Texans take their rights seriously.

A bill that has been prefiled for the 2011 state legislative session creates penalties of up to $5,000 in fines and up to five years in jail for anyone guilty of the “felony” of attempting “to enforce an act, order, law, statute, rule or regulation” of Obamacare, the president’s plan that effectively nationalizes the health-care decision making process.

The plan by Texas Rep. Leo Berman, R-Tyler, effectively would nullify the federal health care legislation in his state.

At least, that is what the bill that “relates to federal health care legislation” says:

The federal Act:

1. is invalid in this state;
2. is not recognized by this state;
3. is specifically rejected by this state; and
4. is null and void and of no effect in this state.
   …
   Full article – http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=235757

The Obama Administration is now acknowledging what we have warned about all along – the national healthcare takeover bill is a terrible job-killer. 

The Health and Human Resources arm of the White House has been very busy granting waivers to companies who have said, “Give me waivers or give me layoffs!”  Check out the websites below for a Fox News You Tube on the issue and a list of over 100 companies who have recently received waivers from the requirement of providing expanded healthcare coverage to their employees.
 
We’re still waiting on the Administration to admit that the national healthcare takeover is also an unconstitutional restriction on our liberties and one of the most, if not the most, ill-advised bills ever rammed down the throats of the American people.
 
Fox News Report:
 

U. S. Department of Health and Human Services list of companies who have received waiver of Obamacare requirements:

http://www.hhs.gov/ociio/regulations/approved_applications_for_waiver.html

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I went to high school in the 70′s, and spent many a night at my friend’s apartment watching Monty Python’s Flying Circus on “late night” PBS. Many of their skits and movies are comedy classics – The Parrot Sketch, The Cheese Shop Sketch, Argument Clinic, many others. But one sketch in particular – The Hospital Sketch – has a rather prescient resonance that is both hilarious and haunting.

John Cleese and Graham Chapman are two witless doctors who are more concerned with impressing the Hospital Administrator (played by Eric Idle) by arranging expensive-looking equipment in the delivery room than they are in the welfare of their terrified pregnant patient. I’ve seen the sketch many times over the years, and it has never failed to evoke guffaws of laughter. But lately, it just doesn’t seem very funny.

The Monty Python crew were satirizing the state of (socialized) medical care in Great Britian at the time. When cost is the single overriding concern, patient care becomes secondary or even incidental. And in a socialized health care system, cost is the overriding concern. When resources are finite and demand is ever-increasing, the only option available is rationing. That’s why Eric Idle’s appearance in the sketch is so funny – and so ominous. No one clapped for the successful delivery of the infant. But they sure clapped when the “Hospital Administrator” bragged about how much money he had saved by leasing the machine that goes “BING!” back to the company they sold it to.

Funny stuff, but there is a serious undercurrent to all this that is downright frightening. When cost is the overriding factor, rationing is inevitable. When care is rationed, people suffer and die. It’s really that simple.

Obamacare rationing is expected to begin this week, when the Food and Drug Administration revokes approval of the drug Avastin for the treatment of advanced breast cancer.

Louisiana Republican Sen. David Vitter has described the anticipated move as ‘the beginning of a slippery slope leading to more and more rationing under the government takeover of health care.’

It seems that even loyal Democrats have noticed the Obama administration’s not-so-subtle policy shift toward rationing. According to Politico, many of the 34 House Democrats who voted against the health reform bill are aggressively touting their “no” votes in campaign ads.

The FDA claims its decision won’t be based on cost, but Avastin isn’t cheap — a full regimen costs about $100,000 a year. (source: IBD)

Of course the FDA is basing its decision on cost! What else could it be? It certainly isn’t the efficacy of the drug. Avastin is touted as a “miracle drug,” shrinking tumors in nearly half of patients receiving the medicine. For some patients, an Avastin regime has extended their lives by years. (source: IBD)

Geraldine Satossky is one such cancer survivor who owes her life to Avastin. She wrote about her experience in today’s Wall Street Journal, “My Battle With Cancer and the FDA,” and it should make you angry as hell. Here is an excerpt:

I now had four tumors in my liver and my outlook wasn’t very good. My doctor was blunt: ‘You’re in big trouble,’ he told me.

Thankfully, a clinical trial had recently started and I was selected for a combination of Xeloda and Avastin. Xeloda is a chemotherapy pill that kills cancerous cells. Avastin cuts off blood-flow to tumors. Almost immediately two of my tumors disappeared. The duel-pronged approach appeared to be working.

Nearly three-and-a-half years have passed. Today, I’m not just living life; I’m enjoying it. While I get tired more easily than I used to, I can take part in just about all normal activities. I can go out to dinner with my husband. I can visit with friends.

This could all change on Friday, when the FDA is due to rule on its advisory panel’s recommendation to withdraw approval of Avastin. If the FDA does so, Medicare could stop paying for it.

The rationing of Avastin is only the beginning. Other expensive drugs will be placed on the chopping block soon enough, and once enough drugs have been banned, so goes the incentive to invest in the research and development of new drugs. And this is just one of many cost-cutting measures sure to come. Never underestimate the cold, calculating ingenuity of a government bureaucrat tasked to slash costs.

In the age of Obamacare, The Hospital Sketch just isn’t as funny as it used to be.

I know, I know.  It’s shameless self-promotion.  But Mark Levin is, well, the Great One.  He is a source of great inspiration to me, a truly Great American.  Unafraid, uncowed by the Alinsky-ites and the race-hustlers, Levin speaks truth in the face of Orwellian spin by a shamelessly biased politico-media complex.  Levin’s book Liberty and Tyranny is much more than a Conservative Mainfesto; it is a roadmap to victory over the statists that have insinuated themselves at all levels of our government and our culture.

The thought that Mark Levin actually read something I wrote, and encouraged others to read it, is deeply gratifying and humbling. 

The post at David Horowitz’s NewsRealBlog is here.

//Shameless self-promotion mode OFF

Hugh Hewitt interviewed Senate minority leader John Boehner a few days ago, and could not get Boehner to commit to a rapid legislative agenda to repeal and reverse the democrat’s leftist legislative cramdown after the midterms in November. Boehner hemmed and hawed, sounding every bit like the establishment inside-the-beltway career politicians that got us into the dire economic mess that we’re in now.

To make matters worse, Bill Kristol related to Hewitt on yesterday’s podcast that he asked a “high-ranking GOP leader” what their plans were, what they intended to do should the GOP take control of one or both Houses of Congress, and this unnamed source said that they were trying to get members to sign off on a “No Earmarks” pledge, but said it was very tough going. Kristol was incredulous.

In this election year, with this blatantly obvious tidal wave of resentment and outright anger rushing toward establishment politicians (and quasi-socialist redistributionist Democrats), there are not enough Republican lawmakers with the backbone and moral courage to sign a pledge banning pork barrel spending?

The Beltway elite professional political class is neither Democrat nor Republican. They are, as coined by Mark Levin, STATISTS first and foremost. What’s good for the state is ultimately good for them, the elite professional political ruling class.

Watch for it. Obamacare should be repealed, completely, every single provision, rule, and regulation GONE, stricken from the public record and expunged from public consciousness.

But it won’t happen. Why? Because state control of health care is the ultimate power grab. Boehner and those who comprise the ruling class elite realize that as long as Obamacare exists, they will have a windmill to tilt against, a cause to rally the troops around, an issue to rail against.

Think about it. Imagine the seductive appeal of that kind of power over the lives of others. Think your congressman can resist the urge to use his new authority as one of 435 quasi-health care administrators to ensure his re-election? Doubtful, right?

Stealth statist Republicans will nip at the edges of Obamacare, but will never repeal it because they have as much to lose (and, ironically, as much to gain) as the radical leftist Democrats who crammed it down our throats.

Obamacare is here to stay.

And that means that no matter how we reform health care, we will keep this promise: If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor. Period.

When Texas doctors start opting out of Medicaid, patients will not get to keep the doctors, especially specialist, they like. According to the Dallas Morning News, doctors fear cuts in Medicaid payments and are threatening to opt out. They cannot afford it.

Things may get worse under ObamaCare.

Update: Edited Obama quote into a block quote for clarity.

At the most recent city commission meeting, the attorney, who the city will pay $24,000 to redistrict the city, mentioned Rodriguez. The attorney recognizes that incumbency matters in redistricting. He also fought the Texas redistricting the state Republicans did and represented LULAC or some other Hispanic organization like LULAC. Viva La Raza!

But I digress. This post is about Congressman Rodriguez. Can he handle the truth when voters confront him with ObamaCare? (Via Breitbart Tv)

I know it’s hot in Texas, and there are a lot of mosquitoes after the rains. Nevertheless, why is he waving a mysterious white paper? *cough*McCarthy*cough*

Analysis from HotAir’s Ed Morrissey:

Furthermore, this looks like a premeditated outburst.  For a year, Democrats have offered one false set of numbers after another on ObamaCare, as exemplified yet again last week by the IRS admission that they don’t have the resources to enforce the insurance mandate — and Democrats’ admission that they don’t know what the IRS needs to do it.  Certainly Rodriguez would have known that constituents would challenge his numbers when meeting with them, especially if he planned on rationalizing his support on CBO projections for health-care spending without ObamaCare.  Slamming the newspaper down in front of the constituent looks like a planned bit of theater that Rodriguez intended to boost his testicular quotient among the base; it’s likely to backfire instead.

Fernando Trevino, a former Tip of Texas Tea Partier who moved away last  year, supported Ciro Rodriguez’s Republican opponent during the primaries. Check out Republican Francisco “Quico” Canseco he might need help unseating this ANGRY congressman.

Say it ain’t so! How can this be? Pejorative is defined as having a negative connotation. It’s a disparaging remark.

The question that everyone is asking is “how can it be a pejorative if Obama’s proud of his accomplishment?”

Better yet, you would think he would want to own the rainbow farts right?

I happen to agree with AnaJay: Since “reform” defined indicates improvement, can we object to the use of the term “Health Care Reform”?

(Hat tip: Patterico)

What is AARP’s position on Arizona’s new anti-illegal immigration law? 

The AARP is SILENT on this issue, despite the fact that a broad majority of Americans support Arizona’s anti-illegal immigration law.  

• AMAC supports Arizona in their fight against Illegal Immigration.
• AMAC is opposed to those trying to label this legislation as “Racist.”
• AMAC is opposed to those calling for boycotts of Arizona.

Join AMAC’s effort to SUPPORT ARIZONA!  

Go to www.TearUpYourCard.com or call 1-888-AMAC-006 (888-262-2006).  

AARP backed ObamaCare to the bitter end, urging Congress to “Get Health Care Done.” This despite the fact that a majority of Americans OPPOSED that legislation. But AARP is silent on the Arizona law, which a majority of Americans SUPPORT.  

AMAC SUPPORTS ARIZONA! So can you.

Come on – did you really believe that nationalization of the health care industry would lower costs?

According to a report in the decidedly left-of-center USA Today, the nationalization of our health care system aka “Obamacare” will neither lower costs nor increase access to health care:

President Obama’s health care overhaul law will increase the nation’s health care tab instead of bringing costs down, government economic forecasters concluded Thursday in a sobering assessment of the sweeping legislation.

No one really believed that Obamacare was going to lower costs.  That was a canard, “feel-good” fodder for the masses.  The real goal was acquisition of political power.  Well, now they have it.  From now on, some pencil-neck government bureaucrat will have the authority to award or deny you the health care you need.

Feels good, doesn’t it?

-chris

Reid said this to Greta Sustern on FoxNews:

Now that the legislation passed, it’s amazing how much different people’s attitude is, I mean traveling on an airplane people are so nice to me, it wasn’t that way before. We have people sending me notes in church, you know, I have a disabled daughter, thank you very much for taking care of her. I mean, people have changed, even the Republicans have changed their tune.

Really, Harry?  Your poll numbers do not reflect this change in attitude toward you or your policies.  The latest Rasmussen poll has Harry Reid at a total unfavorable rating of 62% ( 53% very unfavorable + 9% somewhat unfavorable)

It is very unsettling to reflect on the idea that people may actually pay homage to politicians like Reid, thanking them for their health care.  Doesn’t Reid’s account above expose the lie made by Obama and the Democrats that no government bureaucrat would ever come between you and your doctor?  If that were true, why would anyone thank Reid for their health care?  This is very frightening stuff.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQFFZJpTmD0

President Barack Obama:

But the thing is though, you have to love some of the pundits in Washington. Everying single day since I signed the [Obamacare] reform law, there’s been another poll or headline that said “Nation still divided on health care reform – polls haven’t changed yet!”

We’ll yeah. It just happend last week. It’s only been a week!

But if polls would have soared through the roof, heh. Well, the president would be everywhere.