IvyGate Stands by Tasteless Post

Update (9/17/09): The Cornell Sun isn't laughing OR buying the "apology".

Yesterday, IvyGate updated their tasteless post on the death of Warren Schor; I posted their explanation on my original post, but here it is again:

UPDATE: Some have questioned whether it's appropriate to have jokes in the same post that acknowledges a death. No element of this post mocks the deceased or those grieving—in fact, any humor is directed at the administration and their lack of response that precluded the student's death. However, since we wrote most the post before the death, then updated it afterwards, the tone may now be off. It's our policy never to take down posts, but as a concession we've added a more somber picture and adjusted some language.

In contrast, consider the apology offered by Yale University officials to students after an unfortunate e-mail went out notifying students about a job-search workshop named "Killer Cover-Letters". The e-mail went out the same day the the body of missing student Annie Le was identified.

"Philip Jones, assistant dean of Yale College, sent another e-mail to students later Monday apologizing for the earlier message. He said the workshop's title is common, but its use was inappropriate at the time. Jones says it was not the university's intention to cause more distress."

Quite a contrast to the IvyGate non-apology, no?

What is puzzling about the IvyGate explanation is their refusal to pull the post, however tasteless and offensive it is, because it's their policy. As one commenter said, "Maybe you need to bend your policy of taking down posts…there is always a first time. Besides, isn’t it kind of dishonest to say you don’t take them down but then you make changes? Better yet, issue an apology."

Here is the screenshot of the original IvyGate post.

More puzzling is their excuse that most of the post was written before Schor died. Even if the post was drafted because of the campus outbreak and the number of ill students, that's no excuse to not to edit the post before it goes up. It seems the post was only updated because of the outrage that followed rather that because of an acknowledgment of poor taste.

At the very least it's rank hypocrisy from a publication that once lashed out at the Dartmouth Review for an offensive Native American picture on their cover. When Dartmouth issued an apology, IvyGate was unimpressed. In fact, in response to the Dartmouth apology, IvyGate's Chris Beam wrote:

"There's many a broken soul on the shoulder of the student publication highway -- people who think irony is a defense for the patently offensive. But these guys seem to have emerged relatively unscathed. They stand by their content. They still work for the paper."

It doesn't look like IvyGate learned any lessons about being "patently offensive" after all. They have also emerged "relatively unscathed" and "stand by their content."

Hypocrits.

A Congressional ACORN Investigation

In Culture of Corrpuption, Michelle Malkin opens her chapter on ACORN (the Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now) with the story of a woman in Baltimore who "liberates" her foreclosed house from the bank by breaking the bank's padlock off the door, moving back into the home, and installing her own lock. ACORN called the act disobedience, but the police didn't see it that way.

ACORN receives millions from the Department of Housing and Development to fight poverty. That may be about to change with last night's Senate vote to cut funding. Of course, the media isn't really covering the ACORN story, so lots of folks may not even know about it. According to Hot Air, the New York Times only covered it on the web edition, in the Caucus blog, so print customers won't know anything about the vote.

Today, The Washington Examiner has an editorial calling for Congressional investigation of ACORN citing the fact that dozens of states, including Louisiana, have charged ACORN employees with voter registration fraud and other scurrilous crimes.

What crimes?

1986: In Missouri, 12 ACORN members convicted of voter fraud.
December 2004: six St. Louis volunteers for ACORN plead guilty to registration fraud.
2005-2006: Multiple voter registration fraud charges against ACORN in Missouri.
2007: Washington state prosecutors fined ACORN for voter registration fraud.
2008: Over a dozen states investigation ACORN for voter registration fraud.
May 2009: Nevada officials charge ACORN with filing thousands of fraudulent voter registration forms.
May 2009: Pittsuburgh officials charge ACORN with filing hundreds of fraudulent voter registration forms.
August 2009: Louisiana officials investigating ACORN for embezzlement.

ACORN was actively involved in the campaign to force banks and lending organizations to make sub-prime loans which largely responsible for putting people into homes they ultimately couldn't afford. They would loudly protest banks that refused to make such loans. Kevin Mooney and Barbara Hollingsworth writing in July of this year for the San Francisco Examiner, outlined even more of ACORN's crimes, including the Muscle for Money program and the connections with the SEIU:

"Muscle for Money includes multiple techniques for creating highly aggressive, organized efforts both to pressure businesses and officials to support the activists’ agenda or to discredit and intimidate opponents of their agenda, according to present and former ACORN members."

In June 2008, Michelle Malkin wrote an article on ACORN for National Review, which outlines ACORN's funding, 40% of which comes from the American taxpayer. The question today is why has it taken so long for anyone to launch a serious national investigation into the group and why has our government continued to fund it?

And now we have the continuing appearance of these videos of ACORN employees giving advice to "pimp and prostitute" Hannah Giles and James O'Keefe, on how to get a loan to fund a brothel featuring 13 year old Latin American sex slaves. ACORN was filmed giving this advice in Baltimore, but there are also tapes from Washington, D.C. and New York. There is word that more are coming today.

I stand with the Examiner today in asking "Now Will Congress Investigate ACORN"? How much more do they need? The Examiner writes:

"The time has come for Congress to stop evading its responsibility to conduct a full-scale investigation into ACORN operations. It's bad enough that dozens of ACORN employees and volunteers have been convicted in recent years of multiple election law violations. Now the O'Keefe/Giles videos provide graphic proof that an organization that supposedly uses its federal largess to counsel poor people on how to avoid foreclosure is using at least some of its federal dollars to encourage the most heinous of crimes against children. Congress can no longer ignore its responsibility to get at the full truth about ACORN, no matter how disgusting it may ultimately be."

Enough said.

Enough Czars Already!

Via Hot Air, Senator Lamar Alexander questions the explosion of czars in the Obama White House:



Kay Bailey Hutchinson had a piece about this same subject in Sunday's Washington Post.

Obama isn't the first president to have czars, he's just the first to have so many. And as we've pointed out before, many of them overlap with official Cabinet positions.

Read Ed's post for more.

Patrick Swayze: 1952 - 2009

Be sure to check out Jules Crittenden's lovely tribute to Swayze.

ACORN Claims "Relentless Attacks" by FOX

In response to the multiple ACORN videos that have come out over the past week or so, Bertha Lewis, Chief Organizer for ACORN, has issued a statement in which she claims doctored video, old tapes, and blames the evil Fox News for "relentless attacks":

We are their Willy Horton for 2009. We are the boogeyman for the right-wing and its echo chambers. If ACORN did not exist, the right-wing would have needed to create us in order to achieve their agenda, their missions, their ideal, retrograde America. This recent scam, which was attempted in San Diego, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Philadelphia to name a few places, had failed for months before the results we've all recently seen. I am appalled and angry; I cannot and I will not defend the actions of the workers depicted in the video, who have since been terminated. But it is clear that the videos are doctored, edited, and in no way the result of the fabricated story being portrayed by conservative activist "filmmaker" O'Keefe and his partner in crime. And, in fact, a crime it was - our lawyers believe a felony - and we will be taking legal action against Fox and their co-conspirators.

I'm wondering how they're going to sue Fox when they admitted wrong by firing the workers? One thing we learn from the videos is that these weren't isolated incidents; this is the rampant meme throughout ACORN.

ACORN is a criminal enterprise and it's only a matter of time before they go down once and for all.

Michelle has more.

McCaskill Says Cut Scooters and CAT Scans!

Senator Claire McCaskill steps in it once again, this time on Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace. Wallace asked the Senator if it was really possible to take hundreds of billions of dollars out of Medicare without cutting services. The good Senator's response? Cut scooters and CAT scans!

"Well, I don't know how many ads you've seen for scooters on cable TV, but I see a lot of them. Those are scooters paid for by the American people, and a lot of them are going to folks who don't need scooters.

"It's one example of many examples where we are paying for services or things instead of outcomes. And I think it's very important that we start focusing on the patient and what's good for the patient rather than five or 10 or eight CAT scans in one week so docs and hospitals are trying to pay for those machines. "

Well of course doctors are only ordering CAT scans to pay for those darned expensive machines. While it's quite possible that fraud or misuse occurs in the scooter program, I doubt that it's enough to fund ObamaCare. The requirements for obtaining a scooter funded through Medicare are fairly explicit; to support McCaskill's thesis, one would have to assume that most doctors writing orders for scooters are corrupt.

Sounds like McCaskill is watching too much late night cable.

Editor of HuffPo's Health Unit Mocks Death of Cornell Student

Friday, September 11, 2009, a 20 year old student at Cornell University, Warren Schor, pictured left, died of complications from the swine flu. IvyGate Blog chose the tragedy as an occasion for mockery and silliness.

IvyGate is a blog that purports itself to be a "news and gossip blog that covers the Ivy League" and is written by current and former students. In the past they've covered stories such as the Princeton class president who set a squirrel on fire and more recently, mocking the distribution at Harvard of a pamphlet instructing students not to defecate in the shower.

When Warren Schor died last week, IvyGate published this article, originally under the byline of Molly Fitzpatrick, now under the byline of Adam Clark Estes. The article mocks Schor's death and the administration attempts to encourage students to stay healthy by practicing good hygiene. So intent was IvyGate on its mission of mockery that they couldn't even get the dead student's name right in the original article, first identifying him as "William" Schor, until offended commenters called out the error.

The comments following the article are unanimously offended by the post; one even points out the mysterious change in authorship: "You change the name of the author of the post but yet you keep the disrespectful and inconsiderate tone of it. At the very least get rid of that tasteless photo. Ivy Gate Media should be ashamed. Shame on you."

So why the change of byline? Was Fitzpatrick embarrassed and having second thoughts about her poor taste? Was she pressed to pull the article? Why did blog editor Adam Clark Estes take ownership of the post?

In addition to his responsibilities as editor of IvyGate, Estes is also Associate Editor of Huffington Post Investigative Fund, described by Arianna Huffington this way: "This nonprofit Fund will produce a wide-range of investigative journalism created by both staff reporters and freelance writers." The site considers itself a "watchdog" of sorts, reporting on fraud, abuse, and waste in government.

In June, Estes announced the formation of the Investigative Fund's Health Unit whose purpose is to track the progress of ObamaCare. So why is a Huffington Post editor and one in charge of the Health Unit, mocking the death of a young man with H1N1?

Following the death of Schor, Cornell University officials suspended most social activities for a week in an attempt to quell the H1N1 outbreak on campus and protect the students, a move which Estes saw fit to poke fun of: "[The] Inter-Fraternity Council had instated a weeklong [sic] moratorium on social events to help prevent the spread of the disease. But, due to a flood of flu-related visits, Gannett also has stopped scheduling routine appointments, so they may just be canceling frat parties to avoid the standard Sunday morning rush for Plan B. After the jump—a lesson in hygiene and how your Atari will kill you. "

Estes (or Fitzpatrick) then wrote, in response to administration officials asking students to wash their hands, "you should never take it for granted that a frat house will have soap."

And if the mocking tone and the botched initial identification of Schor were not enough, IvyGate saw fit to illustrate the piece with a photo of a pig and the word "Crap!" over it. Tasteless.

It is unfortunate that Estes and Fitzpatrick, and I'm assigning responsibility to both, chose to mock the death of Warren Schor. The young man has a family that is grieving and a close network of friends. As editor of IvyGate, Estes assumes the responsibility for this post whether he wrote it or not; the change of byline was probably unnecessary.

IvyGate has reached a new low in insensitivity and should respond to the requests of its readers, as well as a common sense of decency, apologize to the family, and pull the post.

Update: Linked by The Daley Gator! And Carol's Closet! Also Backyard Conservative, thanks! Also Legal Insurrection! Welcome Michelle Malkin readers!

Update 2: Now a Memeorandum thread.

Update 3: This morning, IvyGate posted an update to their story. They took down the picture of the pig and replaced it with a "more somber picture" and modified some of the language. I'll let you decide if you think it's an apology of if one is needed:

UPDATE: Some have questioned whether it's appropriate to have jokes in the same post that acknowledges a death. No element of this post mocks the deceased or those grieving—in fact, any humor is directed at the administration and their lack of response that precluded the student's death. However, since we wrote most the post before the death, then updated it afterwards, the tone may now be off. It's our policy never to take down posts, but as a concession we've added a more somber picture and adjusted some language.

From the comments following the post, it's not enough for some.

Joe Wilson Must Be a Racist

Sometime next week the Democrats in the House will censure Rep. Joe Wilson with a Resolution unless he publicly apologizes on the House floor for calling Obama a liar last week.

Wilson immediately apologized to Obama who has accepted the apology; the Speaker has even said that everyone needs to move back to the debate on health care. This is apparently not good enough for some, however, and Pelosi's spokesman Brendan Daly said, “He has until next week sometime to apologize and if he doesn’t do it, they’ll go ahead and do a resolution.”

The lesson in this story, it seems, is the continuing double standard between parties in politics. The videos of bad behavior from the Democrats during Bush's speeches have circulated widely this week. Nobody demanded an apology then. Harry Reid called Bush a liar in 2004. Nobody censured Reid or demanded an apology. Apparently the difference is that Reid didn't do it on the House floor.

I'm not defending Wilson's breach of decorum. There were better ways to prove Obama's lies than to shout out from the floor during his speech.

Wilson's frustration with Obama's persistent "misrepresentations" of what is in the bill is shared by many of us. I believe Obama would have a better chance passing this bureaucratic nightmare of a bill if he'd at least tell the truth about it. It's a bad bill, but that's another issue at the moment.

Maureen Dowd doesn't see any problem with the bill, it seems, or with the lies. She doesn't think Obama was lying. She thinks Wilson disagreed with Obama just because Obama is a black man. For a party that purports a desire to move beyond race, it seems the left is the party constantly bringing it up. She writes, "But Wilson’s shocking disrespect for the office of the president — no Democrat ever shouted 'liar' at W. when he was hawking a fake case for war in Iraq — convinced me: Some people just can’t believe a black man is president and will never accept it."

It's the old "shoot the messenger" theory, I guess. Wilson pointed out that Obama was lying when he said illegals would not be covered, so he must be punished. He must be a racist because he disagrees with Obama.

Dowd even takes shots at the South in her column today, "For two centuries, the South has feared a takeover by blacks or the feds. In Obama, they have both." Stereotype much, Maureen?

Of course, as we all know, Wilson was correct in his belief that illegals would be able to obtain coverage because as many of us have been pointing out for months, there is no mechanism in place to stop them.

At any rate, in the end, Wilson was wrong for shouting from the floor; he apologized to Obama; Obama accepted the apology. Committees began work this week to try to close the loophole in the bill regarding illegals. Move on.

(H/T: Memeorandum)

Honore Says He's Not Running in 2010

Last night, retired Army Lt. Gen. Russel Honore spoke in Shreveport at the NAACP Freedom Fund Banquet. I'm quoting the bulk of the local paper's coverage of his speech:

"On this day, 9-11, we saw some eight years ago what happened when the enemy attacked our country and killed over 3,000 of our citizens," he opened his talk. "Shortly thereafter, the president of these United States opened a big old cap of whup-ass to go out and deal with the people who came to this country and indiscriminately killed our people.

"And these people we are fighting, we fight them today," Honore said. "Listen to me here: They are our enemies. If they were here tonight, under sharia law, first of all, none of the women would be in this room. And none of you would have the opportunity for education. So don't get confused with some of the things you hear on why we're doing what we need to do in Afghanistan, although it may be a little bit late."

Honore noted that soldiers of 200 years ago fought for a promise of freedom and equality in the Declaration of Independence, even though many were not free.

"Some were indentured, some were slaves, but they fought for a promise that took over 200 years to even come close to fruition. They fought for a promise, an idea, of freedom."

He contrasted that to today, where problems on Wall Street and Main Street have whalloped the elderly, poor and disadvantaged on what he called "Railroad Street."

Honore pointed to the drugs and lack of discipline that have left people today ill-equipped to work.

A video of him in action during Hurricane Katrina drew applause, especially when one segment noted how he had noticed a mother with young twin babies and had ordered the youngsters airlifted to safety.

But in his talk, Honore gave a somber backstory. He said that woman, only about age 18 or 19, had children with blood streaming from their faces; and another woman in the same incident had children in distress.

"What I wanted to know was where were those children's daddies? And who raised them?"

His tone assured that had he met those absent fathers who had abandoned women and children to the ravages of a killer storm, the result would not have been pretty.

Honore also peppered it with admonitions to elected leaders to take initiative to provide jobs, encourage education and prod people and businesses to take basic steps to assure their own survival in the wake of the next inevitable crisis, be it a hurricane or a tornado.

One thing city leaders could do, he pointedly told Shreveport Mayor Cedric Glover, is require pharmacies and gas stations to have emergency generators so two basic building blocks of society don't go belly up when the lights go out. "Mr. Mayor, you can make it happen."

Louisiana Weekly, one of the local sources who suggested Honore might challenge Vitter in 2010, reported this week that Honore has no intention of running against Vitter. In fact, Honore tells Louisiana Weekly, "I am not running for office...I never delcared myself as a Republican during the Reagan administration. I have never lived in Zachary [Louisiana]" as initial reports claimed.

In the end, it seems as if Vitter's only challenger is Melancon who is no challenger at all.

March on Washington

I put this in my Round-Up below but think I should pull it to the top: check out the live video of Washington today! WOW!!!!! This is the still picture, of course. Go here to watch streaming.

Mary Katharine Ham is there and is posting pictures on her Twitter updates:





H/T: Michelle Malkin

Boustany Requests ACORN Investigaton

Representative Charles Boustany, as reported by Chad at The Dead Pelican, has called for an investigation into ACORN.

Boustany is the ranking Member of the Oversight Subcommittee for the House Ways and Means Committee and has jurisdiction over tax policy and the IRS. ACORN, as you know, was taped giving tax advice to individuals posing as a prostitute and pimp. The ACORN workers on the video were fired as were others in a separate video.

The Dead Pelican has the text of Boustany's letter to Chairman Lews of the Oversight Committee here.

What Demonstrations?

Incredibly, just as on July 4, the White House is claiming to know nothing about today's March On Washington: "White House officials on Friday professed to know nothing of the planned demonstrations. White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs queried reporters about the planners and their issues. 'I don't know who the group is,' he said with a shrug."

Is this administration that out of touch with the pulse of America? If so, it's a black mark for them. Or are they just being coy, trying to downplay the magnitude of the protest. A sort of, "We're not scared!" tactic? If that's the plan, it's also a poor choice.

To disregard these protesters, to blow them off and discount their voices shows poor leadership, indeed.

I suspect that by the end of the day, Gibbs and Company will know "who the group" is. It's a whole lot of American citizens who have something to say. Open the windows and listen, Obama!

Full Metal Jacket Saturday: The Gumbo Edition

We've got a nice, gentle rain settling in for the day. So relaxing! Perfect day to curl up with a good book, but it's not meant to be. I've got chores to do and gumbo to make. I promised The Teenager I'd make gumbo for him today. This will require a quick trip to the store for a bell pepper, an onion, and some shrimp; the andouille and chicken are already in the freezer, as is the okra. Since I have a roux to make, I'd better get on with the Saturday linkage:

Little Miss Attila has the big question for Megan McArdle and makes the point that "if all doctors are working off of the same rate sheet, there’s no incentive to be nice. And when someone is looking after my body, I want the niceness. I prefer the decent bedside manner." Bingo.

Stacy McCain is keeping up with the ACORN story. He knows the father of the young lady that played the prostitute in the undercover video, Hannah Giles. It's with the click-over just to see the kick-ass shot of Hannah's younger sister with a wild boar. He's got a follow up post here.

Protein wisdom writes on the ACORN investigation, as does The Daley Gator.

Fausta also comments on the ACORN investigation, as does Liberty Belle where you can also see her personal photos from the Flight 93 memorial. The final memorial wasn't in place at the time, but the photos are moving any way.

Doug Ross has some neat pictures and info on the U.S.S. Independence, one guaranteed "to give pirates stomach cramps."

Fishersville Mike has some thoughts about ObamaCare and demographics and shoving back.

Professor Jacobson has some thoughts about Joe Wilson and Obama's non-plan for health care reform and says, "Maybe the problem in Washington is not that politicians in the House of Representatives are too frank, but that they are servile to their party leadership and not free to speak their minds." Amen.

Pundette's Friday News Dump isn't like an Obama News Dump; she caught me up on things my busy week obfuscated.

Donald Douglas was thinking about GWB on 9/11 and posted on what Bush was up to yesterday.

The Sundries Shack ponders on today's 9/12 March and awaits with anticipation! Michelle does too, and links to live stream video!

Wyblog reports on the shocking, ("shocking, I tell you!") report that Obamacare will increase your insurance premiums! Who KNEW?!

My Bossier has the story of our local Dine 'n Dash Darling who skipped out on her Posada's dinner tab leaving her marijuana and ID behind; she lost her Miss Teen USA crown but now she's Miss October and hopes to be the next Pamela Anderson.

I'm envious of what Carolyn Tackett is doing today and can't wait for her report!

Yukio has The Most Thorough Analysis of Obama's speech to Congress.

Troglopundit is having the same problem I am having this week. My only excuse is that I had to go back to my real job and can't update full time like I can in the summer. We'll just count our blessings, Trog.

And finally, a shout out to Carol at No Sheeples Here! who has been highlighting 9/11 victims all week. Carol is a real class act and has done a super fine job with her blog this week. Please, check it out.

Busy Friday

Sorry for the light blogging today! I've been tied up at work all day and it's been busy there - we had a lovely 9/11 ceremony in front of the school. Our ROTC did a fabulous job and brought a little tear to my eye. I get so proud of our kids sometimes! At the end of the day we had our first pep rally and the kids were all wired up for that all day. Big excitement. After school I had to go do the mom thing and check on her...and now I'm headed back to school to work the football game. I'm taking tickets at the gate tonight. *Sigh*

I'll check back in here later on this evening. Hold it down.

IG-Gate is Plodding Along

Stacy McCain has an IG update at Am. Spectator, including a list of links to previous stories. It remains a complicated investigation, and it hasn't gone away:

"Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) has tasked his staff to investigate the apparent pattern of pressure against inspectors generals, at Amtrak, Americorps, the International Trade Commission and "SIGTARP" Neil Barofsky, whose job is to watchdog the TARP bailout funds. Grassley's staff now have reportedly finished the main part of their investigation and are expected to prepare a report to be delivered later this fall. "

Check it out.

Our 9/11 Ceremony at School

9/11

The Journal of the day in my English classes on 9/11, ever since 2001, has asked students to recall where they were that morning and how that day has affected their lives. Our school is near the Air Force Base and we have a high population of Air Force kids.

Over the past couple of years I've noticed that they don't know, don't remember, and say they were unaffected. Well, the kids I have now were probably five when it happened. So I won't put that journal up today.

The ROTC at our school is having a ceremony at the flagpole this morning. My class will be going to that. We'll talk about it some afterward.

I know I will never forget where I was and what I was doing. I wrote about it last year in my first 9/11 post as a blogger. Nobody cares where I was on 9/11. But I wanted to write it down anyway. I know this: I'll NEVER forget the feelings I had that day. EVER. They are still as fresh today as they were then. But we move on. We remember, but we move on.

Take time today to remember the victims. Today, it's about them. It's not about the Truthers or about politics or anything else. The innocent victims.

No, Seriously, I'm Wide Awake!

When I get off the floor, where I've been because I'm laughing so hard, I'm going to write a post on this:

Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.), who shouted "you lie!" at President Obama during his Wednesday night address to Congress, admitted to regularly consuming caffeine pills in 2007.

It is unknown if Wilson still takes NoDoz, a brand of pill that contains 200 milligrams of caffeine a pop. By comparison, a seven ounce cup of drip coffee contains 115 to 175 milligrams of caffeine.

A source told The Hill in 2007 that the congressman ingested the tablets “like candy," but Wilson insisted he was not addicted despite the fact that he had been taking them since high school.

"No, seriously officer! I was wide awake at the time I called Obama a liar!"

ROFLMFAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Puppy Gets the Mail

Charlie Sheen Wants to Meet With Obama

Charlie Sheen? Seriously?

Via Michelle Malkin, Charlie Sheen wants a meeting with Obama to discuss the 9/11 coverup. From the LATimes:

In an exclusive contact with the PrisonPlanet.com website, Sheen reveals 1) that he voted for Barack Obama in November and 2) that he [Sheen] has become convinced that the 9/11 attacks were an inside government job perpetrated by people inside government for inside and no doubt nefarious reasons. The idea being that Osama bin Laden and his posse were (maybe still are?) really working for the U.S. government to help justify faraway wars.

Oh dear.

You can read his fictional dream conversation with Obama here. He has written a letter to Obama requesting a meeting.

Maybe there's a job for Charlie in The White House. I hear Obama needs a few good czars.

What Happened to Those 17 Million Uninsured?

I just could not watch Obama last night. I was slightly curious as to what his spin would be, but I, like Joe Wilson, can't stomach the lies anymore.

I've been monitoring the press and the feedback on the speech, though, and see that even Politico is trying to sort through the blather this morning. They've got a piece that sorts out what he said and what he really meant.

Most accounts I've seen this morning are addressing the fact that Obama has suddenly dropped the number of uninsured from 47 million to 30 million, now excluding illegals from his number. In the beginning, when he started to sell this box of rocks, he thought if he told us 47 million Americans were uninsured, we'd be horrified and rush to support his plan. That many Amercians can't go without insurance! Horrors! But the American public was not so easily duped; we saw through that. We know that 47 million is an inflated number. We read the statistics that support our conclusion.

So now Obama has dropped the number to 30 million so we'll all say, "Ahh! That's so much better! Of course we can support the plan!" But....of that 30 million, a large number of those are already eligible for Medicaid and just never enrolled. And an even larger number make enough dough to purchase insurance and just don't want it. So the number COULD drop even further.

And we're going to dismantle the health care system for that? What he hasn't yet realized is that when people feel lied to, they quit listening to you. They quit believing you. They quit trusting you. Not everyone feels lied to, of course. Nancy Pelosi still believes him, I guess.

What the lowering number of uninsured shows is that Obama realizes that the number of Americans without health insurance isn't as high as he wants us to believe. It tells us that he knew he was lying when he used the 47 million figure; he knew that was inflated. He'd HAVE to know that. He didn't care. He's selling snake oil here. He's lying. Joe Wilson was right.

Update: Professor Jacobson covers the illegal issue here; Memeorandum covers everything else!

Personal Story

Carolyn offers a prime example of why ObamaCare is a bad idea. Check out her story. And say a little prayer for her if you get a second.

ObamaCare Bingo

I can't watch tonight. I just can't stomach any more lies. But if you are planning to, feel free to use this ObamaCare bingo card. Pay attention to the key at the bottom.

I know; in the interest of being informed, I should watch. I. Just.Can't.

The Louisiana Delegation on ObamaCare

NOLA takes another look at how the Louisiana delegation is likely to vote on Obamacare; among them, Sen. Mary Landrieu who is supporting an alternate bill and has yet to say how she would vote on current proposals. She has said, however, that she does not support a public option.

Democratic Rep. Charlie Melancon (who is running against Vitter for Senate) wants overhaul but voted against the House bill in committee.

Lots of eyes on Rep. Joseph Cao who has said he can't vote for a plan that subsidizes abortion.

NOLA has a round-up of the rest.

Quote of the Day

"If Obama fails to win reelection, let the blame be first laid at the door of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, who at a pivotal point threw gasoline on the flames by comparing angry American citizens to Nazis. It is theoretically possible that Obama could turn the situation around with a strong speech on healthcare to Congress this week, but after a summer of grisly hemorrhaging, too much damage has been done. At this point, Democrats' main hope for the 2012 presidential election is that Republicans nominate another hopelessly feeble candidate. Given the GOP's facility for shooting itself in the foot, that may well happen. "

Camille Paglia
"Too Late for Obama to Turn it Around?"