Open thread...

Obama Brings Back End of Life Counseling
When it was discovered that ObamaCare included funding for end of life counseling, Controversy erupted and that language had to be stripped from the bill Obama eventually signed. So, how is it that end of life counseling is now being funded by the Federal Government? Through Regulation, of course. The New York Times reported that this is the way President Obama will operate for the next two years. The final version of the Health Care Legislation, signed into law by President Obama in March, a...

White House attempts to clarify President Obama's Michael Vick remarks
Today one tweet from one Sports Illustrated reporter created a Controversy that the White House was forced to respond through a statement.  The tweet in question came from Peter King of Sports Illustrated.  King tweeted, "Yes, Obama called Eagle owner Jeffrey Lurie to praise the Eagles for giving Vick a chance. Said too many Prisoners never get fair 2d chance." The tweet was in reference to an earlier interview King had given in which he mentioned that President Obama had expressed gra...

Obama's stealth end-of-life regulation: Palin's 'death panels' made Dems do it
"If you can't legislate it, enforce it," says Tucker Carlson, sitting in for Sean Hannity on Fox , as he slammed the Obama Administration for dishonesty - specifically  sneaking back into ObamaCare  what Sarah Palin labeled  the 'Death Panel's'" end-of-life planning. At that time, Sarah Palin warned of a slippery slope to euthanasia for the elderly, the sick and the disabled and America's response echoed Palin's "Not no, but hell no!".  Now it's back. As per the New York Time...

Backdoor Death Panels?
When the Health Care overhaul was stumbling its way through Congress early this year, Sarah Palin was excoriated by Democrats for suggesting that the nascent law included “Death Panels” for the elderly in order to save costs of treating the oldest and Most Expensive patients. In a Wall Street Journal op-ed, Palin wrote that Obama had asked Congress to create an independent Medicare Advisory Council--an unaccountable group of experts charged with containing Medicare costs. She p...

Paul Krugman the Scrooge
Oh, there’s nothing better than the Syracuse Post Standard to spread a little Christmas cheer. This morning after the gifts were unwrapped I found myself with an hour or so to spare while the Children built their little Lego® houses. I settled down to relax and read the Christmas edition of the morning newspaper before cooking breakfast. The opinion section contained columns by Cal Thomas and Michael Gerson that were totally appropriate for this holy day. Ah, but we cannot enjoy Christm...

The Paulding County brief political frets of the day
Paulding County, Georgia - While the Paulding County Political Bytes of the week will continue on a periodic basis, it is time to ratchet it up a bit and present a few government absurdness during the week. Democrats just love unions. Why? An average stagehand at Lincoln Center in NYC makes $290K a year. Any union members at the Dallas Theater? Would you allow your mother to be treated this way? Courtesy of MEMRI, the Middle East Research Institute released a disturbing video of a woman in...

Sneaking end-of-life consultations into Obamacare
Jae C. Hon/AP Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin made the term"Death Panels"famous during the debate over ObamaCare last year. A new Regulation has revived the debate. During the debate over ObamaCare last year, Controversy erupted over a Medicare provision related to end-of-life consultations with doctors. Following well-publicized criticism from former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin concerning government "death panels," the provision was promptly dropped. But now the New York Times reports that it has be...

'Death panels' controversy: Is Obama avoiding Congress?
President Obama talks with Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius in the Oval Office Nov. 4. Health and Human Services has included expanded 'voluntary advance care planning' consultations in the rules it is writing for the health-care reform law. Critics deride the idea as 'Death Panels.' In a move that could resuscitate the partisan battle over what Sarah Palin dubbed "death panels," the Obama Administration is set to implement a Controversial federal health-care provi...

THE HILL: White House Tries To Smother New Death Panel Talk. Get that pillow off of my face!
THE HILL: White House Tries To Smother New “Death Panel” Talk. Get that pillow off of my face! ...

Fox News Tries To Rehabilitate Palins Discredited Death Panels Smear
As The New York Times reported yesterday, the Obama Administration has enacted Medicare Regulations to include an end-of-life planning provision similar to one struck out of the Health Care Reform Bill after Sarah Palin “touched off a political storm over ‘Death Panels.’” Palin’s “death panels” accusation wasn’t just a lie, it was PolitiFact’s Lie of the Year for 2009. But good ol’ Fox News resuscitated the lie and gave it new life by j...

Berwick Sets Up Death Panels By Fiat
"If they would rather die they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population." -- Ebenezer Scrooge in Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol Sarah Palin was right. John Boehner -- make that Speaker-elect of the House John Boehner -- was right. While Americans were busy celebrating with family and friends and presumably not paying attention to the news, the New York Times, in a story ironically dated Christmas Day -- a holiday celebrating the birth of the Prince of Peace -- reported the foll...

Man charged with felony for reading his wife's e-mail
The Detroit Free Press says 33-year-old Leon Walker has been charged with a felony after reading Clara Walker's Gmail account on a Laptop the now-divorced couple shared. He goes to trial in February. Prosecutors used a state statute typically used to prosecute Crimes like Identity Theft or stealing trade secrets. Leon, Clara Walker's third husband, found out in an e-mail that she was having an affair with her second husband , who was once arrested for beating her in front of her small son. Leon ...

The Sunbird
Doctors will soon be able to receive Medicare payments for end-of-life planning. The new rule says Medicare will cover “voluntary advance care planning,” to discuss end-of-life treatment, as part of the annual visit. Under the rule, doctors can provide information to patients on how to prepare an “advance directive,” stating how aggressively they wish to be treated if they are so sick that they cannot make Health Care decisions for themselves. This is of course completel...

Jesus would be a liberal, right?
On Thursday night I appeared on “The Ed Schultz Show” on MSNBC, answering Newt Gingrich's latest attack on the jobless by suggesting Newt watch “It's a Wonderful Life” and reread the teachings of Jesus, which I offered to send him as my Christmas Present. President Obama is a man of quiet but deep Christian faith. Isn't it odd that every time the president quotes Scripture, he is met by angry rightists who seem to hate (hate is not too strong

This Week's Health Industry News
With the Congress in adjournment and many business people taking off the time between holidays, we do not expect any substantive health industry news this week. But we could be surprised. Take, for instance, the news reported Sunday by our colleague Robert Pear in Washington. The Obama Administration, through an administrative rule, is resurrecting the notion of end-of-life planning services for older Americans — the same sort of planning that was falsely characterized as “Death Panels”

White House Pushing Back Against Revived Chatter About End-Of-Life Planning
The White House is denying that a new Medicare Regulation revives language dropped from the Health Care Reform Bill that covered voluntary end-of-life planning sessions between doctors and patients. The policy was removed from the Health Care bill after Republicans and right-wing opponents of the bill construed the provision as creating "Death Panels" for old people. The New York Times reported yesterday that beginning January 1st: Under the new policy, outlined in a Medicare regulation, the...

Woman Eats 30,000 Calories for Christmas Meal
This holiday, Donna Simpson, our favorite overachieving fat lady, has continued in her quest to be the heaviest woman in the world. The New Jersey resident ate a whopping 30,000 Calories for her Christmas meal, according to the Australian Daily Telegraph. (For some reason, the British and Australian papers are all over this story in a way that not even our own NYC Tabloids can match. Has the New York Post finally discovered ... shame?) When last we met her, back in March, she weighed 600 pounds....

LCR at The Daily Caller: Location, Location, Location
by the Left Coast Rebel My latest Daily Caller piece (in quite a while, actually) is actually a modified LCR post but due to the Real Estate, it sounds a lot better than it does here. Location, location, location. Click the image above to read the piece and please Facebook "like" it and comment if you have the time, please get the word on Obama's march to socialism and in this case, Death Panels. Let the new 112th Congress know your outrage over this insidious move on Dear Leader's part. Props...

Eddie Cibrian and LeAnn Rimes Got Engaged
Cibrian. What, you wanted a picture of LeAnn Rimes? This is MY day! Though it was reported to have happened earlier, according to People, adulterous hotties LeAnn Rimes and Eddie Cibrian got officially engaged over the holiday. The country singer was "spotted" wearing an Engagement Ring, which somehow People identified to be a "5-carat oval diamond set in rose gold fleur-de-lis connected to the band." (People also heard from "a source" that the couple "designed the ring together with the actor's...

Obama's Birth certificate: Hawaii Governor Abercrombie's Birther mission
Birthers are a group of wacky Conspiracy theorists that claim President Barack Obama was born on foreign soil, usually Kenya. Birthers claim Obama's Birth Certificate, or more exactly his certificate of live birth, is a forgery. Birthers claim Obama is an illegitimate president because he is not an American Citizen. Governor Abercrombie is initiating a process to make policy changes that would allow Hawaii to release additional evidence that Obama was born in Honolu...

Texas blog roundup for the week of December 27
The Texas Progressive Alliance hopes Santa Claus was good to you as it delivers the last blog roundup for 2010. Bay Area Houston notices that Death Panels are starting in Jan. Off the Kuff took a look at the election contest that was filed in HD48. Harold at Letters From Texas told a little Christmas story from his childhood, to (unsuccessfully) prove that he’s not a scrooge. It seems the EPA and Big Gas agree on something: Hydraulic Fracturing causes gas to penetrate into the water zone...

'Death panels' controversy: Is Obama avoiding Congress? (The Christian Science Monitor)
Washington – In a move that could resuscitate the partisan battle over what Sarah Palin dubbed "Death Panels," the Obama Administration is set to implement a Controversial federal health-care provision by executive authority. The new rule would pay doctors to consult with Medicare patients who want voluntary counseling about health-care options in the case of terminal illness. The Obama Administration casts the change as minor, saying that these are common-sense discussions t...

The future of health care in the Tampa Bay Area
Beginning on January 1, 2011 the effects of the initial policy implementations of the Health Care Reform Act will be felt by both physicians and their patients. In speaking with family physicians, general practitioners and specialists in the Tampa Bay area, many have decided that they will retire or find another job prior to January 1, 2013, when they must begin to confer with the government in deciding your care or course of treatment. With over thirty million people being added to the health c...

Still more 2010 election congressional winners
Incoming House freshman Rick Berg and incoming Senate freshman John Hoeven will be the first North Dakota Republicans to serve in the Congress since 1986. New Mexico's Steve Pearce , a Republican, returns in January to his old House seat. He had held it for six years, then ran for Senator in 2008, losing to Tom Udall. Last month he defeated Incumbent Democrat Harry Teague. Congressman Steve Israel of New York's second district is the new Chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committe...

The Calm Before the Storm in Sacramento
The day after the Budget is presented, the battle will begin. This year as a result of Proposition 25 which passed last November with solid margins will allow the Legislature to pass a Budget with a simple majority vote. This means the Republicans cannot stall the Budget as they have in the past ten or so years and use that obstruction as a tool for their own policy agenda. On the surface one might say, great. The State will get a Budget on time. Wow. Hold that thought. What happens when one pol...