Benjamin Netanyahu at the UN September 24, 2009

America, Are You Paying Attention?

For many years I've admired Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. I've followed his career, read his writings, and I've heard him deliver many speeches, but none so powerful as this.

President George W. Bush’s speech to the U.N. in September of 2002, challenged the world community to hold Saddam Hussein accountable for dozens of violations of international law. Today, Bibi Netanyahu challenged the world to stop Iran from acquiring weapons of genocide or risk losing all moral legitimacy. He threw down the gauntlet with Iran and with the world. There was no mistaking his words or his meaning.

He commended the nations whose leaders and diplomats boycotted or walked out of Ahmadinejad’s speech yesterday. He also shamed those who stayed.

To those UN leaders who gave the Iranian president a platform to spew his vile fanatical beliefs that the Holocause is a lie and that Israel must be wiped from the face of the earth, Netanyahu challenged their souls, "Have you no shame? Have you no decency?"

He showed the world original Nazi documents explaining the Holocaust -- documents that were given to him by the German government. He repeatedly asked the world leaders, “Are these a lie?”

He recalled that President Obama recently visited a Nazi death camp in Europe and asked whether Obama gave validation to “a lie.”

He strongly urged the world to stop Iran now -- stop them from getting the bomb, and he warned that failure to do so could lead to incalculable suffering.

He challenged the U.N. for its anti-Semitic and anti-Israel “Goldstone Commission” report. The report charges the Jewish state with war crimes for defending her people from eight years of 10,000-plus rockets and missiles raining down from Gaza.

He further challenged the U.N. to reject the commission’s report and thus side with Israel -- or accept the report and reward the Hamas terrorists in Gaza.

He asked how Israel could possibly take more risks for peace after the world condemned them for defending themselves from terror attacks -- attacks launched from the very land offered to the Palestinians in the name of peace.

President Bush’s speech led to a war with Iraq.

I suspect Prime Minister Netanyahu knows that war is likely coming with Iran. While I pray for a peaceful solution, I also know that all things must be fulfilled.

If Israel must go it alone — without the world’s help — Netanyahu will be on record as having clearly explained the issues and the stakes with honesty, with dignity, and with moral clarity. Churchill could not have done it better.

I've included the entire speech here because I truly believe it's well worth your time.

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SENIOR ALERT -- SERIOUS MEDICARE CUTS Coming In SIX WEEKS!

SENIOR ALERT!

MEDICARE CUTS SCHEDULED TO BEGIN JAN 1, 2010 FOR CARDIAC AND CANCER PATIENTS

REIMBURSEMENTS for CARDIOLOGISTS and ONCOLOGISTS are on the CHOPPING BLOCK in the NEXT SIX WEEKS

A reader alerted me to an article in today’s Memphis Commercial Appeal about Medicare cuts for cardiac and cancer patients that are getting little, if any, attention in the current hullabaloo over healthcare.

Dr. Arie Szalkowski, a cardiologist with the Stern Cardiovascular Center, writes:

“As the health care debate continues in Washington, lost in the controversy is a little-known change in Medicare policy that threatens efficient access to lifesaving medical services for millions of heart and cancer patients.

If enacted as scheduled on Jan. 1, 2010, policy changes recommended by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) -- the government's insurer for the elderly and disabled -- will severely cut current Medicare reimbursements to cardiologists and oncologists for critical care services that are provided to patients in physicians' offices or other out-of-hospital setting, such as chemotherapy to treat cancer, and various cardiac procedures to monitor and treat heart disease, such as nuclear imaging and heart catheterization.

These cuts will force cardiologists and oncologists to limit care to their Medicare patients, withdraw from treating Medicare patients altogether or require their patients to pay more out of pocket to make up the difference in the cost of these services.

Unless these proposed changes are rescinded, current and future cardiac and cancer care patients will suffer the consequences, especially in rural areas where the proportion of Medicare patients is exceptionally high and patients have fewer choices of health care providers.

The changes certainly will force the closing of outreach clinics in rural areas, leaving many people without easily accessible cardiac or cancer care. They will be forced to travel to hospitals, sometimes long distances from home, and to wait for hours, if not days and weeks, for the tests and services they need.

It is difficult to think of the emotional, physical and financial burden this will place on people already suffering from heart disease and cancer.

Yet the policymakers at CMS, who base their decisions on numbers and statistics, are unilaterally and dramatically changing the delivery of heart and cancer care by proclaiming that care for heart disease and cancer is too costly, while treatment for other diseases has greater value.

Such decisions are based on flawed and incomplete data. They disregard the fact that heart disease and cancer kill more Americans than any other disease, and that advances in heart and cancer care have led to a 25 percent reduction in deaths due to heart disease during the past decade, and a marked increase in survival of cancer.

With the U.S. population aging, along with an expected rise in the number of cases of heart disease and cancer, the ability to manage these diseases in a cost-effective manner while maintaining a high standard of care through the use of advanced therapies and tests will be critical for prolonged life. Studies have proved that people with heart failure have better outcomes when their illness is managed by cardiologists in an outpatient setting. Yet the changes proposed by those who run Medicare will disrupt much of the progress we have made.

Many oncologists and cardiologists -- myself included -- in Memphis and the Mid-South and throughout the nation, are faced with this difficult dilemma: How can we afford to treat our Medicare patients when the proposed Medicare reimbursements in some cases are less than the cost of providing medical services? As with all businesses today, the costs of running medical practices have increased.

While these changes will have serious financial impact on medical practices, they also will erode a doctor's ability to provide patients with the very best quality of care that has proved to be cost-effective and beneficial. They will erode a doctor's ability to provide the same level of care for people who live far away from medical centers such as Memphis. And they will lessen a doctor's ability to be the primary advocate for his patients, as opposed to a group of hospital administrators, bureaucrats and lawyers.

At this point, the proposed CMS policy changes remain just that: proposed changes. During the next six weeks, CMS officials will be reviewing them, and they'll likely be enacted unless the people most seriously affected -- patients and the doctors who care for them -- contact CMS officials and their congressional representatives to protest these proposed changes.

Otherwise, the day is coming when Medicare patients -- often the most vulnerable in our society -- will wake up and realize they no longer have access to the timely and often urgent medical care they need.”

The entire article can be found here.

Dr. Arie Szatkowski is a cardiologist with The Stern Cardiovascular Center in Memphis.

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More on the ObamaCare debacle as Megyn Kelly interviews Dr. James Klemis, interventional cardiologist and Associate Professor of Medicine, University of Tennessee, August 21, 2009:

9 - 11 - 2001 Remembered

May we never forget what happened on this date. May we never allow anyone to put some insane spin on what happened or attempt to dumb down our sensitivities or our emotions that resulted from that terrorist act. May the passage of time not lead us into apathy. May we never forget the horror, the shock, the terror, the pain, the grief, and the subsequent anger.

May we always be aware that a huge part of the battle against Islamic fascism is being fought in the hearts and minds of men and women in America as well as around the world. May we stand fast in the face of such wickedness and duplicity of our enemies at home and abroad. May we continue to search them out and destroy them wherever they hide.

May we always live in such a way as to be a shinning example for other nations so they can see the fruits of freedom and democracy. May our lives always reflect our belief in God and our Christian faith.

Almighty God, grant us the strength of will to do these things, for then we will prevail; however, if our faith is lacking or our will is weak, we will die and our children will live out their earthly lives in subjugation to tyrannical leaders.

The facts are clear -- America was brutally attacked by Islamic terrorists and it was a declaration of war against our way of life. They are still out there, as well as within our own borders -- spiritual wickedness in high places -- and they still hate us. Are we paying attention?

May God help us.

Thanks For The Honesty, Joe Wilson

Obama's Speech To Congress

The subject was healthcare, and as I had anticipated, Obama didn’t say anything new. The slick Chicago politician was selling snake oil and only the usual Kool-Aid drinkers were buying. The speech was too long on rhetoric and totally out of touch with reality unless one ascribes to the economic policies of the Tooth Fairy.

Lies and fairy tales were in abundance. The President stated, “Healthcare reform will only impact five percent of the population.” And when he got to,“While there remain some significant details to be ironed out," we were treated to something unique in recent joint Congressional speech history – a roar of laughter at the President from the Republican side of the chamber. It was honest laughter and it seemed appropriate.

Pelosi and Biden, seated behind Obama, were not amused. Biden smirked. Pelosi wanted to gavel something. It was a good moment -- too bad they didn’t get it.

Perhaps it was Obama’s audacity that then made him call for bipartisan support after calling his opponents liars. Audacity or no, you don't win your adversaries over to your side by lobbing loaded zingers at them. There was nothing unifying about our Dear Leader, only partisan arrogance.

The President said that no illegal immigrants would have healthcare, prompting the most honest moment of the night when Joe Wilson, a Republican Congressman from South Carolina yelled out, “You lie!”

Yes, it was inappropriate to yell out like that in the Senate Chamber, but after all, it's what the rest of us were thinking.

Obama's Only Shovel-Ready Project

HT Mark Alexander