Monday, August 10, 2009

Do as We Say, Not as We Do - Or Else

“I am sick and tired of people who say that if you debate and you disagree with this administration somehow you’re not patriotic. We should stand up and say we are Americans and we have a right to debate and disagree with any administration.”
--- Former Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton, on April 28, 2003 at a Democratic Party fundraising dinner in Connecticut

"....These disruptions are occurring because opponents are afraid not just of differing views — but of the facts themselves. Drowning out opposing views is simply un-American. Drowning out the facts is how we failed at this task for decades."
--- Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Democratic House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, as posted

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Be A Patriot! Be An Informer!

Thus reads a phone-number-equipped sticker that was affixed to store-bought copies of a recent concept album by Nine Inch Nails called "Year Zero". The plot, ostensibly, is a near-future sort of thing where humanity has become so religiously judgmental, paranoid and mean-spirited with each other that beings from the stars come down and proceed to kick the human race's collective fifth-point-of-contact. (Disclaimer: Politics aside, I'm a pretty big fan of Trent Reznor's music. No one else in the business does things quite the way he does. What can I say.)

Anyway...The aforementioned sticker referenced a fictional government agency called the "U.S. Board of Morality" and basically encouraged one to rat out one's fellow man if one saw or heard something unorthodox (for lack of a better term) committed or uttered by said fellow man.

Again...the phone number and referenced agency noted above are fictional.

THIS...from the White House's official website...is real.
Opponents of health insurance reform may find the truth a little inconvenient, but as our second president famously said, "facts are stubborn things."

Scary chain emails and videos are starting to percolate on the internet, breathlessly claiming, for example, to "uncover" the truth about the President’s health insurance reform positions.

In this video, Linda Douglass, the communications director for the White House’s Health Reform Office, addresses one example that makes it look like the President intends to "eliminate" private coverage, when the reality couldn’t be further from the truth.

In the video, Ms. Douglass singles out a Drudge Report link to a video which shows the One True King speaking to a chapter of AFL-CIO in 2003 and directly telling them: "I happen to be a proponent of single-payer universal health care". Direct quote from the video clip.

From there, she goes on about how opponents of His Royal Barry-ness take him out of context all the time, blah, blah, blah. Watch it yourself before it goes down the memory hole.

Let's get back to the text coming up after the video...and the real reason for being just a little more nervous about our Dear Leader's intentions (emphasis mine):
There is a lot of disinformation about health insurance reform out there, spanning from control of personal finances to end of life care. These rumors often travel just below the surface via chain emails or through casual conversation. Since we can’t keep track of all of them here at the White House, we’re asking for your help. If you get an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to flag@whitehouse.gov.

As my wife said when she pointed this out to me last night: "George Orwell is jumping up and down in his grave."

If "1984" hasn't become your default textbook by now for how this guy seems to want to nose-dive America into the ground, start reading.

There are, of course, several far-more-able bloggers than I referencing this little gem. Here's a quick list:

JammieWearingFool
Allahpundit, via Hot Air
Matters of Truth
DoublePlusUndead (See? "1984", folks.)
The Jawa Report

Read 'em while you can.