The White House was caught with its hand in the proverbial cookie jar when a brave artist dared to record what was thought to be a private phone conference between devoted Obama followers who had been instrumental in securing Obama’s campaign for the presidency.

Patrick Courrielche, an artist, producer, and contributer to Breitbart’s Big Hollywood, received a series of emails in early August from the National Endowment for the Arts, inviting him to participating in a “brand new discussion” between the NEA, the White House, several political organizations, and several select artists, producers, writers, actors, poets, gallery owners, influential individuals, and “cool people”, to discuss how the art community can best come together in order to “push the President, his administration, and his agenda.”

Yes, you read that right. The White House has directed the National Endowment for the Arts to bring together a coalition of artists and culturally influential individuals in order to produce creative works that will help push the President’s agenda.
I believe the dictionary would define such state-initiated works as “propaganda”.

But it didn’t stop there. Indeed, during the conversation, both the officials from the NEA and the White House specifically requested that the artists focus on several of Obama’s key platform issues, including health care, energy, and the environment. And just in case there’s any question as to the ideology they hoped this artwork would reflect, they specifically mentioned Shepard Fairey’s iconic ‘Hope’ poster and will.i.am’s “Yes We Can” song as examples of what they were hoping the artists could achieve. Yeah, they weren’t exactly hoping for bipartisan messages of patriotism.

Thankfully, when Mr. Courrielche received these emails, something didn’t feel quite right about this whole prospect. So when he joined in on the phone conference, he had his iPhone ready to record the entire conversation. If it hadn’t been for his bravery, this likely would have remained buried.
But the funniest part is, despite having an absolute record of each email and a complete audio recording of the entire conversation, the lead official from the NEA in this project, Yosi Sergant, is actually daring to deny any involvement in the project. But he doesn’t stop there; indeed, he’s trying to deny the project’s very existence. That’s a bit of a stretch, considering the fact that Mr. Sergant’s voice is heard throughout the entire recording, with him going so far as to even voice caution to the participants about being careful with their language, as they’re still ironing out certain legalities. Meaning, they know full well what they’re doing is crossing not only ethical boundaries, but legal ones as well.
Good luck denying all that, Mr. Sergant. You’re gonna need it.

I don’t have much time, as I’m trying to publish three quick posts here before heading off to bed, so I don’t have the best links and resources available for you yet. So please bear with me. But I simply had to post information about this for those of you who may have missed all the hubbub about this today. When I told a friend about this, their first response was, “What? You’ve got to be kidding, this has to be some sort of YouTube hoax, right?” That convinced me I couldn’t wait to post this.

Anyway, the best place to start is probably Mr. Courrielche blog entry that started it all. It’s a bit long, and unfortunately he doesn’t have the audio posted with it, but it’s well worth a read.
Click here to check it out.

As I said, unfortunately Mr. Courrielche hasn’t posted the recording on his blog yet, at least not as far as I’ve been able to find. I did manage to find a YouTube clip of an interview Mr. Courrielche gave to the Glenn Beck program. I know, I’m sorry I’m posting a link to Glenn Beck, I’m sure that will probably offend or upset some of my more moderate readers. Please, put aside your feelings about Mr. Beck, because Mr. Courrielche does a brilliant job of explaining the situation quite concisely. But most importantly, it features audio clips of the actual conversation.

I know there are more audio clips out there from the original recording, since I heard several on the news program where I first heard about this. Again, apologies for not having those ready, I’ve really got to get some sleep. I’ll do some more searching on this tomorrow and post more links as soon as I can.

You absolutely have to read this article from Britain’s Daily Telegraph. Now.

Sentenced To Death On The NHS
“Patients with terminal illness are being made to die prematurely under an NHS scheme to help end their lives, leading doctors warn today.”

This is so depressing it made me cry. British doctors are starving people to death, sedating them to the point where even if their conditions improved, you’d never know it. That’s the National Health Service, that’s government-run health care for you.
Please, don’t let this happen here. No one wants to die with so little dignity, starved because some one else decided it was your time to die. Only our creator truly knows when our time is. It is certainly not the place of our doctor to decide that death is certainly on its way, so we shouldn’t waste any further resources on our behalf.
But sadly, that’s the reality when resources are scarce and there’s only one provider. Resources aren’t endless and cuts are made wherever possible. More often than not, it’s the chronically ill and the dying who pay the price with their dignity, with their lives. Please, I say again, do not let this happen here.

I saw this on my new favorite web-haunt, ProbablyBadNews.com, and I just had to share! It’s yet another epic fail courtesy of NBC News, because – as they say at PBN – journalism isn’t dying fast enough. At least, mainstream journalism anyway.

Meh, no worries, NBC, it’s not like our housing markets are important or anything! Psshaw, like, my inner valley girl is sooo bored with it already, fer shure!
In fact, I’ve been so impressed with NBC News lately, especially after seeing this report about those awful town hall attendees, that I decided to come up with my own slogan idea for NBC News!! I’m, like, so totally excited to share it with you!

How long do you think it’ll be before I get an excited phone call from the head of NBC News, telling me how much they totally love my new slogan?
Yeah, I’m not holding my breath…

Word surfaced over this past weekend about a book that’s recently been added to the Department of Veterans Affairs’ list of publications to be distributed to veterans, despite the fact it was deliberately removed several years ago due to material that the leaders of the VA deemed objectionable. Now that we have a new administration in town, apparently even though they haven’t seen fit to fill more than half of the vacant presidential appointments, someone thought it urgent that this book be reinstated. Someone has great priorities.
If you haven’t yet seen the book, you need to read it. Then you might understand why I’m a bit miffed about this.

The book is called ‘Your Life, Your Choices’ – a title which seems strangely apt given the recent debate over government-run health care. While normally such a title should be appealing to me, the content is absolutely disgusting, in my opinion. The reason for my disgust?
It’s an end of life planning counseling book written by Dr. Robert Pearlman, a major proponent of assisted suicide. In fact, Dr. Pearlman has testified repeatedly in multiple court cases wherein he advocated for physician-assisted suicide.
Brilliant. Just who I’d want to get compassionate, sensitive, and humane guidance from about how to make the most out of my life and maintain my dignity, no matter what physical condition I might find myself in.

I have to admit, I was not able to read the entire book. It was just too emotional for me, and I’ll explain why in a minute. But first, I want to give you a sampling of what the book has to offer: a checklist of ways to tell if your life has devolved to the point where you might want to consider that maybe it’s just not worth living anymore. At least, according to Dr. Pearlman.

Click to enlarge

You know what I noticed first? The options. Nowhere is there an option where you can provide an answer that life is more than just “difficult, but acceptable”, but actually valid, enjoyable, dignified, engaging, and valued. That tells you a helluva lot, doesn’t it? What do you think that says to the veteran who’s reading it?

Let me tell you the second thing I noticed. Out of the 18 direct questions, I qualify for at least 11 of them, maybe 12. According to this book, I’d be a more than valid candidate for assisted-suicide. According to them, my life – at best – is “difficult, but acceptable”.

I’m only 24 years old.

Does that mean my life isn’t worth living? Does that mean my life isn’t dignified? Does that mean my life is “difficult, but acceptable”, or “worth living, but just barely”? Does that mean as a human being, I’m not to be valued as much as someone with an able body? Does that mean that I should just roll over and die because life didn’t turn out the way I thought it would?

I’m sorry, but I refuse to see if that way. I find it disgusting and so incredibly offensive that this book doesn’t even begin to recognize the value of every life, able, disabled, or otherwise. I’ve been seriously ill for over half of my life, and yet I’ve been able to contribute in ways most able-bodied people never do. Yet according to the words of this booklet, handed out to veterans by the VA, I rate just barely beyond “acceptable”.

I find this so far beyond deplorable that I don’t have words adequate enough to express my outrage. Some are calling this a “death book.” I certainly wouldn’t go that far or be that trite about it. But I would call it an absolutely appalling example of outright prejudice against the disabled. To devalue any human being should be outrageous to all of us. Because the minute we can devalue someone is the minute we can devalue anyone.

Veterans don’t need to be told that their lives are only barely acceptable if they’ve been injured or suddenly find themselves severely ill. They need to be encouraged, uplifted, loved, and reminded that they can overcome the challenges and obstacles they face, ultimately becoming stronger in ways they may not have previously imagined. I know I have. Sure, life isn’t always easy, but is it ever easy for anyone? Sure, I’ve had to deal with a lot of pain. But I’ve learned and grown as a person because of it. Those veterans can too.
But they won’t, if they’re told by our government that they can’t, that their lives are now worthless, and that they might as well just give up. We can’t devalue them this way, we can’t disrespect their humanity, we can’t just dismiss them. Just like we shouldn’t dismiss anyone with a disability, whether seen or unseen. We’re all human, we’re all born with different abilities, and throughout our lives, those abilities will surely change and transform. But we are all still human and we are all still deserving of the same rights, respect, and validation. How dare the VA even begin to say otherwise.

One final thought; this is how our government is treating our veterans’, how they’re influencing their health care decisions. If that’s how the heroes among us are treated, how would they treat the rest of us if they were in charge of our health care decisions? How much do you want to bet we’d all be reading a book like this one?
Are you willing to bet your life? It is, after all, your life, and your choice. At least, it is for now. I, for one, would like to keep it that way.

If you’d like to download and read the entire booklet, you can read it here on the official Department of Veterans Affairs website. Yup, even though the VA is saying it’s not an official VA document, it’s still available on their website, and the website says otherwise. It says it was created specifically for the VA via a generous grant of your tax dollars. Although it is allegedly under revision, it’s still being handed out in print in its current form to veterans.
And just in case it suddenly disappears, I’ve archived a copy here.

I saw a couple of pictures on one of my all-time favorite blogs, Black & Right, and I just had to repost them here, because it’s just absolutely frightening.
It’s a beautiful – and frightening – before and after. Take a look.

Here’s the before, a delightful picture of the oft-hyped SmartCar ForTwo. Awww, isn’t it all cute and teeny and precious with its shiny leftist ideological gleam? Fabulous!

All is perfect utopian sweetness and light. That is, until – like most leftist ideology – it’s smacked upside the head by cold, harsh, merciless reality:

Click to zoom

Ooooo, doesn’t look so smart now, does it?

That’s precisely why I will never, ever, ever set foot butt in a SmartCar or any similar teeny-tiny pocket hybrid.
And that’s also precisely why I absolutely love my BMW.

Now before you start accusing me of being the typical evil rich white conservative, let me quickly point something out. I’m a proud, proud owner of a 1996 BMW 318i (yes, that’s a tiny engine, but my, how she can pick up n’ go!) It was my very first car, for which I haggled $5,000 off the salesman’s asking price! Not bad, eh?
My baby still looks brand new, despite having dealt with a few significant scrapes over the years. That’s right, it has kept me and my passengers safe through multiple accidents (none of which were my fault, by the way) and it’s still running strong.

But not only is my baby Bimmer safe to drive, it can compete in fuel efficiency too: it just got 35 miles to the gallon on a recent road trip to Georgia & back. That’s pretty damn good, don’t you think?
And to think, the government would declare my darling baby a clunker! My car and I find that offensive.

If you’re still not convinced check out this frightening footage of the Smart Car being subjected to basic crash testing. It did so badly that even the normally generous Insurance Highway Safety Institute is giving you the same warning I am! I’ve never seen them issue such a warning before, and I’m a crash test junkie!

So please, take my advice: if you value your life and the lives of those who travel with you, please consider safety as well as fuel efficiency when buying your next vehicle. I firmly believe you shouldn’t have to sacrifice safety to suit some ideologue’s idea of a vehicular utopia. After all, what use is that vehicular utopia if we’re all dead?
My life and the lives of my family are of the utmost importance to me, and when their lives are in my hands when I’m behind the wheel, I like to know that should we end up in an accident, we’ll have the best chance possible of walking away unharmed. That’s why I’ll never drive or ride in a Smart Car, and why I’m sticking with my “clunker” BMW. After all, nothing says “safety” like pure Autobahn-tested driving perfection.

Sitting here in my bed, late at night, checking my email one last time on my laptop before going off to sleep, I was hit by quite a thought.
Remember back during the election, when people started bringing up concerns about Barack Obama’s ties to former Weather Underground leader, Bill Ayers? Remember how they told us we were all terribly silly for calling Bill Ayers a terrorist, despite the fact that he bombed the Pentagon & several police buildings, incited violence across the country, and was responsible for the deaths of multiple innocent people? Remember that?

Oh no, he’s not a terrorist at all! Besides, those activities were years and years ago, practically eons ago! We’re sure in his heart of hearts he’s grown as an individual since then and has fully repented! (Never mind, of course, the fact that he said otherwise, but what would he know? We’re sure he just had a difficult childhood, so it’s not his fault anyway even if he did do those things, right?)

So according to the people who said such things, we were utterly silly fear-mongers for daring to call Bill Ayers a terrorist. But now these same people think they can get away with calling average Americans terrorists, thugs & mobsters, comparing them to Timothy McVeigh, and accusing them of dealing in Nazi paraphernalia, purely because they dare to show up to Town Hall meetings, to ask tough questions of their representatives, and finally voice their passionate frustrations about proposed health care reform and the out of control deficit spending going on in Washington?

Yeah, that’s fair.

Of course, not that we should be surprised anymore by the irony and outright hypocrisy of partisan politics these days, especially when it concerns the likes of Nancy Pelosi.

I saw this on the news last night and just about popped a cork:

Disgusting isn’t it?

As a point of comparison, consider this: the folks over at TheConservatives.com have put together a brilliant post illustrating the many varied differences between the Bush & Obama administrations’ reactions to dissent. Naturally, I’m no fan of President Bush, but the differences in approach are quite illuminating, if a bit disgusting. Click here to check it out.

I have to say, I’m absolutely disgusted with the way the White House, certain members of Congress, and the DNC have been handling the rather raucous reactions certain lawmakers have been getting at town hall meetings back in their districts, especially with regard to health care reform. Rather than react like adults and acknowledge the rights of free speech that make this country great – even if those who are exercising those rights disagree with you – they’re behaving more like spoiled children. Anyone who disagrees with them is met with dirty looks, accusations, and a fair bit of pouting. Obama certainly did bring change to the White House. Unfortunately it’s change in the wrong direction, toward an absolute contempt for dissent. I dare say, I doubt that’s the sort of change most voters were expecting.

But really, shouldn’t most people have known better? After all, Obama was the one who gave this edict to his supporters regarding how they should react should they ever meet someone who dares oppose the Dear Leader: “I want you to talk to ‘em whether they’re independent or they are Republican. I want you to argue with them and get in their face!”
Yeah, that’s how an adult calmly carries out a “thoughtful discussion”, the like Robert Gibbs said the orchestrated astroturf protesters were disrupting. But then again, I guess it takes one to know one when it comes to astroturfing. I suppose if you’re a Community Organizer who’s surrounded by fake, generated populist hysteria, you just don’t know how to react when someone’s actually genuine with their concerns about government overstepping its bounds. When everything you do is carefully orchestrated, when every person who asks questions at campaign stops is carefully pre-screened, perhaps you think everyone engages in the same sort of manipulation.

Surprise, surprise. Some of us out here in America actually do care enough about our country to stand up for our beliefs, even if someone isn’t paying us to do so. Myself included. I’m not getting paid a single cent to operate this blog. I don’t even accept ad revenue. And yet here I am, continuing to dedicate my time to voicing my opinions, and spending my own money to do so. And rest assured, if my health would permit me to attend a town hall or two, I’d be there giving a polite earful to my representatives as well.

In short, Mr. Obama, I’m an actual American who doesn’t need a Community Organizer to tell me what to do, what to say, and how to say it. Disagree with me all you like, but don’t you dare dismiss me, insult me, or devalue my right to voice my own opinions.

To the rest of you who are able to attend town halls with your representatives, please remember to be cordial, respectful, and polite, while of course being forceful, sincere, and honest. I realize these issues are important to us, I realize things are getting heated, but we don’t need to shout, we don’t need to scream, and we don’t need to behave like an angry mob. Leave those tactics to Acorn, because quite frankly, such tactics are beneath us. Let’s act like the adults that we are, not like the sniveling spoiled children in Washington.

I think I’m going to start some kind of new theme on this site with videos that I’ll tag as “Watch & Share”. These videos will in some way perfectly encapsulate a specific aspect of the healthcare “reform” debate and do so in an efficient, concise, and engaging way. My hope is that these videos will both educate and inspire you, so that you can then forward them to your friends and family, thereby educating as many people as possible about the true nature of the “reforms” Obama & the Democrats are currently trying to rush through Congress.

The first such video comes from VerumSerum.com, and I first heard about it thanks to the folks at No Sheeples Here (love the blog name!). It does a brilliant job of using the words of Obama himself, along with Democrat Representative Jan Schakowsky and Yale professor Dr. Jacob Hacker, to explain exactly what their proposed “public option” would really do to the health insurance market. Meaning – in their own words, mind you – it’s merely a trojan-horse system that will ultimately lead to single-payer government-run health insurance. Don’t want to take it from me? Take it from them.

Please, watch this video and share it with everyone you know. We need to find out what’s really inside this trojan horse of a plan, before we open up the doors and bring it into our lives. As every country that currently employs single-payer health coverage will tell you, it’s nearly impossible to get rid of once it’s implemented. Yeah, you heard me right: nearly every nation with a single-payer government-run system has – and still is – trying to get rid of it, but to no avail. Yup, even Sweden & the UK! The last time I was in the UK there was a huge effort in Parliament to get rid of the National Health Service. But of course, it failed, since the NHS is the largest employer in the nation, and as such, provides a massive voting bloc.
Do we really want to let this trojan horse into our lives without really understanding the true intentions behind it? Listen to the words of the Democrats themselves, the words they uttered when they thought only their allies were listening. Only then will you be able to hear their true intentions, and only then will you understand precisely what they mean by “reform”.

Please keep an eye out for future ‘Watch & Share’ videos. I’ll post them here, on Twitter, and I’ll add them to a special ‘Watch & Share’ playlist on my YouTube account. And of course, if you’d like to recommend any videos, please feel free to post a comment on the blog or email them to me at NoWayNObama AT gmail DOT com (just replace the “AT” and the “DOT” with the appropriate symbol and punctuation, thanks!)
Rest assured, we can still stop the government from taking over our right to make our own healthcare decisions. We’ve delivered crushing blows to the Democrats’ attempts already, by forcing them to delay votes past the August recess. But the fight is far from over. There’s still so much to do and there are still so many people left to educate, we simply can’t stop now.

I want to marry this man and have his cute little cartoony babies!

That cartoon is by the brilliant Michael Ramirez, the editorial cartoonist from Investor’s Business Daily. I’ve been a huge fan of his for a while, but now, I just absolutely love him! I’ve never seen anyone summarize this harsh truth about the uninsured as brilliantly as he has!
A post is forthcoming on this very issue, following a bizarre encounter I had with a nurse at a recent trip to the doctor’s office. But I just couldn’t wait to post this as soon as I saw it. Please, forward this comic to everyone you know. More people deserve to know the truth about just how many people are uninsured in this country, but most importantly, just how many of those individuals are uninsured by choice.
If you’d like even more information about this issue, check out this previous blog entry, where I covered this exact topic.
Seriously, Mr. Ramirez, fantastic job!

As if there were still any doubts about the Democrats’ true intentions regarding their healthcare “reform”, I’ve found yet another article that clearly outlines a few nuggets of truth hidden throughout the latest healthcare bill to come out of Congress.

This time the article is from the NY Post of all places. They’ve discovered that – besides outlawing personal private health insurance policies – there will be an entirely new government agency whose sole purpose is to evaluate every single health insurance company and the policies they provide. This agency will then select certain specific policies which will meet some sort of arbitrary set of guidelines (and who knows what those are); these bureaucrat-approved policies will then be called “qualified plans”.

The kicker is, if you or your employer don’t select one of these government-approved qualified plans, you’ll be fined thousands of dollars via the IRS and then automatically enrolled in a randomly selected plan against your will. So in other words, even though you’ll have the freedom to pay through the nose for a private health insurance plan, whose cost will skyrocket, you won’t have the freedom to choose a plan that fits your own needs. No, silly mindless puny human, obviously a government bureaucrat knows far more about what you need than you do! How could you be so naive…

Yet again, this flies in the face of Obama’s campaign promise that “if you like your health plan, you can keep it,” even after he reforms our healthcare system. Yeah, well, what if I happen to like my current plan but a government bureaucrat isn’t as fond of it as I am? I guess then Obama’s promise won’t mean squat. But hey, maybe there was fine print hidden at the end of his teleprompter that we just couldn’t see.

In all honestly, I’m absolutely thrilled with my health insurance, just like 87% of Americans who are very satisfied with theirs as well. Through my Father’s job, my family has a plan with Anthem/Blue Cross Blue Shield. They’ve been absolutely wonderful, even when dealing with my rather obscure and difficult to treat disease. Compared to the treatment my friends with the same disease get from their socialized medical systems in the UK, Canada, & Australia – i.e. no care at all – I think I’m much better off under the current system than I would be under ObamaCare’s medical dictatorship.
To give you some idea of the quality of my care, I have three nurse case managers, one with my Dad’s company and two with Anthem, all of whom help to track and coordinate my care so that I can get the most out of my coverage. They’ve never disputed anything that I’ve had done, and believe me, I’ve had a LOT done. My medical bills just for the past couple years have added up into the millions. Hell, a few years ago when I desperately needed five rounds of high volume liposuction to keep the disease from killing me by age 22, Anthem actually paid for all of it, even though they’d never before in the history of the company ever encountered medically necessary liposuction, let alone paid for it in full. And that’s just a small sample of the great working relationship I’ve had with Anthem – I could go on and on about all that they’ve done for me and my doctors.
So all in all, I adore my health insurance company. I love them to pieces. In fact, if it weren’t for their help, I’d be dead by now. I’d damn well like to keep Anthem as my health insurance provider. But if Obama and the Democrats have their way? Well, their good track record of taking care of me won’t matter anymore – it’ll be up to some no-name in a suit who has never met me, sitting behind a government desk, whether or not I’ll get to keep paying this company for their wonderful services. That hardly seems fair, that hardly seems free, and that hardly seems to be in keeping with everything Obama and his fellow Democrats have been saying about their true incentives for passing their healthcare “reforms”.

You know, as I was reading that NY Post article, I couldn’t help but think of something. If their healthcare plan is going to cost us a whopping $1 trillion dollars in the first year alone, only to go up by the trillions from there, couldn’t we use that money in a more effective way, without stripping those of us who have health insurance away from our current coverage?
I actually came up with an idea that I’d find more palatable, but still as radically comparable to Obama’s proposed reforms. As I’ve already explained, despite everyone claiming there are 40 million Americans uninsured in this country, the truth is the actual figure is closer to roughly 12 million or so, once you discount illegal aliens, citizens making more than $50k a year, and those who already qualify for existing government programs. How about we take that $1 trillion dollars from the first year of the Democrats’ proposed reforms and instead split that up amongst the 12 million uninsured? We could give them some sort of government coupon that would only be applicable toward purchasing health insurance, that way they couldn’t go and blow it on big screen TVs and exotic vacations. If we did that, each and every one of those 12 million uninsured Americans would receive $83,333. Don’t you think that’d buy one hell of an insurance plan? Hell, even if there really were 40 million uninsured American citizens, they’d still get a whopping $25,000!! That’d definitely be one way that Obama could actually fulfill his campaign promise of ensuring that those who are already insured won’t lose their coverage, yet we’d still be able to get the uninsured covered without creating another massive, bloated government bureaucracy whose sole purpose in existence is to siphon off our freedoms.
Oh, and it’d also help with Obama’s unnamed – yet painfully obvious – goal of drastically expanding our deficit. Hooray.

Whaddya say, Obama? Or gee, is getting people insured not your real incentive here at all? Cause honestly, my idea’s sounding a heckuva lot more appealing right now than yours is.