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From Drudge

Kirkendall Current Events

On Thursday, Chelsea Premium Outlets opened a $100 million 400,000-square-foot shopping mall in the city of Monroe. And I’m thrilled. The mall is located south of state route 63, less than a mile off interstate 75. Several months ago construction began on state route 63, which reduced the road from two lanes to one. The area is a haven for Semi-trailer trucks because it’s a massive trucking stop. The construction has made turns for trucks especially challenging; sometimes they have to stop, back up, because some dope in the turn lane had crawled too far forward which doesn’t allow room for the truck to swing around into the lane. Not that I’m some bleeding heart truck lover; it creates congestion — and pissed off computer technicians that just wants to get onto the highway.

Additional construction on I-75 removed the need for any exit lane — instead cars exiting 75 South and just turn onto the exit ramp from the slow lane. Along with having only one lane to cross the bridge and onto the road that gets you to the mall, the mall traffic caused cars exiting 75 to cause the entire interstate into a crawl because traffic bleed onto the highway. Exit lanes. Who the fuck needs them?

Then there’s cops, cops, cops. I counted, at least, five. Directing traffic. One of whom stopped a major road with a decent flow of cars — a major thoroughfare for Monroe — allow just two cars (TWO!) to turn onto the mall road. Screw us. We just live here. They’re potential buyers.

I so thrilled.

In truth, it looks like the mall opening was a big success.

More than 300 people stood outside Nike Factory Store, where the first 200 customers received free water bottles and $10 gift cards. Basketball legend Oscar Robertson is scheduled to make a 1 p.m. appearance.

Ultra Diamonds gave a free pearl necklace to their first 100 shoppers, and Banana Republic Factory Store has marked everything 40 percent off through Sunday.

Good for them. Good for the city. Good for everyone, right? The Enquirer did acknowledge the traffic problem.

Traffic to the outlet mall started backed up along northbound Interstate 75 after the Ohio 129 exit in neighboring Liberty Township. At the exit ramp onto Ohio 63 in Monroe, traffic appeared to snarl mostly during the morning rush hour from semi tractor-trailers stacked up to turn westbound onto Ohio 63, not cars headed to the mall. As of 10 a.m., traffic was flowing smoothly off the exit ramp.

Well, as long as it’s only rush hour. After all, I’m sure people are thrilled at waking up earlier in the morning. I’m sure people are thrilled to be late into work. We’re all just thrilled.

Kirkendall Current Events

When the government says that they’ll shut you down for not paying taxes, you better believe that they’re serious. Otherwise, how could they fund their Mickey Mouse Robin Hood organization, rewarding the unmotivated while punishing people because they work hard, get a good education and actually contribute to the country’s economy.

Meet eight-year old Daniela Earnest of Tulare, California. Daniela wanted to "raise money for a family trip to Disneyland", so the young girl opened a lemonade stand on Monday. Makes sense. If you want something, you go out of your way to earn it. That seems, you know, logical? Well, unless you’re a liberal. Then you’re totally mind-fucked.

The city of Tulare shut down the girl’s lemonade stand because she didn’t have a business license. The lesson learned here is that whether you’re an eight-year old girl, Bill Gates, or Bernie Madoff, you’re not safe without a business license. That, or just stay away from California.

Kirkendall Politics

While terrorists and radicals have yet to receive the memo, the White House says that the "War on Terrorism is over" writes the Washington Times.

It’s official. The U.S. is no longer engaged in a “war on terrorism.” Neither is it fighting “jihadists” or in a “global war.”

President Obama’s top homeland security and counterterrorism official took all three terms off the table of acceptable words inside the White House during a speech Thursday at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank.

“The President does not describe this as a ‘war on terrorism,’” said John Brennan, head of the White House homeland security office, who outlined a “new way of seeing” the fight against terrorism.

The only terminology that Mr. Brennan said the administration is using is that the U.S. is “at war with al Qaeda.”

“We are at war with al Qaeda,” he said. “We are at war with its violent extremist allies who seek to carry on al Qaeda’s murderous agenda.”

So if you’re a terrorist that doesn’t have links to Al Qaeda, you can rest easy. Continue with your bomb making, suicide killing ways because the White House no longer views you as the enemy. You’re just another group with passionate beliefs. And count yourself lucky that you’re not an American with right-wing views. Otherwise, you’d be on lists, databases while Nancy Pelosi shakes her head at the swastika that you pray to. (bitch)

Liberals know the threat to America. And it’s not terrorists. It’s those god damn informed Americans, screwing everything up.

Kirkendall Current Events, Politics

The White House is going on a “new offensive”, trying to inform people of the “disinformation” that’s out there. Let it be known that if you’re passionately opposed to the Health Care reform proposed by the Democrats, then you’re a right-wing extremist. How nice.

The new offensive started early Tuesday morning when the White House posted a video response to a hodgepodge of clips on the Drudge Report that portrayed President Obama as favoring the elimination of private insurance. On the White House blog, Obama’s director of new media, Macon Phillips, asked supporters to send in leads for debunking chain e-mails or anything else that “seems fishy.”

It continued through the day with press secretary Robert Gibbs and Democratic National Committee spokesman Brad Woodhouse both saying a series of confrontational town hall meetings were manufactured by Republicans, conservative groups and lobbyists who are paid to drum up opposition.

Woodhouse described them as “angry mobs of rabid right-wing extremists” that populated McCain-Palin rallies last year.

Macon Phillips wrote on the White House’s official site:

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

For what purpose would they need this information? What would the “White House” do with this information? Bill Collier wrote this email to “flag@whitehouse.gov”.

Greetings, sir, I pray for your health and that God may grant you peace and wisdom.

I am writing to you at this email address because of a post at the White House blog that, frankly, sir, has me a bit concerned.

I am certain that you are committed to freedom and liberty and do not intend on decreasing the level of freedom or the participation of citizens in the process of deciding public policy for our nation, even if that might mean that some of your initiatives have to be scaled back or simply abandoned.

Some might, however, question your commitment to freedom and the participation of citizens in the decision making process and this is why I am writing, respectfully, in the hope of seeing a happy resolution to what I hope is merely a poorly stated appeal for help in support of your health care initiative.

I understand you are asking people, through your staff, to email flag@whitehouse.gov to report people who oppose your health care plan, even though, Mr. President, you have NOT actually sent out a specific proposal and there are multiple different proposals.

Your appeal, which I sincerely fear is a call for informants (http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/Facts-Are-Stubborn-Things/) was cloaked in what seems to some, myself included, doublespeak, and to my mind this appeal carries the implication that the White House wants to capture the names of opponents, which has a potentially chilling effect on open debate.

As part of this appeal, you tell your readers, basically, that people who are citing video of yourself calling for a single payer system and detailing an incrementalist approach ‘liars’, something that is both impolite and, frankly, juvenile and beneath contempt. Those statements were made by you, Mr. President. If indeed you are opposed to a single payer plan and have changed your mind, it is useful to you, and citizens who may even support you but for this perception, it is wise, I submit, to clear this matter up rather by clarifying yourself rather than blaming others for a reasonable and logical assumption based on what you actually said.

Mr. President, facts ARE stubborn things and unless or until you publicly disavow a single payer system and actually ANNOUNCE and put in print YOUR health care proposal, it is only reasonable to think that all those things you have said are still on the table and part of your overall plan. If, however, you want a single payer system, please tell us and put in writing what your plan is so that we can have a civil discourse.

Mr. President, are you willing to state what your plan is then publicly disavow any plan that involves single payer plans in any fashion?

Further, Mr. President, would you be willing to solemnly swear that the minute you propose or even SIGN any bill that includes a single player plan or a precursor thereto that you will resign your office? Are you willing, sir, to resign your office if the implementation of your plan results in anything more than a 10% decrease in the number of people enrolled in private plans within 4 years after whatever bill is passed?

Please be advised, Mr. President, I will not be monitored: I oppose what some refer to as ‘Obamacare’ on the basis of my conviction that the Federal Power has no business sticking its nose in such things, a point of view that I sincerely believe is consistent with the original intent of our Founders. I respect that you feel differently and read that differently, but to dismiss our point of view with juvenile and petty name-calling that is clearly beneth contempt and that is simply not professional is a reflection on the content of your character that will not turn Americans against those who oppose state-run or regulated and managed health care by ANY name.

I am NOT afraid to stand up for my convictions, I respect you and your office, and I rightfully and justly demand that you and your staff respect me and my office, the office of “elector”, one of your 300 million “bosses”.

I respectfully request that you stop asking people to become informants, please spend a few minutes and re-read your constitution which you swore to uphold, and which is a condition of your tenure which must be adhered to.

I am enclosing a copy of this email to my member of Congress, my Senators, and my Governor as well as any local media and asking them to investigate WHY the White House is trying to capture names of opponents and asking people to inform on opponents.

If your office is seeking to obtain names of people who oppose your plan and to engage other Americans as informants or agents I would, and I am sure many others would, consider this to be a SERIOUS offense against the Bill of Rights if indeed your objective here is to do this, so, with this in mind, sir, please cease and desist and respect even those who oppose you in a civil and fair manner.

I pray that this communication is seen as a friendly appeal for a quick and amicable resolution of my concerns or, at worse, a friendly rebuke, if you will, due to what is clearly impolite behavior that is beneath of the dignity of the Presidency or the White House.

May you continue to be in good health and good spirits as you lead our free nation of free and sovereign citizens who wish you, and America, godspeed within the reasonable constraints of liberty, justice, and our Constitution.

Yours in service to the Republic,

Bill Collier,
By the Grace of God, Citizen and Elector, The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, The United States of America
Marysville PA

PS I have BCC’d this to other individuals and hope that they, too, stand up by name and without fear, knowing that your White House, Mr. President, would never seek to in any way censure or persecute in any manner any citizen for simply questioning your policies or conduct: I am sure you will agree with me that the best way to dispel such myths is to reply in a cordial and civil manner to such citizens, even your loyal opposition.

Kirkendall Current Events, Politics

“We urge our fans to drink a lot of Welsh whiskey as a form of disinfection,” VOB head Alexander Shprygin told Reuters.

“That should cure all symptoms of the disease.”

[FoxNews]

Well, then. I should be plenty immune when the next “outbreak” happens. In other news, rednecks, rock stars, construction workers and the homeless have the highest immunization rates.

Kirkendall Current Events

Josh Kirkendall Uncategorized

From Investors.com.

The results are clear: Since 1970 — even without the prescription drug benefit — Medicare’s costs have risen 34% more, per patient, than the combined costs of all health care in America apart from Medicare and Medicaid, the vast majority of which is purchased through the private sector.

Since 1970, the per-patient costs of all health care apart from Medicare and Medicaid have risen from $364 to $7,119, while Medicare’s per-patient costs have risen from $368 to $9,634. Medicare’s costs have risen $2,511 more per patient.

These conclusions are true despite very generous treatment of Medicare. My study counts Medicare’s prescription drug expenditures as part of privately purchased care, rather than as part of Medicare. It counts health care purchased privately by Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries (including Medicare copayments and Medigap insurance) among the costs of private care, without counting its recipients among those receiving private care — thereby magnifying private care’s per-person costs. And it doesn’t adjust for cost-shifting from Medicare to private entities.

Josh Kirkendall Politics health care

In a nationally televised event at the White House, Obama said families need better information so they don’t unthinkingly approve “additional tests or additional drugs that the evidence shows is not necessarily going to improve care.

He added: “Maybe you’re better off not having the surgery, but taking the painkiller.”

Obama said he has personal familiarity with such a dilemma. His grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, was diagnosed with terminal cancer and given less than nine months to live, he said.

She fell and broke her hip, “and the question was, does she get hip replacement surgery, even though she was fragile enough they were not sure how long she would last?”

That was during ABC News’ special about ObamaCare (or Infomercial). Here’s what the elderly should look forward to.

Medical decisions should be made by patients, their families, and their doctors, not by government bureaucrats, but that’s ObamaCare for you.

In the Washington Examiner, “Guillaume Vuillemey, a researcher at France’s Institut Economique Molinari, and Philip Stevens, a researcher at Britain’s International Policy Network write”:

The Obama plan is supposed to make health insurance more competitive. But heavy subsidies will give it a big advantage, pulling an estimated 118.5 million people from private insurers to the public system. This government-subsidized system will eventually dominate the market in a way that would overrule competition.

This is precisely what happened in Britain. The state provides most health care, via the National Health Service. Patients have almost no say over which physician, surgeon or hospital they can use, while professionals have to conform to government plans and targets.

After its birth in 1948, planners soon found that “free” health care multiplied demand. NHS founder Lord Beveridge predicted free health care would cut spending as health improved.

The opposite was true. Between 1949 and 1979, it tripled in real terms. The service now costs twice as much as it did 10 years ago, with productivity down 4.5 percent.

One way government tries to limit demand is to decree which new drugs can be prescribed. Many drugs, widely available in America and continental Europe, are denied to British patients.

State mismanagement has also created waiting lines for hospitals, on average causing 8.6 weeks of waiting. Once inside, budgetary cutbacks on cleaning and maintenance mean higher rates of an antibiotic-resistant variety of staph infection. This “superbug” has turned even routine surgery into a lottery of death.

Britain may be an extreme example. Many point to France as a better example of public insurance delivering high-quality, equitable care. While it’s true that French patients do enjoy better care and shorter waits than the British, this is due to a far greater reliance on independent health care and greater freedom from government for doctors and patients.

Yet this plus side is expensive. The French government is trying to control costs by increasing regulation of the private sector, meaning it will soon become more similar to Britain.

In France, there are already “medical deserts,” particularly in the suburbs and countryside. In some places, patients wait more than six months to see an ophthalmologist.

Josh Kirkendall Politics health care, obama

Apparently stimulus money and broadband are not all that interesting to the local folk here: Only around 100 or so people have showed up so far to hear Biden talk at noon at Seneca High School off Route 8 in Wattsburg. The room looked so sparse that about 30 or so chairs were removed by volunteers to give the illusion of a full house. The effect didn’t exactly work.

Obviously Biden The Popular isn’t following the Go “Fuck Yourself” Cheney model of the Vice Presidency. If he did, he might gather more than 100 people at a rally.

Josh Kirkendall Politics