Note: I know very little about the financial situation of the latest Dim “poster family” for socialized medicine, though from what I can see up front, either I know a LOT more than the Dims did before selecting lil Graeme Frost to send to the front in their all-out assault on personal responsibility in attempt to make every American suck on the government teat, or the Dims are so assured that enough Americans are complete idiots that their selection really doesn’t matter. It’s all about the sizzle. Forget the damned steak!
Is Jumping the Shark scheduled to become an Olympic event? Dim bulbs within and around and about the leftist flank of the body politic must think so, since the whole left seems bound up in practicing for the event with the SCHIP Scam–once again parading a poorly-chosen mopsy as a poster child for socialized medicine.
Accused of “stalking” for doing due diligence that left-wingers find so offensive (“Who needs facts? We have our ideologies!” as it were :-)), Michelle Malkin has a brief roundup of the pertinent facts known (not ginned up faux facts) so far about the SCHIP poster family, as well as a very, very brief review of past leftist B.S. using poster children that weren’t.
Example: Anyone recall Jennifer Bush? Hillary’s much-ballyhooed poster child for Hillarycare? Yeh. That one.
Jennifer’s mother wrote a widely-publicized letter to the White House. “Do you know what it is like to choose between purchasing groceries for the week to feed your family or buying needed medications for your chronically ill child?” Kathleen Bush asked…. [In February 2000], Kathleen Bush – Hillary Clinton’s once-proud and loud sister in arms  was sentenced to five years in prison on two counts of aggravated child abuse and one count of fraud. She also pled guilty to a separate count of welfare fraud for misrepresenting $60,000 in assets on Medicaid forms. “There was probably more abuse in this single case,” lead prosecutor Bob Nichols noted, “than in all of the child-abuse cases I’ve prosecuted in my life combined.”
Another fine example of Dims’ “poster child” method of public persuasion.
So, when folks outside the mainstream of the Mass Media Podpeople Hivemind actually, well, look into the background of Dims’ poster children, they are doing what the media ought to have done to begin with: vet the legitimacy and relevance of the example being touted. If that’s “stalking” then I, for one, am all for it. Let me remind you once again,
“A society whose citizens refuse to see and investigate the facts, who refuse to believe that their government and their media will routinely lie to them and fabricate a reality contrary to verifiable facts, is a society that chooses and deserves the Police State Dictatorship it’s going to get.† Ian Williams Goddard
What these accusers calling Malkin and others “stalkers” are really saying is, “Don’t question the Dims; don’t question Mass Media Podpeople or do the job they should be doing; just lap up whatever poison is spoonfed you. Anyone questioning the methods and/or goals of leftists, looking for facts, etc., is guilty of laesa maiestas–insult to the rulers.” (Except, of course, such accusers have no idea what the concept “laesa maiestas” is or whence it came about.)
I do not doubt that the Dims’ latest poster child was greviously harmed along with his sister in the car wreck that was the source of all the medical intervention that CHIP was used to pay for. I do ask where his parents’ car insurance was and why it apparently was insufficient to cover expenses. Cheap car insurance, maybe? Maryland is a “no fault” state, which pretty much means that regardless who caused the accident where Graeme and his sister were injured, the Frosts’ insurance would have been the primary payor in treating their injuries.*
Just wondering. Anyone “stalked” the Frosts long enough, deeply enough to know if they bothered to carry adequate insurance on their car(s), if not their children?
Regardless, absent any definitive data, at least some people outside the Mass Media Podpeople Hivemind and the Dims’ Olympic Jumping the Shark training pool are asking pertinent questions and seeking facts. I do NOT expect that ANY information will come to light that paints the Frosts as belonging to the despicable Kathleen Bush category. They seem, from the facts so far, to be of a much milder, more insidious variety of societal leech: making enough money to live well (and no, I don’t for a milisecond credence the “$45,000/year joint income”** claim. Smells like bullshit, but I’m willing to be persuaded by facts that I’m wrong), especially as long as they soak taxpayers for expenses most families budget for and handle on their own. Even families making “only” $45,000 per year (but willing to forgo the granite countertops in favor of something more suitable to responsible money management).
*DO NOTE: even in no fault states like Maryland, IF someone other than the Frosts had been at fault in the accident, THEN, given the extent of the children’s injuries, generally the at fault party could have been sued for damages. Not sure about Maryland law specifically, but that’s pretty much the general rule. Oops. I see from info all over the place, now, that it was a one-car wreck, apparently caused by Mommy driving too fast for the road conditions. Injuries to the two (out of three in the SUV) kids seem consistent with NO SEAT BELTS WORN. Hmmm, and I thought Maryland had a mandatory seat belt law…
Makes me wonder about the accident even more. Regardless, from the Frost-y response, it seems that Ma n Pa Frost do not accept any responsibility for the results of the accident… Though again, I could be persuaded by facts pointing to the contrary.
**Yeh, about that doubt… even with a full ride on the 2 children attending private school (which would amount to a $40,000 income boost-in-kind *heh*), the claimed $1,200/month mortgage payment (Bonnie Frost, claiming that’s how much health insurance would have cost them–as much as their $1,200/month mortgage) would place them way over the edge of qualifying for a loan, IF their income were $45,000/year. I’ve seen some DU-ers claim they bought the house in the 90s for $55,000, but that makes no sense if their mortgage payments are $1,200, unless they’ve tapped part of their equity. Still, living in a home that, according to property values on their street must be worth somewhere well north of $400,000 (not quite: see below), and owning a commercial property (with paying tenant) that was worth $160,000 back in the early 90s and a nice shiny SUV, they’d be tapped out just making payments and property taxes, etc., while buying basic groceries for a family of six. IF they were making only $45,000/year as they claim.
Addendum: Just “Zillowed” the address of their home. Zillow.com says it’s worth more than $360,000. Nice. If the cost of their home were truly what the Maryland Department of Assessments and Taxation, BALTIMORE CITY Real Property Data Search says, they’ve seen a $305,000 appreciation, at a minimum. Sizable equity. Along with the commercial property, assets upwards of $500,000. Not exactly a “needy” family, now are they?
Note that, “were truly what… ” above. Sweet deal. Property tax evals are consistently UNDER real market valuations in many cases (compare the 2007 property tax evals at the link above with the Zillow.com page). When it was purchased/transferred, the property tax evaluation was $145,680, yet it was purchased for $55,000. Nice. I wish I could get a sweet deal like that. Hmmm, I wonder what relationship–if any–existed between Thomas A Muth and F Halsey Frost, eh? (The $52,500 last-listed “transfer” was in 2005, “transferring” the property to F Halsey AND Bonnie Frost… for much, much, much less than market value–what’s that all about? Any real property lawyers wanna chime in? Did Halsey “sell” it to himself and his wife? For less than he paid for it 15 years previously? :-))
All matters of personal choice. Get a sweetheart insider’s deal on a home that appreciates 700% from your buying price. Maybe cash in some of the equity for a loan (hence the claimed $1,200/month mortgage?), buy other real property, own ones own business, rent property to others, claim only $45,000 (after all the neato-keano write-offs ones business can accumulate), send two of four (“Too bad you other two. You can just go to prison for kids with all the other losers.”) kids to private school, suck at the public teat instead of buying ones own insurance like responsible Americans.
Personal choices.
Here at America’s Third World County central, we drive safe, reliable used cars–no, no fancy SUVs– live in a modest 2,000 square foot home (counting the finished basement with bath and 2 BR) and pay for our own health insurance, thank you. No granite countertops or private schools, either. But then, we also don’t own rental property and have $300,000 or more in equity to play with (to borrow against for medical bills–or just to pay premiums while one adult gets a job that has insurance–or to sell and “move down” as responsible adults might do?).
All speculation from marshmallow factoids, but certainly more information than the Dims want folks to know. Just wondering what all the facts really are… But from what is known so far, the Dims really do look like they think Jumping the Shark is a new Olympic sport they should train for.
[The Zillow.com thing I found through a Google search. The Maryland records search I found a link to over in the discussion at Captains Quarters.]
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