J's Cafe Nette

Archive for October 12th, 2007

Tweet This Post

From The Midnight Sun with permission to publish in its entirety:

Got this from via email from a friend today. Worth reading, and quite informative.

Subject: Canada’s Health care system from a Canadians point of view.

Hey Guys; I saw on the news up here in Canada where Hillary Clinton
Introduced her new health care plan. Something similar to what we have in
Canada. I also heard that Michael Moore was raving about the health care up
Here in Canada in his latest movie. As your friend and someone who lives
With the Canada health care plan I thought I would give you some facts about
This great medical plan that we have in Canada.

First of all:

1) The health care plan in Canada is not free. We pay a premium every month
Of $96. For Shirley and I to be covered. Sounds great he. What they don’t
Tell you is how much we pay in taxes to keep the health care system afloat.
I am personally in the 55% tax bracket. Yes 55% of my earnings go to taxes.
A large portion of that and I am not sure of the exact amount goes directly
To health care our #1 expense.

2) I would not classify what we have as health care plan, it is more like a
Health diagnosis system. You can get into to see a doctor quick enough so
He can tell you “yes indeed you are sick or you need an operation” but now
The challenge becomes getting treated or operated on. We have waiting lists
Out the ying yang some as much as 2 years down the road.

3) Rather than fix what is wrong with you the usual tactic in Canada is to
Prescribe drugs. Have a pain, here is a drug to take, not what is causing
The pain and why. No time for checking you out because it is more important
To move as many patients thru as possible each hour for Government
Re-imbursement

4) Many Canadians do not have a family Doctor.

5) Don’t require emergency treatment as you may wait for hours in the
Emergency room waiting for treatment.

6) Shirley’s dad cut his hand on a power saw a few weeks back and it
Required that his hand be put in a splint – to our surprise we had to pay
$125. For a splint because it is not covered under health care plus we have
To pay $60. For each visit for him to check it out each week.

7) Shirley’s cousin was diagnosed with a heart blockage. Put on a waiting
List . Died before he could get treatment.

Government allots so many operations per year. When that is done no more
Operations, unless you go to your local newspaper and plead your case and
Embarrass the government then money suddenly appears.

9)The Government takes great pride in telling us how much more they are
Increasing the funding for health care but waiting lists never get shorter.
Government just keeps throwing money at the problem but it never goes away.
But they are good at finding new ways to tax us, but they don’t call it a
Tax anymore it is now a user fee.

10) My mother needs an operation for a blockage in her leg but because she
Is a smoker they will not do it. Despite her and my father paying into the
Health care system all these years. My Mom is 80 years of age. Now there
Is talk that maybe we should not treat fat and obese people either because
They are a drain on the health care system. Let me see now, what we want in
Canada is a health care system for healthy people only. That should reduce
Our health care costs.

11) Forget getting a second opinion, what you see is what you get.

12) I can spend what money I have left after taxes on booze, cigarettes,
Junk food and anything else that could kill me but I am not allowed by law
To spend my money on getting an operation I need because that would be
Jumping the queue. I must wait my turn except if I am a hockey player or
Athlete then I can get looked at right away. Go figger. Where else in the
World can you spend money to kill yourself but not allowed to spend money to
Get healthy.

13) Oh did I mention that immigrants are covered automatically at tax payer
Expense having never contributed a dollar to the system and pay no premiums.

14) Oh yeh we now give free needles to drug users to try and keep them
Healthy. Wouldn’t want a sickly druggie breaking into your house and
Stealing your things. But people with diabetes who pay into the health care
System have to pay for their needles because it is not covered but the
Health care system.

I send this out not looking for sympathy but as the election looms in the
States you will be hearing more and more about universal health care down
There and the advocates will be pointing to Canada. I just want to make
sure that you hear the truth about health care up here and have some food
for thought and informed questions to ask when broached with this subject.

Step wisely and don’t make the same mistakes we have.

Tweet This Post

An amazing and inspirational video.

This young man is proof that sometimes, if you face adversity head on, you can accomplish most anything.

Tweet This Post

Two weeks after my beloved cocker spaniel Silky had to be put to sleep she came home in an urn.

She’s on my dresser with her hair clipping taken from her leg the day she died and her picture beside the urn.

I have loved and lost animals many times, but this one hurts especially deep.

I keep watching for her to be at my side, whether I’m sitting at my computer, in another room or lying in my bed.

I’ve thought about getting a puppy, but it’s too soon. I would only be trying to replace Silky and that wouldn’t be fair to the puppy.

Besides, I’ll never find another dog who is as gentle as she was. She never growled at anyone or anything, and would even stand back to let the cat eat her food before she’d eat. I’d move the cat away and she’d step up to the plate to eat and share her meal with the cat.

She was a once in a lifetime dog, and I miss her terribly.

At least she’s home now.

Tweet This Post

As a Baptist this article made me chuckle because Baptists joke about committeeing everything to death.

It seems Speaker Pelosi is meeting everything to death.

For the House Republican leadership when it was in the majority, meetings were often a formality. Decisions were made at the top, and after a perfunctory debate, members were informed how they were expected to vote.

The new House majority has a different operating philosophy — one that requires more meetings. A lot more.

“We do have an enormous number,” said Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.).

“There are a lot of meetings,” agreed Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), an ally of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).

The large number of meetings says something about the kind of inclusive regime Pelosi intends to build.

It also drives staffers nuts.

One leadership aide said that Pelosi schedules meetings to talk about the agenda for the next meeting, leaving no time to get anything done. Those complaints fall on the deaf ears of members of Congress not forced to attend.

Is that called micro or macro-managing? At least we know why nothing is getting done in Congress now. Everyone knows the staff are the ones who do the leg-work for the Congresspeople and if they aren’t available to do that then…

Tweet This Post

Maine Senator Susan Collins is in for a tough re-election fight this year, made more difficult by thousands of dollars being spent on behalf of her opponent by MoveOn.org.

She tried to post an ad on Google, but was told the content was unacceptable as it violated Google’s trademark policy.

Internet giant Google has banned advertisements critical of MoveOn.org, the far-left advocacy group that caused a national uproar last month when it received preferential treatment from The New York Times for its “General Betray Us” message.

The ads banned by Google were placed by a firm working for Republican Sen. Susan Collins’ re-election campaign. Collins is seeking her third term.

Earlier this week, Google told Lance Dutson, president of Maine Coast Designs, that the ads he placed for Collins had been removed and would not be allowed to resume because they violated Google’s trademark policy.

Google’s Web site states, “Google takes allegations of trademark infringement very seriously and, as a courtesy, we’re happy to investigate matters raised by trademark owners.” That suggests Google acted in response to a complaint by MoveOn.org.

The banned advertisements said, “Susan Collins is MoveOn’s primary target. Learn how you can help” and “Help Susan Collins stand up to the MoveOn.org money machine.” The ads linked to Collins’ campaign Web site with a headline reading “MoveOn.org has made Susan Collins their #1 target.” The Collins Web site claims that MoveOn has contributed $250,000 to her likely Democratic opponent and has run nine ads against her costing nearly $1 million. The Web site also displays MoveOn.org’s controversial “General Betray Us” ad….

…Dutson said the Collins campaign’s anti-MoveOn ads were intended to raise awareness nationally of how MoveOn and left-wing blogs like Daily Kos and FireDogLake have made the moderate Maine Republican their top 2008 Senate target. The same coalition supported Ned Lamont in the 2006 Democratic Senate primary in Connecticut against Sen. Joseph Lieberman. Lieberman then went on to win re-election as an independent after defeating Lamont in the general election.

Ronald Coleman, a lawyer and leading expert on online intellectual property disputes, noted that, as a private company, Google has the right to treat different advertisers differently.

But he called Google’s removal of the Collins ads “troubling.” Coleman says that there is no such requirement under trademark law and that Google appears to be selectively enforcing its policy.

“In a recent ruling, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the notion that there is anything like a cause of action under the Lanham Act, the statue governing trademark law in the United States, for so-called ‘trademark disparagement,’ ” Coleman said. The courts have also rejected the notion that the use of a trademark as a search term is a “legally cognizable use” as a trademark use under federal trademark law, he added. Coleman is also general counsel for the Media Bloggers Association.

Google routinely permits the unauthorized use of company names such as Exxon, Wal-Mart, Cargill and Microsoft in advocacy ads. An anti-war ad currently running on Google asks “Keep Blackwater in Iraq?” and links to an article titled “Bastards at Blackwater — Should Blackwater Security be held accountable for the deaths of its employees?”

So, what’s the deal? The deal is Google is in the hip pocket of the Democratic party and will not be fair to anyone who isn’t.

Tweet This Post

As part of Sandy Berger’s slap on the wrist plea deal over his taking of National Archives documents he was ordered to take a polygraph in an effort to find out exactly what exactly he took that we didn’t know about.

As of this date he has still not taken the test and now 23 Republican Congressmen have sent a letter to the Justice Dept. asking the acting Attorney General why the test hasn’t been administered yet.

Two years after agreeing to a polygraph in a plea deal, former National Security adviser Sandy Berger still has not taken the test, prompting 23 Republican Congress members to demand action by the Department of Justice.

The aim is to determine “what documents were stolen and how our national security was compromised,” said the letter by Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., to the acting attorney general….

…The documents have never been recovered, Rohrabacher points out in the letter.

“Mr. Berger removed the documents by stuffing them down his pants and in his suit jacket, presumably with the intention of getting rid of any damning evidence showing his involvement in the failure of our intelligence and law enforcement communities to prevent Sept. 11 attacks prior to his testimony before the 9/11 Commission,” Rohrabacher writes. “The Congress and the American people deserve to know the facts of this crime and what Mr. Berger was covering up.”

In 2005, the former Clinton aide agreed, as part of the plea deal, to have the Department of Justice administer a polygraph test, but Rohrabacher notes “two years have passed and he has yet to fulfill his legal obligation.”

As WND reported in March, the White House said it was studying whether Berger would take the polygraph test.

At the time, Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., and 17 other Republican House members called on then-Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and the Department of Justice to administer the test….

…Davis, ranking Republican member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said his staff’s investigation revealed Berger “compromised national security much more than originally disclosed.”

“It is now also clear that Mr. Berger was willing to go to extraordinary lengths to compromise national security, apparently for his own convenience,” Davis said. …

…Last year, Berger plea bargained a criminal sentence on the charge of unlawfully removing and retaining classified documents. A judge gave him no prison time, a $50,000 fine, 100 hours of community service and a ban from access to classified material for three years.

The document upon which Berger focused was the National Security Council’s “Millennium After Action Review” on the Clinton administration’s handling of the al-Qaida terror threats in December 1999. Then-Attorney General John Ashcroft testified before the 9-11 commission about the millennium report, urging the panel to ask why the document’s warnings and “blueprint” to thwart al-Qaida’s plans to target the U.S. were ignored by the Clinton administration and not shared with the incoming Bush security staff.

What are they hiding, and why hasn’t the polygraph been given as agreed to? If nothing, we should know it. If secrets telling what was not done by the Clinton Administration as far as stopping terrorism goes, we deserve to know that too, since Berger is an “unofficial adviser” to Sen. Clinton’s campaign.

This stuff just never goes away.

Tweet This Post

It was both encouraging and informative to watch this video from Michael Totten.

Join me and Army Captain Phil Messer on a walking tour of Ramadi, Iraq, in a 20 minute video shot during a dismounted foot patrol in early August, 2007.

If you value to work of these embeds and their ability to relay to us honest, personal experiences from Iraq, please consider dropping even a dollar in their kitty.

Tweet This Post

Just a couple of pieces I found interesting and thought I would share:

I wonder how this father would have felt if it were his child that was affected by the actions (or lack thereof) of this daycare center.

One parent said the center’s owners gave a good explanation for Tuesday night’s mishap.

“That was just a big misunderstanding,” said Joe Thomas, whose 3-year-old daughter attends the center. “These are good people, and that was an honest mistake.”

It seems these Muslim Scholars wish for peace with Christians. On its face it sounds good, but who makes the concessions here when it comes to the peace they promote?

The Muslim scholars state: “As Muslims, we say to Christians that we are not against them and that Islam is not against them – so long as they do not wage war against Muslims on account of their religion, oppress them and drive them out of their homes.”

I don’t recall us waging war on Muslims due to their religion. At any rate, a very interesting read.

This from Breitbart:
Do you know what’s in your attic?

Harry Reid, speaking at BYU said the following among other things:

Reid also told reporters the Republican Party has been driven by evangelical Christians for 20 years. “They are the most anti-Christian people I can imagine, the people from the Christian far right.”

Hmmm.

Also:

I do not care for the extreme right wing and often insulting politics of Ann Coulter.

The Anchoress takes her to task in regard to her recent remarks in a masterful post.

And finally:

Beware. If your bank informs you a check has “cleared”, that may not be the case. An interesting and informative piece from Classical Values.

Have a terrific Friday.

Tweet This Post