Obamacare and the FFRF: Intolerance in Action

On July 2, 2012 By kingsjesterIn Christianity, Politics4 Comments

Those oh-so-tolerant individuals of the Freedom From Religion Foundation are at it again. This time they’re down in Dallas:

A new billboard along Interstate 30 is upsetting some Catholics. It urges members to quit the church.

The billboard is part of a national atheist campaign by the Freedom from Religion Foundation. It also says the Roman Catholic Church should put women’s rights over bishops’ wrongs.

It’s a dig at dozens of federal lawsuits by Catholic dioceses including those in Dallas and Fort Worth. They want to do away with an Obama Administration mandate that requires employers, including church-owned institutions like hospitals, to provide employees insurance coverage for birth control, something the church doesn’t believe in.

“I don’t like them imposing their religious beliefs on other people who don’t have those beliefs,” said Terry McDonald with the DFW Coalition of Reason, a local atheist group.

The Dallas Diocese said it has been getting phone calls about the sign located along westbound I-30 near Highway 360.

“It’s all been women who’ve called in to say they were offended and upset by the billboard,” said Annette Gonzales Taylor with the Catholic Diocese of Dallas.

The diocese believes the Freedom from Religion Foundation is in the wrong lane.

“We’re very offended that an entity that has no knowledge or understanding of the church would erect a billboard of this nature,” Gonzales Taylor said. “The issue is truly about religious liberty and protecting the church’s right to adhere to our faith principals.”

McDonald questioned that response.

“When you read that there’s a high percentage of Catholic women who use birth control, I wonder who’s complaining,” he said.

Last week, the FFRF released a 30 second spot featuring Julia Sweeney. A humanist named Mriana wrote the following for GodDiscussion.com:

This week the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) released an ad featuring Julia Sweeney, which they call “great experiment to storm the “Bishops’ Bastille”” countering the Catholic bishops’ war on contraception. This ad is part of their “Stand Up for Religious Freedom” and “Quit the Catholic Church” campaigns.

The 30-second spot, according to the FFRF, received various responses thus far and it will run 1200 times during a two-week period.

We’re getting a lot of phone calls at the FFRF office in response. Some callers are giving our female receptionists a hard time, making unprintable comments. But others are our kind of folks, such as a grandmother in Pennsylvania who said she was raised Catholic but is “98 percent atheist,” and is disgusted by the Catholic Church’s attempt, as she put it, to “put canon law over civil law.”

A kind man living in a remote area of North Carolina caught us on MSNBC’s Hardball With Chris Matthews. Another North Carolinian called after seeing Julia’s spot on a rerun of the The Daily Show and said people have forgotten the need for a strict separation between state and church. I couldn’t help replying: “It might sound strange for an atheist to say this, but hallelujah, brother.” He laughed and said, “Amen, sister.”

FFRF’s Facebook page received 500 new likes over the weekend, but request that people join them if they really like them.

The FFRF lists the various shows that will feature the ad through July 4, and updates the page frequently. The FFRF listed the times the ad will air as expected times for when the ad will air and listed as Eastern Time on a 24-hour clock and they are guaranteed over 42 million viewers.

In the ad, Julia says:

“Hi, I’m Julia Sweeney, and I’m a cultural Catholic. I am no longer a believer and I even wrote a play about it called “Letting Go of God.” But I wanted to let you know that right now Catholic Bishops are framing their opposition to contraceptive coverage as a religious freedom issue. But the real threat to freedom is the Bishops, who want to be free to force their dogma on people who don’t want it. Please join the Freedom From Religion Foundation and help keep church and state separate. [FFRF’s name, toll-free number and website are displayed throughout the ad.]

Actually the Freedom From Religion Foundation and the Obama Administration have a lot in common. The Administration doesn’t seem to care for Christians, in general, and Catholicism, in particular, much either.

Catholic.org reports that

Obamacare compels Catholics to participate in anti-life activities, no matter how much they are opposed to it. Not only is this evil, but it is coercive and tramples upon our God-given, First Amendment protected, right to freedom of religion and conscience.

How does this happen?

Obamacare considers contraceptives, sterilizations, abortifacients, and abortion as “preventative services” under its definition of “health care”. The underlying presumption is that pregnancy is a disease. When people pay into the Obamcare scheme, whether as taxpayers or through their insurance, their dollars will be used to finance these procedures, some of which must be provided for free to all women. The people have no choice – the individual mandate means everyone pays.

It is ironic that a national federalized healthcare plan would make anti-life procedures absolutely free while still requiring people to pay out-of-pocket for lifesaving procedures and medications.

Worse, there is no means to allow supposedly free people to opt out of paying into such plans. Now, even your parish priest must pay for insurance or pay a penalty that will one way or another go into a system that uses his money to fund anti-life procedures.

Of course the Bishops of the Catholic church have raised this point on behalf of all Catholics, other Christians and people of good will, but the Obama administration has ignored their pleas.

Per Gallup, 78% of Americans proclaim their Christianity, 92% believe in God, and Liberals are the smallest political ideology in the nation, consisting of only 21%, compared to 40% for Conservatives and 35% for Moderates.

So, once again, what we are experiencing is the “Tyranny of the Minority”.

I thought Liberals were supposed to be the tolerant ones?

The Gospel According to Moochelle

On July 1, 2012 By kingsjesterIn Christianity, Politics4 Comments

Michelle Obama visited the Volunteer State last week and spoke in a church in Nashville.

ABC News has the story:

First lady Michelle Obama Thursday offered a rare public reflection on her religious faith, telling a conference of the African Methodist Episcopal church that the life of Jesus Christ is a model for democratic organizing.

“It’s kind of like church,” Obama said. “Our faith journey isn’t just about showing up on Sunday for a good sermon and good music and a good meal. It’s about what we do Monday through Saturday as well, especially in those quiet moments, when the spotlight’s not on us, and we’re making those daily choices about how to live our lives.

“We see that in the life of Jesus Christ. Jesus didn’t limit his ministry to the four walls of the church,” she said. “He was out there fighting injustice and speaking truth to power every single day. He was out there spreading a message of grace and redemption to the least, the last, and the lost. And our charge is to find Him everywhere, every day by how we live our lives.”

Obama, who is not a regular churchgoer, said citizenship like the practice of faith is “not a once-a-week kind of deal.”

“Democracy is also an everyday activity,” she said. “And being an engaged citizen should once again be a daily part of our lives.”

The first lady said such engagement involved “the tireless, the thankless, relentless work of making change, you know, the phone-calling, letter-writing, door-knocking, meeting-planning kind of work.”

Her appearance at the Gaylord Opryland Resort in Nashville, Tenn., was dubbed an official event by the White House to recognize the history and legacy of the AME church, particularly its role in the civil rights movement.

“Time and again, history has shown us that there is nothing – nothing – more powerful than ordinary citizens coming together for a just cause,” Obama said. “And that is particularly true of folks in the AME church.”

The first lady concluded her trip to Tennessee with a campaign fundraiser in Memphis.

Where she probably devoured 4 racks of ribs.

For 20 years Michelle and her husband, ol’ what’s-his-name (I just call him “Scooter”)’ attended Trinity Church, where they sat in the pews and listened to former American Muslim, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, espouse the tenets of Black Liberation Theology.

The rest, you already know. As a reminder, though, Discoverthenetworks.org gives us the following summation of Reverend Jeremiah Wright:

Longtime pastor and spiritual mentor of Barack Obama

Considers the U.S. to be a nation rife with racism and discrimination

Blames American racism for provoking the 9/11 attacks

“Islam and Christianity are a whole lot closer than you may realize,” he has written. “Islam comes out of Christianity.”

Embraces liberation theology and socialism

Strong supporter of Louis Farrakhan

Likens Israel’s treatment of Palestinians to South Africa’s treatment of blacks during the apartheid era

But, what is Black Liberation Theology?

Again, discoverthenetworks.org gives us the lowdown:

The chief architect of black liberation theology was James Cone, author of Black Theology and Black Power. One of the tasks of this movement, according to Cone, is to analyze the nature of the gospel of Jesus Christ in light of the experience of blacks who have long been victimized by white oppressors. According to black liberation theology, the inherent racism of white people precludes them from being able to recognize the humanity of nonwhites; moreover, their white supremacist orientation allegedly results in the establishment of a “white theology” that is irrevocably disconnected from the black experience. Consequently, liberation theologians contend that blacks need their own, race-specific theology to affirm their identity and their worth.

“What we need,” says Cone, “is the divine love as expressed in Black Power, which is the power of Black people to destroy their oppressors here and now by any means at their disposal. Unless God is participating in this holy activity, we must reject his love.” Observing that America was founded for white people, Cone calls for “the destruction of whiteness, which is the source of human misery in the world.” He advocates the use of Marxism as a tool of social analysis to help Christians to see “how things really are.”

Another prominent exponent of black liberation theology is the Ivy League professor Cornel West, who calls for “a serious dialogue between Black theologians and Marxist thinkers” — a dialogue that centers on the possibility of “mutually arrived-at political action.”

In 2008 Senator Barack Obama named West to his presidential campaign’s Black Advisory Council. West is a great admirer of Obama’s former pastor and longtime spiritual mentor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

In March 2010, West spoke at a Young Democratic Socialists of America conference entitled “Real Change for a Change,” which was billed as a “snapshot of the current socialist movement in the United States.” During his lengthy address, West declared that “socialism has a future.” He added: “We are at a very crucial historical moment. My dear friend [President] Barack Obama, he needs help. He needs deep help. He needs pressure. Organized, mobilized pressure.” Exhorting the crowd not to rely on “messiahs” or “leaders” to lead the way toward America’s transformation into a socialist country, West said the responsibility for that task “falls onto us.”

In August 2011, during which time violent riots were taking place in Britain, West warned that similar unrest was likely to strike in the U.S.

“If you don’t treat poor and working people with dignity now, chickens are going to come home to roost later. And it won’t be about love and justice. It will be about revenge, hatred, and then we all go under.”

In October 2011, West said the following about Herman Cain, a black conservative who was seeking the Republican Party’s presidential nomination, and who had said that racism was no longer an impediment to success for African Americans: “I think he needs to get off the symbolic crack pipe and acknowledge that the evidence [of racism] is overwhelming.’’

West is a co-chair of the Network of Spiritual Progressives, along with Michael Lerner (the group’s founder) and Joan Chittister.

So, basically, ignorance of the Gospel of Jesus Christ notwithstanding, First Lady Michelle Obama got one thing right last week in Nashville.

It is what we do Monday through Saturday.

And, if you believe that Jesus preached socialism, revolution (a la Che Guevara) and racial division, you don’t know my Savior.

And, I feel sorry for you.

Time for a Tea Party

On June 30, 2012 By kingsjesterIn Politics4 Comments

Now that we’re a couple of days removed from the advent of the biggest tax increase in our nation’s history, I sit here still turning Chief Justice Roberts’ ruling over in my feeble mind.

If you hang out on a certain Conservative website, as I do, you probably noticed an influx of Liberals, Paulnuts, and “Fiscal Conservatives” (i.e. Moderates), since ObamaTax was declared Constitutional.

While the presence of these postulating posters is nothing unique, their reaction certainly has been.

Allow me to elucidate.

The Paulnuts believe that not only was Robert’s ruling Unconstitutional, but every other American is stupid, we should all be smoking dope (like they seem to be), and Dr. Paul is still going to win the nomination.

And, that’s the intelligent ones.

The “Fiscal Conservatives” (i.e. Moderates, or Liberals in hiding) seem to believe that Roberts made a brilliant decision and he was playing 67th dimensional chess…or something. Also, we need to cut our Defense Budget to make up for ObamaTax, and just wait for Robert’s masterful plan to kick in, because, after all, the Tea Party is sooo gauche, aren’t they?

I’ve noticed that these posters tend to believe that they are smarter than Conservatives and are quite enamored with themselves over their unique point-of-view.

Well, geniuses, being unique is one thing. Being a eunuch is another thing, entirely.

And finally, there are the Liberals.

Why a Liberal would want to hang out on a site founded by a Reagan Conservative is a question that has always bothered me. Are they masocists by nature? But…I digress.

The Libs on this site were strangely subdued. Yeah, they seemed happy enough, but not out-of-control-go-ride-their-unicorn happy.

Even the Libs in Washington seemed subdued.

Yeah, San Fran Nan threw a par-tay, but, with this sort of victory, I expected her to go streaking around the Washington Monument.

Try getting that image out of your head now. I dare ya.

It’s almost like they know that now, they’ve got to convince their brain-dead sycophants that it’s not a tax.

As he oft-times seems to do, Rush Limbaugh spoke what I was thinking about this bizarre situation during his program yesterday:

Okay, folks. I now know what happened yesterday. I’ve had time to dig into this. Time that I did not have prior to yesterday’s program and did not have during the program. And I can’t tell you how sick I am. I am literally sick over what happened yesterday. I don’t know how else to describe it. Literally sick. …

A giant total fraud was perpetrated on this country yesterday. The Supreme Court as an institution is forever tarnished. There are now no limits anywhere on the size, scope, the growth of government. We were the victims of a purposeful, intentional fraud yesterday. There is no way, were anybody in Washington concerned about the Constitution, there is no way Obamacare gets anywhere close to being law in this country. There is no way it even approaches constitutionality. And the chief justice of the US Supreme Court knew that. He felt it was his duty, however, to save the legislation.I don’t even care about motivation. I don’t care if it’s because he wants the New York Times and Washington Post in love with him. I don’t care if he wants to be the next John Marshall. I don’t care. All I know is that we were defrauded in front of our eyes, wide open. We were taunted, defrauded, mocked, laughed at. I guess 5-4 court decisions are perfectly fine now. Oh yeah, hey, we’ll take whatever we can get, we’ll take it however we can get it. Even if they have to invent law, even if they have to rewrite a statute that was so poorly written, it wouldn’t have gotten past a first grader who understood the Constitution.

Folks, having now learned what happened, and by the way, I can’t take much more reading the faint praise for Justice Roberts. There are a lot of conservatives who are trying to find some comfort in all of this by pointing out that justice Roberts ruled that the Commerce Clause isn’t a catchall that justifies anything Congress wants to do. “Hey, Rush, we got to look at what we won here.” I understand that theory. You do want to try to take the best of things that you can. But this is theft! Theft of liberty and freedom right in front of our eyes. Okay. So the Commerce Clause has been limited, so? Now we get to pay a tax for something we don’t do. But it’s worse than that. It really is akin to going into a 7-Eleven, and saying to the clerk, “No, I really don’t want to buy any gum.”

“Well, okay, tax on that is $2.35.”

That’s what’s happened here. I see all these people running around now thinking they’ve got free health care, and for the next year-and-a-half that’s what it’s gonna look like. Michelle Obama, “Guess what, contraception is now free.” She’s got a list of all the things that are free. AP has a list of all the things that are free for everybody. What happened here basically is that Justice Roberts stretched the limits to avoid being accused of activism. He wanted to avoid being accused of activism. Activism, in this case, would have been finding the law as it is unconstitutional. So he succumbed to fear that doing that, upholding the Constitution, would have resulted in him being accused of activism. So what he did, he stretched the limits to avoid being accused of activism, and in the process, he became more activist than any justice in recent memory.

In other words, Roberts said to America,

My name’s Bennett and I ain’t in it. Here’s the book. Here’s the phone. See ya later. You’re on your own.

That’s fine, Mr. Chief Justice. As I wrote yesterday, our weapons will be our ballots. November 6th will be OUR time. See ya at the polls.

Et Tu, Roberts?

On June 28, 2012 By kingsjesterIn Politics5 Comments

Like the overwhelming majority of Americans, I, too, am fighting disappointment and rage at the seeming betrayal of Supreme Court Justice John Roberts, even though, at the same time, I realize that God is in control.

As I was turning this unthinkable debacle over and over again in my mind, I came up with two famous quotes:

Script of Act III Julius Caesar/The play by William Shakespeare

CINNA

O Caesar,–

CAESAR

Hence! wilt thou lift up Olympus?

DECIUS BRUTUS

Great Caesar,–

CAESAR

Doth not Brutus bootless kneel?

CASCA

Speak, hands for me!

CASCA first, then the other Conspirators and BRUTUS stab CAESAR

CAESAR

Et tu, Brute! Then fall, Caesar.

Dies

CINNA

Liberty! Freedom! Tyranny is dead!

Run hence, proclaim, cry it about the streets.

CASSIUS

Some to the common pulpits, and cry out

‘Liberty, freedom, and enfranchisement!’

BRUTUS

People and senators, be not affrighted;

Fly not; stand stiff: ambition’s debt is paid.

Americans know today just how ol’ Julie felt.

The second quote is rather long. But, it summarizes the way I feel about the situation we are in as a nation.

I thought about this moment in history…so very long ago…

To avoid interference from Lieutenant-Governor Dunmore and his Royal Marines, the Second Virginia Convention met March 20, 1775 inland at Richmond–in what is now called St. John’s Church–instead of the Capitol in Williamsburg. Delegate Patrick Henry presented resolutions to raise a militia, and to put Virginia in a posture of defense. Henry’s opponents urged caution and patience until the crown replied to Congress’ latest petition for reconciliation.

On the 23rd, Henry presented a proposal to organize a volunteer company of cavalry or infantry in every Virginia county. By custom, Henry addressed himself to the Convention’s president, Peyton Randolph of Williamsburg. Henry’s words were not transcribed, but no one who heard them forgot their eloquence, or Henry’s closing words: “Give me liberty, or give me death!”

…And what have we to oppose to them? Shall we try argument? Sir, we have been trying that for the last ten years. Have we anything new to offer upon the subject? Nothing. We have held the subject up in every light of which it is capable; but it has been all in vain. Shall we resort to entreaty and humble supplication? What terms shall we find which have not been already exhausted? Let us not, I beseech you, sir, deceive ourselves. Sir, we have done everything that could be done to avert the storm which is now coming on. We have petitioned; we have remonstrated; we have supplicated; we have prostrated ourselves before the throne, and have implored its interposition to arrest the tyrannical hands of the ministry and Parliament. Our petitions have been slighted; our remonstrances have produced additional violence and insult; our supplications have been disregarded; and we have been spurned, with contempt, from the foot of the throne! In vain, after these things, may we indulge the fond hope of peace and reconciliation. There is no longer any room for hope. If we wish to be free– if we mean to preserve inviolate those inestimable privileges for which we have been so long contending–if we mean not basely to abandon the noble struggle in which we have been so long engaged, and which we have pledged ourselves never to abandon until the glorious object of our contest shall be obtained–we must fight! I repeat it, sir, we must fight! An appeal to arms and to the God of hosts is all that is left us!

They tell us, sir, that we are weak; unable to cope with so formidable an adversary. But when shall we be stronger? Will it be the next week, or the next year? Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and when a British guard shall be stationed in every house? Shall we gather strength by irresolution and inaction? Shall we acquire the means of effectual resistance by lying supinely on our backs and hugging the delusive phantom of hope, until our enemies shall have bound us hand and foot? Sir, we are not weak if we make a proper use of those means which the God of nature hath placed in our power. The millions of people, armed in the holy cause of liberty, and in such a country as that which we possess, are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us. Besides, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone. There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations, and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us. The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. Besides, sir, we have no election. If we were base enough to desire it, it is now too late to retire from the contest. There is no retreat but in submission and slavery! Our chains are forged! Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston! The war is inevitable–and let it come! I repeat it, sir, let it come.

It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace– but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!

OUR Revolution will be a peaceful one. Our weapons will be our ballots. The outcome will be the same: Freedom from those who would rule our lives.

November 6th, Americans will once again fire the shot heard ’round the world.

Obamacare: Today’s the Day

On June 28, 2012 By kingsjesterIn Politics2 Comments

[On October 8, 2010, I wrote the following article on Obamacare. This is why this morning’s ruling by the Supreme Court is so important. The ruling this morning is about FREEDOM.]

President Barack Hussein Obama (mm mmm mmmm) appeared on CBS’ 60 Minutes last night. During an interview with Steve Kroft, Scooter said that the political cost of overhauling the health care system turned out to be higher than he had expected.

Did he expect Americans to just shut up and take it?

He went on to say that the health care system itself is huge and complicated and that changing it eluded previous presidents because it was so difficult.

But he plowed right on through with it…because he’s special…and a socialist ideologue:

I made the decision to go ahead and do it, and it proved as costly politically as we expected — probably actually a little more costly than we expected, politically.

Obama went on to say, probably sarcastically, that he thought that he would find common ground with Republicans by advancing health care proposals that had been introduced by Republican administrations as well as potential presidential candidate Mitt Romney when he was governor of Massachusetts:

I bet ol’ Mittens was squirming in his recliner at the house when Scooter said that.

Obama said:

I couldn’t get the kind of cooperation from Republicans that I had hoped for. And that was costly, partly because it created the kind of partisanship and bickering that really turn people off.

So, what it is that everyone has been bickering about? Here is a brief overview of the timeline for the implementation of Obamacare, from a pdf prepared by the House Ways and Means and Energy and Commerce Committees on April 2, 2010.

2010

Immediate Access to Insurance for Uninsured Individuals with a Pre-Existing Condition.
Eliminating Pre-Existing Condition Exclusions for Children.
Prohibiting Rescissions. Prohibits abusive practices whereby health plans rescind existing health insurance policies when a person gets sick as a way of avoiding covering the costs of enrollees’ health care needs.
Covering Preventive Health Services. All new group health plans and plans in the individual market must provide first dollar coverage for preventive services.
Extending Dependent Coverage. Requires all plans in the individual market and new employer plans that provide dependent coverage for children to continue to make that coverage available up to age 26
Reducing the Cost of Covering Early Retirees. Creates a new temporary reinsurance program for health benefits for retirees age 55-64.
New, Independent Appeals Process.
Improving Consumer Assistance.
Improving Consumer Information through the Web. Requires the Secretary of HHS to establish an Internet website through which residents of any State may identify affordable health insurance coverage options in that State.
Cracking Down on Health Care Fraud. Requires enhanced screening procedures for health care providers to eliminate fraud and waste in the health care system.
Rebates for the Part D “Donut Hole”. Provides a $250 rebate for all Part D enrollees who enter the donut hole.
Improving Public Health Prevention Efforts. Creates an interagency council to promote healthy policies at the federal level.
Strengthening the Quality Infrastructure.
Extending Payment Protections for Rural Providers.
Establishing a Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute. Establishes a private, non-profit institute.
Ensuring Medicaid Flexibility for States.
Non-Profit Hospitals. Establishes new requirements applicable to nonprofit hospitals beginning in 2010, including periodic community needs assessments.
Encouraging Investment in New Therapies.
Tax Relief for Health Professionals with State Loan Repayment.
Excluding from Income Health Benefits Provided by Indian Tribal Governments.
Establishing a National Health Care Workforce Commission. Establishes an independent National Commission to provide comprehensive, nonbiased information and recommendations to Congress and the Administration for aligning federal health care workforce resources with national needs.
Strengthening the Health Care Workforce. Expands and improves low-interest student loan programs, scholarships, and loan repayments for health students and professionals to increase and enhance the capacity of the workforce to meet patients’ health care needs.
Special Deduction for Blue Cross Blue Shield (BCBS).
Indoor Tanning Services Tax. There are a lot of torqued-off women out there.
Holding Insurance Companies Accountable for Unreasonable Rate Hikes.

2011

Bringing Down the Cost of Health Care Coverage.
Strengthening Community Health Centers and the Primary Care Workforce.
Increasing Reimbursement for Primary Care.
Increasing Training Support for Primary Care.
Improving Health Care Quality and Efficiency. Establishes a new Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation to test innovative payment and service delivery models to reduce health care costs and enhance the quality of care provided to individuals.
Improving Preventive Health Coverage.
Improving Transitional Care for Medicare Beneficiaries.
Expanding Primary Care, Nursing, and Public Health Workforce.
Increasing Access to Home and Community Based Services.
Reporting Health Coverage Costs on Form W-2: Requires employers to disclose the value of the benefit provided by the employer for each employee’s health insurance coverage on the employee’s annual Form W-2.
Standardizing the Definition of Qualified Medical Expenses. Conforms the definition of qualified medical expenses for HSAs, FSAs, and HRAs to the definition used for the itemized deduction. An exception to this rule is included so that amounts paid for over-the-counter medicine with a prescription still qualify as medical expenses.
Increased Additional Tax for Withdrawals from Health Savings Accounts and Archer Medical Savings Account Funds for Non-Qualified Medical Expenses.
Cafeteria Plan Changes.

2012

Encouraging Integrated Health Systems.
Linking Payment to Quality Outcomes.
Reducing Avoidable Hospital Readmissions. Directs CMS to track hospital readmission rates for certain high-volume or high-cost conditions and uses new financial incentives to encourage hospitals to undertake reforms needed to reduce preventable readmissions, which will improve care for beneficiaries and rein in unnecessary health care spending. Can you say “here come the Death Panels”?

2013

Payments to Primary Care Physicians. Requires that Medicaid payment rates to primary care physicians for furnishing primary care services be no less than 100% of Medicare payment rates in 2013 and 2014.
Administrative Simplification. Health plans must adopt and implement uniform standards and business rules for the electronic exchange of health information to reduce paperwork and administrative burdens and costs.
Encouraging Provider Collaboration. Establishes a national pilot program on payment bundling
Limiting Health Flexible Savings Account Contributions.
Increased Threshold for Claiming Itemized Deduction for Medical Expenses.
Medical device excise tax. Establishes a 2.3 percent excise tax on the sale of a medical device by a manufacturer or importer.
Limiting Executive Compensation.
Fee for patient-centered outcomes research.

2014

Reforming Health Insurance Regulations.
Eliminating Annual Limits.
Ensuring Coverage for Individuals Participating in Clinical Trials.
Establishing Health Insurance Exchanges. Opens health insurance Exchanges in each State to individuals and small employers. This new venue will enable people to comparison shop for standardized health packages. Local hack politicians are lining up for jobs right now.
Providing Health Care Tax Credits. E
Ensuring Choice through Free Choice Vouchers.
Promoting Individual Responsibility.
Small Business Tax Credit.
Quality Reporting for Certain Providers.
Health Insurance Provider Fee. Imposes an annual, non-deductible fee on the health insurance sector allocated across the industry according to market share.

2015

Continuing Innovation and Lower Health Costs. Establishes an Independent Payment Advisory Board to develop and submit proposals to Congress and the private sector aimed at extending the solvency of Medicare, lowering health care costs, improving health outcomes for patients, promoting quality and efficiency, and expanding access to evidence-based care.
Paying Physicians Based on Value Not Volume. Creates a physician value-based payment program to promote increased quality of care for Medicare beneficiaries.

2018

Excise tax on high cost employer-provided health plans becomes effective. Tax is on the cost of coverage in excess of $27,500 (family coverage) and $10,200 (single coverage), increased to $30,950 (family) and $11,850 (single) for retirees and employees in high risk professions.

Gosh, Mr. President, I can see why you can’t understand why the never-ending spider’s web of new government bureaucracies and excessive taxation that you and your Democrat minions in Congress rammed down our throats and gloated about has been met with such resistance. After all, you did it for our own good, didn’t you?…Regardless of the fact that Government-run Healthcare has been a miserable failure wherever it has been tried.

Is Obama sorry that he stuffed this turkey of a bill down Americans’ throats at the cost of the 2010 Midterms? I doubt it. He said last night:

But I think that in terms of how I operated on a day-to-day basis, when you’ve got a series of choices to make — I think that there are times where we said let’s just get it done instead of worrying about how we’re getting it done. And I think that’s a problem. I’m paying a political price for that.

Gosh, Scooter. Ya think?

[Regardless of the way SCOTUS rules this morning, we can not allow the legislative monster known as Obamacare to continue to live and suck the life out of the greatest nation on Earth.

When we elect Mitt Romney as President, with a Conservative House and Congress to back him, there will be no more excuses. If Obamacare doesn’t not die today, it must be de-funded.]

Carter Slams Obama…Pot Meet Kettle

On June 27, 2012 By kingsjesterIn Politics3 Comments

Are you old enough to remember the Carter Presidency?

Remember the Iranian Hostage Crisis? I sure do.

I was a Radio News Director in college and I spent over one hundred days pronouncing the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s name over and over again.

For those who don’t remember, time to travel on the Wayback Machine, Sherman!

By the 1970s, many Iranians were fed up with the Shah’s government. In protest, they turned to the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, a radical cleric whose revolutionary Islamist movement seemed to promise a break from the past and a turn toward greater autonomy for the Iranian people. In July 1979, the revolutionaries forced the Shah to disband his government and flee to Egypt. The Ayatollah installed a militant Islamist government in its place.

The United States, fearful of stirring up hostilities in the Middle East, did not come to the defense of its old ally. (For one thing, President Carter, aware of the Shah’s terrible record in that department, was reluctant to defend him.) However, in October 1979 President Carter agreed to allow the exiled leader to enter the U.S. for treatment of an advanced malignant lymphoma. His decision was humanitarian, not political; nevertheless, as one American later noted, it was like throwing “a burning branch into a bucket of kerosene.” Anti-American sentiment in Iran exploded.

On November 4, just after the Shah arrived in New York, a group of pro-Ayatollah students smashed the gates and scaled the walls of the American embassy in Tehran. Once inside, they seized 66 hostages, mostly diplomats and embassy employees. After a short period of time, 13 of these hostages were released. (For the most part, these 13 were women, African-Americans and citizens of countries other than the U.S.–people who, Khomeini argued, were already subject to “the oppression of American society.”) Some time later, a 14th hostage developed health problems and was likewise sent home. By midsummer 1980, 52 hostages remained in the embassy compound.

Diplomatic maneuvers had no discernible effect on the Ayatollah’s anti-American stance; neither did economic sanctions such as the seizure of Iranian assets in the United States. Meanwhile, while the hostages were never seriously injured, they were subjected to a rich variety of demeaning and terrifying treatment. They were blindfolded and paraded in front of TV cameras and jeering crowds. They were not allowed to speak or read, and they were rarely permitted to change clothes. Throughout the crisis there was a frightening uncertainty about their fate: The hostages never knew whether they were going to be tortured, murdered or set free.

The Iran Hostage Crisis: Operation Eagle Claw

President Carter’s efforts to bring an end to the hostage crisis soon became one of his foremost priorities. In April 1980, frustrated with the slow pace of diplomacy (and over the objections of several of his advisers), Carter decided to launch a risky military rescue mission known as Operation Eagle Claw. The operation was supposed to send an elite rescue team into the embassy compound. However, a severe desert sandstorm on the day of the mission caused several helicopters to malfunction, including one that veered into a large transport plane during takeoff. Eight American servicemen were killed in the accident, and Operation Eagle Claw was aborted.

Of course, we all know what happened next: the greatest president of our generation, Ronald Reagan, succeeded where Carter failed…in all sorts of ways.

Back to the present…

The president who was formerly considered the most inept ever, has fallen out of love with the man who usurped his title.

Former president Jimmy Carter has blasted the United States for anti-terror strategies such as targeting individuals for assassination and using unmanned drones to bomb suspected targets, saying they directly flout the basic tenets of universal human rights and foment anti-US sentiment.

In an article written for the New York Times headlined “A Cruel and Unusual Record”, Mr Carter, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for his work trying to resolve conflicts around the globe, suggested that the US is in violation of 10 of the 30 articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It is a rare attack by a former commander-in-chief on a sitting President – especially of the same party.

While Mr Carter does not name President Obama, there is little disguising that he is the principle target of his stinging words. Recent weeks have seen a slew of media reports detailing how Mr Obama has grown increasingly dependent on drones to take out suspected terror cells and describing how he has the final word to approve names on a “hit-list” of most-wanted terror suspects overseas for assassination. “Revelations that top officials are targeting people to be assassinated, including American citizens, are only the most recent, disturbing proof of how far our nation’s violation of human rights has extended,” Mr Carter wrote, concluding that the US is “abandoning its role as the global champion of human rights”.

In the past, Mr Carter, 87, has meted out similar criticisms, most notably George W Bush. This latest assault is embarrassing for Mr Obama as it will serve as a reminder that he specifically pledged to adjust America’s posture in the war on terror. He began by banning interrogation techniques he considered to be torture, such as water-boarding, and by closing down Guantanamo Bay. On the latter, of course, he has failed to deliver.

It is poignant, moreover, that both men are Peace Prize winners. Critics believe Mr Obama has proved himself unworthy of the honour which he received soon after taking office. His supporters believe however that he has pre-empted criticism of his foreign policy performance. Under his watch, Osama bin Laden has been killed and much of the top echelons of al-Qa’ida have been gutted.

Yeah…Scooter hit him with his 5-Iron.

Hopefully, after January 21, 2013, Scooter will have plenty of time to work on his golf game.

Thursday, 6/28/12: This Could Be the Start of Something Great

On June 26, 2012 By kingsjesterIn Politics7 Comments

Well, as everybody knows, (even Harvard graduates) this Thursday is shaping up to be Bad Day at Black Rock for President Barack Hussein Obama (mm mmm mmmm).

Not only is the Supreme Court of the United States going to deliver its ruling on the Socialist Healthcare Plan known as Obamacare, but this nation’s House of Representatives are going to hold a vote as to whether to hold United States Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress for his obfuscation of his role in Operation Fast and Furious, the sanctioned mission by the Obama Administration that wound up causing the deaths of over 200 Mexican nationals and 2 American Law Enforcement Officers.

How did America get to this point?

In the case of Obamacare…

The nation’s highest court heard three days of politically charged hearings in March on the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, a landmark but controversial measure passed by congressional Democrats despite pitched Republican opposition.

The challenge focused primarily on the law’s requirement that most Americans buy health insurance or pay a fine.

How SCOTUS rulings could shape 2012 race Bachmann: Obama not talking health care

Supporters of the plan argued the “individual mandate” is necessary for the system to work, while critics argued it is an unconstitutional intrusion on individual freedom.

All sides preparing for political fallout from health care decision

Four different federal appeals courts heard challenges to parts of the law before the Supreme Court ruling, and came up with three different results.

Courts in Cincinnati and Washington voted to uphold the law, while the appeals court in Atlanta struck down the individual mandate.

A fourth panel, in Richmond, Virginia, put its decision off until penalties for failing to buy health insurance take effect in 2014.

The polarizing law, dubbed “Obamacare” by many, is the signature legislation of Obama’s time in office.

After a lengthy and heated debate marked by intense opposition from the health insurance industry and conservative groups, the law passed Congress along strictly partisan lines in March 2010.

When Obama signed the legislation later that month, he called it historic said it marked a “new season in America.”

While it was not the comprehensive national health care system liberals initially sought, supporters said the law would reduce health care costs, expand coverage and protect consumers.

The law establishes a staged series of reforms over several years, including banning insurance companies from denying coverage to people with pre-existing conditions, forbidding insurers from setting a dollar limit on health coverage payouts, and requiring them to cover preventative care at no additional cost to consumers.

It also required individuals to buy health insurance, either through their employers or a state-sponsored exchange, or face a fine beginning in 2014.

Supporters argue the individual mandate is critical to the success of the legislation, because it expands the pool of people paying for insurance and ensures that healthy people do not opt out of buying insurance until they needed it.

Critics said the provision gave the government too much power over what they said should be a personal economic decision.

Twenty-six states led by Florida say individuals cannot be forced to buy insurance, a “product” they may neither want nor need. And they argue that if that provision is unconstitutional, the entire law must go.

The Justice Department countered that since every American will need medical care at some point in their lives, individuals do not “choose” whether to participate in the health care market.

The partisan debate around such a sweeping piece of legislation has encompassed almost every traditional hot-button topic: abortion and contraception funding, state and individual rights, federal deficits, end-of-life care, and the overall economy.

And, regarding Attorney General Eric Holder…

Republican leaders plan to bring the issue to the floor on Thursday, meaning lawmakers likely will vote on contempt charges on the same day that the U.S. Supreme Court is slated to announce its ruling on the constitutionality of the 2010 health-care reform law.

The timing likely deprives advocates for contempt charges of the big headlines they might have received if the vote were held another day this week.

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.)said Sunday that the vote could still be postponed or scrapped if Holder and Justice Department officials present congressional investigators with documents related to a probe intoOperation “Fast and Furious,” the botched gun-running operation run by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives out of its Phoenix offices between 2009 and 2011.

If the House votes to hold him in contempt, Holder would be the first U.S. attorney general in history held in contempt of Congress. The matter would be referred to the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia — a Justice Department employee and Obama administration appointee — who would have to decide whether to bring criminal charges against the attorney general, his boss.

It should be an exciting Thursday to say the least, Bat-fans.

What has me puzzled is the rampant pessimism which I’ve seen so far in the posts of those identifying themselves as Conservatives. If you’ve read some of these Eeyore-ish missives on Conservative Websites, you would think that the justices have already ruled 9 – 0 in favor of Obamacare and the House had voted not to hold the shady Attorney General in contempt.

What in the name of Dow Jones and all his little averages is a’goin’ on here?

In the words of a memorable speech given by the late Sen. John Blutarsky:

Bluto: Hey! What’s all this laying around stuff? Why are you all still laying around here for?

Stork: What the hell are we supposed to do, ya moron? We’re all expelled. There’s nothing to fight for anymore.

D-Day: [to Bluto] Let it go. War’s over, man. Wormer dropped the big one.

Bluto: What? Over? Did you say “over”? Nothing is over until we decide it is! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no!

Otter: [to Boon] Germans?

Boon: Forget it, he’s rolling.

Bluto: And it ain’t over now. ‘Cause when the goin’ gets tough…

[thinks hard of something to say]

Bluto: The tough get goin’! Who’s with me? Let’s go!

[Bluto runs out, alone; then returns]

Bluto: What the !@#$ happened to the Delta I used to know? Where’s the spirit? Where’s the guts, huh? This could be the greatest night of our lives, but you’re gonna let it be the worst. “Ooh, we’re afraid to go with you Bluto, we might get in trouble.” Well just kiss my !@# from now on! Not me! I’m not gonna take this. Wormer, he’s a dead man! Marmalard, dead! Niedermeyer…

Otter: Dead! Bluto’s right. Psychotic… but absolutely right. We gotta take these b!@#$%^s. Now we could do it with conventional weapons, but that could take years and cost millions of lives. No, I think we have to go all out. I think that this situation absolutely requires a really futile and stupid gesture be done on somebody’s part!

Bluto: We’re just the guys to do it.

D-Day: [stands up] Yeah, I agree. Let’s go get ’em.

Boon: Let’s do it.

Bluto: [shouting] “Let’s do it”!

This is no time for Eeyore-ism. This is no time for squishiness. This is not a time for “reaching across the aisle”. This is not a time for defeatism.

This is a time for Americans to stand up on their hind legs, and to show the world what makes us the greatest country on the face of the Earth.

Walk tall. Talk loud. Be Proud. BE AMERICANS.

And, if that doesn’t fire you up, remember this:

Anticipation…It’s Makin’ Me Wait…

On June 25, 2012 By kingsjesterIn Politics3 Comments

Sitting here on a Sunday night, wondering what to write about, I realized that this is the week that could provide a double “death blow” to Obama’s sorry excuse of a presidency. And now, I probably won’t sleep a lick tonight.

The Washington Post reports that

The Supreme Court this week will conclude its term by handing down much-anticipated rulings on health careand immigration, President Obama’s remaining priorities before the justices. It is a finale that cannot come quickly enough for the administration, which has had a long year at the high court.

In a string of cases — as obscure as the federal government’s relationships with Indian tribes and as significant as enforcement of the Clean Water Act — the court rejected the administration’s legal arguments with lopsided votes and sometimes biting commentary.

The administration’s win-loss record will sting a lot less, of course, if the court upholds the constitutionality of Obama’s signature domestic achievement, the Affordable Care Act. That decision on health care, which will define the term, could come as early as Monday and almost certainly will be announced by Thursday.

The court also will decide the fate of Arizona’s tough law on illegal immigrants, which the Obama administration challenged in court before it could take effect. The government’s argument that the law conflicts with the federal authority to decide immigration policy got a sour reception from the justices, but the government hopes for at least a split decision on other aspects of the measure.

The administration’s ungainly portfolio at the Supreme Court this term has drawn attention from all points on the ideological spectrum.

Ilya Shapiro, a constitutional scholar at the libertarian Cato Institute, said the government is to blame for “outlandish claims of federal power” that the court was correct to reject.

Adam Winkler, a liberal law professor at UCLA, recently wrote that the court headed by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. has been “unusually hostile to the Obama administration.”

His conclusion: “This is the year of the Supreme Court’s Obama smack down.”

It might also have something to do with the (bad) luck of the draw. It is the job of Solicitor General Donald B. Verrilli Jr. to defend the actions of Congress and the executive. In some of the government’s high-profile losses in Verrilli’s inaugural term, the administration was defending decisions made long before Obama took office.

But whatever the reasons, the losses so far cannot be blamed on the conflict between an increasingly conservative court and a progressive administration. For instance, the authors of the Indian cases that went against the government last week were Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, Obama’s choices for the court.

At least so far, 5-to-4 decisions that have divided the court along ideological lines have split fairly evenly between wins for liberals and for conservatives. And there has been a string of high-profile losses in which the government has failed to win the vote of a single justice — liberal or conservative.

The New York Times has their own Liberal Spin on the fate of Obamacare…and it appears to this humble blooger that these Yankees are proving that denial is not just a river in Egypt.

Late on Tuesday, March 27, halfway around the world, President Obama began one of the most suspenseful waits in recent presidential history.

After a blur of nuclear security meetings in South Korea, Mr. Obama settled into the Air Force One conference room to read a summary aides had written of that day’s arguments before the Supreme Court back in Washington. The justices had asked deeply skeptical questions about his health care law.

Mr. Obama’s most profound policy achievement was at much higher risk of defeat than his aides had expected, vulnerable to being erased by the margin of a single justice’s vote.

Since then, Mr. Obama and the White House have put on brave faces, insisting that the law and the mandate at its center will be upheld when the court rules this month. In private conversations, they predict that the bulk of the law will survive even if the mandate requiring Americans to buy health insurance does not.

But even if the White House is a fortress of message discipline, it cannot disguise the potential heartbreak for Mr. Obama, who managed to achieve a decades-old Democratic dream despite long odds and at steep cost.

If he loses both his law and re-election, many will conclude “that he bet on his major reform, and the Supreme Court defeated it, and he lost his hold on the presidency,” Robert Dallek, the presidential historian, said in an interview.

On the day the ruling comes out, one Obama adviser joked, “I might have to clean out my sock drawer.”

In grappling with what the court may do, Mr. Obama and his advisers now appear to be far past the denial stage (when they dismissed constitutional challenges) but nowhere near acceptance (they still believe the law will be upheld.) Instead, they have quietly entered a surprising new state that might be called Learning to Live Without Universal Coverage.

Former advisers are emphasizing the many aspects of the bill that are not connected to the mandate, like the subsidies to buy insurance. Some aides even argue privately that losing the mandate could be a political boon, because it would rob Republicans of their core complaint against the law.

But that position is uncomfortable for a deeper reason, one that goes to the core of who Mr. Obama wanted to be as president. Earlier in his term, he refused every chance to settle for the more limited health care overhaul that the Supreme Court may now effectively deliver, making epic sacrifices to win something far broader.

Or, geniuses, they could toss out the whole cotton-pickin’ abomination…if we’re lucky.

Flying With the Angels

On June 24, 2012June 24, 2012 By kingsjesterIn PoliticsLeave a comment

Is one of the branches of America’s Armed Forces being forced by this Administration to conveniently forget that we are “One Nation Under God”?

FoxNews.com reports that

Dozens of House lawmakers accused the U.S. Air Force this week of being “hostile towards religion,” citing a string of recent incidents they claim show the military is taking separation of church and state too far.

“Censorship is not required for compliance with the Constitution,” they wrote in a letter to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta.

The letter from 66 Republican members of Congress referenced a series of cases where they claim the Air Force “succumbed” to demands from outside groups.

Among the incidents:

A decision to remove a Latin reference to “God” from a logo/motto for the Rapid Capabilities Office

A decision to stop requiring staff to check for Bibles in Air Force Inn rooms

The removal of a document from a distance-learning course for Squadron Officer School that suggested chapel attendance is a sign of strong leadership

The suspension of an ethics course because the material included Bible passages

“Mr. Secretary, the combination of events mentioned above raises concerns that the Air Force is developing a culture that is hostile towards religion,” the lawmakers wrote. They urged Panetta to investigate all the incidents and issue “clear Department of Defense policy guidance.”

The letter was drafted by Reps. Diane Black, R-Tenn.; Randy Forbes, R-Va.; and Todd Akin, R-Mo.

‘Censorship is not required for compliance with the Constitution’

– GOP lawmakers in letter to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta

The incidents were not all as clear-cut as the lawmakers made them sound.

In the case of the Squadron Officer School course, the training document in question contained the following paragraph: “If you attend chapel regularly, both officers and Airmen are likely to follow this example. If you are morally lax in your personal life, a general moral indifference within the command can be expected.”

The Military Religious Freedom Foundation complained to the Air Force in March that the line “creates the inescapable impression that regular church attendance is a requirement for commissioned Air Force officers in order to demonstrate positive morals to subordinates.” The group said the document violates the constitutional prohibition on religious tests for U.S. office holders.

The Air Force subsequently scrapped the document.

In the case of the Rapid Capabilities Office, the reference to God was removed following a complaint from an atheist group. The original logo, according to Fox News Radio, said in Latin: “Doing God’s Work with Other People’s Money.”

It was changed to say, “Doing Miracles with Other People’s Money.”

In the case of the Air Force Inn rooms, the Air Force moved to nix a question from its checklist asking whether a Bible was provided, according to the Air Force Times, though it did not order Bibles to be removed.

The Republican lawmakers, though, said the change in attitude can all be traced back to a September 2011 memo from Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz that said chaplains, “not commanders,” are expected to notify airmen of the Chaplain Corps programs.

The lawmakers said this suggested “that the mere mention of these programs is impermissible.” All the subsequent incidents, they said, “go beyond the requirements of the Constitution.”

“The changes lend credence to the notion that the Air Force will remove any reference to God or faith that an outside organization brings to its attention,” they wrote.

The Air Force said in a statement responding to the letter that airmen are “free to exercise their constitutional right to practice their religion — in a manner that is respectful of other individuals’ rights to follow their own belief systems,” according to The Hill.

In researching this post, I came across several articles pushed in the Liberal press and on their websites designed to show Christians serving in the Air Force in a bad light. There are articles accusing Christians of desecrating a Wiccan religious site, one on CNN.com, accusing the Air Force of being a Christian Cult, for using Biblical examples in ROTC, and one on Huffington Post saying the 41% of Non-Christian Air force members are complaining about proselytizing.

Let’s examine that last article shall we?

Per Gallup, 78% of Americans proclaim Christ as their personal Savior. So, in any given population in the U.S., non-Christians only make up around 22%. That means that those complaining about “proselytizing” only constitute “41% of 22%” of our fighting men and women in the Air Force.

Extrapolated out, that, boys and girls, totals only 9% of those serving so honorably in the United States Air Force.

Which makes sense, for you see, again, per Gallup, 92% of Americans believe in God.

But, you’ll never see those facts in posts at Huffington Post, CNN, or any other Liberal Propaganda website.

As I finish today’s post, before I go to church on this Sunday morning. I leave you with something else you’ll never see on those Liberal websites:

United States Air Force Academy

The Cadet Prayer

Lord, God of hosts, my life is a stewardship in Your sight. Grant me the light of Your wisdom to the path of my cadet days. Instill within me an abiding awareness of my responsibility toward You, my country and my fellow man.

I ask true humility that, knowing self, I may rise above human frailty. I ask courage that I may prove faithful to duty beyond self. I ask unfailing devotion to personal integrity that I may ever remain honorable without compromise.

Make me an effective instrument of Your peace in the defense of the skies that canopy free nations. So guide me daily in each thought, word and deed, that I may fulfill Your will. May these graces abide with me, my loved ones, and all who share my country’s trust.

Amen.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

On June 23, 2012 By kingsjesterIn Christianity, Politics5 Comments

The country’s been taking around the water cooler this week about a bunch of topics, not the least of which was the verbal attack by a bunch of Middle School Brats upon the sweet little old lady who was riding on their school bus as a monitor.

All decent Americans have been shaking their heads at these little idiots.

The problem is…inecusable bad behavior is not just limited to the kids. In this case, it’s grown men and women who know better.

The White House expressed disapproval Friday of photographs showing gay-rights activists, guests of President Obama, making obscene gestures at the portrait of President Reagan during a gay-pride reception at the White House last week.

[What do you morons expect when you embrace folks like this and the Muslim Brotherhood and allow them in OUR house? Martha Stewart manners?]

“While the White House does not control the conduct of guests at receptions, we certainly expect that all attendees conduct themselves in a respectful manner,” said White House spokesman Shin Inouye. “Most all do. These individuals clearly did not. Behavior like this doesn’t belong anywhere, least of all in the White House.”

Matthew “Matty” Hart and Zoe Strauss, both from the Philadelphia area, posted photographs of themselves on Facebook giving the middle finger to Mr. Reagan’s official portrait hanging in the White House as they attended the party.

At the reception, Mr. Obama told the attendees that the day is approaching when gay citizens will enjoy full equality in America.

“We’ll get there because of every man and woman and activist and ally who is moving us forward by the force of their moral arguments, but more importantly, by the force of their example,” Mr. Obama said.

Mr. Hart didn’t return a call seeking comment, but he told Philadelphia magazine that he despises Mr. Reagan’s legacy.

“Yeah, f– Reagan,” Mr. Hart said. “Ronald Reagan has blood on his hands. The man was in the White House as AIDS exploded, and he was happy to see plenty of gay men and queer people die. He was a murderous fool, and I have no problem saying so. Don’t invite me back. I don’t care.”

Mr. Hart is national director of public engagement at Solutions for Progress, which receives public and private funds to help “individuals and families working to overcome poverty and to build long-term financial stability,” according to its web site. Ms. Strauss is a photographer.

Former Rep. John LeBoutillier, an author, wrote in 2003 that Mr. Reagan was a “tolerant and kind man” and denied accounts that Mr. Reagan was intolerant of gays.

“Ronald Reagan was never anti-gay,” Mr. LeBoutillier wrote in a column. “He and Nancy, as longtime Hollywood insiders, knew many gays and never did or said anything that could be construed as even mildly anti-gay. As governor of California, Ronald Reagan was ‘progressive’ toward the gay movement.”

Also during the White House party where some people flipped the bird at Mr. Reagan’s portrait, a transgender man dropped down on one knee and proposed to his partner. The festivities occurred about two months after Mr. Obama announced his support for same-sex marriage

If you clowns want respect for your misguided cause, act respectfully.

However, given these folks’ history of acting out during Gay Pride Parades, disrupting church services and making out in from of the worshipers, and harassing any one, including a little old lady who was protesting against them in California, expecting respect from gay activists is probably like expecting the Obama Administration to respect out Armed Forces.

Speaking of little old ladies…

For the past three days, the shattered glass of a broken iPad has been Karen Klein’s window to the online world.

There, and on television, the 68-year-old school bus monitor has watched herself make international headlines and be interviewed multiple times about the video that shows her being taunted and harassed by middle school students on a bus.

“I still can’t believe this is all about me,” Klein said Friday on the porch of her Greece home. “I see me on the TV or the front page of the newspaper and wonder, ‘Who is that woman?’ ”

With the fruits of an online fund-raising effort, Klein will be able to buy a replacement iPad and much more. Within just three days, the fund on crowd-funding site Indiegogo.com that was set up to help send her on a nice vacation has surpassed $500,000 and is still climbing. More than 25,000 people have donated. When told Friday how much the fund had amassed, Klein teared up.

And that’s not the only outpouring of sympathy and compassion the grandmother of eight has received. She’s been deluged with thinking-of-you cards, bouquets of flowers, gift cards and all kinds of other offers.

On Friday, Greece police gave her apology statements written by some of the boys whose taunting was captured on the video.

The Democrat and Chronicle is not fully identifying the boys or their parents because of death threats the families have received.

Death threats? Sorry. While that is over the top, so was their behavior.

As I’ve written before, I was raised by members of the greatest generation. My mother smacked me on the back of the legs with a yardstick if I squinted my eyes at her.

However, to this day, as an 53 year old Marketing Executive, I still say “Yes, Ma’am” and “No, Sir”. In fact, you’ll find that most people my age in the South, do.

It’s the way we were raised.

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Author: kingsjester