Missouri Invalidates Health Care Mandate

Yet another state sent Obamacare a message.

Missouri voters on Tuesday easily approved a measure aimed at nullifying the new federal health care law, becoming the first state in the nation where ordinary people made known their dismay over the issue at the ballot box.

The measure was intended to invalidate a crucial element of President Obama’s health care law — namely, that most people be required to get health insurance or pay a tax penalty. Supporters of the measure said it would send a firm signal to Washington about how this state, often a bellwether in presidential elections, felt about such a law.

“My constituents told me they felt like their voices had been ignored and they wanted Washington to hear them,” Jane Cunningham, a state senator and Republican who had pressed for a vote, said Tuesday night. “It looks to me like they just picked up a megaphone.”

The legalities of all this are murky. The politics couldn't be clearer. The administration is on a collision course with dozens of states on this mandate and it will end up in the Supreme Court. It will pit individual states against the federal government. While this is happening, the Obama administration is on a separate collision course with Arizona and other states vis a vis illegal immigration.

Council Nominations

The Watcher's Council nominations are up.

Council Submissions

• The Provocateur – A Profile of Kevin Coval
• The Colossus of Rhodey -The conclusion is: “Common Sense”
• Wolf Howling - What Direction Our Economy
• The Glittering Eye - The Tip of the Iceberg
• Virginia Right! - Will Washington’s Failures Lead to Second American Revolution?
• Right Truth - Politicians Should Have An Expiration Date
• Bookworm Room - Anne Rice and neo-paganism
• Snapped Shot – The Future of Photojournalism
• Rhymes with Right - Sorry, Charlie — Obama Can’t Fix The Racial Climate He And His Supporters Have Created
• Mere Rhetoric – After Lebanon Border Ambush, Reuters First Out Of The Gate With Demonstrably False Anti-Israel Propaganda
• JoshuaPundit - Obama’s Latest Anti-Israel Tactic – Getting Others to Do the Dirty Work For Him

Non-Council Submissions

• Dick Morris - A Eulogy of Eugene Morris - submitted by The Provocateur
• Discriminations – Blow-n Away submitted by The Colossus of Rhodey
• Seraphic Secret – Nazis To Open Museum Of Tolerance At Aushwitz submitted by Wolf Howling
• Winds of Change – Why We’re Just Flatly Screwed in Afghanistan submitted by The Glittering Eye
• My Modern Met - The Ghosts of World War II’s Past (20 photos) submitted by Virginia Right!
• News Real Blog – Dr. Phyllis Chesler – What Happens to Women if We Leave Afghanistan? Time Magazine Gets it Wrong submitted by Right Truth
• StandWithUs (You Tube) – Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions submitted by Bookworm Room
• Pirate’s Cove - Retirement Savings “Undisclosed Bomb” - submitted by Snapped Shot
• Rick versus Kay – Voter ID… Bill White opposes requiring identification to vote… submitted by Rhymes with Right
• MEMRI – Gaza Friday Sermon on Al-Aqsa TV: Muslims Should Wage Jihad to Liberate the Al-Aqsa Mosque from the Filth of the Jews, the Brothers of Apes and Pigs submitted by Mere Rhetoric
• Andrew Breitbart/Big Journalism – I Got My Correction Thanks to the The New York Times — Now Who’s Next? submitted by JoshuaPundit
• Yaacov Lozowick’s Ruminations – Fog of War, Foggy Thinking, Pure Malice submitted by The Watcher
• DaTechguy’s Blog – If professor Bambridge is embarassed to be a conservative these days… submitted by The Watcher

Miller and Chacko

UPDATE: Please also check out my new book, The Definitive Dossier on PTSD in Whistleblowers, in which I dedicate chapter four entirely to the exploits of Dr. Anna Chacko. 

The Pittsburgh Tribune has the story.

A letter to Shinseki from Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., and Rep. Brad Miller, D-N.C., centers on allegations from a former VA physician who says he was forced out of the agency in retaliation for raising questions about money for brain injuries, the "signature injury" of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center reports 10 percent to 20 percent of troops with combat exposure there suffered concussions from roadside bombs.

Then, there are parallels drawn between this and Dr. Anna Chacko.

Van Boven's case appears to parallel that of radiologist Anna Chacko, who says VA officials ousted her from her post at the Pittsburgh VA facility in Oakland after she questioned spending and treatment practices.

I'm left confused. After all in May of 2009, the same Congressman Miller said this of Dr. Anna Chacko.


Senate Letter 2009-05-19[1][1][1] -

Then as Chacko was about to get terminated in January of this year, he said this.

He said that assuming the VA followed proper procedures in Chako's termination, he did not plan further involvement.

Chacko had been suspended from her job in the spring but was reinstated in late summer, only to be placed on administrative leave in October. The termination letter was issued last week.

While they have declined to comment on the issues leading to Chacko's suspension and termination, VA officials said an internal investigation refuted claims by Chacko that patient care might have been compromised by excessive radiation during treatments.

So, does Congressman Miller think that proper procedures were followed in the case of Dr. Chacko? It was apparently neither asked or answered. Miller does hint at it in the latest article.

Miller said told the Tribune-Review he is troubled by "an emerging pattern" of VA administrators using boards of inquiry to punish and silence whistleblowers.
"I would encourage the VA to look into whether the process is being abused," he said.

If that's the case why didn't he step in before Chacko was fired? That was also neither asked nor answered. Here is the statement from Senator Burr's office about the "emerging pattern" that Congressman Miller spoke about.

The “emerging pattern” that Rep. Miller referenced in his comments to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review were made independently of the specific issues raised jointly by Sen. Burr and Rep. Miller in the letter to Gen. Shinseki. I strongly suggest you take up your concerns with Rep. Miller’s staff as they may have more insight into the reasoning for Rep. Miller’s comments.

Here's the full letter that Burr and Miller drafted to Shinseki and Chacko is not mentioned in it. Both Shinseki and Miller's office have yet to respond for comment.

Shinseki Ltr

Here's the full dossier of Anna Chacko.

Kerry: "Not Fair to Blame Obama"

John Kerry was on CNN defending President Obama.

I think what's happened is Fareed, in the last six months I think there was an article even in the paper this week about people no longer blaming Bush. They're beginning to target this White House. That's a natural course of events as you go through any administration, but I don't think it is fair to the President

Senator Kerry went on to say that Democrats have to go out with "passion" and defend all their accomplishments during the Obama administration because in his perspective the people haven't figured out just how much they've accomplished.

I think Senator Kerry is confused. The people know exactly what the Democrats have accomplished and that's the problem.

Virginia Passes One Hurdle Re: Health Care

A Federal judge gave the state of Virginia a small victory in its battle with the U.S. government.

The state of Virginia can continue its lawsuit to stop the nation's new health care law from taking effect, a federal judge ruled Monday.

U.S. District Court Judge Henry Hudson said he is allowing the suit against the U.S. government to proceed, saying no court has ever ruled on whether it's constitutional to require Americans to purchase a product.

"While this case raises a host of complex constitutional issues, all seem to distill to the single question of whether or not Congress has the power to regulate -- and tax -- a citizen's decision not to participate in interstate commerce," Hudson wrote in a 32-page decision.

This is a long way from over. I won't predict the outcome but can someone explain why the Federal government is taking on so many of its states. It's absolutely amazing how many lawsuits that pit the Federal government of Barack Obama are currently ongoing in which the adversary is an individual state. Here's the statement from the White House.

Since the enactment of health reform legislation in March, several state Attorneys General have filed lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act. Having failed in the legislative arena, opponents of reform are now turning to the courts in an attempt to overturn the work of the democratically elected branches of government. This is nothing new. We saw this with the Social Security Act, the Civil Rights Act, and the Voting Rights Act – constitutional challenges were brought to all three of these monumental pieces of legislation, and all of those challenges failed. So too will the challenge to health reform.

Couldn't you turn that statement around on the White House re: the Arizona immigration law?

Another Giannoulias Headache

The Senate race in Illinois is devolving and it continues to be a contest of which candidate will have fewer scandal. Alexi Giannoulias took a step back in that race today.

By February 2006, businessman and political fixer Tony Rezko was already politically radioactive, caught up in a federal investigation that would see him criminally charged by the end of that year.

News reports had linked Rezko, a key adviser and campaign fund-raiser for then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich, to shady deals involving state pension funds -- among the crimes that ultimately would send him to prison.

This particular story is dubious. The loan was made to a company that Tony Rezko had a stake in. It was made after news had come out that Rezko was involved in scandal, but it was also made after Giannoulias stopped running day to day operations at the bank.

It is, however, more evidence of just how much of an insider Giannoulias is and how connected he is to other insiders in Illinois and that doesn't help at all.

This Chart Says it All

Welcome to the world of Obamacare.

My colleague Soccer Dad has more.