Red Room Where the Writers Are

While I've been paying a bit of attention lately to the local stage to try to do my part in making sure we don't have another disastrous four years under Governor Jon Corzine (especially since I unfortunately did my part to put him IN office by voting for him), the national circus has continued. Rather than a long-winded tirade today, let's just do a tally, shall we?

$6,700 - The amount of money PER FAMILY, REGARDLESS OF INCOME, energy prices will increase PER YEAR if Cap and Trade passes. This is not MY estimate, it is that of the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office.

$4,000 - The amount of money insurance premiums will INCREASE under current Healthcare Reform proposals. The same proposals that are supposed to drive down the cost of insurance.

10-15 million - The number of people that will still be left uninsured under current Healthcare Reform proposals. The same proposals that were designed to ensure coverage for EVERYONE. These people will still run to the emergency room, JUST AS THEY DO NOW, when they're sick, driving up the cost for you and me (see previous entry).

Nothing. What will change for the better under any of the current healthcare proposals.

No. What Democrats voted to a Republican proposal to help open up state regulations to allow competition across state lines. The same Democrats who claim more competition is needed in healthcare. Apparently, Government-run competition is the only competition they care to have. There are 500 other Republican amendments and healthcare bills - all of which resulted in the same NO vote.

5x Amount the population of polar bears has INCREASED since the 1960s, despite Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth claiming they're dying off because they're drowning as the polar ice cap melts.

43 Number of Presidents (yes, including George W. Bush and his Iraq war) whose spending you could combine and still not reach the amount of spending Barack Obama has done in 9 months (just a reminder - Obama is the 44th President, so you do the math).

Up. The direction gas prices go as the US dollar falls in value. Oh, and so does the price of everything else. Don't worry, though, something does fall along with the value of the dollar: the United States' standing in the world.

250,000 Number of jobs the administration claims to have created or saved with the stimulus. Problem is, experts agree that there is no way to determine this number - the only thing to really look at is we're still losing hundreds of thousands of jobs a month.

8% The level unemployment was not supposed to cross if we quickly passed the stimulus package. Current level: 9.8 (closer to 17 if you count the people who have given up looking for work).

1 Number of television news outlets that offer an opposing viewpoint to that of the administration. Not-so-ironically, also the number of television news outlets the White House has chosen to publicly attack. If you believe Fox News is the only news with a slant out there, just turn on MSNBC for a minute. Go ahead...look it up...I'm sure your cable company carries it. This is where you find "news" men who get tingles up their legs when Obama speaks, think Rush Limbaugh should be "shot in the head" on national television and much much more.

43 Number of troops that have died in Afghanistan since General McChrystal called for reinforcements. White House trying to make up their mind. It took 5 months to pick the dog, so we can expect many more casualties before they make a decision.

1 Number of times a COMEDY skit has been FACT-CHECKED by a mainstream media outlet. Thanks CNN! If you'd only done this earlier, I would have known that the Coneheads weren't really from France!

2 Number of Obama czars who have now had video surface of them saying they agree with Chairman Mao on some philosphy or other. Does it matter what philosphy? The guy is said to be responsible, through his policies and political purging, for the deaths of anywhere from 40 to 70 million people.

32 Temperature in degrees Fahrenheit in HELL this past Saturday as the NEW YORK TIMES actually claimed Fox News to be the winner in the White House / Fox News battle.

20 Percentage of Republicans sampled in a recent Washington Post/ABC poll that said the majority of Americans wanted a public option in healthcare. 20% doesn't exactly seem balanced.

1 Number of United States Constitutions that will be overridden by the treaty Barack Obama is set to sign in Copenhagen regarding climate change action. Oh, that's right, we only HAVE 1 US Constitution. Problem is, folks, any international treaties we sign supercede it. The goal of this treaty - and I've been reading it - is to redistribute the wealth of developed nations (namely the U.S.) to developing nations, as a penalty for all the horrible CO2 we've produced over the years.

2.2 And, just as a reminder, the number of jobs Spain lost for every job Cap and Trade created. That's what we need Mr. President - policies that are going to kill even more jobs!

Ahh, the Obama Administration. The gift that keeps on giving.

J.E. Braun is the author of Paranoia, a 9/11 survivor's tale. Jim survived 9/11, but his life did not. Follow one man's journey through post-traumatic stress as he attempts to rediscover what once made life worth living. 10% of profits from sales of Paranoia will be donated to the Twin Towers Orphan Fund (www.ttof.org). For more information, visit www.jebraun.com.