Mika Brzezinski on Talking About Gun Control Immediately After the Florida School Shooting

Less than a day after the Parkland Florida School Massacre, in which at least 17 people were killed, MSNBC Anchor Mika Brezinski was insistent about having constructive talk about solutions.  Considering the midtown Manhattan mores of the mainstream media, this mean venting about gun control. Brzezinski threatened to unbook any guests on the Morning Joe who wanted to defer this constructive talk to either wait for confirmed details or out of respect for the victims' families. 

It is natural as members of the media cover this travesty live, they will opine supposed "answers" to make sense of the mire.On Fox News, conservative Sean Hannity got on his hobby horse for his entire hour in prime time to push for all schools to hire armed veterans for school security. For cash strapped districts, a guest suggested having federalized security, like the TSA.  The morning after the Parkland School Shooting, Salem Radio's centrist Republican Hugh Hewitt wondered why there was not a "No Buy List" for mentally troubled individuals. While that touches on the mental health aspect, it raises issues about an over expansive no-buy list, as Obamacare barred many Veterans diagnosed with PTSD from exercising their Second Amendment rights.

Although there are many indications that the shooter had a troubled teen with many mental illness markers, inevitably the knee jerk reaction for this so called "constructive talk"  will be a gun grab or advocating measures like a better background check (which have already been instituted).

Just as reality shows are somewhat scripted, Morning Joe is positioned to proffer reliable perspectives. Mika's booking benchmark shows how progressive will not let a good crisis to go to waste to grab guns.

DNC Chair Tom Perez on Health Care

House Speaker Paul Ryan on Repeal and Replace Obamacare

Trump HHS Secretary Dr. Tom Price on Patients

Outrage Over EpiPen Exploitation

As the school year is beginning and students with allergies are adjusting to new environs and routines, it has come to light that the cost of EpiPens, a life saving medical device to treat anaphylaxis from food allergies and bee stings, has skyrocketed.

The price of an EpiPen has gone from $57 to over $400 a unit.  This dramatic price increase prompted one exasperated mother to concede that she is no longer putting away money for her kid's college fund but in order to save for EpiPens.

While Mylan, the manufacturer of EpiPens, has declined to indicate the reasons for the price spike, pharmaceutical manufacturers typically impose significant price in the waning years of a monopoly before generic alternatives are allowed on the market.  However, in this case, the FDA has unexpectedly rejected a generic anaphalaxis alternative from Teva, requiring "more data".  And dosing problems prompted Sanofi pharmaceuticals to pull Auvi-Q (a non-generic treatment) from the market.  So EpiPens has a virtual monopoly on anaphylactic remedies as Mylan was seeking to suck every last cent of profit from EpiPens.

It may raise eyebrows that as Mylan acquired its virtual monopoly for EpiPens, Mylan's CEO Heather Bresch saw a 671% increase in  salary and compensation, going from $2.4 Million to a reported $18.9 Million. And it is an inconvenient truth that Ms. Bresch is the daughter of Senator Joe Manchin III (D-WV) who has donated $60,750 from 2011 to 2015. Between the generous financial support and filial ties,  it raises the specter of crony capitalism and possible nepotism. 

While Senator Manchin does not directly sit on heath committees and has voiced public concern over the incredible cost increases for EpiPens, his daughter might not be grilled harshly by his colleagues.  And it is unclear how the FDA decided that they needed more data for the generic.  With accusations of State Department concierge service associated with the Clinton Foundation and the politicization of Executive Branch Agencies (EPA, Energy, Agriculture etc..) and supposedly Independent Agencies (e.g. FCC on net neutrality), family ties may expedite an advantageous environment.  Or perhaps it's just another isolated incident of corporate serendipity .

The public was outraged by the EpiPen exploitation.  Sarah Jessica Parker, whose son suffers from anaphylactic shock, agreed to be the celebrity spokeman for EpiPens.  When this controversy arose, Sarah Jessica Parker went on social media to end her association with Mylan, thus walking away from a lucrative endorsement contract.

Mylan sought to mitigate the public relations mess about EpiPens by announcing that a family of four making $97,000 would pay nothing out of pocket for the prescription. That sounds nice but the inflated costs are just passed along to insurers and employers. With Obamacare on the precipice of a financial death spiral in 2017 and insurers pulling out of health exchange markets, this solution is a mere chimera. 

Bobby Jindal on Planned Parenthood

Maverick Metaphor on Planned Parenthood

The series of expose videos from the Center for Medical Progress has focused the public on Planned Parenthood's practices of purportedly selling baby parts (fully formed fetal tissue specimens).

Planned Parenthood defenders have employed various answers to these unsavory images of abortionists in action marketing and procuring their "product". These excuses have ranged from attacking the source for being biased, entrapping the abortionists  or releasing  edited videos (even though uncut full length videos were simultaneously released).

Pro Choice proponents slightly shifted the array of excuses to play on womens' reproductive health rights, claiming that abortion is only a small portion of Planned Parenthood's mission.  In fact, pro choice people claim that only 3% of Planned Parenthood's work is actually abortion.  Well, as Rich Lowrey observed, it depends on how the statistics are complied.  For instance, when a pregnant woman comes to Planned Parenthood, she is given an initial assessment,  a STD test, a pregnancy test and an appointment for the termination of the pregnancy.  So if each of these components are separately tabulated that means that only 25%  of Planned Parenthood's procedures are abortions.  Limbaugh makes a big deal that Planned Parenthood does not do mammograms thus he contends they effectively do not really cover womens' health. 

But looking at Planned Parenthood's books, 38.4% of Planned Parenthood's income stems from abortion services.  That doesn't even count how selling fetal tissues adds to their bottom line or finances Planned Parenthood executives aspirations for Lamborghinis.

If we lived in a nation that still respected the rule of law, the Department of Justice would be investigating the numerous instances of federal law violations which the videos exposed of selling body parts, altering medical procedures to ensure procurement and possible live birth abortions (through intact cadavers being marketed). But instead, liberal applications of justice in some states have gone after the investigative journalists free speech rights  through prior restraints as well as California Attorney General Kamala Harris (and Democrat US Senate candidate) is investigating the Center for Medical Progress for prospective violations of law. 

Rush Limbaugh's mordant metaphor may make some people uneasy. But so should Planned Parenthood's barbaric modus operandi for marketing "post abortive material". These Planned Parenthood expose videos pull back the curtain on the progressive euphemisms about abortion and reveal ugly realities. The question is whether the elites will protect their conceits or deal with the displays of exposed lawlessness and inhumanity. 

Antonin Scalia on SCOTUScare

Steve Forbes on Freedom

Questioning NOW's Dirty Labeling

During a tough interview with Megyn Kelly on Fox News Channel, Patricia Ireland speaking on behalf of the  National Organization for Women (NOW)  sought to justify NOW's labeling of the Little Sisters of the Poor as part of the "Dirty 100" in light of the recent Burwell v. Hobby Lobby (2014) Supreme Court ruling.

Ireland deflected the denigration of the Catholic nuns as being like the "Dirty Dozen" with other corporations, presumably for fundraising efforts.  But Kelly does not let her off than easily, suggesting that the nuns be considered "Groups with whom we disagree".

The former NOW President kept insisting that the Little Sisters could "opt out" of the Obamacare contraception mandate.  Except the alleged work around forces the Sisters to sign the Form 700 document permitting others to provide the abortifacients which are anathematic to their faith. 

Ireland offered patronizing lip service to the nuns' living their faith and helping the indigent infirmed. But what she does not realize is that if the Little Sisters of the Poor are eventually forced to pay for such unwanted services ordered by former HHS Secretary Kathleen Sibelius then they will move out rather than contravene their consciences.  

Ireland insisted that I.U.D.s, which is one of the abortifacients in question, does not kill eggs in the uterus.  Well, that's not quite true.  Generally, inter-uterine devices act as spermicide to prevent fertilization but copper I.U.D.s are touted as an emergency contraceptive for five days after intercourse.  Most sperm dies within two days after ejaculation (even in the uterus), thus the emergency contraceptive quality of such I.U.Ds intimates that it prevents the implantation of the blastocyst thereby killing a fertilized egg. 

Ireland incorrectly asserted that the Supreme Court had ruled on the "opt-out" provision.  Hobby Lobby covered closely held corporations with conscience objections but Obamacare opt-outs for non-profits has not been decided yet (although SCOTUS has offered a unanimous injunction pending appeal on January 24th, 2014). 

Ireland's fatal rhetorical faux pas was her bon mot that Supreme Court decisions do not affect the reality.  The hostess of the Kelly Files jumped in and asked if Roe v. Wade affected the reality. T o borrow an oft uttered Ireland phrase from the interview "Bless her heart."

Gosnell: The Movie--Trying to Tell the Story of an American Serial Killer Which Strikes Too Close to Home

[L] Ann McElhinney and [R] Phelim McAleer

Last spring, husband and wife veteran filmmakers Phelim McAleer and Anne McElhinney were publicizing their feature documentary Fracknation as the murder trial of Dr. Kermit Gosnell was occurring in Philadelphia.  McAleer was amazed at the lack of coverage of a prolific serial killer that murdered two women in botched late term abortions in unsanitary conditions, used a brutal snipping technique to kill a thousand children beyond the legal limit for abortion and also dealt prescription drugs.

Yet the national mainstream media ignored the Gosnell case, dismissing it like a local murder case while lavishing attention on the concurrent Jodi Arias murder trial. McAleer did man on the street interviews in California to learn about what the public knew about sensational murder trials.

As Katherine Graham, the former publisher of the Washington Post, proclaimed: "What we cover and what we don't matter a lot...The power is to set the agenda."  Fox News commentator Greg Gutfeld recently speculated about the reasons why most of the mainstream media (including Fox) did not cover the Gosnell trial closely:

"The reason why they don't do this one is not because the evil is so grotesque.  It's that it's too close to a moral choice they've made.  That's what it's about.  It's not that like, ah it's so hard to do something on this man who butchered babies.  It's because it's too close to the pro-choice mindset."

However, McAleer and McElhinney were so haunted by the Gosnell trial that they backed away from other crowd-source funded projects so as to make a movie about Gosnell.  Yet Anne & Phelim Media encountered more velvet gloved censorship by Kickstarter, which claims to not curate projects but would not allow them to describe their dramatized movie idea as being about a mass murderer who killed a thousand children as it allegedly violated community standards which Kickstart "encourages and (selectively) enforces".  McAleer believes that it is within Kickstarter's right to not facilitate funding but that it should be forthright that it is due to the project matter not a transparent lie about community standards which it does not enforce for sundry other offensive projects.

So they moved their crowd-source funding efforts to Indiegogo, where they have raised $1.2 million  of a fixed target $2.1 million.  If they do not make their designated funding mark by May 12th, the money reverts  back to the prospective investors.

There is already an excellent documentary film 3801 Lancaster, which interviews victims of Gosnell's House of Horrors.  So McAleer and McElhinney want to make dramatized version of the Gosnell story which would run on the Lifetime  Movie Network rather than a feature documentary to reach a wider audience.

 It is easy for seaboard elitists to dismiss a film about Gosnell as just being by religious zealots with pro-life propaganda, which is a touch charge to apply to McAleer and McElhinney. In addition, this dismissive instinct ignores how Dr. Gosnell was a racist as he gave his white patients much better and cleaner abortion services than his clients of color.

A film about Gosnell must also include a political angle.  Former Governor Tom Ridge (R-PA) was elected as chief executive of the Keystone State as a moderate Republican.  The governor's office made it clear that the Commonwealth should do nothing to impede abortion services, so Gosnell's clinic was not properly inspected for 17 years, despite gruesome reports and several deaths. 

Gosnell's clinic was raided because Gosnell was writing prescriptions like a pell mell pill mill for Oxycotin and the ilk.  That raid permitted police to stumble upon an unsanitary abortion butchery, where Gosnell kept severed limbs as trophies.

Hearing the filmmakers promote their project, it is clear that they yearn to tell a compelling true story about a prolific American serial killer and pull back the curtain on details which a progressive public would rather ignore.

If one wishes to help actuate the Gosnell movie project, one can contribute to the efforts at www.gosnellmovie.com.  Those who contribute $25 will get a DVD of the film.  But the filmmakers also implore people to contribute anything to show that people care.

The Real Stinkburger Blue Plate Special

As the former deadline for signing up for Obamacare passed on March 31st and the White House could claim that 7.2 million Americans started applications on Healthcare.gov, the Obama Administration sought to celebrate. The Obama White House requested a prime-time slot slot to trumpet this achievement, but were roundly rejected by the television networks.  It is surprising that the lackey Lamestream Media did not consider this Obamacare announcement to be, in the words our national treasure Vice President Joe Biden, "a big f***ing deal."  So President Obama shared the news of supposedly achieving the magic mark

Still, President Obama was feeling full of himself when speaking the next day before students at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. After giving kudos to himself for the Obamacare achievement, Mr. Obama went on to characterize House Budget Chairman Representative Paul Ryan (R-WI 1st) ten year budget as a "stinkburger".




What a way to win friends and influence people! President Obama is such a leader that he can denigrate and punish his political enemies in a charming slight.  Hope that he does not need opposition support to legally enact any legislative initiatives during the remainder of his term.

However, when the golden propaganda is not laden on the serving of public policy, it calls into question what really is the stinkburger.

For example, the Obama Administration is content that 7.2 million people enrolled in Obamacare. But there are two problems with relying upon those statistics.  Simply because one started an application does not mean that one will enroll.  This is why the deadline has been extra-legally pushed backto April 15th if you say that you tried signing up before March 31st.  How apt!

Yet one is not actually enrolled until your first month's premium is cashed and 20% of those supposedly signed up are eloping from their efforts at Healthcare.gov.   Then there is the nasty reality coming from a Rand Corporation report that only 23% of Obamacare enrollees previously had no insurance (or 858,298 people).   Moreover, only 53% of previously uninsured individuals have paid for their insurance.

The real question are ratios of Obamacare signees, about which the Obama Administration is less than forthcoming, unlike the website log-ins.  As of January, only 24% of Obamacare enrollees were "young invincibles" between the age 26-34, well below the 40% considered necessary to make the system initially sustainable.  There is also a question about Medicare sign ups, who will receive heavily subsidized coverage.  In the first month of Obamacare open enrollment, 10% of the enrollees were Medicare clients. 

These ratio questions will be of paramount importance as insurance premiums for the second year are calculated.  If there are too many heavily subsidized participants, or not enough young invincibles to compensate for older Obamacare enrollees who need more costly medical care, then insurance rates will skyrocket.  However, the Obama Administration has given itself a delay in reporting 2015 premium increases until after the mid-term elections.  Is this a coincidence or more politically convenient?

Radio personality Chris Salcedo has long resorted to calling Resident Obama's (sic) Obamacare initiative as a crap sandwich.  After the gild of Obamacare propaganda is picked away, there is little doubt who is serving up the real stinkburger.

h/t: A.F. Branco

Obamacare Countdown?

Didn't the George Orwell dystopian novel nineteen eighty-four  begin with the ominous phrase "It was a bright day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. That's not military time or being an Euro poseur.  The clock's thirteenth stroke indicates an event which calls into question everything previously believed.

Or it could just be extra-legal Obamacare extensions by the Executive Branch electoral whimsy. When Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) made motions do delay things, he was vilified.  When President Obama and his HHS minion Kathleen Sebilius do the same thing, the Cocktail Party nomenklatura and the lapdog Lamestream Media let is pass without comment.

It's not just that the  Obamacare (ironically officially titled the Affordable Care Act) is not just bad law which does not accomplish its alleged objectives.  This capriciously changing countdown to Obamacare is instilling a culture of lawlessness in our governance and consolidates Executive Power at the expense of the will of the people embodied in the legislative branch and the states.

Spinning the Florida 13 Sink Hole

Last month, the Democrat Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) sent out a fundraising letter for the Florida 13th Congressional Special Election to support their candidate Alex Sink.  This Congressional race, where Democrats outspent Republicans on television by a 4 to 1 margin, centered on the Affordable Care Act.  Sink promised to reform Obamacare whereas  Tea Party inspired Republican challenger David Jolly (R-FL 13th) advocated outright overturning Obamacare.

After Jolly won the Special Election, the National Republican Campaign Committee (NRCC) had some fun doing red pen edits on this DCCC messaging missive. 

Democrats could not stop spinning the Sink hole.  DNC Chair Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL 23rd) sounded like Baghdad Bob in her spin control for the loss on the race. 

[L] DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL 23rd) [R] Baghdad Bob 

Undoubtedly, Democrats will follow an Alinskyite approach to campaigning, demonizing an archtypical opponent, be it the Koch Brothers or House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH 8th).  But even after ad hominen attacks and class warfare campaigns, Democrats will need a positive message.  The minimum wage hike is more of a minor wedge issue which pays off its union support (by raising pay scales for all unionized employees) but it will need an overarching issue.  

After the results from the Florida 13 Special Election, it will be interesting if they double down and remain all in by running on Obamacare elsewhere.  It could be, as national Democrats are encouraging Ms. Sink to run again against Jolly in the November General Election. Maybe that is a hangover from Sink's jolly concession speech. 

Trey Gowdy on the Rule of Law

Representative Trey Gowdy (R-SC 4th), a second term constitutional conservative from Spartanburg, South Carolina, had some choice words in support of H.R. 4138 Enforce the Law Act.  

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As a member of the House Judiciary Committee and Subcommittee on Immigration Policy and Enforcement, Gowdy might have good reason to critique Barack Obama with his own words for not enforcing immigration law, DOMA, and even inconvenient aspects of Obamacare.

The House of Representatives passed HR. 4138 by a 233 to 181 margin, including five Democrat votes.  President Obama has promised to veto the legislation should it ever reach his desk. But based on the intransigence of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), the bill should be dead on arrival as it reaches the upper chamber.

Michelle Obama on Knuckleheads

New Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon obsequiously interviewed First Lady Michelle Obama, to talk up her pet project "Let's Move" as well as to nudge Americans on Obamacare.

Michelle Obama endeared herself to the youths of America by calling them "knuckleheads".

This is a different marketing strategy than the Obama Administration employed over Christmastide with Pajama-Boy hectoring his family to talk about health care while drinking cocoa around the Christmas Tree. 

Even said in jest, calling 26 year old "kids" knuckleheads is not a way to get them to spend their dwindling pay checks for income redistribution for older Americans. 

Obamacare Breakthru?

Now that it is 2014 and Obamacare has begun, the consequences of the "8000 lb" gorilla will be hard to deny or distract from Americans' attention. 

h/t: AF Branco

POTUS as Pajama Boy?

Aside from the glitchy $600+ million Healthcare.gov website, is it any wonder why Obamacare is having such a rough roll-out with such misguided marketing? 

Perhaps it's close enough for government work, alas it's Americans' health care and 1/5th of the economy which rides in the balance of such too clever by half planning.

Deck the Halls with Obama's Folly

That is a heavier version of Deck the Halls than President Barack Obama prefers. 

h/t: A.F. Branco 

Uncool Yule -- Happy Healthcare

Some might find political parodies about Obamacare, like the Happy Healthcare video by Sexy Danger TV, to be over the top.  But after the Colorado Heath Exchange like "Get Shotskis", anything is believable.

But Organizing for Action, the remnant of President Obama's campaign wing Obama for American reformed as a political action group, is urging Americans to "Get Talking" about Obamacare.   This meme was posted on Barack Obama's Twitter feed-

Really?  Firstly, it is wise to "Get Talking" around the Christmas Tree?   Then consider the  idealized Organizing for Action messenger in the meme.  Will you take a dude wearing flannel jammies (probably with footies) seriously?

After wasting $600 million on a botched Obamacare roll-out and this sort of support, why not a bad Santa too?