How Much Will Reid Bribe For Health Care?

There is the cost of the health care bill itself, which will be trillions, but what are the hidden costs within the the bill?

Example:

The $100 Million Health Care Vote?
The section spends two pages defining which “states” would qualify, saying, among other things, that it would be states that “during the preceding 7 fiscal years” have been declared a “major disaster area.”

I am told the section applies to exactly one state: Louisiana, the home of moderate Democrat Mary Landrieu, who has been playing hard to get on the health care bill.

In other words, the bill spends two pages describing would could be written with a single world: Louisiana. (This may also help explain why the bill is long.)

Senator Harry Reid, who drafted the bill, cannot pass it without the support of Louisiana’s Mary Landrieu.

Has the CBO gone through the bill to calculate how much the bribery legislation will really cost us?

The Democrat idea of health care reform is outrageously bad, but this type of bribery should be illegal. That it is just unethical denotes just how low this congress has sunk.

Motown's $800,000 Buys Nassau

This has always been a problem, buying anbassadorships, but some of these people don't have the quaifications to run the midnight to 6 AM shift at Bert's Bait and Gas. No experience. At all.

Barack Obama rewards big donors with plum jobs overseas
Nicole Avant, a member of a Motown family dynasty who is credited with bundling up to $800,000 for Obama, was granted the coveted and cushy ambassadorship in Nassau, Bahamas.

I hope she gave daddy a big hug.

Lartigue. One Of My Favorite Photographs

(Update below)

This is surely one of the most evocative photographs I have ever seen. In fact, to me this photograph symbolizes the essence of a pre-war car. Made by French photographer Jacques-Henri Lartigue in 1913, at a time when the word photoshop had not been invented. Early photographs were really “stills” without any sense of movement. Jacques-Henri Lartigue (1894-1986) was one of the first photographers who knew to create a distortion in his photos, thus suggesting movement, if not real speed. The original title of this photo is “Car Trip, Papa at 80 kilometers an hour”. It has long been thought that the car was a Delage and that the photo had been taken on June 26, 1912 during the Grand Prix de l’ACF, held at the Circuit de Dieppe. However, research has proved that no Delage with that starting number participated in that particular Grand Prix and that it is in fact a Theophilé Schneider, photographed in 1913 during the Grand Prix at Picardie (see sources). This amazing silver print, signed by Lartigue in ink, was auctioned at Sotheby’s in Amsterdam. Its estimate was 4000-6000 euros but the hammer fell at a staggering 7800 euros.

UPDATE: Good question Webutante;

Webutante: However, you didn't tell us when this photo was auctioned off for that staggering at Sotheby's. Assume it was recently?

From the dating of the original post, my math tells me that it was autioned off at Sotheby's Amsterdam on 3/15/07.

Additional info; Racing Database lists René Croquet with starting number 6. He finished tenth.

For photo buffs ( I have an old Graflex, not the same as Lartigue, and a bellowed 5X7 and have not been able to duplicate the same distortion):

UPDATE I by Carleton Hughes: "The distortion you mention was not deliberate but was the result of the downward travelling focal-plane shutter on the Graflex camera favoured by Lartigue and others circa 1905-1920. Thus the image will appear leaning forward from top to bottom giving the impression of speed and motion but is in reality due to the vertical shutter curtain slowly travelling from top to bottom." Editor JB: "Carleton is right be it only partly... As you can see the car is leaning forward, yet the onlookers backward. So in fact it is a combination of the shutter technique and a horizontal pan-movement from left to right in order to keep track with the car during exposure. Still, many have tried to copy the effect (especially in car advertising) but -as we understand - never had the result Lartigue had. So the effect of the lucky shot was added as a topping over the technical aspects. The more important question stays... is it a Delage or a Schneider...?”

UPDATE II: Marc Fellman confirms that four Th. Schneider cars participated in the ACF GP on the 12/13th July 1913. Car #16 driven by Henry Champoisseau and Louis Daclin (finished 7th), #20 driven by Rene Thomas & Brombant (finished 9th), #6 the subject of the Lartigue photo driven by Maurice Croquet & Didier (finished 10th) & #12 driven by Fernand Gabriel & Mongeot (did not finish). Cars were equipped with 5.5 litre 4 cylinder engines. History records that Georges Boillot won in a Peugeot but the Th. Schneiders acquitted themselves well among a field of the likes of Boillot & Goux in Peugeots, Chassagne in a Sunbeam and Bablot & Guyot in Delages.

UPDATE III: Per Bjurling suggests a slightly different explanation to the distortion of the photo. Presume that the car is moving forwards. At ground level the distance between the feet of the people and the car tyre touching the ground is relatively short. At head level the distance between the heads of the people and the upper part of the tyre is longer. It took a certain time for the slot to move over the film surface while the camera rotated and the car moved even faster than that. As I understand it the slot in the shutter must have travelled from below and upwards. Anyone with a modern system camera who hasn’t understood this will fail in trying to remake the shot. Editor JB: “I was not implying that people with a modern camera cannot remake the photo. I know from people who tried to remake the shot with a similar or identical old camera. Without being able to get this result....”

UPDATE AGAIN: Jacques-HenriLartigue was approximately 18 years of age when he took this photograph. His father had a camera and Lartigue was absolutely fascinated by it. When a young boy, his father bought him a large, indeed ponderous, 13 X 18 camera on a large tripod. Lartigue had to stand on a stool to focus.

Lartigue was fascinated with beauty, elegance, excitement and fun. He was especially interested in recording his family's exploits as exemplified in this photograph of his brother. "My brother Zissou," Lartigue recalls, "had a vivid intelligence and he invented so many things--wooden horses, crates on wheels, even a velodrome--but I was always the little boy, in a way, kept in the corner, dying to take part. This really grieved me, until one day I said to myself, 'Now I am going to catch all these beautiful things which they do.'...In a daily journal that little Jacques-Henri kept at the time, and has kept ever since, there is this joyful annotation for a day in 1901: "Papa is like God (as a matter of fact, he might even be God in disguise). He's just told me, 'I'm going to give you your own camera.' Now I can take pictures of everything... everything. I know very well that many, many things are going to ask me to have their pictures taken, and I will take them all!" (Aperture, Jacques-Henri Lartigue, p. 7.)

It is interesting that Lartigue never allowed his first photograph to be viewed by others, but below is the second photograph that Jacques-Henri Lartigue took. He was very young, aged eight, and it is an inspiring photograph, simply as a photograph, but it is breath taking in its chosen subject for Lartigue's first photograph to be viewed by others:

His parents at Pont-de-l'Arch, 1902

(poor quality scan by me)

Conyers: 'I'm Getting Tired Of Saving Obama's Can'...

Conyers couldn't even save his wife's can, but then maybe she had more than one can in the cupboard.

Obama Buying Votes Applause

Yep, the last line just about wraps up Obama's popularity. He buys it.

SEOUL
Obama arrived on the base 3:19 p.m. local time (1 a.m. Eastern Standard Time) and received a rousing welcome from 1,500 troops in camouflage uniforms, many holding cameras or pointing cell phones to snap pictures.

"You guys make a pretty good photo op," the president said.

Standing on a riser wearing a blue suit and red tie, with a cluster of troops and a large American flag behind him, Obama expressed "the gratitude of the American public" and said his meetings in four countries over eight days in Asia will help deliver a "safer, more prosperous world for all of us."

He got a huge cheer when he told them he was increasing military pay. "That's what you call an applause line," he said, before boarding his jet and taking off at 4:11 p.m.

Raises, paying mortgages and gas, giving unions car companies and jobs to Marxist cronies. Maybe his next campaign slogan will be, "It's not just gas and mortgages, vote for me cause I bought you your cars and I'll throw in some big screen TVs just to level the playing field"



Vote LTD, LCD and LIHTC!

Damnit, Get That Mormon Creep On The Phone! NOW!

Nana Pelosi isn't going to be happy about this.

BOTOX TAX IS BACK: SENATE BILL INCLUDES 5% TAX ON ELECTIVE COSMETIC SURGERY...

146 Years Ago Today

November 19, 1863

Gettysburg Address
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation, so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—we can not hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Notes:
In a letter to Lincoln written the following day, Everett praised the President for his eloquent and concise speech, saying, "I should be glad if I could flatter myself that I came as near to the central idea of the occasion, in two hours, as you did in two minutes." Lincoln was glad to know the speech was not a "total failure."

Other public reaction to the speech was divided along partisan lines. The next day the Chicago Times observed, "The cheek of every American must tingle with shame as he reads the silly, flat and dishwatery utterances of the man who has to be pointed out to intelligent foreigners as the President of the United States." In contrast, the New York Times was complimentary. A Massachusetts paper printed the entire speech, commenting that it was "deep in feeling, compact in thought and expression, and tasteful and elegant in every word and comma."

My great-grandfather, who served as an officer in the VA-18th, Co E Black Eagle Rifles , did not participate in the Battle of Gettysburg due to being severely wounded in 1862 at Frayser's Farm, wrote in his diary, upon reading a copy from his sister in Ohio sent in December 1863, at Mt Elba, "Greatest oration" above his handwritten copy.

From Russia With Love

Not a 007 nor a bikini clad hottie anywhere in this insight:

Russia Today wrote that week, "Despite Barack Obama's eloquent elocution, ivy school credentials and electric charisma, there is talk that he lacks the most crucial element of any great leader: judgment."

Indeed, an American buffoon

SEIU Tires Of Beating Up Old Folks, On To Threatening Boy Scouts

SEIU is a real piece of work.

What started as a union for janitors, window washers and elevator operators (obviously elevator operators are in high demand today), SEIU represents over 100 occupations and is now heavily involved with the health industry and government employees (bureaucrats).

Since most bureaucrats want cradle to grave coverage for everything including the unwritten "little work as possible" clause and the hospital, home care and nursing home employees want more and more government subsidies, it makes sense for SEIU to represent these groups. SEIU could strangle our health care system and government at the same time, but SEIU has bigger bones to pick.

Pennsylvania Union Leader Criticized for Threatening Legal Action Over Boy Scout's Volunteerism
A Pennsylvania union leader has come under fire after threatening legal action against the city of Allentown for allowing a Boy Scout to voluntarily clear a walking path in a local park.

Nick Balzano, president of the Service Employees International Union's Allentown chapter, said last week that the union might file a grievance against the city for allowing 17-year-old Kevin Anderson to clear the hiking trail, instead of paying some of the 39 recently laid-off SEIU members to do the work.

Balzano's office did not return messages left by FoxNews.com, but the Morning Call quoted him as telling the city council that the union would be "looking into the Cub Scout or Boy Scout who did the trails … There's to be no volunteers."

I'm sure SEIU is in negotiations to unionize lawyers to file harassing lawsuits against their opponents and thugs to beat them up if the opponent wins in court.

Mother Goose Cafe

Florida

Red China Questions Obama's Big Government Solutions!!!

To fund the big government takeover of further chunks of our private lives the government needs to borrow trillions of dollars. As befitting the socialization of America, the government goes hat in hand to communist China to beg for loans. That gives communist China sway over our form of life. I guess Obama's betrayal of free China, Taiwan, wasn't enough give and give for China, so now China is doubting the veracity of Oba Mao.

China questions costs of U.S. healthcare reform

Communist China doubts the economic viability of Obama's plans and the general truthfulness of the administration? This admission should be a wake up call to the voters in this country. Every person should sit back and take a long hard think over the fact that economic conservatives have rung the warning bell over government spending for decades and now, ultra liberal communists are ringing the bell as well. That is a stunner that should make every voter run from this administration and the liberals controlling the Democrat Party.

My Dad always said the socialists were just dreamers without the discipline of the communists and the creativity of the capitalists.

Tax Credit: Millions Will Have To Pay Obama Back

Well, isn't this special.

Millions will have to repay part of tax credit

Are Democrats great or what? Obama tanks the economy, spends trillions of dollars we don't have on things we don't want, then gives us a tax credit in hopes we'll spend it all to make him look better and now millions will have to pay part of it back to the government.

The thugs from Chicago can't run a refrigerator let alone a government.

Joe Biden Shares Roadmap For Success In America

Sometimes Jabbering Joe can't help himself and he just blurts out the truth.

Biden on 2010: If GOP Succeeds, It’s ‘The End of the Road for What Barack and I Are Trying to Do’
Vice President Joe Biden said today that if Democrats were to lose 35 House seats they currently hold in traditionally Republican districts, it would mean doomsday for President Obama’s agenda.

I haven't had the time to check old speeches, but there is a possibility that Joe cribbed this insight from somebody else. Even if he did, he has brought a smile to a lot of people, probably the majority of Americans, so at least he has that going for him.

Yep, It's Michigan Week Here In Ohio

THE GOLDEN PHONE
A highly recruited high school football player was visiting Big Ten schools to try and find the best college for him.

His first stop was at Ann Arbor. When he got there, head coach Rich Rodriguez immediately picked up a golden telephone. After talking several minutes, he said, "Thank you, God" and hung up.
The boy was shocked by all this. He asked the coach what was so special about the golden phone.

"Well, this phone is a direct line to God. And God tells us whether or not new recruits would be stars at our college."

The young athlete asked if he could use the phone to ask God what college he should pick. "Sure, you can! But it's going to cost you $250. Calling Heaven isn't cheap." The boy didn't have that kind of money so he moved along.

His next stop was Minnesota. Once at Tim Brewster's office, Coach Brewster immediately picked up a golden telephone. After talking several minutes, he said, "Thank you, God" and hung up.

The boy said, "Hey, I've seen those phones before. Can I use yours to call God and ask what college I should pick?" Sure, Brewster said, "Sure, but it's going to cost you $200. Calling Heaven isn't cheap." Again, not having that kind of money, the boy left.

His next stop was Happy Valley. Upon arrival at Joe Pa's office, Coach Paterno picked up a golden telephone, talked to God, said, "Thanks," and hung up.

The boy just had to use that phone, so he said, "Coach, I really need to use that golden telephone so I can call God and ask him which college I should choose." Coach Paterno said "You can but it will cost you $150. Calling heaven is not cheap."

The boy left since he did not have that kind of money. His last stop for the boy was Ohio State. He went in Coach Tressel's office and he saw a golden phone here also. Coach Tressel got on the golden phone and talked a few minutes and said, "Thanks, God" and hung up.

The boy said, “Can I use that phone to find out where I should go, to school?” Coach Tressel said, "Well, sure go ahead."

The boy said, "From Michigan it was going to cost me $250 to use their phone. From Minnesota they wanted $200 and Penn State wanted $150.

So how much will it cost me to call Heaven from here at Ohio State?"

Coach Tressel smiled and said, "Nothing, son. It's a local call."

Fed Wants To Do For Mass Transit What They Did For Trains

Uh oh.

Federal oversight of subways proposed

Under the proposal, the U.S. Department of Transportation would do for transit what it does for airlines and Amtrak: set and enforce federal regulations to ensure that millions of passengers get to their destinations safely.

Well, we know what a fabulous experience Amtrak is and now they want to bring their expertise to our cities. I smell unions.

SEIU Beating Up Congress For Better "Health"

We are privileged to be entertained by ads on television asking people to call Rep. Pat Tiberi and ask him why he wants people to die. The voice over is joined with cute, heart-wrenching and homey pictures of kids and the elderly that just make you want to run out and slap Tiberi for not supporting socialized medicine.

The ads are sponsored by the "Foundation of Patients Rights", a warm and fuzzy group otherwise known as the thugs from Service Employees International Union. It appears that when not beating people at Tea Party rallies, SEIU really really likes kids and old people, especially photogenic ones who will get more people to vote the way SEIU wants. That is, vote for more and more union (aka big government) and government control over society and the United States of America.

SEIU is part of a coalition, Change to Win, which is made up of members who broke away from the AFL-CIO because it was too conservative.

Some of CtW efforts are:

Make Work Pay: Make Work Pay is a general organizing campaign aimed at improving wages and working conditions for working people.
Justice at Smithfield: Organizes workers at Smithfield Foods pork-packing plants. Smithfield has been accused of human rights violations for its treatment of workers by international human rights group Human Rights Watch.
Ports Protection: Organizes truck drivers who move cargo from port facilities out to warehouses and businesses.
Wal-Mart Campaign: Organizes workers in Wal-Mart stores.
Driving Up Standards Together ([1]): Organizes school bus drivers employed by FirstGroup/FirstStudent. An international campaign coordinated with the UK's Transport and General Workers Union (now part of the United Kingdom trades union "Unite").
Uniform Justice: Organizes employees of Cintas, North America's most profitable uniform and laundry company.
Cure CVS: Organizes CVS/Pharmacy and criticize its practices.

Other warm and fuzzy members are:
International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT)
Laborers' International Union of North America (LIUNA)
Service Employees International Union (SEIU)
United Farm Workers (UFW)
United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW)

Funny how the Foundation of Patients Rights never brings up their affiliation with SEIU. They could run really cool video showing how government health care would cover all the people that SEIU members beat up because those people don't want more unions that want more unions that want more government.

Incredible Simulation Of Hudson River Landing

Capt. Chesley B. “Sully” Sullenberger and First Officer Jeffrey Skiles sound collected and doing business. This is really amazing.



This is the main video and you can get more at Wired.

Irani Chairman Short Goes All Jihadi On Internet

Continuing on the path of holy devotion to God through bigotry, lies, hate and nuclear bullying, Iran now wants to go all jihadi on the Internet.

Iran forms unit to go after opposition on Internet

Iran has formed a special unit to monitor Web sites and fight Internet crimes, in a clear attack on an opposition that relies almost exclusively on online means to broadcast its message, local newspapers reported Saturday.

Police Col. Mehrdad Omidi, who heads the Internet crime unit, said the committee will fight "insults and the spreading of lies," terms widely used by the judiciary to describe opposition activities.

Insults and lies, umm. So, they're going to get in a fight with themselves? Good, maybe they'll knock themselves out.

Lies, indeed, and insults? They insult their God, Muslims worldwide and all other sane and rational people everywhere.

Obama Kowtowing To The World

Reminds me of my first formal dance when I listened to my sisters who did not have my best interest at heart. As I bowed and kissed the hand of my date as I been told to do, my friends snickered uncontrollably and my blushing date decided that I was either a fool or making a fool of her.

.

The dance did not go well.

.

Maybe I should have made the Saudi excuse and said that I dropped something.

.

Gateway Pundit noticed too.

Friday FUGLY: Art Museum Of Alberta

Musugly

It looks like a Darth Vader vacuum repair shop.

The True Character Of Hasan & Terrorists

Major Nidal Hasan wore the Caduceus, symbol of the Medical Corps, on his lapel. As a doctor, Hasan was to have spoken and lived by this oath, which is quoted in part below:

The Hippocratic Oath (part)
In every house where I come I will enter only for the good of my patients, keeping myself far from all intentional ill-doing and all seduction and especially from the pleasures of love with women or with men, be they free or slaves.

The media seems fixated on the "victim" meme, ignoring that the real victims were shot by Hasan. This same media ignores that besides the fact that Hasan did violence in the name of Allah, he also did violence against a sacred oath. Hasan decidedly violated one oath in which he would "do no harm" (not stated in the oath, but implied all through) to do great harm in the name of his religion against his oath as an officer of the United States military and his fellow man.

In his few moments of Islamofacist glory Hasan broke enough oaths to even make Allah doubt his veracity. There goes the whole 72 virgin offer.

Well, at least the heavenly offer, because it seems that the ever pious Hasan enjoyed the "pleasures of love" in strip joints just like the 9/11 murderers. Oops, another couple of oaths does the crapper.

Maybe right after prayers he was just unwinding from all the pressure of being a Muslim in America, from which a lap dance and a beer or two appears to relieve terrorists.

I guess Hasan was just a murderous slave to his impulses.

World Council Of Churches To Warm Earth With Bell Ringing

Striking an object causes heat. When that object vibrates it causes heat. When a human exerts themself it causes heat.

When repeated numerous times at numerous sites around the globe, well, a kitten dies and a polar bear loses its home.

X(strike) x Y (sound wave) x Z(exertion) = A(heat)

A x B(350 times) x C(number of participating congregations) = G(global warming)

So, the WCC is causing global warming.

That's not very christian.

Saint Mac Dara, Connemara, Ireland

Saint Mac Dara's Island
A report written by R.A.S. Macalister in 1895 for the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland.

Arriving off Inis Mac Dara, we cast anchor near the shore, and rowed in our ship's boat to the rocks, landing close to the Saint's Church, and the adjoining antiquities.

The island comprises about sixty acres, mostly bare; the rock a reddish granite, with a coast strewn with huge blocks; there is a little grass land towards the centre affording food for a few sheep. There are no inhabitants on the island, and very few of the people of the district visit it unless on the Saint's two festivals, while strangers scarcely ever do so. The church is situated on the edge of the east shore of the island, in a gentle hollow sloping to the south, and close to the natural landing place, over-looking a low reef of rock called Illaunnamorlagh. (read more)

I believe that the structure was restored approx. in 1975.

What is truly amazing is that this mortarless structure is built of hand cut stone made to fit on a sliver of land surrounded by water with no cover from the wind and weather.

There is faith and there is faith.

It is an amazing story.

Veterans Day 2009

Today, on Veterans Day, we honor all veterans. Those that have and are fighting. Those that support those warriors. Those that protect us here at home.

Today, we honor all that wear the uniform.

If all of you have not heard it enough, we also support you each and everyday. We support you and your mission.

God be with you.