The State of Wisconsin Medical Examining Board has found fault with medical record keeping of the doctors who participated in the sick note scam first exposed by the MacIver News Service in February.

The Board issued formal reprimands for seven Doctors involved in the scandal and will require them to attend four hours of continuing education on the importance of keeping proper records.

Four. Whole. Hours.

No discipline was issued for the sham sick notes that were handed out on the street corner without having conducted a proper medical examination. The lawyers for the doctors played the pity card today, complaining about the threats and abuse the doctors suffered after we exposed their scam to the nation 9 months ago.

Sure, they eventually nailed Capone on tax fraud, but at least he actually faced real punishment.

For nearly three years as Americans have struggled through this Great Recession, President Obama has given speeches that relied on failed Keynesian economic theory and the politics of class warfare and envy. As his big government policies have spent this nation to the brink, the employment picture continues to worsen.

Tonight, President Obama will deliver a major economic address before a Joint Session of Congress. The MacIver Institute expects it will be more of the same rhetoric and promotion of government solutions we’ve been hearing for the last 3 years.

The timing of the speech also conflicts with the pomp and circumstance surrounding the kickoff of the 2011 NFL season. As a Packers’ fan and in the spirit of public service, I directed our staff to comb through the hundreds of speeches President Obama has already made to give you a concise two-minute preview of his latest ‘big speech.’

You can watch this and not miss one second of Thursday’s football festivities as the 13-time World Champion Green Bay Packers begin their defense of their latest title.

It’s been one helluva weekend for President Obama. Last Friday, he received two separate smackdowns via the Judicial Branch of government, and by Sunday, everyone was talking about his dismal polling results as his approval rating dropped below 40% for the first time. Whether he realizes it yet or not, what this weekend really showed was that the Constitution matters. Trampling this founding document as he has done for over two and a half years triggered that precious parchment’s checks and balances, and it caused the citizens of the country to express their disapproval of his performance.

On Friday, the 11^th Circuit Court of Appeals struck down as unconstitutional Obamcare’s individual mandate, ruling that it represented an overreach of Congress’s authority. The court stated the health care law was “breathtaking in its expansive scope.” Further, it wrote:

“The government’s position amounts to an argument that the mere fact of an individual’s existence substantially affects interstate commerce, and therefore Congress may regulate them at every point of their life. This theory affords no limiting principles in which to confine Congress’s enumerated power.”

Although the fate of Obamacare ultimately will be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court, the Circuit Court of Appeals 2-1 decision (with one of the two ruling against the law a Clinton appointee), is an early harbinger of the Judicial Branch’s view of the matter. The Constitution’s system of checks and balances – hopefully – will ensure the Legislative and Executive Branches of government are kept in check when our nation’s highest court weighs in.

In an unrelated, but equally important matter, the U.S. District Court in Wyoming on Friday rejected an Obama administration policy that had required more extensive environmental review of some oil drilling permits.  The Interior Department “had no authority” to adopt the policy last year “without public notice and an opportunity for comment,” Judge Nancy D. Freudenthal wrote. She ruled in favor of an industry group and vacated the policy nationwide.

This ruling is an indictment of the administration’s regulatory zeal. Between multiple Czars and Executive Branch departments, there’s been a frenzy over the past two and a half years to introduce policy by fiat, thereby circumventing the legislative process. The net result of all the excessive rules has been a stranglehold on America’s business and prosperity. The Wyoming court’s ruling is an attempt to snap the leash back on the Executive Branch, to remind it that it does not have unbridled authority over the citizens of the United States.

Finally, President Obama’s latest poll numbers suggest he’s lost the halo shine that hope and change once brought him from a mesmerized citizenry. According to Gallup, over the weekend his approval rating dropped to 39%, while his disapproval rating was at 54%. The voting public is exercising its free speech rights and sending a message to the President that it is exasperated with his poor performance.

It’s about jobs. It’s about an economy that shows no signs of real recovery. It’s about a President who wants to blame everyone and everything (to include a tsunami) instead of shouldering responsibility like a real leader should. Most importantly, it’s about the Constitution. The American people are tired of the big government suffocation in their lives, their loss of individual freedoms, and their sense of hopelessness. Just like the check and balance we’ve seen the Judicial Branch of government exercise in these recent court decisions, the American people are telling the President (and Congress) that we will exercise Constitutionally-protected rights in the near future. We will vote.

Follow Mike Angley on Twitter: @MikeAngley and on FaceBook: mike.angley.

It’s been popular lately for GOP Presidential hopefuls and many conservative pundits to declare that we can’t afford four more years of Barack Obama in the White House. I agree, but I would take it a step further. I don’t think we can afford even another year and a half of this big government, economy-busting wrecking ball. It’s time for the President to cut his losses and resign.

It took a lot for me to say that, especially considering I’m essentially calling for a President Joe Biden (hey, when hair plug Joe looks better than the incumbent, things are really bad). The catalyst came in the June 29^th news conference in which Obama discussed the debt ceiling impasse. During that odd, sometimes off-teleprompter rambling address, Obama delivered one of his typical un-Presidential cheap-shot, demagogic speeches. He chastised the Congress (the GOP) for failing to reach a deal and contrasted them with his preteen daughters (who always get their homework done early).

He also read aloud from the worn-out progressive playbook:

• Class warfare
• Raising revenue via tax hikes
• Saving children and seniors from the evil clutches of the GOP
• Yadda yadda

He called for the two sides to come together, but by laying out his vision for ending the impasse, he essentially defined compromise as the GOP agreeing with him and the Democrats. Then he showed he’s been spending his time on Planet Hypocrisy by scolding the Congress for even thinking about taking a vacation during such a crisis, while virtually practicing his golf swing at the podium.

I look back at his first two and a half years in office, and his record of “accomplishments” that would make any Marxist proud. We’ve seen a Stimulus Bill that effectively amounted to a big government hostile takeover of certain private sector industries (auto manufacturing, insurance, banks). He’s had a slew of Czars — unelected bureaucrats — to push corporate-killing regulation by fiat, thereby unconstitutionally circumventing the legislative process. Let’s not forget the Dear Leader’s Health Care (the constitutionality of which is being considered in various courts) and the Wall Street Financial Reform bill.

These initiatives have had one thing in common: they destroy jobs and devour what little freedoms we still have left, corralling more citizens into the pen of big government dependency. The Minister of Truth, Jay Carney (am I the only one who thinks he looks like Family Ties’s Alex Keaton after a really bad day every time he takes the podium?), tells us that up is down and down is up when explaining how we’re in a recovery (despite rising unemployment).

After two and a half years of this Orwellian nightmare, I just want to wake up and see Ronald Reagan sitting behind the Oval Office desk, smiling and assuring us that things will be better again. Wednesday’s performance was the final straw for me. Barack Obama needs to go, and he needs to go now. Mr. President, for the sake of our economy, and for the sake of the Constitution which I fought to protect during my military service: resign.

Recently, you sentenced a mother, Rosalina Gonzales, to five years probation, a fine, and parenting classes after being convicted of a felony charge. The heinous crime? Spanking her own child.

As you recall, the prosecution admitted that Ms. Gonzales did not use a belt, a switch, or anything else other than her hand. She didn’t hit her child in the face, head, chest, or anywhere but her rear end. She didn’t draw blood, break any bones, or even leave bruises—only some red marks. There was no injury.

This decision is manifestly absurd.

First, it represents an egregious judicial overreach. You should know the law: in Texas, spanking is not against the law. Your state’s Attorney General has even stated that disciplinary spanking confined to the buttocks, done with an open hand, and not resulting in injury should not be considered abusive. Ms. Gonzales evidenced self-control with all of these variables.

Before sentencing Ms. Gonzales, you chided her, “You don’t spank children today. In the old days, maybe we got spanked, but there was a different quarrel. You don’t spank children. You understand?”

I understand, Judge. I understand that you clearly have an agenda—an agenda that supersedes state law. You are supposed to be confined by the limits of the law, not subject to your personal feelings and judgments. This is a perfect example of what conservatives call “legislating from the bench.” Luckily, this is what will also get you voted off the bench the next time the people speak.

Second, the government should not be in the business of telling parents how they can and cannot discipline their children. I understand that some governments have laws prohibiting spanking (although your state government does not). This is foolish. Who are you to tell parents that they cannot use a discipline tool that has historically been used with great effectiveness throughout the ages? A government that believes it can mandate parenting techniques isn’t creeping toward tyranny, but sprinting toward the finish line.

Third, I understand that governments must protect children from abuse with reasonable laws. But spanking is not abuse. I am a child psychologist with over 20 years experience. I am an expert on parenting and discipline. I know what works, what doesn’t work, what constitutes abuse, and what doesn’t. I strongly believe that controlled spanking is one of several discipline tools that can help parents establish reasonable control and maintain an appropriate hierarchy in the family. This hierarchy is absolutely essential to achieving a parent’s solemn duty: training children for adulthood.

Finally, Judge Longoria, I have one more message for you: yes we do spank children today. Many parents spank, most of whom spank safely, with self-control, and with excellent results. I have spanked each of my three children twice; each of them is supremely well-behaved, confident, self-controlled, and empathic. None struggle with aggression.

Perhaps you have fallen victim to the common pseudoscientific studies that equate all spanking with criminal assault or abuse. However, almost none of the so-called “victims” of spanking grow up to be serial killers, exhibit cruelty to animals, or wind up abusing their children. Spanking does not, despite what several progressive studies have asserted, result in learned violence or anger management problems. The truth is that the two extremes of parenting—wimpy, passive parenting on one side and rageful, abusive parenting on the other—are the true causes of most child behavior problems.

Tying parents’ hands behind their back with hyperactive, compulsive judgments constitutes the real abuse. It amounts to parent abuse, society abuse, and culture abuse.

Judge Longoria, stop punishing parents for their good faith efforts at creating respectful and obedient children or many of those children will someday be facing your fellow judges for far worse crimes.

Sincerely,

Dr. Dathan A. Paterno

Clinical Director, Park Ridge Psychological Services

Author, Desperately Seeking Parents

The group is helping make the case to patients across the country about why Obamacare might be bad for their health.  Rather than spin, these doctors are offering facts born from their decades of practicing medicine on America’s frontlines.  They know the consequences for the quality of care when the government gets involved and the folly of many of the reckless assumptions the Obama plan makes.

Dr. Dorin recently appeared on my show and has been kind enough to share some of his personal insights.  As the townhalls of two summers ago showed us, the best way to fight Obamacare is at the grassroots level with cold-hard facts.

Here is what Dr. Dorin and his colleagues wanted to share with us.

An Open Letter Debate Challenge On Obamacare

It is my duty as an American to question any orders or directives from a superior ‘officer’, even the President of the United States, if those orders conflict with my responsibility to uphold the principles and Constitution of the United States, and if they impede my work to preserve the sanctity, safety, and security of its citizens.  Further, I am concerned that there has not been an honest, open and transparent discussion on the true merits of ObamaCare, which the public fully understands.

To this end, I hereby challenge any top leading expert in America who is a supporter of the President’s vision for our national medical system to a fair and open public debate.

As a board-certified specialist in anesthesiology, medical director, military officer, small business owner, and family man, I am troubled by several themes laced within the thousands of pages of the President’s health care reform law.  I’ll leave it to the majority of states who have sued the administration to sort out the proper interpretations of the 5th and 10th Constitutional Amendments. What concern me most are the five gravely flawed underpinnings:

1.  The attempt to ’socialize’ and ‘equalize’ health care “providers” so that the lines of distinction between physicians, nurses, and ancillary personnel are blurred.  Why?  Are the hundreds of years of tradition and time-honored values embodied in the M.D. (medical degree) of no significance?  Does the President not see consequences of his actions to elevate non-physicians to practice beyond the safe boundaries of their scope of training?

2.  The deliberate attempt protect the one segment of society, trial lawyers, who contribute nothing to the care of patients, at the cost of the entire medical delivery system.  Physicians, nurses, hospitals, equipment manufacturers, insurance companies, and patients are all asked to make shared sacrifices to save money and increase access to health care services; in contrast, attorneys are protected at all costs. The ‘trial malpractice reform test centers’ are a joke. The President takes tort reform seriously.  Why not this?

3.  After a year of painstaking discussions and disagreements among lawmakers, the President endorsed over two thousand pages of legal-ese to make a point of his resolve.  Yet after much political chest thumping, Pelosi and Reid, allowed over one thousand waivers to the very law he created.  Why the waste and duplicity?

4.  Great lengths were taken to protect the unions.  Why bail out the unions, but leave the patients and doctors to fend for themselves?

5.  A minority census of doctors-in fresh white coats provided for them at the door-assembled in a White House lawn ceremony purporting to show the solidarity between America’s physicians and the PPACA legislation.  What the President forgot to say to the cameras that day, or since, is that these doctors were only members of the American Medical Association (AMA), an increasingly abandoned and disregarded group with a membership of practicing physicians today of only ten percent.

Furthermore, the AMA receives about one hundred million dollars in exclusive copyright royalties each year from the federal government, a fact not disclosed to the American people.

The President’s misrepresentation of health care statistics to falsely denigrate our current medical system is but another important topic for discussion-one that we can have openly before the American public.  That is should anyone accept my challenge to a debate.

Adam F. Dorin, M.D., MBA is the co-founder of The Doctors National TEA Party and the founder of America’s Medical Society. He lives and practices medicine in Southern California.

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