The answer is unmistakably and resoundingly NO.  Americans do not want a health care system resembling that of Canada or the U.K.  We the people are saying no every way we know how to; in polls, at rallies, with elections.

The time for talk is over.  It is clear that the vast majority of Americans do not want this health care legislation passed.

Any sane and logical congress would say, “Ok, thanks for letting us know.  We represent you the people, and you have made your voices clear.  Let’s toss out this 2000 plus stack of paper and get started on something else.”  But nope, not our congress.  Our congress says, “We know you don’t want it, and we don’t care.  We’re going to find every loophole we can so we can slam you with the largest most unconstitutional tax ever created, all in the name of ‘helping the poor.’”

The poor will not be helped by this bill.  Just look at any other country with government run health care.  It’s the poor that suffer.  Only the rich can afford timely and reliable care.  Why does anyone think it will be different in the US?

I’m absolutely going to go bonkers if I keep hearing, “health care is a right.”  It is not a right.  It isn’t a privilege either.  It’s a service.  You are not entitled to the labor of a doctor.  Just like they are not entitled to free oil changes from the mechanic.  We all work for a living, some of us harder than others.  Call me crazy, but I believe that the people that spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on education, work 90 hour weeks, and make life and death decisions on a daily hourly basis deserve to be paid more than my mechanic, and I’m happy to pay it.  I am not happy to pay for other people to see that doctor because they spent their money elsewhere.  We all have to make sacrifices.  Deal with it.  And here’s the thing about Americans- for the most part, we are an extremely charitable group.  If someone really was in a bad situation, I bet there would be a doctor somewhere willing to treat them, or benefactors willing to pay for the treatment.

I have faith in the American people.  I have faith in every single person who wants to better their life.  I have faith in the single mom struggling to make ends meet, the newly graduated college student looking for a job, the father of two teens that just got laid off after 20 years.  I have faith in those people to do what it takes to get through these rough patches of life, and I have faith in their friends and neighbors to help them as they’re able.  I do what I can to help those in need.  I’m grateful for all the times others have been there for me.

But oh this congress.  This congress does not have faith in us.  This congress does not want us to feel the triumph of overcoming adversity, the joy of accomplishment.  This congress wants to enable us with the most massive entitlement program our country has ever seen.  We are better than that.

I want this congress to stop taking my money and giving me back a paltry sum and expecting me to jump for joy.  I know what  you took.  Don’t tell me to be grateful for the $10 check when you snuck $100 out of my back pocket.  I’m wise to your tricks.  A lot of us are.  Which is why you will be voted out this November.  This health care bill and any other crap you manage to sneak through in closed-door deals will be repealed.

Who knew that it would take a violation of Constitutional principles by our leaders for America to stand united in a way we haven’t for generations?  Wonders never cease.

Chelsea King is 17.  A senior in high school. Straight A student. A runner.  A world of possibilities on her doorstep.

And now she’s probably dead.

Last week she decided to go for a run after school.  So she parked her car at a park, locked the doors, and probably even stashed her purse in the trunk.  But she never came back.

Yesterday police arrested John Albert Gardner III, after physical evidence led them to believe that Gardner had raped and killed the still missing Chelsea.  This story sucks.  It is the sort of tragedy that is so vile that it’s almost unbearable to think about.  It makes my stomach hurt and my heart twist into a knot and my eyes well up when I think of my two precious daughters.

But it was a punch in the gut to read this part of the story:

Gardner is a registered sex offender convicted of committing a lewd or lascivious act on a child younger than 14, the Union-Tribune said. Details of a 2000 criminal San Diego Superior Court case he was involved in were not available, the newspaper said.

What the heck was a man who committed a lewd or lascivious act on a child doing out of prison?  Child rapists give up their government protected rights when they decide to commit the most disgusting and perverted act known to man.  Lock them up and throw away the key.  What the heck good is requiring them to register and making their addresses known to anyone through sites like Megan’s Law?  A site with a disclaimer that specifically states: Anyone who uses this information to commit a crime or to harass an offender or his or her family is subject to criminal prosecution and civil liability.

I just looked up my neighboorhood, and there’s a man living a mile away from me that’s been charged four times with “lewd of lascivious acts with children under 14,” or “oral copulation with persons under 14 by force.”  Now what am I supposed to do with this information?  Skip his house at Halloween?  It’s not like I can stick a sign in his front yard that says, “Beware of Child Rapist!” That might hurt his feelings or something.

Something is wrong with our system when the sex offenders have more rights than Chelsea King did.  Because of all the protection awarded to convicted sex felons, her young life was unprotected.  A list of addresses is not enough.  Obviously.

Yesterday the Republicans and Democrats finally met together to discuss health care reform.  I guess Scott Brown (R-MA) really scared the crud out of the progressives, so much so that Obama actually made good on one of his campaign pledges.  That brings us to three promises fulfilled.  1) Take Michelle on a date, 2) Get a dog for the First Daughters, and 3) Air the health care debate on C-SPAN.  Actually, let’s strike number 2. The President promised to rescue a shelter dog, but instead accepted Bo as a gift from Ted Kennedy.  Which I don’t really care about, but it just goes to show that this guy has a really, really hard time staying true to his word.

My favorite moment was when Congressman Paul Ryan (R-WI) became my new hero.  He flat out explained that the CBO scores weren’t real, and explained exactly why.  The best part is the look on the President’s face as Ryan is explaining that “hiding a deficit is not reducing a deficit.”  I almost felt sorry for the guy, he looked so confused.  No wonder he’s racked up our debt- he does not understand that you can’t print more money.  Now I really want to see his transcripts.  He probably failed econ 101.

From USA Today:

Nutritionists have long warned of the perils of hot dogs: fat, sodium and preservatives to name a few.

Now, the American Academy of Pediatrics wants foods like hot dogs to come with a warning label — not because of their nutritional risks but because they pose a choking hazard to babies and children.

Better yet, the academy would like to see foods such as hot dogs “redesigned” so their size, shape and texture make them less likely to lodge in a youngster’s throat. More than 10,000 children under 14 go to the emergency room each year after choking on food, and up to 77 die, says the new policy statement, published online today in Pediatrics. About 17% of food-related asphyxiations are caused by hot dogs.

How about having a little faith in parents to actually be responsible for their children?  I’m a mom, and it’s not exactly rocket science to figure out how to feed your kids.  Mushed up food first.  Then easy to chew finger foods like Cheerios or diced fruit.  As they get more teeth and more control over their mouth and throat muscles, you can move into bigger and better things like hot dogs or carrot sticks.  Parents should use their brains and rely on common sense a little bit more, instead of on government to take care of their every parenting question.

I always love hearing Liz Cheney speak.  She just has a way of getting to the core of issues with common sense truisms.  Like the time she said, “America needs a commander in chief, not a community organizer.”  Or how about last week when she said, “Vice President Biden has a famously tenuous relationship with reality”?  The girl is a genius, I tell you, a genius!

I made sure to be there for her speech at CPAC to catch the pearls she would undoubtedly throw out to the audience.  I was not disappointed.

She encouraged us Americans not to believe the mainstream media when they us that conservatism is dead.  Massachusetts voters told the mainstream what they could do with their “info”.  We know what Obama’s about now.  He can no longer hide behind hopey-changey campaign promises.  The truth is, he ‘s going to raise everyone’s taxes, because he wants government in every aspect of everyone’s lives.

He also wants terrorists in everyone’s lives.  Obama’s weird pledge to close Gitmo and bring the terrorists into Thompson County, Illinois prisons is not only a bad idea, it’s an expensive one to the tune of $200 million dollars.  And that’s in addition to the taxpayer money already spent on the cost of building and maintaining gitmo.

Ms. Cheney told us that even her 9-year-old daughter had it figured out.  “Mom, is President Obama really bringing terrorists into the US?” her daughter asked.  After hearing her mother’s affirmative response, she responded, “Man, use your brain Dude! That’s really stupid.”  This is not rocket science, people.  Terrorists belong in Gitmo, not America’s heartland.

President Obama is not on top of his game in the national security department.  He revealed US interrogation techniques and then stopped paying attention.  To keep the US safe, he needs to make it a priority, and not treat it like a part time job.

As Americans, we have the right and the obligation to say something.  Too many men and women have paid too high a price for that right to speak, so let’s send a message to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue: You will never silence us.  We have the courage of conviction, which she learned from her dad….

…who then walked on stage.

Dick Cheney was in the house.

To be continued….

Remember this chart?  It was from the 2008 Presidential campaign.  I can’t tell you how many Obama supporters calmly and patiently explained to me that I would be silly to vote for McCain over Obama because I would get a bigger tax cut under Obama.  And I calmly and patiently explained to them that by taxing top earners so significantly, they’d have to cut jobs at their companies.  I also pointed out that in order to fund all of Obama’s socialist pie-in-the-sky ideas, the money would have to come from somewhere, and that I was 100% certain that we’d see that $250k bar drop.

Within a couple of weeks of the inauguration, Obama raised taxes on the poorest people in our country, those who have the highest majority of smokers in their demographic. The cost increase on a pack of nicotine sticks was the highest in US history.

But lots of people don’t see that as a *real* tax, because smokers can choose to quit and probably should for their health.

But even those tobacco-taxes-aren’t-real-taxes people should be worried now.  In an interview out today, President Obama said:

The whole point of it is to make sure that all ideas are on the table… So what I want to do is to be completely agnostic, in terms of solutions.

What I can’t do is to set the thing up where a whole bunch of things are off the table…Some would say we can’t look at entitlements. There are going to be some that say we can’t look at taxes, and pretty soon, you just can’t solve the problem.

The real problem has to do with the fact that there is a just a mismatch between the amount of money coming in and the amount of money going out. And that is going to require some big, tough choices that, so far, the political system has been unable to deal with.

I have a suggestion Mr. President.  How about we spend less money?  Why does Nancy Pelosi need $1000 per week for booze and delicacies on her private cross-country jet rides?  That’s $1000 per week for food and booze, mind you, not the cost of the travel itself. And I’m sure the turtles didn’t really need a $3,400,000 tunnel to cross the road.  What about the $800,000 for repaving a back-up runway at an unused airport?

President Obama, please don’t raise my taxes to fund those ridiculous projects.  I don’t know how much more of your “help” I can afford.

Haitian judge Bernard Saint-Vil reccommended that the 10 missionaries being held on kidnapping charges in Haiti be released, after hearing their testimony yesterday afternoon.

The controversy over these Americans in Haiti began last week when they attempted to cross the border into the Dominican Republic with children they had “rescued” from an orphanage.  Only as it turns out, several of the children still had living parents. The judge also heard testimony from the parents of these children, who readily admitted that they had given their children to the missionaries hoping and praying for a better life for them.

“After listening to the families, I see the possibility that they can all be released,” Saint-Vil told The Associated Press. “I am recommending that all 10 Americans be released.”

That was Wednesday.  By mid-day Thursday, Saint-Vil still had not delivered his formal recommendation to the prosecutor on the case, who could potentially appeal the ruling.

Come on Haiti.  I know it’s a confusing time right now with your main city in a pile of rubble and over 217,000 people dead.  But you guys have bigger problems than holding citizens from a country that has shown you nothing but compassion and generosity.  Like how about taking care of the looters, murderers, and rapists roaming the streets?  I know it might be difficult to differentiate between the criminals and the missionaries, but I’m sure you’ll figure it out.

Otherwise, President Obama needs to grow a pair and pull our troops and funding out of there.  If Haiti wants to play by it’s own rules, that’s fine. But America doesn’t need to fund it.

Today the Supreme Court knocked out significant campaign finance laws, all of which had been unconstitutionally enacted in the name of “fairness.”  The 2002 Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (McCain-Feingold) attempted to restrict electioneering by wealthy corporations and labor unions by barring them from using general treasury funds to pay for advertisements or other broadcasts that mention a political candidate.  Just a little bit of unconstitutional censorship, that’s all.

In a 5-4 vote, the Court lifted those restrictions.  Which means that companies will be able to run ads for candidates they like.  You know what kinds of candidates companies like?  The ones that make it easier for them to actually run their businesses, instead of trying to bankrupt them with mandated health care requirements and cap and trade.  If they can successful run a company, they can expand operations… and create jobs!  Remember, it’s better to have a job and no health care than no job and no health care.

From the White House, President Obama called the ruling a “major victory for big oil, Wall Street banks, health insurance companies and other powerful interests that marshal their power every day in Washington to drown out the voices of everyday Americans.”

This from Mr. Closed Door himself. Obama doesn’t care about everyday Americans.  We’re all just serfs to him, here only to fund his playground of policies and bailouts.  Well we’re done Mr. President.  We’re picking up our toys, packing up our trucks, and going home to the Constitution. Don’t let the sand hit you in the teeth.

After being briefed on the findings of the security reviews that he ordered on the failed panty-bomber on Christmas day, Barack Obama has figured out how to make it safer to travel the used-to-be-friendly skies.  In a press conference this afternoon, Obama gave his 24,374th speech since assuming the Presidency to assure the public that he really (really!) is doing his job.

He said that our government failed to connect the dots to prevent a known terrorist from boarding a plane inbound to the United States and attempting to detonate a bomb. It was the shortcomings of our intelligence agencies, and their inability to connect the dots that allowed Abdulmutallab to board a plane in Amsterdam with a bomb in his underpants.

Even though our intelligence agencies had info on al-Qaeda’s presence in Yemen, they did not aggressively follow up on and prioritize particular streams of intelligence related to a possible attack.  This contributed to a failure of analysis and connecting the dots across the intelligence community.  Which in turn led to shortcomings in the watch system that failed to place the man on the no-fly list.

Since it was not a failure to collect the intelligence, but to integrate the intelligence, the President came up with a four part plan for other people to do their job better.

Step 1: The intelligence community should assign specific responsibility on high priority threats. Not just some of the time, but all of the time. Clear lines of responsibility will lead to clearer communication.

Step 2: When threats to the United States are identified, they should be spread rapidly and widely.

Step 3: They must strengthen the analytical process, including how the annalists examine the intelligence gathered.

Step 4: They must strengthen the criteria for adding people to the watch list and no-fly list.

Obama stated, “My new reforms will help our intelligence community do its job even better, and protect American lives.  Even so, we need security at our airports and borders and through our partnerships with other nations.”  He also told us that it will require significant investments into this area- including 1 billion dollars in new systems and technologies, more baggage screening, more passenger screening, and more advanced explosive detection capabilities.  I think that it’s been proven time and again with education, with the automobile industry, with the banks, with poverty, and with so many other things that the solution is not to throw money at a problem.  It never works.

The President said, “In the never ending race to protect our country, we have to stay one step ahead of a nimble adversary.  That’s what these steps are designed to do…We are at war… war against al-Qaeda…and we will do whatever it takes to defeat them.”

President Obama is blaming the intelligence community of the United States for the attempted attack, but it’s politically correct over-thinking and the lack of common sense that led to Abdulmutallab boarding that plane.  Less intellectual intelligence and more smarts please.  That’s what will keep terrorists off of our planes.  Not a billion dollars worth of nekkid body scanners.

If we will do whatever it takes to keep our citizens safe, why is airport security wasting time confiscating my bottled water, instead of profiling passengers that fit the description of al-Qaeda operatives?

The Mayo Clinic, praised by President Barack Obama as a national model for efficient health care, will stop accepting Medicare patients as of tomorrow at one of its primary-care clinics in Arizona, saying the U.S. government pays too little.

Mayo’s hospital and four clinics in Arizona, including the Glendale facility, lost $120 million on Medicare patients last year, Yardley said. The program’s payments cover about 50 percent of the cost of treating elderly primary-care patients at the Glendale clinic, he said.

Those greedy, selfish doctors.  They only want to help themselves and those horrible insurance companies.  Except, you know, health insurance companies only made about 2.2% profit in 2008. And those doctors are just trying to succeed in their chosen careers, running businesses (offices and hospitals, or in this case the Mayo Clinic), raising families, and paying off an average of $140,000 in medical school debt.

Let’s do some basic reasoning, shall we?  It costs money to treat patients.  The medical equipment, the drugs, the cost the building, salaries for receptionists, accountants, and other administrative staff… well, the list could go on, but I don’t have all day here.  Since it costs money to treat people, medical professionals charge their patients for their services.  Just like one pays for their home, clothing, groceries, transportation, and other necessities and/or frivolities.  That’s just the way life works.  If you want something, including medical care, you pay for it or find someone willing to give it to you.

Insert the government.  The government has stepped into an arena where it has no business being, and demands that doctors not charge certain patients more than a given amount, regardless of the patient’s history or circumstances, and regardless of how much it actually costs to treat that patient.  As stated above, the Mayo Clinic was only able to charge the government for about half of the cost spent treating Medicare patients.  Well, the Mayo Clinic has bills to pay, so they have to get that money from somewhere.  Guess where?  The privately patients paying out of pocket or through their own private health insurance. Which is one of many reasons health insurance is so expensive.

The Mayo Clinic has given up trying to recoup any of the money lost to a government run health plan.  They need to pay their bills.  They need to make a profit so they can hire more doctors and researchers and scientists to discover and develop new ways to fight disease and illness.  They can’t keep bleeding money to the government, and it’s not fair to their other patients, who have to involuntarily pick up the extra expenses.

How long before other facilities close their doors to government health care plans?  How long before the government will force them to remain open?  How long before the doctors quit?  How long before the government forces them to remain doctors?  I know it sounds extreme, but let’s follow the line along the path.  The government will make it so unpleasant and unprofitable to practice medicine that no one will want to do it.  Then to “fix” the problem that it created, the government might begin assigning careers to people…like they do in Communist China.

That’s a worst case scenario, of course.  But why even take one step down that path?  Let’s turn around and run the other way.  Let’s privatize health care again.  It’s the only system proven to truly work.