They do not need warrants. They do not need probable cause.

This is arguably the most dangerous law ever enacted.

This blatant invasion of privacy can be a window of opportunity for all states to pass the same thing. And not only the same thing, but other laws that directly affect you.

This is the biggest of big brothers. If it is not declared unconstitutional, all freedoms we take for granted could be at risk.

Who gives a crap?

Jim Nantz, apparently some sort of golf announcer, said he would be fired if he used that language on air.

Well, Jim, you’re paid to have a microphone in your face. Tiger is not. It’s not his fault that what he says is picked up from nearby microphones. Nor is it any other athletes fault, or job to keep themselves PC. Usually when an athletes (or fan) swears, and it’s picked up, the announcers just laugh it off or ignore it.

What I’m saying, Jim, is do your job and let the athletes do theirs.

Short answer: Money.

Long answer: MOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNEEEEEEEEYYYYYYY.

We at the Winkest Link have discussed this, and have accepted that none of the extra 32 teams would honestly have a chance. They wouldn’t be adding the possible National Champion. Granted, they could be adding another George Mason, and there is discussion every year about teams that deserved to make it but were left out.

But if you were left out in the first place, you didn’t have much of a chance to win it all anyway.

An expansion would also belittle the quality of play in the National Invitational Tournament, which is prestigious enough, and it’s a great honor to play in that tournament as well. We at the Winkest Link, being big Nebraska and Creighton basketball fans, are all too familiar with the NIT.

Plus, with the creation of the Collegeinsider.com Basketball Tournament (CIT) and the College Basketball Invitational (CBI), teams that even think they deserve a postseason will get one.

Are insurance companies worried about the health care bill?

(Hint: Their stock prices are rising)

Under the Senate plan, millions of Americans will be forced into private insurance company plans, which will be subsidized by taxpayers. This will do little to reform health care but will be a windfall for insurance companies.

The point of creating a government option is to bring prices down. Naturally, the Senate version of this bill does not provide a ‘government option.’ Instead, we will subsidize the private insurance market.

You have heard the line about making laws and making sausage. The difference is that quality sausage can be very satisfying to the consumer. Major legislation, on the other hand, is almost always directed at benefiting the very wealthy first and foremost. If there are secondary benefits to the consumer, well, that’s nice too.

We expect this when Republicans control Congress. In practice, the result is the same when the Dems are in charge. Money dictates what goes into each and every bill.

Democrats are as beholden to the almighty dollar as are the Republicans, they are just less obvious about it.

To illustrate the difference, let us look at the major (non-war) concerns of the parties:

Republicans: Insist on elimination of the estate tax (also known as the inheritance tax). The standard scare tactic of the GOP is to call this a ‘death tax’ because stupid people will believe it applies to all those who die. They sell it as though YOU will lose dollars when a loved one dies.

Nope, this tax only effects the VERY wealthy, with giant estates. There is a credit which eliminates any tax on the first $3,500,000 of the estate.

Regardless of estate size. if an asset is left to a spouse or a charitable organization, the tax usually does not apply.

When it does apply, amounts over $3,500,000 are effectively subject to a flat tax of 45%.

To repeat, the estate is not taxed if the money (1) goes to a spouse, or (2) to a charity, or (3) if the estate is less than $3,500,000.

But Republicans keep screaming ‘death tax’!

Who are they fighting for? Only the mega-wealthy. Not me. Not you (probably).

Democrats: Insist on providing “health care for all Americans”!

Nope. The Senate bill does NOT provide health care for all Americans. It provides an opportunity for all Americans to BUY health care from already wealthy insurance companies, sometimes at higher prices than they could have bought it before.

The new, higher prices will discourage even those who can afford it from buying it.

For those that can’t afford it, they will be subsidized to make it more affordable but, either way, the insurance companies garner millions more customers.

There will be no competition from a public option, so insurance companies will have no motivation to moderate premiums.

Are you under the impression that Senate Democrats wrote this law? Nope. Insurance lobbyists wrote it, the same way drug companies wrote the Medicare drug law (under Republican rule) which forbid Congress from negotiating the purchase price of the drugs.

The “Golden Rule” is: Those with the gold make the rules.

It is and ever shall be.
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Ladies and gentlemen, the Senator has left the building.

He is finally at peace, hopefully.

He fought his entire life for real change, real progress. And through countless family–and personal–tragedies he continued to fight. For equality, for minimum wage, and his final battle, health care. Ted Kennedy stood up for those too weak to fight. He was never there for himself, he was there for you. He fought to give everyone the opportunity to live the American Dream.

By saving and helping countless lives with his efforts, he more than made up for his mistakes.

Hopefully he is out there somewhere watching, and hopefully we can complete his one final task. It is our duty to pass legitimate health care reform, WITH the public option intact. This is not something to do in honor of Ted Kennedy, this is something to do in honor of those who wouldn’t be where they are right now without his efforts, and those that still need his help.

I will close with the story that President Obama told when Kennedy received the Presidential Medal of Freedom:

An old man was picking up objects off the beach and tossing them out into the sea. A young man approached him and saw that the objects were starfish. “Why in the world are you throwing starfish into the water?”

To this the old man replied “If the starfish are still on the beach when the tide goes out and the sun rises high in the sky, they will die”

Upon hearing this, the young man replied “That is ridiculous. There are thousands of miles of beach and millions of starfish. You can really believe what you’re doing could possibly make a difference!”

The wise old man picked up another starfish, paused thoughtfully, and remarked as he tossed it out into the waves, “It makes a difference to this one.“

“Liberals” have pretty much been on the right side of every major issue in the history of this country.

Ending slavery. Medicare. Social Security. Voting rights. Every one fiercely opposed by conservatives.

Those soft-hearted liberals were against going to war in Vietnam and Iraq. Those ventures both went well, didn’t they?

Now liberals want to make sure everyone has health care benefits.

Is there any hope this will pass, or did Obama just stick his foot in the biggest bear trap?

And if he doesn’t succeed in this, what will his presidency even be about??

“W” had a presidency with a purpose: He wanted to go to war, specifically with Iraq. It took some creativity* to convince the American public that there was a REASON to go to war with Iraq, but he succeeded, and got us into that war. Yeah!

Reagan had two goals, giving tax cuts to the wealthy and spending more on the military. He succeeded on both counts.

Obama did have one goal foisted on him, to bring the U.S. out of the economic chaos of a recession. It is way too early to determine his success on this.

Oops, almost forgot, getting us out of Iraq was another pressing goal. While the end in Iraq (to some extent) appears to be in sight, we may be in Afghanistan a long-long time.

Those are not Obama’s programs though, they are just pre-existing issues that needed fixing. Health care for all Americans is really his baby. His legacy.

Will he succeed? The verbal fighting is fierce, with lots of insane red herrings being tossed about (death panels??).

Regardless, SOME DAY there will be national health care in America.

Republicans are now staunch defenders of Social Security and Medicare. To NOT do so is political suicide. When these programs were proposed, however, they used the same scare tactics they are using now …too expensive, socialist, communist.

They have a great new scary word though…. Nazi. Yep, apparently the scariest thing about the Nazi’s was a plan to provide health care for all their citizens. JUST LIKE OBAMA !!!

The Nazi’s also had BMW provide many/most of their vehicles and other war equipment. Wouldn’t that make any American who buys a BMW a Nazi? It works for me!

If and when it is passed, you can put large amounts of money on this: Republicans will eventually say that national health care is one of the things that makes America great, and they would never dream of dismantling it.

*Creativity = Huge lies repeated endlessly so that morons believe them to this day.
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Yes, a conservative is right about something. I am talking about Ben Stein. He occasionally gets pretty nutty about what he thinks, but he hit this topic right on the nose.

He said that the biggest problem with the market today is the fear fueling its downfall. When Barack Obama was elected, he himself said that the people had elected hope over fear. The problem is, he has only used fear to get whatever bills necessary passed in order to save the economy. I am not stupid enough to believe that this is not urgent; haste is important in this situation. However, Obama is only showing the bad side of the issue to get what he wants. As Ben Stein put it, 92% of Americans still do have jobs, and more than 90% of loans are being paid off on time. Those are the numbers you need to look at. If the American people weren’t panicking, then in all honesty, we would still be relatively safe.

That becomes a big difference between Barack Obama and FDR. Roosevelt always had a confident and calming nature, and it instilled confidence back into the public.

Big. Freaking. Whoop.

“All of us understand that it will continue to take collective sacrifice to get through this challenging economic environment, but these and other steps by our office and clubs will enable us to be more efficient and better positioned for future growth,” league spokesman Greg Aiello said.

Yes, the Commissioner will be struggling with his $8 million salary. How about this: he cuts his salary to $5 million, and they set a maximum salary for all people related to the NFL, that’s coaches, referees, and of course, players. Max that yearly salary out at, say, $10 million a year, and you can save a whole bunch of NFL jobs, as well as create a bunch of random ones, just for kicks and giggles.

Long story short, I’m not impressed with the sacrifices.

And those libraries! Free knowledge is just wrong, and who reads books anyway?

Let’s make a stand against this socialistic big government! Who’s with me?

I am a strong supporter of Obama, but I am also a strong supporter of justice.

It is our responsibility as Americans to question the powers given to, and used by, the President.