Michelle sends out the distress signal to Greater Wingnuttia, and, predictably, it is she who is the victim yet again:
On Monday, I did something that has everyone from King Kos on down to the dregs (a short traveling distance, to be sure) screaming “Stalker!” What did I do? I went up to Baltimore and interviewed a tenant at health-care poster parent Halsey Frost’s place of business and drove past the Frost home. That’s not “stalking.” That’s not “harassing.” It’s reporting.
This is stalking.
Why did I take the time to go to Baltimore? Because bloggers raised questions about the Frosts’ financial situation and made specific reference to these pieces of real estate. I did not “harass” the Frosts. I simply reported what the tenant told me and described what I saw after driving by their home. My basic reporting rebutted some impressions left by other bloggers on the right who haven’t been to these sites and assumed they were high-end luxury properties. They’re not. Moreover, I corrected the mistake that some of these bloggers made in overvaluing the house at $400,000-plus. It’s closer to $300,000.
The bottom line remains:
This family made choices. Choices have consequences. Taxpayers of lesser means should not be forced to subsidize them.
Meanwhile, others are shifting the smear machine into neutral before most likely making a quiet exit from this debate:
Bloggers who helped circulate financial information about the family over the weekend backed off a bit Tuesday. “It’s the difference between Google and journalism,” said Rick Moran, who penned a piece for The American Thinker. “It’s been proven that the family was means-eligible.” His editor, Thomas Lifson, said, “It’s just more complicated than might have appeared in the first round of investigation.”
Both said the Frosts became fair game by putting their family in the political arena. They questioned Democrats’ decision to use a 12-year-old as their spokesman. “It just smacked me as being unfair,” Moran said. “You cannot criticize the program without being accused of going after the boy.”
And finally, if you want to know how crazy, and how stupid, and how destructive this latest flare-up in Wingnuttia has been, think of it this way- THEY LOST AJ STRATA:
Much of what I have to say is based on information in my first, long post from yesterday. A lot also came from reading the blogs left and right yesterday. The Frost family is of very modest income for the area they live. They make $45K a year in an area where the medium income is about $86K a year. To qualify for S-CHIP in MD they cannot make over $61K. They are not rich by any standard. And liquidating all they own an becoming totally destitute would not cover the medical costs of two kids with serious injuries and a long road to recovery. The folks whining about their choices need to start from the facts and the fact is they needed to get help for their kids and help was available to them.
They are self sufficient entrepreneurs who try to give their kids the best. They supposedly paid their taxes, which in my mind gave them the right to access those government programs. They have 6 wonderful children and they have stayed together as a family. As one leftwing site noted yesterday they are really a poster family for the GOP. And that is what should have been leveraged instead of the low-brow attack mode some have lazily come to rely on for political discourse.
Heckuva job, nutters.
And remember the Malkin creed: CHOICES HAVE CONSEQUENCES.
The Frost’s chose not to sell their modest home to cover what would have been a fraction of their medical bills and become homeless, and therefore it is every patriot’s obligation to shit all over them every chance we get.
*** Update ***
The Frost elders, luxuriating on the front porch of their palatial mansion. (Sun photo by Barbara Haddock Taylor / October 9, 2007)
Big profile on the enemy in The Baltimore Sun. And check out the size of that pumpkin- it had to cost at least 15 bucks. Someone get Malkin and Riehl on that shit- choices, you know.
*** Update #2 ***
Basically, she doesn’t approve of the choices that this family has made. Doesn’t approve of their jobs. Doesn’t approve of their home. Doesn’t approve of what the schools where they send their children. So she strongly, vehemently believes that the state of Maryland should have forced them to sell their home, burn through the profits and any savings they may have on medical bills, and then, once they were really poor, I guess we could talk about whether, as Michelle repeatedly states, “Taxpayers of lesser means should…be forced to subsidize them.” (Sorry, her statement is a more of a commandment, that taxpayers should not be forced to subsidize them.)