Canada Considering Healthcare Overhaul With Private Insurance

As President Obama and his Democrat-controlled Congress try to force healthcare reform on an American population largely pleased with the current system, our neighbors to the north are actually considering improving their structure by -- wait for it!!! -- welcoming additional competition from private insurers.I kid you not.Within hours of the Obama administration saying that it might consider a…
Noel Sheppard

Surgeons Rebuke Obama's $50k Per Amputation Claim, Media Mum

At Tuesday's healthcare town hall meeting in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, President Obama disgustingly said the following (video embedded right):[L]et's take the example of something like diabetes, one of --- a disease that's skyrocketing, partly because of obesity, partly because it's not treated as effectively as it could be. Right now if we paid a family -- if a family care physician works with…
Noel Sheppard

ABC: Free Clinic ‘Vivid Demonstration of Health Care Crisis,’ ABC

On Saturday, ABC’s World News Saturday and the NBC Nightly News each ran a story touting the high number of patients arriving at a free clinic in Los Angeles, operated by Remote Area Medical, as evidence of the need for health care reform. For the NBC Nightly News, it was the third such story on the facility of the week.While ABC’s World News with Charles Gibson had run one story on Friday that…
Brad Wilmouth

Are You, Or Have You Ever Been, A Member Of The Tea Party Coalition

Somewhere, Joe McCarthy is smiling . . . On today's Meet The Press, Rachel Maddow demanded to know whether Dick Armey was a member of a coalition with the Tea Party Patriots, a group she alleges to promote "violence."  Moderator David Gregory joined in the cross-examination of Armey, head of Freedom Works.
Mark Finkelstein

AP: Obama Never Made Public Option 'A Deal Breaker

In today's article titled "White House appears ready to drop 'public option,'" the Associated Press reports the Obama administration is signaling it's prepared to drop the option of government-run insurance as a component of ObamaCare.  The piece states in part:Obama had sought the government to run a health insurance organization to help cover the nation's almost 50 million uninsured, but he…
Mike Bates

NYT Shocker: 'Health Debate Fails to Ignite Obama’s Grass Roots

Here's a headline I bet you never expected to see at the New York Times: "Health Debate Fails to Ignite Obama’s Grass Roots."Go inside the piece published Saturday, and you'll find even more surprises (h/t James Pinkerton): Mr. Obama engendered such passion last year that his allies believed they were on the verge of creating a movement that could be mobilized again. But if a week’s worth of…
Noel Sheppard

WaPo Writer Disgusted by Town Hall Protesters 'Lack of Fashion

You know what the real problem is with the town hall protesters according to writer Robin Givhan of the Washington Post? It's not so much their ideas, about which she writes almost nothing. What really irks Givhan is what she considers their lousy sense of fashion which she criticizes harshly in her "On Culture" article. Givhan starts out dripping with disdain on the subject of town hall…
P.J. Gladnick

Open Thread

NB Staff

Dowd: Palin Sees Obama As 'Human Prey' She Seeks To Shoot

Nothing like a presidential assassination metaphor to spice up an otherwise insipid Sunday column . . . Churning out yet another anti-Sarah screed, Dowd descended to this today [emphasis added]: "At the moment, what she wants to do is tap into her visceral talent for aerial-shooting her favorite human prey: cerebral Ivy League Democrats.Just as she was able to stir up the mob against Barack Obama…
Mark Finkelstein

Mea Culpa: NY Times Corrects the Record for Calling Washington Times

If you haven't noticed, a lot of media outlets have gotten worked up into a tizzy over the mere mention of death panels. The New York Times got so worked up, it went after a few conservatives outlets by name in its Aug. 13 issue. "But the rumor [that Obama's health care proposal would create death panels] - which has come up at Congressional town-hall-style meetings this week in spite of an…
Jeff Poor

Florida TV Frets Over Obama Joker Posters in Orlando Suburb

Some Obama Joker posters have shown up in an Orlando, Florida, suburb, and a local television station isn't happy about it.To be fair, some have been placed on federal and private property such as public garbage cans and mail boxes potentially constituting vandalism.However, a teenager has already admitted putting up some of the posters, and reports suggest kids are responsible for the remainder.…
Noel Sheppard

CBS Frets Obama Won’t Be Tough Enough on Drug Companies

On Monday’s CBS Evening News, correspondent Sharyl Attkisson filed a report focusing on worries that President Obama will not go far enough to challenge drug companies, which she believed may “jeopardize support among Democrats and the public.” Anchor Katie Couric introduced the report as she suggested that Obama, who repeatedly promised during the campaign that all negotiations would be public…
Brad Wilmouth

UN Sec-Gen Ban Ki-moon Goes Batty Over Climate Change, Upcoming Confer

Readers are advised to make peace with the Maker soon. If we are to believe the recent utterings of United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (pictured at right), humanity -- or at least humanity living life as we know it -- is not long for this earth. The Sec-Gen's August 11 speech at the Global Economic Forum in Incheon, South Korea, was so over the top that it's likely the world's media…
Tom Blumer

Obama: TV Misreporting What's Happening At Town Hall Meetings

The man who has received more favorable press coverage than likely any political candidate or President in history struck back at television news outlets Friday for focusing attention on town hall meeting protesters.Imagine the nerve of these Obama-loving media members daring to broadcast some dissent in the population despite their absurd contention it's all being manufactured by conservative…
Noel Sheppard