Author: kingsjester

64 year old Christian Conservative husband, father, and grandfather who has been writing since April 2010.

Reviewing the Obamacare Roll-out Like a “Real World” Product Launch

On By kingsjesterIn Politics5 Comments

obamadoctorA few days ago, a Liberal young lady responded to one of my Blogs about the disastrous roll-out of Obamacare, posted on Ted Cruz’s Facebook Page, by saying that I knew nothing about the “Business World” and that “bad stuff” happening during Product Launches “all the time”.

As a VP of Marketing , I had a good chuckle at that, and informed the young lady that in the “Real World”, Product Launches are well-planned and well-executed, because if they fail, people lose their jobs.

On August 26, 2013, Forbes.com published an article titled “Five Steps to a Seamless Product Launch”. Let’s look at their suggestions and see how the President’s Signature Legislation stacks up.

      1. Expect bad things to happen. No matter how unsexy they are, every business needs contingency plans. Don’t think that what happened to others won’t happen to you. For example, will you be cycling millions through a payment processor over a 7-day period? Put multiple processors in place and rotate them to avoid slowdowns.

Well….The “smartest guy in the room” made no contingency plans. After all, he’s The Lightbringer. He had Top Men working on Obamacare. Top. Men. His latest “contingency plan” involves suggesting that Americans go to the insurance companies’ websites to find out about Obamacare…a self-defeating plan if I’ve ever seen one.            

So, Obama was forced to make ‘contingency plans on the fly, looking like a Junior Executive in an important meeting with his Board of Directors after the laptop that help his ground-breaking proposal crashed.

2. Bring on extra staff. A big product launch is no time to run lean and mean. Let full-time and temp staff know they’ll be working around the clock, and compensate them well. The large influx of business will create customer service and technical issues you don’t normally experience, and you’ll need people to handle them. A new customer’s first impression is usually a permanent one.

Obama brought on extra staff…and paid them well…with our money. However, Forbes was referring to competent business professionals, not a failed IT Company out of Canada, who donated to Obama’s re-                             election. Nor were they suggesting hiring felons to as “Obamacare Navigators”, manning the Customer Service Lines

Obamacare’s “first customer” was America. and the customer’s impression is that it stinks on ice.

3.  Improve your reputation. When buzz is generated, people will research your product and business. Make sure what they see is very good. Have existing customers or staff write blog posts and create videos to enhance your search results. Promote these on your website to generate more revenue during your launch.

The disastrous roll-out of Obamacare has ruined whatever was left of Obama’s reputation. Unfortunately for the CEO, it’s has to write bolog posts about this”product” when it has been impossible to acquire it. And,                as far as promoting Obamacare on healthcare.gov…the website would actually have to work to do that.

  4. Set expectations. Launches are hectic; let the people in your life know you’ll be largely unavailable. Eliminate other major obligations during this time.

Last weekend Obama played his 150th round of golf as President of the United States. Evidently, it was a major obligation.

5. Schedule weekly check-in meetings. About three months pre-launch, my team meets every single week for up to two hours to stay on schedule. This discipline reduces procrastination and the need to urgently handle miscommunicated responsibilities.

On March 22, 2013, Avik Roy, writing for Forbes.com, said,

Obamacare’s reorganization of the U.S. health care system is slated to go on-line on January 1, 2014. That’s when the law’s key provisions go into effect: its individual mandate; its rules requiring higher premiums for young people; and its expansion of insurance coverage through Medicaid and the law’s subsidized private insurance exchanges. Increasingly, officials in the Obama administration are worried that the rollout of the exchanges will be chaotic, given the law’s complexity and unrealistic deadlines. “We are under 200 days from open enrollment” on the exchanges, noted Henry Chao, deputy chief information officer at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, at a recent conference. “I’m pretty nervous—I don’t know about you.”

I would say that knowing that a “Product Launch” was going to go South, 9 months ahead of time, and doing nothing about it was a serious case of procrastination, wouldn’t you?

Plus, it’s not like this was a Product Launch of a new spatula or something, this “Product Launch” involves Health Insurance Decisions, affecting Americans’ lives.

As I mentioned earlier, the success of a Product Launch is measured by its results.

So, what are the results of the Obamacare “Product Launch” so far?

Reuters.com reports that

States with functioning exchanges have signed up 49,100 people compared with the 1.4 million people expected to be enrolled for 2014, according to the report by healthcare research and consultancy firm Avalere Health.

With enrollment in the federal HealthCare.gov website serving 36 states stalled by technical failures, the weak sign-ups for functioning insurance exchanges could be due to the administration’s difficulty to promote the program as a success, Avalere said.

The government is due to release national enrollment figures for the month of October this week. Open enrollment ends March 31, 2014.

Eventually, a report on the success of a Product Launch is published. When results are less that what was expected, corporations will usually “massage the numbers” to make a disastrous roll-out look better.

Of course, Obama has the power of the Federal Government behind him, so, these numbers won’t just be massaged….they’ll be expanded.

According to The Washington Post,

The fight over how to define the new health law’s success is coming down to one question: Who counts as an Obamacare enrollee?

Health insurance plans only count subscribers as enrolled in a health plan once they’ve submited a payment. That is when the carrier sends out a member card and begins paying doctor bills.

When the Obama administration releases health law enrollment figures later this week, though, it will use a more expansive definition. It will count people who have purchased a plan as well as those who have a plan sitting in their online shopping cart but have not yet paid.

“In the data that will be released this week, ‘enrollment’ will measure people who have filled out an application and selected a qualified health plan in the marketplace,” said an administration official, who requested anonymity to frankly describe the methodology.

Just as Obama lied that “if you like your health plan, you’ll be able to keep your health plan”, and if “you like your doctor, you’ll be able to keep your doctor”, no less than 29 times, he and his Administration are about to lie about the results of the Obamacare Roll-out, in a desperate attempt to make chicken soup out of chicken you-know-what.

To quote the great actor Claude Rains, in his unforgettable role as Captain Renault, in the classic movie “Casablanca”,

I am shocked…shocked.

Until He Comes,

KJ

Veterans Day 2013

On By kingsjesterIn Politics2 Comments

Veterans Day

Veterans Day was formerly known as Armistice Day, and wasoriginally set aside as a U.S. legal holiday to honor the end of World War I, which took place on November 11, 1918. In legislation that was passed in 1938, November 11 was “dedicated to the cause of world peace and to be hereafter celebrated and known as ‘Armistice Day.'” As such, this new legal holiday honored World War I veterans.

In 1954, after World War II and the Korean War, the 83rd U.S. Congress, at the urging of the veterans service organizations, changed the Act of 1938 by striking out the word “Armistice” and inserting the word “Veterans.” With the approval of this legislation on June 1, 1954, Nov. 11 became a day to honor American veterans of all wars.

In 1968, the Uniforms Holiday Bill created three-day weekends for federal employees by celebrating four national holidays on Mondays: Washington’s Birthday, Memorial Day, Veterans Day, and Columbus Day. Under this bill, Veterans Day was moved to the last Monday of October. Many states did not agree with this decision and continued to celebrate the holiday on its original date. The first Veterans Day under the new law was observed with much confusion on Oct. 25, 1971.

Finally on September 20, 1975, President Gerald R. Ford signed a law which returned the annual observance of Veterans Day to its original date of Nov. 11, beginning in 1978. Since then, the Veterans Day holiday has been observed on Nov. 11.

In my research for today’s blog, I came across a speech that explains the significance of this day, far better than I ever could.

On Veterans Day, 1985, at Arlington Cemetery, President Ronald Reagan said the following,

…We are gathered at the National Cemetery, which provides a final resting place for the heroes who have defended our country since the Civil War. This amphitheater, this place for speeches, is more central to this cemetery than it first might seem apparent, for all we can ever do for our heroes is remember them and remember what they did — and memories are transmitted through words.

Sometime back I received in the name of our country the bodies of four marines who had died while on active duty. I said then that there is a special sadness that accompanies the death of a serviceman, for we’re never quite good enough to them-not really; we can’t be, because what they gave us is beyond our powers to repay. And so, when a serviceman dies, it’s a tear in the fabric, a break in the whole, and all we can do is remember.

It is, in a way, an odd thing to honor those who died in defense of our country, in defense of us, in wars far away. The imagination plays a trick. We see these soldiers in our mind as old and wise. We see them as something like the Founding Fathers, grave and gray haired. But most of them were boys when they died, and they gave up two lives — the one they were living and the one they would have lived. When they died, they gave up their chance to be husbands and fathers and grandfathers. They gave up their chance to be revered old men. They gave up everything for our country, for us. And all we can do is remember.

…There’s always someone who is remembering for us. No matter what time of year it is or what time of day, there are always people who come to this cemetery, leave a flag or a flower or a little rock on a headstone. And they stop and bow their heads and communicate what they wished to communicate. They say, “Hello, Johnny,” or “Hello, Bob. We still think of you. You’re still with us. We never got over you, and we pray for you still, and we’ll see you again. We’ll all meet again.” In a way, they represent us, these relatives and friends, and they speak for us as they walk among the headstones and remember. It’s not so hard to summon memory, but it’s hard to recapture meaning.

And the living have a responsibility to remember the conditions that led to the wars in which our heroes died. Perhaps we can start by remembering this: that all of those who died for us and our country were, in one way or another, victims of a peace process that failed; victims of a decision to forget certain things; to forget, for instance, that the surest way to keep a peace going is to stay strong. Weakness, after all, is a temptation — it tempts the pugnacious to assert themselves — but strength is a declaration that cannot be misunderstood. Strength is a condition that declares actions have consequences. Strength is a prudent warning to the belligerent that aggression need not go unanswered.

Peace fails when we forget what we stand for. It fails when we forget that our Republic is based on firm principles, principles that have real meaning, that with them, we are the last, best hope of man on Earth; without them, we’re little more than the crust of a continent. Peace also fails when we forget to bring to the bargaining table God’s first intellectual gift to man: common sense. Common sense gives us a realistic knowledge of human beings and how they think, how they live in the world, what motivates them. Common sense tells us that man has magic in him, but also clay. Common sense can tell the difference between right and wrong. Common sense forgives error, but it always recognizes it to be error first.

We endanger the peace and confuse all issues when we obscure the truth; when we refuse to name an act for what it is; when we refuse to see the obvious and seek safety in Almighty. Peace is only maintained and won by those who have clear eyes and brave minds. Peace is imperiled when we forget to try for agreements and settlements and treaties; when we forget to hold out our hands and strive; when we forget that God gave us talents to use in securing the ends He desires. Peace fails when we forget that agreements, once made, cannot be broken without a price.

Each new day carries within it the potential for breakthroughs, for progress. Each new day bursts with possibilities. And so, hope is realistic and despair a pointless little sin. And peace fails when we forget to pray to the source of all peace and life and happiness. I think sometimes of General Matthew Ridgeway, who, the night before D-day, tossed sleepless on his cot and talked to the Lord and listened for the promise that God made to Joshua: “I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.”

We’re surrounded today by the dead of our wars. We owe them a debt we can never repay. All we can do is remember them and what they did and why they had to be brave for us. All we can do is try to see that other young men never have to join them. Today, as never before, we must pledge to remember the things that will continue the peace. Today, as never before, we must pray for God’s help in broadening and deepening the peace we enjoy. Let us pray for freedom and justice and a more stable world. And let us make a compact today with the dead, a promise in the words for which General Ridgeway listened, “I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.”

In memory of those who gave the last full measure of devotion, may our efforts to achieve lasting peace gain strength. And through whatever coincidence or accident of timing, I tell you that a week from now when I am some thousands of miles away, believe me, the memory and the importance of this day will be in the forefront of my mind and in my heart.

Thank you. God bless you all, and God bless America.

Until He Comes,

KJ

The Iranian Negotiations: Of Naivete, Nukes, and the Six-Day War

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, Politics2 Comments

americanisraelilapelpinAs American’s learned earlier this week, President Barack Hussein Obama has been in secret negotiations with the leadership of Iran, consisting of the Ayatollahs and President Rohani.

The Obama administration began softening sanctions on Iran after the election of Iran’s new president in June, months before the current round of nuclear talks in Geneva or the historic phone call between the two leaders in September.

While those negotiations now appear on the verge of a breakthrough the key condition for Iran—relief from crippling sanctions—began quietly and modestly five months ago.

A review of Treasury Department notices reveals that the U.S. government has all but stopped the financial blacklisting of entities and people that help Iran evade international sanctions since the election of its president, Hassan Rouhani, in June.

On Wednesday Obama said in an interview with NBC News the negotiations in Geneva “are not about easing sanctions.” “The negotiations taking place are about how Iran begins to meet its international obligations and provide assurances not just to us but to the entire world,” the president said.

Negotiating with Barbarians. How quaint. 

It has been tried before, boys and girls.

On November 4, 1979, an angry mob of some 300 to 500 “students” who called themselves “Imam’s Disciples,” laid siege to the American Embassy in Teheran, Iran, to capture and hold hostage 66 U.S. citizens and diplomats. Although women and African-Americans were released a short time later, 51 hostages remained imprisoned for 444 days with another individual released because of illness midway through the ordeal.

…President Jimmy Carter immediately imposed economic sanctions and applied diplomatic pressure to expedite negotiations for the release of the hostages. First, Carter cancelled oil imports from Iran, then he expelled a number of Iranians from the U.S., followed by freezing about $8 billion of Iranian assets in the U.S.

At first, the Iranian government denied responsibility for the incident, but its failure to take action against the hostage-takers belied the denial. The Carter administration could do little other at that point than be patient and persistent.

In February 1980, Iran issued a list of demands for the hostages’ release. They included the Shah’s return to Iran, a demand for an apology for American involvement in Iran, including the coup in 1953, and a promise to steer clear of Iranian affairs in the future. From the president’s perspective, those demands could not be met.

In late April, Carter decided upon an ultra-secret mission to rescue the hostages. The operation, dubbed “Eagle Claw,” seemed hastily thrown together by some, doomed to failure by others. Teheran was surrounded by 700 miles of desert on all sides; the city itself was crammed with four million people, and the embassy was huge and well guarded. It was to have been a two-night process requiring a minimum of six helicopters and a handful of C-130 cargo aircraft. To be on the safe side, eight copters were prepared for the mission.

Once inside Iranian borders and advancing under cloak of night to a predetermined staging area 50 miles outside Teheran in the Great Salt Desert, one “helo” had to turn back with operating problems. Another helo and then another succumbed to a swirling dust storm, known in that area as a “haboob.” The mission was aborted.

Upon attempting their retreat, a miscommunication gave one helo the okay to lift off. The storm slammed the helo into a C-130, causing a gigantic fireball, killing three in the chopper and five in the airplane.

The aftermath, as Iranians eventually found and mockingly paraded the wreckage on worldwide television, was total humiliation for the United States, and spurred an onslaught of investigations and congressional hearings. Cyrus Vance, the secretary of state who had objected to the plan, resigned in protest. Back to square one.

Because if there is one thing that Muslim Fanatics want to do with American Infidels…it is sit down and talk.

After all…they are sooo refined, and don’t wish to harm a fly. Just ask Israel…and Former President Carter.

Back on February 24th, ynetnews.com reported that

As speculations over a possible strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities grow, the Islamic Republic is exacerbating its rhetoric.

Deputy Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi on Friday warned Israel against mounting such an attack: “Any act by the Zionist regime against Iran will bring about its destruction.”

Hezbollah, he added, “Is at the forefront of the fight against Israel and it is growing stronger by the day.”

Speaking at a ceremony honoring past Hezbollah commanders, Vahidi said that “Israel is weaker than it has ever been and its army is tired and humiliated… This is why it is trying to solve its problems by talking about taking action against Iran. But these are ridiculous statements.

“Iran’s warriors are ready and willing to wipe Israel off the map,” he declared.

Hey,no worries President Obama…Prime Minister Netanyahu, Iran is a peaceful nation…just ask them.

Yesterday,Iranian President Hassan Rohani urged world powers not to miss an “exceptional opportunity” to reach an agreement in their ongoing nuclear talks in Geneva, .

According to the official Iranian news Agency and propaganda Tool, IRNA, Rohani said,

I hope that the P5+1 group make the most out of this exceptional opportunity that the Iranian nation has offered to the international community, so that we can reach a positive result within a reasonable timeframe.

The Iranian Leadership, if they are insincere about world peace, and still harbor thoughts of “wiping Israel off the map”, (as anyone who is not naive, believes that they do)  would do well to  read the accounts of the Six- Day War.

The Six-Day War took place in June 1967. The Six-Day War was fought between June 5th and June 10th. The Israelis defended the war as a preventative military effort to counter what the Israelis saw as an impending attack by Arab nations that surrounded Israel. The Six-Day War was initiated by General Moshe Dayan, the Israeli’s Defence Minister.

The war was against Syria, Jordan and Egypt. Israel believed that it was only a matter of time before the three Arab states co-ordinated a massive attack on Israel. After the 1956 Suez Crisis, the United Nations had established a presence in the Middle East, especially at sensitive border areas. The United Nations was only there with the agreement of the nations that acted as a host to it. By May 1967, the Egyptians had made it clear that the United Nations was no longer wanted in the Suez region. Gamal Nasser, leader of Egypt, ordered a concentration of Egyptian military forces in the sensitive Suez zone. This was a highly provocative act and the Israelis only viewed it one way – that Egypt was preparing to attack. The Egyptians had also enforced a naval blockade which closed off the Gulf of Aqaba to Israeli shipping.

Due to the superior size of the Invasion Force, the world’s  news media reported the imminent defeat of Israel as a fait accompli.

The Invaders were attacking God’s Chosen People from all sides.

Egyptian forces invaded Palestine from the South-west, captured Gaza and were thrusting along the coast to link up with –

Arab legion troops driving from the west towards Tel Aviv, the capital of the new State of Israel.

Another Egyptian column thrust 30 miles across the southern desert and entered Beersheba.

Lebanese and Syrian forces were about to attack from the north.

Iraqi and Trans-Jordan forces were moving in from the North-east.

An Arab legion column striking west from Jericho were only ten miles from Tel Aviv.

Israel’s chances of defeating the Invaders appeared hopeless. As an insurance policy, some of the invading nations had actually forbidden any armaments or weapons to be sold to Israel.

Additionally, the crack Arab Legion forces were trained and led by British Army officers.

Inexplicably, within days, all the invading forces were retreating as fast as their camels could carry them!

The Egyptians were forced back to the Nile. Jordan’s legions had to give up all their area on the west side of the Jordan River. Israel occupied Lebanon and the Golan Heights.

Secular History tells us that it was a combination of Israel taking out the planes of the Egyptian Air Force, while they were still on the ground, and the Commander of their Tank Brigade surrendering, because the reflection off of the desert floor multiplied the size of the Israeli Force, making it seem like the Invaders were surrounded by superior numbers.

However, at the time of Israel’s victory, strange rumors started making the rounds.

Invaders from the south reported that they were confronted by legions of unknown troops clothed in white!

And, the thing was…the Israeli troops reported similar stories!

The outcome of Six Day War of 1967 was very important, because, for the first time for 2,520 years, Israel captured and governed Jerusalem.

For all those years before, Jerusalem was under the thumb of  non-Jewish powers, but their control was prophesied only to continue ‘until the times allotted to the Gentiles are completed,’ Jesus said (Luke 21:24).

Naturally, Christians everywhere got very excited at the significance of this event.

The attack on Israel come out of nowhere. So…how was it that Israel gained such a rapid victory?

God’s Cavalry was there for God’s Chosen People in the Six Day War in 1967.

Arab generals said, ‘they did not know that Israel had large cavalry units.’

Why was Israel favored by God with such an intervention? Was it because they deserved it? The answer is ‘No’.

God kept his promise, found in Leviticus 26: 42-44…

42 I will remember my promise to Jacob, Isaac, and Abraham. I will also remember the land. 43 The land, abandoned by them, will enjoy its time to honor the Lord while it lies deserted without them. They must accept their guilt because they rejected my rules and looked at my laws with disgust. 44 Even when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them or look at them with disgust. I will not reject or cancel my promise to them, because I am the Lord their God.

Rohani needs to remember that. President Barack Hussein Obama does, too.

Until He Comes,

KJ

Obamacare: Inception, Perception, and Rejection

On By kingsjesterIn Politics4 Comments

obamacaremoeAs I posted yesterday, President Barack Hussein Obama came on NBC Nightly News on Thursday night, to “apologize” to the America People, concerning his Signature Legislation, Obamacare.

Through a convoluted parsing of words, the petulant President ducked, dodged,. dipped, dived, and dodged ( to borrow the words of Rip Torn as Patches O’Houlihan in the movie “Dodgeball: An Underdog’s Story”) his way through the interview with NBC’s Chuck Todd, until, when the interview was over, Americans realized that he was not actually apologizing for the disastrous Roll-out of Obamacare…he was actually apologizing that we caught him at his duplicity.

The implementation of a State-Run Healthcare System has been a major goal of the Democrats, Liberals, Progressives, Communists, Socialists, Marxists, Alinsky-ites, for decades now.

Call them what you will…I think they stink on ice. But, I digress…

To the Wayback Machine, Sherman! (That’s a reference to the “Rocky & Bullwinkle Show”, for you 20 year olds)

After Bill “Bubba” Clinton and Hillary “Cankles” Clinton ascended to the presidency in 1993, they immediately started to work on putting together a Plan for National Healthcare Reform, whether the American People actually thought we needed it, or not.

Sound Familiar?

First, Bill appointed Hil as the chair of the task force devising the plan. you see, Bubba had campaigned heavily on health care in the 1992 U.S. presidential election. After the task force was created in January 1993, The way it conducted business came under scrutiny by Congress and the public, alike.   Like Obama’s promise concerning Obamacare, the Clinton Task Force’s goal was to come up with a comprehensive plan to provide universal health care for all Americans, which was to be a cornerstone of the administration’s first-term agenda.

In September of 1993, Clinton went before Congress and delivered a major healthcare speech, introduced Congress and the Nation to his and his little flower’s (Hillary, not Jennifer) Grand Scheme.

The core element of the proposed plan was an enforced mandate for employers to provide health insurance coverage to all of their employees through competitive but closely regulated health maintenance organizations.

Again…sound familiar, boys and girls?

Just like the Obamacare debacle, anybody with any sense whatsoever, including, but not limited to,  Conservatives, Libertarians, and the Healthcare and the Health Insurance Industries, rose up against the Clintons’ plan.

The Health Insurance Industry even came out with a highly effective television ad, a “Harry and Louise” ad”, designed to rally public support against the plan. Democrats,in an attempt to protect their phony-boloney jobs, started distancing themselves from the Clintons, and instead of uniting behind the First Couple’s National Healthcare Proposal, started presenting a number of competing plans of their own.

Bill and Hil’s Grand Scheme ultimately withered away amid the barrage of fire from the American Public and even further cemented the public’s perception of Ms. Rodham Clinton as the power-hungry shrew of a wife, behind her easy-going, people person husband, “good ol’ Bubba”.

The Clintons’ Grand Scheme was declared dead by Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell in September of 1994.

Our next stop during our journey through the inception of Obamacare, involves Former 2012 Republican Presidential Candidate Willard “Mitt” Romney.

Back in 2006, Romney signed a massive health-insurance overhaul into law as Governor of Massachusetts. “Romneycare” was packed with subsidies, exchanges, and mandates to extend coverage to the uninsured. Four years later, it became the model for the national nightmare known as Obamacare.

 

So, what is the truth concerning Romneycare?  Well, according to this article, posted on wsj (Wall Street Journal).com on January 21st, 2010:

 

Using the Census Bureau’s current population survey, University of Kentucky economist Aaron Yelowitz and Michael Cannon of the Cato Institute studied RomneyCare between 2005 and 2008—that is, two years on either side of its passage. The share of uninsured residents did fall to 5.4% in 2008 from 9.8% in 2005 (though the authors argue this reduction is overstated).

But Messrs. Yelowitz and Cannon show that most of the new coverage was concentrated among people earning under 300% of the federal poverty level, or about $66,000 for a family of four. Those happen to be the same people who qualify for subsidies in the heavily regulated insurance “connector,” the prototype for the “exchanges” that Democrats were contemplating before Mr. [Senator-Elect Scott] Brown so rudely interrupted.

Coverage for adults in this group increased by 14.2 percentage points—which merely proves that “universal” coverage isn’t much of a problem if health care is cheap for consumers. But another way of thinking about it is that the subsidies amount to a taxpayer-funded insurance discount. The same increase in coverage might be achievable if health care were less expensive. But rather than deregulate and reform the private market to lower costs, Mr. Romney and Democrats defaulted to the same public transfer payments that define ObamaCare.

What is the definition of stupidity, boys and girls?  

In August of 2009, during his Weekly Address, Obama said,

…while reform is obviously essential for the 46 million Americans who don’t have health insurance, it will also provide more stability and security to the hundreds of millions who do. Right now, we have a system that works well for the insurance industry, but that doesn’t always work well for you. What we need, and what we will have when we pass health insurance reform, are consumer protections to make sure that those who have insurance are treated fairly and that insurance companies are held accountable.

So, aided by a Democrat-controlled House and Senate, Obamacare was foisted upon the unwitting and unwilling American Public, on dark and foreboding night.

Which brings us to “This Present Darkness” (taken from the title of a Christian novel by Frank E. Peretti, which illumines the war American Christians fight everyday with “princes and principalities”. Sadly appropriate.)

According to McClatchyDC.com, 52 million Americans will lose their Health Insurance Coverage because of Obamacare. For you 20-something year old Libs, that’s 52 with six zeros behind it.

These are American lives I am talking about. Not imaginary statistics.

On top of that revelation, it also came out yesterday that only 22% of uninsured Americans have visited the Obamacare Exchanges. In other words, and I’ll type s-l-o-w-l-y for any Liberals who may be reading this, 78% of the Americans whom Obama and the Democrats cited as the reason for the Federal Government to ruin the finest Healthcare System in the World, do not want it. Period.

Okay. so, if, as has been determined, Obama and The Democrat Braintrust knew from the start that millions of Americans would lose their Health Insurance, what is the purpose of Obamacare, and why did the President of the United States and his minions in his Administration, Congress, and the Media lie, over and over again, about how positively perfect and wonderfully wonderful Obamacare would be?

Two words, one hyphen: Single Payer.

The Democrats have always, desperately, wanted Uncle Sugar to run Americans Healthcare Industry, just like the old Soviet Union, and present-day Communist China. They want to be in charge of our lives from cradle to grave, making life or death decisions for American Families. Stories are already coming out concerning Americans with Terminal Cancer, who are losing their Health Insurance coverage. Do you believe that Obamacare will help them? it won’t if they can not afford it, or get through the Government Bureaucracy in time for life-saving medical treatment. And, even if they do receive treatment in time, Obamacare cuts off paying for the treatment of Cancer at the age of 76.

So sorry. Here’s the book. here’s the phone. See ya later. You’re on your own.

For all of the Petulant President’s platitudes, Obamacare has about as much to do with “duty and Humanity” as the classic Three Stooges short.

Calling Dr. Howard…Dr. Fine…Dr. Howard…

And, unlike that movie short, featuring “The Boys”, there is nothing funny about Obamacare, at all.

In fact, it’s a National Tragedy.

Until He Comes,

KJ

 

 

 

 

 

Obama: “I’m Sorry.” America: “We Know.”

On By kingsjesterIn Politics6 Comments

obamamyworkLast night, NBC News aired an exclusive interview, which Chuck Todd conducted with President Barack Hussein Obama, in the White House. During the course of the interview, the President “apologized” to the millions of Americans who have lost and will lose their Health Insurance Coverage because of the monster he himself created…Obamacare.

I am sorry that they are finding themselves in this situation based on assurances they got from me.

We’ve got to work hard to make sure that they know we hear them and we are going to do everything we can to deal with folks who find themselves in a tough position as a consequence of this.

Thanks, Scooter. That helps a lot. Not.

Researchers have found that Obama Promised the American people no less than 29 times that,

…if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor. If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan.

For example, on Saturday, August 8, 2009, during his Weekly Address, Obama said,

As we draw close to finalizing – and passing – real health insurance reform, the defenders of the status quo and political point-scorers in Washington are growing fiercer in their opposition. In recent days and weeks, some have been using misleading information to defeat what they know is the best chance of reform we have ever had. That is why it is important, especially now, as Senators and Representatives head home and meet with their constituents, for you, the American people, to have all the facts.

So, let me explain what reform will mean for you. And let me start by dispelling the outlandish rumors that reform will promote euthanasia, cut Medicaid, or bring about a government takeover of health care. That’s simply not true. This isn’t about putting government in charge of your health insurance; it’s about putting you in charge of your health insurance. Under the reforms we seek, if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor. If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan.

And while reform is obviously essential for the 46 million Americans who don’t have health insurance, it will also provide more stability and security to the hundreds of millions who do. Right now, we have a system that works well for the insurance industry, but that doesn’t always work well for you. What we need, and what we will have when we pass health insurance reform, are consumer protections to make sure that those who have insurance are treated fairly and that insurance companies are held accountable.

On Monday of this week, Obama, speaking at an Organizing for America Campaign Event, said,

Now, if you have or had one of these plans before the Affordable Care Act came into law and you really liked that plan, what we said was you can keep it if it hasn’t changed since the law passed. So we wrote into the Affordable Care Act, you’re grandfathered in on that plan. But if the insurance company changes it, then what we’re saying is they’ve got to change it to a higher standard. They’ve got to make it better, they’ve got to improve the quality of the plan they are selling. That’s part of the promise that we made too. That’s why we went out of our way to make sure that the law allowed for grandfathering.

If we had allowed these old plans to be downgraded, or sold to new enrollees once the law had already passed, then we would have broken an even more important promise — making sure Americans gain access to health care that doesn’t leave them one illness away from financial ruin. The bottom line is that we are making the insurance market better for everybody and that’s the right thing to do.

Obama’s promises all have an expiration date: the moment they are spoken…or written…like the following Policy Statement, posted shortly after Obama was inaugurated in January of 2009, on  whitehouse .gov:

“Transparency and Open Government”

Memorandum for the Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies

SUBJECT: Transparency and Open Government

My Administration is committed to creating an unprecedented level of openness in Government. We will work together to ensure the public trust and establish a system of transparency, public participation, and collaboration. Openness will strengthen our democracy and promote efficiency and effectiveness in Government.

Government should be transparent. Transparency promotes accountability and provides information for citizens about what their Government is doing. Information maintained by the Federal Government is a national asset. My Administration will take appropriate action, consistent with law and policy, to disclose information rapidly in forms that the public can readily find and use. Executive departments and agencies should harness new technologies to put information about their operations and decisions online and readily available to the public. Executive departments and agencies should also solicit public feedback to identify information of greatest use to the public.

The 44th President of the United States is a serial liar. There is no doubt about it. His entire political career has been based on lies, from the days, as a former classmate has now stated, he attempted to pass himself off as a foreign student in a Hawaiian High School and ,quite possibly, while continuing to claim a foreign birth, all the way through college in order to obtain scholarships and privileges.

But, the lies did not end there. They were just getting started. During his days as a Community Organizer, he used his contacts through his “Social Justice Networking”, like Father Pfleger, the activist priest, and a former American Muslim named Jeremiah Wright, to build up his “street cred”, while networking among the Rich Liberal Movers and Shakers of Chicago.

As he entered the political arena, it was obvious to those watching that he was being grooming, from the moment he kicked off his political campaign in the living room of Bomber Bill Ayers, whom he now refers to as “a guy from the neighborhood”.

The lessons in political shenanigans. which he learned in the backrooms of Chicago, have served him well over the years.  His ability as a Snake Oil Saleman brought him all the way to the White House.

What he did not count on, is the Americans who elected him, and to whom he promised all the free stuff to, actually expect results, because they actually took him at his word.

And, when he promised the American people 29 times that 

…if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor. If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan

…a good number of Americans trusted Obama. Because, after all, he is the President of the United States, and, is always supposed to act in our nation’s best interests, and not his own.

With all of the scandals during his time in office, such as the IRS Scandal, Benghazigate, and now, the Obamacare Disaster, Barack Hussein Obama has decisively proven what a lot of Americans said from the get-go:  He is in over his head and is not to be trusted.

President Barack Hussein Obama, has most assuredly proven the old axiom that, after all is said and done,

A man is only as good as his word.

Until He Comes,

KJ

Election Aftermath: The Tea Party/Reagan Conservatives Vs. Liberals on Both “Sides of the Aisle”

On By kingsjesterIn Politics6 Comments

McCainObamaMay I ask y’all something?  Whose side are the Beltway Republicans on?  You know who I’m talking about.  The I’m smarter-than-you, reach-across-the aisle RINOs, whose go along to get along embracing of Liberalism resulted in the 2006 election of the worst Congress in history and the horrible first two years of this national nightmare called the Obama Presidency.

I’m not just talking about politicians.  I’m also talking about the squishy national so-called Conservative Pundits, whose Conservatism bends to the Left with the prevailing D.C. political winds.

In Tuesday’s Election, the divide between these Vichy Republicans and the Conservative Base of the Republican Party, was made clearly evident, by their unflagging support for New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, RINO Extraordinaire, and their lack of support for Virginia Gubernatorial Republican Candidate, Ken Cuccinelli.

Rush Limbaugh nails it, per usual.

Cuccinelli was supposed to lose this thing in a landslide. He ended up losing it by one to two percent. So it fits the Clinton model to a T. Bagman candidate, third-party candidate that’s a bogus placeholder, to siphon off votes, and it worked like a charm. But the details coming out of Virginia are even more frustrating and maddening than that. Even though they were predicted, it’s still frustrating to see it happen.

And I must tell you, folks, I’ve got audio sound bites here, I’m somewhat surprised, because in a series of these sound bites the Drive-By Media is not all that ecstatic over what happened in Virginia. I mean, they’re not looking at it as a repudiation of the Tea Party ’cause they know that’s not what happened. You know who wants you to think it’s a repudiation of the Tea Party? The GOP establishment. There’s some fascinating numbers here. The Republican National Committee in 2009 in the gubernatorial race there for Bob McDonnell, the Republican National Committee spent three times as much money four years ago on the same race as they did this year.

They spent $1 million. That’s it. One million for Ken Cuccinelli. Their candidate. The Chamber of Commerce spent zero helping Cuccinelli. Cuccinelli begged Chris Christie to come in and campaign for him. Christie said no, he wasn’t gonna do it. The Chamber of Commerce spent a million dollars four years ago in the governor’s race in Virginia, as I say, not a dime on Cuccinelli. And here we go again. Just like Mitt Romney. Cuccinelli won independents by nine points, 47 to 38%.

Now, what have we been told collectively for decades by the media? Well, hell, by the political establishment? That is, “You need to win the independents. You can’t win without the independents.” That’s what they’ve all told us. And that has been part of a trick that the media and the Democrats launched to great success against the Republicans. The theory has always been that the Democrats are gonna get 80%, the Republicans are gonna get 80%, and then there’s that great unwashed in there, that 20%. And every political candidate has been approached by every political consultant and the consultant has said, “I’m the guy that can get you that 20% of the vote. I’m the guy that can get you the independents.” And what that did was make the Republicans abandon their base and campaign, rather than for everybody, the Republicans end up with a centrist, moderate, wimpy, linguine-spined campaign aimed at so-called independents, at 20%.

Cuccinelli didn’t, by the way. But in national elections, the Republicans end up making this move. They get talked into believing that you win the independents and you win. Well, Romney won the independents going away, and he lost, didn’t he? And Cuccinelli won the independents going away. He won independents by nine points, 47 to 38%. And you now know what they’re saying? “Well, the independents are different than the moderates.” Oh, that’s new now. Now that Republicans are running the independents, it isn’t any big deal anymore. No, now you don’t need the independents. Now you gotta go out and win the moderates.

Well, what is a moderate? Tell me, Snerdley, how would you, if somebody asked you to explain to ’em what a moderate is, what would you say? It’s a liberal without the guts to say so. A moderate is one of two things: a liberal that won’t admit it or somebody that waits to see which way the wind’s blowing and joins the crowd. By definition, a moderate isn’t passionate about anything. Can’t be. But now we gotta go after the moderates.

And there’s also another lesson that’s being said here by the Republican establishment. They’re looking at Christie, they’re looking at Cuccinelli, saying, “If Cuccinelli would have just been for amnesty, and if he woulda just moderated on the social issues, who knows, he coulda won. But we couldn’t support him when he didn’t.” It’s just absolutely obscene what’s happened here, if you ask me.

Beltway politicians and Pundits live in a bubble.  They have disassociated themselves from the common people.  The only time the Beltway Elite Republicans seem to pay attention to the wishes of Americans in the Heartland is when we melt the Congressional Phone Lines down and threaten their well-paying jobs. 

That’s why the rise of the Tea Party movement and America’s return to Conservatism, which resulted in the political massacre known as the Midterm Elections, was such a surprise to them.  In their self-imposed isolation, they actually thought that the America people wanted them to continue their deal-making, soul-selling, business-as-usual politics.

Now, Republicans are scrambling, trying to figure out how to appease an angry electorate and keep their cushy jobs, in the face of their mishandling of the catastrophe known as Obamacare and their support in the push for Amnesty for Illegal Aliens.  

Pundits are trying give them all the cover they can, while offering criticism in columns specifically written as to not cost the pundit their place on the Broadcast television networks’ Sunday morning shows or to cause them to be left off the invitation list for all the cool Beltway cocktail parties.

In summation, there is still an us and them mentality in the Beltway, even among the resurgent Republican Party.  If the Republicans don’t legislate as Conservatives, and ignore the message sent to them by American voters on November 2nd, 2010, it won’t matter if the Pundits praise them or criticize them, they will be out of a job.

After all, there is much more to America than just the Beltway.  And there are a lot more American voters than there are ” Severely Conservative” Politicians and Pundits.

The Vichy Republicans remind me of “Blazing Saddles”:

We must protect our phony baloney jobs, gentlemen! Hrumph!

The greatest U.S. President of our Generation, Ronald Wilson Reagan, once said,

Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.

Ted Cruz, Mike Lee, and other “Tea Party Republicans” seem to be willing to do just that.

If the old guard Vichy Republicans care more about their Capitol Hill way of life than their country and their constituents, then it is time for them to get out of the way, and allow Sen. Cruz, and his allies to lead the battle against this corrupt anti-American Administration.

Because, as the old saying goes,

If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem.

Until He Comes,

KJ

Chris Christie: “I’m a Conservative.” (And, I’m a 22 Year Old Blonde Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader Named Buffy.)

On By kingsjesterIn Politics4 Comments

ChristieObamaI’m a conservative. I’ve governed as a conservative in this state, and I think that’s led to some people disagreeing with me in our state, because it’s generally a left-of-center, blue state.

The difference has been is I haven’t tried to hide it, or mask it as something different. – Newly-Re-elected Governor of New Jersey, Chris Christie

After I picked my jaw up off the floor, I realized the immediate and pressing purpose of Gov. Zeppelin’s ludicrous statement: He is on a mission to convince everyone outside of the Northeastern Corridor and the West Coast of the United States, that he’s just like us, here in the Heartland….a good, old-fashioned Reagan Conservative.

The purpose of this deception?

The Republican Establishment wants him to be their Presidential Candidate in 2016.

According to NewRepublic.com, a Liberal Website,

Republicans start out skeptical of his candidacy. He’s at 47 favorable, 30 unfavorable—worse than Romney ever had. That’s presumably because he’s perceived as a pro-Obama, blue state moderate. But unlike Giuliani, he’s actually conservative enough to win the nomination.

Christie checks the crucial boxes of the religious and business wings of the Republican Party. He’s pro-life and he’s against gay marriage. He has solid credentials opposing taxes and attacking unions, which will eventually compliment a reformist, conservative domestic policy agenda. His great acts of moderation are on immigration, where many of the contenders are on the sage page, or on guns, which isn’t anything close to a litmus test—especially in the states Christie is counting on. Maybe Medicaid expansion will be a big issue, but history suggests that Republicans are willing to nominate candidates with deficient conservative credentials, so long as they don’t violate a few sacred rules about abortion and taxes.

It’s surprisingly easy to envision Christie winning the nomination. His conservative credentials are pretty good, so now all he needs to do is get Republicans to remember. That shouldn’t be hard for Christie. His charisma and brass-style will make him an excellent Obama-, union-, and liberal-basher once he wins reelection. It’s easy to envision him cleaning up the debates, like Newt Gingrich before South Carolina. It’s worth recalling that he was once a Tea Party favorite for exactly this reason. Unlike 2008, when Giuliani’s northeastern starting point was interrupted by Romney and McCain, there’s not another northeastern, maverick-y candidate to prevent Christie from doing well in a state like New Hampshire, Michigan, or Florida. If Jeb Bush doesn’t run, there isn’t another candidate better positioned to start locking down endorsements and donors. Electability will help, too.

Christie’s push by the Establishment Republicans and their friends across the aisle, is not unexpected.

It is simply the continuation of a serious effort to redefine Conservatism to mean “wanting a government which promises not to blow all my money, but still provides the handouts from Uncle Sugar, which sustain me, while practicing situational ethics and relative morality. so that I can do what I want do, regardless of how it effects others around me”.

On the internet, these believers express themselves in various terms, which all translate to claiming to be the same thing: Fiscally Conservative, Socially Liberal.

Their common goal is a desire to redefine the definition of Conservatism in order to make them feel better about their non-Conservative, and oft times, downright hedonistic,  social ideology.

You’ll find these same individuals on Internet Chat Boards, complaining about how narrow-minded and statist Reagan Conservatives, like myself, are.

And, God help you if you tell them that there is such a thing as morality and ethics. They will tell you that you”re nothing but a busybody who wants to meddle in people’s private lives  and take away their “freedom”.

They insist that the only way for the Republicans to win anything at all in 2014 and 2016, is to forget the antiquated ideology of Reagan (Social) Conservatism.

You know, that whole God and Country Bit that I always talk about.

Evidently,to these folks, good, old-fashioned American Faith, Values, and Ethics are just that…old-fashioned.

That’s funny. Down here in Mississippi, that is how we live our lives. We love God. We love our country. We love our family and friends…and, we look out for one another.

Mississippi is not the only state like that. All the states in the Heartland of America, share the same Classic American Values and Beliefs

That’s why the President is still out campaigning. He can’t overcome them.

Look at how all of the National Issues which he and all of his ideological forces have been so feverishly trying to ram down our throats, homosexual marriage, amnesty for illegal immigrants, the legalization of marijuana, and gun confiscation, have stalled.

And now, even his Signature Legislation, Obamacare, is in the process of going down in flames.

No matter how much Progressive Propaganda is unleashed upon the American Citizenry, Conservatives in America’s Heartland are standing firm, solid in their beliefs, still “bitterly clinging to their Bibles and guns”.

No matter how many rigged polls  and slanted news stories are thrown at us, we will not be moved.

Concerning those who believe that being a Conservative only hinges on your Fiscal Ideology…

J. Matt Barber wrote in the Washington Times that

Ronald Reagan often spoke of a “three-legged stool” that undergirds true conservatism. The legs are represented by a strong defense, strong free-market economic policies and strong social values. For the stool to remain upright, it must be supported by all three legs. If you snap off even one leg, the stool collapses under its own weight.

A Republican, for instance, who is conservative on social and national defense issues but liberal on fiscal issues is not a Reagan conservative. He is a quasi-conservative socialist.

A Republican who is conservative on fiscal and social issues, but liberal on national defense issues is not a Reagan conservative. He is a quasi-conservative dove.

By the same token, a Republican who is conservative on fiscal and national defense issues but liberal on social issues – such as abortion, so-called gay rights or the Second Amendment – is not a Reagan conservative. He is a socio-liberal libertarian.

Put another way: A Republican who is one part William F. Buckley Jr., one part Oliver North and one part Rachel Maddow is no true conservative. He is – well, I’m not exactly sure what he is, but it ain’t pretty.

At the Forth Annual Conservative Political Action Committee Convention in 1977, Ronald Reagan said,

The principles of conservatism are sound because they are based on what men and women have discovered through experience in not just one generation or a dozen, but in all the combined experience of mankind. When we conservatives say that we know something about political affairs, and that we know can be stated as principles, we are saying that the principles we hold dear are those that have been found, through experience, to be ultimately beneficial for individuals, for families, for communities and for nations — found through the often bitter testing of pain, or sacrifice and sorrow.

One thing that must be made clear in post-Watergate is this: The American new conservative majority we represent is not based on abstract theorizing of the kind that turns off the American people, but on common sense, intelligence, reason, hard work, faith in God, and the guts to say: “Yes, there are things we do strongly believe in, that we are willing to live for, and yes, if necessary, to die for.” That is not “ideological purity.” It is simply what built this country and kept it great.

So, if your stated political ideology is one of those listed above, by not differing from the Democrats in your Social Ideology, and fighting against Reagan Conservatives, in your own Party, like Ted Cruz and Mike Lee, whom you have so derisively named “True Conservatives”, aren’t you being a unwitting dupe for the Democrats?

Even Obama, Pelosi, and Reid claim to be “Fiscally Responsible”.

Not to be rude, but, a one-legged stool is awfully hard to stand on.

And, Moderate Republicans have never won the Presidency.

Remember: Insanity is trying that which has failed, over and over again, one more time, and expecting a different result.

Until He Comes,

KJ

Obama and Obamacare: A Con Man Pulling A Con Job. Lies have Consequences.

On By kingsjesterIn Politics5 Comments

Obama-Shrinks-2Once upon a time, America’s Legendary Showman, P.T. Barnum, was reported to have said,

There is a sucker born every minute.

It was this philosophy that led the 44th President of the United States of America and his slavish minions in a Democrat-controlled Congress to pass the Affordable Care Act in the middle of one cold dark night, against the wishes of the American people.

After a disastrous launch, Obama is now attempting to escape from a suffocating spider’s web of his own  design.

Obama, speaking at an Organizing for America Campaign Event, yesterday, said,

Now, if you have or had one of these plans before the Affordable Care Act came into law and you really liked that plan, what we said was you can keep it if it hasn’t changed since the law passed. So we wrote into the Affordable Care Act, you’re grandfathered in on that plan. But if the insurance company changes it, then what we’re saying is they’ve got to change it to a higher standard. They’ve got to make it better, they’ve got to improve the quality of the plan they are selling. That’s part of the promise that we made too. That’s why we went out of our way to make sure that the law allowed for grandfathering.

If we had allowed these old plans to be downgraded, or sold to new enrollees once the law had already passed, then we would have broken an even more important promise — making sure Americans gain access to health care that doesn’t leave them one illness away from financial ruin. The bottom line is that we are making the insurance market better for everybody and that’s the right thing to do.

On Saturday, August 8, 2009, during his Weekly Address, “The Smartest Guy in the Room” said,

As we draw close to finalizing – and passing – real health insurance reform, the defenders of the status quo and political point-scorers in Washington are growing fiercer in their opposition. In recent days and weeks, some have been using misleading information to defeat what they know is the best chance of reform we have ever had. That is why it is important, especially now, as Senators and Representatives head home and meet with their constituents, for you, the American people, to have all the facts.

So, let me explain what reform will mean for you. And let me start by dispelling the outlandish rumors that reform will promote euthanasia, cut Medicaid, or bring about a government takeover of health care. That’s simply not true. This isn’t about putting government in charge of your health insurance; it’s about putting you in charge of your health insurance. Under the reforms we seek, if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor. If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan.

And while reform is obviously essential for the 46 million Americans who don’t have health insurance, it will also provide more stability and security to the hundreds of millions who do. Right now, we have a system that works well for the insurance industry, but that doesn’t always work well for you. What we need, and what we will have when we pass health insurance reform, are consumer protections to make sure that those who have insurance are treated fairly and that insurance companies are held accountable.

So, the President of the United States of America, lied. And now, he is lying, in a desperate, but futile attempt to cover up that lie.

The fact that Obama only lies when his lips are moving, is not a revelation.

The problem is the irrefutable fact that lies have consequences. And, in the case of Obamacare, the consequences apply to American lives.

In a Sunday Op Ed for The Wall Street Journal, Edie Littlefield Sundy, who is suffering from Stage 4 Gallbladder Cancer, wrote the following,

Everyone now is clamoring about Affordable Care Act winners and losers. I am one of the losers.

My grievance is not political; all my energies are directed to enjoying life and staying alive, and I have no time for politics. For almost seven years I have fought and survived stage-4 gallbladder cancer, with a five-year survival rate of less than 2% after diagnosis. I am a determined fighter and extremely lucky. But this luck may have just run out: My affordable, lifesaving medical insurance policy has been canceled effective Dec. 31.

My choice is to get coverage through the government health exchange and lose access to my cancer doctors, or pay much more for insurance outside the exchange (the quotes average 40% to 50% more) for the privilege of starting over with an unfamiliar insurance company and impaired benefits.

Countless hours searching for non-exchange plans have uncovered nothing that compares well with my existing coverage. But the greatest source of frustration is Covered California, the state’s Affordable Care Act health-insurance exchange and, by some reports, one of the best such exchanges in the country. After four weeks of researching plans on the website, talking directly to government exchange counselors, insurance companies and medical providers, my insurance broker and I are as confused as ever. Time is running out and we still don’t have a clue how to best proceed.

Two things have been essential in my fight to survive stage-4 cancer. The first are doctors and health teams in California and Texas: at the medical center of the University of California, San Diego, and its Moores Cancer Center; Stanford University’s Cancer Institute; and the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.

The second element essential to my fight is a United Healthcare PPO (preferred provider organization) health-insurance policy.

Since March 2007 United Healthcare has paid $1.2 million to help keep me alive, and it has never once questioned any treatment or procedure recommended by my medical team. The company pays a fair price to the doctors and hospitals, on time, and is responsive to the emergency treatment requirements of late-stage cancer. Its caring people in the claims office have been readily available to talk to me and my providers.

But in January, United Healthcare sent me a letter announcing that they were pulling out of the individual California market. The company suggested I look to Covered California starting in October.

You would think it would be simple to find a health-exchange plan that allows me, living in San Diego, to continue to see my primary oncologist at Stanford University and my primary care doctors at the University of California, San Diego. Not so. UCSD has agreed to accept only one Covered California plan—a very restrictive Anthem EPO Plan. EPO stands for exclusive provider organization, which means the plan has a small network of doctors and facilities and no out-of-network coverage (as in a preferred-provider organization plan) except for emergencies. Stanford accepts an Anthem PPO plan but it is not available for purchase in San Diego (only Anthem HMO and EPO plans are available in San Diego).

So if I go with a health-exchange plan, I must choose between Stanford and UCSD. Stanford has kept me alive—but UCSD has provided emergency and local treatment support during wretched periods of this disease, and it is where my primary-care doctors are.

Before the Affordable Care Act, health-insurance policies could not be sold across state lines; now policies sold on the Affordable Care Act exchanges may not be offered across county lines.

What happened to the president’s promise, “You can keep your health plan”? Or to the promise that “You can keep your doctor”? Thanks to the law, I have been forced to give up a world-class health plan. The exchange would force me to give up a world-class physician.

For a cancer patient, medical coverage is a matter of life and death. Take away people’s ability to control their medical-coverage choices and they may die. I guess that’s a highly effective way to control medical costs. Perhaps that’s the point.

The experts are now predicting that 129 million Americans will lose their private Health Insurance Coverage to the ill-conceived National Catastrophe, known as Obamacare.

These Americans will not have the option of “shopping around”. With 68% of private policies expected to be eliminated, and the Obamacare Policies themselves un-affordable, average Americans will be in a no-win situation..

Oh, by the way, if you are over 76, and you get Cancer…pick out your ice floe…because Obama’s “perfect” “Affordable” Care Act is neither…and, you will be denied life-saving coverage under Obamacare.

It was a Con Job from the get-go. Lies told freely, with no conscience or thought of the consequences…the pain and suffering Obamacare would be bringing to American Lives.

Never forget this moment, Americans. It is a time when the United States President is revealing himself to be everything that Conservative Bloggers, like myself, warned you that he was and would be.

God protect us.

Until He Comes,

KJ

Drones…Death By Remote Control: Obama: “I’m Really Good at Killing People.”

On By kingsjesterIn Politics5 Comments

obamakingOn January 20, 2009. newly elected United States President Barack Hussein Obama, said the following,

As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals. Our Founding Fathers, faced with perils we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations. Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience’s sake. And so to all other peoples and governments who are watching today, from the grandest capitals to the small village where my father was born: know that America is a friend of each nation and every man, woman, and child who seeks a future of peace and dignity, and that we are ready to lead once more.

Recall that earlier generations faced down fascism and communism not just with missiles and tanks, but with sturdy alliances and enduring convictions. They understood that our power alone cannot protect us, nor does it entitle us to do as we please. Instead, they knew that our power grows through its prudent use; our security emanates from the justness of our cause, the force of our example, the tempering qualities of humility and restraint.

We are the keepers of this legacy. Guided by these principles once more, we can meet those new threats that demand even greater effort – even greater cooperation and understanding between nations. We will begin to responsibly leave Iraq to its people, and forge a hard-earned peace in Afghanistan. With old friends and former foes,

On January 21, 2013, newly re-elected United States President Barack Hussein Obama, said the following,

We, the people, still believe that enduring security and lasting peace do not require perpetual war. Our brave men and women in uniform, tempered by the flames of battle, are unmatched in skill and courage. Our citizens, seared by the memory of those we have lost, know too well the price that is paid for liberty. The knowledge of their sacrifice will keep us forever vigilant against those who would do us harm. But we are also heirs to those who won the peace and not just the war; who turned sworn enemies into the surest of friends — and we must carry those lessons into this time as well.

We will defend our people and uphold our values through strength of arms and rule of law. We will show the courage to try and resolve our differences with other nations peacefully –- not because we are naïve about the dangers we face, but because engagement can more durably lift suspicion and fear.

On May 29, 2012, The New York Times, in an article about Obama’s Drone Strike Counterterrorism Campaign, titled “Secret ‘Kill List’ Proves a Test of Obama’s Principles and Will”, opined that

Nothing else in Mr. Obama’s first term has baffled liberal supporters and confounded conservative critics alike as his aggressive counterterrorism record. His actions have often remained inscrutable, obscured by awkward secrecy rules, polarized political commentary and the president’s own deep reserve.

In interviews with The New York Times, three dozen of his current and former advisers described Mr. Obama’s evolution since taking on the role, without precedent in presidential history, of personally overseeing the shadow war with Al Qaeda.

They describe a paradoxical leader who shunned the legislative deal-making required to close the detention facility at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba, but approves lethal action without hand-wringing. While he was adamant about narrowing the fight and improving relations with the Muslim world, he has followed the metastasizing enemy into new and dangerous lands. When he applies his lawyering skills to counterterrorism, it is usually to enable, not constrain, his ferocious campaign against Al Qaeda — even when it comes to killing an American cleric in Yemen, a decision that Mr. Obama told colleagues was “an easy one.”

His first term has seen private warnings from top officials about a “Whac-A-Mole” approach to counterterrorism; the invention of a new category of aerial attack following complaints of careless targeting; and presidential acquiescence in a formula for counting civilian deaths that some officials think is skewed to produce low numbers.

Everyone’s concern about Obama’s used of Drone Strikes, has been well-founded.

The local CBS Affiliate, in Washington, DC, reported yesterday, that,

Mark Halperin and John Heilemann’s book “Double Down: Game Change 2012” notes President Obama commenting on drone strikes, reportedly telling his aides that he’s “really good at killing people.”

The quote from the book was first reported in Peter Hamby’s review in the Washington Post.

The White House had not officially commented on the alleged remarks, but senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer dismissed a series of reports from the book, including one that showed Obama campaign officials deciding whether to replace Vice President Joe Biden with Hillary Clinton.

“The president is always frustrated about leaks,” Pfeiffer said on ABC’s “This Week.” “I haven’t talked to him about this book. I haven’t read it. He hasn’t read it. But he hates leaks.”

The Bureau of Investigative Journalism estimates that a total of 2,528-3,648 people have been killed by CIA drone strikes in Pakistan since 2004, and between 416-948 of them being civilians. The group labels 326 of such events as “Obama strikes.”

President Obama has taken considerable criticism for the expansion of the CIA targeted killing program – especially from the man who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009 for “his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.”

FoxNews.com reported on May 14th, 2012,

Unmanned drones could soon be buzzing in the skies above many U.S. cities, as the federal government green-lights the technology for local law enforcement amid widespread privacy concerns.

The Federal Aviation Administration on Monday began to explain the rules of the sky for these newly licensed drones at potentially dozens of sites across the country. The agency, on its website, said that government “entities” will have to obtain a special certificate in order to fly the aircraft, adding that the FAA is “streamlining the process for public agencies to safely fly (drones) in the nation’s airspace.”

In doing so, the government is taking a tool that has become synonymous with U.S. counterterror warfare in countries like Pakistan and Yemen — and putting it in the hands of U.S. law enforcement.

Unlike some of the drones used overseas, these will not be equipped with missiles. They are to be used purely for surveillance. But that alone has raised serious privacy concerns on Capitol Hill and beyond.

How long until these proposed Domestic Drones are also armed?

By lining up all of these stories, I hoped to paint a very dangerous picture…of a United States President, who publicly proclaimed that he rejested “as false the choice between our safety and our ideals”, while in the privacy of the Oval Office, brags about his ability to kill people by remote control, in a scenario like playing a video game, except the target for assassination does not get any “extra lives”.

In 1985, a movie titled “Real Genius” came out. Starring Val Kilmer, the movie concerned a group of child prodigies at a University, who were all given assignments by a Professor, who unbeknownst to them, was working for the Federal Government. These assignments were all parts of a project: a Space Shuttle, equipped with a Conjugate Tracking System, designed to fire a laser from Earth’s orbit, which would vaporize its target, be it a foreign leader, or a domestic troublemaker.

The students, once they figured out what was going on, sabotaged the testing of the firing system, stopping the weapon, before it had a chance to be used.

Back then, everybody thought that movie was pretty far-fetched.

Now, 28 years later, “Death By Remote Control” is a reality.

And, we have a president who says that he’s “really good at it”.

Somehow, I don’t think that is an attribute that his favorite President, Abraham Lincoln, would be proud of.

Until He Comes,

KJ

The War Against Christianity: A Sunday Morning Rebuttal

On By kingsjesterIn Politics5 Comments

American ChristianityAs I sit here on an American Sunday morning, my bride sound asleep, here in the quiet of my stately mansion,presently, a bottom floor two-bedroom apartment on a golf course, I ponder the reaction I received to to yesterday’s post,”America’s Culture War: Of Pedophilia and “Gay” Apparel”.

Of particular interest to me, was an attack I received from a Liberal, who was hanging out on Senator Ted Cruz’s Facebook Page, simply to contribute to the massive effort, by Liberals and the Republican Establishment, to “Palinize” Cruz, a straight-talking Conservative Leader.

This Liberal, or, “Troll”, as one who engages in what he was doing on the Internet  is called, posted numerous quotes, from Thomas Jefferson, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, and anybody else he could think of, in an attempt to prove that America was not founded by Christians, and that our Country’s Founding Documents were not based on Judeo-Christian Principles, so, therefore, Christian Principles  have no place in the governance of the United States of America.

Catching flack for sticking to my Christian American Conservative Principles in nothing new for me.

My posts, concerning American Christianity, seem to “touch a nerve” in both Liberals and Atheists, alike. (But, I repeat myself.)

Their reaction has hardly been unexpected.

Of course, those Liberals and Atheists who responded, over the years, immediately denied that our Founding Fathers were Christians and that our country was founded on a Judeo-Christian belief system.

Evidently, they had never read anything, except what their like-minded, non-believing soothsayers, allowed them to.  Or else, they would have read historical documents like President George Washington’s Thanksgiving Day Proclamation, written on November 1, 1777, and found at wallbuilders.com:

The committee appointed to prepare a recommendation to the several states, to set apart a day of public thanksgiving, brought in a report; which was taken into consideration, and agreed to as follows:

Forasmuch as it is the indispensable duty of all men to adore the superintending providence of Almighty God; to acknowledge with gratitude their obligation to him for benefits received, and to implore such farther blessings as they stand in need of; and it having pleased him in his abundant mercy not only to continue to us the innumerable bounties of his common providence, but also smile upon us in the prosecution of a just and necessary war, for the defense and establishment of our unalienable rights and liberties; particularly in that he hath been pleased in so great a measure to prosper the means used for the support of our troops and to crown our arms with most signal success:

It is therefore recommended to the legislative or executive powers of these United States, to set apart Thursday, the 18th day of December next, for solemn thanksgiving and praise; that with one heart and one voice the good people may express the grateful feelings of their hearts, and consecrate themselves to the service of their divine benefactor; and that together with their sincere acknowledgments and offerings, they may join the penitent confession of their manifold sins, whereby they had forfeited every favor, and their humble and earnest supplication that it may please God, through the merits of Jesus Christ, mercifully to forgive and blot them out of remembrance; that it may please him graciously to afford his blessings on the governments of these states respectively, and prosper the public council of the whole; to inspire our commanders both by land and sea, and all under them, with that wisdom and fortitude which may render them fit instruments, under the providence of Almighty God, to secure for these United States the greatest of all blessings, independence and peace; that it may please him to prosper the trade and manufactures of the people and the labor of the husbandman, that our land may yield its increase; to take schools and seminaries of education, so necessary for cultivating the principles of true liberty, virtue and piety, under his nurturing hand, and to prosper the means of religion for the promotion and enlargement of that kingdom which consisteth in righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.

And it is further recommended, that servile labor, and such recreation as, though at other times innocent, may be unbecoming the purpose of this appointment, be omitted on so solemn an occasion.

One of the first reactions to my posts, by the Liberal/Atheist responders continued to deny Jefferson’s Christianity.

Atheists like to bring up the fact that he wrote a version of the Bible which left out Christ’s miracles.  What they are reluctant to do, though, is explain why he wrote his book that way.  David Barton explains on wallbuilders.com:

The reader [of a newspaper article which Barton is replying to], as do many others, claimed that Jefferson omitted all miraculous events of Jesus from his “Bible.” Rarely do those who make this claim let Jefferson speak for himself. Jefferson’s own words explain that his intent for that book was not for it to be a “Bible,” but rather for it to be a primer for the Indians on the teachings of Christ (which is why Jefferson titled that work, “The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth”). What Jefferson did was to take the “red letter” portions of the New Testament and publish these teachings in order to introduce the Indians to Christian morality. And as President of the United States, Jefferson signed a treaty with the Kaskaskia tribe wherein he provided—at the government’s expense—Christian missionaries to the Indians. In fact, Jefferson himself declared, “I am a real Christian, that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus.” While many might question this claim, the fact remains that Jefferson called himself a Christian, not a deist.

Finally, the Eight Per Centers who replied to my blogs insisted that Crosses and other Chrstian symbols have no place in the Public Square.  They wish for Christians to remain unseen and unheard from, worshiping in private.

Well,  y’all can wish for a unicorn to magically appear in your backyard…but that ain’t gonna happen, either.

As a free nation, all you who are non-believers have every right to exercise your faith.

However, as Orthodox Rabbi Daniel Lapin of the Jewish Policy Center clearly explains:

[I] understand that I live . . . in a Christian nation, albeit one where I can follow my faith as long as it doesn’t conflict with the nation’s principles. The same option is open to all Americans and will be available only as long as this nation’s Christian roots are acknowledged and honored.

…Without a vibrant and vital Christianity, America is doomed, and without America, the west is doomed. Which is why I, an Orthodox Jewish rabbi, devoted to Jewish survival, the Torah, and Israel am so terrified of American Christianity caving in. God help Jews if America ever becomes a post-Christian society! Just think of Europe!

Is the Rabbi prophetic? I pray that he isn’t. 

I have, however, noticed in the last few years, a propensity among those who have not been raised in a Christian home, to be intolerant toward those who have….staring with the individual who sits at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, DC.

Americans’ Christian Faith, of which 78% of us, according to Gallup, still anchor our lives around,has been the Solid Rock upon which our nation was built. To deny that, is to deny reality, to re-write history, and, to, quite frankly, endanger “the Shining City on a Hill”.

As President Ronald Reagan said, 

If we ever forget that we are One Nation Under God, then we will be a nation gone under. 

Until He Comes,

KJ