They Eat Their Own

The American Prospect Savages Matt Taibbi For Savaging Obama:
"American Prospect, the left-leaning political magazine, doesn't like Matt Taibbi's latest Rolling Stone piece slamming the Obama administration's economic sell-out, calling it a 'nightmare of a story:'

Tim Fernholz: The piece is a factual mess, a conspiracy theorist's dream, doesn't even indict Obama for his real failures...and of course invokes the cold hands of Bob Rubin like a bogeyman at every turn.
This is pernicious for a lot of journalistic reasons, but politically it's bad for progressives because conspiracy theories stand in the way of good policy analysis and good activism, replacing them with apathy and fear."

I love Mr. Fernholz's reasoning, it's so Je ne sais quoi ......... "european socialist." Criticism of Taibbis article isn't about the truth of its complaints, it's about being "politically bad for progressives." If I remember correctly he and his fellow progressives had no problem with "conspiracy theories standing in the way of good policy analysis" when it came to George Bush's policies. But then again I guess that was "good activism" instead of Taibbi's "bad activism."
As I said in my last post "The left has a habit of eating its own, just ask Hillary Clinton."

Obama's Big Sellout

Obama's Big Sellout : Rolling Stone:
"The president has packed his economic team with Wall Street insiders intent on turning the bailout into an all-out giveaway What's taken place in the year since Obama won the presidency has turned out to be one of the most dramatic political about-faces in our history."

I think that the Democrats are going to find out, much to their dismay, that the far left can be just as damaging to them as the Republicans. The left has a habit of eating its own, just ask Hillary Clinton.
By the way, you can hear more from  Matt Taibbi here.  

I d i o c r a c y

This impromptu survey video is making the rounds and is very reminiscent of the movie Idiocracy.
The only difference is that the movie is set in the future, and the people who were asked to sign the petition are here now, and sad to say they vote. Take ten minutes out of your day and see what our country's future will be with enlightened voters like this.
"Watch it and Weep".

Two Tier Health Care Trend In North Carolina Triangle Area

Doctors Charge Initiation Fees For Service:
"Over the last few weeks, Dr. Brooks Wilkins' patients have been running him ragged, trying to get in to see him one last time.
Wilkins is not retiring. He's downsizing - and going upscale. Starting Tuesday, Wilkins will treat only patients who pay an annual fee of $1,500 to remain in his new MDVIP practice."

Welcome to European Style Health Care, and the term  Two Tier Health Care.

This is the defacto system in England and other European countries. They either have, or are moving toward, dual medical care systems, one for the poor and middle class (socialized)  and one for the rich (capitalism).

This story caught my interest for two reasons:
The first was that it is directly related to my My Nov. 20th blog about an article published in The Arizona Republic reporting that The Mayo Clinic was refusing to accept Medicare payments. They instituted a plan that is quite similar to the MDVIP mentioned in the above article.
The second reason was that about six months ago a friend in New York was recommended to a local doctor who was charging an annual fee of $2,000, and a predetermined number of required visits just to become a patient. Both my friend and I thought it was a crazy idea, but now I see it is becoming a trend in America medicine.

At this point I would normally advise you to write or email your elected officials to express your outrage at the disastrous effects the proposed Health Care Reform Bill  will  is already having on medical care in this country. But the Gang Of 535 has been ignoring and demonizing their constituents to such a degree lately, that sadly  they wont listen to you, so why bother.

The Plundering of Ontario

Shocked Investor: The Plundering of Ontario: 

The City Journal reports on the sorry situation of California:
"The economy is struggling, the unemployment rate is high, and many Americans are struggling to pay the bills, but one class of Americans is doing quite well: government workers. Their pay levels are soaring, they enjoy unmatched benefits, and they remain largely immune from layoffs, except for some overly publicized cutbacks around the margins".

"The situation in Ontario is not much different. The provincial government publishes the list of public employees who make more than $100k/year. With the last data available, this includes a mind boggling 53,300 employees."

Looks like Socialist States are the same no matter what Country they're in. Our neighbors to the north seem to be having the same Civil Service and Real Estate problems as the US, but their MSM refuses to admit it. Blogs like The Shocked Investor are the only ones who will acknowledge the problems, or they may just be the only ones who see and believe they exist. Either way, the world has a financial problem and it's much bigger than a Recession, and more wide spread than California and Ontario.
What bothers me is that so many are commenting on the US/World economy and markets as though this has been an ordinary cyclical recession and it is done. Let me assure you it is not.