Ted Kennedy, Soviet Stooge?

Here is a headline that you probably won't see over the next several days:

Ted Kennedy was a 'Collaborationist'

Aided KGB for Political Purposes

In an article published nearly 6 years ago, Herb Romerstein, researcher and writer on KGB history, points out (with the assistance of KGB archives) that Kennedy was a 'collaborationist' and seemed to think he had a solid relationship with Soviet intelligence.

Another KGB report to their bosses revealed that on March 5, 1980, John Tunney met with the KGB in Moscow on behalf of Sen. Kennedy. Tunney expressed Kennedy's opinion that "nonsense about 'the Soviet military threat' and Soviet ambitions for military expansion in the Persian Gulf . . . was being fueled by [President Jimmy] Carter, [National Security Advisor Zbigniew] Brzezinski, the Pentagon and the military industrial complex."

Kennedy offered to speak out against President Carter on Afghanistan. Shortly thereafter he made public speeches opposing President Carter on this issue.

...

In May 1983, the KGB again reported to their bosses on a discussion in Moscow with former Sen. John Tunney. Kennedy had instructed Tunney, according to the KGB, to carry a message to Yuri Andropov, the General Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party, expressing Kennedy's concern about the anti-Soviet activities of President Ronald Reagan. The KGB reported "in Kennedy's opinion the opposition to Reagan remains weak. Speeches of the President's opponents are not well-coordinated and not effective enough, and Reagan has the chance to use successful counterpropaganda." Kennedy offered to "undertake some additional steps to counter the militaristic, policy of Reagan and his campaign of psychological pressure on the American population." Kennedy asked for a meeting with Andropov for the purpose of "arming himself with the Soviet leader's explanations of arms control policy so he can use them later for more convincing speeches in the U.S."

I had somewhat forgotten about this piece of information, until Rush mentioned that he would be discussing it on tomorrow's show. I recommend reading the whole article. Romerstein is no crank. He was a longtime intelligence professional, and dedicated anti-communist who went where the evidence took him.

Now the left will deride any mention of this as disrespectful of Kennedy's memory...but of course that doesn't prevent them from using his memory to attempt to get some legislation passed...

New England's Big Weekend

This looks like it could be quite a weekend in New England...

- According to these projections, Hurricane Danny could ruin the end to the First Family's posh vacation on the Vineyard. I wonder what the over/under will be for how long it will take the White House to blame it on Global Warming? Or perhaps paid for by those evil insurance companies?

- Depending on speed, said Hurricane could also put quite a fix on the planned Boston funeral ceremony for Senator Ted Kennedy.

- Interestingly, it seems that the new line of attack by the Dems will be to try and push through Obamacare quickly in order to honor Kennedy and cement his legacy. However last time I checked for a good deal of American's Kennedy's legacy is already cemented, and it is that of a punchline to many late-night TV jokes about womanizing, drunken behavior, or political elitism. And Mayor Quimby didn't just miraculously materialize on the pages of a script from 'The Simpsons'. Thus for the Dems to want to use him as a reason to convince Americans that this healthcare boondoggle needs to be completed immediately seems a little misguided.

Obamacare Haiku

As seen on Twitter:

My body, my choice
Liberal mantra no more
Government decides
-'Dead Voter'

John Stossel on Health Care Reform

#tcot #hhrs #rs
I am a couple of weeks behind, and I missed this video.... It is well worth a few minutes of time.



Hat Tip: Patterico guest blogger DRJ

Single Payer Mash-Up

#tcot #hhrs
Verum Serum has put out another good video that highlites the desires of the leadership on the Left in this country for a single payer system, no matter what some might say in public...




Hat Tip: Guy Benson

Great Town Hall Sign

#tcot #hhrs


What more needs to be said?

More good pics and a video from NRO's Mark Hemingway here.

ObamaCare protest in San Francisco

Glenn Reynolds says: "If you can get a few 300-500 anti-liberal protesters onto the streets of San Francisco, well, it can only mean there must be a disturbance in the Force."

Either that or they were bussed in from Massachusetts.

Oh, wait.....

The Convenience of Swastikas

Its funny how things happen...

Nancy Pelosi publicly mentions previously un-seen Swastikas at the anti-Obamacare rallies, and presto, suddenly Swastikas start showing up.

Many conservatives find this all a little too convenient. Now of course there are those fringe nuts out there who will actually parade around with swastikas because they actually believe that shit, but they in no way represent the mainstream of conservative objections at these rallies. However many of us believe that the presence of swastikas and other racist behavior that the Left makes so much noise about, are actually the result of political dirty tricks rather than 'conservative hate'.

I am sure as this argument grows, the apoplectic Left will vehemently object that there is no way that any one but conservatives are responsible for these actions.

Oh, really? What about this idiot....

Black Man Pleads Guilty to Posing as Obama-Hating White Supremacist on Facebook

The U.S. Attorney's Office says 20-year-old Dyron L. Hart of Poplarville pleaded guilty Wednesday in federal court to making a threat in November 2008.

Hart admitted creating a name and using a white supremacists' photo to pose as a white man who planned to kill blacks because Barack Obama had been elected president.

So if this guy could figure out how to pose as a white supremacist in order to create racism out of whole cloth, how tough would it be for another lefty to spray paint a swastika in order to discredit the opponents of Obamacare?

The answer? About as tough as posing as a doctor to sell the glorious nirvana of the Government Option....

Obama Voter Feels Punk'd

#hhrs #tcot



Hat Tip - Club for Growth

Pelosi/Hoyer - Obamacare Protesters "Un-American"

Nancy Pelosi digs deeper....

"These disruptions are occurring because opponents are afraid not just of differing views — but of the facts themselves. Drowning out opposing views is simply un-American. Drowning out the facts is how we failed at this task for decades."

This is outrageously dishonest coming from those who sought to 'cram-down' this legislation before anyone could read the bill, and any debate could take place.

Any they wonder why people a pissed.

I have said it before, and I will repeat it again. If the Dems accuse their opponents of doing something outrageous, it is usually an attempt at mis-direction, as they are the ones commiting the act themselves.

Inquiring Minds Want to Know

#tcot #hhrs
I would like to propose a new poll question for Rasmussen, or anyone else who might want to ask it...

"Q - (2008 Voters Only) If the 2008 Presidential Election was held today, who would you vote for? Obama, McCain, Third Party, Not Vote?"

I think it would definitely be interesting to see the results, especially correlated to a preliminary question on who they had actually voted for in 2008. I would like to see how many "Moderates" might cross over from Obama, and how many people would have chosen not to vote at all....knowing what they know now.

Why Are Voters Angry?

#tcot #hhrs

"Bait-and-Switch - There is a growing sense of a “we’ve been had”, bait-and-switch....the Obama swing voter thought he was getting a 21st-century version of pragmatic, triangulating Bill Clinton—and instead got something to the left of 1970s Jimmy Carter."

In his latest effort, Prairie Fire Anger, Victor Davis Hansen does a fantastic job outlining the "cascading anger at a new sort of left-wing elitism and hypocrisy"

Another example:

"A well educated technocracy—we see such figures in the emblematic Timothy Geithner, Eric Holder, or Barack Obama himself —have most of their lives served in government, largely regulating, overseeing, organizing, auditing, and sermonizing far more productive and capable others. One of the worst flaws of this species of utopian technocrat is the notion that he wishes to curtail in others the very things he wishes to enjoy without constraint himself.

Thus we sense that a Geithner does not wish to pay the taxes he hikes on others. A Holder wants to destroy through subpoena and litigation the Bush lawyers, but pleaded once for mercy for his own shenanigans involving the crooked Clinton pardons. And Obama lectures about the inequality of wealth and the burdens of racism while his wife’s salary climbed as his political influence grew."

How much longer do they think they can hide behind the failings of President Bush?

The Cost of Growing Old

#tcot #hhrs
Where would you cut health care costs?

Lets play a hypothetical game....after an extended period without a job, and enjoying the new magically unending unemployment benefits (also known as Pelosi bucks!), you manage to land a mid-level position at the new National Health Administration, headquartered at the new Robert C. Byrd Federal Building in Charleston, West Virginia.

You are quickly assigned to the "Efficiencies" division, where you are given the task of helping reduce the operating costs of the new National Health Program. You are told that reducing costs due to waste and fraud will be handled by another division, located at the other Robert C. Byrd Federal Building located on the other side of Charleston.

In order to get your project kick-started, you are told to use the following graph, representing per-capita health care costs across a number of categories, to help decide where to cut costs.



Looking at this graph, there are obviously a few categories that contain significantly higher costs than the others. It is obvious to you and all the other newly hired bureaucrats around the Robert C. Byrd Conference Table that these categories are ripe for cost savings. Problem solved! By reducing those categories down to the levels of the other categories, not only can you hit your cost-savings targets, but you can instantly make health care spending 'fair', as all the categories would be relatively equal.

Who knew being a federal employee could be this easy??

Now lets come back to reality.... Sure that example is fairly simplistic, but he point is when you hear Democrats talk about achieving cost-savings with their nationalized health care proposals, those savings they talk about will come from the operational areas that contain the highest costs. If we know anything about government bureaucracy, it will tend to solve its problems not through tough choices, but through the "easy" choices. For bureaucrats, the easy choice is to reduce your highest cost.

Now lets take another look a at that graph, but this time using its proper sorting and labels.


(Numbers are from Canadian data, but is similar to US and other country's data as seen here and here)

This look makes it plain where those highest health care costs lie....with those Americans who are 65 and older. This makes perfect sense, as some of the most expensive medical procedures are those that have allowed us to extend our life expectancy over the last few decades.

So, if the goal of your plan is to provide the highest quality health care for everyone, you won't care if the costs spike at the end. But if the goal of your plan is to provide adequate health care to everyone at the least possible cost, then you will quickly begin to eye those outliers at the right end of the graph as the road to your budgetary salvation.

For those who protest that the suggestion that Obamacare would shortchange seniors is just scaremongering by an unruly mob, lets take a look at those countries that the Democrats want us to emulate (Sorry Mr Moore, Cuba is not on this chart...)


A quick look shows that overall costs for the younger portion of populations is not all that different, regardless of the country. However, in every other country, money spent on those over the age of 65 is significantly lower than in the US. Is there some magical European secret to providing the same health care to seniors that we do and a greatly reduced cost? No...they simply don't provide their seniors the quantity nd quality of care that we do. But hey. it saves them loads on money. The Democrats always trot out the stat that the US has the highest health care costs of any developed nation. Of course we do, because we spend 50-100% more than any other developed country on the medical quality of life for our seniors. It is good to grow old in the US, but it sucks to grow old in Europe.

To me it is quite obvious, that if Obamacare becomes the diktat of the land, there is one place where penny pinching bureaucrats will go to find their easiest possible savings. And if that is the future it will soon suck to grow old in the United States as well.

Nanny State Weekend

Congratulations America, this is what you voted for.... View how little the left thinks of you...

Taxes:
On whether the Obama Administration will break its pledge not to raise taxes on 95% of Americans in order to pay for Trillions in new spending, Tim Geithner said:

"We’re going to have to do what’s necessary.”

That's reassuring! I think that this can be translated as "We are going to do whatever we want to get the money", since most Americans don't see all the spending as "necessary".

Health Care:
With public opinion turning against the health care proposals in Congress, the left reveals that they think they know better than everyone else.

"47% of people who have coverage don't want change, they don't like what they are hearing. Now, they may not know what is good for them..."

Thanks Andrea. There is an executive position waiting for you at the HHS Public Affairs office...

Personal Freedom:
Individual liberties? Personal responsibility? Anachronisms of a different era. Welcome to the age of the coddling Nanny State in New Hampshire....

"Our State portrays an unfriendly message that every individual has to succeed on their own, rather than count on a support system for assistance (Live Free or Die is not a friendly, supporting message that appeals to young people)."

Hmmm....if the message is considered "unfriendly" by government bureaucrats now, I wonder how much longer it might be before expressions of personal freedom could be considered hate speech? Or at least incompatible with the common good....

This is the Nanny State you voted for. Revel in it....but not too loudly, or by consuming anything with transfats...