Rep. Eshoo's Health Care Town Hall

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Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-CA) held her first (non-telephone) health care town hall meeting in the full-to-capacity Spangenberg auditorium at Gunn High School in Palo Alto, CA, tonight:When I was present, there were no live questions from the audience. All questions were submitted in writing, screened, and read by Rep. Eshoo. Maybe it was just an off-day for her, but it seemed to me that she had a hard time stringing words into sentences, let alone combining sentences into coherent thoughts. Frequently, she would pick a question to read, then read it to the audience, then decide that she had answered it previously, then tell the audience that she was going to skip that question, and then start reading the next question. That she is one of this country's leaders is frightening.

In the picture above, you see that the audience has no signs. The staff required that all signs be parked by the front door here:
Outside there was a crowd of dedicated pro-freedom protesters:

They did not want Obama messing with our health care:
One man, who had lived in a country with socialist medicine, had a very compelling story of why he believes that free choice in medicine is important:

Obamacare does seem to inspire graveyard humor as in the left-hand sign below:
and in this one:
You may remember that the August 14 San Francisco rally had a large version of the shovel-ready graveyard graphic (click and scroll down).

News out of England today shows that the undertaker line is not a joke: In the UK, the government "forecasts" that patients are close to death and then kills them.

Even if the government could make competent health care decisions, there is still the problem of government debt:
Having wasted an amazing $800 billion dollars this year on the "stimulus" pork-barrel bill, Obama now wants to nationalize health care. Where does he think money comes from? Another protester had the answer: in national health care systems, the "savings" always come from rationing care:
The pro-freedom protesters stayed on well past dark:
Unfortunately, I don't think that Rep. Eshoo was listening.

PREVIOUSLY:
Rep. Speier's August 23 town hall meeting
August 14 San Francisco health care tea party rally
The tax day tea party in San Francisco
The Canadian health care collapse
Opponents of government-run health care are racist!

Congress has lowest favorable rating in decades

The Pew Center reports:

Americans are extremely displeased with Congress, and there are already some signs that this could take a toll on the Democrats in the 2010 midterm elections. Currently, 37% express a favorable opinion of Congress, while 52% hold an unfavorable view. Positive opinions of Congress have declined by 13 points since April and are now at one of their lowest points in more than two decades of Pew Research Center surveys.

If the Republican party was competent, they could take advantage of this.

The Pew survey was conducted August 20-27 and contacted 2,003 adults in English and Spanish on landlines and cell phones.

Physicians sue over White House's enemies list

Association of American Physicians and Surgeons found itself the target of a hate-mail campaign after the White House asked supporters to report on even mere "casual conversations" Obamacare dissenters.  As US News reports, they have decided to sue:

In a complaint filed Thursday in U.S. District Court, the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons and the Coalition for Urban Renewal and Education said the White House had attempted to "unlawfully" collect information on protected political speech when it asked Obamacare supporters to report any negative comments about the proposal to a U.S. government
email address, flag@whitehouse.gov.

The specific effort, which was launched on August 4 as part of the White House's "rapid response" Health Insurance Reform Reality Check, was quickly abandoned after members of Congress raised questions about it. Nevertheless, say the two groups filing suit, the information collection effort continues under another name and is part of an "unlawful pattern and practice to collect and maintain information" on the exercise of free speech, which "continues in violation of the Privacy Act and First Amendment even if the Defendants terminate a particular information-collection component due to negative publicity."

"My hate mail started shortly after the White House issued the 'fishy' request," said Kathryn Serkes, AAPS' Director of Policy and Public Affairs. "We were quite visible and vocal before then, so it doesn't seem like a coincidence. Who did they share their data with? With whom might they share it?"

They are suing because, according to their complaint (PDF), the Privacy Act prohibits the government from collecting information on how individuals exercise their first amendment rights

Outside of "authorized law enforcement activities," the Privacy Act prohibits agencies (including EOP) from maintaining records describing how any individual exercises rights guaranteed by the First Amendment unless expressly authorized by statute or by the relevant individual(s). 5 U.S.C. §552a(e)(7).

We live in interesting times.

Hat tip: The Clue Meter

"White anger fueling health care debate"

Is the health care about individual choice vs. one-size-fits-all government-mandated solutions? Is it about free-market vs. statist solutions? Not according to the San Mercury News where two "unbiased" reporters, Mike Swift and Josh Richman, have decided that it is all about racism:

From the article text:

Many say the tempest over health care has its origin in the new administration's breathtaking pace of change and in the long-term social and demographic trends that helped put the nation's first African-American president in the White House.

So, on the authority of "many say," the reporters claim that the debate is all about the president's skin pigmentation.

Nationwide, there have been other signs of the Angry White Man phenomenon. The numbers of racial hate groups and anti-government citizen militias are surging. Guns sales appear to be climbing. Complaints of racial discrimination in much of the Bay Area and across the country are running higher than they have in at least a decade.

The election of an African-American president "has racialized the anti-government debate," said Heidi Beirich, director of research for the Southern Poverty Law Center, which issued the hate group report. [emph. added]

Without actually citing any evidence, the Mercury News skillfully promulgates the claim that free market supporters are associated with racial hate crimes.

If you remember that the public opposed socialized health care when Bill Clinton offered it, it is clear that opposition to government-run healthcare has nothing to do with the president's skin pigmentation. )But then, that information would not fit in with the Mercury News' obvious agenda.) Saul Alinsky said to personalize and polarize a debate, and this article shows that the San Jose Mercury News is doing its part.

The Contra Costa Times has also printed Swift and Richman's ugly tirade.

UPDATE: As I typed this, the Contra Costa Times re-worded its headline. Here is a google search showing their original "white anger" headline:

Rep. Speier's town hall meeting

Rep. Jackie Speier held a health care townhall meeting today, August 23, in Montara, a small town on the foggy California coast:
Notice the blue pre-printed "thank you" signs. These were carried by Democrats to indicate their spontaneous support for Obamacare.

The news media, both TV (below) and print reporters (not shown) were there:

It is curious that they found this event news worthy after they ignored many much larger tea party protests.

The event was held at an elementary school. You can tell that by one-world-one-ocean mural that Rep. Jackie Speier is standing in front of:

Schools don't have time to teach reading or writing but, apparently, they have plenty of time for environmental propaganda such as this mural.

There were many questions and they came from a mix of supporters and skeptics. One questioner pointed out all government programs that were bankrupt or in deep debt. Rep. Speier countered that medicare was working well so far and wasn't scheduled to be bankrupt until 2017.

The LaRouche Democrats were there, as evidenced by the Obama-with-Hitler-mustache poster:

Later, one of the LaRouchians walked through the crowd with the Hitler mustache picture creating some minor disturbances. The news media followed him around.

Despite having been out-organized, there were free-market supporters in the crowd:


The signs were clear and to the point, such as these two:


and this one:
This one appeared worse for the weather but still made its point:


This one is simply emphatic:

This one explained how the economy works in government-run systems:


More information on this and future events can be found at We The People.

RELATED:
Last week's San Francisco health care tea party rally
The tax day tea party in San Francisco
The Canadian health care collapse
Opponents of government-run health care are racist!

Faking the news, II

CNN Fails to Report Woman Comparing Obama to Hitler is a Lyndon LaRouche Democrat

Another pro-Obamacare doctor exposed as a fake.

MSNBC claims that "white people [are] showing up with guns" at Obama rallies and alleges racism. Actually, it was just one person and that person was black but MSNBC carefully cropped the video so their viewers wouldn't know that the race-angle that they added to the story was a fraud. More on this at RightVoices and HotAir.

For Dems, politics is personal

Howard Dean was interviewed on the Stephanie Miller show:

STEPHANIE MILLER (1:29): I saw you (Howard Dean) on Keith Olbermann last night. You really do believe we’re going to have a public option.

HOWARD DEAN: At the end of the day, I think we will. First of all, the president is a very smart guy and he knows very well this can’t work without a public option. Secondly, you know he’s run into a rough patch in the Senate, mostly because of Democrats, honestly.

The Republicans, they have no interest in this Bill. They’re using the 1994 playbook. Let’s kill the bill and kill the president...... or, kill the president’s term. Although there are sort of angry people out there I get very nervous about this stuff. I don’t like it at all.

The possibility that Republicans might merely consider the postalizing of health care to be a bad idea is not worth considering: it must be about attacking the president.

The future of health care under Obama

In Vancourver, Canadians are considering making their already long waiting lines for medical care even longer:

According to the leaked document, Vancouver Coastal — which oversees the budget for Vancouver General and St. Paul’s hospitals, among other health-care facilities — is looking to close nearly a quarter of its operating rooms starting in September and to cut 6,250 surgeries, including 24 per cent of cases scheduled from September to March and 10 per cent of all medically necessary elective procedures this fiscal year.

The plan proposes cutbacks to neurosurgery, ophthalmology, vascular surgery, and 11 other specialized areas.

The president of the Canadian Medical Association is aware of the problem:

The incoming president of the Canadian Medical Association says this country's health-care system is sick and doctors need to develop a plan to cure it.

Dr. Anne Doig says patients are getting less than optimal care and she adds that physicians from across the country - who will gather in Saskatoon on Sunday for their annual meeting - recognize that changes must be made.

"We all agree that the system is imploding, we all agree that things are more precarious than perhaps Canadians realize," Doing said in an interview with The Canadian Press. [emph. added]

UK health care is also in crisis:

Instead of improving access to NHS dentistry the reforms have made it worse, the report by the House of Commons Health Select Committee found.

The number of dentists working in the health service has fallen, the number of NHS treatments carried out has dropped and in many areas patients are still experiencing severe difficulties in finding a dentist to treat them.

Worryingly, complex treatments carried out on the NHS have dropped by half while both referrals to hospital and tooth extractions have increased.

This suggests dentists are simply removing teeth rather than taking on complicated treatments because they have become uneconomical to provide. [emph. added]

Of course, no such problems would happen in the US system because it would be run by the smartest leader in the world: Pres. Obama.

Hat tips to Shout First, Threedonia, Webloggin

RELATED on the subject of socialized medicine:
Statistics documenting the Canadian health care collapse
Obama explains why health care should be denied to seniors
VP Biden offers medical advice
"The Post Office, with scalpels"
Dems oppose affordable medicine
Socialized medicine in Japan: Baby dies after 8 hospitals refuse to admit mother

The Republican Problem

From a comment posted by Kyle Bennett:

The Republicans elites are to the Tea Parties and health-care protest movement what a dog is to a car he is chasing. He has no idea where it's going, and if he caught it, he'd have no idea what to do with it. And the people in the car would just laugh - if they didn't run it over because they didn't even notice it was there.But yes, the dog is trying very hard.

The Republican party elites/insiders thought it was a good idea to nominate John McCain last year just as they rooted for the similarly incoherent Bob Dole twelve years earlier.  Twenty-nine years ago, they were sure that Reagan was an extremist who would lose.  The party has been like a lost dog for as long as I can remember.

Hat tip: The Clue Meter

San Franciscans speak to Nancy Pelosi

Of course Speaker Pelosi was not listening, but a large crowd gathered anyway today in her district, San Francisco, to talk about health care and I snapped a few photos:
The building in the background, on the other side of the Embarcadero, is the San Francisco Ferry Building.

Many participants had a laugh at the media:


I saw no MSM reporters at this event. They were probably too busy listening to Dem flacks explain how violent we are. San Francisco did send police to this event but, as you can see, the "violence" did not keep them busy:

Some signs offered simple, practical, and sensible advice to the powers that be:

Others tried to explain basic economics:

Another explains that health care (and much else) becomes more affordable if only the government would keep its mits off our money:

But then others saw the graveyard humor in it all:

When Obama speaks, we conservative/libertarians listen. Here one man expresses his discontent with Obama's preference for Postal Service-style health care:

Another protester was impressed with Obama's plan to defeat medical innovation and entrepreneurship at the same time that he sends grandma home with a painkiller instead of medical treatment:

While Obama, Pelosi, and Reid may think of themselves as brilliant and altruistic, we don't:

In summary:

This event was organized by SF Bay Area Patriots. This event could not have been held at a town hall meeting because, reportedly, none of the representatives in this area will allow citizens into a town hall unless they have been pre-screened by the Democratic party.

RELATED: My photos of the Tax Day Tea Party in San Francisco are here.

UPDATE: Michelle Malkin has video. Thanks, Glenn, for the Instapundit link. GayPatriot has more photos.

The art of political debate

Nate Beeler explains modern political debate:

Soon Speaker Pelosi will be managing your health care

A cartoon by Scott Stantis.

Global warming as a mental disease

Sen. Debbie Stabenow explains her view on climate change:

"Climate change is very real. I feel it when I'm flying. The storms are more volatile. Global warming creates volatility. We are paying the price in more hurricanes and tornadoes." [emph. added]

For more on hurricane trends, see WUWT.

RELATED: Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-CA) believes that "global warming" has been causing California wildfires. How it would do this despite the fact that this summer has been exceptionally cold, she didn't explain. It would be more reasonable to say that Democrats cause wildfires. Cool weather in the Pacific ocean may also be to blame.

Free market supporters are like the KKK?

Rep. Dingell explains how health-care protesters remind him of the Ku Klux Klan:

Hat tip: Jim Treacher.

Faking the news

A man carrying an Obama-with-Hitler-mustache poster at a health-care protest was later seen, according to witnesses, handing out pro-Obama flyers for Rep. Dingell (D-MI). The Obama-with-Hitler-mustache posters have also been traced back the Lyndon LaRouche organization which reportedly supports single-payer health-care.

At his recent townhall meeting, Pres. Obama said “I don’t want people saying I just have a bunch of plants in here.” So, of course, we were surprised when a supportive questioner is unmasked as a plant.

Pres Obama accuses his opponents of being astroturf yet his "supporters" are the ones who arrive by bus.

Before becoming president, Mr. Obama was a consistent supporter of single-payer health-care. Now that that position is inconvenient, anyone who quotes his words is "lying."

For eight years, Democrats talked about the supposed loss of liberty under Pres. Bush. Pres. Bush, however, never asked citizens to inform on the political views of acquaintances that they may learn about through "casual conversation."

Will the "unbiased" media notice?

UPDATE: Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee's town hall meeting features support from fake primary-care physician. (DrSanity discusses the psychology of such imposters.)

UPDATE II: Patterico identifies a second plant at the Rep. Lee's "town hall" meeting.

Ignorance at McClatchy Newspapers

Reporting for McClatchy Newspapers, David Goldstein writes:

Around the country, the debate over overhauling the nation’s health care system has grown increasingly bitter and divisive.

From Connecticut to California, angry demonstrators opposed to health care reform have disrupted town hall meetings held by congressional Democrats. They attack lawmakers for backing a “socialist agenda,” shout questions without waiting for answers and repeat misinformation as fact, in some cases even accusing Democrats of favoring mandatory euthanasia for senior citizens. [Emph. added]

Actually, as anyone who follows the news would know, that is not "misinformation." Pres. Obama explicitly discussed cutting off health care for the elderly ("Maybe this isn't going to help. Maybe you're better off not having the surgery, but taking the painkiller') as a cost-saving measure in his June 24, 2009 national press conference. The video is here and this blog previously discussed it here.

On the other hand, if one distinguishes between passively denying care to the elderly, as Obama suggested, and actively committing euthenasia, then Goldstein's quote is even more fishy: it sounds like something the Democrats made up.

Life in Obama's favorite Islamic state

The Jerusalem Post reports on Iran:

Seven lawyers in Tabriz and Mashhad who had been representing young Iranians detained in post-presidential election protests have been killed by the Iranian authorities in recent days, according to sources in Iran.

Their deaths have deterred other lawyers from taking detainees' cases, they added.

To be fair, just because those lawyers failed in their negotiations does not mean that Pres. Obama will fail with his.

Hat tip: BotW

Incoherent at Salon

Salon contributor Gabriel Winant goes on the attack but gets confused even before he finishes his second sentence:

"The only people that I know who are afraid to take drug tests are the people who use drugs," says Rep. Bill Posey. The Florida Republican is the author of the so-called "Birther" bill, which would require future presidential candidates to submit their birth certificates. The fact that President Obama has already submitted -- forgive the extension of Posey's metaphor -- a clean urine sample seems to be completely irrelevant. [emphasis added]

From the first sentence, it is clear that Rep. Posey's bill is about future presidents, not Obama. So, Obama's documentation is, in fact, irrelevant to the bill. Winant continues:

The congressman told Lou Dobbs, "The eligibility of the president to serve under the Constitution has arisen five times, and Congress has failed to do anything about it thus far." Barry Goldwater was born in Arizona Territory, Posey points out. George Romney was born in Mexico. Shoot, John McCain was born in the Panama Canal Zone, and, claims Posey, the New York Times and Washington Post thought that made him ineligible. (We must have missed those editions of the Times and the Post. Posey's office has not responded to a request for comment.) [emphasis added]

Yes, Winant, you did miss those editions. All it takes is a few seconds with google to find those articles. On July 11, 2008, for example, the NY Times wrote:

In the most detailed examination yet of Senator John McCain’s eligibility to be president, a law professor at the University of Arizona has concluded that neither Mr. McCain’s birth in 1936 in the Panama Canal Zone nor the fact that his parents were American citizens is enough to satisfy the constitutional requirement that the president must be a “natural-born citizen.”

The Washington Post also covered the story quoting a professor claiming that the constitution was ambiguous on the issue:



Winant continues:

Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., tells Stark she "would like to see the documents." One wonders what's stopping her.

Mr. Winant wonders because, apparently, he is unaware that birth certificates in Hawaii are not public documents. It was this lack of official documents that caused this unnecessary controversy, a controversy that, for future presidents, Rep. Posey's bill would eliminate.

I can only suspect that the reason that Salon's Winant does not check his facts is because he prefers to be outraged. To each his own.

Obama's go-it-alone foreign policy: Russian edition

First, Sec. Clinton wanted to hit the reset button on US-Russia relations but couldn't be bothered to check the translation or even the alphabet on her reset button. Then, VP Biden insults the prideful Russians, claiming their economy is 'withering.' Now, the Russians have responded: for the first time in fifteen years, they have, as the NY Times reports, stationed nuclear-powered submarines off the US eastern seaboard:

A pair of nuclear-powered Russian attack submarines has been patrolling off the eastern seaboard of the United States in recent days, a rare mission that has raised concerns inside the Pentagon and intelligence agencies about a more assertive stance by the Russian military. ....

“I don’t think they’ve put two first-line nuclear subs off the U.S. coast in about 15 years,” said Norman Polmar, a naval historian and submarine warfare expert. ....

According to Defense Department officials, one of the Russian submarines remained in international waters on Tuesday about 200 miles off the coast of the United States.

Other interpretations of this event are found here, here and here.

PREVIOUSLY, on Obama's foreign policy:
Obama alienates Germany
Obama's charm offensive not working
Obama snubs Brazil
Obama insults Britain
On Iran's nuclear program, Obama abandons cooperation with Europe
Obama antagonizes India

RELATED: Seven months into Obama's term and the last coalition partners have pulled out of Iraq.

Never trust anyone who is

well dressed.  So says Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA).  She considers the health-care protesters to be insincere (they "plan" to "destroy" our president) because they are "well-dressed." 

CNN and birthers

Ed Morrissey asks:

What does it say about the Birther issue when Fox News covers its debunking while CNN continues to stoke the controversy?

He has a point: CNN's Lou Dobbs promotes the issue while Fox debunks it.  The possibility of a forged birth certificate was promoted last year mainly by Hillary supporters so it seems natural that its current home would be CNN.

CNN: thinking like children

Pres. Obama's proposed federal mandates have sparked a renewed discussion of the tenth amendment and states rights.  On CNN anchor John Roberts discusses the issue with correspondent Carol Costello:

ROBERTS: Now, you would think- because states’ rights advocates are so strong in their opinions that the opinions- we’ve been asking for comments, right? Therefore, you would think that most people would be in favor of states’ rights, but it’s running, to a large degree, the opposite way.

COSTELLO: Oh, yeah. But my favorite comment so far- you know, ‘asking for states’ rights is asking, you know, the children to be the parents.’

There you have it: in the mind of Correspondent Roberts, states are like "children" and the federal government is like the "parent." This makes sense to liberals because they try to understand all politics with inappropriate family analogies.

PREVIOUSLY, on liberal attempts to use inappropriate family analogies:
Soldier objects to liberal infantilization: we are not your "sons and daughters"
Seeing the US president as your father
US Government as "parent"
Economic policy by analogy to "standing up" to a bully
Thinking of an industry as an overindulged "child"

The population bomb: why it didn't explode

In 1977, John Holdren wrote a book detailing what should be done about the then trendy coming population bomb: (1) forced abortions, (2) sterilization via infertility drugs in the water supply, (3) sterilization of those who "contribute to social deterioration," and (4) the formation of a trans-national armed police to enforce these policies. A person of such extreme views should have remained on the fringes except that Pres. Obama has just appointed Holgren to be his science czar.

For the skeptical, Zombietime has the details including scans of pages from Holdren's book.

Population trends were well understood by economists even when Holgren was writing his book: populations follow an S-curve. In undeveloped societies, even though the reproduction rates are typically near the biological maximum, population is constant due to limits of the food supply. (Under such conditions, many births are needed to ensure that one of your children survives to work the farm and provide for you in your old age.) As a society begins economic development, its population grows. This is the rising part of the S-curve. Developing societies start with the same birth rate as undeveloped societies but, since more children survive due to improved health and food production, the population grows rapidly. In developed countries, even though most children survive, population levels off or even declines (this is the top of the S) because, as people move away from the farm and also come to understand that most of their children will survive, they choose to have fewer children. Those who didn't understand these dynamics, such as Paul Ehrlich and Holgren, however, imagined that population would grow forever until disaster struck and therefore extreme policies were required. One can just hope that, as 'science czar,' Holgren will have little influence on actual policies.

Michelle Malkin has more on liberal advocacy of eugenics for racial improvement.

UPDATE: Ed Driscoll points to this AP story which shows Holdren still advocating irresponsible policies, this time in the service of the "global warming" crisis:

The president's new science adviser said Wednesday that global warming is so dire, the Obama administration is discussing radical technologies to cool Earth's air.

The pain of unrequited hatred

James Taranto writes about the difficult position that liberals are in now that Sarah Palin has resigned:

Sarah Palin has deeply disappointed her enemies," writes Ann Coulter:

People who hate her guts feel she's really let them down by resigning.

She's like the ex-girlfriend they're SO over, never want to see again, have already forgotten about--really, it's O-ver--but they just can't stop talking about her.

Over at TalkingPointsMemo.com, a blogger called "Richardxx" illustrates the point:

Sarah Palin is a rather sad, empty and unimaginative person of little real long term importance. Personally she does not matter much to me. . . .

So tell me. Why should we care about the sad spectacle that Sarah Palin is making of herself? Should I add Governor Mark Sanford?

Between that opening and that closing are 7½ lovingly constructed paragraphs--995 words in all, not counting footnotes--about Sarah Palin. We never thought we'd say this, but Ann Coulter has a gift for understatement.

How much does silence cost?

In Sen. Ensign's [R-Nev] case, the $96,000 that he paid to the family of his ex-mistress was not enough.  Despite the money, the ex-mistress's husband still took his allegations public.  It has never been disclosed how much the Kennedy's paid Mary Jo Kopechne's family.

The power of the echo chamber

As the economy has collapsed (see here for some statistics), Democrats think things are getting better:

Among Democrats, the Rasmussen Consumer Index jumped from 53.7 a year ago to 79.5 in 2009.

Among Republicans, confidence was at 99.4 a year ago and it’s fallen to 68.6 today.

As for those not affiliated with either major party, there’s been little change.....

Recent polling showed that just 42% of voters give President Barack Obama good or excellent marks for handling the economy. He earns positive reviews from 75% of Democrats and 18% of Republicans.

The Rasmussen Consumer Index reached its highest level ever at 127.0 on January 6, 2004. The all-time low was reached on March 10, 2009 at 54.7.

The Rasmussen Investor Index reached its highest level ever at 150.9 on January 7, 2004. The lowest level ever measured was 52.5 on March 9, 2009.

This is a natural result of (1) since Obama's inauguration, the MSM portrays even the most disastrous economic news in a positive light, and (2) Democrats, as an act of faith, believe that the MSM tells the truth.

Racism in liberalland

A new study says that, in very liberal San Francisco, gays discriminate against blacks:

To study the influence of social and sexual mixing between racial and ethnic groups of gay men in San Francisco, [H. Fisher] Raymond and [Willi] McFarland [of the San Francisco Department of Public Health] interviewed 1,142 gay men. Fifty-six percent were white, 22% Latino, 14% Asian and 9% black. The men reported on a total of 3,532 sexual partnerships.

[B]lack gay men were the least preferred of sexual partners by other races and were believed to be riskier to have sex with, which can lead to men of other races avoiding black men as sexual partners.

Black gay men were also counted less often among friends and were perceived as less welcome at the common venues that cater to gay men in San Francisco by other gay men.

PREVIOUSLY, on the subject of racism:
 "He's not black and he can't represent me, that's just the bottom line" and
"NAACP defends racism."
Stanford finds Democrats are racist
Obama nominates a racist
Leaders acknowledge Democrat base is racist
"That's just how white folks will do you." ---Barack Obama
Dem says Dem primary voters are racist
Dems accuse Bill and Hillary of racism

Is having a big bureaucracy the same thing as food safety?

Marion Nestle is professor of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health at New York University. She also holds appointments as Professor of Sociology at NYU and Visiting Professor of Nutritional Sciences at Cornell. Apropos of the recent cookie dough recall, she writes:

What are we going to have to do to get a real food safety system in this country? By real food safety system, I mean one that requires production of all foods-- from farm to table--under science-based food safety plans (HACCP with pathogen reduction), overseen by a single federal agency that unites and rationalizes the current functions of USDA and FDA.

So "real food safety" requires putting all power in "a single federal agency" that "unites" and "rationalizes."    For liberals, the idea that a bureaucracy becomes more "rational," as opposed to, say, more political, when it becomes larger seems to be beyond question or doubt.

Obama = BusHitler!

Remember when presidential signing statements were considered bad, such as in this Boston Globe story back from August, 2006:

The American Bar Association's House of Delegates voted yesterday to call on President Bush and future presidents not to issue ``signing statements" that claim the power to bypass laws, and it urged Congress to pass legislation to help courts put a stop to the growing practice.

Or this story from January, 2008:

President Bush this week declared that he has the power to bypass four laws, including a prohibition against using federal funds to establish permanent US military bases in Iraq, that Congress passed as part of a new defense bill.

If you thought that such deviltry would stop when The Messiah became president, you were wrong.  At the Volokh Conspiracy, John Elwood reports that Pres. Obama is issuing signing statements and his statements are quite similar to Pres. Bush's.  Obama's key innovation seems to be waiting until Friday evening, when much of the press corps has left for the weekend, to issue the signing statement.

PREVIOUSLY, on the subject of "that was then, this is now":
Broadcast networks discover a new responsibility to air presidential speeches.
Saddam's connections to terror change depending on who is president.
Dems advocate 10-year effort in Iraq until they don't
Dems supported enhanced interrogation.

PREVIOUSLY, see also the general subject of hypocrisy.