Political Class Myth Busting, Part 3: Voter ID Laws Are Not Racist, Koch Brothers Are Not Evil, and Al Qaeda is NOT On The Run

We are having a little fun over the past two days at our politicians’ expense, exploring the many myths that the politicians of this country would like us to believe. You see, if we believe the myths that they create than we are more likely to vote for them to resolve the unreal issues and problems associated with these myths. 

[Note: I thought we could finish the myth deconstruction in two posts but we will need at least today to finish up what is becoming a very interesting and apparently widespread problem, courtesy of the American political class.]

But what if what they tell is not the true reality? What if we are getting all worked up and headed in the wrong direction for a mythical problem that does not exist or for a mythical solution that resolves nothing? All it does is send us chasing our tails while the same inept politicians get reelected over and over based on nothing more than their own greed, their rigging of the election processes, and the myths that they feed us and control us with.

So starting yesterday, we are going to look behind the myth curtail and reveal what is the true reality. With that truth we may finally start resolving some of the major issues of our times. Lord knows the political class has failed miserably over the past fifty years in eradicating poverty, winning the lost war on drugs, fixing our failing public schools, securing our borders, etc. 

Maybe it is because we have allowed them to work on myths that they created and not the true problems of our age. Keep in mind the following wise words of Groucho Marx over the next few posts: “Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedies.” Sounds like myth building to me.

1) Democrats and Harry Reid in particular have been in a rage and temper tantrum recently because business people known as the Koch brothers had the nerve and audacity to legally contribute to political causes and candidates that were not democrats or Harry Reid. Reid is in such a lather that he wants to destroy the First Amendment and its free speech guarantee to punish the Koch brothers.

Wow, these must be some really evil dudes if Harry thinks it is worthwhile to destroy our freedom of speech in this country. Or is the Koch brothers evil just a political myth by the liberal wing of the political class? Are they that evil?

Probably not, and a prime piece of evidence to refute Reid’s evil Koch brother myth was a recent announcement by the United Negro College Fund (UNCF that it had recently received a $25 million grant from Koch Industries, Inc. and the Charles Koch Foundation. The partnership and $25 million will be used to provide nearly 3,000 merit-based awards to African American undergraduate, graduate, and post-doctorate students seeking scholarship assistance. 

It will also help strengthen the 37 UNCF-member Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) by helping them offset funding shortfalls from other sources.

Specifically, the major elements of the donation include:

• $18.5 million to be used to provide scholarships for exemplary students with demonstrated financial need and an interest in the study of how entrepreneurship, economics, and innovation contribute to well-being for individuals, communities, and society. Funds will also be used to provide an annual summit, mentorship opportunities, and school programs.
• $6.5 million is provided for general support to HBCUs and UNCF, with $4 million set aside for the 37 UNCF-member HBCUs and their students to provide financial relief related to the Parent PLUS loan crisis.

My gosh, Reid is right. These are evil, evil men. How dare they give tens of millions of their dollars to African American students to further their education! They must be stopped.

No, they should not be stopped exercising their First Amendment rights and their human rights to help others, regardless of the myth Harry Reid weaves so for political gain.

2) Remember the 2012 election campaign? President Barack Obama was fond of claiming that Al-Qaeda is “on the run.” Was and is that a political myth to serve a political purpose or was that reality? 

A recent data intensive study by the Rand Corporation would say that this is surely a myth and the reality is that Al-Qaeda is far from on the run. Instead, the premier terror organization and its offshoots may actually be flourishing. The Rand study quantified the following realities:

• The number of Islamic terror groups has risen 60% since 2010, a period of time that was concurrent with the Obama administration being in office, it has nothing to do with the Bush administration.
• There has been a 300% increase in terrorism attacks since 2010 according to the Rand Corporation count.
• In total, there were 950 terrorism attacks worldwide since 2010.

If you add in the resurgence of an Al Qaeda faction that now threatens to overrun Iraq, it is pretty clear the Obama’s prior to the 2012 elections that Al Qaeda was on the run was mjurely mthical in nature, probably concocted to help win an election than to face the reality of a growing threat of terror around the world.

3) Two days ago we showed that more stringent voter id laws in Georgia coincided with a substantial increase in voting by minorities. Yesterday, we discussed the fact that the same thing happened in Texas, tighter voter id laws and rules coincided with higher voting rates by minorities. 

This runs counter to myth perpetuated by the likes of Eric Holder, Barack Obama and other liberals that voter id laws are bad for the voting rights and abilities of minorities, that somehow requiring an American to prove who he or she is is somehow a terrible injustice. Thus, we had two examples and the realities and numbers to prove that this is just another political myth meant to improve political careers rather than have fair elections.

To put a third stake into the heart of this myth, consider a recent poll of 1,025 registered voters that was conducted by Anderson Robbins Research and Shaw and Company research during the second week of May, 2014:

• While over of the African Americans included in the poll supported the President on a wide range of issues (overall - 86%, economic matters - 89%, Obama Care - 83%), a majority (51%) of those African Americans also supported state level voter id laws and rules.
• This would imply that African Americans support the President on a range of issues but break away significantly from him, and the myth of voter id laws, when it comes to voter id laws, being much more accepting of them than the President.
• There was also strong majority support in this poll among every individual demographic that was surveyed, which included political affiliation, gender, race (black and white) and educational attainment. 
• Overall, 70% of those surveyed supported "state laws that require voters to show a valid form of state- or federally-issued photo identification to prove U.S. citizenship before being allowed to vote," while only 27% opposed them.

Thus, the majority of African Americans, at least in this survey, which should be representative of the general African American population, would agree that the myth that voter id laws suppress African American voting is indeed a myth. Consider what some prominent African Americans had to say about the overall myth and this survey in particular:

"Requiring identification to prove who you are at the polls just makes good sense," said Project 21's Christopher Arps of Missouri, the founder of the black conservative social network Move-on-up.org. "Voter ID laws protect the overall integrity of our electoral process and safeguard every citizen's right to cast a ballot in his or her own name."

"A majority of black Americans in this poll found nothing inherently racist about showing an ID to vote. It discredits the progressive talking point that black Americans uniformly see voter laws as racist and an attempt at voter suppression," said Project 21's Kevin Martin, a small business owner and U.S. Navy veteran. "It also shows that progressives who claim to represent the black community are not listening to us on this issue. Perhaps it is because they only seek to use our community to further their own agenda."

Project 21's Horace Cooper, a former professor of constitutional law and former leadership staff member for the U.S. House of Representatives opined: "It is critical to the notion of self-government that only lawfully registered voters participate in elections, and that is why over seven of 10 Americans support it. While Attorney General Eric Holder tries to convince the media that voter ID is somehow anti-black, even blacks disagree. The truth is that voter ID gives all Americans -- black, white, yellow and brown -- the confidence that their vote matters and it will count."

"It should come as no surprise that a majority of blacks support voter ID," said Horace Cooper. "Voter ID is a popular and commonsense tool, popular with all Americans that ensures that real bona fide Americans are casting the votes to determine who our elected officials will be and what policies they will promote."

That will do it for today. Today, we destroyed the myth that just because an American contributes to political opponents does not make them evil, as witnesses by the charitable ands generous work of the Koch brothers. We crushed the Obama myth that Al Qaeda :was on the run” with real life data from a world-renowned consulting firm. And we continued to crush the myth that voter id laws are inherently anti-minority and suppress minority voting rates.

Believe it of not, we still have a few more myths to crush. We have crushed nine so far over the past three days but need one more day to crush the last two myths, racism in America and income inequality. Again, our reason for crushing these myths is so that the country can finally put is focus and energies towards resolving real problems that face the majority of Americans rather than tripping down the mythical rabbit holes that politicians dig for us, holes that benefit their political careers but distract us from reality.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

www.loathemygovernment.com

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

Term Limits Now: http://www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com
http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w

October, 2013 Obama Care Disaster Update, Expert Opinion 3: Medical Rationing, Loss of Freedom, and Other Dreadful Consequences

Over the past week or so we have been presenting the unfolding set of disasters that Obama Care has spawned. People losing their current insurance coverage, people seeing double or triple digit percent increases in their insurance costs, a data system/website sign up process that is both an epic failure and over $600 million embarrassment, a data systems process that is so bad that a leading computer antivirus executive has called the process a “hacker’s wet dream," workers seeing their work hours and wages slashed as a result of Obama Care, etc.

The first set of posts in this series were summaries, observations,  and comments based on my research into the disaster that is Obama Care. The past few days, today, and tomorrow are the opinions and thoughtful conclusions of subject matters experts in the medical industry. Their conclusions are basically the same as mine and are totally consistent with the views and opinions of the majority of Americans: Obama Care is the worst piece of legislation that has ever been enacted by Washington.

Today’s expert is Dr. Elaina George, a member of the national advisory council of the Project 21 black leadership network, She is a board-certified otolaryngologist and host of a weekly talk radio show, "Medicine On Call," a show that explores health issues and the politics of medicine. 

She is obviously more qualified than me to comment on this horrid piece of legislation. She correctly points out that this legislation is not really about health care reform, it is about control of the population by the Washington political class. 

Under this law, she predicts that health care will get worse, costs will go up, freedom of choice about our lives and health care treatments will decline, health care facilities will merge and consolidate, becoming less and less persuadable and client driven going forward, and despite what Obama and others claim, the uninsured are just as likely to remain uninsured since costs under a government run and controlled process will drive up waste, bloat, and inefficiencies. Not to mention how big Pharma and Big Insurance will enjoy the fruits of our suffering, in conjunction with big government advocates.

And best of all, she is able to parallel Obama Care with the rise and destructive path of Medicare, a wasteful bloated bureaucracy that never lived up to any of its original boasts. And she has the courage to mention the dreaded “R” word of medicine, rationing, an inevitable final course of action of Obama Care.

Scary, scary stuff from an insider of the medical industry.

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Obama Care: Smoke And Mirrors
Elaina F. George, MD

America's health care system has been exceptional because it's rooted in the principle of free enterprise.

Doctors have been free to practice medicine under guidelines set forth by their Hippocratic Oaths. Patients have been free to seek treatment from physicians of their choice. 

It's the envy of the world with both clinical and research innovation at the heart of its foundation. 

Until recently, it has been very simple and affordable — the independent private physician had a moral, ethical and fiduciary responsibility to a patient. This relationship was sacrosanct, and there was no third party or middleman. 

That will change with ObamaCare, but it's not the first time government has hacked away at the capitalist underpinnings of American health care. It's only the most recent... and most intrusive. 

Since the United Nations created the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1948, there has been an inexorable movement toward a centralized power that shifts decisions from individuals to government through regulation and mandates. It has readily caught on abroad and anchors socialized medicine. America was virtually the only western holdout. That changed in 1965, when the expansion of Social Security created Medicare, which, essentially, is socialized medicine for seniors. 

ObamaCare is following in Medicare's footsteps: 

• Just like ObamaCare, Medicare was sold as a government program to take care of Americans. Government became the benefactor, caregiver and savior — absolving Americans from personal responsibility. All they had to do was give their faith and money to the government. 
• Just like ObamaCare, Medicare was drafted by bureaucrats and politicians seemingly more interested in concentrating power and controlling the purse strings. 
• Just like ObamaCare, no doctors or patients were involved in the crafting of Medicare. There were no true advocates for the patient. 

Over the years, Medicare devolved into a bloated, wasteful and soon-to-be bankrupt system. It has been a piggy bank for Congress (in fact, $700 billion from the Medicare trust fund was raided to help fund ObamaCare). 

Costs have increased through higher deductibles while there has been a steady decline in access and treatment options. For those who argue that health care will improve under ObamaCare, note that Medicare reimbursements to hospices will increase one percent while hospital reimbursements fall. This makes it hard to argue that a new system will not emphasize rationing and palliative care to decrease costs. 

As Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill bicker about authorizing future funding for ObamaCare, the medical system that was once the envy of the world is being dismantled and reconfigured as a government-controlled grid falsely packaged as a caring, patient-centered system to provide unlimited access to medical care, the freedom to choose a doctor and decreased costs. 

Despite criticism that Republicans want people to die, the unfortunate truth is that ObamaCare is set up to do that very thing. 

If left in place, ObamaCare will continue to drive a broken system propped up by taxpayer money. Participating physicians will be controlled through fear and intimidation. Cartels such as the medical insurance industry and Big Pharma will collude, through medication formularies and pharmacy benefit management companies, to control both price and access to medication. 

Hospitals will continue to consolidate and become "too big to fail" because they have made themselves the only game in town. Patient care will be limited by increased waiting times for appointments, and access will be restricted through hospital-underwritten insurance that limits patients to facilities and doctors within their system. 

The most ironic part about ObamaCare is that it will not lead to a significant decrease in those who cannot access meaningful health care. 

People still won't have adequate access because they won't be able to find a doctor or cannot afford to seek treatment. The only difference is now they will be forced to pay for this privilege. 

But maybe that's the point. Create the problem, wait for the collapse and then provide the "solution" that Harry Reid already gleefully admitted to — a single-payer system that completes the government's takeover of health care (and our freedom). 

It's time for Americans to stop being distracted by the bright shiny thing the Obama Administration has thrown before us. We deserve better. 

***************************

Loss of freedom to a bunch of Washington buffons who could not even devlop and rollout a simple website. What a sad way for liberty to die.

# # #
Dr. Elaina George, a member of the national advisory council of the Project 21 black leadership network, is a board-certified otolaryngologist and host of a weekly talk radio show, "Medicine On Call," that explores health issues and the politics of medicine. 

Comments may be sent to Project21@nationalcenter.org.

Published by the National Center for Public Policy Research. Reprints permitted provided source is credited. New Visions Commentaries reflect the views of their author, and not necessarily those of Project 21, other Project 21 members, or the National Center for Public Policy Research, its board or staff.

Guest Commentators Christmas Week Specials, Part 1: An Ode To The Role Of Big Government (Not!) By Dr. Elaina F. George

This Christmas week we will be sharing the views of other Americans from across the country regarding freedom and liberty. These citizens also realize that we currently are living with a political class that has enlarged government from a servant of the people into an overbearing, intrusive, obese waste of resources that is endangering our personal and economic futures, much along the lines of Jabba The Hutt from Star Wars.

Today's post is an essay on government ineffectiveness and inefficiency from Dr. Elaina George, a member of the national advisory council of the Project 21 black leadership network. She is a board-certified otolaryngologist and host of a weekly talk radio show, "Medicine On Call," that explores health issues and the politics of medicine. Comments may be sent to Project21@nationalcenter.org. She is assoicated with Project 21, the National Leadership Network Of  Conservative African-Americans.

Dr. George touches on the many shortcomings and overreaching of government including the failure of public/government schools, the government funding of obesity in the country, the "nanny state," and the loss of freedom in this country.


**************************************

An Ode To The Role Of Big Government


by Elaina F. George, MD 

In the wake of Hurricane Sandy, a vision of the federal government as our savior is being perpetuated by the media and the left.

This romanticized vision of the benefits of an ever-expanding government assuming command of everything — from disaster relief to managing our waistlines to promoting breastfeeding to mandatory vaccinations and to how we live and die — needs to be given serious thought.

What price are we paying to allow the government to extend far beyond its constitutional mandate to "provide for the common defense" and "promote the general welfare" to the degree that America is descending into a nanny state that doesn't "secure the blessings of liberty"?

Despite the praise for the government's response to Hurricane Sandy, the sight of people standing in lines for hours for gasoline or huddled in their homes with limited or no supplies of food and water seems to provide an answer to the question.

Dependence on the government has led to potentially tragic vulnerability. As a people, too many of us have voluntarily ceded our individual authority and responsibility to a system designed to treat us as a collective group of children incapable of making decisions for our own good and the security of our families.

Fear is the predominant driving force encouraging so many to remain passive — apparently valuing safety above the freedom to speak, think and strive to achieve the full extent of one's God-given talent — which is systematically stripped away by government intervention.

Does the good of the many really outweigh the needs of the few when we are moving ever more rapidly towards creating a society that is increasingly more petty, selfish and small-minded in the name of fairness and spreading the wealth around?

Some might consider it a fair compromise if the government actually took measures to protect us from harm. But the assumption really doesn't meet the reality:

• Instead of the endless campaigns against obesity that rely on proposed moratoriums on Big Gulps and large servings of movie popcorn, how about scaling back taxpayer subsidies on sugar and corn? Studies suggest that high fructose corn syrup plays a substantial role in rising obesity rates despite the government essentially paying for its production. Yet the government promotes them and props them up with public monies.
• Instead of watching the cancer rates rise and simply spending increasing amounts of money on treatment leading to exploding health care costs, there are those who say that the government should look more into controversial practices such as organic farming and genetically-modified foods.
• The government should stop promoting policies that lock children in bloated, wasteful and ineffective public schools where teachers and administrators essentially pride themselves for fostering mediocrity — especially among the poor and minority children. Instead of acquiescing to recent decisions such as the one in Florida, where the state's board of education set academic goals on the basis of race, perhaps it is time to give power back to parents, teachers and the children who are left without a choice and are unable to compete successfully in our society.

Chest-thumping about the wonders of FEMA and the alleged efficiency of the federal government leaves lingering doubts. Remember the people affected by Hurricane Katrina who were forced into formaldehyde-laced trailers? How about the prolonged fiasco surrounding the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico?

This is the recent past — government has not changed. And declining goods and services in the northeast may yet reveal that a big government hasn't really been the solution to Hurricane Sandy's victims.

Expanding government can still be controlled. But America is coming to a potential point of no return. Emotions cannot be allowed to dominate the promulgation of policy. An explosion of government interference will not help our nation, and — once big enough — cannot be stopped.

Published by the National Center for Public Policy Research. Reprints permitted provided source is credited. New Visions Commentaries reflect the views of their author, and not necessarily those of Project 21, other Project 21 members, or the National Center for Public Policy Research, its board or staff.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

www.loathemygovernment.com

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.
Please visit the following sites for freedom:

http://www.reason.com/
http://www.cato.org/
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://realpolichick.blogspot.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w