Category Archives: Barack Obama

Update IX: ‘A Shout Out To My Pepes, & BTW, Some Soldiers Got Shot’

Barack Obama, Crime, Jihad, Political Correctness, Terrorism, The Military

That’s pretty much what I heard, live, come out of the mouth of Commander-In-Chief Barack Obama, pursuant to a shooting on an army base, during which 12 soldiers were killed and 31 injured. [Update: 13 are now dead.]

The president was hanging with leaders of the Native American tribal nations when the news broke. His response: “What an extraordinary gathering… I thank the extraordinary people who made this extraordinary convention possible … we’re gonna do right by you extraordinary people, yada, yada, yada. Oh, and by the way, some soldiers got shot.”

“The suspected gunman was identified by ABC News as Major Malik Nadal Hasan. Fort Hood, on which this shooting spree occurred, “has suffered more deaths in Iraq than any other US home base. ” Most soldiers on the base had been deployed at least four times (as Bush cleared brush on his ranch and Barack vacationed at Martha’s Vineyard).

All told, there were three shooters; one was killed, two are in custody, (Update: subsequently released, so they could not be shooters).

Via the NYT: “CNN reports that the soldiers who were at the readiness center were getting ready to deploy to Iraq.”

On Fox News, Major General Robert H. Scales says that his sources tell him this was not the act of a madman—this was no spontaneous act committed under duress—but, rather, a planned and deliberate assassination. The venue was picked, and the men targeted mowed down with diabolical precision.

Developing.

NYT: “Update | 6:16 p.m. According to the Marine Corps Times, a Pentagon source said the suspected gunman killed at Fort Hood, Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, ‘was a psychiatrist recently reassigned from Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., to work with soldiers at Darnall Army Medical Center on Fort Hood.'”

Hasan was 39 years old.

Update I: Huffington Post on Hasan’s military records:

“Military officials say the suspected shooter at Fort Hood was a psychiatrist at Walter Reed Army Medical Center for six years before being transferred to the Texas base in July.
The officials had access to Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan’s military record. They said he received a poor performance evaluation while at Walter Reed.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because military records are confidential.”
The Virginia-born soldier was single with no children. He was 39 years old.
He is a graduate of Virginia Tech University, where he was a member of the ROTC and earned a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry in 1997. He received his medical degree from the military’s Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Md., in 2001. At Walter Reed, he did his internship, residency and a fellowship.”

[SNIP]

I’d like to know more about the nature of the “poor performance evaluation” the killer received, and whether this information might have been followed up on as a possible harbinger of what Hasan was capable of.

Update II: Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan IS ALIVE. I have no idea why media were told he was dead, at first. Perhaps the military was ashamed that the base police came upon a man mowing down soldiers and did not take him out. On the other hand, maybe they want to interrogate him. Gently, of course, in case the libertarian and liberal Left squeal about the trauma the placing of a bug in the bug-phobic Abu Zubaydah’s “confinement box” caused them.

But interrogation and correctly reporting Hasan’s status are not mutually exclusive.

Update III: “Muslims have a right to rise and attack the aggressors,” Hasan is purported to have told a retired colleague. Now this is an intellectually consistent position. Perfectly consistent. What is inconsistent and incongruous is the conduct of our liberal military. Given his poor performance and his views, why on earth was he not kicked out of the force? Why were his passing comments dismissed as mere hot-hotheadedness? Liberalism, that’s why. The military has an obligation to expunge elements like Hasan from its ranks. The brass’ duty is to preserve its own; not display tolerance for diversity.

Via Jihad Watch:

Update IV: Shep Smith said Nidal Malik Hasan was a convert to Islam. Nonsense on stilt. So much of it. The WaPo reports that “Hasan is a U.S.-born Muslim of Palestinian descent whose parents came to the United States from the West Bank. He joined the military after high school and earned medical degrees as he rose through the ranks, family members said. A doctor in the Medical Corps, Hasan was promoted to major last year, according to the Congressional Record.”

Wait for this. According to NPR “Hasan was put on probation early in his postgraduate work at the Uniformed Service University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Md. He was disciplined for proselytizing about his Muslim faith with patients and colleagues, according to the source, who worked with him at the time.”

Disciplined? What were they thinking? Speak nicely to the man and he’ll abandon his faith and his anger?

I’ll repeat an ongoing theme on this blog: Hasan acted in character. He is consistent. The people who are, to me, more contemptible than he are the military brass. Infected with PC and liberal do-goodism, they honestly believed that with a few mild warnings and kind reprimands they could tweak Islam out of this man like one would an unsightly nose hair. His superiors need to pay for forsaking their underlings. They abandoned their charges for liberal political correctness.

Update V: What is considered a cause for alarm on a military base? Clearly not a man strolling about the base in traditional Muslim/Arab garb. Tell me that the military is not as liberal as the rest of the country. The madness we endure at airports is the madness we’ve witnessed on this military base.

The American taxpayer paid for this man’s education, years of tuition and living expenses. Hasan is a ponce who lived off the taxpayer and turned deadly when his debts were due.

On the other hand, Major Nidal begged to be released of his duties. The man underperformed and was rotten at his job. Why did the military not cut him loose? Yes, liberalism sees no danger in an abaya-clad, angry, devout Muslim who saw the institution he worked for as an aggressor and oppressor. As an arm of the state, the military mirrors the state’s reckless disregard for those who serve it. Today, we saw proof of it.

Update VI (Nov. 6): Would a military man be allowed to roam the base in a Hare-Krishna robe?

The morons of MSNBC are going the causal route of the trauma victim—Major Nidal of course. A victim of bullying and stress. “Evil, not ILL” says it all:

“To listen to the nation’s psychiatric gurus is to come to believe that crimes are caused, not committed. Perpetrators don’t do the crime, but are driven to their dirty deeds by a confluence of uncontrollable factors, victims of societal forces or organic brain disease.

The paradox at the heart of this root-causes fraud is that causal theoretical explanations are invoked only after bad deeds have been committed. Good deeds have no need of mitigating circumstances. Even though [Major Nidal] went about his business meticulously and methodically, liberals (and, increasingly, conservatives) toss the concept of free will to the wind. They acknowledge human agency if—and only if—adaptive actions are involved.”

“‘Allahu Akbar’ was shouted by the Fort Hood killer Major Nidal Malik Hasan before he opened fire.” Assorted dhimmi are elaborating on the many meanings of the phase. Armed, dressed in traditional Arab garb and shouting “Allahu Akbar”: I think we all know what that means. Trouble.

Update VII: HERE are some of the men and women killed by a coward.

As we all know, the military/the state affords the men and women who join the best of care. That’s why it unleashed Major Nidal on unsuspecting damaged soldiers. Dr. Thomas Grieger, who was supervising Nidal, who clearly needed supervision,” said [that] privacy laws prevented him from going into details but … that [there were] problems … with Hasan’s interactions with patients.”

Only the best.

Via Fox News, more on the abnegation of responsibility in dealing with this individual: “At least six months ago, Hasan came to the attention of law enforcement officials because of Internet postings about suicide bombings and other threats, including posts that equated suicide bombers to soldiers who throw themselves on a grenade to save the lives of their comrades.

They had not determined for certain whether Hasan is the author of the posting, and a formal investigation had not been opened before the shooting, said law enforcement officials.”

The military authorities were in no hurry to do their duty.

Nor is premeditation in question. ABC: “The gun thought to be used in the Fort Hood massacre packs so much firepower, it’s known as ‘the Cop Killer,’ federal law enforcement officials said.”

Update VIII: “An officer and a gentleman was injured while partaking in a preemptive* attack. Get Well Soon Major Nidal. We Love You.” So wrote “The Official Revolution Muslim Website.” Via WND.COM.

Update IX: Col. Jack Jacobs, now an MSNBC military analyst, said it is unlikely Major Nidal caused all the deaths. The Colonel mentioned that oxymoron “friendly fire.”

Update IX: 'A Shout Out To My Pepes, & BTW, Some Soldiers Got Shot'

Barack Obama, Crime, Jihad, Political Correctness, Terrorism, The Military

That’s pretty much what I heard, live, come out of the mouth of Commander-In-Chief Barack Obama, pursuant to a shooting on an army base, during which 12 soldiers were killed and 31 injured. [Update: 13 are now dead.]

The president was hanging with leaders of the Native American tribal nations when the news broke. His response: “What an extraordinary gathering… I thank the extraordinary people who made this extraordinary convention possible … we’re gonna do right by you extraordinary people, yada, yada, yada. Oh, and by the way, some soldiers got shot.”

“The suspected gunman was identified by ABC News as Major Malik Nadal Hasan. Fort Hood, on which this shooting spree occurred, “has suffered more deaths in Iraq than any other US home base. ” Most soldiers on the base had been deployed at least four times (as Bush cleared brush on his ranch and Barack vacationed at Martha’s Vineyard).

All told, there were three shooters; one was killed, two are in custody, (Update: subsequently released, so they could not be shooters).

Via the NYT: “CNN reports that the soldiers who were at the readiness center were getting ready to deploy to Iraq.”

On Fox News, Major General Robert H. Scales says that his sources tell him this was not the act of a madman—this was no spontaneous act committed under duress—but, rather, a planned and deliberate assassination. The venue was picked, and the men targeted mowed down with diabolical precision.

Developing.

NYT: “Update | 6:16 p.m. According to the Marine Corps Times, a Pentagon source said the suspected gunman killed at Fort Hood, Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, ‘was a psychiatrist recently reassigned from Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., to work with soldiers at Darnall Army Medical Center on Fort Hood.'”

Hasan was 39 years old.

Update I: Huffington Post on Hasan’s military records:

“Military officials say the suspected shooter at Fort Hood was a psychiatrist at Walter Reed Army Medical Center for six years before being transferred to the Texas base in July.
The officials had access to Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan’s military record. They said he received a poor performance evaluation while at Walter Reed.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because military records are confidential.”
The Virginia-born soldier was single with no children. He was 39 years old.
He is a graduate of Virginia Tech University, where he was a member of the ROTC and earned a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry in 1997. He received his medical degree from the military’s Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Md., in 2001. At Walter Reed, he did his internship, residency and a fellowship.”

[SNIP]

I’d like to know more about the nature of the “poor performance evaluation” the killer received, and whether this information might have been followed up on as a possible harbinger of what Hasan was capable of.

Update II: Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan IS ALIVE. I have no idea why media were told he was dead, at first. Perhaps the military was ashamed that the base police came upon a man mowing down soldiers and did not take him out. On the other hand, maybe they want to interrogate him. Gently, of course, in case the libertarian and liberal Left squeal about the trauma the placing of a bug in the bug-phobic Abu Zubaydah’s “confinement box” caused them.

But interrogation and correctly reporting Hasan’s status are not mutually exclusive.

Update III: “Muslims have a right to rise and attack the aggressors,” Hasan is purported to have told a retired colleague. Now this is an intellectually consistent position. Perfectly consistent. What is inconsistent and incongruous is the conduct of our liberal military. Given his poor performance and his views, why on earth was he not kicked out of the force? Why were his passing comments dismissed as mere hot-hotheadedness? Liberalism, that’s why. The military has an obligation to expunge elements like Hasan from its ranks. The brass’ duty is to preserve its own; not display tolerance for diversity.

Via Jihad Watch:

Update IV: Shep Smith said Nidal Malik Hasan was a convert to Islam. Nonsense on stilt. So much of it. The WaPo reports that “Hasan is a U.S.-born Muslim of Palestinian descent whose parents came to the United States from the West Bank. He joined the military after high school and earned medical degrees as he rose through the ranks, family members said. A doctor in the Medical Corps, Hasan was promoted to major last year, according to the Congressional Record.”

Wait for this. According to NPR “Hasan was put on probation early in his postgraduate work at the Uniformed Service University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Md. He was disciplined for proselytizing about his Muslim faith with patients and colleagues, according to the source, who worked with him at the time.”

Disciplined? What were they thinking? Speak nicely to the man and he’ll abandon his faith and his anger?

I’ll repeat an ongoing theme on this blog: Hasan acted in character. He is consistent. The people who are, to me, more contemptible than he are the military brass. Infected with PC and liberal do-goodism, they honestly believed that with a few mild warnings and kind reprimands they could tweak Islam out of this man like one would an unsightly nose hair. His superiors need to pay for forsaking their underlings. They abandoned their charges for liberal political correctness.

Update V: What is considered a cause for alarm on a military base? Clearly not a man strolling about the base in traditional Muslim/Arab garb. Tell me that the military is not as liberal as the rest of the country. The madness we endure at airports is the madness we’ve witnessed on this military base.

The American taxpayer paid for this man’s education, years of tuition and living expenses. Hasan is a ponce who lived off the taxpayer and turned deadly when his debts were due.

On the other hand, Major Nidal begged to be released of his duties. The man underperformed and was rotten at his job. Why did the military not cut him loose? Yes, liberalism sees no danger in an abaya-clad, angry, devout Muslim who saw the institution he worked for as an aggressor and oppressor. As an arm of the state, the military mirrors the state’s reckless disregard for those who serve it. Today, we saw proof of it.

Update VI (Nov. 6): Would a military man be allowed to roam the base in a Hare-Krishna robe?

The morons of MSNBC are going the causal route of the trauma victim—Major Nidal of course. A victim of bullying and stress. “Evil, not ILL” says it all:

“To listen to the nation’s psychiatric gurus is to come to believe that crimes are caused, not committed. Perpetrators don’t do the crime, but are driven to their dirty deeds by a confluence of uncontrollable factors, victims of societal forces or organic brain disease.

The paradox at the heart of this root-causes fraud is that causal theoretical explanations are invoked only after bad deeds have been committed. Good deeds have no need of mitigating circumstances. Even though [Major Nidal] went about his business meticulously and methodically, liberals (and, increasingly, conservatives) toss the concept of free will to the wind. They acknowledge human agency if—and only if—adaptive actions are involved.”

“‘Allahu Akbar’ was shouted by the Fort Hood killer Major Nidal Malik Hasan before he opened fire.” Assorted dhimmi are elaborating on the many meanings of the phase. Armed, dressed in traditional Arab garb and shouting “Allahu Akbar”: I think we all know what that means. Trouble.

Update VII: HERE are some of the men and women killed by a coward.

As we all know, the military/the state affords the men and women who join the best of care. That’s why it unleashed Major Nidal on unsuspecting damaged soldiers. Dr. Thomas Grieger, who was supervising Nidal, who clearly needed supervision,” said [that] privacy laws prevented him from going into details but … that [there were] problems … with Hasan’s interactions with patients.”

Only the best.

Via Fox News, more on the abnegation of responsibility in dealing with this individual: “At least six months ago, Hasan came to the attention of law enforcement officials because of Internet postings about suicide bombings and other threats, including posts that equated suicide bombers to soldiers who throw themselves on a grenade to save the lives of their comrades.

They had not determined for certain whether Hasan is the author of the posting, and a formal investigation had not been opened before the shooting, said law enforcement officials.”

The military authorities were in no hurry to do their duty.

Nor is premeditation in question. ABC: “The gun thought to be used in the Fort Hood massacre packs so much firepower, it’s known as ‘the Cop Killer,’ federal law enforcement officials said.”

Update VIII: “An officer and a gentleman was injured while partaking in a preemptive* attack. Get Well Soon Major Nidal. We Love You.” So wrote “The Official Revolution Muslim Website.” Via WND.COM.

Update IX: Col. Jack Jacobs, now an MSNBC military analyst, said it is unlikely Major Nidal caused all the deaths. The Colonel mentioned that oxymoron “friendly fire.”

Update II: In Limbaugh (On Blowhards & Blonds)

Barack Obama, Bush, Conservatism, Iraq, Military, Republicans, Ron Paul, War

He voted for McMussolini.

He finds great merit in the crocodile tears Bush shed in his presence over soldiers the former president as good as coffined. Obama’s grim visit to Dover, Delaware, to bear witness to the sad specter of young men carrying the coffins of their fallen comrades—this he find utterly unbelievable.

He “thinks” the “president should give the generals, the commanders on the ground, as many troops as they need to win.”

To insure the estimated 12 million uninsured, he suggests taking “some of the unspent stimulus. We have 85 percent of the stimulus unspent. … For 35 to $40 billion a year, you could insure those people, not $2 trillion, not 1.4.”

Vis-a-vis ObamaCare, he doesn’t know “any Republican who would try to take over one- sixth of the U.S. economy.” Evidently this Oracle had not heard of the Bush Medicare prescription-drug program. It may not have been a sixth of the economy, but George sure began the ball rolling with that behemoth of a bill.

Neither is he familiar with “one Republican who would put forth the — this irresponsible cap-and-trade bill.” How about that hypocrite he voted for? McCain fulminates against Obama’s tax-and-trade, but “in January 2003, the Senators from Arizona, together with Joseph Lieberman (D-CT), “introduced legislation to cap and trade emissions of greenhouse gases.” (While electioneering, McCain suspended this particular plan to sunder the economy.)

I give you the King of Irrational Partisanship, RUSH LIMBAUGH, in a Sunday interview with Fox News’ Chris Wallace.

Update I (Nov. 3): From the Comments Section: “When somebody more ‘acceptable’ turns out an effective opposition to the left maybe I’ll get excited about Rush’s shortcomings.”

That’s amazing. Republican’ chest-thumping warfare projects have brought us to this economic disaster. Yet, nothing changes in the mind of the dyed-in-the-wool Republican. Ron Paul exists; vigorously so. I exist. Chuck Baldwin exists. But no matter how often you point out the deep chasms between Republicans, on the one hand, and Constitutionalists, Taft Republicans, and classical liberals, on the other—the same people keep cheering for the blowhards and blonds of the Stupid Party. Face it, people are collectivists who have to belong to a group, no matter how errant it is in its philosophy.

It’s no use, but here’s my two-cents:
Addicted To That Rush
It’s About Federalism, Stupid!

Update II: We’ve had this attempt at a conversation whereby a non-interventionist foreign policy—my own—was mischaracterized for the purpose of discrediting. Constitutional principles aside, the mind boggles at the blind support for the Bush war boondoggles given their miserable failure.
So let me repeat—probably not for the last time—what I wrote here:

“We’ve adjudicated the last 8 years of foreign policy here on BAB in blog posts and in article on IlanaMercer.com. My perspective, which comports with that of Paul, albeit with some differences, has been vindicated. I’m surprised war mongers are unrepentant, and are still plumping for preemptive war against countries that have not aggressed against the US given the lessons of Iraq. I guess when it’s not your kid who’s hobbling around on prostheses or dead, it doesn’t much move the mind, much less the heart. The “isolationism” pejorative is lobbed by neoconservatives when they wish to discredit those of us who believe in fighting just wars only. It’s like pacifist.”

The idea that defending your borders and controlling who enters your country and stays in it are passive is ludicrous. We don’t do any of these basic housekeeping duties; but we level far-away countries and drop dumb bombs on their impoverished neighborhoods. Way to go! How brave! Individuals who still support this moral perversion are twisted sons of bitches.

Oh, there’s another thing ditto heads forbid, so let me break the rule as is my wont. The military most certainly does commit atrocities. Ask Abeer Qasim Hamza. Wait a sec; you can’t, becasue she’s dead, raped first by the American untouchables.

The Real War is At Home.
Facing the Onslaught of Jihad

What ObamaCare Will Mean for You— and What You Can Do About It Today

BAB's A List, Barack Obama, Communism, Free Markets, Government, Healthcare, Propaganda, Regulation, Socialism, Taxation, The State

By Robert James Bidinotto

Now that the House and Senate finally have completed work on their enormous health-care bills, we can see what the final provisions will be. Their differences are far less important than their similarities. Either bill will be a disaster for our economy—for our personal well-being, both financial and medical—for our precious rights and freedoms—and for the futures of our children and grandchildren.

Both bills are now coming up for crucial floor votes. Many in Congress are very nervous about what their votes will mean for their political careers.

This coming week is critical in the process of passing or defeating this legislation, once and for all. Now is the time that you can weigh in and make a real difference with your congressman and senators.

Here is what you need to know. Rather than overwhelm you with arcane details of each bill, it is more important that you understand in principle what ObamaCare will mean for you and your family.

ObamaCare will mean:

Outrageous Costs. At a time of exploding federal spending and budget deficits, both the House and Senate bills would add far more than a trillion dollars to the mind-boggling financial liabilities we taxpayers already face. Even the stated price tags of these bills are fraudulent products of statistical manipulations. One way they pretend to reduce costs is to remove a quarter-trillion dollars in doctor Medicare reimbursements from the bills, but instead add that gargantuan spending into separate legislation. Another way they pretend to balance the books (“deficit neutrality”) is to impose years of tax increases to fund these bills, before the outrageous spending actually kicks in. When it does, the “cost curve” in later decades will soar upward, and deficits will pile up by the billions. In addition, the bills would vastly expand the already-bankrupt Medicaid program; this would impose on state governments, which already face crushing budget crises, tens of billions of dollars in new taxing and spending commitments. You will ultimately pick up that tab, too.

Soaring Taxes. ObamaCare is not “insurance,” but a gigantic new entitlement scheme meant to “spread the wealth around.” To pay for this spending spree, both bills will drain our ailing private economy of hundreds of billions of dollars in higher taxes. These taxes will fall disproportionately upon the young and healthy: They will be forced to buy costly policies, thus expanding the “pool” of payers who will subsidize those older and sicker. Higher taxes also will fall heavily upon “the rich.” But these include the same entrepreneurs and employers whom we expect to create businesses and jobs to lift us out of the recession—and also the very doctors whom we expect to provide the medical services to the millions of new patients. The legislation also proposes hefty taxes on better private-insurance plans, which would penalize and undermine existing employer-employee benefits packages. These are just a few of the many new taxes and fees the bills would impose on us.

Perverse Incentives. ObamaCare would subsidize and greatly expand the demand for health care, while discouraging the supply of health care. It would create a gigantic new federal entitlement program that would add millions of new, taxpayer-subsidized claimants for health-insurance coverage. Then it would force insurers to accept all comers—regardless of any actuarial risk factors—and to provide them coverage that is far beyond what many people actually require. On the other side of the equation, ObamaCare will increase taxes on those private insurers (who now average only 2-3% profit margins), while expecting them somehow to pay all the new benefits. It will also increase taxes and fees on hospitals, doctors, pharmaceutical manufacturers, and the inventors of new medical devices—thus punishing those who create and provide medical treatments. Inevitably, this will deter many of them from developing or offering vital new medical treatments for patients, and it will even force some of them out of business.

Government rationing. When soaring demand for medical care overwhelms shrinking supply of providers, the only outcome would be government rationing of medical care—which has occurred in all socialized-medicine regimes.

Lost Individual Choice. All talk of adding “choice and competition” to the health-insurance market is a complete fraud. The bills do not free individuals to buy insurance across state lines—“choice and competition” that would actually reduce the cost of insurance. Instead, the bills propose a host of new mandates on private individuals, employers, and private insurers. Under penalty of fines or jail, individuals will be forced to buy costly coverage; employers will be forced to provide it and to comply with countless petty regulations; and doctors, hospitals, and private insurers will be forced to comply with a mountain of new government orders, requirements, restrictions, demands, and regulations. Compliance with all these ever-expanding governmental edicts will drive up the costs for physicians, hospitals, medicines, treatments, and private insurance premiums. Skyrocketing costs will force more and more people into the “public option.” Meanwhile, the bills would slash reimbursements to Medicare Advantage plans, killing a private-insurance option now exercised and enjoyed by one-fourth of all seniors.

Broken promises. In sum, the pending legislation will not cover all the uninsured; it will not add to freedom of choice for consumers; it will not be “deficit-neutral”; it will not “bend the cost curve downward”; it will not prevent illegal aliens from receiving taxpayer-subsidized medical care; it will not prevent government payments from funding controversial procedures such as abortions; and it will not allow people to “keep their current coverage.” All of these are the loud promises of ObamaCare’s advocates; all are demonstrable falsehoods.

Instead, ObamaCare will do only one thing, which was the overt objective of its proponents from the outset: put the federal government in charge of the delivery of all health care in America.

A single-payer, government-run program of socialized medicine is the stated objective of those who designed this legislative monstrosity—from President Obama, to the vast coalition of unions and advocacy groups, to the congressional leaders who drafted these bills. They explicitly intend to bankrupt the private-insurance marketplace, so that only the government option remains. Far from adding “choice and competition,” then, ObamaCare aims at imposing on us a government health-care monopoly.

But only if we allow it to happen. Because this power-grab still can be stopped.

Congress remains deeply divided over many provisions of this legislation. If it passes, it only will be by a handful of votes. That means we can defeat this monstrosity by changing just a few minds. Now—this week—is the time for you to raise your voice and put on the pressure.

To contact your congressman, by phone, mail, or email, go here:

http://www.house.gov/house/MemberWWW_by_State.shtml

and contact your two senators by going here:

http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

Tell them the following, preferably putting the ideas into your own words:

The House and Senate bills will not create “universal, affordable insurance.” They instead would create a gargantuan, unaffordable new federal entitlement program. They would further explode our soaring deficits; hugely increase tax burdens on our ailing economy; create perverse incentives that would expand the demand for medical services, while discouraging and punishing the suppliers of medical care; and deprive Americans of true choice and competition, by imposing an endless stream of new “mandates” on individuals and employers. This legislation would destroy existing private health-insurance plans, and ultimately destroy the quality and affordability of health care in America.

This legislation is so flawed and destructive in principle that it cannot be “fixed” or amended; it must be scrapped in its entirety. True health-care reform is necessary, but it must be based on our free-market system—such as:

• allowing individuals to purchase insurance from companies across state lines, and letting them take that coverage with them when they change jobs;
• letting individuals buy high-deductible, low-cost catastrophic coverage, by freeing insurers from laws that force them to offer only costly, state-mandated provisions in their policies;
• enacting tort reform, to eliminate the costly practice of “defensive medicine.”

Such reforms would expand coverage to millions of the uninsured, while actually reducing costs to employers, policy-holders, and individual taxpayers.

I feel so strongly about this, that I cannot consider you for re-election unless you vote against this legislation, in any shape or form.

* * *

Whether or not you have ever contacted a congressman or senator, now is the time to do it. This week may be the last time we can influence the outcome on this issue.

Your health, your financial well-being, and your nation’s future hang in the balance.

Please act today—then forward this message to your family, friends, and associates. If you are on Facebook, an annotated version of this can be found and linked out:

http://www.facebook.com/note.php?created&&suggest&note_id=211096360608