Axelrod's Careless Myths Section (or was it?)

Apparently even Huffington Post is jumping on Axelrod for the poorly worded "myths about health insurance reform" section on his email the other day:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/blaise-nutter/axelrods-wh-email-truth-a_b_258634.html

Though some of them could also be conceived to be cleverly disguised ways of saying something in a way so as not to say what they really mean. Like this one:

7. You can keep your own insurance: It's myth that reform will force you out of your current insurance plan or force you to change doctors. To the contrary, reform will expand your choices, not eliminate them.

Maybe he really does mean that "You can keep your own insurance" is a myth and that the full explanation would be something more like: "It's myth that reform will force you out of your current insurance plan or force you to change doctors [for the first couple years]. To the contrary, reform will expand your choices [at first], not eliminate them [until a few years down the road].

Or this one:

1. Reform will stop "rationing" -- not increase it: It's a myth that reform will mean a "government takeover" of health care or lead to "rationing." To the contrary, reform will forbid many forms of rationing that are currently being used by insurance companies.

Should the full explanation be: "It's a myth that reform will mean a "government takeover" of health care or lead to "rationing" [because we'll just use different words that mean the same thing to describe it]. To the contrary, reform will forbid many forms of rationing that are currently being used by insurance companies [and put even stronger forms of rationing in their place]."?

Obama's Commandments

From the Patriot Update, with original here:

I. Thou shalt have no God in America, except for me. For we are no longer a Christian nation and, after all, I am the chosen One. (And like God, I do not have a birth certificate.) SOURCE

II. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, unless it is my face carved on Mt. Rushmore. SOURCE

III. Thou shalt not utter my middle name in vain (or in public). Only I can say Barack Hussein Obama. SOURCE

IV. Remember tax day, April 15th, to keep it holy. SOURCE

V. Honour thy father and thy mother until they are too old and sick to care for. They will cost our public-funded health-care system too much money. SOURCE

VI. Thou shalt not kill, unless you have an unwanted, unborn baby. For it would be an abomination to punish your daughter with a baby. SOURCE

VII. Thou shalt not commit adultery if you are conservative or a Republican. Liberals and Democrats are hereby forgiven for all of their infidelity and immorality, but the careers of conservatives will be forever destroyed. SOURCE

VIII. Thou shalt not steal, until you've been elected to public office. Only then is it acceptable to take money from hard-working, successful citizens and give it to those who do not work, illegal immigrants, or those who do not have the motivation to better their own lives. SOURCE

IX. Thou shalt not discriminate against thy neighbor unless they are conservative, Caucasian, or Christian. SOURCE

X. Thou shalt not covet because it is simply unnecessary. I will place such a heavy tax burden on those that have achieved the American Dream that, by the end of my term as President, nobody will have any wealth or material goods left for you to covet. SOURCE

Not sure I can add much to the above, other than that it does seem to be increasingly conflict-inducing to espouse and express the Catholic values I was brought up with. I guess having more left-leaning friends is a side-effect of spending many of my adult years in New York City before "voting with my feet" and heading south. How to explain to those who relate more to the above 10 than our Lord's 10 that taxation should not be a means to charity and murder is not a valid choice.

Oprah Oops

So there was this:

http://www.usatoday.com/life/people/2009-01-18-oprah-rosenblat_N.htm

How long until we have an Oprah Obama Oops? They can even recycle the last line of the article:

"I'm so tired of you being the whipping boy for this hoax, because he didn't just dupe you -- he duped a lot of people."

Ideological? Who Me?

Glenn Beck sums up the misleading usage of ideological and pragmatic that we hear so much about these days:

http://www.glennbeck.com/content/articles/article/198/20408/

How about some honesty...let's both present our ideologies, figure out where we agree and disagree, and work out a decent solution, rather than just belittling the other side. So many opinions deemed "evil" or "hateful" by the other side are just logical extensions of a difference in assumptions earlier up the chain of argument. Maybe if we unraveled each others arguments to understand them, we'd be better off than just conveniently labeling others.

What if 'SNL' mocked Michelle Obama?

There are lots of articles about the double standard in the media these days, but I particularly liked this one:

Patrick J Buchanan on WorldNetDaily

Obama the Tax Man



Ahh, the old faux-retail-sale strategy...mark up the price $1.00, then put up a big sign saying $0.50 off and hand out coupons for $0.25 off...

My only question is, why didn't the McCain campaign make this ad? Or at least make this point during the second debate?

Babies Born Alive

Some links to discussion of Obama's pro-infanticide votes against "babies born alive" and his lies to try to backpedal on it. Are shifting excuses his idea of "change"?

WSJ.com
weeklystandard.com
humanevents.com
catholicnewsagency.com #1
catholicnewsagency.com #2
lifenews.com
redstate.com #1
redstate.com #2
youtube.com

Isn't Barack Embarrassed of Himself?

Amazing that he can rip Americans for not learning a foreign language and for expecting people to speak English here in the US, and then he trots off to Europe and gives speeches in English in countries that have official languages other than English. Instead of calling him on his own words that he should be embarrassed for not speaking to the Germans in German and the French in French, the mass media just continues to fawn all over him. Fortunately I was able to get my weekly dose of Rush while driving around this afternoon and catch his bit of essentially going almost MST3K on his Berlin speech...it's hard to laugh out loud at the same time as you're getting angry, but that pretty much did it.

Shuddering at Obama in Germany

A couple user comments on a NewsBusters post about Obama's speech in Germany:

Twilight Zone

July 24, 2008 - 23:56 ET by Lakewood Bob

Obama's speeches remind me of an episode of Twilight Zone where an alien comes to earth and promises the earthlings that their every care will be provided for. No more wars, no more struggles, and no more hard laboring. All the while, he carries with him a book entitled "Serving Man". An obvious indication of their desire to save humanity and have everyone live a contented life. Several ship loads of earthlings even left for a visit to the alien planet.

As it turns out, "Serving Man" was a Cookbook!! If Obama is elected, I believe we are cooked also.

__________

Me, too!

July 25, 2008 - 01:24 ET by i was just thinking

"Obama said he was speaking as a citizen" What about me? I'm a citizen. Can I go make a speech in Berlin?

"I know that I don't look like the Americans who've previously spoken in this great city." I thought we weren't allowed to talk about that. Wait a sec... is he talking about being black, or having big ears?

"...designed to make him look presidential." Because after all, it's really only looking presidential that's important, right? (By the way, why does someone "speaking as a citizen" need to look "presidential"?)

"His message: That as President he would bring the U.S. and Europe together." Well, THAT'S a relief, because he sure as hell won't bring the U.S. together!

"...this is our moment. This is our time." Read: "...this is MY moment. This is MY time."

"Barack Obama was due to visit wounded troops in Germany but canceled it
after the Pentagon told him that it would not be proper while on a
political trip." But...but... I thought he was traveling and speaking as an citizen, not a political candidate. Hell, now I'm really confused...

"He told them a lot of what they wanted to hear..." Let's all look surprised.

"In Europe, the view that America is part of what has gone wrong in our
world rather than a force to help us make it right has become all too
common." Just because they "view" us that way doesn't mean they're right. I view Obama as a pompous windbag. Does my view make me right?

"...part of the Obama pitch that his approach can heal the rifts with
America's allies in Europe and restore American prestige abroad." And exactly HOW would he do that? Oh, wait... he doesn't have to tell us how, all that's important is that he says he will.

(This is fun!...)

"To his detractors, it was presumptuous that a candidate for President would deliver a speech as if he were President." No, Charlie, that should be "to anyone with an ounce of common sense and half a brain in his head..."

"Not only have walls come down in Berlin-..." Obama says, "see? I can talk about walls, too!"

"...Senator Barack Obama today shared his vision for peace." ...vision, as opposed to an actual plan...

"It was that they were Presidents, Obama a mere candidate." A "mere candidate"?!?!? That's it, Jake... no more Obama exclusives for you! Blasphemer!!

"But I also know how much I love America." I'm certainly glad HE knows, 'cause the rest of us aren't really sure about it! And as the saying goes, you always hurt the one you love.

"And as for the people who came here today, many of them gushed about his speech." And I'm sure many more didn't gush, but we won't talk about that right now.

"My new messiah." My new messiah, filling the empty void that I call "my life". "Hey, Kool-Aid!!!"

McCain Doesn't Know?

McCain doesn't know if Obama is a socialist: CNN article

Considering he has a further left voting record than a declared socialist and speaks about how we need more "shared prosperity" and that he's afraid of an "on your own" society...I'd say it's pretty much a textbook definition.

Beck on this topic here. I'll gladly share my prosperity with my neighbors, but I don't want the government doing it for me (Apr 15 doesn't feel like "give to charity" day to me) -- I'd rather they leave me "on my own".