Holder, Nutter and Me

Ka'Nard Allen, center, at a May vigil for a 5-year-old cousin killed in New Orleans in a shooting that injured Ka'Nard. The city has received federal help in a crime-fighting plan that also is in place in Philadelphia

Side by side Attorney General Eric Holder and Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter, the head of the Conference of Mayors, announced the new surge in Philadelphia to fight crime,  Just a little background information from the Wall Street Journal article written by Evan Perez and published on July 24, 2012. Philadelphia has experienced an 8% increase in murders, and a 3% increase in shootings (please note that murders are not equal to shootings). In a city of 1.54 million people this is significant.  Philly is well past a murder a day.

So back to surge.  The surge means that Atty General Holder is assigning  more than 50 federal agents to investigate  crime for four months. Let's talk reality.  Last year I spent over a week in the trauma unit at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. While I was in surgery having my leg rebuilt, my husband and brother shared the waiting room with a group of city women who were discussing who and how the individuals who shoot their children would be identified and removed from society.  Unfortunately, some of the murder rate is vigilante justice. As Mr. Memeger,  the US  attorney in Philadelphia notes in the article, "The reality is that we have officers on the street, agents on  the street and people see something, but they reuse to say anything to us."    Much like the old mobster days, this society has chosen to police itself. They    lack any trust and faith in the leadership of the City. Why?  Let's take a moment to look at the stellar examples of law enforcement at the announcement.  

We have a mayor who has stated that his proudest accomplishment is making the City smoke free, and that his next goal is taxing sugary drinks.  A tax that will impact inner city families more than anyone else. Do you hear any focus on safety in those goals?  I guess an overweight, smoking kid makes an easier target.

Eric Holder is telling the community that they need to cooperate with law enforcement.  Isn't this the same Mr. Holder who is ignoring subpoenas from Congress, and refusing to cooperate in the investigation into the murder of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry?  Isn't this the same Mr. Holder who has told the state of Arizona that he will not enforce federal immigration laws within the state's borders?  What an example of commitment to law enforcement.

I guess leadership by example is out of the question. And leadership in itself is absent.

Good luck Mr. Memeger, I wish you better bosses!

Internal Consistency from Liberals if You Please!

I am almost too frustrated to write!  Ok, these are the things that are driving crazy--

• Why do liberals believe in evolution and the survival of the fittest, but not when human being are involved?
• They believe that man is just another animal, but when man causes another species to become stressed, man must be controlled.
• This exception to the survival of the fittest applies to human business practices, too! If you are better at academic pursuits or business that is not an acceptable realm for survival of the fittest?
• Why do liberals call for all candidates to release all documents pertaining to their past practices except President Obama?
• Romney must release more tax records, but President Obama does not even have to release his academic records?
• And let's not talk about Congressional requests for documents
• Why can the President's health care reform legislation require physicians to request photo identification without disenfranchising those who need medical care, but the same requirement disenfranchises voters?

If its right its right, right? Conservative Black Barbie is going to take an aspirin and lie down now.

President Obama--I have a fundraising Idea!

I am holding out for the 50:50 drawing.  In Obama's voice, " You give us $1 and you have a chance to win 50% of all the donations.  At our drawing at the end of the ah, ah, ah donation period.  We all share equally, except your winning will be taxed."  I am not Barack Obama, and he did not approve this message.

What makes Mayor Nutter Proud?

Mayors Nutter of Philadelphia and Bloomberg of New York City seem to be engaged in dueling silliness unless you take a moment to ask...what's in it for them?  These two distinguished guardians of our City dwellers seem more like parents than public servants.  Mayor Nutter, recently elected President of the United States Council of Mayors, emphatically asserted at the First Annual Soda Summit, that he is "proudest of successfully implementing a smoking ban in Philadelphia." I can understand this.  If 182 murders and 442 rapes had occurred in my city by June 24, 2012, I too would be proud of my smoking ban...is my sarcasism too subtle?

Then there is Mayor Bloomberg.  Yes, I am embarrassed that we are both Johns Hopkins University graduates.  And yes, if they had to choose who to claim I would be left out in the cold.  I have to date donated no buildings to the university.  Mayor Bloomberg proudly attacked sugary drinks larger than 16 ounces. He proudly implemented the legalization of marijuana.  Let's also remember that this staunch environmentalist had room air conditioners installed on his official vehicles.  Plugging in the window air conditioners is supposed to produce less pollution than idling his Chevy Suburbans...or he could just start the air conditioners when he gets into the car like us mere mortals.  Or may I suggest the Prius that automatically cools itself if the temperature exceeds a certain level.  Did I forget to mention that there have been 179 murders and 670 rapes in New York City year to date June 24, 2012?


"I am sorry madame, but please give me that 32 oz soda.  I must write you a citation.  Yes, I hear the screams.  Yes, those are gunshots.  Yes, someone has been knifed next door. Yes, there are legally using stoners on your doorstep, but I need to focus on that large, non-diet soda." Would you like to be the police officer with this job?


Oh, did I mention that the in Mayor Nutter's case, sugary drinks would be taxed at 10 cents an oz...I smell a tax with some heavy cha-ching.  


So health aside, education aside, parenting classes aside, personal responsibility aside...lets make some income here. Makes me want a Big Gulp to help fund Philadelphia's deficit.

Fear More than the Mandate in Health Care Reform

The June 13th issue of USA Today (or as I prefer--Useless News Today) had a cover story entitled, "Calcium, vitamin D benefits disputed (for some unknown reason this newspaper does not use capital letters in their titles)." This article quoted the findings of the august U.S. Preventive Services Task Force concluded that "existing research was insufficient to assess the risks or benefits of taking vitamin D--with or without calcium to prevent cancer in adults." Note this is based on a literature review not primary research.

You may recall that this is the same group that told us in 2011 that women between 50-74 years of age did not need annual mammograms; and in 2012, that men did not need PSAs to find prostate cancer in the early stages.  Why?  It grows so slow, why treat it?  Too expensive, little return...unless it is your prostate or your husband's or your father's...

The health care reform legislation gave the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force the power to decide what qualifies as evidence as the PPACA moves us to the point where insurance and the government will only pay for evidence-based health care services.

In short, if the research is inconclusive then you don't get the service. Think carefully about all the treatments and cures we now benefit from that are not clearly proven by research--bone marrow transplants for certain cancers, off label uses of certain drugs, the accidental discovery of treatment side effects that improve the quality of life for patients with a disease for which it was not meant to be used. Then think carefully about this as a slippery slope issue--do you need a prosthetic limb when a wheelchair or walker will do as well at getting you around? After all the wheelchair costs $1000 and the walker costs $200. Are you worth the $5000- $10000 for the prosthesis? How many preventive service could that pay for? After all, you've already lost that limb.

Do you need a hip replacement at 75 years old? Society can immunize 500 children for the price of your hip replacement.

Who are these people who have been empowered to make decide your health care fate? They are a panel of academic-based physicians and one medical products vendor. Not one is a physician in private practice. A physician not based a facility dependent on government $s to support their practice and research.

Why are they now supported by a division of the federal government call the Agency for Health Care Research and Quality (AHCRQ)? When you pass a bill with 1000s of pages you can hide a lot. When Sarah Palin said death panels and everyone laughed...well, maybe not death. But this group will decide how valuable you are to our society... and the acceptable cost of your quality of life. Hey, old guy! Are you earning wages through an approved government activity? Just golfing and playing with your grandchildren? Then give back that hip!

Conservative Black Barbie has to apologize to my readers for being away for so long.  All I have wanted to do is stand and walk. But I am back-- tomorrow "Mayor Nutter and YOU!

How do You Spell Recess?

Our president took a moment out of his campaigning and vacationing schedule to thumb his nose at Congress...no, at you an me.  In a very third world dictator manner, our president made a handful of recess appointments.  The problem...not that Congress was not in recess, but that lawyers actually said that it is ok to make recess apointments when the body being bypassed is not out of session -- actually in recess.

Only a lawyer, following the advice of other lawyers could decide this is a sound course of action. Even a first grader knows that recess happens when class is not in session.  Please God, please let the little children lead them.

Worse still, our president, told we the people that if Congress won't take care of us then Big Daddy Obama will.

 "When Congress refuses to act and as a result hurts our economy and puts people at risk, I have an obligation as president to do what I can without them," Obama said in a speech in Shaker Heights, Ohio. "I have an obligation to act on behalf of the American people."

Would that be included in the "Presidential Obligation to act clause of the Constitution"? Hey, I am no Constitutional scholar, but I don't remember that clause.(What exactly will this Consumer Protection guy do that will improve the economy? Lessen my risk? Obligation?)

Even more maddening is the fact that unless K-Mart has a blue light special on cojonas in the near future, Congress will merely rollover and reveal its belly, hoping for a rub from the electorate.

Ladies and gentlemen of our elected bodies, either you act now to restore the balance of powers that our founding fathers inculcated in the Constitution, or stand-up now and admit that you will not trade your lauded positions, and lifetime titles (as in Newt Gingrich is not the Speaker of the House and Marion Barry is not Mayor of DC) for a principled action.

I remember learning to type.  (Yes, Virginia there was a time when we had to learn to type...keyboards did not link to anything...and we did not type before we could write...with a pen or pencil) The typing exercise was "Now is the time that tries men's souls." Yes, it is a paraphrase of Thomas Paine's, "These are the times that try men's souls." And, yes, it is as true now as it was then.

Congress, please find your souls or cojonas and stand-up for the limits of power that Thomas Paine and his fellows put in our Constitution. Amen!