Healthcare Townhall

Now that the House has passed the Healthcare bill, we're reliant on the Senate to block the bill to stop socialized health care. To help spread information, College Republicans are hosting a Healthcare Townhall, tomorrow, November 10th, at 6:30 in Lane 125. The meeting will feature Dr. Mariannette Miller-Meeks.

After leaving home at the age of 16, Dr. Miller-Meeks enrolled in nursing school at San Antonio Junior College. After completing two years of courses, she transferred to Texas Christian University where she earned her bachelor's degree, graduating summa cum laude. Dr. Miller-Meeks then joined the officer corps of the United States Army as a nurse at the age of 20.

Mariannette met her future husband, Curt, while stationed at Walter Reed Army Hospital. Dr. Miller-Meeks completed her Masters of Science in Education at the University of Southern California, soon before her transfer to Seoul, South Korea. After 6 years of active duty, Mariannette entered medical school at the University of Texas and graduated in the top of her class.

After completing her residency in ophthalmology at the University of Iowa, Dr. Miller-Meeks joined the faculty at the University of Michigan and was then recruited back to the University of Iowa as the first female faculty member in the department of ophthalmology. Mariannette has authored numerous articles, presented national lectures and research, was awarded the Charles Phelps Award in 1995, and has been named one of America’s best doctors several times.

Mariannette retired from the US Army Reserve in 1998 after 24 years at the rank of Lt. Colonel, after which she moved to Ottumwa, Iowa to open a private practice.
Dr. Miller-Meeks is currently the councilor for Iowa to the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO), serves as an associate examiner for the American Board of Ophthalmology, and was inaugurated as the first female president of the Iowa Medical Society in 2006.

Join us in fighting for our freedom this freedom week!

The IgNobel Peace Prize

Yesterday morning we learned that Pres. Obama will receive the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize.

If this leaves you scratching your head, it gets worse. The deadline for nomination was less than two weeks after he took office.

You may wonder whether Obama has done anything to deserve this award. But according to the Nobel committee chairman, Obama won because of his efforts, not because of the results.

This is patently absurd. You don’t get a paycheck because of the work you might do, you get it for the work you did do. Professors don’t hand out grades for the papers their students might write, but for the ones they did write. Using the Peace Prize as an incentive devalues the award and shows that it's nothing but an ideological beauty contest.

However, through this Obama has finally said one thing I agree with. He does not believe he is worthy to be in the company of the people who have won the prize before him.

You’re right about that, Barry. You’re right about that.

Pay Attention to ME!

I'm not sure how popular the Sunday morning news programs are with the Hillsdale crowd, but this morning, President Obama appeared on 5 of them, both to promote his health care bill and to reprimand the MSM for their bias towards rude people. Apparently it's upsetting to the President that so much coverage is going to Joe Wilson, and his health care bill is being overlooked.

I know the President is pretty busy, but maybe he should take a second to read the 1st Amendment. Freedom of speech and freedom of the press are right there. Just because he "occup[ies] a pretty special seat at the moment", doesn't mean that he can control the press coverage. That's not the way it works in a democracy. And that's what we're aiming for, right?

The Blame Game

Since it's been almost 6 months since he's caused a controversy, I assume former-President Jimmy Carter chose to jump in to defend President Obama from Rep. Joe Wilson, so as to give the American people a reminder that Carter is in fact, still kicking. The trick he is using? The race card. Calling someone a liar is now considered a racial slur. The idea that you might actually believe the other person is lying? Completely beside the point.

Fortunately, several people in Washington, seem to be siding with the saner side of logic and are able to recall all the times when other past presidents have been called liars, without their race being called into question.

Is Carter so unsure of the agenda of his own party that he has to resort to false labels to demonize his opponents?

Name Calling

It seems like a few people in Washington have gotten into the habit of name calling. Last week we had Representative Joe Wilson yelling 'You lie!' during President Obama's address to the nation on health care reform, and more recently President Obama called Kayne West a 'jackass' in an off-the-record moment during an interview with CNBC.

True, there are several differences in the way these two men expressed themselves. One did so in front of the nation, breaking rules of decorum, while the other spoke in what he thought would be a private conversation. While some have expressed disgust at the name calling, I applaud these men for having the courage to stand up and speak the truth. There may be more polite ways of saying what, they did, but at least President Obama is finally living up to his campaign promise of bringing more transparency to Washington, by saying what he feels.

Cash for Clunkers Headed for the Junkyard

If you haven’t traded in your gas-guzzling SUV for one of those motorized roller skates under Obama’s Cash for Clunkers program, you have a little more than 3 hours left to do so. As of 8:00 tonight, the program will go bankrupt after just a few short months.

Cash for Clunkers went bankrupt in one summer. And Obama expects us to believe he can implement a health care system that will cover every human being in the country, womb to tomb, cost a heck of a lot more than Cash for Clunkers, and it won’t run out of money?

I don’t know which is worse—that Obama believes it or he thinks we’re dumb enough to believe it.

Pay Czar

I would like to go on record as saying I'm not to fond of this Pay Czar idea. Not only will have authority to oversea compensation for companies who accepted TARP money, but he may also be able to control executive pay levels for other domestic companies. The job decription is still a little fuzzy, but he told ABC News that "My goal is to reach out to these seven companies and meet with them and work out an acceptable compensation program -- acceptable to the business community, acceptable to the administration, and hopefully acceptable to Congress and the public. It's a challenge, but I think it's do-able."

I'm still left wondering why we're worried about whether or not the administration is happy with compensation levels in the free-market. The idea that we're now paying somebody, presumably with our tax dollars, to tell companies how much they can pay their employees seems unproductive, and scarily Big Brother. And I know he has requested not to be called a Pay Czar. But his actual title, Special Master of Compensation, doesn't exactly calm my fears.

Are We Really Volunteering If We're Getting Paid?

After President Obama realized that mandating volunteer requirements for all college students would constitute as slavery, he turned to a new avenue to encourage community service from Americans. Today he signed a new law that increases government education subsidies to Americorps, a service organization began in 1993 under President Clinton. According to the Americorps website, people who 'volunteer' through Americorps receive $4,725 to pay for education expenses. With this new law, more of your tax dollars will be given as payment to people who volunteer. Explain to me how this protects my life, liberty, or property?

Gifts

Has anyone else noticed the frequency of which international gift giving has come up in the last couple of months? So far, we've given Russia a plastic 'redo' button, that actually had the wrong inscription on it, we've returned a bust of Winston Churchill to England, because President Obama wanted to put a Lincoln bust there instead, and we've given the Queen of England an iPod. Most recently, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez gave President Obama a book entitled, Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent. This book blames the United States for unjust actions in Latin American countries, yet according to Fox News, President Obama said, "it was a nice gesture".

Obviously gift giving is small compared to issues like the President's polices on the Iraq and Afghanistan, but if we can't get the small stuff like, like protocol, is there much hope that we'll be able to maintain successful foreign relationships?