Thursday, June 20, 2013

Are the Cracks Finally Showing?

It would certainly seem so. I was originally going to post about the resignation of Jim Allen over racially charged remarks he made about rival GOP candidate Erika Harold in an email, but this recent post by Hot Air's Erika Johnson  caught my eye, and I was eager to see some evidence about Obama and his cronies' grand House of Cards imploding, so here it is.

According to the above link, it would appear that young,  healthy Americans aren't all that keen on signing up for the Affordable Care Act, and that's making folks just a bit nervous. The damning details:

 photo Screenshot2013-06-20at111119AM_zps9e6f178e.png

Look at the breakdown of the above chart. 65 percent of those surveyed between the ages of 18-25 are worried about paying medical bills for a serious accident, yet a quarter of that group, and  a quarter of those between 26-30 (that's 50 percent of the entire survey, for those of you that need the comparison) are saying that they're  healthy enough not to need any insurance in the first place. If that is indeed  the case, and this is a microcosm of young people's opinions throughout the country, that does not bode well  for the vaunted saviors of the United States. Indeed, Erika makes the point her self by citing the following paragraph:

Total numbers that include both insured and uninsured aren’t nearly as useful as breakdowns that separate these two groups. And these numbers are much less encouraging. True, 76 percent of all insured ages 18-64 say that “insurance is something I need.” But 40 percent don’t think health care is worth its price, and that number should be extremely troubling to ACA advocates. Since many of the currently insured will keep their current employer-based plan, the fate of the exchanges really hangs on the decisions of the uninsured. Unless a high percentage of currently uninsured youth opt in, Obamacare will face severe, possibly fatal, problems.

Honestly, this is all turning out to be one huge gamble that it would appear is stacked against the house. If the gamble doesn't pay off and people opt out of Obamacare, they're going to see premiums skyrocket even more and even faster than they would if everyone signed up, and that will cause the whole thing to come crashing down.

I could live with that.

Racist Republican Candidate Makes the Rest of us Look Bad

In the last nine years, I've learned a lot about politics and how it affects the people of this country. I even started this blog in an attempt to be what you might call the next Carl Bernstein or Bob Woodward and uncover the next big scandal that would, if not completely, at least go a long way towards reforming the broken system that we now have in place after a century of diverting from the course originally plotted by the Founders over two hundred years ago. My efforts appear to have had at least a small impact, as I have a bit of a cult following here at Galt's Gulch which I for a time was trying to expand to more mainstream levels, a la The Other McCain, Legal Insurrection, and other such giants in the New Media. To that end, I sought out any story I could find that would expose the Left in this country for the conniving con artists they were. Often, I arrived late to the party, the big stories having been snapped up by the bigger fish in this pond we call the internet.

Yet I persevered. For five years, since Barack Obama became president, I blogged about whatever goings on I could find that I thought people would want to hear about. I covered the Tea Party rally of 9/12, I made mention of their evil twin the Coffee Party, and even brought some of my own commentary to the Kermit Gosnell story that had captivated the New Media while the Old Guard ignored anything negative about that monster in a doctor suit.

I'll admit that lately, I haven't given much time to the blog thanks to life concerns, which I'm sure at least some of my fellow bloggers understand. Pursuing a new career in court reporting, as well as trying to find a new source of income in the aftermath of being laid off has left me with little option but to put the newshound in me on the back burner while I get my own house in order.

Now, I believe, is the time to resume my watchdog duties. I've secured employment at Kohl's Department Store, and my fiance has finished her schooling. This leaves me more open to notice more that goes on in the political arena without endangering my sanity.

One of the first things I learned as a blogger was that objectivity is difficult. My fair share of posts here at the Gulch have been tinted with more than a few brushes of pro-Republican sentiment. This time, however, things are different. My time away has allowed me to put some perspective on what is going on in Washington between both parties. Most notably in the last few days, this has consisted of Marco Rubio's joining the so-called Gang of Eight and his apparent attempts to do something about our immigration problem, as well as a  new story that was brought to my attention via The Blaze regarding a somewhat racist rant from a Republican contender for political office regarding his opponent.

First, the rant:

The Blaze, as noted above, first drew my attention to this story early this morning. It would appear that they have uncovered some evidence that indicates (at least in part) why the Republican Party continues to be labeled with the "racist white guy" shtick:

There’s a battle brewing in Montgomery County, Illinois, where Republican Party chairman Jim Allen recently sent a controversial e-mail to a blogger in an effort to target Erika Harold, a former Miss America who is running for Congress.
The message, which was sent to Doug Ibendahl, an attorney who was general counsel to the Illinois GOP from 1999 through 2001, is sparking quite a bit of controversy — particularly because of Allen’s mention of minority quotas (Harold is an African American).
The e-mail overwhelmingly focuses on the notion that the former beauty queen simply isn’t conservative enough, as Allen charges that she is a RINO (Republican in Name Only). Noting that Harold is going up against Rep. Rodney Davis in the primary, the GOP chairman makes it more-than-clear that he is patently against her candidacy.
The email can be read in its entirety at the link above. Suffice for me to say, though, that this is clearly an indication that there is at least some truth to the "Republicans are racist" meme. One of my favorite highlights:
The little queen touts her abstinence and she won the crown because she got bullied in school,,,boohoo..kids are cruel, life sucks and you move on..Now, miss queen is being used like a street walker and her pimps are the DEMOCRAT PARTY and RINO REPUBLICANS…These pimps want something they can’t get,,, the seat held by a conservative REPUBLICAN  Rodney Davis and Nancy Pelosi can’t stand it..
Horror of Horrors. Allen's opponent is abstinent and a former beauty queen, therefore she is not worthy of holding political office. Another gem:
Rodney Davis will win and the love child of the D.N.C. will be back in Shitcago by May of 2014 working for some law firm that needs to meet their quota for minority hires.
This is exactly the kind of language that the Democrat party and others use to beat us with a stick every time an election rolls around. Recall Todd Akin's comments during the 2012 election. Everyone on  the left and their mother tried to tie him in with the mainstream Republican party, as well as the TEA Party as a cynical method for garnering votes against him and against then Presidential candidate Mitt Romney.
I'm not going to endorse either candidate for the seat, as I d say,on't have a dog in this particular fight. I will say, however, that anyone who rants like that in what must have been intended as a private email is not someone I tend to gravitate towards as a representative. Allow me to at least go on record as being against this sort of vitriol, whether Republican or Democrat.

Not Exactly Nelson Mandela, is She?

Well, I've tried to avoid posting about this for a while now, but it's time I weighed in on the Free Kate movement and the pending trial of admitted sex offender Kaitlyn Hunt. I don't know how apparent it is from my posts in the past, but I have a very low tolerance for those who use victimhood as a shield against the law. Kaitlyn Hunt is one such person that I have a low tolerance for, and soon it will very likely be no tolerance at all. Another thing I have no tolerance for is liars. I cannot stand to be around those  who falsify themselves. Honestly, I'm glad I haven't been doused in Gamma radiation a la Bruce Banner, otherwise I might have broken Palo Alto by now thanks to the episodes of Hulking out. Fortunately, however, that is not the case, and Palo Alto remains intact, for what it's worth.

The maestro of coverage regarding this story has been The Other McCain, who has followed it like a bloodhound follows a scent. I've read his posts, as well as those of Da Tech Guy and Viral Read, and the more I learn about this case the more I want to see her punished to the fullest extent of the law, which might happen since Hunt rejected a plea deal that would have kept her off of the Sex Offender Registry. However, this is Liberal Land, and those who would see Hunt proved innocent are insistent that, as the President once said of his own scandals, there is no "there" there.

I am more than a little inclined to agree with R.S. McCain regarding this issue, largely due to the simple yet logical argument  of "she broke the law. Period." That he brings to the table. Really, this should be an open-and-shut issue. Hunt was a  legal adult, and her "girlfriend" was not. Every state has some form of Age of Consent that is enforced there. Such is the case with Florida, their particular age of consent being 16 years of age. Admitted Sex Offender Kaitlyn Hunt's girlfriend was not sixteen, while Hunt herself was eighteen, and so the law was broken. This really should be the end of the argument, and probably would have been if not for the fact that Kaitlyn Hunt is (at least in some photos) a cute blonde.

This is, when you think about it, the bread and butter of the reason for all the media coverage afforded to Admitted Sex Offender Kaitlyn Hunt. Honestly, R.S. himself put it succinctly in this post, which is a lengthier version of the previous paragraph. The real bottom line is that the law is the law, and if it's not upheld, that way lies chaos.

That Mr. G Guy, one of my contemporaries and a reliable reblogger that I know, has a couple of articles regarding this subject, one from our mutual blogger McCain and the other from American Thinker. Read that post here.