Rebrand ObamaCare all you want: A bad product is still bad

http://terrellaftermath.com/

Canada Free Press   "Even though a recent Rasmussen Reports telephone survey ... shows that 81 percent of voters believe ObamaCare should be repealed or changed, the president and the Democrats are clinging to their health care “titanic” full speed ahead! And instead of the working-class consumer choosing to use the product because they like it, the president and the Democrats are insisting on using the force of law – that only they knew what was in it – to shove this bad medicine down our throats anyway for ailments most of us do not have.
 

"In addition to the false advertising and scare tactics, the president is asking others to help him “spread the word” in his rebranding initiative:"
More here.

 

Urban legend: Obama's wedding ring

Claim:   Barack Obama's wedding ring bears an Arabic inscription reading “There is no god but Allah.”

Snopes says this is false:  Lord of the Ring

"This claim about Barack Obama's ring (shown in more detail here) looks to be an artifact of someone who has never actually seen the ring in question trying mightily to find a hidden message where none exists, however. All of the images used to illustrate the claim are either blurry, low-resolution close-ups or shots taken from too distant a perspective to clearly show the details of the gold band. Isolating the ring from a much higher-resolution photograph of President Obama's hand taken by photographer Miguel Villagran during a 5 June 2009 news conference in Dresden, Germany, shows the ring to bear what looks like nothing more than a plain loop-like pattern, with the top section matching the bottom:"

From About.com/ Urban Legends; Hi-Res Image of Barack Obama's Wedding Ring

"As you can see in the viral illustration at right, someone has worked very diligently to make it appear as though certain Arabic characters match certain lines and shadows on the face of Obama's ring. But, as you can also see, the alleged correspondence isn't just forced, it's utterly reliant on the defects of the fuzzy, low-resolution images used."

 

From The Christian Post: Barack Obama's 'Islamic' Wedding Ring Claim Proven False?  "According to About.com Urban Legends, Obama's ring bears an abstract design instead of an Arabic script initially spoken about by WND and the publication's sources. While the shahada, or Muslim profession of faith's phrase in its entirety states "There is no god but God and Muhammad is the prophet of God," some believed that the president's ring only contained the first part of the statement.
"However, Snopes.com, a website discussing urban legends, also seemed to debunk the rumors that the ring contained any Arabic writing at all."

We appreciate those who keep us abreast of rumors and legends floating around that damage the trust people have in conservative sources.
Hat to to Harley Standlee of Placerville, CA for this one.

The character of this President and, by extension, of the electorate who voted for him twice

Walter E. Williams Slams Obama: 'Incompetent,' 'Beyond Learning'  Video.

Über-Classy: Obama Uses Mandela Speech To Attack Republicans…

Speaking at such an historic event overseas, Obama should have made damn sure to steer clear of any hint of partisanship and moral judgement(sp) against his political opponents. But he can’t help himself.

Because Obama’s central animating principle as president is not leading the nation; it’s his vision of social justice. He doesn’t view himself as Republicans’ president too, but as the man bearing the progressive banner against their immoral, discriminatory ideology of hate.

NBC's Chuck Todd: White House Restricting Photo Access a "Version of Propaganda"

Brit Hume: We Are Riding With Obama Along His "Learning Curve"

... "The inefficiency and sluggishness of the federal bureaucracy is known to every politician and citizen who has had experience with it. But the president seems to have glided through his brief term in the Senate in his four plus years in the White House without noticing until now. Supremely self-confident intelligent people who lack experience often learn lessons the hard way because they don't know enough to know how much they don't know." ... 

That Obama/Castro handshake

What does Allan Gross and his family think about the handshake between Obama and Castro?

"It would have been a great opportunity for President Obama to show his displeasure about Mr Gross and human rights violations in general.  He could have shown the world that we shake some hands, like the President of Brazil, and skip others, like the dictator of Cuba."
 

Rubio slams Obama handshake with Castro  “ 'If the president was going to shake his hand, he should have asked him about those basic freedoms Mandela was associated with that are denied in Cuba,” Rubio said."

 NRO:  The Damage of a Handshake   ... "Until now, every American president had studiously avoided this mistake: At U.N. and other gatherings U.S. Secret Service and diplomats were under orders to make sure such a “photo op” so highly desired by the Castros did not happen.

"With his action President Obama has squandered U.S. prestige and honor."

Naturally Jimmy Carter liked it.  Because Mr. Carter and apparently President Obama never met a despot they did not like.

So did NBC's Brian Williams

Obama Shakes Blood-Stained Hand of Mass Murderer Robert Mugabe -Update: NBC Flushes Down The Memory Hole…   "Along with the brutal repression of his people, Mugabe’s forces have slaughtered an estimated 20,000 people."

 

Crowd Fail: Abbas, Mugabe Cheered, Bush Reportedly Booed At Mandela Memorial   "The fact that Bush has saved millions of African lives seems to have been lost on the crowd at the memorial, most of whom seemed to be African National Congress adherents.

"The ANC has its own legacy of terrorism and murder so perhaps cheering terrorists and dictators are right in line with that history.

"Bush, in a typical classy move, rose to applaud Obama’s remarks on Mandela, always showing respect to the office of the President."

 

Marshall Lambert @Marshall_ZA Follow

George and Laura Bush give @barackobama a standing ovation after his landmark speech at the #MandelaMemorial

TSA agent confiscates plastic toy pistol from sock monkey

Examiner.com

 

"Thanks to an alert TSA agent in St. Louis, Mo., the world is now safe from "Rooster Monkburn," a cowboy sock monkey whose tiny two-inch-long plastic pistol was confiscated, KING 5 reported Sunday.
"According to KING, Phyllis May of Redmond, Wash., is “appalled and shocked and embarrassed all at the same time” about the incident that took place last Wednesday.
"May, KING said, owns a small business making and selling the unique toys."
....
"Common sense, it seems, has not been government policy for at least the last five years."

Life in the good old USA

Obamabot Singer Katy Perry Says She Banned Her Parents From Watching Her Perform At Obama’s Inauguration Because They’re Republicans…
"Aren’t libs always telling us how the right needs to be more tolerant and inclusive?"

 

Judge Orders Colorado Cake Maker To Serve Gay Couples  "The order from administrative law judge Robert N. Spencer said Masterpiece Cakeshop in suburban Denver discriminated against a couple “because of their sexual orientation by refusing to sell them a wedding cake for their same-sex marriage.' ”

America is no longer the Land of the Free.  "Nicolle Martin, an attorney for Masterpiece Cakeshop, said the judge’s order puts Phillips in an impossible position of going against his Christian faith: “He can’t violate his conscience in order to collect a paycheck. If Jack can’t make wedding cakes, he can’t continue to support his family. And in order to make wedding cakes, Jack must violate his belief system. That is a reprehensible choice. It is antithetical to everything America stands for.' ”

 

Armstrong Williams; Political Correctness: Bullying at its Worst  "According to the American Bar Association, “hate speech” is speech that offends, threatens, or insults groups, based on race, color, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, disability, or other traits."

 

MTV Declares Miley Cyrus Its Artist of the Year
Enough said.

From the I-kid-you-not department:
PTA Grinches in Frisco Texas Ban Red and Green at Christmas Party    "The rules are: There can be no reference to Christmas or any religious holiday, no red or green, no Christmas trees, and nothing that will stain the carpet of course."

Solving the income inequality puzzle

http://legalinsurrection.com/tag/a-f-branco/

Washington Times   "At the same time, the president’s programs have discouraged the bottom 15 percent from earning income. He essentially gives them a free ride by providing years of unemployment benefits, virtually free health care, and liberal welfare and food stamp benefits. The result has been the classic “the rich got richer and the poor got poorer.”
....
"Bob and Ed are hungry and don’t know how to get food. Jane has been fishing all day and has 10 fish. This represents a very unequal distribution of wealth. The president’s solution would be to take 6 fish from Jane and give three each to Bob and Ed. The distribution is more equal for now, but there are two long-term problems.
"First, Bob and Ed have been made dependent on Jane for food. Second, Jane must catch enough food each day to feed herself and two others. In the long-run, this will not work."  Full article
Hat tip to John Uhrig, Plano, TX
 

Obama and his divisive class warfare.

Obama Still Peddling Class Warfare, Demagoguery and Snake Oil Medicine for What Ails His Sluggish Economy

"If anyone thinks for a moment that the president offered a new way out of the long-stalled economic problems that afflict our country, you can forget.

"This was a deeply political campaign speech laden with class warfare rhetoric about how much wealthier people in the top earn versus those in the middle or at the bottom.
"The nation's frustration with the economy had nothing to do with his own impotent, counterproductive policies, he seemed to be suggesting. "It's rooted in the nagging sense that no matter how hard they work, the deck is stacked against them," he said.

 ....

"Welcome to the Age of Obama where it's only going to get worse."

Class Warfare: The Mortal Enemy Of Economic Growth And Jobs
Actually, the economy suffers when money is taxed away from private individuals and spent by government.  In part, this is because regardless how smart politicians and bureaucrats might be, they have only a miniscule fraction of the total knowledge in a society.  Politicians and bureaucrats tend to have book learning that’s related to academic credentials, whereas specific, practical knowledge needed to make an economy work is dispersed among multitudes of ordinary people.  This includes knowledge about the best locations for a particular business, individuals most likely to be good employees, changing consumer preferences, the most suitable business models, technologies and so on.

 

Obama is not a Pathological Liar, He is an Ideological Liar  "From a child-rearing standpoint, Dr. Phil may agree:

"People do what works. If lying has gotten your child what he wants while escaping accountability from you, the payoff is a luring incentive to continue. It's a parent's responsibility not to let it continue by creating consequences."

"Parents" in Democrat's case would be the press.

MSNBC’s Alternative Universe; What passes for journalism on the network is downright silly.

Charles C. W. Cooke  ...." During the election, Pew added, the ratio of unfavorable to favorable treatment in stories on candidates Barack Obama and Mitt Romney on MSNBC “was roughly 23-to-1; the negative-to-positive ratio on Fox News was 8-to-1.”

 '“Biased” doesn’t cut it. To watch MSNBC for an afternoon is not so much to be given a slanted account of what is happening here in America, but instead to witness a series of discussions about current events in parallel America II — a rather silly place in which the political center of gravity and all things Good are defined by the preferences of the faculty at Berkeley and the comments section of the Daily Kos and in which anyone who dissents from this position is believed to possess two heads, a black heart, and a pocket copy of Mein Kampf...."

Belligerent Zeke Emanuel Again Helps the Anti-Obamacare Cause in Sunday Chris Wallace Interview

Newsbusters  "Fox News Sunday's Chris Wallace was not in the mood to put up with Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel's standard-issue leftist guff on Sunday (video here). Last night, I noted that the pressed Emanuel until he forced a "yes" out of him to a simple question: "Didn't he (President Obama) say, 'If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor.'" That move brought out Emanuel's ridiculous contention that what Obama somehow really meant was, "If you want to pay more for an insurance company that covers your doctor, you can do that. This is a matter of choice." Everyone but you and a few deluded leftists know that isn't so, Zeke.

"A good example of Wallace standing up to what amounted to a bullying attempt by Emanuel, followed by a couple of other howlers delivered by Zeke the Bleak, are after the jump."
Video.

... "It would be nice if more interviewers of leftist prevaricators stood up to leftist blowhards as Wallace did to Emanuel.
"Immediately following this exchange, Zeke went to the "Blame Bush" tactic ..."

Doctors boycotting California's Obamacare exchange

Washington Examiner  "An estimated seven out of every 10 physicians in deep-blue California are rebelling against the state's Obamacare health insurance exchange and won't participate, the head of the state's largest medical association said.
“'It doesn't surprise me that there's a high rate of nonparticipation,” said Dr. Richard Thorp, president of the California Medical Association."
....
"California offers one of the lowest government reimbursement rates in the country -- 30 percent lower than federal Medicare payments. And reimbursement rates for some procedures are even lower.

"In other states, Medicare pays doctors $76 for return-office visits. But in California, Medi-Cal's reimbursement is $24, according to Dr. Theodore M. Mazer, a San Diego ear, nose and throat doctor.

"In other states, doctors receive between $500 to $700 to perform a tonsillectomy. In California, they get $160, Mazer added."

calwatchdog.com

USS Arizona: Cost of war hidden at Pearl Harbor

USS Arizona - National Park Service Study - Archeological Record

statesmanjournal.com  ... "As the visitor peers into the water on either side of the memorial, the Arizona, with its superstructure long gone, starts to take shape. There’s the mount for one of its giant guns; oil still rises slowly to the surface from the ship’s fuel bunker, which has been leaking for 72 years.

"Hidden in the depths of the hull are the bunks, the ammunition magazines, the offices, the shops and the chow line; the narrow passageways, the steep ladders, the hatches and watertight doors that never had a chance to do their job — all those places that are so familiar to every sailor — and a thousand men entombed in the ship that was their home, their workplace and their pride.

 USS Arizona (Inside the Wreck!!)

 

Early photos of USS Arizona

 

The USS Arizona website

Below: Early crew photo of the Arizona