Obama on "End of Life Care"

THE PRESIDENT: So that’s where I think you just get into some very difficult moral issues. But that’s also a huge driver of cost, right? I mean, the chronically ill and those toward the end of their lives are accounting for potentially 80 percent of the total health care bill out here.

LEONHARDT: So how do you — how do we deal with it?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, I think that there is going to have to be a conversation that is guided by doctors, scientists, ethicists. And then there is going to have to be a very difficult democratic conversation that takes place. It is very difficult to imagine the country making those decisions just through the normal political channels. And that’s part of why you have to have some independent group that can give you guidance. It’s not determinative, but I think has to be able to give you some guidance. And that’s part of what I suspect you’ll see emerging out of the various health care conversations that are taking place on the Hill right now.

Yeah, that Palin is sooooo crazy.

Go fuck yourself (especially St. Andrew of the Perpetual Outrage)

Via Ace, natch.

Update:I'm at work so no link but I've started to see people claim that JESUS would want us to have universal health care. Now, beyond being a fucking stupid argument on its face, the meat of the argument is also incorrect.

Jesus would want everyone to have health care. That is a VERY DIFFERENT THING than government controlled universal health care. I presume they are making their argument from Jesus' dedication to charity and kindness to our neighbors. Of course, Jesus (and his father) was also very dedicated to the idea of FREE WILL.

And that is the crux of the matter. FREE WILL (freedom) allows us to decide what we want to do with our time and, by the oldest equation in history, our money. Saying that we SHOULD make sure everyone has health care is very different than mandating that everyone contribute to the provision of such.

Of course, I wouldn't expect Commies to be too great at explaining what Jesus thinks anyway.

Posted by: Moron Pundit at 04:03 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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A Blackness in the sky

Via the Agitator we find Science Blog's post on a Hubble Telescope video.
To quote Science Blog, "If you watch only one astronomy video this year, make it this one."
They found a blank section of sky, as black as they could find with no stars. It was about the size of "a grain of sand held at arm's length" and focused the Hubble on it for a week or more. They saw (edited for loose facts)three thousand galaxies as they were 13 billion years ago. Then, they did it again with better stuff and saw even earlier the light images were still from about 13 billion years ago but they were older than the previous.

Very cool.
Below the fold is a pic from the oldest light images they've captured.
more...

Posted by: Veeshir at 03:37 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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Astrosurfing for hate groups

We've all seen those stories popping up about the rise of right wing hate groups.
That's another part of the most hated parts of the 90s returning. There were always right wing hate groups stories and then that terrorist fool McVeigh allowed them to crow about it.

Well, here they come again, and while I knew something about the Southern Poverty Law Center, I didn't really feel like doing all the research involved.
But Bob at Confederate Yankee did it for me.
Quote
Mark Potok has made quite the career for himself at the Southern Poverty Law Center finding right-wing hate behind every tree to ensure that donations to his non-profit keep rolling in. But as Sweetness & Light note in the link above, Potok bases his claims that right wing hate groups are exploding by his claims of online growth, even as web traffic to the web sites of hate groups remain remarkably constant and in some cases has regressed.

RTWFT and click the links. They're astrosurfing hate groups and Minitru is lapping it up.
Bastids, they're all bastids.

Posted by: Veeshir at 03:07 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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I love Newt but.....

Now don't get me wrong, I love Newt (except for the fact that he and Forstchen haven't written the sequel to 1945 the way they promised) but.....
This is about stupid

I don't feel like quoting any of his laundry list of suggestions for Sarah Palin to follow to "Make a Comeback" but I would like to note one thing.

She freaking tweeted, (something that probably at least 80% of the population has either never heard of, never seen or both), and changed the national dialogue so much that it required responses from the White House, attacks from 3 broadcast and 2 cable networks and an act of fucking Congress for the Democrats to try to recover.

Somehow, I don't think she needs your advice. 

Posted by: Veeshir at 02:51 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Now Those Are Stompy Shoes

Stomp!

(update h/t Cowboy Blob who I called Cowboy Bob for the first year I read his blog)

Posted by: Veeshir at 02:29 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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Yet More Legal Geekery!

Here's some further healthcare questions I have - no special treat because these aren't as long and as the legal geekery only goes to say an 8.

1.  If there is a public plan, will that plan have a right of subrogation against any and all awards for damages in a personal injury action?  For example, Medicare currently has a first priority lien against any such recovery.  Failure to pay that back results in the amounts being deducted from the individual's Social Security benefits until the amount is met.  Will other public benefits to a public plan receipient be cut if there is a lien and that is not repaid?  If so, does that implicate federalism concerns if the public plan is a federal plan and the public benefit receipts are from state run programs?

2.  If there is subrogation, how will the subrogation be accomplished?  To continue the Medicare example, Medicare retains for itself the right to determine what injuries are caused by an accident.  Will that same position be taken by the public plan?  Likewise, it is incredibly time consuming and frustrating to get an answer from Medicare as to the amount that is owed.  Will the same procedures be put in place for the public plan?  How much will the administrative costs run?

3.  If there is a public plan, will automobile insurance companies be permitted to stop offering mandatory medical benefits with auto policies?  If not, why not? 

4.  If there is a public plan, will workers' compensation programs be required to continue to pay for future medical care for an injured worker?  If so, why?  If not, why not?  

Posted by: alexthechick at 02:02 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Bikini Clad Star Wars!

Bikini clad Star Wars!

 

Thanks to Veeshir and Vodkapundit

Posted by: eddiebear at 01:03 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Those funny Muslims

Those darned Muslims just don't listen.  They don't listen when they're told that scantily-clad women are a good thing, they don't listen when they're told that women should be allowed to spread their legs whenever they feel like it, they don't listen when they're told that homosexuals probably shouldn't be executed (this guy is a notable exception), and they don't listen when they're told that it's immoral to have more than one baby per couple.

(h/t)

Posted by: Alice H at 12:54 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Drink Up

We here at DPUD have always been ahead of the curve when it comes to bacon technology.  We were doing it long before it became "trendy" to sing the praises of BACON through the tubes.  It is my honor to present DRINKABLE BACON:

Wednesday…

It's about that time of the week when plain old coffee just doesn't do it anymore.

Now, you need something that has your familiar jolt of caffeine, but a little unexpected zing is in order too.

And that's when we cue the bacon.

Say hello to the Maple Bacon Latte—a double espresso latte spiked with organic maple syrup and homemade bacon, sprinkled with Bac-Os—available now at Pirate Radio Café.

Mmmmm.... baconcoffeelattedrinkynumnums.

Posted by: Moron Pundit at 12:09 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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ACORN Gets A Taste Of Its Own Medicine

How long before liberals start claiming this was/is racist?

Posted by: eddiebear at 11:09 AM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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Quote Of The Day

Alice H. will probably laugh hardest at this one:

I don't give a damn for a man that can only spell a word one way.

Mark Twain

Posted by: Moron Pundit at 11:09 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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The other Death Panels

These are not the Death Panels you are looking for. No really. This is not a Jedi mind trick reference.

Dropping the end-of-life counseling was no big deal. In fact, that sort of counseling made some sense. Having taken my grandfather to a number of doctor visits in the last few years, I can tell you there's already a private push for living wills and medical directives.

"Death Panel" is of course hyperbolic, but if there is such a thing that deserves to be called a Death Panel, it's the "Federal Coordinating Council for Comparative Clinical Effectiveness Research" created by the stimulus. (How stimulated do you feel now?)

As Philip Klein writes in his AmSpec piece "Live or Let Die", Tom Daschle cooked up the idea of a Federal Health Board based on the UK's "National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence" (NICE). This is your basic "best practices" board -- the red pill or the blue pill sort of stuff. Except if we listen to Daschle, the Federal Health Board would be given legal authority:

For instance, Daschle explained, there could be a requirement that all government programs would have to abide by its recommendations and that requirement could extend to any private insurer participating in the government health insurance exchange. And as Daschle wrote, "Congress could opt to go further with the Board's recommendations. It could, for example, link the tax exclusion for health insurance to insurance that complies with the Board's recommendations."

There's your Death Panel, not this stuff about end-of-life couseling. Grandma's hip replacement is on the line... how old is she now?  And no, you don't get the drops for your eye infection, you get the nasty cream.  Suck it up -- it's the law.

Klein's piece is a well written and nuanced look at the issue of care rationing, not some wild-eyed hit job.  I highly recommend reading it.

Posted by: JoeCollins at 10:03 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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Oh, so now we're concerned with violent rhetoric?

Oh noes! Rush Limbaugh said mean things and now someone is going to shoot the President!.

I want to make something clear, I most certainly hope that the windowlicking, slackjawed, mouthbreathing idiot who showed up with the death to Obama and death to his family signs got investigated, up to and including anal probing, by the Secret Service.  I mean that's kinda, sorta, just a tiny bit of a red flag that maybe you should be having a chat with the nice lads and ladies with the shades, ear pieces and weaponry.  And then possibly accidentally fall down a few flights of stairs after the interview.  Just.  Sayin'.

However, I find it beyond fucking rich that all the hand wringing is about the violent rhetoric aimed at Obama.  What about the violent rhetoric aimed at me by those who do have the power to completely fuck with my life?  Let's see, Nancy Pelosi thinks I'm unAmerican.  Harry Reid thinks I'm an evilmonger.  There was the lovely comment that we're all like Timothy McVeigh.  There's the racist accusations.  There's the comments about how this is the civil rights era and references to Bull Connor and the dogs and the hoses.  But ABC sure as motherfucking hell doesn't seem to give a single shit that politicians are fucking attacking their bosses for having the fucking audacity to stand up and disagree.

Fuck.  Them.  All.  Seriously.  Fuck them all with the barbed cock of Satan (hint for the reading comprehension impaired - HYPERBOLE NOT A THREAT FOR FUCK'S SAKE YOU SUBCRETINOUS ILLITERATE JACKHOLES)  You want to know why people are full of the ragey rage?  Because Minitru sure as fuck didn't give a shit about the rhetoric about killing Bush.  And Minitru sure as fuck doesn't seem to care that Nancy Pelosi, that brain dead botox container, STARTED THE NAZI SHIT.

Arrrrrrrrrrrrgggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.  Alexsmash. 

Posted by: alexthechick at 09:55 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Wow

On the one hand, shame on Denver Police Department for not protecting a suspect in custody.  On the other hand, kudos to the suspect for saving us the cost of trial and incarceration, and more kudos for thinking innovatively.

Posted by: Alice H at 08:54 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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What liberal media?

Granted, this is NBC we're talking about here, but they're not even making an attempt to hide it anymore:

Barack Obama's campaign slogan "Yes we can!" became "Yes we did!" on November 4, 2008, thrilling his supporters nationwide.

Evidently, NBC also was quite pleased with the win, and the news network is still celebrating.

NBC is selling "YES WE DID" t-shirts online as well as at its Manhattan company store in Rockefeller Center.

"We," NBC? Do you have a mouse in your pocket or are you just admitting how deep you're in the tank for Obama?

Yeah, I think I'm gonna go with the latter. And seeing as how NBC (along with most of the MSM) chose to sit on their hands when they could have been doing their jobs by vetting the empty suit who now occupies the Oval Office, I'd say the "We" is entirely appropriate.

(Via Treacher, who has a suggestion for a new design that may be on the racks in the not-too-distant future.)

Posted by: Sean M. at 02:13 AM | Comments (9) | Add Comment
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Bloviator in Chief

Gee, why does this not surprise me at all?

Much has been made of the chance for true, interactive democracy offered by the freewheeling town hall format that lawmakers are using in health care forums across the country.

But what the White House is calling a "town hall meeting" does not quite follow in the tradition of the public-driven forums that sprouted centuries ago in New England.

It's more like a press conference for the public.

In an orderly fashion, selected members of the audience pose brief questions, and the president elaborates.

And elaborates. And elaborates.

A look at President Obama's health care "town hall" Tuesday in Portsmouth, N.H., shows the president out-spoke his audience by a ratio of nearly 9-to-1.

Here's the scorecard.

Obama: 8,619 words.

Audience: 1,186 words.

That's what you get when you combine a tendency to ramble (and ramble and ramble some more) with a guy who's obviously in love with the sound of his own voice. His State of the Union addresses are going to be deadly.

Posted by: Sean M. at 12:13 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Someone finally gave me a reason to shop at Whole Paycheck

The funny thing is, the source giving me the reason seems to be upset over the CEO of Whole Foods referring to Obamacare as socialism.  It's probably a good thing she's not planning on shopping at Whole Foods anymore, I don't know how anyone's going to afford their prices when taxes go up on the expiration of Bush's tax cuts.  I'm not sure if anyone making less than $250K a year shops there anyway.

Posted by: Alice H at 11:04 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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RIP Les Paul

Posted by: Alice H at 10:46 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Moron of the Day: You Looking to Score

Well, let me direct you to my cooch.  No, I didn't mean that kind of scoring either:

A woman whose truck was pulled over in Niceville for not having tag lights was very cooperative with police, but that didn’t help her much, nwfdailynews.com reported.

   Rahkia Marie Anderson, 18, of Fort Walton Beach, told the officer she knew one of her passengers had marijuana on him because she had smoked with him, according to her arrest report.

  When the officer found a straw in Anderson’s purse that is consistent with might be used to snort cocaine, she said the straw wouldn’t test positive for cocaine but it would for Xanax, the report said.

   And while Anderson was in the Niceville police holding cell, she was overheard telling one of her passengers that she “had cocaine” in her “coochy,” the report said. When officers questioned her about her statement, Anderson removed a clear plastic baggy from inside her underwear, which tested positive for cocaine.

Once again, too stupid to fucking live.  Some people just don't know when to shut up.

Posted by: Moron Pundit at 09:45 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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You're Good Enough, You're Smart Enough

And doggone it, you can get naked at work and jump out a fucking window:

Rebekah Lawrence, 34, completed The Turning Point, a four-day course run by People Knowhow in Cremorne, on December 18, 2005, with the aim of "resolving issues" in her life.

Two days later, the "shy, modest and gentle" PA took off her clothes in front of shocked colleagues, became abusive and aggressive and jumped to her death from the second storey window of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians in Macquarie St.

Holy shit.  I wonder if Al Franken was involved.

Posted by: Moron Pundit at 09:42 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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