Michelle Malkin to Celebrate Talk Like a Pirate Day in Milwaukee

by folkbum

Avast! I'm sure she'll see two million scurvy dogs along the lakefront.

Health Care Myth Blasting #2

By Keith R. Schmitz

Let's deconstruct more rad right health care reform mythology courtesy of Media Matters.

MYTH 2: Health care reform will impose rationing

CLAIM: Progressive health care reform proposals will introduce a system of "rationing" into American medicine.

SEAN HANNITY: "We're gonna have a government rationing body that tells women with breast cancer, 'You're dead.' It's a death sentence." [Fox News' Hannity, 6/19/09]
MICHELLE MALKIN: "Big Nanny Democrats want to ration health care for everyone in America -- except those who break our immigration laws." [Malkin column, 7/22/09]
REALITY: Insurance companies already ration care. Insurance companies acknowledge that they ration care, restricting coverage of procedures and tests like MRIs and CAT scans and denying coverage for pre-existing medical conditions.

Sanjay Gupta: "I can tell you, as a practicing physician ... who deals with this on a daily basis, rationing does occur all the time." As Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN's chief medical correspondent, explained: "[P]eople always say, 'Is there going to be rationed care?' And I can tell you, as a practicing physician, as someone who deals with this on a daily basis, rationing does occur all the time. I mean, I was in the clinic this past week. And I -- you know, at the end of clinic, I get all this paperwork that basically says, 'Justify why you're doing such and such procedure. Justify why you're ordering such and such test.' And if the justification is inadequate, the answer comes back, 'Well, that's not going to be covered.' Which basically is saying that the patient is going to have to pay for it on their own, which is, in essence, is what rationing is, in so many ways." [CNN's Anderson Cooper 360, 8/12/09]

Insurance companies ration care by rescinding coverage. As former senior executive at CIGNA health insurance company Wendell Potter explained in June 24 Senate testimony, insurance companies restrict or deny coverage by rescinding health insurance policies on the grounds that people had undisclosed pre-existing conditions. President Obama recently cited one such example, noting that "[a] woman from Texas was diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer, was scheduled for a double mastectomy. Three days before surgery ... the insurance company canceled the policy, in part because she forgot to declare a case of acne. ... By the time she had her insurance reinstated, the cancer had more than doubled in size."

Shovel Ready BS

By Keith R. Schmitz

Always a marvel to watch how purposely planted mis-information courses through the conservative body politic like ptomaine poisoning.

Local right wing sheep herder Charlie Sykes has this charming little habit of drive-by dropping bits of invective. This is sorta like one of the features on the Crazy World of Arthur Brown's performances where his roadies would stir up the crowd by dropping rubber bands on them and shouting "worms."

At the end of a January 26th post slamming the economic stimulus proposals, Sykes salts the end with the comment, "Apparently, Democrats also want to bail out ACORN." This links to his whacko gal pal Michelle Malkin, she the defender 0f America against the threat of keffiyehs.

Malkin parrots Cong. John Boehner's (R-Crybabyland) charge "that the left-wing voter fraud/illegal alien/housing entitlement racketeers at ACORN “could get billions” more in federal taxpayer funding from the Democrats’ stimulus bill."

She makes the jump from "apparently" to "to the victors go the spoils. Stolen from the pockets of your children and grandchildren." As if her Bush buddies have left kiddie pockets unmolested.

Limbaugh also carries the water on this point. At this point I have run out of high-blood pressure meds and you'll have to find the rest of the yodeling yourself.

Media Matters spoils the party and points out:

Limbaugh's claim that pursuant to the economic recovery plan, $4.19 billion "is going to ACORN" is false. The false claim is based on a misrepresentation of a provision that would appropriate $4,190,000,000 "for neighborhood stabilization activities related to emergency assistance for the redevelopment of abandoned and foreclosed homes as authorized under division B, title III of the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008." The provision requires that money to be distributed through competitive processes.

Competitive bidding? Wow! What a concept!

We certainly saw nothing like this during the conduct of the "reconstruction" of Iraq or the rebuilding of the Gulf following Katrina. Maybe Malkin and others of her ilk expect that this is the typical way to conduct government.

But for those of you who fret there is going to be this flood of stimulus ear marks should get used to this bizzare competitive bidding behavior on the part of the Obama administration. Bear in mind they won on a campaign that was rolling in cash yet compelled us volunteers to find donated canvassing space and whose staff largely worked for free.

Habits are hard to break no matter the party.

UPDATE -- The Brawler delves into more of Sykes' lies about the stimulus. 

Brace yourself.  A lot more of this will be rolling down the chute as the GOP gets desperate as they see their fantasies come to an end.

Dunkin Donuts Caters to Crackpots

By Keith Schmitz

What a great country we live in. Here in Milwaukee we have one-man crazed mob John McAdams hounding radio stations and furniture stores. Nationally Michele Malkin, who proves clowns can be played by women, sees Rachel Ray as a terrorist.

Watch out for those exploding bottles of EVO.

On the Huffington Post:

Dunkin Donuts has pulled a commercial featuring pitchwoman Rachael Ray wearing a scarf because Michelle Malkin and other conservative observers thought the scarf looked too much like a keffiyeh, what Malkin describes as "the traditional scarf of Arab men that has come to symbolize murderous Palestinian jihad."

Well. Now we all know what a keffiyeh is. And I thought the chain only sold pastry that coats your teeth.

Malkin crowed after DD yanked the ad...

It's refreshing to see an American company show sensitivity to the concerns of Americans opposed to Islamic jihad and its apologists. Too many of them bend over backward in the direction of anti-American political correctness....(no, now they are bending over for something else).

Fashion statements may seem insignificant, but when they lead to the mainstreaming of violence -- unintentionally or not -- they matter. Ignorance is no longer an excuse. In post-9/11 America, vigilance must never go out of style.

Looks like advertising stylists everywhere had better watch their wardrobe choices or they will have to answer to astro-turf bloggers.

My question is who gets to eat the cost of this prematurely pulled ad - the agency or the client?

If Dunkin Donuts had any donut holes they would have told Malkin to take a dunk -- in the Boston Harbor.

Could this country find more ways to turn itself into a laughing stock?