Archive for June 2012
After finally defeating Hillary Clinton in one of the most drawn out and contentious Democrat primaries in recent memory and finally reaching the finish line, in his primary victory speech Barack Obama promised America this:
“This was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal.”
source: HuffPo – Obama’s Nomination Victory Speech
So when the greatest wildfires in Colorado history hit, the obvious question was, where was the messiah in his duties of healing the earth and stopping the fires?
98% of the time Obama goes infront of the press, he reads prepared remarks from his teleprompter and then quickly leaves the podium before any questions can be asked, but were I given a media pass and afforded the opportunity to ask a question, here’s what I would ask:
Mr. President, your defense budget cuts 65 C-130 aircraft from our national fleet at a time when the available planes are stretched to their thinest by your escalated war in Afghanistan. These C-130 planes can be fitted to drop 3,000 gallons of fire-retardent material in 5 seconds and are our most powerful weapon againt raging wildfires such as the one in Colorado which has now become the worst in state history.
As the man who promised to America that he would be the president who would slow the rise of the oceans and heal the planet, how do you explain the fact that your policies have actually made worse the attempt to slow the massive wildfires in Colorado?
To which I’m quite certain he’d reply something to the effect of:
Let me be clear, our administration inherited an unprecedented level of drought and high temperatures across the nation, which caused the unprecedented amount of dry brush in Colorado which has fueled this unprecedented firestorm.
Make no mistake about it, it was the policies of the previous administration that were responsible for the climate change in America, so to remedy this, our administration has created an all-powerful EPA which answers to no one. By bypassing and circumventing all existing laws and even Congress itself, this administration’s EPA has been given free reign to fine, harass and destroy any businesses that it deems as having contributed to this unseasonable pattern of hot summer temperatures and climate change in general.
The solution is clear. It won’t happen overnight. There will be setbacks and false starts, but ultimately, we can borrow enough money from China to have all of my billionaire campaign donors receive lucrative government contracts to install solar panels on every building in America and end once and for all the scourge of dry brush and hot summers in America.
So today marks 38 days of yours truly being back on the straight and narrow, off the sauce and completely focused.
The reality of my situation is that my life vascilates between long periods of intense productivity interspersed with shorter periods of what I like to call “deep reflection.” It’s always been a proposition of either / or for me, with the middle path of balance and moderation something I’ve never been able to master, no matter how much I obsessively fantasize of drinking like the normies. The decision then becomes a choice between being an upstanding citizen, focused and diligent in my work, or being out of control in revelry and abandonment, half-part the charming philosopher and half-part the crude and outrageous blasphemer.
The truth is I love drinking more than life itself, a pretty scandalous thing for a person to admit, but in my own defense, on more days than not, I’ve chosen what’s best for those around me over that which I love best in my heart.
So I woke up this morning sober but restless and stressed out on some unforeseen and overwhelming issues that had been dropped in my lap yesterday and my roommate seeing my distress offered me a couple 0.5 MG pills of Xanax (also known as also known as Alprazolam) and I took her up on the offer, asking if she could spare four instead of two in the name of giving it an even more intense investigation, so she relented and as I began writing this, I took four 0.5mg pink pills, which equals the 2mg white pill from the picture above, the pill and dosage that’s known and loved on the streets as “Xanibars.”
A more prudent sequence would have been to investigate the drug first and then partake, but of course, being the contrarian I am, I did it backwards, popping the pills first and then searching the Internet to find the following tidbits worthy of consideration:
1) “It’s so much easier to take people off heroin. I’d rather take 100 people off heroin than one person of Xanax because I know they’ll have a year of withdrawal,” says addiction specialist Dr. Jerry Callaway.
Okay, kind of scary, but I have no plans of getting a prescription for myself and I’m not the type to bum more than a few pills from my roomie.
2) From the FDA’s adverse events data base, between 2004 and March 2011, people using Xanax reported more than 11,000 adverse events. They include 83 deaths, 107 completed suicides and 100 comas.
Sounds scary on the surface, but when you consider Xanax is the #1 most perscribed drug in America, with 47 million prescriptions in 2011, these numbers are not all that bad, especially when you consider people seeking out those prescriptions are a higher-risk category than most. Had they been given a placebo instead, those numbers might be the same or perhaps even worse. Not surprisingly then . . .
3) A spokeswoman for Pfizer, the manufacturer of Xanax says, “When prescribed and taken as indicated Xanax has a well established safety profile and is an important treatment option that has benefitted millions of patients.”
and
4) Users are encourage to tell their doctor if they have or have ever had depression; if you they had thoughts of suicide or harming themselves; if they have alcoholism or if they drink or have ever drunk large amounts of alcohol; if they use or have ever used street drugs or have overused prescription medications; if they smoke; if they have had seizures; or if they have or have ever had lung, kidney, or liver disease.
Well, starting from the smoking question, at least I can say no on the last five.
5) Do not stop taking alprazolam or decrease your dose without talking to your doctor. If you suddenly stop taking alprazolam you may experience withdrawal symptoms such as seizures; shaking of a part of your body that you cannot control; headache; blurred vision; increased sensitivity to noise or light; change in sense of smell; sweating; difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep; difficulty concentrating; nervousness; depression; irritability; agressive behavior; muscle twitching or cramps; diarrhea; vomiting; pain, burning, numbness, or tingling in the hands or feet; a decrease in appetite; or weight loss.
Yikes.
sources: Citizens Commission on Human Rights Internation and The U.S. National Library of Medicine
. . . Well, I have to say that shit hit me fast. Before I even made it to writing this line, I had to lie down thinking I need to rest my eyes for just a bit, only to check my watch and realize that I’d been “resting my eyes” for four hours of nearly comatose sleep. It seems that starting off with 2mg was a bit much for this Xanax virgin, it hit me like a powerful sleeping pill more than anything else and I overshot that calm and blissful buzz so many people rave about.
Looks like this reporter will have to return again for another investigative piece on adventures with prescription meds, taking a more moderate dose of Xanax next time. Stay tuned and I’ll keep you posted.
* Reason #1: Liberal pundits and the Obama State Media have now been robbed of their pre-prepared talking point about those evil five conservatives justices having ruled against the noble four non-partisan justices.
* Reason #2: Lib pundits and the OSM look like idiots for running that whole “cynical politicized decision” narrative pre-emptively, before the decision was even made!
* Reason #3: Liberals lose a “Bring Back Free Health Care” rallying cry for the troops in November. (And yes, when they say “free health care,” they really do visualize something along the lines of money growing on trees.)
* Reason #4: Spoken well by @TIMENOUT:
This is now a tax it’s not an individual mandate. I don’t think this works out well for Obama he wanted a individual mandate NOT A TAX
source: @TIMENOUT on Twitter
By saying the mandate was constitutional, not via the commerce cause, but by correctly identifying the mandate as a tax, Obamacare is now officially branded the largest tax increase in US history.
* Reason #5: Obama now looks like the sleazy, lying politician he is for having denied that Obamacare is a tax increase from the beginning and unless Obama wants to disagree with the ruling and how the court reached it, he’s either forced to finally admit that Obamacare is indeed a tax increase or he will end up looking like even more of a sleazeball by continuing to try to deny it.
* Reason #6: As a candidate, Obama told America this: “I can make a firm pledge – under my plan, no family making less that $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase.” If Obama wants to accept the verdict, he must also admit to yet another broken promise here, with the bi-partisan Congressional Budget Office projecting that Obamacare taxes may amount to $1.7 trillion (that’s trillion with a “t”) over a decade.
* Reason #7: We are reminded once again how Barack Obama mocked Hillary’s support of a mandate during the primaries, only to suddenly embrace the mandate after signing Obamacare into law.
* Reason #8: A tweet from Pineapple Candidate says it well.
The #ObamaTAX can B repealed as part of a budget b/c IT IS A TAX. Budgets R immune from Senate filibuster. Simple Majority will repeal.
— Benghazi Pineapple (@2012Pineapple) June 28, 2012
That’s right, the bar for dismantling Obamacare in the Senate was just lowered from 60 to 51.
* Reason #9: The albatross of Obamacare hangs even heavier around the neck of Barack Obama as the large majority of Americans who disapprove of Obamacare continue to be reminded how much they dislike this government takeover of health care.
* Reason #10: Nothing could have rallied Conservatives any more than this decision. Conservatives have more motivation now than ever to show up and vote in November and finally put and end to the long national nightmare of the Obama years.
Just finished donating money to mitt romney. My first political donation EVER!!
— Brian Skinner (@Rushlimbang) June 28, 2012
https://twitter.com/Rick_Corbett/status/218356277712134145
Loading ...So, the headlines will tell us Obama won on Obamacare, but did he? The larger story may be that the Supreme Court ruled the mandate was constitutional not as a part of the Commerce Clause, but by defining Obamacare’s mandate as within Congress’ powers to tax the citizenry. Viewed in that light, there can be no denying that Obamacare is the largest tax increase in American history.
Up until this point, Barack Obama stringently denied that Obamacare was a tax increase, twisting logic to an extreme rarely witnessed, even for a politician.
Even long-time Democrat loyalist George Stephanopoulos tried to get Obama to state the plain and obvious fact:
STEPHANOPOULOS: Under this mandate, the government is forcing people to spend money, fining you if you don’t. How is that not a tax?
OBAMA: Well, hold on a second, George. Here — here’s what’s happening. You and I are both paying $900, on average — our families — in higher premiums because of uncompensated care. Now what I’ve said is that if you can’t afford health insurance, you certainly shouldn’t be punished for that. That’s just piling on. If, on the other hand, we’re giving tax credits, we’ve set up an exchange, you are now part of a big pool, we’ve driven down the costs, we’ve done everything we can and you actually can afford health insurance, but you’ve just decided, you know what, I want to take my chances. And then you get hit by a bus and you and I have to pay for the emergency room care, that’s…
STEPHANOPOULOS: That may be, but it’s still a tax increase.
source: ABC News – Obama: Mandate is Not a Tax
So you have to love the irony that the same Obama who refused to call Obamacare a tax increase ended up winning the case for its constitutionality by an administration legal defense arguing Obamacare was indeed a tax!
So Obama won, but I wonder how that victory tastes now that Obamacare has been officially branded for the tax increase it is and with the albatross of the most unpopular piece of legislation in recent history hanging heavier than ever around Obama’s neck.
This battle has only just begun, and opponents can now rally against Obamacare, calling it for exactly what it is:
“Repeal Obama’s Health Care Tax”
Again it calls to mind the ad Obama used against Hillary during the Democrat primaries:
Obama Flyer Mocking the Individual Mandate
Today, the Supreme Court is expected to hand down its ruling on the constituionality of Obamacare, so in my second post in the Obama vs. Obama series, I will compare and contrast Obama the exaulted teleprompter reader with Obama the sociopathic sellout and demonstrate how the president’s split personalities have manifested themselves in his “signature achievement.”
From the moment Obama took office, while the economy grew worse and worse and the job picture for Americans bleaker by the day, instead of addressing the economy, his Democrat-controlled Congress was completely consumed with trying to invent Obamacare and then pass it. While Congress was stuck in the mire of the health care swamp, most Americans were angry, saying, “Forget all that and get this economy turned around!”
By the time the fourteen-month ordeal was finally over, any hopes supporters may have had for a national celebration over Obamacare’s passage were dashed. The widespread unpopularity of the bill was undeniable, as shown in this list of all the major polls from March 2010:
And over two years later, Obamacare is still unpopular by a wide margin to this very day:
source: Real Clear Politics aggregate polls
Obamacare, an absolute pig of a bill weighing in at 2,700 pages with an additional 5,931 pages of regulations and counting.
Obamacare, a bill so convoluted, it’s chief architect Nancy Pelosi dismissed questions about the details of the bill by saying, “We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it.” In other words, don’t bother us with the details, you pesky little peons, we know what’s best for you better than you do.
But just as bad as the bureaucratic nightmare of placing the government in control of one-sixth of the nation’s economy may be, creating enough redtape to hogtie all the businesses in America, just as bad as all that is the reality of the spineless president who sold out the ideals he campaigned for in exchange for a place in history as the man who socialized American medicine.
Obama of the Most Transparent Administration Ever:
A minute after he took office, the White House website declared his administration would become “the most open and transparent in history.” By the end of his first full day on the job, Obama had issued high-profile orders pledging “a new era” and “an unprecedented level of openness” across the massive federal government.
source: Politico
Obama the Sellout:
Special backroom deals made with Big Pharma and Big Unions selling out the interests of the public at large in order to buy the the favor of these well-monied lobbyists. Congressional requests for a range of documents relating to meetings and negotiations over the health care law were denied by the White House. So much for the transparency we were promised.
source: Daily Caller
Beyond the sleezy and underhanded way Obamacare was passed against the will of the people, how about the two most important parts of Obamacare that Obama campaigned on?
Obama the Campaigner, mocking the Insurance mandate:
If a mandate was the solution, we could try that to solve homelessness by mandating everybody buy a house. The reason they don’t have a house is they don’t have the money. – Candidate Obama, February 5, 2008
source: CBS Minnesota
Obama the Sellout:
I’ll leave it to Adam Green of the liberal group Progressive Campaign Committee, who said it quite well: “President Obama should frankly feel ashamed that he promised Americans a public option, got people to believe real change was possible, and then never truly fought for it – instead, pushing an insurance mandate that he specifically campaigned against.”
source: USA Today
Obama the Ultimatum Giver:
“Any plan I sign must include an insurance exchange, including a public option to increase competiton and keep insurance companies honest.” – President Obama, July 18, 2009
Obama the Sellout:
You hear that Congress? Obama the Bold will not sign any plan that doesn’t include a public option and yet, with his own party controlling both houses of Congress, he did exactly that, caving on the public option and proving how empty this president’s words are when he gives an ultimatum.
Forget the Obama-worshiping apologists and their lame analogies trying to compare the Obamacare mandate to car insurance laws, you can choose not to drive and you can choose instead to walk or ride a bus, but tomorrow we will see if the Federal Government can force every living, breathing citizen in the nation to either buy into Obamacare or face IRS fines and imprisonment. Tomorrow, we will see if the Supreme Court believes there should be any limits left to restrain the power of our Federal Government.
For now then, let’s enjoy a supreme moment of irony in the chronicles of Obama vs. Obama, when Teleprompter Obama was attacking Hillary Clinton for supporting an individual mandate:
Obama Flyer Mocking the Individual Mandate
source: NY Daily News
May the same Obama who ridiculed Hillary’s support of the mandate only to embrace it in the end see his signature achievement undone by that very same mandate that he once mocked.