BRITISH HEALTH CARE: “A MUM suffering chest pains died in front of her young son hours after being sent home from hospital and told to take painkillers. Debra Beavers, 39, phoned NHS 24 twice in two days before getting a hospital appointment. But a doctor gave what her family described as a cursory examination lasting 11 minutes, before advising her to buy over-the-counter medicine Ibuprofen.”

Painkillers for heart patients? Just following Dr. Obama’s prescription!

PRESIDENTIAL SIGNING STATEMENTS: Sauce for the goose.

ONLY IF THE ANTI-VIRUS IS PERFECT: If you could have computer chips wired into your brain, would you?

I had some related thoughts on this a while back.

AUSTIN, TEXAS: Hundreds Protest Against Obama Plan.

Judging by this video, a lot of people are unhappy in Massachusetts, too. (Via Hot Air).

UPDATE: Then there’s Leah from New Hampshire.

CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET OFFICE: Preventive Care Will Raise — Not Cut — Costs. “In yet more disappointing news for Democrats pushing for health care reform, Douglas W. Elmendorf, director of the Congressional Budget Office, offered a skeptical view Friday of the cost savings that could result from preventive care — an area that President Obama and congressional Democrats repeatedly had emphasized as a way health care reform would be less expensive in the long term.”

Plus, Senior Citizens Skeptical of Obamacare: “Senior citizens are emerging as a formidable obstacle to President Obama’s ambitious health-care reform plans. . . . Proposals to squeeze more than $500 billion out of the growth of Medicare over the next decade have fueled fears that his effort to expand coverage to millions of younger, uninsured Americans will damage elder care. As a result, barely one-third of seniors support a health-care overhaul, several polls found.”

CHANGE: 2010 Candidates Can’t Run Far Or Fast Enough Away From Washington.

VIDEO: Meet The Mob.

TIGERHAWK: Dissent, then and now. “The right has never really been effective with “out-of-doors political activity” for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that American righties, at least, have jobs and businesses in much larger proportions than American lefties . . . . So what has changed? Is it the scary prospect that a federal government dominated by the Democrats might change the country forever, or is that the left finally taught the right how to tear down people in power (the right having failed miserably versus Bill Clinton in the 1990s)? I suppose that most righties did not know there was such a thing as a ‘community organizer’ until the Democrats nominated one as their presidential candidate. Now that we know what it is and how effective it can be, we’re learning to do it.”

JOHN PAUL KEITH’S NEW SINGLE, “KNOXVILLE TOWN,” is now out. They didn’t send me one, but I’ve always liked his stuff.

WOULD YOU WATCH Gourmet Detective? Maybe if it starred Padma Lakshmi.

THOMAS JEFFERSON ENCOUNTERS THE HEALTHCARE DEBATE:

MEMPHIS: Town hall tension: Meeting turns ugly over health care. “Hundreds of people crowded into the BRIDGES building in Downtown Memphis on Saturday for a congressional town hall meeting that quickly deviated into a raucous shouting free-for-all, requiring extra law enforcement officers to watch over the scene. The meeting, hosted by U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Memphis, was scheduled to address constituents’ concerns about Social Security and veterans’ benefits, but the real topic of the day was health care reform legislation being crafted by Congress. Most people in the crowd of close to 500 were in loud opposition, although Cohen supporters held their own, waving signs that read ‘Health Care Now.'”

And reader Jeremy Kendall writes: “Interesting note: there was only one handmade sign in support of the public option at the event. All of the rest were handed out by MoveOn.org and the Tennessee Health Care Coalition.”

UPDATE: I wonder if there were any of these “astroturf” signs there?

ANOTHER UPDATE: ABC News wins the headline-irony contest with this: Painting Protestors as “Partisan Mobs with Lies About Health Reform,” Democrats Rally Their Own Activists to Visit Members of Congress at Town Halls, District Offices.

RUSH LIMBAUGH RESPONDS TO DAVID BROOKS. But it sounds like what’s really going on is that Brooks was suckered by David Gregory with an out-of-context soundbite.

CHRISTOPHER JOHNSON reports from Gladney Ground Zero.

JOHN LEO: Did Nancy Pelosi Forget the Bush Years?

MICHELLE MALKIN’S CULTURE OF CORRUPTION is now number one on the New York Times bestseller list.

KENNETH ANDERSON: Can You FOIA to Find Out If You Have Been Reported to the White House? And What is the ACLU’s Position? “I served for several years on the Free Speech Policy Committee of the ACLU way back when, and I can’t imagine that back then it would not have taken a strong position on such a move by any White House, regardless of party. On the other hand, as Wendy Kaminer has shown, it’s not that ACLU anymore, so I’m not so sure.”

NEW GUIDANCE ON schools and swine flu. “Most schools should be able to stay open even if swine flu outbreaks occur again this fall, government officials said Friday as they issued recommendations for dealing with the illness when the school year starts.”

TUCSON TEA PARTY: Rep. Giffords a no-show at her own event due to Tea Partiers — then lies and says she never meant to go!

UPDATE: Fish, barrel, busting Keith Olbermann.

ROGER KIMBALL: Get Out Of The Way? Not Likely. “I doubt whether most of the people turning up at town hall meetings to express their dismay about the President’s plans to revolutionize American health care have Robespierre in mind. But the people that White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs disparaging referred to as the ‘Brooks Brothers Brigade’ sense that a lot is at stake in the controversy over the future of health care. It’s not just a question of what doctors you can see when, or even what sort of doctors will be available to be seen in a government-run health care system. No, it’s a question of what Ronald Reagan called ‘imposing statism’ in the name of pursuing a humanitarian project.”

POT, MEET KETTLE: Crazed Conspiracist Bemoans Crazed Conspiracists.

UPDATE: Fears of hidden hands? Is Frank Rich paranoid?

“MASSIVE ORDNANCE PENETRATOR:” The most massive non-nuclear bomb ever.

JAPANESE OIL & GAS COMPANIES to tackle hydrogen fueling infrastructure.

IN THE MAIL: From Eric Flint, Grantville Gazette V. More stories in the world of 1632.

CHARLES LANE, IN THE WASHINGTON POST: House Bill Oversteps on End-of-Life Issues.

I was not reassured to read in an Aug. 1 Post article that “Democratic strategists” are “hesitant to give extra attention to the issue by refuting the inaccuracies, but they worry that it will further agitate already-skeptical seniors.”

If Section 1233 is innocuous, why would “strategists” want to tip-toe around the subject? Perhaps because, at least as I read it, Section 1233 is not totally innocuous.

Until now, federal law has encouraged end-of-life planning — gently. In 1990, Congress required health-care institutions (not individual doctors) to give new patients written notice of their rights to make living wills, advance directives and the like — but also required them to treat patients regardless of whether they have such documents. . . . Section 1233, however, addresses compassionate goals in disconcerting proximity to fiscal ones. Supporters protest that they’re just trying to facilitate choice — even if patients opt for expensive life-prolonging care. I think they protest too much: If it’s all about obviating suffering, emotional or physical, what’s it doing in a measure to “bend the curve” on health-care costs?

Read the whole thing.