DATE: Saturday, September 12th
TIME: 2:00-5:00
LOCATION: Cudahy Sportsman’s Club, 5350 S. Sheridan Drive, Cudahy
http://www.cudahytrap.com
MORE: Join CYP for a fun day of skeet shooting.  Here is your chance to learn shotgun basics and exercise your second amendment rights at the same time~We will have experienced shooters on hand to help you get started and a safety instructional course prior to shooting.

Cost $12

Invited Guests:  State Senator Mary Lazich, Rep. Mark Honadel, and others.

Come join CYP for our first downtown lunch. We have reserved a table at Mikey’s on Cathedral Square from 11:30 to 1pm next Tuesday.

Hope to see you there!

Is there any better place to kick back with a cold drink and listen to wise words from the CEO of an international corporation then on Lake Michigan? 50 Conservative Young professionals had just that opportunity on Tuesday and enjoyed it thoroughly. Don’t take my word for it, check out the pictures:

“Hey CYP fans! We just got a Twitter account set up and want you to start following us. If you are interested, we will be posting “Tweets” regularly, which will keep you up to date with the latest CYP happenings. The CYPMilwaukee twitter feeds will mention: happy hour meeting details, informative articles, and links to other conservative organizations’ and individual members’ Twitter pages. Search for our username: CYPMilwaukee and get in the loop today! It’s social networking made easy, fun, (and addictive).

Visit http://twitter.com for details on how to get your own twitter account if you do not have one already.”

http://www.widigest.com/

The Wisconsin Digest–always a good source for conservative opinion from around the country.

This JSOnline article notes that many of the country’s “best-known” health economists sent a letter to President Obama supporting the idea of an independent panel of physicians and experts determining what Medicare should pay for medical services.  Aside from pointing out that “best-known” differs from “well-known” — how many Americans have heard of even one of the signers (perhaps David Cutler)? — I was struck by the following line:

To achieve the desired reduction in expenditures and improvements in the quality of care, safeguards will be needed to ensure that the group is independent of direct political control and that its recommendations are implemented fully.

Is anyone confident that the “safeguards” will be sufficient to prevent political influence?   White House OMB Director Peter Orszag believes so:

The Independent Medicare Advisory Council (IMAC) would be an independent, non-partisan body of doctors and other health experts, appointed by the President, confirmed by the Senate, and serving for five-year terms. The IMAC would issue recommendations as long as their implementation would not result in any increase in the aggregate level of net expenditures under the Medicare program; and either would improve the quality of medical care received by the program’s beneficiaries or improve Medicare’s efficiency.

Apparently, Mr. Orszag would have us believe that the Chairman of the Federal Reserve and U.S. Supreme Court nominations (just to name a few) are free of political and special interest influence.  Rather than having government exert more control over something — albeit with high-minded and independent folks making key decisions — isn’t the best way to free it from political influence to remove it (as much as possible) from the political sphere?

Back in November 2006, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi claimed that “the American people voted to restore integrity and honesty in Washington, D.C., and the Democrats intend to lead the most honest, most open and most ethical Congress in history.”  On Friday, the US Senate Select Committee on Ethics released a statement indicating that their investigation into the Countrywide mortgages received by Sen. Chris Dodd and Sen. Kent Conrad failed to turn up any evidence of impropriety.   While failing to find any “credible evidence” of ethics violations, the committee did admonish the senators for not being more vigilant in questioning the preferential treatment they were receiving.

Perhaps Speaker Pelosi should criticize her colleagues for their past actions, which certainly seem to fly in the face of her aforementioned claim, before tossing the “un-American” charge at citizens concerned about her plans for “health insurance reform” — instead, she offers another promise:

We are confident that our principles of affordable, quality health care will stand up to any and all critics.

As the idiom goes, “fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me”.

It doesn’t look good unless we do something about it.  From the John Torinus & Tom Hefty article: 

For better or for worse, Gov. Doyle has been at the helm during this slide. An increase in education spending and added incentives for venture capital and entrepreneurship aren’t sufficient by themselves for the state to enjoy economic success. Success requires a plan. It requires leadership in the governor’s office and in the cabinet offices. It starts with a positive attitude toward business, and it thrives with enthusiastic salesmanship.

But it also requires that a cold, hard reality be faced: Wisconsin is falling behind. Our economy is suffering, and so are our citizens. We need to build a more competitive economy or reconcile ourselves to becoming the Alabama of the north.

It’s pretty chilling.  It’s not the reason I chose to come back to Wisconsin after school.

There have been some very good protests about Obama’s healthcare plan that will spend less and magically make us all healthier (even the liberal Mickey Kaus on Slate.com is questioning that proposition). 

Apparently, Nancy Pelosi thinks that if you are too well dressed, you shouldn’t get to talk to your congressman or go to the townhall meetings.

I believe in civility in politics, and if I went to one of these meetings, I’d really like to have my representative explain how insuring people will decrease our costs and how dramatically increasing taxes will get us out of the recession (the Congressional Budget Office is not buying it).

But that said, the most central fact to all political discourse in this country is that, usually, 97% of everyone doesn’t show up.  You can see it in our political debates and in our voting patterns.  So, when someone does show up, then I think we’d better consider that in context–that is, it’s out of the ordinary.  And because I believe we’re better off with it, we’d better welcome it, even if we don’t agree 100%.  It’s certainly worth paying attention.

And now… the White House is collecting names of people who are raising questions about these healthcare plans.  Wow.  The White House is a political operation, but it’s also part of the government, guys. 

If you don’t like this healthcare stuff, go here:  http://joinpatientsfirst.com/

And get on the boat:  August 11th–see upcoming events.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUaY3LhJ-IQ

What’s this liberal talking about? Maxine Waters–at least she provides some entertainment.