Yabba Dabba Doo! Barack Obama Takes America Back to the Stone Age

~~By Grail Guardian

I read a rather innocuous piece on Michelle Malkin’s site about Billie Jean King and how Obama dissed her when presenting her with the Medal of Freedom. The pResident understated how many tennis titles King held by a rather significant amount. Seems innocent enough, right? Malkin herself makes no real judgment about King, she merely presents the brief story from Politico and a bit of snark aimed at Obama. Here’s the piece:

Rowdy town hall protesters, take note: Please do not correct the president’s faulty math. It’s rude. And un-American.

Instead, follow the cue of tennis player Billie Jean King and embrace Obama math as “adorable.”

This is the polite and patriotic thing to do.

Via Politico:

Before presenting tennis legend Billie Jean King with the Medal of Freedom Wednesday, President Obama ticked off some of her accomplishments: 12 Grand Slam titles, 101 doubles titles, 67 singles titles.

“Pretty good, Billie Jean,” he quipped.

But he didn’t get any of it right, according to King herself.

“They didn’t get any of my facts right,” King lightheartedly noted afterward. “Did you see all the – how many titles I won? I was cracking up.”

“Not even in the ballpark,” she continued.

King found it amusing, and said her accomplishments on the court aren’t the most important.

“I thought it was adorable,” she said.</blockquote>

Watch the video at the link as she shrugs at the inaccuracies: “Who cares?

Now I’m not a regular reader of Malkin’s site; I had been directed there by a link to another story and noticed the blurb about King. I found the article rather odd in its lack of any real purpose other than to report a rather minor incident, so I decided to read what others had to say. The discussion in the comments startled me. It started with the general assumption that King must be an Obot since she let Obama off so easily, but quickly deteriorated into people slamming King for defending Obama because she called the incident “adorable”. The next thing I know, people are not only projecting how King would have acted had President Bush made the same mistakes, but attacking her work for Women’s Rights and Title IX . Of course there were the inevitable gay slams. (For the younger crowd King was the subject of a “Palimony” suit by a female lover which was used by social conservatives to discredit her work and tennis accomplishments by implying that the bi-sexual King could never have done any of this had she been strictly heterosexual.) The commenters even attacked a regular poster who tried to point out that King was just being diplomatic and polite to the “POTUS”.

Sample asshattery:

lgm said:
Because of her work promoting women’s sports — title 9, women’s leagues, etc. And, I hope, cleaning the clock of Bobby Riggs.

On August 13th, 2009 at 4:14 pm, emjem24 said:

As a huge tennis fan myself, I really don’t get the importance of this award. It’s meaningless. Anybody can now receive it for whatever accomplishment under the sun. Even foreign citizens.Title 9 has so skewed the balance of women’s sports that both men’s and women’s sports aren’t equally funded. In essence, title 9 has had unforeseen consequences as a result of feminist meddling in sports.

Billy Jean King may have done a lot for women’s tennis such as equating prize money but the male tennis players have a point. Why not have the women play 5 set matches like the men? The men often play longer than the women. This is an example of feminist meddling where there shouldn’t have been. It’s about time on the court, not who makes more.

Billy Jean King really just needs to get over herself.

Now I should tell you that I am a Billie Jean King fan. Not for her tennis skills or personal life choices, but for her efforts as a spokesman for equal pay for professional women athletes and equal opportunity for all female athletes, right down to the grade school level. When I was a kid I remember King taking on Bobby Riggs in the “Battle of the Sexes”, and the significant social paradigm shift that occurred after she whooped his butt. It was thrilling to watch all the cocky boys in town have to scramble for excuses as to why she’d won after being forced to suffer their constant taunts that Riggs could beat her blindfolded, with one hand tied behind his back. Critics now cite that Riggs was 55 years old and not that good a tennis player, but at the time almost every male I knew boasted that these things didn’t matter because no woman could beat any man that wasn’t in a wheelchair! So you young ‘uns out there that aren’t old enough to remember can’t truly appreciate the collective sigh of relief heard from females across the nation as King proved that a woman could indeed beat a man at a physical activity, and do it with style and class. There was much more riding on this highly publicized match than meets the eye when simply reading historical reports about it. It was about the ability of women and girls to walk with their heads held high and the chance (however slim it may have been) to prove that you could be “as good as” or (gasp) even “better than” a male. To a young girl with something to prove, this event was pivotal in the fight for Women’s Rights; as significant as Susan B. Anthony and Co.’s efforts to win women the right to vote. I don’t think it is overstatement to say it was a social breakthrough of the type you only see once or twice in a lifetime. Billie Jean King represented to a generation of young and aspiring females what Martin Luther King, Jr. represented to a generation of blacks: hope and opportunity. No one was asking for a handout, just the chance to prove ourselves. And prove ourselves we did. We championed Women’s Rights like no other generation before or since. We shouldered the burden to bring about a facsimile of equality that has allowed the current Generation Jones female population to presume that their rights were God-given and (wrongly) irrevocable.

So after reading these off the wall comments, I started to think about what is actually going on here. Practically anyone would agree that Barack Obama and his advisors

Purported Obama advisors (could that be Jon Favreau on left??)

have done more to set back the cause of racial equality than the worst Neo-Nazi or KKKer I could ever have dreamed of (you can read an excellent rant on this topic by raGing here at Deadenders), but I would be remiss if I didn’t get to the juicy point buried in the midst of all this:

Barack Obama has handed the extreme right fringe of this country the ability to revert back to the Stone Age socially, and to feel 100% comfortable while doing it. Where they lead, others with weak minds and morals will happily follow.

Back to the Stone Age

There you go, Obots! I said it! Teh Won has enabled not only the über-liberals to call anyone that disagrees with them racists, but he has empowered the right cliffers, rednecks, Christian extremists, and other dregs of society to spread their filth at will. He promised us change, and boy did he deliver! Now everyone has the right to “go postal” on anyone. To wit:

It’s okay to attack taxpayers:

Just when you thought they could stoop no lower…

It’s ok to attack cops:

The Cambridge cop prominent Harvard University professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. claims is a racist gave a dying Reggie Lewis mouth-to-mouth resuscitation in a desperate bid to save the Celtics [team stats] superstar’s life 16 years ago Monday.

“I wasn’t working on Reggie Lewis the basketball star. I wasn’t working on a black man. I was working on another human being,” Sgt. James Crowley, in an exclusive interview with the Herald, said of the forward’s fatal heart attack July 27, 1993, at age 27 during an off-season practice at Brandeis University, where Crowley was a campus police officer.

It’s a date Crowley still can recite by rote – and he still recalls the pain he suffered when people back then questioned whether he had done enough to save the black athlete.

“Some people were saying ‘There’s the guy who killed Reggie Lewis’ afterward. I was broken-hearted. I cried for many nights,” he said.

(For those not convinced, you can read the police report on the Gates incident here.)

It’s ok to attack the homeless:

A report due out this weekend from the National Coalition for the Homeless documents a rise in violence over the last decade, with at least 880 unprovoked attacks against the homeless at the hands of nonhomeless people, including 244 fatalities. An advance copy was provided to The New York Times.

Sometimes, researchers say, one homeless person attacks another in turf battles or other disputes. But more often, they say, the assailants are outsiders: men or in most cases teenage boys who punch, kick, shoot or set afire people living on the streets, frequently killing them, simply for the sport of it, their victims all but invisible to society.

“A lot of what we see are thrill offenders,” said Brian Levin, a criminologist who runs the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino.

It’s ok to attack women:

George Sodini went to a sprawling L.A. Fitness Club on Tuesday night, turned out the lights on the “Latin impact” dance-aerobics class for women, and opened fire with three guns, spraying dozens of bullets before committing suicide.

“He just had a lot of hatred in him and (was) hell-bent on committing this act, and no one was going to stop him,” Allegheny County Police Superintendent Charles Moffatt said Wednesday.

His 4,610-word Web diary appeared to be a nine-month chronology of his plans to end his misery with a shocking act of carnage at his gym. He couldn’t understand why women ignored him, despite his best efforts to look nice. He wrote that he hadn’t had a girlfriend since 1984, hadn’t slept with a woman in 19 years.

It’s ok to attack blacks (if they’re conservatives):

Kenneth Gladney, a 38-year-old conservative activist from St. Louis, said he was attacked by some of those arrested as he handed out yellow flags with “Don’t tread on me” printed on them. He spoke to the Post-Dispatch from the emergency room of the St. John’s Mercy Medical Center, where he said he was waiting to be treated for injuries to his knee, back, elbow, shoulder and face that he suffered in the attack. Gladney, who is black, said one of his attackers, also a black man, used a racial slur against him before the attack started.
“It just seems there’s no freedom of speech without being attacked,” he said.

(Or if the attacker is a Black White Supremacist):

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

An African-American man from Mississippi admits posing as a white supremacist to send a death threat across state lines by 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.

Of course all of this may leave you wondering, “just who isn’t it ok to attack?” The answer is rather painfully obvious: Barack Obama and Congress

An HCAN affiliate called Progressive Future is partnered with Fund for the Public Interest. Fund for the Public Interest is hiring people nationwide to do “canvassing” for Obama’s health reform agenda.

<snip>

But here I think is the smoking gun. This page on the Progressive Future site describes the action they are taking to fight for health reform. It says:

[T]his summer is the key time to ramp up the public pressure for reform.  Every member of Congress needs to hear from us, that we won’t wait any longer for real health care reform.

Progressive Future is stepping up to the challenge:

We’ll be sending out hundreds of canvassers in nine cities across the country to talk directly with more than 50,000 citizens about the need to solve our health care crisis, building our rapid-response network, and engaging supporters immediately.

So as he sends his paid ACORN-style minions out across the country to combat peaceful protesters, it seems the self-styled post-racial, progressive President is anything but. In fact, Barack Obama has given credibility to Rush Limbaugh and jumpstarted the previously deceased careers of the likes of Newt Gingrich and Ann Coulter. Wow. That’s some Liberal Agenda, isn’t it? You Obots out there must be proud!

Just as the democratic (I refuse to capitalize it anymore) party uses abortion and gay marriage as wedge issues to keep women as members/voters of a party that doesn’t respect or help them, Axelrod and Co. have figured out how to use the biggest right wing tools to keep the real racists/sexists/homophobes agitated, and they have given them Carte Blanche to do it to the rest of us. After all, what good is a bi-racial, hipster pResident and left cliff Congress without some good old fashioned right wing crazies to make them look cool in contrast?

Tidbits from the 100 Days Debacle/Join the W.A.M. ACTION Against the Mainstream Media

W.A.M (Wake Up America) has put together a review of the insults that the Obama Administration has been heaping on the country during their first 100 days.  More at: http://www.wamaction.org/NewsRoom.html

Via W.A.M. Press Release:

If it seems to you that the “Change Administration” continues to expend its primary energies to campaigning rather than governing, you’re on the right track. With scores of Executive Branch positions still left vacant, the spectacle unveiled for Obama’s 100 Day mark apparently took most of the Administration’s energy. This included erroneous polling by supportive Mainstream Media.

In a glaring example, an absurb AP poll, headlined on Time Warner and other outlets with this caption: “AP Poll: After Obama’s 100 days, U.S. on right track.”

One fly in the ointment of this much publicized poll is that it included a mere 21% Republican sampling – with a whopping 38% now identified as “Independent.” As one blogger remarked, it seems that ‘the communist state has arrived. AP is Pravda.” What happened to the rest of the GOP? Applying the ongoing “New Party” strategy, the swiftest means to alter political reality is to use the Media to tell the public what you want to be true. This  involves considerable attention and time – but if it keeps your “candidate”s popularity afloat, well, then it’s worth it. And let’s not leave out the new First Lady, who is also reported this week, in another fallacious poll, to be approved of by 87% of Americans – leaving many of US wondering just who did they call?!

In an astonishing report, Politico substantiates the fact that the  “Obama campaign still funds operations.” Its review indicates that, having entered the new year with $18 Million dollars, it’s now down to a mere $10 Million.”Last month alone, it paid $74,000 in payroll, $23,000 for rent, $10,000 for polling and $6,400 for travel. Other interesting payments during the first three months of the year, the period covered by Wednesday’s report, included $688,000 in legal fees to the firm of Bob Bauer — the top lawyer for the campaign, the Democratic National Committee, the Obama political group Organizing for America, and the Obama family — and $6,400 to a firm founded by Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden.” For more fascinating facts on the Obama- Axelrod ongoing campaign, go here:

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0409/21304.html

Pulling out all the stops for his 100 Day marker not only included biased poll reports but a pointless hour of prime time coverage. Having already leveraged more prime time coverage than President Clinton was given his entire term in office – millions of viewers were coerced to sit politely through Obama’s tele-prompter guided Talking Points – unchallenged by reporters. In a full hour only 13 questions were permitted, including one riveting query about what has most “enchanted” the new Commander-in-Chief since January. The rest of US may be relieved to note that, while the economy continues to sink and Barney Frank’s housing fix law has qualified one homeowner for salvation over a full 3 months, Obama has plenty of “perks” to boost his spirits. These include a bombshell of unintended “bad press” – at extravagant expense – but too inept and careless not to be criticized. The Defense Department terrorizing of New York City, when a “photo shoot” of Air Force One, accompanied by fighter jets, swooped over the downtown area spoke volumes of this adminstration’s contempt  for both protocol and public safety. Turns out this thoughtless fiasco was created on behalf of – what else but the Change Administrations’ latest marketing video.  (See W.A.M. News Room for video.

The worst debacle of thinly disguised brainwashing, however, was GOP Senator Arlen Specter’s carefully timed announcement of his withdrawal from the Republican party to join the un-Democratic majority with which he has been voting all year anyway! Seems his rival for the 2010 PA race, Conservative Pat Tooney is so far ahead in the polls, the Senator has no other option for defending his re-election than to switch labels (but not gears) to bring forth more bundles of questionably sourced New Party capital by running under the Democratic banner. The price he paid? No more than his massively televised participation in this week’s 100 Day marketing blitz!

It’s amusing to note that Sen. Tom Harkin, who was scheduled to speak on FOX News about this political ‘upset’ bowed out abruptly,  without explanation. This after Specter made publicly clear that his deal with Senate Majority Leader Reid provides full rights to DEM seniority – since his 1st 1980 GOP election. Specter proudly stated that he now holds party seniority over most others, including IA Sen. Harkin himself!

If this most recent and most glaring example of Washington’s abusive pattern of ignoring We the People insults you, SIGN IN to Wake Up America movement to participate in MAINSTREAM MEDIA BOYCOTT -  this Grass Roots Media Reform campaign launches with  MAJOR TELEVENT – WEDNESDAY PM – MAY 6!

Go to www.wamaction.org home page link – Get Involved – to join this ACTION.  See the upcoming plans for EXPANSION of the W.A.M. site including:

Expanded Newsroom

Watch Washington Forum

Private Chat Room for Bloggers & Broadcasters’

Research Archives On Critical Issues

State-by-State Vision-in-Action Board

Labour (UK) Facing Poll Meltdown After “Smeargate” Allegations–Brown’s Fmr. “Spin Chief” (Now Political Director of a Union) Involved

~~By InsightAnalytical-GRL

About a week ago we posted a story in the Past Week summary about a “smear campaign” coming from a Downing Street official against Conservative leader David Cameron (See: The Past Week: April 5-April 11, 2009 (”President Panytwaist”; A Split Among Progressives over War Spending Plan?; Smear Campaign in Britain; “Sageism”).

According to the piece quoted at the time:

Damian McBride, the PM’s ex-political press officer, quit after the messages were picked up by a Westminster blog.

In them, Mr McBride made obscene and unfounded claims about the personal lives of party leader David Cameron and shadow chancellor George Osborne.

Well, there are some new developments for Labour as a result of this episode.

Labour set to face polls backlash

4:59am Sunday 19th April 2009

© Press Association 2009

Labour is facing new allegations about the “Smeargate” affair as polls revealed how much the row has damaged Gordon Brown’s re-election hopes – with support for the party plummeting.

SNIP

At the same time, polls showed support for Labour slumping dramatically in the wake of the affair, allowing the Tories to extend their lead to up to 19 percentage points.

They showed that trust in the Government had been damaged by the smears disclosures, which have engulfed Labour since they appeared last weekend.

The latest claims were made in the News of the World, which said it had obtained an email proving that Mr Collins chaired a crucial meeting on December 1.

It was also attended by Charlie Whelan, Mr Brown’s former spin chief and the political director of the Unite trade union, whose Westminster offices were used for the meeting.

MORE

This saga going on in the UK brings a question to mind: with all the Chicago-machine hardball being played in Washington these days, not to mention during the primaries, the Presidential campaign and before that, during the Bush Administration…don’t you wonder why this sort of thing doesn’t get any rise out of the electorate here?

Nothing seems to offend people these days unless it’s taxes and bailouts…but in terms of the “politics of personal destruction,” apparently nobody bats an eye anymore here in the U.S.

I don’t know if all began during the Clinton era, but wouldn’t it be a real sea change if smear tactics used here could actually deflate politicians like Obama (who poked around sealed divorce records in Illinois, for example while running for Senate) with the same effectiveness that it seems to have in the UK?  And wouldn’t you like to see the “spin chiefs” like Karl Rove and David Axelrod get a good comeuppance?

House Passes HR 1388 Under Cover of AIG Diversion –The Linchpin in the Obama Plan to “BUY” Voters …Read What It Says and PLEASE SIGN PETITION TO SENATE NOW!!

~~Via W.A.M. (Wake Up America)

The House of Representatives sailed through HR 1388 (G.I.V.E  Act) this Wednesday  (3/18/2009) – without conscience or attention to consequence – in keeping with their voting record so far this year. A version of this measure is now in the hands of the Senate. If passed into law, it will put into place  Obama/Axelrod’s largest linchpin in their plan to take over our country and our society by taking over our youth (and even attempt to lure in our needy senior citizens) by “paying” them to co-operate.

More details on this looming danger-the greatest we have faced since Obama took over are revealed at the Wake Up America movement website. Here is the opening summary…videos of Obama and quotes about his plans follow at the W.A.M site:

The “Generations Invigorating Volunteerism and Education Act” is Now before the Senate

Passed by the House of Representatives in a 321 to 105 vote yesterday, this G.I.V.E. Act should come as no surprise – within our current economic crisis and near bankrupt status being used – once again – by the Obama administration  as an excuse for the civilian-military force he spoke of during his campaign. At a start-up cost of $6 Billion dollars, what makes this quantum leap of youth re-education so critically urgent right now? The answer lies in the pages of Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals, which states:“The first step in community organization is community disorganization. “The disruption of the present organization is the first step toward community organization. Present arrangements must be disorganized if they are to be displace by new patterns…. All change means disorganization of the old and organization of the new.”

This video clip of Obama’s campaign pledge with a video reminds US of this misrepresented law’s potential impact. This sudden move by the new “Change” Administration for a rapid-fire, cloaked revision of our nation’s standards of  “Voluntary Service” has been swept under the rug of MainStream Media. Conscious Americans need to WAKE UP THE U.S. SENATE FAST!

And here is a section of what the bill covers:

Misc. section, #6104: (6) “ Whether a workable, fair, and reasonable mandatory service requirement for all able young people could be developed, and how such a requirement could be implemented in a manner that would strengthen the social fabric of the Nation and overcome civic challenges by bringing together people from diverse economic, ethnic, and educational backgrounds” (by) “(C) involv(ing) an increasing percentage of students in secondary school and out-of-school youth in the community in school-based or community based service-learning activities each year, with the goal of involving all students in secondary schools served by the local educational agency and involving an increasing percentage of the out-of-school youth in service learning activities. It goes on to state: “Each program funded under this part shall be carried out over a period of three years, including one planning year and two additional grant years, with a 1-year extension possible, if the program meets performance measures developed in accordance with section 179(a) and any other criteria determined by the Corporation (AmericaCorps) . . with “Requirements” as follows: `It is the sense of Congress that the number of participants in the programs . . .  should grow to reach 250,000 participants by 2014” in service programs that combine the best practices of civilian service with the best aspects of military service, including leadership and team building, to meet national and community needs” It further states that the Director determines appropriate “Uniforms” with references to “camps” revised to “campuses.” There are also references to programs at even the elementary school level in SEC. 1201, though the specific contents and supervision of these programs remain unspoken.

COVERING UP THIS GIVE ACT IS THE REASON for all the intentionally-timed commotion on AIG. What they stand to gain on this National Service Laws rewrite is far greater than anything they lose on temporary criticism for their AIG conduct!

AN URGENT PETITION to the SENATE is waiting for everyone’s signature. W.A.M. will send it with all signnatures on Monday A.M. so do act fast!  SCROLL DOWN FOR THE TEXT of the  PETITION…

(After signing this PETITION, you will gain immediate access to other ACTION TOOLS on this critical issue.)

RIGHT NOW: Will you please OFFER PROTECTION to our country’s future generations, your children,  your aged relations (plus all existing American charities and authentic community service groups) by reading and signing this petition?

This Letter to the Senate includes the information that will update the reader on what’s really happening in D.C.:

To: U.S.Senator (name here)

Fax # here

Regarding: Taking Away American Rights in the name of G.I.V.E Act

As a voter and political activist, I am appalled at the lack of diligence and conscience with which our Congress has been conducting itself. It is clear to all informed citizens by now that the AIG fiasco lies directly in the lap of Congress itself.

SNIP

The current legislation to rewrite the “National Service Act” into a government-run indoctrination of American youth – and government take-over of the role of charitable institutions and community service organization (including pay-offs to involve hapless senior citizens) is absolutely the very last straw! The lengths to which the Obama regime is going to push its agenda into a permanent alteration of the face and fabric of our nation – all under the guise of “rushed emergency measures” – has become glaringly obvious and revolting to all our country stands for!

If you have the integrity to hold the Senate seat to which We the People have elected you – and you perform with due diligence on this measure – you will certainly stop this G.I.V.E Act take-over from becoming law. This letter from one voter is an urgent plea, representing millions of Americans, who look on in horror as our trusted officials undercut our economy – with ill-timed and ill-advised sweeping, rushed revisions of our nation’s laws which undermine our entire way of life.

We urgently request that you demonstrate respect for your constituents, our Constitution and the United States by doing the job we have hired you to do. Please apply the full power of your office to withdraw any and all legislation re: U.S. National Service standards and requirements and its further funding and return your attention to the really critical matters at hand – to preserve our security, liberties and prosperity- not to undo them all in this dangerous manner.

Your actions on this matter will be scrutinized and your responsible conduct on costly, damaging National Service revisions will move quickly to public attention with lasting consequence!

From a voter and activist in the state you are sworn to represent,

***

TEXT OF THE PETITION

PETITION to STOP ENACTMENT of the GIVE Act

We the undersigned People are firmly opposed to the formation of a “National Civilian Community Corps” as proposed in the “Generations Invigorating Volunteerism and Education Act” including that:

• We are vehemently opposed to any mandatory requirements for the youth of America to National government service of the National government in any and all forms recommended in this Act.
  

• We uphold it is the responsibility of the citizens and local communities to independently choose which private institutions, organizations and causes to support and in which to participate, if any.
  

• We fervently insist that no action be taken by our Federal government to combine, in any way whatsoever, civilian service with military service for any purpose at this or any future time. We abhor any legislative measures be enacted that create a domestic “security” force in any form for any purpose.
  

• We demand that no national Corporation or Commission instigate to select, mandate or impose any Federal programs into the education of our children which determine, define or instruct them in “how to meet national and community needs.”
  

• We adamantly object to the use of Federal funds in the form of grants, scholarships or any other form of compensation to induce American youth and/or senior citizens in nationally regulated programs which supplant private sector charitable work and/or local community service with Federally controlled programs.
  

• We insist that our public officials in Washington return your attention to matters which are your Constitutional responsibility and withdraw support from any Federal government involvement in “service based activities.” We advise you, instead, to direct your efforts to apply due diligence to your elected offices to the critical issue of fiscal responsibility and to conduct yourselves responsibly and ethically for the purposes and functions for which we have elected you – while allowing We the People, within our own families and communities to determine what our own “service based” guidelines, interests and rewards will be for ourselves.
  

MORE DETAILS are also located:

http://www.wam08.org/TakeaStand.html

URGENT: STOP the G.I.V.E. ACT from TAKING AWAY OUR RIGHTS

THE SENATE NEEDS TO HEAR FROM ALL OF US NOW! The House passed this!

THE ABOVE FAX LETTER SHOULD BE SENT TO YOUR SENATORS showing WE KNOW what’s really GOING ON in D.C. All are welcome to send this letter as is- or revise to suit. Link below will provide free FAX access plus all contact info for all US Senators after you sign the Petition.

For more information and to sign NO G.I.V.E Petition, go to: SCROLL DOWN TO GET TO THE PETITION!

http://www.wam08.org/TakeaStand.html

Family Matters (Politics, Home Style): David & Susan Axelrod and Epilepsy; Bristol & Sarah Palin Interview on Greta (UPDATE 1X: GM Retiree Health Benefits Dropped–the Next “Attached String” Falls into Place?

~~By InsightAnalytical-GRL

Did you see the latest issue of Parade Magazine this past weekend?

Call me a cynic, but are we seeing the first salvo in the next campaign planned by the Obama Administration regarding health care?

I didn’t know who the people were on the cover, but when I took the time to read the story inside, it turned out that the story was about how the daughter of Obama’s guru David Axelrod and his wife Susan discovered and have coped with the serious epilepsy problems of their daughter, Lauren.   It’s part of a “Heroic Parents” series.  And, this story was followed up with an appearance on the Today Show on Monday (which I did not see).

From the web edition of the story:

When her daughter was diagnosed with uncontrollable epilepsy, Susan Axelrod knew:

I Must Save My Child

By Melissa Fay Greene

Publication Date: 02/15/2009

Susan Axelrod and daughter Lauren, 27 (photo by Katherine Lamber for PARADE)

For more on the Axelrods and CURE, tune in to NBC’s TODAY show on Monday, February 16.

When Susan Axelrod tells the story of her daughter, she begins like most parents of children with epilepsy: The baby was adorable, healthy, perfect. Lauren arrived in June 1981, a treasured first-born. Susan Landau had married David Axelrod in 1979, and they lived in Chicago, where Susan pursued an MBA at the University of Chicago and David worked as a political reporter for the Chicago Tribune. (He later would become chief strategist for Barack Obama’s Presidential campaign and now is a senior White House adviser.) They were busy and happy. Susan attended classes while her mother babysat. Then, when Lauren was 7 months old, their lives changed overnight.

MORE

The story goes into great detail about Lauren’s condition and her mother’s efforts to bring the serious problems created by epilepsy into the light and mentions then-First Lady Hillary Clinton’s help as  for the organization  founded by Susan Axelrod, CURE.

Susan began to meet other parents living through similar hells. They agreed that no federal agency or private foundation was acting with the sense of urgency they felt, leaving 3 million American families to suffer in near-silence. In 1998, Susan and a few other mothers founded a nonprofit organization to increase public awareness of the realities of epilepsy and to raise money for research. They named it after the one thing no one offered them: CURE–Citizens United for Research in Epilepsy.

“Epilepsy is not benign and far too often is not treatable,” Susan says. “We wanted the public to be aware of the death and destruction. We wanted the brightest minds to engage with the search for a cure.”

Then-First Lady Hillary Clinton signed on to help; so did other politicians and celebrities. Later, veterans back from Iraq with seizures caused by traumatic brain injuries demanded answers, too. In its first decade, CURE raised $9 million, funded about 75 research projects, and inspired a change in the scientific dialogue about epilepsy.

The efforts by Susan Axelrod are certainly wonderful, but I am so cynical about everything that comes out of anything connected to Obama that I had to wonder if this whole thrust–a big cover story followed up by the Today Show–is part of the campaign to sell the health care changes that are brewing.  First we had Daschle and the house parties, now we have changes to health care that will probably affect many seniors in possibly negative ways, and now this PR effort involving David Axelrod and his family.   But Axelrod isn’t the focus of this story, it is his wife and daughter. My skeptic sensor wonders if this is a way to put a “human face” on the mastermind behind what could be some pretty upsetting changes in the works.  Is it the Obama crowd’s “I feel your pain” moment??

I don’t know if you can call it “exploitation” of Lauren, who is 27 years old. But there is something here that makes me uneasy.  Because we’ve come to learn that there is NOTHING that the Obama crowd does that doesn’t have some purpose.  I think there is something else afoot.

Today I thought about how Obama trotted his girls out at that party which the press attended, and then “realized” after the fact that it might be “too much exposure” for them.  And all through the campaign there were the huge crowds, which we found out were partly due to opening rock bands, food and beer in some cases.  The whole Obama campaign has been one big PR blitz, aided by the mainstream media.

So pardon me if I have mixed feelings about this story on the Axelrods and epilepsy.  It’s great that there is some information put out there, but…

Coincidentally, Greta Van Susteren did another segment up in Alaska on last night which opened with Bristol Palin and her baby.  Sarah Palin came on and the discussion was about the difficulties of raising a child and how they are lucky to have a family willing to pitch in.  It was a very factual and real discussion.  But was it exploitation? All I know is that I didn’t get the creepy feeling I got after I started mulling over the Axelrod article.  The Bristol Palin part of the segment was over and done with fairly quickly(it was only a very small section of the full interview; full video below).

The interview went on to a discussion of the stimulus package which Gov. Palin framed in terms of how the states might be left holding the bag on future costs of expanded programs and how the bill was rushed to the floor even though most people hadn’t read it. She wondered about the rush to vote since the bill signing was delayed until Tuesday.  She said that she thought a bill that hadn’t been read or debated should be vetoed. She commented on the Fairness Doctrine and how someone had to be questioning the Administration and that silencing critics could be bad for our democracy. And she talked about a letter she had sent to Obama about energy policy that apparently has gotten some positive feedback.  She also stressed again about ultimately becoming energy independent and bringing renewable energy sources online and how she’s like Obama to visit to see what really is happening with energy in Alaska.  (This was the longest interview shown last night; see Sarah Palin Interview below.)

Links to the videos:

Bristol Palin interview (much longer than the short piece on last night’s On the Record.

***Sarah Palin Interview

Introducing Tripp

So there they are, two back-to-back family stories which lead back to politics. In the case of Palin, it was a straightforward interview with Bristol and then policy talk with the Governor (and a spot on the snowmobile race that Todd Palin finished in 6th place.  In the case of the Axelrod interview, it was full of painful detail with no OBVIOUS politics.

But, be forewarned. I really think it’s part of an unfolding plan…and a sneaky one at that.

***

P.S.–I still go with Palin…

UDATE

H/T to The Confluence

Tuesday: GM dumps retiree health care

So, GM gets bailed out…is this one of the “attached strings” for taking the money???   Slots in nicely as the next step in the PR campaign? (Fear, on the heels of “feel your pain”….)