Nikki Phelps, R.I.P.

This is Nikki Phelps.

This is Nikki's family.

Bill Phelps, Nikki's husband, and her two boys -- Harry and Jack -- watched Nikki waste away and die from kidney cancer.

Tragically, Nikki's form of cancer was treatable with a drug called Sutent. But Nikki's health insurer repeatedly denied her the drug, claiming it was too expensive.

Who was this despicable health insurer? Was it Anthem, Blue Cross, Humana? No, it was none of those companies.

Nikki Phelp's insurer was was Britain's National Health Service (NHS), the model for Barack Obama and his hand-picked appointment for the head of Medicare, Donald Berwick.

Donald Berwick loves the NHS and has said as much. He thinks it is doing a bang-up job and has praised its practices endlessly.

Berwick was a recess appointment for his powerful post as President Obama knew that he would never have survived Senatorial confirmation because of his infamous, bizarre and blatantly socialist statements.

"I am romantic about the NHS; I love it. All I need to do to rediscover the romance is to look at health care in my own country... [it is] such a seductress... a global treasure."

"[Among] the primary functions [of health regulation is] to constrain decentralized, individual decision making [and] to weigh public welfare against the choices of private consumers."

"Please don’t put your faith in market forces... In the United States... competition is a major reason for our duplicative, supply-driven, fragmented care system."

Berwick has routinely mocked the very free market and private enterprise systems that produce 75% of all medical and pharmaceutical innovations on the planet. The breakthrough devices and drugs aren't coming from the U.K., a simple fact Berwick appears to have conveniently ignored.

Sutent, the very drug that could have saved Nikki Phelps, was manufactured by an American company. As are three-quarters of all pharmaceuticals.

Worse, the UK's cancer survival rates are horrific compared to those of the United States.

• British cancer outcomes don't just trail U.S. results; "they rival those of Eastern European nations." A 2008 study showed that cancer survival rates in the U.K. trail far behind those of the United States. American men, for example, "have an 80 percent better chance of surviving prostate cancer than do their English counterparts... [and there are] similar disparities in comparative survival rates for victims of breast, colon and rectal cancers."

• Breast cancer mortality is 52 percent higher in Germany than in the United States and 88 percent higher in the United Kingdom.

• Some "56 percent of Americans who could benefit from statin drugs, which reduce cholesterol and protect against heart disease, are taking them. By comparison, of those patients who could benefit from these drugs, only 36 percent of the Dutch, 29 percent of the Swiss, 26 percent of Germans, 23 percent of Britons, and 17 percent of Italians receive them."

• "British cancer patients are substantially more likely to die of the disease than those in other western European countries because of poor access to the latest drugs, according to an authoritative report to be published today." (Cancer survival rates worst in western Europe: Telegraph (UK) 2007)

This is the health care system that Barack Obama, Donald Berwick and the Democrat Party intend to emulate. No free market innovation. No competition. No initiative. Only government rationing with a monopolistic, single-payer in charge of all health care delivery.

Like East Germany in the Sixties.

November is our last chance to stop the kind of madness that killed Nikki Phelps.


Related: Nikki Phelps vs. Hymen Replacement Surgery. Hat tip: Tiger. Linked by: Don Surber. Thanks!

Bill Balsamico: Restaurateur and Master of Political Correctness

Bill Balsamico owns the Casa D'Ice Lounge and Restaurant in North Versailles, Pennsylvania. Bill Balsamico is not the man you go to for political correctness.

Bill Balsamico is not "Papa B", but they have to be brothers from another mother.

The 10 Dumbest Toys of All Time

Democrats scheming to give child rapists, arsonists and kidnappers the right to vote

Oh, and murderers. Can't forget murderers.

These convicted felons and parolees appear to be one of the Democrat Party's most valuable voting blocs -- along with illegal immigrants. Under the guise that prisons contain too many minorities, the liberal activists on the Supreme Court appear to have ordered the administration to review the policies of all 48 states that currently deny prisoners the right to vote.

Forty-eight states, all except Maine and Vermont, deny convicted felons the right to vote, a modern version of the old concept of “civil death” for those convicted of serious crimes. In some states, as in Massachusetts, the ban lasts for the duration of the prison sentence. More often, it extends for years longer, through the parole period, as in New York, where in 2006 the federal appeals court rejected a challenge over the dissent of four judges, including Sonia Sotomayor...

...In every state, the impact on the black community is disproportionate, hardly surprising given that one in nine black men aged 20 to 34 is in prison. Even so, the numbers are startling, with disturbing implications for civic life in a democracy. According to an analysis by the Sentencing Project, a research and advocacy organization in Washington, felony convictions have deprived 20 percent of African-Americans in Virginia of the right to vote, compared with a 6.8 percent disenfranchisement rate for Virginia residents as a whole. In Texas, a similar ratio applies: 9.3 percent for blacks compared with 3.3 percent for Texans as a whole. In New York, 80 percent of those who have lost the right to vote are black or Hispanic. Nationally, an estimated one in seven black men has lost the right to vote.

As an aside -- for the first "post-racial" presidency, there certainly appears to be record levels of race-baiting and Balkanization going on in Washington. But I digress.

What the utterly incompetent Linda Greenhouse, author of this particular DNC press release, fails to observe is as startling as it is simple.

Of 23 peer-reviewed U.S. studies since 2000, 20 found that family structure directly affects crime and/or delinquency. Most research "strongly suggests both that young adults and teens raised in single-parent homes are more likely to commit crimes, and that communities with high rates of family fragmentation (especially unwed childbearing) suffer higher crime rates as a result."

One study that ran more than two decades found that nearly 90% of the change in violent crime rates can be attributed to the change in percentages of out-of-wedlock births. Conversely, divorce rates had no relationship with crime.

In The Atlantic Monthly, Barbara Dafoe Whitehead noted that the "relationship [between single-parent families and crime] is so strong that controlling for family configuration erases the relationship between race and crime and between low income and crime. This conclusion shows up time and again in the literature. The nation's mayors, as well as police officers, social workers, probation officers, and court officials, consistently point to family break up as the most important source of rising rates of crime."

Got that, Greenhouse? Control for single-parent families and there are no differences between the races when it comes to crime. Stop incentivizing single-parent families and you'll stop getting so many minority prisoners. But Democrats want blacks to head en masse to prison, it would appear -- as their policies have indisputably resulted in record numbers of single-parent families. Unchecked access to welfare, 99-week unemployment checks, bonus checks for kids born out of wedlock, you name it.

All that said, will the Democrat Party ever stop its despicable race-baiting practices?

That's a rhetorical question, of course.


Related: Dreams from My Single-Parent Family

Larwyn's Linx: Summer of corruption -- The enablers of Charlie Rangel

Have a great link you'd like me to review? Drop me an email. You can also install a Larwyn's Linx blog widget.

Nation

Summer of corruption: The enablers of Charlie Rangel: Malkin
9th Circuirt denies Arizona’s expedited appeal: Malkin
Congress passed law in 1996: contradicts pre-emption: Hot Air

Dems' $1.6B Tax Cut For Trial Lawyers: SAB
Trial Lawyers Poised to Destroy Health Care Company: GWP
Chicago: Where Criminals No Longer Fear the Police: PJM

Desperation never reeked so sweetly: Ace
SEIU attacks fellow union for concessions: RWN
Crist plumbs the depths of crackpottery: Malkin

Economy

Why Dems Need a $165B Union Pension Bailout: BigGovt
Clinton comptroller blasts public sector workers: Caller
GM's Free Advertising: CFB

Paul Ryan schools Ezra Klein: RWN
Illegal Immigration: the Truths We Dare Not Speak: Hanson
The Ruling Class Tosses Americans Overboard: AT

You’re Not Imagining It: America Really Is Less Free: RWN

Climate & Energy

'Global warming skeptics should commit suicide': RWN

Media

Strange Dream: R&R
A Paler Shade Of White – The Journolist Conspirators: iOTW
Gibbs takes on Rush Limbaugh... again: WSJ

No Bias Zone: ‘Journalist’ Calls Tea Parties ‘Right-Wing Bloodfeasts’: RWN
JournoList, Shame of a Nation: We Know What Ezra Klein Knew and When He Knew It: BigJournalism
Lobbyists Give Millions to Dems As Obama Smears ‘Special Interests’: GWP

World

Buying into Britain's Debacle: AT
The Multiplying Mysteries of Creating an Islamic Center Near Ground Zero: Rosett
Attaturk Tattoos on the Rise in Turkey: TAB

The Two Faces of the Ground Zero Mosque: Ibrahim
Taliban Spokesman says They Will Hunt Down and Kill Afghan Informants Outed in WikiLeaks Documents: GWP
Berntsen: Cordoba mosque is a security risk: Times-Union

SciTech

The Web's New Gold Mine: Your Secrets : WSJ
Apple tries to patent travel, hotel, shopping apps: CNet
Dell Responds To Crazy Story Of Nudie Pic-Stealing Tech Support Guy: Consumerist

Cornucopia

Play this while watching Anthony Weiner's rant: YouTube
North Korean football team shamed in six-hour public inquiry over World Cup: GWP
The Funny Papers: Hope n' Change: AmDigest

Images: CNet
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: drop a few bucks on J.D. Hayworth for U.S. Senate

Worst Toy Awards

Hat tip: R-Lo.

Ramirez on SB1070 and an Activist Federal Judge

Brilliant, as usual.

Darrell Issa's ObamaCare Caption Contest!

One of the few patriots in Congress, Rep. @DarrellIssa, named his top four caption contest winners. The challenge: come up with an appropriate description for the vast, new bureaucracies called ObamaCare.

Tied for second runner-up:

Joyce Ciotti, for Twister, Obama Edition

Also tied for second runner-up: Michelle Ray, for ObamaCare: Any Questions?

Our first runner-up: Mitchell Rosen for If you can read this, you're too close to the Obama administration!

And our winner is... ... ...Steven G. O'Dell for Do I cut the red wire -- or the green wire?

Congratulations to all of our contestants: in your own way, you're all winners. Except for those of you who are losers.

Anthony Weiner (D-NY) performs groundbreaking interpretative dance routine on House floor expressing concern for fragmented Democrat Party

Anthony Weiner performed an expressive pantomime routine on the House floor last night. He received more applause for his heartfelt performance than any similar interpretive dance since 1996, when Charlie Rangel pretended to shovel dollar bills into his Mercedes.

Despite a huge majority, Weiner was unable to convince his fellow Democrats to vote for the Mime Protection Act of 2010. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Next time, Anthony: use Jazz hands!

Apparently Maxine Waters Hasn't Done Enough Damage to This Society: She Moves From Racial Quotas in Housing to Racial Quotas in Finance

The disgraceful left-wing career politician named Maxine Waters (D-CA) made quite a name for herself about a decade ago defending the Clinton-era policies that led to the mortgage meltdown. Put simply, she supported underwriting vast swaths of mortgage loans to anyone: the poor, the real estate-flippers, the scam-artists, the illegal immigrants. In other words, she believed that loaning money to those who had no ability or intent to pay it back was the responsibility of you, the taxpayer.

Say, remember this golden oldie?

In 2003, the effort to rein in Fannie began in earnest with a Republican bill ("H.R. 2575—THE SECONDARY MORTGAGE MARKET ENTERPRISES REGULATORY IMPROVEMENT ACT"). The bill would have strengthened an independent regulator that did not have to kowtow to the political establishment. Like most efforts aimed at reformation of Fannie, the committee votes were typically on the straight party line -- with the Democrats blocking any oversight of Fannie and Freddie.

Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA): I think it is clear that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are sufficiently secure so they are in no great danger... I don't think we face a crisis; I don't think that we have an impending disaster. ...Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac do very good work, and they are not endangering the fiscal health of this country.

Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA): I have sat through nearly a dozen hearings where, frankly, we were trying to fix something that wasn't broke. [sic] ...These GSEs have more than adequate capital for the business they are in: providing affordable housing. As I mentioned, we should not be making radical or fundamental change... If there is anything to fix or improve, it is the [regulators].

The result, of course, was the sinkhole-like implosion of the GSEs that leveled the economy in 2008 and for which the taxpayer is still on the hook for the tidy sum of one or two trillion dollars.

Amidst various ethics allegations comes word that Waters hasn't quite finished destroying the American economy. Her latest masterpiece involves more wealth redistribution based upon race, ethnicity, gender, you name it.

A little-noticed section of the Wall Street reform law grants the federal government broad new powers to compel financial firms to hire more women and minorities... Deep inside the massive overhaul bill, Congress gives the federal government authority to terminate contracts with any financial firm that fails to ensure the “fair inclusion” of women and minorities, forcing every kind of company from a Wall Street giant to a mom-and-pop law office to account for the composition of its work force.

Employment law experts say the language goes further than any previous attempt by the U.S. government to promote diversity in the financial sector — putting muscle behind federal efforts to help minority- and women-owned firms gain access to billions in federal contracts.

...to opponents, the provision signifies a brazen government intrusion into corporate practices, with language written so vaguely that some believe it could lead to an unofficial quota system.

“This expands exponentially the reach of the federal government in terms of auditing,” said Peter Kirsanow, an attorney and Republican appointee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. “This is an expansion of racial engineering that we haven’t seen in a long time."

The bill is so broad that even Susan Collins (RINO-ME) has complained about its scope. It doesn't just impact federal offices and agencies, but hits contractors, subcontractors and other entities with as yet unknown dictates, regulations and -- likely -- quotas.

Maxine Waters authored a 1,261-word section that establishes "at least 20 new Offices of Minority and Women Inclusion across the Treasury Department, Federal Reserve, Securities and Exchange Commission and other finance-related agencies."

Waters found time to destroy the financial industry with her racial engineering efforts despite the fact that she's under a House ethics investigation that threatens to pull her wig off and plant her ample derriere in a federal lockup near Baltimore.

A House ethics subcommittee has completed its investigation into allegations of wrongdoing by Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), and could announce its next steps before lawmakers leave town for the August recess Friday, according to sources familiar with the process.

The committee is in discussions with Waters about the case, in which investigators looked at whether she broke House rules by improperly intervening with federal officials on behalf of a local bank, OneUnited Bank, that her husband owned stock in and once sat on the board of directors.

Maxine Waters appears to be a one-woman wrecking crew -- a female version of Andrew Cuomo perhaps, only with more conflicts-of-interest.