Month: August 2010

Former Shirley Sherrod employee accuses her of exploiting black farm laborers | Washington Examiner

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It now seems that Mr. and Mrs. Sherrod inflicted quite a bit of pain and suffering on their own — and on some of the very people Mr. Sherrod described as “our own” in a speech earlier this year — at New Communities, Inc. (NCI). The group is described at the Rural Development Leadership Network’s web site as “the land trust that Shirley and Charles Sherrod established, with other black farm families in the 1960s.”

via Former Shirley Sherrod employee accuses her of exploiting black farm laborers | Washington Examiner.

Dan Senor: An Open Letter on the Ground Zero Mosque – WSJ.com

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Someone who rejects the link between Islam and the brand of radicalism and violence espoused by al Qaeda and like-minded groups should be wary of helping to further, even inadvertently, the rhetoric and propaganda of those groups. Indeed, we believe that such a person should take an active role in opposing any measure or message that might be seized upon by those whom he considers to be the blasphemers of his own faith.

via Dan Senor: An Open Letter on the Ground Zero Mosque – WSJ.com.

Obamacare Only Looks Worse Upon Further Review: Kevin Hassett – Bloomberg

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One of the more illuminating remarks during the health-care debate in Congress came when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told an audience that Democrats would “pass the bill so you can find out what’s in it, away from the fog of controversy.”

That remark captured the truth that, while many Americans have a vague sense that something bad is happening to their health care, few if any understand exactly what the law does.

To fill this vacuum, Representative Kevin Brady of Texas, the top House Republican on the Joint Economic Committee, asked his staff to prepare a study of the law, including a flow chart that illustrates how the major provisions will work.

The result, made public July 28, provides citizens with a preview of the impact the health-care overhaul will have on their lives. It’s a terrifying road map that shows Democrats have launched America on the most reckless policy experiment in its history, the economic equivalent of the Bay of Pigs invasion.

Read the rest here… Obamacare Only Looks Worse Upon Further Review: Kevin Hassett – Bloomberg.

Activists Try to Get Kagan Disbarred | Mother Jones

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Just as the full Senate this week starts debate over the nomination of Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court, a group of conservative activists is planning to ask that same court to disbar her. Larry Klayman, the famous Clinton tormentor and founder of Judicial Watch, told WorldNet Daily recently that he believes Kagan’s work behind the scenes during the Clinton administration on the partial-birth abortion ban constitutes a “conspiracy to defraud the Supreme Court” and that he intends to ask the court to revoke her license to practice law.

Klayman’s disbarment campaign is just the latest call from the right demanding a full investigation into Kagan’s work on the partial-birth abortion ban during her years working in the Clinton White House. The controversy began during her confirmation hearings last month when Shannen Coffin posted a story on the National Review’s website arguing that Kagan had been willing “to manipulate medical science to fit the Democratic Party’s political agenda on the hot-button issue of abortion.”

read the full article at… Activists Try to Get Kagan Disbarred | Mother Jones.

Mayberry Misleads on Medicare | FactCheck.org

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So how can the Obama administration claim that “guaranteed Medicare benefits will remain the same”? The answer is that the term “guaranteed” is a weasel word — a qualifier that sucks the meaning out of a phrase in the way that weasels supposedly suck the contents out of an egg. It may sound to the casual listener as though this ad is saying that the benefits of all Medicare recipients are guaranteed to stay the same — and that may well be the way the ad’s sponsors wish listeners to hear it. But what the administration is really saying is that only those benefits that are guaranteed in law will remain the same.

There’s even a section in the new law (section 3601) that says: “Nothing in the provisions of, or amendments made by, this Act shall result in a reduction of guaranteed benefits under title XVIII of the Social Security Act” (the title that establishes the Medicare program). Section 3602 says even Medicare Advantage recipients won’t suffer any reduction of “any benefits guaranteed by law.”

But here’s the catch: The extra benefits generally offered by Medicare Advantage plans aren’t guaranteed by law. They are offered by private insurance companies as inducements.

via Mayberry Misleads on Medicare | FactCheck.org.