidious invisible taxation of monetary debasement (aka inflation). With printed money, the Government can buy services for its voters before the effects of inflation are felt. It is then the voters whose money buys less the following year, as the new money has raised prices, and they are none the wiser.

Obama is now mandating that The Fed is to have more oversight, more authority and control over the markets of the United States. If we can learn anything from The Fed, it’s that the best way to succeed as a politician is to stretch one’s failure over a long enough period that people won’t remember it.

In the article in the Bismarck Tribune today (July 26, 2009), “Analysis: What they saw during the Gates arrest” the long arm of GM (Government Media) flexes to smooth Obma’s racially charged missteps. Right on time, right on cue:

Should Gates have realized that you can’t antagonize the police? Should Crowley have understood what it means to suspect a black man of breaking into his own home? Arguments will persist for years.

Once he recovered his balance, backing off his statement that Crowley acted “stupidly,” he Obama assumed his traditional position of racial referee and said that both men overreacted.

“My hope,” the first black president continued, “is that as a consequence of this event, this ends up being what’s called a teachable moment, where all of us, instead of pumping up the volume, spend a little more time listening to each other ... and that instead of flinging accusations, we can all be a little more reflective in terms of what we can do to contribute to more unity.”

EDITOR’S NOTE: Jesse Washington covers race and ethnicity for The Associated Press.

The term “Analysis” is the first deception. Analysis is something you do based on facts. This is a nothing article. All speculation. All conjecture. All interpretation without sound factual/analytical basis. Has the author seen video of the arrest? Has author heard audio? This type of “fake” journalism is unwarranted. It looks like shilling for the race baiting blow-hards.

“Obama assumed his traditional position of racial referee”, when? Where? There is no evidence other than Obama’s rhetoric of the validity of this assertion presented here as an observation. This article is nothing short of propaganda.

Obama never, ever apologized! Obama has presented himself as post-racial yet he jumps to the conclusion that it was a stupid white thing to do. Remember, nothing else he has told us about himself has turned out to be true. Nothing.

Calling him the first black president is also false. He is the first mulatto president. He is as white as he is black! All of this deception and racial animus is very dangerous. Obama has lit the fuse. America is watching and they do not like what they see.

Note AP author, although not all AP writers are shills, the AP pattern seems to hold true here for excusing Obama at every opportunity. These types of articles do not belong in reputable publications unless clearly presented as an opinion article on the opinion page. When posted on the internet it should be clearly demarked as opinion. The blurry line between news and opinion is problematic for the media, undermining their perceived legitimacy.

According to various sources including the London Times:

Gates, of course, is no underclass black man but among the country’s elite, friends with the president, chums with Oprah Winfrey, a man given a small fortune by Harvard to build one of the best departments of African-American studies in the world.

Henry Gates is a friend of Obama! The first line in response to a press question concerning the incident to Obama said, “I should say at the outset that Skip Gates is a friend”…..

Now, watch this video and get a clearer idea of who Barack Hussein Obama calls friends:

Hat tip to Rob at Sayanythingblog for video find.

Congress today announced that the office of President of the United States of America will be outsourced to India as of September 1, 2009.

The move is being made in order to save the President’s $500,000 yearly salary, and also a record $750 billion in deficit expenditures and related overhead that his office has incurred during the last 3 months.

It is anticipated that $7 trillion can be saved to the end of the President’s term.  “We believe this is a wise financial move. The cost savings are huge,” stated Congressman Thomas Reynolds (R-WA). “We cannot remain competitive on the world stage with the current level of cash outlay,” Reynolds noted.

Obama was informed by email this morning of his termination. Preparations for the job move have been underway for some time.

Gurvinder Singh, a tele-technician for Indus Teleservices, Mumbai , India , will assume the office of president as of September 1, 2009.  Mr. Singh was born in the United States while his Indian parents were vacationing at Niagara Falls, New York, thus making him eligible for the position. He will receive a salary of $320 (USD) a month, but no health coverage or other benefits.

It is believed that Mr. Singh will be able to handle his job responsibilities without a support staff.  Due to the time difference between the United States and India , he will be working primarily at night.  “Working nights will allow me to keep my day job at the Dell Computer call center,” stated Mr. Singh in an exclusive interview, “I am excited about this position.  I always hoped I would be President.”

A Congressional spokesperson noted that while Mr. Singh may not be fully aware of all the issues involved in the office of US President, this should not be a problem, as Obama had never been familiar with the issues either.

Mr. Singh will rely upon a script tree that will enable him to respond effectively to most topics of concern. Using these canned responses, he can address common concerns without having to understand the underlying issue at all.  “We know these scripting tools work,” stated the spokesperson, “Obama has used them successfully for years, with the result that some people actually thought he knew what he was talking about.”

Obama will receive health coverage, expenses and salary until his final day of employment.  Following a two-week waiting period, he will be eligible for $140 a week unemployment for 26 weeks. Unfortunately he will not be eligible for Medicaid, as his unemployment benefits will exceed the allowed limit.

Obama has been provided with the outplacement services of Manpower, Inc. to help him write a resume and prepare for his upcoming job transition.  According to Manpower, Obama may have difficulties in securing a new position due to a lack of any successful work experience during his lifetime.  A greeter position at Wal Mart was suggested due to Obama’s extensive experience at shaking hands, as well as his special smile.

Satire from over the internet transom….Hat tip to Herb M.

I recently asked my friend’s little boy what he wanted to be when he grows up.

He said he wanted to be President some day.

Both of his parents, liberal Democrats,were standing there, so I asked her,‘If you were President what would be the first thing you would do?’

He replied, ‘I’d give food and houses to all the bums in town.’ His parents beamed.

‘Wow!  What a worthy goal.’ I told him, ‘But you don’t have to wait until you’re President to do that.You can come over to my house and mow the lawn, pull weeds, and rake my yard, and I’ll pay you $50.  Then I’ll take you over to the grocery store where that bum guy hangs out, and you can give him the $50 to use toward food and a new house.’

He thought that over for a few seconds, then he looked me straight in the eye and asked, ‘Why doesn’t the bum come over and do the work, and you can just pay him the $50?’

I said, ‘I sure am glad that you are a Conservative.’

His parents still aren’t speaking to me.

A child having more sense at an early age than his parents is a comedy/tragedy/reality?

From over the internet transom.

By Jacqueline Dotzenrod and Brett Narloch

Originally printed in the June 2009 Dakota Beacon Magazine

On March 30, President Barack Obama signed H.R.146, which created the Northern Plains National Heritage Area (NPNHA). A National Heritage Area (NHA) is “a place where natural, cultural, historic, and recreational resources combine to form a cohesive, nationally distinctive landscape arising from patterns of human activity shaped by geography.”

In 2005, Sen. Byron Dorgan introduced S.1544, the Northern Plains National Heritage Act.  In 2007, Sen. Dorgan and Sen. Kent Conrad sponsored S.2098, which was only reported by the committee, and Rep. Earl Pomeroy introduced H.R.6678. In 2009, the US Senate passed S.22, the Omnibus Land Management Bill, which would have created the NPNHA, but it was defeated in the US House. Finally, H.R.146, the Revolutionary War & War of 1812 Battlefield Preservation bill, passed the US House. The US Senate amended S.22 to include H.R.146 and it passed.

The NPNHA is an 800 square mile swath of land (more than 500,000 acres) that runs along the Missouri River through five North Dakota counties – Burleigh, McLean, Mercer, Morton, and Oliver.

The law designates a non-profit, in this case the Northern Plains Heritage Foundation (NPHF), the authority to create a land management plan for the area. According to the feasibility study conducted by the NPHF, the goals of the NPNHA are as follows:

• Increase recognition of unique resources.

• Development of a strong sense of place.

• Linking of resources to improve management.

• New opportunities for funding and partnerships.

• Sustainable place-based economic development.

• Balanced preservation and promotion.

Northern Plains Heritage Foundation Director and North Dakota State Senator Tracy Potter organized a lobbying effort to get the designation by the US Congress without disclosing such efforts to the IRS, which is required by law. He also convinced a congressional subcommittee, in 2007, that such a designation had widespread public support, when it did not.

In 2005, the NPHF Board began as a sub-group of the Fort Abraham Lincoln Foundation, which is also administered by Potter. In 2007, the NPHF received a $62,000 federal grant and split away from the Fort Abraham Lincoln Foundation. In fact, the NPHF filed its own Form 990 – the tax return filed by non-profit organizations – which revealed that a portion of the federal funds ($8,446.22) was used to pay for Potter’s trip to testify at the subcommittee hearing in Washington, D.C. And the Fort Abraham Lincoln Foundation hired lobbyists to urge the passage of the NHA.

The Greystone Group, a Washington, D.C.-based lobbying organization, filed a 2007 lobbying report for the work that was done on behalf of the Fort Abraham Lincoln Foundation in support of the NHA designation. However, the Fort Abraham Lincoln Foundation reported on its Form 990 that it did not lobby. Clearly, however, the non-profits were attempting to influence legislation.

According to the Greystone Group’s disclosure reports, both the Fort Abraham Lincoln Foundation and the NPHF lobbied for the Northern Plains National Heritage Area Act, in 2008. And in 2009, the NPHF lobbied for S. 22 – a bill which included the NPHA designation.

In testimony before the Senate Subcommittee on National Parks, Potter also claimed that there was public support for the NHA designation. “In public hearings before city and county commissions the meaning of such a program has been discussed and the commissions have unanimously provided their encouragement,” Potter testified.

The NPHF met with the commissions and several civic organizations to discuss the idea of a National Heritage Area designation in 2005 and 2006. However, not all five county commissions Potter referred to offered up support for the designation, as letters that appear in the feasibility study and meetings minutes show.

“The McLean County Board of Commissioners are looking forward to the public meetings and hearing the results of the public comments,” County Commission Chairman Ron Krebsbach wrote in January 2006. According to the McLean County auditor Leslie Korgel, McLean County did not have a public hearing and only approved the feasibility study.

Burleigh County Commission meeting minutes from January 6, 2006, note that the NPHF explained the proposed NHA and asked for support for the study. The minutes do not note a public hearing was held and do not note that the actual designation was supported.

On January 4, 2006, the Bismarck Tribune incorrectly reported that the NPHF “would be requesting resolutions of support for the designation.” Meeting minutes show that the NPHF was only looking for support for the feasibility study. The Morton County Commission supported the study, but, according to the Bismarck Tribune, fell short of getting support for the designation. According to Morton County auditor Paul Trauger, no public hearings were held. On January 26, 2006, the Beulah Beacon reported that Mercer County supported the NHA designation; however, according to a Mercer County representative, there were no public hearings.

The meetings Potter referred to were not held with the intent to gather public input. Rather, the NPHF delivered presentations to various organizations, implying that public input would be gathered as part of the feasibility study. The meetings were more along the lines of presentations. An unidentified media article, included in the feasibility study, called the meetings “informational meetings,” not public hearings.

The distinction between informational meetings and public hearings is important. In order to approve an NHA, there must be strong public support from stakeholders in the proposed area. Many landowners were not even aware that this process was happening until it was too late.

“I really feel like they didn’t want us to know about it,” landowner Ramona Sailer said at a town hall meeting hosted by the North Dakota Farm Bureau about the area. “I think this whole thing was railroaded through… The private landowner really should have more say.”

It is unclear whether or not anything can be done to reverse the designation since the evidence of Potter’s activities have come to light, but it is clear that many people are not happy with how the process unfolded.

If Potter knowingly misled Congress about the level of public support for the designation and misled the IRS about the Fort Abraham Lincoln Foundation’s and Northern Plains Heritage Foundation’s lobbying activities, perhaps there could be reconsideration of the designation. At the very least, the matter should be investigated. It is also unclear how much Sen. Byron Dorgan, the primary backer of the NPHA in the US Senate, was involved in the deception.

There’s more to the story. According to Northern Plains Heritage Foundation’s 2007 IRS Form 990, the foundation’s only revenue was a $62,000 federal grant. The Form 990 also lists the foundation’s program expenses for 2007. One of the expenses listed is Potter’s trip to testify at a congressional subcommittee, which cost $8,446.22. According to Open Secrets.org, in 2007 the Northern Plains Heritage Foundation (NPHF) hired the Greystone Group to lobby for passage of the National Heritage Area designation. What isn’t clear is how much the NPHF actually paid the Greystone Group. On Open Secrets.org it simply states “Less than $10,000.”

There are two questions that need to be answered: 1) Was Potter’s testimony considered lobbying? 2) Did the NPHF pay the Greystone Group any money?

These are serious questions because if the answer to either is “yes,” then Potter could be guilty of lobbying with federal dollars, which is against the law.

On June 12, Potter was on The Scott Hennen Show’s Blog Buzz segment, with Scott Hennen and SayAnything Blog’s Rob Port. The topic of discussion was the NPNHA.

According to Potter, one of the best things about the designation is that the NPHF will receive $10 million over 15 years from the federal government and property rights will not be denied to those who own land in the area.

How will the money be spent?

“We can’t say specifically how the money will be spent until we have those public meetings,” Potter said.

When asked by Hennen if the money would be used to influence legislation, Potter replied, “No, it can’t be done.”

Opponents of the designation warn that the federal money will be used to coerce local governments into adopting the recommendations of the NPHF, which will force changes to county comprehensive plans, local land use plans, and zoning ordinances.

Potter maintains that the management plan, written by the NPHF, which is required law, is only written to govern the management of the foundation.

“I would agree that the phrase ‘management plan’ is an unfortunate phrase. I don’t like it in there. Rob [SayAnything Blog] is looking at it one way, that we’re going to manage people, we’re going to manage the area… the management is of the group.”

However, the enabling legislation states that the management plan must “describe a program for implementation for the management plan, including… plans for resource protection, enhancement, interpretation, funding, management, and development,” and “list specific commitments for implementation that have been made by the local coordinating entity or any Federal, State, tribal, or local government agency, organization, business, or individual.”

The NPHF will create a program for implementing the management plan and then list commitments to the plan from local governments. There will be plenty of opportunities to twist the arms of local officials.

Property owners are still not going to be affected, Potter, contends, because the NPNHA is “a virtual area. It doesn’t exist.” Clearly, the area exists because the law says it does. What is unclear is how willing local governments will be to change their comprehensive plans, land use plans, and other zoning ordinances to receive the federal money.

The designation is being sold to local governments as an economic development tool.

“This is all about driving economic activity. In fact, that’s the only thing if you look at what the foundation is supposed to do that runs this, the Northern Plains Heritage Foundation… there’s only one thing it does… It encourages economic vitality and sustainability consistent with purposes of the heritage area.”

To do so requires a plan. Even if landowners are able to opt-out of the NPNHA, property rights are still in jeopardy because local governments may accept federal money to amend their ordinances to match the recommendations of the NPHF. If this happens, there is little the landowners can do to protect themselves.

There is very little in an NHA designation itself that is harmful to property rights; however, after the NPHF creates a land management plan and starts receiving federal funding they can start using the federal money bribe local governments in exchange for adopting elements of the management plan. To achieve their goals, the NPHF is likely to use the $10 million in federal funds (and the required non-federal matching funds) that come with the designation as bribes to local governments.

Small, budget-strapped local governments will likely welcome federal dollars in exchange for changes to their land use plans. Furthermore, it is likely that the NPHF will try to influence the local zoning processes as they seek to stop development to “preserve” the natural features over whichever area they are trying to exert influence.

It is not in the federal legislation; rather, the county comprehensive plans and land use plans will reflect the management plan ultimately created by the unelected board of the NPHF.

At the Tenth Annual Conference on Property Rights, Peyton Knight, director of environmental and regulatory affairs for the National Center for Public Policy Research, said:

But what is a National Heritage Area? In short, it is a pork barrel earmark that harms property rights and local governance. Let me explain why that is. Heritage Areas have boundaries. They are very definite boundaries, and they have very definite consequences for folks who reside within them.

What happens when a Heritage Area bill passes is that a management entity is tasked with drawing boundaries around a particular region and then coming up with a management plan for the area.

Within their provisions for management plans, all Heritage Area bills include inventories of all property within the boundaries of the Heritage Area that the Park Service and Green groups want preserved, managed, or acquired because of their so-called national historic significance. National historic significance, obviously, is a very arbitrary term; so anyone’s property can end up falling under those guidelines.

The management entity that is tasked with overseeing land use in the area is typically composed of national Green groups, local Green groups, and the National Park Service. These groups actually form a compact with the Interior Department to determine the guidelines that make up the land use management plan and the boundaries of the Heritage Area itself.

Now, after the boundaries are drawn and after the management plan has been approved by the Park Service, the management entity, the Green groups, are given federal funds, typically a million dollars a year, and told to spend that money getting the management plan enacted at the local level.

So what they do is they go to local boards and local legislators and they say, Congress just passed this Heritage Area. You are within the boundaries. We have identified these properties as properties that we deem significant. We have identified these businesses that we deem insignificant and a harm to these properties and a harm to the Heritage Area. We don’t have the power to make laws but you do. And here is some federal money. Now use whatever tools, whatever laws, whatever regulatory procedures you already have to make this management plan come into fruition. So that is the way it works.

It is also worth noting that these are permanent units of the Park Service. They do have sunset provisions. The Park Service oversight in funding is supposed to expire. It never has with any of the Heritage Areas that have been enacted. So these are permanent units of the Park Service, and the Park Service has testified several times that they, indeed, could be considered permanent units of the Park Service because they always need oversight, and also the Park Service within Heritage Areas looks for opportunities to create other Park Service programs like national parks and the like.

Deputy director of the National Park Service, Donald Murphy, testified before the Senate Subcommittee on National Parks that one of the things the Park Service does when administering National Heritage Areas is survey land that would be suitable for future National Parks or National Park expansions.

Instances of these actions have been found in numerous National Heritage Areas. The Wheeling National Heritage Area’s management plan called for creation of a local historic ordinance which would be enforced through zoning. The Blackstone River Valley National Heritage Corridor’s plan calls for open spaces (i.e. no development) and building code regulations that reflect the community’s traditions.

These same types of things can be expected when the NPHF writes the management plan for the NPNHA. The legislation that created the area states that the NPHF can make grants to political jurisdictions, other non-profits, and “other” parties in the area. This allows them to bride local governments to enact their management plan and allows them to give federal money to organizations that will also attempt to influence the policies of local governments.

The management plan for the NPNHA, according to enabling legislation, is required to describe, comprehensively, “the actions and commitments that Federal, State, tribal, and local governments, private organizations, and citizens will take to protect, enhance, interpret, fund, manage, and develop the natural, historical, cultural, educational, scenic, and recreational resources of the Heritage Area.”

In other words, the NPHF will create a plan (in many cases in collaboration with the local governing entities) and use federal funding to provide their allies with enough money to twist the arms of local officials to adopt the plan, which will contain many land use restrictions. The long term goal of the National Parks Service may be to turn the area into a national park. Property rights will be denied.

Hailing from Wyndmere, Jacqueline Dotzenrod is a life-long North Dakotan. She began her reporting career as a high school student covering local basketball games. After graduating from Wyndmere High School, she continued her education at North Dakota State College of Science where she earned an Associates Degree in Liberal Arts. She also attended North Dakota State University where she studied Business and Music. From east to west, she has written for newspapers across the state including the Richland County Monitor, Wahpeton Daily News, The Dickinson Press and The Cass County Reporter with experience covering everything from local sports to government. Her advocacy for personal freedom is what brought her to the North Dakota Policy Council.

Brett helped start the North Dakota Policy Council in 2007. Narloch was born in Minto, N.D., and is a lifelong resident of North Dakota. He attended UND and graduated in 2004 with honors in history. He has written for several publications, including the Dakota Beacon and the State Policy Network newsletter. Narloch also gives speeches about the value of freedom and how individual and economic liberty leads to a better society. He is the author of “Moving Forward: A North Dakotan’s Guide to Public Policy.” Narloch lives in Bismarck with his wife, Lindsey, and their dog, Freddy.

Read more at the North Dakota Policy website: www.policynd.org

By common consent, the most memorable moment of Barack Obama’s otherwise listless press conference on “health care” were his robust remarks on the “racist” incident involving Professor Henry Louis Gates and the Cambridge police. The latter “acted stupidly”, pronounced the chief of state. The President of the United States may be reluctant to condemn Ayatollah Khamenei or Hugo Chavez or that guy in Honduras without examining all the nuances and footnotes, but sometimes there are outrages so heinous that even the famously nuanced must step up to the plate and speak truth to power. And thank God the leader of the free world had the guts to stand up and speak truth to municipal police sergeant James Crowley.

For everyone other than the President, what happened at Professor Gates’ house is not entirely clear. The Harvard prof returned home without his keys and, as Obama put it, “jimmied his way into the house”. A neighbor, witnessing the “break-in”, called the cops, and things, ah, escalated from there. Professor Gates is now saying that, if Sergeant Crowley publicly apologizes for his racism, the prof will graciously agree to “educate him about the history of racism in America”. Which is a helluva deal. I mean, Ivy League parents re-mortgage their homes to pay Gates for the privilege of lecturing their kids, and here he is offering to hector it away to some no-name lunkhead for free.

As to the differences between the professor’s and the cops’ version of events, I confess I’ve been wary of taking Henry Louis Gates at his word ever since, almost two decades back, the literary scholar compared the lyrics of the rap group 2 Live Crew to those of the Bard of Avon. “It’s like Shakespeare’s ‘My love is like a red, red rose’,” he declared, authoritatively, to a court in Fort Lauderdale.

As it happens, “My luv’s like a red, red rose” was written by Robbie Burns, a couple of centuries after Shakespeare. Oh, well. 16th century English playwright, 18th century Scottish poet: What’s the diff? Evidently being within the same quarter-millennium and right general patch of the North-East Atlantic is close enough for a Professor of English and Afro-American Studies appearing as an expert witness in a court case. Certainly no journalist reporting Gates’ testimony was boorish enough to point out the misattribution.

I hasten to add I have nothing against the great man. He’s always struck me as one of those faintly absurd figures in which the American academy appears to specialize, but relatively harmless by overall standards.  And I certainly sympathize with the general proposition that not all encounters with the constabulary go as agreeably as one might wish. Last year I had a minor interaction with a Vermont state trooper and, 60 seconds into the conversation, he called me a “liar”. I considered my options:

Option a): I could get hot under the collar, yell at him, get tasered into submission, and possibly shot while “resisting arrest”;

Option b): I could politely tell the trooper I object to his characterization, and then write a letter to the commander of his barracks the following morning suggesting that such language is not appropriate to routine encounters with members of the public and betrays a profoundly defective understanding of the relationship between law enforcement officials and the citizenry in civilized societies.

I chose the latter course, and received a letter back offering partial satisfaction and explaining that the trooper would be receiving “supervisory performance-related issue-counseling”, which, with any luck, is even more ghastly than it sounds and hopefully is still ongoing.

Professor Gates chose option a), which is just plain stupid. For one thing, these days they have dash-cams and two-way radios and a GPS gizmo in the sharp end of the billy club, so an awful lot of this stuff winds up being preserved on tape, and, if you’re the one a-hootin’ an’ a-hollerin’, it’s not going to help. In the Sixties, the great English satirist Peter Simple invented the Prejudometer, which simply by being pointed at any individual could calculate degrees of racism to the nearest prejudon, “the internationally recognized scientific unit of racial prejudice”. Professor Gates seems to go around with his Prejudometer permanently cranked up to eleven: When Sgt Crowley announced through the glass-paneled front door that he was here to investigate a break-in, Gates opened it up and roared back: “Why? Because I’m a black man in America?”

He then told him, “I’ll speak with your mama outside.” Outside, Sgt Crowley’s mama failed to show. But among his colleagues were a black officer and a Hispanic officer.  Which is an odd kind of posse for what the Reverend Al Sharpton calls, inevitably, “the highest example of racial profiling I have seen”. But what of our post-racial president? After noting that “’Skip’ Gates is a friend” of his, President Obama said that “there is a long history in this country of African-Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately”. But, if they’re being “disproportionately” stopped by African-American and Latino cops, does that really fall under the category of systemic racism? Short of dispatching one of those Uighur Muslims from China recently liberated from Gitmo by Obama to frolic and gambol on the beaches of Bermuda, the assembled officers were a veritable rainbow coalition. The photograph of the arrest shows a bullet-headed black cop – Sgt Leon Lashley, I believe - standing in front of the porch while behind him a handcuffed Gates yells accusations of racism. This is the pitiful state the Bull Connors of the 21st century are reduced to, forced to take along a squad recruited from the nearest Benetton ad when they go out to whup some uppity Negro boy.

As Professor Gates jeered at the officers, “You don’t know who you’re messin’ with.” Did Sgt Crowley have to arrest him? Probably not. Did he allow himself to be provoked by an obnoxious buffoon? Maybe. I dunno. I wasn’t there. Neither was the President of the United States, or the Governor of Massachusetts, or the Mayor of Cambridge. All of whom have declared themselves firmly on the side of the Ivy League bigshot.  And all of whom, as it happens, are African-American. A black president, a black governor and a black mayor all agree with a black Harvard professor that he was racially profiled by a white-Latino-black police team, headed by a cop who teaches courses in how to avoid racial profiling. The boundless elasticity of such endemic racism suggests that the “post-racial America” will be living with blowhard grievance-mongers like Professor Gates unto the end of time.

In a fairly typical “he said/V.I.P. said” incident, the VIP was the author of his own misfortune but, with characteristic arrogance, chose to ascribe it to systemic racism, Jim Crow, lynchings, the Klan, slavery, Jefferson impregnating Sally Hemmings, etc. And so it goes, now and forever. My advice to Professor Gates for future incidents would be to establish his authority early. Quote Shakespeare, from his early days with Hallmark:

“Roses are red

Violets are blue

Victims are black

Like 2 Live Crew.”

© Mark Steyn 2009

From The World Socialist website:

President Obama’s press conference Wednesday night was an hour-long effort to conceal from the American people the sweeping impact of the cuts in medical benefits that will be imposed in his administration’s planned restructuring of the US health care system.

And…..

In response to reporters’ questions about the sacrifices he was prepared to ask of ordinary people, Obama was careful to disguise the real implications of the measures now being prepared.

Worse than that, even the Associated Press, who have been an intregral part of the Obama campaign and administration could not take it any more as they chronicled obfuscation after obfuscation in the July 22, 2009 press conference:

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama’s assertion Wednesday that government will stay out of health care decisions in an overhauled system is hard to square with the proposals coming out of Congress and with his own rhetoric.

Even now, nearly half the costs of health care in the U.S. are paid for by government at all levels. Federal authority would only grow under any proposal in play. Obama claimed that the Democrat/Obama health care plan would:

“It will keep government out of health care decisions, giving you the option to keep your insurance if you’re happy with it.” – NOT TRUE

“I have also pledged that health insurance reform will not add to our deficit over the next decade, and I mean it.”- NOT TRUE

“You haven’t seen me out there blaming the Republicans.” – NOT TRUE

“If we had done nothing, if you had the same old budget as opposed to the changes we made in our budget, you’d have a $9.3 trillion deficit over the next 10 years. Because of the changes we’ve made, it’s going to be $7.1 trillion.” – NOT TRUE

Exactly how is all this going to work? The leader of the Free World who has no documented accomplishments (other than writing heart tugging autobiographies about those non-accomplishments) and can not seem to utter a sentence without saying things that are not true. The width and breadth of his many, many misstatements of fact is already incredible, though growing almost exponentially day by day.

Unless we live in a country where all means of communication is controlled like some Orwellian totalitarian worlds of the last century, he will be unable to govern and Obama will become a joke. A joke in America and to the rest of the world. People are not stupid. Dishonesty causes disrespect. Disrespect results in loss of authority. It can be no other way except through authoritarian control.

I believe that the Obama Administration is doomed. It is being still-born because he presented himself as a moderate for election and then went hard left. When people understand his policies most want no part of them. Now, his uncontrollable predilection for prevarication dooms his efforts.

You will know for sure that Obama is circling the drain when you Google images of the president and any, or all, of the N.D. congressional delegation and there are none newer than 3 months. When they start to get a whiff of the stigma that Obama will rub off on them before the election of 2010 they will not be caught dead in front of any recording devise with the President. Count on it.

Dear Radio Talk Show Host:

I heard part of your show last Thursday morning.  I think you’re nuts to support this headlong rush to the government taking over our health care system.  It will lead to lower quality care.  See Dr John Manesis’s letter attached.  Secondly, it is simply not the responsibility of the American taxpayer to provide health insurance/coverage for everyone.  I’ve heard that illegal aliens will be covered by this.  That would be a further outrage.

“Tax the rich” you say.  How much can the rich absorb?  Do you want everyone taxed down to one level of mediocrity?  Already about half of U.S. citizens pay no income tax and 5% pay something like 80-90% or more of the income tax collected.  The rich, and everyone else, owe a proportionate share of their income to provide for national defense and other essential government.  But none of us owes the government a portion of our resources for its redistribution to someone else.

I believe all of us with more than enough have a moral obligation to give a helping hand to the less fortunate.  But that should be through church and charity, not through the heavy hand of a wasteful government.  Excesses in wasteful government leave less for donors to donate.  I’m sure you know that donating to a good cause through a telemarketing campaign is an inefficient method.  The telemarketing firm gets 25-75% or more of the funds raised.  That’s similar to helping the needy through the federal government.  Much is burned up in administration.  As a former state legislator you know that.  Do you really believe that government will be more efficient running our health care system than is the private sector?

I’ve been on the board of a self-funded health trust for 15 years.  The main drivers of increased health care cost are an aging population and demand for new and expensive technologies, including drugs.  Please tell me how more government in that mix will save money without diminishing quality.

Earlier this month we celebrated the signing of the Declaration of Independence.  That document’s most memorable phrase is…that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.  Part of that liberty is to work hard and prosper, or to refrain from doing so.  It is not the liberty of government to confiscate an ever-increasing share from the former to distribute to the latter.  It is not the purpose of government to assure equal outcomes.

Medicare and Social Security are in deep financial problems.  Why should we create another huge expensive government bureacracy to run and ruin our health care system?  Consider this, scammer Bernie Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison for running a Ponzi scheme that defrauded investors out of $50 billion.  Meanwhile our federal government runs the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time, called Social Security.  Continued extraction of taxes from today’s workers pays for benefits to today’s retirees.  The kitty is about to run dry and today’s 30, 40 and 50 year olds will wake up to much less benefits than they paid for.  That isn’t the kind of management I want put in charge of your or my health care.

Food, clothing and shelter are said to be the essentials of life.  Should the government take over all farms and order the farmers around as a nationalized health care plan will eventually do with health care providers?  If it’s good for the health care industry why wouldn’t it be good for the farming industry?  Food is actually more important to life than health care.  I see my family doctor once per year, but I usually eat everyday.

The mentality in Washington, DC these days is for more and more government.  A failure of government is used as an excuse for more government.  As unemployment in the private sector increases, the federal government employment rolls grow.  That is an unsustainable course, as we have learned with Social Security.

Steve Strege, Fargo, North Dakota

Socialized medicine works ‘if you’re not sick’

By: Dr John Manesis, Fargo   Published in The Fargo Forum Saturday July 11, 2009

I have read with interest letters extolling socialized medicine in Canada. I practiced medicine in the U.S. for almost 40 years and have not personally known a single physician who moved from our country to practice in Canada.

I’ve worked with several doctors who were born and practiced there and came to Fargo. I asked one of them how he compared socialized medicine to our style of care. He said, “Socialized medicine in Canada is very good if you’re not sick, but if you need a hip or knee replacement, or an angiogram, a CT scan or MRI, get in line.”

Another doctor recently told me that his brother in Canada was scheduled for a colonoscopy there but would have to wait more than a year before the procedure could be done. Canadian doctors I’ve known have all been well-trained and highly motivated but chose to pursue their careers here.

The anointed one, President Barack Obama, who already has the federal government owning auto companies and dictating policy to banks, insurance companies and brokerages, has nothing to show for this unprecedented intervention other than massive debts. He and his cadre of federal czars think they know how to “reform medicine” and claim they’ll save us money by doing so.

Socialized medicine would lead to layers of bureaucracy, rationed care, longer patient waits, less innovation and drug research, and more expense, not less. It would result in fewer private health insurance options. The president has said, without a scintilla of evidence, that electronic patient records will result in huge savings. To the contrary, if mandated, it will cost billions and threaten patients’ right to privacy.

Our system of medical care needs improvement, but this can be done by the health care industry in several ways: instituting portable health insurance policies a person can take from one job to another; letting CEOs, as in the case of Safeway, initiate bonus policies for employees who quit smoking, lose weight, and lower their cholesterol; allow insurance policies to be purchased across state lines; medical savings accounts would encourage patients to compare prices and economize.

Obama’s stated number of 47 million uninsured is inflated – many employees are between jobs and without insurance for short periods.

Our children and grandchildren have already been saddled with obligations to pay trillion-dollar deficits. To add the cost of socialized medicine to the mix would be a terrible mistake.

I, for one, say “thanks but no thanks.”

A press release from the office of Representative Dean Heller (R Nevada) states:

(Washington, DC) – Today U.S. Congressman Dean Heller (R-NV) offered an amendment to the America’s Affordable Health Choices Act (H.R. 3200) during the House Ways and Means Committee markup that would require members of Congress enroll in the government-run healthcare program.  This amendment was defeated by a vote of 21 to 18.

As a member of the House Ways and Means Committee, Earl Pomeroy voted to defeat this Heller amendment. Why would he do that? He tells us he can not support H.R. 3200 because it would effect reimbursement of N.D. hospitals why would he not help to kill the bill he says he does not support? Does he not want to be forced off of his outstanding, privately managed health care plan? What is going on here?

How did he vote on some of the other amendments to H.R. 3200?

• Rejected 25-15 an amendment from Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) that would have eliminated the public plan option;

• Rejected 22-19 amendment from Rep. Charles Boustany (R-La.) that would have prevented providers from being forced to participate in the public plan;

• Rejected 21-19 an amendment from Rep. Peter Roskam (R-Ill.) that would have based payment rates on the private market, rather than on Medicare;

• Rejected 26-15 an amendment by Rep. Wally Herger (R-Calif.) that would have prevented comparative effectiveness research from being used to deny care based on cost.

It seems quite difficult to obtain the specific language of the amendments and/or the roll call of who voted how for these markup committee votes but I am sure that someone on Representative Pomeroy’s staff must have all of the information.

Is it possible that what the North Dakota media tells or more importantly DOES NOT tell you about what Earl is doing in Washington D.C., in between traveling around N.D. using money confiscated from other taxpayers (or borrowed from their children) to pose for photo-ops handing out giant checks for this Federally funded boondoggle and that boondoggle as if he was opening his own wallet?

Fighting, fighting, fighting for N.D.? Or FIGHTING for Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Rahm Emanual, Stenny Hoyer, Barney Frank, etc.? Follow the money. ALWAYS FOLLOW THE MONEY.

Who are all of those people from other states that give Earl Pomeroy over 95% of his campaign contributions? Do they know something you do not? Always follow the money. Always

Few will tender the real questions about the Democrat health plan as they apply to real life circumstance. But once the Federal government is the primary provider of services and insurer this is exactly the question that they (Federal Bureaucrats) will be empowered to implement in the lives of you, your family, and all the people you love.

With guts and laser guided accuracy James Lewis at the American Thinker asks the questions that dare not be spoken:

Is Senator Kennedy’s life valuable enough to dedicate millions of dollars to extending it another month, another day, another year?

Because Barack Obama and Ted Kennedy agree with each other that they of all people are entitled to make that decision. Your decision to live or die will now be in their hands. Ted Kennedy is now 76. Average life expectancy in the United States is 78.06. For a man who has already reached 76, life expectancy is somewhat longer than average (since people who die younger lower the national average); for a wealthy white man it may be somewhat longer statistically; but for a man with diagnosed brain cancer it is correspondingly less. As far as the actuarial tables of the Nanny State are concerned, Kennedy is due to leave this life some time soon. The socialist State is not sentimental, at least when it comes to the lives of ordinary people like you and me.

Mr. Lewis ends by asking another question about your life and Senator Ted’s life:

The Netherlands legally recognizes four categories of euthanasia.  One of them is:

Passive euthanasia: A physician may choose not to treat an recurrent disease or event in a patient with a terminal progressive disease.

I don’t know enough about Senator Kennedy’s condition, but I would suppose that he has “a recurrent disease or ... a terminal progressive disease.” That would be the case if his brain cancer is not curable. In the socialist Netherlands Kennedy would be a perfect candidate for passive euthanasia.

Has anyone raised this question with Senator Kennedy? I know it seems to be in bad taste to even mention it. But if ObamaCare passes in the coming weeks, you can be sure that that question will be raised for you and me, and our loved ones. And no, we will not have a choice. 

So, in the brave new world of the Obamanation when the faceless government must consider the actuarial implications of rationing medical services and resources……do people have relative value? How will we decide who is more worth spending taxpayer dollars on and toward what end? Not only is socialized medicine a bad idea but it puts our society directly on the path that is the slippery slope of not believing life is sacred and that all are as deserving of its blessing in equal measure. When the government obtains the power of deciding who will live and who will die we will be in deep, deep trouble.

Barack Obama leading Ted Kennedy down the road? Into the sunset?

Leading America into The Abyss?

From Brian Maloney of the Radio Equalizer’s summary of the July 17, 2009 Ed (Expletive) Schultz:

” Apparently the drug-ridden loser Rush Limbaugh, he thinks because he’s got a lot of money and a lot of stations that he’s a success in life, the guy that can’t hear because he did so many drugs and had no self-discipline and character has now taken his first shot at me on “The Ed Show” on MSNBC. I love it!”

“Do you know why we call it “The Ed Show”? Because I’m not beholden to anybody. I don’t need to be called some title, other than me, Ed! And I start every show with an Op-*Ed*.”

“And I’m inviting the drug-ridden scumbag, Rush Limbaugh, on The Ed Show to debate me on any topic! He won’t do it because he’s a drug addict and he’s a coward, a complete coward. Plus he probably couldn’t hear me if he was on The Ed Show.”

“C’mon you fat pig. Let’s get it on. I’m getting ratings without you. Hell, I’m doing you a favor. C’mon, Rush! Let’s get it on! Get out of your compound down there. Get away from your drugs. Go see the doctor and get some hearing. Maybe you could pick up a 19th girlfriend. Maybe you could try marriage again. By the way, Rush, you got any kids? Oh, you’re out of the mainstream!”

“Oh but you got a radio show that they shove on everybody. C’mon, Rush, come on “The Ed Show”. Prove to your listeners that you’re not a coward. By the way, let’s play golf since you like to do that. My family can kick your ass in that too.”

How long do you think it will take before only the foaming at the mouth liberal wack jobs will be the only people willing to be on air with Ed (Expletive) Schultz? Or be seen in the same room? Bashing Limbaugh is getting to be the left’s one note somba.

This is probably the most certain and rapid route to becoming publicly marginalized. But since liberalism is such a load of bologna and the facts are rarely to the left’s advantage, name calling and profanity is about all you’ve got. I’ll bet they hate that they can not kick G.W. Bush around day in and day out.

Rush will of course give Ed (Expletive) Schultz all the attention that Ed deserves. Which is sure to make Schultz really mad (if that is possible).

Didn’t Ed seem a lot happier when he was a conservative?

Keep this guy in your thoughts and prayers. Something is not right here.

The U.S. House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee considered today (July 20, 2009) the Heller (R. Nevada) Amendment to H.R. 3200, the so called, “America’s Affordable Health Choices Act”. The Heller Amendment would have prevented the reported at least 12,000,000 (twelve million) illegal immigrants from accessing free health care being proposed under H.R. 3200.

Representative Earl Pomeroy tells the home state crowd at the Fargo Forum that:

“There is no way we will maintain the existing levels” of health care delivery if that happens, he said. Medicare payments in North Dakota are one-half or one-third of those in other areas of the country.

“That’s a cost too high to accept,” Pomeroy said. He added: “The reimbursement rate is a deal breaker.”

The reality is that as a member of the House Ways and Means Committee he is quietly voting to make the citizens of the country pay for a huge expansion of providing health care funded by legal taxpayer to illegal aliens (at least 12,000,000 of them). Will you read about this in the newspaper? Will it be on the 10 o’clock news? Will Ed Schultz, Joel Heitkamp, or any of the other left leaning N.D. talkers even mention this? NO.

Remember this important fact. All entitlement programs put in place through the U.S. Congress grow almost exponentially. The U.S. Congressional Budget Office costs are the result of an analysis of the current legislation in that legislation’s current form. Once it is in place politicians, as they have done where ever they could such as in state where they mandate insurance coverage, will escalate the number of procedures that taxpayers will be compelled to pay for.

You have to ask yourself. Is there a possibility that Earl Pomeroy has helped bring about the eventuality of what, sex change operations, abortions, breast augmentations, etc., for the multitudes that are and will flood into this country? Will free health care for all cause an almost uncontrollable bulge in our southern U.S. border, with pressure that can only result like a failing dam in inundation? YOU BET!

Do not think that it will not effect N.D. In low wage construction and processing plants there are thousands of illegals flooding into the middle Midwest and working there way north. With one of the only decent economies in the nation, just what is Earl Pomeroy setting us up for without the scrutiny of the state’s media?

Imagine a make believe world where the Secular Messiah was everywhere….and since it is all about him…..

Don Obama

Gone With The Barack

Wicked Witch of the Left

Treasure of the Sierra Obama

It’s a Wonderful Obama

Bonnie and Barack

Somewhere Over the Senate, Blue Birds Fly…...

From over the internet transom - Thanks Eugene

Hat tip to the great creative minds of I Own The World