How has “liberty” become the inspirational code word of conservatives rather than liberals? (A prominent example is radio host Mark Levin’s book “Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto,” which was No. 1 on the New York Times bestseller list for nearly three months without receiving major reviews, including in the Times.) I always thought that the Democratic Party is the freedom party — but I must be living in the nostalgic past. Remember Bob Dylan’s 1964 song “Chimes of Freedom,” made famous by the Byrds? And here’s Richie Havens electrifying the audience at Woodstock with “Freedom! Freedom!” Even Linda Ronstadt, in the 1967 song “A Different Drum,” with the Stone Ponys, provided a soaring motto for that decade: “All I’m saying is I’m not ready/ For any person, place or thing/ To try and pull the reins in on me.”

But affluent middle-class Democrats now seem to be complacently servile toward authority and automatically believe everything party leaders tell them. Why? Is it because the new professional class is a glossy product of generically institutionalized learning? Independent thought and logical analysis of argument are no longer taught. Elite education in the U.S. has become a frenetic assembly line of competitive college application to schools where ideological brainwashing is so pandemic that it’s invisible. The top schools, from the Ivy League on down, promote “critical thinking,” which sounds good but is in fact just a style of rote regurgitation of hackneyed approved terms (“racism, sexism, homophobia”) when confronted with any social issue. The Democratic brain has been marinating so long in those clichés that it’s positively pickled.

Source.

A month ago, the heroic leaders of Eastern Europe got down on their knees and begged Obama not to renege on George W. Bush’s promise to give them a missile defense system and not to give in to Russian threats and remonstrations, which were obviously designed to keep the former Soviet slave states within Russia’s imperial reach. Having seen Russian tanks rolling into Georgia, who can doubt that the Putin regime has long-term goals of reacquiring the “sphere of influence” that brought so much terror and loss of life to Eastern Europe just a few decades ago?

Source.

With the financial means to exert meaningful influence on the international stage now significantly compromised by out-of-control domestic spending programs, combined with this administration’s apparent desire to apologize for past “American imperialist sins”, historical Western allies do have reason for concern.

—-

Update: Eastern European concerns go unheard:

WARSAW, Poland – Poles and Czechs voiced deep concern Friday at President Barack Obama’s decision to scrap a Bush-era missile defense shield planned for their countries.

“Betrayal! The U.S. sold us to Russia and stabbed us in the back,” the Polish tabloid Fakt declared on its front page.

Polish President Lech Kaczynski said he was concerned that Obama’s new strategy leaves Poland in a dangerous “gray zone” between Western Europe and the old Soviet sphere.

Source.

I find it so strange, that after years of the most vitriolic hate expressed toward any US president in history, that the media would suddenly discover new and imminent threats of terrorism and danger directed at Barak Obama. During the Bush years, where open calls for the death of Bush-Hitler, celebrations of his death in the arts, and internet hate-mongering on a scale never before witnessed (for 8 whole years) … the press and it’s herd of shadowy “experts” seldom, if ever, expressed concern for the safety of Bush.

Source.

h/t to Kate.

—

Update: Here’s short video that touches on some of the misinformation and hypocrisy coming out of the Obama camp.

President Obama can try to gloss over the effects of government authorized end-of-life consultations, but the views of one of his top health care advisors are clear enough. It’s all just more evidence that the Democratic legislative proposals will lead to health care rationing, and more evidence that the top-down plans of government bureaucrats will never result in real health care reform.

Sarah Palin, August 12, 2009

(Hey, I quoted Paglia yesterday, so fair is fair)

The ethical collapse of the left was nowhere more evident than in the near total silence of liberal media and Web sites at the Obama administration’s outrageous solicitation to private citizens to report unacceptable “casual conversations” to the White House. If Republicans had done this, there would have been an angry explosion by Democrats from coast to coast. I was stunned at the failure of liberals to see the blatant totalitarianism in this incident, which the president should have immediately denounced. His failure to do so implicates him in it.

Camille Paglia, August 12, 2009

(Yes, I did just quote Camille Paglia)

In a shocking video on MSNBC, host Chris Mattews suggested that the ‘Obamacare’ protesters should be injected with sodium pentothal until they admit they’re racists.

Source.

And below is an astonishing video clip of Matthews Lawrence O’Donnell in his full glory interviewing Peter Schiff last week:

—–

Correction: I had mistakenly identified MSNBCs Lawrence O’Donnell as Chris Matthews in the clip above. I therefore have to award them both “useful idiot” designation.

As Jennifer Rubin points out:

The White House’s attempt to paint ordinary citizens who come to speak out against ObamaCare as pawns of the insurance industry takes on a comical air when one considers the president’s own background and tactics. As Charles Krauthammer remarked:

There is a certain irony in an administration denouncing ordinary Americans who get together to express what they believe and to confront authority, when that administration is led by a man who began his career as a community organizer, whose job, as I understand it, is to take ordinary Americans, get them together to express what they believe, and express demands against the authorities.

So it’s unbelievably hypocritical. And, of course, as we just heard, this only happens when you have a conservative protest. It is called a mob. If it’s a liberal protest, it is called grassroots expressing themselves.

Remember, just a year ago under the Bush administration, dissent was the highest form of patriotism. And today it is a kind of either organized anger, it’s a facsimile of anger, it’s unpatriotic, it’s whatever.

Ultimately, the “blame the voters” tactic is self-defeating, if not downright embarrassing. The White House can’t demean the voters whose support they need. They must persuade and engage, not spy on and smear the town hall attendees.

Source.

Friend –

There’s been a lot of media coverage about organized mobs intimidating lawmakers, disrupting town halls, and silencing real discussion about the need for real health insurance reform.

The truth is, it’s a sham. These “grassroots protests” are being organized and largely paid for by Washington special interests and insurance companies who are desperate to block reform. They’re trying to use lies and fear to break the President and his agenda for change.

Health insurance reform is about our lives, our jobs, and our families — we can’t let distortions and intimidation get in the way. We need to expose these outrageous tactics, and we’re counting on you to help. Can you read these “5 facts about the anti-reform mobs,” then pass them along to your friends and family?

5 facts about the anti-reform mobs

1. These disruptions are being funded and organized by out-of-district special-interest groups and insurance companies who fear that health insurance reform could help Americans, but hurt their bottom line. A group run by the same folks who made the “Swiftboat” ads against John Kerry is compiling a list of congressional events in August to disrupt. An insurance company coalition has stationed employees in 30 states to track where local lawmakers hold town-hall meetings.

2. People are scared because they are being fed frightening lies. These crowds are being riled up by anti-reform lies being spread by industry front groups that invent smears to tarnish the President’s plan and scare voters. But as the President has repeatedly said, health insurance reform will create more health care choices for the American people, not reduce them. If you like your insurance or your doctor, you can keep them, and there is no “government takeover” in any part of any plan supported by the President or Congress.

3. Their actions are getting more extreme. Texas protesters brought signs displaying a tombstone for Rep. Lloyd Doggett and using the “SS” symbol to compare President Obama’s policies to Nazism. Maryland Rep. Frank Kratovil was hanged in effigy outside his district office. Rep. Tim Bishop of New York had to be escorted to his car by police after an angry few disrupted his town hall meeting — and more examples like this come in every day. And they have gone beyond just trying to derail the President’s health insurance reform plans, they are trying to “break” the President himself and ruin his Presidency.

4. Their goal is to disrupt and shut down legitimate conversation. Protesters have routinely shouted down representatives trying to engage in constructive dialogue with voters, and done everything they can to intimidate and silence regular people who just want more information. One attack group has even published a manual instructing protesters to “stand up and shout” and try to “rattle” lawmakers to prevent them from talking peacefully with their constituents.

5. Republican leadership is irresponsibly cheering on the thuggish crowds. Republican House Minority Leader John Boehner issued a statement applauding and promoting a video of the disruptions and looking forward to “a long, hot August for Democrats in Congress.”

It’s time to expose this charade, before it gets more dangerous. Please send these facts to everyone you know. You can also post them on your website, blog, or Facebook page.

Now, more than ever, we need to stand strong together and defend the truth.

Thanks,

Jen

Jen O’Malley Dillon
Executive Director
Democratic National Committee

There are two aspects of this email that had me scratching my head: 1. The insulting suggestion that individual citizens would not feel compelled to express their concerns over a very controversial healthcare proposal without the incitement of “special-interest group” thugs. Yes, they are all a bunch of sheep. This sounds a lot like Iran’s Ahmadinejad’s claim that pro-democratic protests were the result of Western agitators. 2. The indignation that the protesting “thugs” might get unruly. I guess they didn’t attend any anti-Bush protests.

I was going to let this go, but today I was sent a link to the U.S. government web site. It looks like Obama and his crew are building a list of citizens that may have some opposing views on their policy. The page states:

There is a lot of disinformation about health insurance reform out there, spanning from control of personal finances to end of life care. These rumors often travel just below the surface via chain emails or through casual conversation. Since we can’t keep track of all of them here at the White House, we’re asking for your help. If you get an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to flag@whitehouse.gov.

Source.

Update: In St. Louis a Townhall meeting turned violent, begging the question, who are the real “special interest thugs”.

Update 2: More “special interest thugs” in Denver.

Apart from the obvious hypocrisy of this political meddling south of the border, one has to wonder what’s in it for Layton? I also have to wonder why Jack is not spending his time dealing with the many issues of national concern, right here in Canada.

But this is Jack Layton, of course.

This is the real world. Healthcare is expensive.

As we have observed in Canada, where government controls access to health services, there is often tremendous political pressure to maintain balanced budgets without increasing taxes. Healthcare costs represent the largest budget item, by far, for provincial governments (approaching 50% here in Ontario). Faced with having to deal with this dilemma, in 2004 the McGuinty government in Ontario did nothing to improve healthcare, rather they chose to cut back on health care services and increase taxes. This was the largest tax increase in Ontario history, and came shortly after the Ontario Liberals campaigned on a pledge to not raise taxes (but that’s another story).

If Barack Obama has his way, it looks like America will be heading down this same path of declining health care services and increased taxes:

President Barack Obama on Saturday proposed an additional $313 billion in cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and other programs to pay for healthcare reforms expected to cost about $1 trillion over the next decade.

“I know some question whether we can afford to act this year. But the unmistakable truth is that it would be irresponsible to not act,” Obama said in an advance text of his weekly radio address.

Obama wants a healthcare reform bill on his desk by October, but faces opposition from Republicans who oppose creation of a government-run insurance plan to compete with private insurers.

Many of his fellow Democrats are wary of making deep cuts to Medicare and Medicaid, the U.S. healthcare programs for seniors and poor people, to pay for reforms.

With the cost of U.S. healthcare continuing to rise rapidly, Obama argued the country could not afford to wait another year for sweeping changes.

But he acknowledged the ambitious plan would increase government costs in the short run.

To address those concerns, Obama has pledged to come up with enough spending cuts and new revenue to pay for reforms.

Source.

It’s popular here in Canada to hold our public healthcare system up as better than the American system. The American system is often criticized for it’s lack of universality – after all “millions” of Americans have no healthcare insurance. But we seldom distinguish the difference between having “insurance coverage” and having “access to healthcare”. Here’s an interesting take on that subject:

Another statistic often quoted, in support of socialized medicine, is the fact that Canadian health care costs are lower than in the United States. Many would argue, in fact, the costs are proportional to the level of services offered, and that the significant difference in service wait times should also be considered. People in Canada simply do not have access to many medical services available in the U.S., and often when we do we must wait much longer for that access. Unfortunately, this story is all too common here.

Before you go down the road towards socialized medicine, America, ask yourself two very simple questions:

1. With real healthcare costs rising and demand for services increasing, do you really think the government is the best institution to deliver value for your money? In other words, can you think of any other government undertaking that has delivered services efficiently in the past?

2. When it comes to deciding what medical treatments you need access to, would you prefer that decision is made by your doctor or by your government?

This is most certainly not a trivial matter, and I wish you well as you debate these questions.