Melissa Harris-Perry

I have the utmost respect for MSNBC's Melissa Harris-Perry. I watch her show on Saturday and Sunday mornings as often as possible. She is bright, thought provoking and entertaining, a rare combination on this otherwise morbid network. 

She gets into trouble often because of her unflinching Liberal viewpoint and it a lightening rod for Conservatives. But her worst week was last week when she callously mocked the Mitt Romney family for their adoption of an African American child.  The Twitterverse, blogosphere and Conservative news outlets exploded in outrage. And I was certainly outraged, too.

However, I Tweeted Tuesday morning that I was absolutely confident that Harris-Perry would apologize. Not thirty minutes later she did. 

She also apologized on the air Saturday. It was the most heartfelt and genuine apology I've witnessed from a public figure.  Not only did Harris-Perry deeply regret her error, I believe she genuinely learned from the experience.

In short, Melissa Harris-Perry is no Joy Reid. She is an asset to today's political debate and the most valuable member of the MSNBC Team.

Happy Holidays 2013

The 2013 Apple Holiday Commercial has gone viral, as well it should. This moving tribute to the importance and value of friends and family is virtually impossible to watch without tearing up.  I'm pretty sure Apple has managed to capture the real meaning of Christmas... and all holidays for all religions. 

 

This moving version of "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" is by the incredibly talented Cat Power and is available on iTunes.

Seething in a Cauldron of Hate

Christmas Day was an interesting time for those of us reading in the political corners of the blogs, Facebook and Twitter.  As most of you know I follow an equal number of Conservatives and Progressives/Liberals on Twitter and in my reading of blogs.  I work hard to do this as I feel it's important to get both points of view.

While my observations are merely anecdotal and not scientific, they startled me greatly.  Progressives and Liberals posted Tweets filled with hate and vitriol all day Christmas.  It was sad and disturbing to see and read.  Regularly posted were hate filled condemnations of Republicans,the Tea Party and, especially mocking or outright condemning Christians.

Meanwhile the conservatives all were posting greetings of love, cheer, blessings and Holiday Joy! Conservative posts contained pictures of family and friends, Christmas Trees and Holiday anecdotes.

I don;t understand the hate.  Seriously, I don't know why so many Liberals are consumed in hate.  It just can't be healthy.

The hate is so all encompassing, it prevents even remotely logical thought.  It becomes an obsession.  Witness this terribly sad example of hate filled insanity from Joy Reid on MSNBC.  She hates Sarah Palin so much she felt obligated to file an astonishing piece of complete nonsense about Palin's anti-biblical worship of.... Christmas Trees!  As you watch this short clip notice Sarah Palin was talking about Family Love.  Shere never once mentions Christmas Trees.  That didn't stop Reid.

 

I know Reid hoped to illustrate some flaw in Sarah Palin, perhaps Biblical hypocrisy, but she sailed way off the mark into sea waters of stunning stupidity. Only sheer hatred can take you this far off course.

Compare Palin's Chirstmas Greeting with Michelle Obama's wonderful White House tour of the many Christmas Trees found throughout the Obama Home and Nation's Capitol.  You'll notice immediately how Sarah Palin's message and Michelle Obam's message are virtually IDENTICAL!! Yet Joy Reid's hate and vitriol are reserved only for Sarah Palin.

 

It is interesting to note that no Christmas Tree was ever displayed in the White House until 1856 when President Franklin Pierce, a Democrat from New Hampshire, installed the very first White House Christmas Tree. The move was incredibly unpopular. There was even talk of impeachment for President Pierce for allowing a pagan German tradition into the White House.

It is the ultimate irony that Joy Reid is condemning Palin for following a tradition started by a open minded Democrat President.

Anecdotal Evidence

ObamaScare
by SCOTT SCHABLOW

So far, my experience with The Affordable Care Act provides me with ZERO confidence that any part of it will ever produce anything other than chaos. I am hereby renaming the plan ObamaScare, because frankly it frightens the hell out of me. Friends tell me stories about premiums rising 1000%, A friend called the Alabama Insurance Department and the spokesperson there said the average Alabamian may see a 300% increase in premiums. That is IF ANYONE EVER GETS TO COMPLETE THE PROCESS! I spent a couple hours filling out the online application. The section before the identity verification kept losing my information each time I logged off, even after repeated saves. Each time I logged back in I had to re-enter the same information. This game I repeated SIX TIMES at about 30 minutes each. I FINALLY got to the end of the section and I was ready to embark on the ID verification process and present the submitted application tfor verification.

But wait, after I submitted the information for the ID verification process I got an error saying that my ID could not be verified online. I needed to call the Healthcare Marketplace. Where is this cool sounding marketplace? Near the Wharf in SanFran? Or maybe PepperPlace in B'ham? Nope it's nowheresville. I place the call. After waiting on hold a short while I heard, "Hello this is the hellfiredamgeplace whatdjks;aieh kdsljf". Assuming that the inaudible mumbling I just heard actually confirmed I had called the correct place, I proceeded with, "Yes, hello, I am trying to fill out my application at Healtcare.gov (I really wanted to say I'm battling ObamaScare Gallactica!) and I got to the part where I need to verify my identity and I got an error saying to call this number."

She says "OK." Silence. . . more silence. . . not a word. Me: "Hello, is anyone there?' She: "yes." Then more silence, but this time I can hear someone in the background whispering, "Ask him mumble mumble blah blah." More silence (even the mysterious whispers have stopped). Then, like someone jumping out of a closet in front of an unsuspecting kid feeling this way through a dark hallway, "SIR, WHAT CAN I HELP YOU WITH?" Well by now I'm thinking, you can get me one of those portable de-fib units they have at public spaces - and set that phaser to stun 'cause you just gave me a heart attack! I recomposed myself and essentially repeat the same, "the web site told me to call you" blurb. Then I added is this the right number?" She assures me it is and that some other people have had trouble in that spot." BINGO, SCORE WE HAVE A WINNER, she knows what I'm talking about! Smooth sailing ahead! I wait with great anticipation for forthcoming wisdom; an action plan to set this thing into motion!

She says, "Umm, just a minute" and puts me on hold. Tick tock, tick tock. Another blanket of silence has covered this corpse of a customer service call. And this has officially, at this very second, shredded my hope of ever seeing my family alive again. Oh, sorry, It just felt that way. She returns again, this time at a normal volume level and the mumbling is understandable. But it's not exactly professional, or semi-professional or even business casual. It's an insulting combination of slang phrases and one word sentences that has no place in an private office conversation, much less in a customer service center. Things like "do wut," uh-huh, gonna, naw, nuttin', ain't and more. Aside from the slacker talk, the bottom line is the system wouldn't work for me, nobody could fix it, tell me why or what's wrong or anything. Oh, except I needed to write down my name, address, telephone number, and MAIL it with a copy of my driver's license, social security card, a lock of my hair, a DNA swab, a urine sample, fingerprints, a retinal scan, a psychological evaluation and my Facebook password. I asked her if she could just get a copy of the stuff she's needin' from the NSA, because they've been following me for years. Silence. Me: "I'm just kidding, I'll send the stuff, gimme the address. " She does and proceeds to tell me it would take 3 to 8 weeks to get verified. I'm no math whiz but I know there is not 8 weeks left in the year. "Ma'am, if it takes 8 weeks, what am I supposed to do for health insurance in the meantime. She: "I dunno" I hang up, resolved to find a real solution.

Today a friend tells me the new web site actually works. But she also says that I better get back in there quick because she had to start over. I login tonight and the application resumes on STEP NUMBER ONE. All the information I have entered again and again is gone. Along with it is a popup message saying that I need to remove, delete and destroy the old application and start all over again. Lucky number seven, right? Well tonight, I aint' doin' nuttin' like 'at. Gonna chill away from ObamaScare and dream of a better time.

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Scott Schablow is a long time friend. He is the Director of Digital Marketing & Social Media for The Hip Brand Group in Birmingham, Alabama. This essay originally appeared on Scott's Facebook page and is reprinted here with his permission. 

Religion and Science

Liberals tend to mistrust organized religions, especially rigid and structured sects that demand great conformity among its practitioners.  That mistrust turns to outright rebellion if that religion tries to force conversion and dictate the practices of those who do not believe.

This mistrust is not without merit as throughout history religions and cults have abused their power to convert or even enslave their opponents.  It the religion demands total acceptance of doctrine without question it can become a tool to force absolute compliance and demand contributions of money, resources and time from believers and non-believers alike.  In the end, organized religion is often all about money and power, rather than faith and belief.

Because science thrives on inquiry, experimentation, observation and questioning of pre-conceived ideas, scientists are often at the forefront in conflict with religion.  Religion tends to brook no questions, tolerate no denial, permit no experimentation and, all too often, forbids even observation of nature.

One of the greatest scientists in history, Galileo Galilei, was ensnared in the conflict between religion and his own scientific inquiry, observation and development of theories that explained the facts he observed.

In 1633 Galileo was arrested, tried during the Inquisition, forced to renounce his findings and theories and was imprisoned only to be released and forced to live under house arrest until his death. He was forbidden to discuss this theories unless he labeled them as "fiction."

Most people know the biography I've outlined above.  What you might not know is the Galileo was often wrong in his theories! Factually, provably, stunningly wrong!  For example, in his zeal to prove the earth revolved around the sun, he predicted the movement of the tides based on his theories.  He was wrong, horribly wrong [ as a side note, tides are influenced by the gravitational pull of the moon, not the sun ]. Galileo's theories about the movement of the tides were pure bunk!  This absolute failure was used as "proof" that he was a heretic during his trial.

Further, because his theory about the tides was wrong the Jesuit's used his failure to infer that his entire idea that the earth revolving around the sun was also wrong. Since he was imprisoned and forbidden to research and forbidden to write, he could not vindicate himself.

Of course, Galileo was, in fact, correct about the earth and the sun.  He was also correct about, quite literally, hundreds of other theories and ideas. The Catholic Church realized, almost immediately the error of its conflict with science and has spent the better part of the last 300 years forgiving and eventually pardoning Galileo.

Today we have a new, powerful and money hungry religion, it's the religion of Global Warming and human influenced damaging climate change.  Like the Catholic Church of the 17th century, the Church of Global Warming demands absolute and unquestioning adherence to the per-prescribed set of doctrines and beliefs.  Global warming zealots permit no questioning of the holy scriptures and will not tolerate for even a moment any observation of facts that does not fit into the rigid belief system.

Their mantra is "This is Settled Science," or "97% of Scientists Agree." Neither statement is remotely true. What is true is the "Popes of Global Warming" are making millions of dollars off the paranoia their doctrine creates.

Unfortunately, the current facts on the ground fly in the face of the organized acolytes.  We are, in reality,in the early stages of a global cooling cycle that will likely last another 50 years.  Ice is rapidly reforming in the Arctic, and the Antarctic is the coldest its ever been in recorded history.  Every projection so far issued by Global Warming scientists has failed to predict the current cooling.  Predictions of extreme storms has also failed as were are now in the eighth year of the quietest period for hurricanes and tornadoes since 1900.

This is not to say, that Global Warming isn't happening.  It is to say, like Galileo's theory of the tides, the early attempts to prove the theory are stunningly wrong. Eventually, scientist will determine the truth if......  if the religion of Global Warming allows real scientists to investigate further without condemnation or restraint.

Therein lies the problem. Today the zealotry of the Global Warming establishment seeks to have skeptics fired, lose research grants, face public ridicule and be driven into the modern equivalent of house arrest.

The recent revelation of facts has denied the Global Warming Priests of virtually all their arguments supporting Global Warming. Like the Church, when the facts no longer match the scripture, they fall back onto the threat of Hell and eternal damnation. Those who don't believe are heretics, possessed by the devil.

Witness this little piece of religious horror from Greenpeace. This isn't science, it's a quest for money, power and believers:

If a Tree Falls in the Forest...

If a tree falls in the forest and.... The New York Times fails to report it, did it really fall?

Clearly there is a recent and very disturbing trend of the major media that leans leftward to downplay or even ignore rather major news stories.  To be certain, news organizations whether they lean left or right have always modified their reporting in a way that places their philosophies and political leanings in a more favorable light.  Fox News does it and so does NBC News.  This leaning, if you'll pardon the pun, is not news.

But now we see major news organizations simply fail to report news at all, ignoring it as if it doesn't exist.

MSNBC is especially bad about failing to report news unfavorable to Democrats or the Obama administration.  Often, when major news breaks, most people channel surf to get the best reporting and the most viewpoints.  When they reach MSNBC they find there is no story at all, no coverage.  It's not that a story is painted in a positive light, it's that the story doesn't exist.

I'm not sure the public is harmed by this practice as there are many options for news and most people do scan the channels and surf the news websites.  It's not a cover-up.... well, at least it's not a successful cover-up.  

But to see this happen again and again in The New York Times is disturbing.  And it's a well documented and pervasive problem.

There is an example happening right now.  Our nation has been plagues with mostly teens committing assualts on primarily elderly white adults in what has been dubbed "Knockout Games."  The New York Times basically hasn't reported on this nationwide trend beyond a snippet claiming that such attacks doesn't exist or are an "urban myth."

This is all the more funny because even as the Times denies their existence, while city leaders denounce the growing attacks in New York as Hate Crimes. Here's just a small a report from CBS News Channel 2 in New York

Police have arrested four men in connection with an assault in Brooklyn. The suspects allegedly hit the victim without warning, similar to recent incidents related to the so-called “knockout game” in which mobs of young people randomly sucker-punch innocent people for fun.

Around 2:45 a.m. Friday, investigators said a 24-year-old Jewish man was surrounded by four men and punched in the face on 18th Avenue in Borough Park. NYPD officers were nearby in an unmarked police car, commissioner Ray Kelly said Friday afternoon. The victim told investigators he heard one of the attackers say, “I’ll do it to this guy,” right before he was surrounded and punched, sources told CBS 2.

 The suspects fled, but were quickly apprehended and taken into police custody, sources said. The victim identified the suspects, police said. “I commend the excellent police work that we saw this morning,” Assemblyman Dov Hikind said in a statement. “I am grateful that these four thugs are off the streets and am hopeful that they will be treated with the severity of the law. I urge continuing diligence in dealing with this issue.”

Hate crime detectives were interviewing the four suspects — three Hispanic men and one Indian male — and the victim at the 66th Precinct, sources said.  The four men face assault charges, but those may be upgraded, CBS 2′s Don Champion reported.

The suspects range in age from 28 to 38, police said. There have been seven so-called “knockout” or “polar bear” assaults in the Crown Heights and Midwood sections of Brooklyn since October, Kelly said Wednesday. The alternate name “polar bearing” comes from the fact that the victims are white.

Councilman David Greenfield said the attacks have targeted Jewish people, with victims ranging from a 12-year-old boy to a 78-year-old woman. “These are anti-Semitic knockout attacks and it’s not a game,” said Councilman David Greenfield, who is calling on the men arrested early Friday morning to face gang assault charges.

Conservatives are enraged that The Times, Slate Magazine and MSNBC continue to deny the attacks and to deny any racial overtones, in spite of overwhelming exidence.

As Liberals we ought to be even more enraged.  After all it is the Liberal Media denying us the news we need to make intelligent decisions and provide balanced responses to conservative hysteria.  The answer is not to cover-up the news but to cover it fairly.

My Reply to Steve

Thoughtful, calm, intelligent and reflective are qualities that my friend Steve has possessed the entire time I've know him.  It's likely he's been this way all his life.  And, he has great balance in his life, able to separate politics from his family and personal life.  He keeps things in balance.  I urge you all to read his blog, The Peripatetic Blogger.  He generally posts only once a week,and only after great reflection and analysis.  He loves the Oklahoma Sooners and the Dallas Cowboys.

He wrote a blog this week which, in part, chastised some Democrats for breaking ranks with the President over the Affordable Care Act.  He feels they should "all hang together."  Indeed I'm tempted to agree with him, especially on the "hanging" part.  But, hey, I don't want to be accused of pulling a Martin Bashir, so please disregard that last comment.

I wrote a short response to Steve that I felt deserved repeating here.  In short I don't ever feel that Party Loyalty should ever interfere with good judgement.  Here is my response to Steve:

Dear Steve, 

I believe the President Obama had the very best of intentions.

And I know that our Congress is badly broken and that caused The ACA to be written in back rooms and passed late at night by a Congress that never read the bill or had the time needed to resolve potential defects.

And, even though not a single Republican voted for the act, they deserve equal blame for the dysfunction that forced Pelosi and Reid to act in a hurried and secretive manner.

Regardless of all this, the bill is nothing short of a disaster. Forget the website as that will get fixed. It’s not the problem anyway. As a result of the ACA more people, not fewer, will be uninsured. Most people will pay substantially more for insurance, not less. The blow to the middle class, financially, will be nearly unimaginable. Meanwhile the rich, who had Cadillac Plans to begin with, will be virtually unaffected.

This will all get fixed, eventually. But, in the meantime, the ACA doesn’t deserve the support of any self respecting Democrat (or Republican). Let’s admit our mistakes, avoid placing blame, and get on with the job of repairing the system.

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Here is just one of the first (and certainly the most ironic) examples of the financial disaster awaiting the middle class: Woman Hailed by President as Obamacare Success Story Now Can't Afford Obamacare

Destroying the Very Fabric of the American Healthcare System

I wish that the politicians in Washington weren't so busy building sound bites for the 5 o'clock news that they could actually get together and save America's Health Care System, but, alas, they are incapable of compromise or even intelligent analysis.

Group "A" are so determined to save the reputation of the President they will never admit they made a (gigantic) mistake or compromise to find a solution.

Group "B" is so determined to bring down the President a notch or two that they cannot offer intelligent or reasonable compromises that just might solve the problem at hand.

And the public is so caught up in the political rhetoric, many do not see the tsunami on the horizon about to drown us all.  

But make no mistake about it, the entire Health Care System in the United States, unarguably the finest health care infrastructure in the history of mankind, is months away, a year at most, from complete and utter destruction.

And it's all being caused by The Affordable Care Act, the single worst piece of legislation ever passed by the United States Congress.

About 200 million Americans will lose their current Insurance.  The replacements, if they can be found, will be significantly more expensive for most Americans (about 4/5th will pay several thousand dollars more annually) and they new insurance will have significantly higher deductibles and may well (or most certainly will) force Americans to change their doctors and hospitals.

The hospital infrastructure will collapse.  Some hospitals will be forced to close.  Others will greatly curtail services.  A few, perhaps fifty or less nationwide, will become hospitals for the super rich, those able to afford completely private care.

Sarah Palin's Death Panels of non-medical actuaries will decide on care and payments, effectively making the best care treatments unavailable except to the super rich.

The total economy is mere months away from a total collapse into recession or depression.  The ACA (or ObamaCare) is a nothing more than a hidden super-tax that will drain hundreds of millions of dollars out the middle class taxpayer's wallets, through increased (and unaffordable) premiums and deductibles. 

It's happening every day now.  Moments ago REUTERS reported that insurer UNITED HEALTH CARE is being forced to drop thousands of doctors form Medicare patients programs due to Barack Obama's ego driven theft of millions of dollars from Medicare to fund his ObamaCare albatross.

This was one hundred percent foreseeable and avoidable. Many Republicans and many pundits and analysts and blogger like me have been correctly forecasting this for three years.  But we are all branded by Democrats and media not willing to actually read the ACA bill, as anti-Obama haters.  Alas, that was never true, we were and are the lookouts, warning the people of the on-rushing waves of health care and economic destruction, begging you to save yourselves and get to higher ground.  

Every day a few more are swept away and a few more listen.  I fear it's too late.

Bon Voyage, Titanic!

ObamaCare is destroying the American health care system.  One side casualty is the Democratic Party.  As of today not one single Democrat Senator can possibly be re-elected, regardless of how Blue his or her state may be.

And the intelligent Democrats know it.  And none is sharper or more savvy than former President Bill Clinton.  So President Clinton did what only a true elder statesman of the party can do. He politely told President Barack Obama to get his head out of his ..... and do everything necessary to fulfill his promises to the American people.

See CBS NEWS: Bill Clinton says Obama should honor health care promise

To be certain, former President Bill Clinton is also trying to protect future President Hillary Clinton.  Bill Clinton understands the politics. He understands the people.  He reads the dynamics.

He also would like the health care system to actually work.  We're at over FIVE MILLION INSURANCE POLICY CANCELLATIONS right now, on our way to nearly ONE HUNDRED MILLION!!!  The impact on people will be horrific.  The impact on the health care system itself will be catastrophic. Hospitals will close. Doctors will be forced out of work. People will suffer and some, perhaps many, will die.

And Democrats who lacked even the intelligence to read the bill before passage will all be forced out of office.  Today, they cannot be re-elected. They all need Bill Clinton. 

We all need Bill Clinton.

"Nobody's madder than me,,."

As The Affordable Care Act disintegrates before our very eyes, Barack Obama has spoken nearly every day this week proclaiming "Nobody's madder than me about the fact that the website isn't working as well as it should," and other variations of the same message.

Sadly, it just isn't true. If President Barack Obama were really mad that an incompetent staff had nearly destroyed his signature achievement he would have demanded and received the resignations of those responsible, those who betrayed the President. For a man who rests his entire Presidential legacy on this one act, this particular failure is unforgivable.

If President Barack Obama was genuinely mad, he would demand to know why a "no bid" contract for over $400,000,000.00 was issued to a third rate Canadian company to build his signature website after he proclaimed in his election campaign that no bid contracts would end forever. He would most assuredly want to know why there were no penalties written into the contract for failure to produce the work. This, too, is a personal betrayal of the President and he should take it personally.

If President Obama were truly mad he would want to know who issued regulations that turned his oft repeated proclamation "If You like your insurance, you can keep it," into a complete falsehood.  If we assume President Obama meant what he said, he would demand this egregious error in regulation writing be corrected, fixed, and fixed immediately.

If President Obama were blazingly mad that a woman with cancer was being thrown off her insurance, the very act ObamaCare was designed to stop, he would explode in anger at the regulations written by bureaucrats into his law that forced this to happen.  He would have called the woman on the phone and guaranteed her he would fix this error.  He WOULD NOT have sent his minions out to attack the woman on Twitter, making her the villain simply because she told her story.

President Obama is not mad, except, perhaps, at me for writing this blog.

Halloween, All Tricks and No Treats

As my very good friend Steve says, "This could be funnier."

Have a Happy Halloween.

One President's Halliburton is Another President's CGI Federal

One of the many things that made President George W. Bush one of the most hated Presidents ever among Democrats and others on the left was the use, and we felt THE ABUSE, of NO BID CONTRACTS going to friends, classmates, crony's and lobbyists who had an inside track into the Bush Administration.

Investigations into the NO BID CONTRACTS were a staple of the nightly news on the major networks, articles in The Huffington Post, blog entries in The Daily KOZ and conversations everywhere.

Ultimately the issue of no bid contracts became so large it was a major campaign issue for candidate Barack Obama.  There is no doubt in my mind that his promise to "END NO BID CONTRACTS FOR GOOD" was a major factor leading to his election.

The generally left leaning BUZZ FEED has even put up a montage of Obama's many speeches promising to end NO BID CONTRACTS.  Click on the link above to see them all or just check out the one I've republished below:




Of course now we find that Kathleen Sebelius' Health and Human Services Department awarded a four hundred million dollar ($400,000,000.00) to CGI Federal, a Canadian company with close ties to Barack and Michelle Obama and the Obama Administration with absolutely NO BID. 

What's worse, especially after listening to Barack Obama's speech above, there were actually four other companies who attempted to submit bids for the ACA (ObamaCare) contract and those bids were never opened or reviewed by the Administration. CGI Federal got exactly the kind of insider sweetheart deal given behind closed doors that candidate Obama PROMISED to end forever if he were elected President. 

But, as it turns out, CGI Federal is used to getting no bid contracts with a license to siphon off federal funds. The AP is reporting today about a major failure on the part of the government to distribute funds to the victims of Hurricane Sandy. 

Congress allocated $1.7 BILLION for Hurricane Sandy Relief and hired CGI Federal, without any bidding, as a consultant to aid in the allocation of the funds. Although 24,000 family is desperate need have filled out the applications for aid, only a paltry 1.2% of the money has ever been distributed. Everyone else is still waiting. 

In this case, the government and CGI Federal are a bigger disaster than the hurricane itself. 

Of course no one is ever held accountable in the Obama Administration. When quizzed, they all, from Barack Obama on down, admit "mistakes were made." But then they quickly add the important thing is to "look forward" and "fix the problem."  

Looking forward is Washington code for "spend even more money." 

Barack Obama is no where near our worst President ever. But he easily is the President who has consistently told the most outright lies when campaigning for office or campaigning for his pet projects. 

It's his own little version of a "no bid contract."