“There are times when putting together a healthy meal is harder than you might imagine.”

Poor First Lady Michelle Obama!  What a life of misery she leads. On the campaign trail she brought us to tears with her tragic tale about the trials of finding fresh fruit, when she asked plaintively:

“Who’s got time to go to the fruit stand? Who can afford it, first of all?”

Alas, it it seems that things are no easier now that she’s ensconced at the White House.  She may have amazing arms and 20 attendants, but she still struggles mightily with arranging healthy meals. No doubt Marie Antoinette had similar woes at the Petit Trianon.   Luckily Dana Milbank is around to keep us informed of her endless struggles:

Let’s say you’re preparing dinner and you realize with dismay that you don’t have any certified organic Tuscan kale. What to do?

Here’s how Michelle Obama handled this very predicament Thursday afternoon:

The Secret Service and the D.C. police brought in three dozen vehicles and shut down H Street, Vermont Avenue, two lanes of I Street and an entrance to the McPherson Square Metro station. They swept the area, in front of the Department of Veterans Affairs, with bomb-sniffing dogs and installed magnetometers in the middle of the street, put up barricades to keep pedestrians out, and took positions with binoculars atop trucks. Though the produce stand was only a block or so from the White House, the first lady hopped into her armored limousine and pulled into the market amid the wail of sirens.

Then, and only then, could Obama purchase her leafy greens. "Now it’s time to buy some food," she told several hundred people who came to watch. "Let’s shop!"

Ever the heroic social justice advocate she proudly proclaims the benefits of the farmers market for the food stamp crowd:

Obama, in her brief speech to the vendors and patrons, handled the affordability issue by pointing out that people who pay with food stamps would get double the coupon value at the market. Even then, though, it’s hard to imagine somebody using food stamps to buy what the market offered: $19 bison steak from Gunpowder Bison, organic dandelion greens for $12 per pound from Blueberry Hill Vegetables, the Piedmont Reserve cheese from Everson Dairy at $29 a pound. Rounding out the potential shopping cart: $4 for a piece of "walnut dacquoise" from the Praline Bakery, $9 for a jumbo crab cake at Chris’s Marketplace, $8 for a loaf of cranberry-walnut bread and $32 for a bolt of yarn.

The first lady said the market would particularly appeal to federal employees in nearby buildings to "pick up some good stuff for dinner." Yet even they might think twice about spending $3 for a pint of potatoes when potatoes are on sale for 40 cents a pound at Giant. They could get nearly five dozen eggs at Giant for the $5 Obama spent for her dozen.

Let them eat walnut dacquoise!  (Read the rest here).  But lest one think that her tribulations end in the kitchen, be assured that our girdled First Lady is everywoman:

Michelle Obama said women are being “crushed by the current structure of our health care” because they often are responsible for taking care of family illnesses, arranging checkups and monitoring follow-up care.

“Women are the ones to do it,” she said to an audience of 140 people, including representatives from groups such as the Women’s Chamber of Commerce and the National Council of Negro Women. “Mothers are the ones that do it. And many women find themselves doing the same thing for their spouses.”

Noooooh!  We cannot let this stand! It’s like slavery or something!  I look forward to her next speech when she demands reparations for working women, wives, and mothers.  Until then, I urge her to stand in solidarity with the San Joaquin Valley farmers who cannot grow the healthy food she wants for her table (thanks to the idiot environmentalists who put smelts above people – many of whom work in her husband’s radical administration).

“We are their Willy Horton for 2009. We are the boogeyman for the right-wing and its echo chambers.”

Ha! Speaking of a “coarsening national dialogue”,  how’s this for a desperate play by ACORN’s Bertha Lewis?  When you’re caught red-handed and losing all credibility it’s time to dust off the old Leftie playbook, play the race card, and evoke the name of Willie Horton.  Surely this tactic (or is it a “strategy”?) is  in Obama’s dog-eared copy of Rules for Radicals somewhere.  This hilarious response is so filled with paranoid conspiracies it’s positively Trutheresque. 

Via Andrew Breitbart’s fabulous new muckraking website,  Big Government:

The relentless attacks on ACORN’s members, its staff and the policies and positions we promote are unprecedented.  An international entertainment conglomerate, disguising itself as a “news” agency (Fox), has expended millions, if not tens of millions of dollars, in their attempt to destroy the largest community organization of Black, Latino, poor and working class people in the country.  It is not coincidence that the most recent attacks have been launched just when health care reform is gaining traction.  It is clear they’ve had these tapes for months.

We are their Willy Horton for 2009.  We are the boogeyman for the right-wing and its echo chambers.  If ACORN did not exist, the right-wing would have needed to create us in order to achieve their agenda, their missions, their ideal, retrograde America.  This recent scam, which was attempted in San Diego, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Philadelphia to name a few places, had failed for months before the results we’ve all recently seen.  I am appalled and angry; I cannot and I will not defend the actions of the workers depicted in the video, who have since been terminated.  But it is clear that the videos are doctored, edited, and in no way the result of the fabricated story being portrayed by conservative activist “filmmaker” O’Keefe and his partner in crime.  And, in fact, a crime it was – our lawyers believe a felony – and we will be taking legal action against Fox and their co-conspirators….

More hysterics from Bertha Lewis here. 

Earth to Bertha: Fox had nothing to do with it.  Their role was merely to do what the rest of the MSM failed to do, and report on the blockbuster story.  But hey, knock yourself out and waste a few more dollars that your organization scams from taxpayers by trying to sue Fox.   What’s a few thousand more when billions are earmarked in the Porkulus for your corrupt crime syndicate (staffed by oh- so-sweet domestic terrorist sympathizers)?

 

UPDATE:

Ixnay that Willie Horton thingy.

Danishova dissents from Dollard!

The “town hall” meeting with Douglasville, Georgia officials and Congressman David Scott (D) Georgia is now national news, well beyond the blogosphere. An angry Neal Boortz had Scott on his show this morning, and  Glenn Beck is talking about it as I write this.  I wrote about it here, focusing on unofficial video of a black constituent I affectionately dubbed a “mobster”, who urged Scott to “vote no” on ObamaCare.  I thought it was amusing that the stereotype the Dems have drawn for us of NAZIS in Brooks Brothers suits was shattered by this man. I also included video of a confrontation between an individual who was constrained from videotaping the event and a Douglasville police officer who called the would-be videographer a “jerk” (as well as comments about Scott’s outburst from some who were in attendance):

Now Pat Dollard has weighed in from the West Coast, and despite Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer’s attempts to suppress dissent, I am going to do the “Un-American” thing and dissent as a conservative from…Hollywood “conservative” Pat Dollard – even at the risk of alienating fellow conservatives.

To provide some context, Dollard’s Wiki bio can be found here.  Germane to this discussion, Dollard founded a group called ACTIVE (more on ACTIVE later).  The police officer in the above video has been identified as Police Chief Chris Womack.  In a description below a photo of Womack, Dollard refers to him an “ACORN enforcer” and goes on to write (emphasis mine):

I want to know if this Police Chief was acting out of political passions, or political pressures (the mayor and other city political thugs were there), or if that night he was on the ACORN/Obama payroll. Civil court discovery motions and a thorough Federal law enforcement investigation of his civil rights violations will allow for a probe into his personal finances, as well as depositions and sworn testimony from all officers on duty as to the Chief’s orders and actions, both that night and during any other occasions of political activity.

As Matt notes below, the rank and file Womack cops were at odds with Womack’s use of their uniformed authority to support his Democrat’s agenda. The real American cops in Womack [sic] have stood up to CAIR. And by the way, we don’t use the term “real American” in some sloppy fashion. ACTIVE defines a real American as one who ardently supports the US Constitution, as Chief Womack obviously doesn’t, given his blatant trampling of it.

Dollard includes this description of the event from “Matt” who is identified as “ACTIVE’s Georgia State President”:

We were at a David Scott (D) town Hall meeting about a highway project in Douglasville. We intended to take the floor and ask him questions on his Health Care position as well as other things, and videotape it. While bringing our cameras into the venue I was stopped by an Acorn type and told that I couldn’t bring my camera. I ignored him. He went over to a cop, a radio call was made, I was approached by Douglasville police chief Chris Womack who threatened me with arrest if I took it in. He also asked for the camera. I refused to give it to him, and told him “I will be using it outside and there is no law against that”, he ratcheted up the attempt to intimidate me at that point, asking for ID. I had nothing to hide. Roger “Screaming Eagle” covertly caught the end of the exchange on his own video.

Throughout the townhall, free speech was shut down. If anyone asked an off-topic (non-highway 92) question, they were cut off and police and security immediately surrounded them.

There were plenty of video cameras in there, but we were singled out. You could also say that we were an obvious minority there.

BTW, it was obvious most of the other cops didn’t agree with the chief’s behaviour.

I don’t like the fact that this sworn officer of the law knowingly and intentionally violated my civil and Constitutional rights for political purposes.

I think from the meeting we got some good lessons learned as to the level these bastards clamp down on free speech and press. I am going to write up a “lessons learned” for future town halls. The town halls have not been going well for these guys and they are starting to resort to brown shirt behaviour.

Matt

Here’s the problem with this analysis:  Douglasville is by no means a bastion of liberal elites and for the most part its local government would fairly be described as “conservative Republican”, including, for instance, the elected County Commission Chairman and the Sheriff.  With this in mind, to describe the mayor and other local officials at the meeting as “political thugs” and “bastards” who may have put “political pressure” on the police chief comes off as a ludicrous smear. The Mayor and others who presided over the meeting were there in their capacity as Douglasville officials concerned with a local highway project, not as like-minded colleagues of Congressman Scott, and as such they should not be held responsible for what Scott himself said at the meeting.   Certainly, with the exception of Scott and his staff, none of them have anything at all to do with ObamaCare or the Obama Administration, and they have no discernable motive to stifle speech on that topic.

I do not know how accurate Matt’s description of the event is.  I don’t know what he means when he says “we were an obvious minority there”. Is he talking about race?  Here is a video that was taken at the beginning of the meeting, which certainly gives the impression that all sorts of people were represented:

It’s possible Matt’s camera was singled out, but it’s also possible that the other video cameras he describes were the cameras for CITI TV who are contracted to film official proceedings.  Clearly he is correct that Police Chief Womack confronted him about his camera and we have video to prove it.  However,  it is reckless to suggest that the police chief of the conservative Douglasville is “on the ACORN/Obama payroll”, and it is illogical to imply that an “Acorn type” person was there in cahoots with the Douglasville officials.  Both “Matt” and Dollard seem to be relying on raw emotion when they make these allegations.

Dollard may be correct that as a matter of law the police chief erred in preventing the photographer from filming the event. Certainly, it is reasonable to object to what happened and to demand an explanation (which no doubt will be forthcoming eventually).  However, while there may even be cause for a civil action against Womack, to suggest at this juncture that there be a “probe into his personal finances” strikes me as an unwarranted request.  In my capacity as a non-lawyer mom, I would venture to guess that merely obstructing someone from videotaping an event would not appear to meet the standards necessary to rifle through financial records.  Surely as conservatives we should not make a habit of demanding that the personal finances of individuals (including police chiefs) be probed without iron-clad evidence of collusion and corruption. We have witnessed far too many Clintonesque shenanigans with FBI files and the like, and snooping into the records of private citizens like Joe the Plumber or candidates like Michael Steele to recklessly cheer-on these tactics, even in the guise of a legal probe.

As further clues to Dollard’s mindset, ACTIVE’s mission statement reads:

Active, The American Constitution and Capitalism Defense Front, is a permanent and enduring organization of American citizens dedicated to maintaining the foundational principles of the United States of America, as initiated by its Declaration of Independence and realized by its Constitution and economic system of free-market capitalism.

On the face of it, I agree with that mission (although the use of the word “front” is wee bit too militaristic to my liking, and conjures up unfortunate images of the extremist “Storm Front”).  Indeed, ACTIVE has some very admirable causes, like supporting Michael Yon’s essential work reporting on the ground in Afghanistan and Iraq.

However,  there are areas where, in my opinion, Dollard ventures into Looney Tunes territory.   Notably,  ACTIVE is  planning a “November 4th National Strike Against The Dictator”.   If they want to mobilize for a strike they have every right to do so (I myself have quipped that I’d like to see a “20 million man march on Washington” in honor of Rush “The Mob Father” Limbaugh’s listeners)  but I don’t think it serves them well to call it a strike “against the dictator”.   Frankly,  I hate the idea of a national strike – that’s how the French routinely operate in their execrable Socialist-dominated state.  Instead of a strike, if I had my druthers we’d organize mass gatherings of unemployed Americans who have lost their jobs under Obama, but ultimately it’s not the strike itself, but the way it’s being promoted that I find objectionable and which gives the impression (fairly or unfairly) that Dollard may be slightly off his rocker.

One can successfully use satire and humor to make “dictator” references (as, say, Rush and Glenn Beck do so well) but in this context it just comes off as unhinged.  Yes, there are many  legitimate arguments (such as those made by Jonah Goldberg in Liberal Fascism) that the “Progressive” Democrats have a strong dictatorial streak, but this is a war of words and how we choose to frame our arguments matters in the P.R. battle.

I leave it to all of you to make up your mind about Dollard’s agenda and tactics.  We are at a perilous time in our nation’s history, and there is no doubt in my mind that our liberty is threatened by the Obama Administration and their Democrat comrades in Congress.  We seem to be winning the battle against Obamacare but this is just one of many threats we face (in addition to “card check”, Cap and trade, the Fairness Doctrine, and others issues which lurk dangerously just below the radar).  As such it behooves us to behave responsibly and carefully as we express our opposition to the totality of the Statist Obama agenda.

While many Americans are understandably frightened and enraged over the Democrat’s agenda, ultimately we need to win the battle of ideas, and hopefully that includes a resounding defeat of the Democrats at the ballot box in 2010.  But just as the Democrats sound foolish and rash making broad and ludicrous allegations about conservatives and “teabaggers”, conservatives who use a broad brush to smear wide swaths of people (such as Dollard does when he attacks Douglasville officials who have no political connection to Congressman David Scott) risk turning people off and ultimately losing the argument – something we can ill afford to do at this time in our nation’s history.

Right wing mobster disrupts meeting with Congressman Scott (D) in Georgia

Oh-oh. Cameras were not allowed at this town meeting in Douglasville, Georgia with Congressman David Scott, but someone filmed this surreptitiously. Who will report this unruly usurper to the White House snitch line before Sen. John Cornyn shuts it down?

 

 

Here’s another video where a Brooks Brothers attired mobster is confronted by angry policeman who accuses the insurgent of “being a jerk” for trying to film the proceedings.  Tilt your laptops!

 

A report of the meeting is available from the Douglas County Sentinel (h/t Just Grits)* The comments provide helpful details, and many take issue with the Sentinel’s reporter’s assessment of the event, which failed to mention any angry reaction from Congressman Scott.  Here’s a sample (emphasis mine):

Up next was the Dr. Hill and what this man said was eye opening for anyone who is on the fence about HR3200. He stated facts and figures from Massachusetts and then asked the Congressman if he would vote for the bill. The Congressman stated "I’m undecided." He then asked if the congressman had read the bill. At this point the Congressman and his staff went unhinged and the Congressman stood up and started shouting down his constituents saying we had "Hijacked the meeting and how can he read the bill if there is not one." This was something I found very strange because I was able to find a bill online known as H.R. 3200 Americans Affordable Health Choice Act of 2009. How can one Hijack a meeting when we waited very patiently for our turn? The Congressman then stated loudly that if we wanted to talk to him about health care we should set up a meeting. Ten or so citizens stated that they had talked to Isaac and could not get one. Man if looks could kill Isaac would be in a lot of trouble. Isaac then turned to the people recording the event and moved his hands in the "Cut" motion as if he was saying stop recording this. The final question was from the Dr. again "Do you support a public option health care program?" The response was "YES" The city manager said the meeting was adjourned and the Congressman was lead out of the hall with his staff and local police surrounding him with citizens in tow stating they their question was not answered.

Here’s another:

After waiting patiently for over 3 hours someone got up and asked about HR 3200 (Health Care Reform Bill). Congressman Scott raised his voice at the crowd and accused people of trying to "hi-jack" the meeting. A couple of people tried to ask questions to the Congressman but were called out of order by Mr. Osbourne and told they will be removed from the room if they persist. The doctor told the Congressman that he has tried to schedule a meeting about health care with his office but has been unsuccessful. Congressman Scott stated that no such call has been made to his office. At that time the doctor said yes he has and was called out of order and removed from the room. It was ugly.

Update:

Additional comments added. Also – to clarify, this meeting was filmed for the local public access channel (My Citi TV.) but apparently private citizens were not permitted to film it.

*I thought that “Just Grits” was the name of the blog I H/T’d above, but the correct name is  Obi’s Sister. And a fine blog it is too!

Hot Air has Atlanta’s NBC affiliate WXIA’s reportage of the event, and Allahpundit provides reliably excellent commentary. I should have linked to this yesterday, but it’s Summertime and the living is easy busy.

Heh. Atlanta’s own Cynthia Tucker asserts that  “45-65%” of Obamacare protesters are raaaacists who “aren’t comfortable with a black president”.  I don’t know the identity of the man in the video above, but it would be interesting to hear his take on this allegation. (H/T Hot Air headlines).

Awww – Toot toot, Get up off of that loot

Ha! The masks rapidly are coming off.  Yesterday, in a White House blog post by “Big Brother” Macon Philips (ironically titled “Facts are stubborn things”) we learned Linda Douglass is Obama’s Minister of Information, and the White House is conducting a shocking fishing expedition:

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.

This plea to report snitches has been met with appropriate alarm by bloggers like Michelle Malkin, Senator Cornyn, and columnists like Byron York. Never missing an opportunity to poke serious fun, Iowahawk writes a biting satire of “Deputy Assistant Under-Minister of Truth” Linda Douglass who pleads, “Know your Town Hall Mob Agitators”.  The satire is accompanied by photos which compare the so-called “grass roots” organizers on the Left with their professionally printed signs and matching attire to the haphazard efforts of those “mobsters” who dare dissent from Obamacare:

Behold the face of infiltrators and saboteurs, citizen! Look at the surly anti-American anger and carefully practiced dishevelment. Note that their signs are scrawled, fiendishly tricking cameramen into closeups. All are expertly handmade, an expensive graphic design luxury only affordable to their puppet masters in the drug and insurance cartels. Note these mobs are so well paid for their agitation that they actually arrived in their own cars and expensive non-matching t-shirts. Fishy? You bet! Report them at once!

For added emphasis, Iowahawk links to “spontaneous chant cards” used by union organizers, sorry, I mean ordinary citizens, at jobs for justice – who just happen to meet en masse and chant in unison with their lefty pro-union demands.  This is my favorite, as it perfectly exposes what really lurks in the hearts and minds of “Community Organizers” who claim to be working for  “economic and social justice” and other altruistic causes, but are in reality “progressive” pirates who want to steal your “loot” and redistribute it to the masses like-minded, politically connected Democrats:

Awww – Toot toot

Get up off of that loot

I do hope that ACORN and the S.E.I.U.  (or one of their hundreds of affiliate organizations)  have a copy of that chant, as I would like nothing better than to see them captured for posterity speaking the truth as they advocate to spread the wealth around.

 

“NICE”: Orwellian acronym of Brit plan to ration pain treatment

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

How quaint and outmoded Dylan Thomas sounds in this wondrous Brave New World of government controlled “healthcare”, moderated by bureaucratic “Comparative Effectiveness Research” councils.  According to Ezekial Emanuel, creepy brother of Rahm Emanuel, and one of Obama’s most trusted advisers,  the Hippocratic Oath is passe’ as it encourages the “overuse of medical care” and thus must be reined in.  Nope, no longer are we encouraged to fight for life, but instead we are counseled to be docile and compliant citizens who,  having already had our fair share of life and resources, must go gentle into that good night.  The arguments in favor of this approach range from citing “communitarianism” and “redistributive justice” to the Neo-Malthusian desire of Obama’s creepy Science Czar to save an “overpopulated planet” from human “polluters” via abortion, sterilization, and euthanasia.

To illustrate the pain of this clinical bureaucratic approach, we have this story from across the pond, via the Telegraph U.K.  NICE is an acronym for National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence.

The Government’s drug rationing watchdog says "therapeutic" injections of steroids, such as cortisone, which are used to reduce inflammation, should no longer be offered to patients suffering from persistent lower back pain when the cause is not known.

Instead the National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) is ordering doctors to offer patients remedies like acupuncture and osteopathy.

The NHS currently issues more than 60,000 treatments of steroid injections every year. NICE said in its guidance it wants to cut this to just 3,000 treatments a year, a move which would save the NHS £33 million.

That’s the “NICE” British way, but things are proceeding ominously in the U.S. as well.  In a new twist to the concept of “alternative medicine”,  Hot Air alerts us to Oregonian patients who are told that it is too costly to keep them alive with chemotherapy pills like Tarceva, so they are handed a death sentence by bureaucrats who kindly prescribe  “comfort care” centers where they can dutifully die – thanks to Oregon’s legally assisted suicide.  They should not rage against the dying of the light, they’ve had their turn to live;  it’s time to act altruistically and sacrifice space on the planet and economic resources for social justice and the greater good!

Inspired by NICE, I have devised some seductive acronyms that Obama’s hirelings can use to sell their healthcare rationing programs for the elderly (and babies and children with icky abnormalities whom bioethicists determine are not worthy of medical care):

PIP – Pain is Patriotic.

CARESS -  Council for Aging Retirees Early Suicide Services.

LOVE – Let Old Vultures Expire.

CARE – Cease Age-Related Expenditures.

HUGS – Halt Unfair Gerontology Spending.

GREAT – Greedy Retirees Euthanasia Advocacy Trust.

KISS - Kill Ill Seniors Swiftly

HUMANE - Halt Unfair Meds for Aging Nuisances Early.

BLISS - Bureau to Lobby for Infanticide in a Secular Society

Other suggestions are welcome. It takes a village, after all.

Update:
Perfect! The reliably brilliant People’s Cube has devised a Cash for Clunkers – Obamacare edition, where you can “trade in your grandparents for cash prizes and free healthcare entitlements”. (H/T Michelle Malkin)

Dear Leader makes this sales pitch:

"From my meetings with community activists and focus groups I have learned one thing: once you’re past seventy, you have outlived your usefulness. Progress requires sacrifice. Some don’t buy a large flat-screen TV, some don’t go on vacation, and some don’t go on living. And since humans are nothing more than a random collection of chemical elements that can also be found in a flat-screen TV, human sacrifice is no different than material sacrifice. Do it for the children!"

FIASCO: Day 2 of “Cash for Clunkers” debacle

From the New York Times News Blog, a description of absolute CHAOS in the showrooms.  Here’s a sci-fi like teaser – a chilling description of automobile euthanasia, which is a fitting metaphor for fears about the Dem’s super scary healthcare plan, and government incompetence in general:

The program requires that the clunkers be put out of service for good, so dealers must destroy the engines on cars that are traded in. We watched this process yesterday at the DCH Paramus Honda in Paramus, N.J. It is quite laborious and potentially dangerous. And it certainly is final.

Nick Clites, who is in charge of used cars for the dealership, was prepping a 1988 BMW 535IS, with 214,000 miles on the odometer, for its death. He drained the oil, then donned a silky blue protective suit, goggles and gloves and poured a sodium silicate solution into the engine. He revved the car, and within a few seconds, the solution hardened into a glass-like substance, the engine seized up and the car was dead.

If scenarios like this continue being written in Washington, I  have a feeling that voters will rush to get their clunkers in Congress turned in in 2010.

Update:

Allahpundit has more here, including video of a Volvo being euthanized to save the planet.

FAIL!: Dems to suspend “Cash for Clunkers”.

Remind me again why we’re supposed to trust these pathetic losers with our health (or wealth)?  Via Drudge, The A.P. reports:

Congressional officials say the government plans to suspend the popular "cash for clunkers" program amid concerns it could quickly use up the $1 billion in rebates for new car purchases.

The Transportation Department called congressional offices late Thursday to alert them to the decision to halt the program, which offered owners of old cars and trucks $3,500 or $4,500 toward a new, more fuel-efficient vehicle.

The congressional officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

Through late Wednesday, 22,782 vehicles had been purchased through the program and nearly $96 million had been spent. But dealers raised concerns of large backlogs in the system, prompting the suspension.

While there are legitimate arguments against this program, at least it is the one initiative they put in place that might actually do something to “stimulate” the economy.  So, how about this?  How about they cancel the $5 billion they’ve allocated under the “Give” Act to pay “volunteers”, and transfer some of that money to this program instead?

Update:

Allahpundit and numerous commenters at Hot Air are making the metaphoric comparison to the looming fiasco of an incompetent government nationalizing our healthcare.  It’s going to be so entertaining to watch the clunkers in Congress scramble around furiously to rescue their master plan and then spin it to the American people.  It’s too bad they’ll never figure out that mega tax cuts would accomplish the same thing and spread the wealth around throughout private businesses, including, but not exclusively to, the auto business.

Meet Professor Charles Ogletree, another one of Obama’s “mentors”

Frank Marshall…Rev. Jeremiah Wright…Professor Ogletree.   These men form a virtual triumvirate of mentors throughout Obama’s life from Hawaii, to Cambridge, and Chicago.  Harvard Law Professor Ogletree happens to be in the news lately because he represents Henry Louis “Skip” Gates.  Coincidentally, Ogletree has hosted the Obamas in his home in Martha’s Vineyard, where the contemporary victims of slavery who occupy the White House will be vacationing.

Trevor Loudon of New Zeal does a thorough job of recounting Ogletree’s radical background during the heyday of the Black Panthers and Angela Davis, and as a present day advocate for reparations, here.   Free Republic has lots of links, including videos here.

These more subtle items caught my eye for their sheer audacity (Emphasis mine):

1.  From a recent interview with Essence Magazine.

ESSENCE.COM: How significant do you think race and gender are with regard to filling this position? Is diversity on the Supreme Court important to you?

OGLETREE: Race and gender are critical to the Supreme Court. We know that because we have a court that’s more than 200 years old, and we have had only two women in that history serve, and only two African-Americans in that history serve. So it’s been an important method of excluding people for centuries. I think President Obama will be mindful of the value of diversity. It has reflected already in that he is the first of 44 presidents to ever select an African-American as the attorney general of the United States. He is the first to select a woman as the solicitor general of the United States. With his nominee for the Supreme Court he has put race and gender forefront by selecting an imminently qualified candidate. And she is successful in spite of the fact that she is a person of color, not because she is a person of color. She’s a brilliant choice who happens to be a Latina, and this reflects the good judgment of President Obama

Ogletree is complaining that African-Americans have been “excluded” from the Supreme Court?? What chutzpah! The fact is that in 1991, Professor Ogletree served as Legal Counsel to Professor Anita Hill during the Senate Confirmation hearings for Justice Clarence Thomas, where he actively worked to “exclude” Thomas from the Supreme Court.

Meanwhile he credits Obama for hiring the first black Attorney General (Eric Holder) and female Solicitor General (Elena Kagan), as if their race and gender are their most important qualifications, and  the implication is that no white male President is capable of “diversity” by hiring blacks or females to important positions.  Apparently Barack’s appointments are more trailblazing and significant than, say, Condoleeza Rice’s appointment as George Bush’s Secretary of State.

2.  Here he peddles myths about Obama having an underprivileged childhood in an interview with Harvard Law Record (myths which Michelle Obama and Barack willfully perpetuate):

“Senator Barack Obama’s case is so compelling because as a young man he hardly knew his father. His mother, pregnant as a teenager, had to raise him nearly alone. I think the amount of progress he has made from that beginning is an example of the American Dream, that a person can come from the most challenging of circumstances, overcome the obstacles to success, and use faith, meaningful friendships, and the love of grandparents to rise out of poverty and despair to become the next president of the United States.”

Yes, he (and his wife) are examples of the American Dream  [which makes it a wee bit difficult to claim they deserve reparations],  but to claim he rose out of “poverty and despair”?  Because his parents deserted him he may have very well felt “despair” (although this is not the kind of despair born of poverty that Professor Ogletree alludes to).  But his impoverished mother managed to earn a PhD, marry an Indonesian oil executive, send Obama to the elite Punahou School, and send him to live with his grandmother who was a bank vice president. This is hardly the portrait of a family rising out of poverty.

UPDATE:

1. From FindLaw, here is a recap of his more “high profile” cases.  This in particular is fitting for the mentor of a President trained in the Chicago Way:

Oglethorpe was co-counsel with well-known New York City defense lawyer Gerald Shargel and Long Island defense lawyer Richard Rehbock, getting most of the felony charges against organized crime figure John Gotti, Jr. dismissed, and leading to a plea agreement of 77 months in prison, 3 years supervised release, a $10,000 fine, $336,000 in restitution.

(They say “Oglethorpe” not “Ogletree” but that is clearly an error)

2. N’COBRA also claims him as a member. He spoke at an event where Louis Farrakhan was the keynote speaker (see page 7 of the loony and dare I say “raaaacist” Reparations Times).

3. Ogletree’s white paper arguing for reparations here.

Barack Obama’s “government model for healthcare”?: The Veterans Administration!

Be afraid, very afraid.  I  found this indirectly via Ed Morrissey’s Obamateurism of the day, where Barack brags that stimulus bucks are helping families afford cupcakes.  Ed links to U.S.A. Today’s report on the “highlights” of  Marie Antoinette Obama’s town hall meeting in Raleigh, NC, which includes this stunner:

12:45 p.m. – A businesswoman with 20 employees asks Obama: What is your government model for health care? Obama cites Medicare and the Veterans Administration, saying both government-run health programs get good ratings.

The Veterans Administration????  Is he serious?  Here’s Glenn Beck recounting the horrors of V.A. healthcare:

 

 

Michelle Malkin blogged about the dismal record of the Veterans Administration in 2007. 

What on Earth is Obama thinking? Is he uninformed or…?

If it’s the latter, I do hope the Commander in Chief isn’t stuck with the V.A. psychiatric care he recommends as a “highly rated model” for the rest of us.

Update:

Here’s a link to a June 23rd floor speech by Rep. Ted Poe (R – Texas) on the horrors of V.A. care. (Only the cached version is available at the moment…)