Who To Kill First: Grandma Or Convicted Murderers?

 
If  the Senate passes Healthcare Reform, will elderly patients be given the same appeals process as convicted murderers?

The execution of Beltway Sniper John Allen Muhammed on Tuesday brought to mind a disturbing thought that should trouble anyone regardless of your position on the death penalty. It exposes yet another absurdity of Barack Obama’s Healthcare Reform. 

Staci Lynn Jazvac

In Raiford, Florida, 47 year-old Michael Rivera sits on death row, convicted of the murder of 11 year-old Staci Jazvac in a suburb of Ft. Lauderdale… in 1986. At the time, I was working with John Walsh  (now host of “America’s Most Wanted”) at the Adam Walsh Child Resource Center.  Staci lived about a mile from me. I became close friends with Staci’s mom as we assisted her through the search, recovery and after-effects of this tragedy. Rivera was convicted the following year. It left an impression that still haunts me today.

Twenty-three years have passed and Rivera is still sitting on death row.

According to a 2004 report by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, it costs an average of $22,650 per prisoner, nationally, to maintain our prison systems (the report is available on-line at the above link).

Allowing for the fact that the figures in 1986 were undoubtedly lower, it’s still safe to say, Michael Rivera has been housed and fed for nearly a quarter of a century at the cost of about a half-million dollars of taxpayers money alone. Never mind the fact that Staci’s family never got to see her grow up, but have to deal with the fact that her killer has been able to live on. Rivera has his own web page where he solicits money for his various  appeals and even advertised on a social page, looking to get married… all at our expense, of course. 

Now, add to the above, that if the Healthcare Reform Bill passes in the Senate (the House of Representatives already passed it in the still of the night last week-end), it will mean that strict cost cutting measures will need to be enforced, left up to panels consisting of bureaucrats who, contrary to the lies of the Obama administration, will decided who gets care and who doesn’t. Liberals object when we refer to these review boards as “Death Panels” but, in point of fact, that’s exactly what they will be, at times.

Only the naive would believe otherwise, but the cold hard facts are that there will be people in their senior years who will be told, “Sorry, but you’re too old to get a liver transplant. You no longer contribute to Society. You eat up precious resources that could be used to save younger members of our society that have many years to contribute. You’ve had a long life compared to them, so we’ll have to decline your request.” 

It may not be those exact words, but the sentiment will be the same.

We have our priorities seriously skewed when we can spend a half million dollars to warehouse a convicted murderer for 23 years, yet we have to tell senior citizens who may well have never broken a law in their lives they are being sentenced to a hasty “death by healthcare denial.”

Welcome to the world of “Change You Can Die With,” courtesy of our Democratic Congress and, your host, “Mmm-Mmm-Mmm, Barack Hussein Obama.”

Gerry Ashley

They Give Themselves Outright

To all who have served (including our own Gerry Ashley) and are serving: thank you.

Stoutcat

We Must All Be Sentinels, Lest We Lose What’s Left Of Freedom

 

“Living history is more treacherous than merely witnessing it.”

As a somewhat impudent young man when I was in school, I didn’t really apply myself to history class. After all, history was about things that happened in the past, and I was contemptuously obsessed with “now” and what mysteries lay ahead.  But when a “D” on my report card in history caught my parents’ eyes, they knew it was time to make sure I appreciated the significance of understanding history and, more importantly, our place in it.

My mother’s contribution was the short but time-tested phrase, “Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” I’ll get back to that in a moment. But my father chose to deliver his message in his own words, and those are the ones that ultimately haunt me to this day. He said, “We must all be sentinels to history, or else this fragile freedom we enjoy will be snatched away from us… and we won’t see it coming until it’s too late.”

An Execution in Virgina

So here I’ll watch the night and wait

To see the morning shine,

When he will hear the stroke of eight

And not the stroke of nine…

A. E. Houseman

John Allen Muhammed, the Beltway Sniper, is sentenced to die by lethal injection tomorrow evening at nine o’clock.

The Supreme Court has refused to hear an appeal. It is not expected that Virginia Governor Tim Kaine will intervene.

I’m not sure whether I should say, “Let God have mercy on him,” or “May he rot in hell.”

A little of both, I think.

UPDATE: It is done.

Stoutcat

And the Walls Came Tumbling Down

“Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”

And so down it came.

We win. They lose.

UPDATE: Michelle Malkin gives an update and a Reagan shout-out.

Stoutcat

An Unsustainable Narrative

I wonder how much longer the media will attempt to spin the Fort Hood massacre as  “pre-virtual vicarious Post Traumatic Stress Disorder”. ABC News reports today:

U.S. intelligence agencies were aware months ago that Army Major Nidal Hasan was attempting to make contact with people associated with al Qaeda, two American officials briefed on classified material in the case told ABC News.

So, Chris Wallace, do you now have any thoughts as to whether religion played a role in Hasan’s attacks at Fort Hood? 

And Time Magazine: still think it was “secondary trauma” that caused him to shout, “Allahu Akbar”?

How about you, Cape Cod Times? Still mystified as to Hasan’s motives?

Closing your eyes to a situation you do not wish to acknowledge does not mean that the situation does not exist. It is the somewhat more dignified version of sticking your fingers in your ears and singing, “La la la la, I can’t hear you!”

Retired Army lieutenant colonel Allan West doesn’t have his fingers in his ears, and his eyes are wide open. Via Stacy McCain, here’s West’s take on the situation:

We have become so politically correct that our media is more concerned about the stress of the shooter, Major Nidal Malik Hasan. The misplaced benevolence intending to portray him as a victim is despicable…

This is not a “man caused disaster”. It is what it is, an Islamic jihadist attack…

As Stacy says, read the whole thing.

If we continue to allow ourselves to be lulled back into a 9/10 mentality, we are doomed to see a repeat of 9/11, and on a larger, more horrific scale.

In the meantime, how much longer will the media persist in their narrative? These aren’t the jihadis you’re looking for. You can go about your business. Move along. Move along.

UPDATE:  Sissy Willis says “The media treat it like a case of non-denominational shoplifting.” And they do.

Stoutcat

They Still Don’t Get It

I just don’t understand how so many people/groups/media sources can remain in a 9/10 mindset. But they persist. The latest example comes from my local paper, the Cape Cod Times, which ran a front page headline yesterday on the Fort Hood massacre:

“A mystery”? A mystery?! Are you kidding me?

When our media can’t even face the concept that a horrible act of islamist terrorism was perpetrated on an Army base in our very heartland, there’s something extremely wrong.

Or as Jim Treacher tweeted: “If this idiot had been wearing an I Kill Unbelievers 4 the Glory of Allah t-shirt, they’d still be going whuh-whuh-why did he do this?”

H/T: Vanderleun at AmericanDigest

Stoutcat

At Least Someone Is Acting Presidential

Sadly, it’s not the President.

Friday night, former President George W. Bush and former First Lady Laura Bush made a private visit to those wounded in the Fort Hood massacre. No press corps, no photographers, no reporters. Just President and Mrs. Bush, comforting the victims. After a few hours there, they left as quietly as they had arrived. This is only to be expected of a Commander-in-Chief who understands that those injured or grieving may have no wish to be bombarded by camera flashes or microphones shoved in front of tearful faces.

The former President and his wife behaved exactly as we have come to expect them to do. With class, dignity, and grace. With gravitas and humility. In a word, presidential.

Has President Obama visited Fort Hood yet? Why, no. No, he has not. Right now, he’s at Camp David with the First Family. (Unless he is making a private trip out there as I write this, in which case, good for him!)

Barack Obama is our President. But as far as I’m concerned, George W. Bush is still our Comforter-in-Chief.

H/T: Atlas Shrugs

Stoutcat

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words, At Least

And the ObamaCare bill will only make it worse. Really, what more needs to be said?

H/T: Innocent Bystanders, via Instapundit

Stoutcat

To The Government, Jim Doesn’t Exist Anymore

In this proud land we grew up strong
We were wanted all along
I was taught to fight, taught to win
I never thought I could fail

“Don’t Give Up” by Peter Gabriel

When I walk up to greet him, he still yanks his hand up to shake mine in greeting. But the trademark firm grip has given way to one of a man 30 years his senior. He’s probably unaware of it, but he seldom makes direct eye contact now. In fact, it’s as if his eyes seem permanently fixed on the ground like a scolded child. Yet he puts on a great front for an old friend. And that’s what struck me most.

The government today announced unemployment is now “officially” over 10%. In Florida, it’s been that way for months. “Jim” (I’ve changed his name for purposes of this rant) was one of the statistics, but is no longer. Not because he’s found work, but because he has exhausted his unemployment benefits and is therefore no longer included when counting the number of unemployed.

“Isn’t that something? Now I’m not even considered unemployed!” he says. “For statistics purposes, I guess I no longer exist.”

No fight left or so it seems
I am a man whose dreams have all deserted
I’ve changed my face, I’ve changed my name
but no one wants you when you lose…

“It’s the government’s dirty little secret,” I reply. I know, because it happened to me during the recession in the early ‘90s. Once you exhaust your benefits, as far as the government is concerned, you no longer exist, statistically speaking.