Boston Chai Party

I am Andrew Breitbart.

2012-03-01T10:16:00.001-08:00

We all owe him a debt of gratitude. If you don't know who he was, start with the websites he created:

Big Journalism

Big Hollywood

Big Goverment

Big Peace

BreitbartTV

This is what Rush Limbaugh had to say about Andrew Breitbart.

This is what Sarah Palin had to say about Andrew Breitbart.

Decide for yourself who sounds more like what you believe - the usual media outlets, or Andrew Breitbart, Rush Limbaugh, and Sarah Palin?

Take a moment to pray for his family and friends. He will be missed by many.

do as I say, not as I do

2010-03-23T07:27:00.000-07:00

Proof that health care reform is not what Democrats in Congress would have you believe? The staffers who wrote the bill are exempt from it.

they just now figured this out?

2010-03-22T19:19:00.000-07:00

Here's an interesting article in the Chicago Tribune, who apparently have had their heads in the proverbial sand for, oh, at least the last decade. Perhaps the last generation.

Misery loves company. Thank you Chicago.

just who is making it political?

2009-11-14T06:55:00.000-08:00

When a terrorist attack happens on American soil, should there be any limits on which authorities investigate it and when? Or should the full force of American investigative ability be focused on why the attack happened and why it wasn't prevented?

Not so, according to the President. He doesn't want Congressional investigations to occur now because they are "political stagecraft." This, from the man who refuses to call Major Hasan a "terrorist" or the attack "terrorism."

political science lesson

2009-11-02T08:38:00.000-08:00

Over the weekend, the Republican candidate for the congressional seat in New York's District 23 pulled out of the special election. Assemblywoman Dede Scozzafava pulled out of the race on Saturday and declined to endorse either candidate, preferring to let her supporters make their own choice.

Or maybe not. On Sunday, Ms. Scozzafava endorsed the Democrat candidate. It is probably of no consequence that her husband is a union official, or that Ms. Scozzafava has received money from ACORN and been involved with the Working Families Party, the political party affiliated with ACORN.

Understandably, this has likely caused great confusion on the part of left-of-center observers of these goings-on. Consequently, a quick, simple political science lesson.

Republican and Democrat are the labels for our two-party political party system. Conservatism and liberalism are ideologies. (These are current terms. I'll leave historical party names and ideologies out of this quick lesson.) In the past, as recently as Ronald Reagan, conservatism had a home in the Republican party. Today, liberalism is running the Democrat party.

Americans are smart enough to know when a political party is taking them for a ride. Thus, when Ms. Scozzafava claimed an "R" behind her name but behaved as a liberal, conservatives rejected her in favor of an actual conservative. So while conservatives may not have expected her brazenness or outright lying when she endorsed the Democrat candidate in the special election, they certainly weren't surprised.

In summary, conservative does not equal Republican, nor does Republican equal conservative.

Hope this clears things up.

is Obama planning to commit treason against the US?

2009-10-17T22:21:00.000-07:00

here's to you, joe!

2009-09-16T19:02:00.000-07:00

Every so-called "conservative" article I've read for the last week has condemned Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) for his outburst during President Obama's health care speech to the joint session of Congress. This was no doubt done in order to appear moderate and avoid trumped up charges of racism or hypocrisy.

"Joe Wilson was wrong," they all read, right before they go on to explain the areas in which the president did not represent the truth (i.e. was lying) in his speech.

Wilson apologized to the White House, was censured in Congress, and has been eviscerated in the media by the left and the right. His opponent has raised over $1 million since the incident (as has Wilson), and former-President Jimmy Carter called Wilson a racist.

Meanwhile, Kanye West embarrassed Taylor Swift on national television, got called a jackass by President Obama, and got to go on The Jay Leno Show.

Sadly, today I ran across this article from New York magazine portraying Kanye's actions as artistically defensible.

I'm sorry, but Wilson was neither morally nor factually wrong. Certainly, he was impolite, but as a friend recently shared on facebook, perhaps our public servants are "afforded too much civility, rather than too little." The House of Commons doesn't seem to be in any danger of collapsing, and they challenge each other outright. Why don't we try to copy their vibrant political atmosphere rather than their bankrupt health care system?

I'm tired of pansy, McCain-loving pseudo-conservatives quoting the party line rather than standing up for their principles. The president wasn't telling the truth, and Wilson challenged him on it. If I were in South Carolina right now, I'd have a Wilson sign in my yard - and I'm a minority.

Speaking of which, who the heck does Jimmy Carter think he is? Has he ever met Joe Wilson? Maybe he should stick to promoting his new book, unless Osama bin Laden's endorsement is the new Oprah book club and he doesn't need to worry about it.

Wilson was brave, not boorish. He was straightforward (raising the debate in just two words), not slanderous. He didn't vote for a war and then complain about being misled about WMDs. He spoke his mind when presented with distortions of the truth which could have disastrous fiscal consequences for our country.

Thank you, Joe! While I can't legally cast a ballot for you, you have my vote in the court of public opinion.

what are the implications?

2009-09-14T21:57:00.000-07:00

A couple of documents have surfaced regarding Obama's Presidential nomination. I don't have the answers here. I know what I believe, but I want to bring you the facts by themselves so you can come to your own conclusions.

one version of the Democratic National Convention Official Certification of Nomination for President

another version--thus far this is the only version that has been confirmed to have been sent to several states' election commissions, though confirmation one way or the other has not yet been obtained from all 50 states.

Notice the difference in language at the top of these pages, particularly what was left out in the 2nd version which was sent to several states. What's the reason for the difference? Does it matter? Is there a reasonable need for these two different versions? Like I said, I know what I think. I want you to form your own opinions.

William Gardner, New Hampshire Secretary of State has formed his own opinions as well.

These two versions of the DNC certifications were published in this article by Canada Free Press.

which way is it?

2009-09-14T06:49:00.000-07:00

If you haven't heard about this yet, the third video of ACORN employees helping a "pimp" and a "prostitute" set up a brothel to house and "employ" underage, illegal El Salvadoran immigrant girls was released this morning.

And also this morning, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made a statement "urging a crackdown on human trafficking."

If someone could explain this, I would be grateful. On the one hand, the foot soldiers of the liberals are facilitating human trafficking. On the other hand, one of the party powers is decrying it. Does Hillary have another agenda, or is it a simple case of the left talking out of both sides of its collective mouth?

the van jones "smear campaign"

2009-09-07T15:04:00.000-07:00

Former Green Jobs Czar Van Jones alleged in his late night resignation missive on Saturday that he was the victim of a "smear campaign" made up of "distractions and distortions". The NAACP made similar remarks in his support, essentially accusing "right wing extremists" like Glenn Beck of undue character assassination.

I'm not sure if either Jones or anyone in the NAACP ever watch Beck, but his exposure of Jones was hardly a smear campaign. Did his reporting negatively impact Jones? Absolutely. Was his fight unfair? Absolutely not.

You might ask how I could say Beck fought fairly:

1) Beck used Jones' own quotes in context.

He made sure to not resort to using only Jones' most inflammatory quotes, rather he showed the inflammatory quotes and then gave the broader context of the quotes.

2) Beck invited Jones himself on the show.

3) Beck asked, invited, and begged the White House to respond to Jones' past affiliations and comments.

When Beck asked if the WH knew about Jones' radical past, the WH replied with a statement regarding Jones' job description. Jones himself only ever offered a vague apology if his past comments had ever offended anyone. Neither ever denounced Jones' radical past.

4) Beck used his news and radio programs as well as polite e-mail exchanges with the WH to reveal the fruits of his investigation.

By contrast, groups linked to Jones organized a boycott against Beck that led to several sponsors pulling out of Beck's show.

5) Beck appealed to both democrats and republicans to investigate Jones - hardly the tenor of a right wing extremist.

---

We must consider one other factor at play here. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi refuses to remove Congressman Charles Rangel from his chairmanship of the Ways and Means committee, let alone his job, even though he is being investigated for criminal tax evasion. Likewise, South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford has retained his job despite admitting to an affair, possibly improperly using taxpayer funds, and high-level calls for his resignation (even from his own lieutenant governor).

If surviving actual scandals is this easy in politics, why would someone as well-connected as Van Jones have given up so easily if the accusations against him were baseless? Neither he, his supporters, nor the WH ever offered anything substantial to controvert the things being said about him. A reasonable person would conclude that's because those accusations were true.

By the way, if you're wondering why the WH didn't address these problems when they came up on Van Jones' seven-page application, it's because he didn't fill one out. I'm guessing it wasn't because they didn't want to know about the qualifications and history of a senior-level advisor to the president. I'm guessing it's because they already knew it and didn't want it laying around in writing somewhere where it could be subpoenaed.

2009-09-04T21:24:00.000-07:00

Van Jones -- Obama's Green Czar displays a fundamental lack of understanding for supply & demand economic principles.

2009-09-01T22:39:00.000-07:00

California Representative Diane Watson speaks about Obama, health care, and Cuba

my brother's keeper

2009-08-21T13:29:00.000-07:00

photo: Daily Contributor

President Obama haphazardly quoted from the Bible on Wednesday in order to encourage faith leaders to support his health care plan.

He accused naysayers of "bearing false witness" - a sin on which he might want to take the "remove the plank from your own eye" approach.

The president's most egregious of Scriptural aberrations came in the form of his statement, "I am my brother's keeper, I am my sister's keeper."

While the metaphorical application could inspire listeners of faith to devote themselves more to providing health care for their less fortunate "brothers and sisters", the literal application draws attention to Obama's own family.

President Obama's half-brother George lives in a slum in Nairobi, Kenya. Reports differ of exactly how much George Obama earns per year, but the figure seems to be in the $1/month - $1/day ballpark. George's impoverished living conditions persist despite the United State's $600 million in aid to Kenya every year.

Factcheck.org quotes George as being offended by the media's attention to his humble abode, but nonetheless substantiates his lowly means.

In case you're not up on your current Kenyan demographics, Nairobi hosts the Africa's largest (and one of the world's largest) slum Kibera. Kibera spans about 630 acres, and over 1 million people live there. Construction is nearly impossible because most "roads" with in the slums are not wide enough for vehicles. Inhabitants of Kibera daily face dangers of flooding, disease, crime, etc.

$600 million fetches quite the lavish real estate these days.

It is not clear if George Obama lives in Kibera or another Nairobi slum, but Kibera provides a nice picture of the president's brother's digs.

Factcheck.org also downplays the significance of George Obama's plight in relationship to his multi-millionaire half-brother by citing their 20-year age difference and their having met only once. I'm pretty sure that logic goes out the window when your brother is both a multi-millionaire and the most powerful man in the world.

So no, President Obama does not "keep" his brother, nor does a massive government assistance program. Seems to me this undermines the president's push for another massive government assistance program.

ht: IHTM

"I will vote adamantly against the interests of my district."

2009-08-17T13:58:00.000-07:00

Really, nothing needs said about this other than the congressman's own words. This is Rep. Eric Massa (D-NY) talking about how he intends to vote on health care reform:

(video is quiet, turn up the volume)

manufactured outrage over actual outrage

2009-08-13T12:34:00.000-07:00

Last week, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs accused opponents of President Obama's health care plan of participating in corporate-sponsored "manufactured outrage". He likened the upset attendees of several congressional town hall meetings around the country of being more like "astroturf" than an actual grassroots movement.

The not-so-subtly implied (and occasionally outright stated) idea is that lobbyists and big Pharma/big Med have paid protesters and bussed them around the country to make it seem as though the President's health care plan is more unpopular than it is. Unfortunately for Mr. Gibbs, the facts are not on his side.

Much has been said and written about this ludicrous statement, so rather than add to the foray, I thought I would offer some simple questions about this accusation:
- Where is my check from big Pharma/big Med? Unless the $2-off coupon I got in the last box of Claritin I purchased counts as a corporate kickback, I haven't seen anything yet. For that matter, I've been paying them and still am.

- What kind of people would take money to be fake protesters?
- Wouldn't that be people who need money?
- Aren't they the ones that this bill is supposed to help, poor people? The White House's accusation implies that these people are both so greedy and so stupid that they would oppose something that would supposedly do them tremendous good in providing them health care in exchange for a little extra cash. Not only that, they would be supporting the same establishment which the White House accuses of keeping them medical-broke. Who would stump for the guys who are oppressing them?

- Even if the protesters were riding on busses paid for by big Pharma/big Med, wouldn't that mean these people are so callous and incompassionate that they are willing to take a paycheck to destroy less fortunate peoples' only chance to get health care? Is the White House really willing to condemn every health care protester as that inhumanely evil?

- Why isn't every single person without health care in this country in support of the President's plan? I don't have health insurance, and it is because I can't afford it and don't have it through my employer. Still, I know enough about the world, economics, history, and this health care plan to find myself unable to support the President's desired reforms. For the record, I know others without health care who also oppose the President's plans, and it's not because we are all deeply in love with being uninsured.

- Is it at all possible that significant numbers of people strongly disagree with President Obama and Congress about the real reforms needed in health care?
- Is it possible that they care enough about this issue to confront their congressional representatives about it?
- Is it possible that demonizing these people as “the mob” is actually a political tactic designed to prop up a disastrously unpopular health care reform plan?

opinion: health care vs. health insurance, part i

2009-08-01T13:51:00.000-07:00

I am one of the approximately 14 million* Americans who does not have health insurance AND cannot afford it. In a few months I will be insured again through work, but I have been without coverage for the last year and a half since I lost my full-time job.

I do not have health insurance, and yet I have health CARE. Let me explain.

There is a man who goes to our church. I believe he is Vietnamese. He is a doctor who has a practice here and goes on medical relief trips to other countries. I first heard about him when I was preparing to take a trip to India last fall with other members of my church. For the overseas trip, I needed proper vaccinations and medical supplies before I could be cleared to go.

At the time, I had no income of my own, and my wife was making very little at her part-time job. A little money from my severance package remained in savings, but I was wary of spending too much of it before I found work. I had no idea how I was going to pay for these medical expenses.

I called up the good doctor's office and made an appointment. His receptionist advised me of the $60 visit fee (without insurance) and the cost of vaccines in addition to that. The cost ratcheted up over $100, which felt equivalent to $1000 when we were surviving on frozen burritos and pbj.

Nevertheless, a painful bill from the doctor was preferable to contracting typhoid, tetanus, and polio, so I agreed to the appointment.

Upon arriving at the doctor's office, I was asked to fill out a standard entrance form while enjoying a complimentary bottle of Fiji water in the comfortable waiting room. The good doctor invited me back, gave me an examination, and administered the tetanus vaccine.

He did not have the other vaccines in stock, so he had his assistant check with the other practices in the building to see if they had the typhoid and polio vaccines. Another practice had the typhoid vaccine, but the doctor had to reimburse them for what he used.

Knowing of my current unemployment and lack of insurance, the doctor informed me that he could offer me the tetanus vaccine for free, but I would have to pay for the typhoid vaccine since it had to be paid to another practice. The nurse swabbed my arm, stuck the needle, handed me a cotton ball, and directed me to the front desk to settle my account.

The good doctor rushed ahead of me to the front desk. He wrote something on my chart and whispered something to his assistant before shaking my hand and wishing me well.

His assistant continued writing, printed a receipt, and the handed me my final bill. $40. She told me the the good doctor had waved his own fee, and he gave me the tetanus vaccine for free.

Since that time, the good doctor has cared for my wife and me - WITHOUT insurance - at a discount for nearly a year now.

I do not know if he does it out of Christian generosity, tax write-off ability, or some combination of both. To be honest, I do not much care. We have been CARED for and enjoyed good health, not to mention peace of mind, since the moment we first met the good doctor.

Every time I hear a politician talk about adjusting the "fee schedule" on health care, I wonder where the good doctor's generosity fits into those models. If he were not compensated well by other patients, if margins were slashed by Washington politicians, if his hand were forced in what he had to charge, would I have received such good health care? Even if I would, I know it would not mean as much as the genuine human compassion he has showed my family.

If the good doctor is what the "health care crisis" looks like, then I vote for more crisis.

*The 50 million uninsured Americans figure includes illegal immigrants and people who make enough money to afford health care. Most realistic projections place the actual number of uninsured who cannot afford insurance around 14 million.

no commentary necessary

2009-07-30T08:02:00.001-07:00

A little background information: the staff of Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri recently held a town hall on health care. The soldier in this video is why America is great.

beam me up . . . sarah?

2009-07-28T15:00:00.000-07:00

Sarah Palin officially resigned as Alaska Governor on Saturday to work on a book and support conservative candidates and causes around the country. Her farewell speech apparently meandered a bit, and naturally the comedians took aim.

For the record, I was appalled at how Gov. Palin was treated during the 2008 presidential election, but this is the kind of comedy that I can appreciate:

a second opinion

2009-07-27T12:56:00.000-07:00

At last Wednesday's press conference, President Obama not only misrepresented the facts about health care, he also maligned doctors as greedy and untrustworthy:

“Right now, doctors, a lot of times, are forced to make decisions based on the fee-payment schedule that’s out there. So if they’re looking and — and you come in and you’ve got a bad sore throat, or your child has a bad sore throat, or has repeated sore throats, the doctor may look at the reimbursement system and say to himself, ‘You know what? I make a lot more money if I take this kid’s tonsils out.’”

Mona Charen rightly points out that this demonization of physicians bears little understanding of how medical practice actually works. Primary care doctors and pediatricians, likely the ones making these sort of decisions, are not the same thing as surgeons and therefore would have to refer the patient to a surgeon for surgery. PC docs would actually make more money, racking up copays, etc. if children were chronically sick.

Former Governor Mike Huckabee offers a much less sinister idea of how the hardworking men and women in the medical profession should be compensated:

I want doctors to make money. Frankly, I want them to make a lot of money. They don’t have to make as much as Oprah, who made $275 million last year; or George Lucas, who made $170 million; or Stephen Spielberg, who made $150 million. Heck, both Tiger Woods and Madonna made $110 million last year….
The average doctor pay is less than what members of Congress make, and specialists make less an average that is not too much better, and that’s before you factor in all the free food, travel, and outright graft that some members of Congress will be able to add.
I don’t begrudge Congressional salaries, but I sure as heck don’t think what they do is as hard as brain surgery or doing a heart transplant.

A contempt-free and grateful approach toward those who save lives for a living - I like the second opinion better.

7 cents per page

2009-07-24T23:06:00.000-07:00

I wanted to print off the House of Representatives' Health Care Reform bill to read this weekend. Paper (recycled, don't fret) would be much easier on my eyes than the computer screen, but alas with a cost estimate of $71.19 for the whopping 1017 page bill, it's simply out of my price range. I still aim to read the bill this weekend; I just hope that I don't end up at the optometrist before I finish reading about health care . . .

I will post my thoughts on the bill, but also invite you to read it & form your own opinions.

Should you choose to read the bill yourself or become informed by researching others' opinions, I urge you to call your Senators & Congressmen to let them know what you think.

Never called before? I hadn't either until today. I called one Representative's office and after 2 rings was speaking with a live person. I gave him my opinion, rebutted his over-rehearsed rhetoric, and politely ended the call. The conversation only took a couple minutes and was easy & painless. Keep in mind, they're there to work for us. We get to be the boss and tell them what we want! It's pretty cool if you think about it.

whoa.

2009-07-24T14:07:00.000-07:00

Not to be a downer, but this is an interesting article about unemployment numbers. Specifically, that the unemployment numbers reported by the media aren't the whole story. (Shocking, I know.) The number of people out of work (or working part-time) who would like to be employed full-time is close to 20% in some states, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

That's a big number.

Michigan is at the top of the list. Michigan is doing an excellent job of proving the Founding Fathers' point that states are the labs in which experiments in governing take place (my paraphrase) before those experiments are applied at the national level. California is doing a pretty good job of that too. They're third on the unemployment list.

So what can we learn from Michigan and California? Seems like all we need to do is look at the folks running the governments of those states and the policies of the governments of those states and start running the opposite direction.

open mouth, insert foot

2009-07-23T18:14:00.000-07:00

Take a lesson from the President. Take the time to figure out the entire situation before you open your mouth and make uniformed judgments.

The police officer who arrested Professor Gates and who President Obama said acted "stupidly" (because he supposedly racially profiled Gates) is a racial profiling expert who teaches classes about how to NOT racially profile.

Almost enough to make one break out into an Alanis Morissette song...you know the one, the ironically not ironic one.

You can find the article here.

Maybe this police officer and Joe the Plumber should start a Facebook group of people who have been publicly maligned by Obama.

chasing blue cars

2009-07-22T10:33:00.000-07:00

Fortune Magazine had a piece today about the latest battle in Congress over auto dealers GM and Chrysler are trying to eliminate from their networks.

The gist of the piece:

The question has given Congress ample opportunity to take both sides of the same question. After attacking the auto companies for not making themselves profitable, it is now criticizing them for trying to do exactly that by trimming excess capacity.

Upon first glance, it seemed like Congressional representatives were bowing to pressure from wealthy dealership owners, who, as the article points out, reside in nearly every congressional district. Nevertheless, they appeared to only be fighting the sad but inevitable realities of businesses in bankruptcy.

Then I took a moment to remember how we got here.

1. GM and Chrysler struggled

2. They begged the government for money to avoid bankruptcy

3. They got the money

4. They still went bankrupt, but now the government holds a significant stake in the companies.

If anyone should be accused of fighting the inevitable, it is the car companies themselves. Why get the government involved in the first place if you're going to cry foul later about their involvement? This also ignores the obvious question of why any business would ask help from an organization that is running itself trillions of dollars in debt.

Of course, our civil servants in the House should have known better than to get involved in the first place, but that's a story for a different day.

Welcome!

2009-07-22T10:00:00.000-07:00

Thank you for visiting Boston Chai Party! We here at BCP have one main goal in mind: the dissemination of information.

While many of the stories you see here are political in nature, this is neither a pro-Democrat nor pro-Republican blog. We are not writing to sway you to one side or the other. We intend to publish the good & the bad from both sides of the aisle -- paying special attention to items being ignored or neglected by major media outlets. We are simply pro-America.

We endeavor to
1. be civil
2. refrain from character assassination
3. use proper grammar & spelling
4. be witty & charming where possible/warranted

We ask that you strive to uphold the same standard should you decide to comment on anything posted here.

You are invited to join us as we sift through the constant stream of information overload & bring you the most relevant news & information in America today.

Your faithful patriots,
Amber, Azina, Raj