No Runny Eggs

The repository of one hard-boiled egg from the south suburbs of Milwaukee, Wisconsin (and the occassional guest-blogger). The ramblings within may or may not offend, shock and awe you, but they are what I (or my guest-bloggers) think.

November 12, 2009

They’re Going to Need Bigger Prisons

by @ 5:44. Filed under Health Care Reform, Politics - National.

First, watch Nancy Pelosi give her rational for Placebocare:

Did you catch that explanation?

Well, the point is that we want to make sure that everyone has access to health care.  For a long time now people who haven’t had health care or provided it had placed the burden on others.  Everybody is paying the price for uncompensated care.  I don’t need to tell you that in a hospital.  This is to say we all need to do our part and that is the point of the bill.

If we follow the logic of Ms. Pelosi’s statement, by implementing Placebocare, we should all see reductions in the cost of our insurance.  After all, if we’re paying a “hidden tax” today for those who get “health care for free”, we should see a reduction if everyone starts paying “their fair share.”

Except we won’t!

Pelosi will point to the recent CBO analysis which claims that premiums will decrease slightly under the House plan.  The problem with the analysis is that the CBO does not consider the cost transfer of over $1 trillion, in the form of taxes on “premium plans”, those who refuse to buy insurance, and others, as a part of the insurance cost.  Let’s see, if we don’t have the program, we don’t have the taxes.  It sure seems to me like they ought to be considered part of the costs of insurance.

As I pointed out here, studies are showing that rather than reducing the costs of health insurance, the implementation of Placebocare will actually increase the costs of health insurance.  In fact, according to the studies by Wellpoint, insurance premiums could increase by nearly 2X for certain segments of the population.

Pelosi is attempting to claim that a transfer in payments based solely on the health care program is not really a cost to be considered when comparing the two programs.  In fact, Pelosi’s argument is that if you are robbed at the point of a gun, rather than complain, you should thank the robber for making your wallet less cumbersome to carry.

Yes, Pelosi thinks we should all be happy to be victims.  In fact, she believes so much that we should be victims that if someone has the common sense to avoid victimhood, that’s a big problem! 

Should you choose to not buy insurance, the House bill provides for numerous penalties up to and including jail time.  When asked whether she thought jail was fair for people who choose not to be victims, Pelosi replied:

the legislation is very fair in this respect.

Just remember, if you don’t succumb to victim hood, Nancy Pelosi believes you should go to jail.  I wonder when she will expect those who survived the Fort Hood terrorism attack to begin serving their terms?

November 11, 2009

Thank you, vets

by @ 10:37. Filed under History, Military.

I believe I said it before, but it bears saying again – Without your service and the service of those who served before you, I wouldn’t be here doing this in the greatest country in the history of mankind.

November 9, 2009

Monday Hot Read – Spiegel Online’s “The Guard Who Opened the Berlin Wall”

by @ 12:07. Filed under History.

The German website Spiegel Online had one of their reporters interview former East German border guard Lieutenant-Colonel Harald Jäger as part of their extensive coverage of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Jäger, who was in charge of the East Berlin checkpoint at Bornholmer Strasse, was the first guard to let East Germans cross over to West Berlin on November 9, 1989. As a teaser, I’ll give you a single question-answer exchange between Cordt Schnibben and Jäger that illustrates just how different the 9th was from the average day at the Berlin Wall:

SPIEGEL: The border guards used to refer to anyone trying to cross the border without the right documents as ‘wild boar.’

Jäger: Yes that’s right, we would use that term for people who would turn up at night, often drunk, at our checkpoint and wanted to get across. But it was different that night. These were people who wanted to get across because they were referring to a statement by a member of the Politburo. I didn’t regard them as wild boar.

November 5, 2009

Open Thread Thursday – instrumental edition

by @ 7:39. Filed under Open Thread Thursday.

It’s Thursday, and after that long post yesterday, I’m out of steam. Let’s have an instrumental to warm up…

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7WDAjG0r8A[/youtube]

You know the drill; feed me links.

November 4, 2009

Milwaukee Mile on its last cylinder

by @ 21:05. Filed under Politics - Wisconsin, Sports.

In case you haven’t noticed, I am a race fan. That is why it saddens me to have to tell you that the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has reported that Milwaukee Mile promoter-to-be Historic Mile LLC has pulled out after failing to get enough financing to pay NASCAR for the 2009 races put on by previous promoter Wisconsin Motorsports, an amount previously reported to be $1.8 million.

However, the news isn’t quite completely hopeless. Despite that collapse, Dave Kallman reports that NASCAR has not yet pulled the scheduled 2010 dates, the same weekend as the Sprint Cup race in Sonoma, California, partly because nobody else wants those dates, and partly because there’s still hope that a group headed by former promoter Frank Giuffre and including enough money to make that payment will get the rights to the track.

A bit of history of recent promoters and the State Fair Park board is in order, with a lot of help on the numbers from the various reports on State Fair operations between 2002 and 2009 from the Legislative Audit Bureau and drawing on the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel for recent events:

  • In 1992, CART car owner Carl Haas took over race promotions at the Mile from Frank and Dominic Giuffre, who had been bought out by the board. In exchange for exclusive promotion rights (with one guaranteed major race required, CART’s June race usually held the weekend after the Indy 500, and an effort to secure a second), access to the board’s bonding authority, and most of the revenues generated by the track, Haas Racing Inc. would pay a guaranteed rent of $300,000 and service any track-improvement debt financed through said bonding authority. By 2001, that debt service had become over $375,000 per year.
  • In 1995, Haas Racing had secured that second major race, with NASCAR coming back with the Busch Series after a 2-year run in the 1980s and the then-new Craftsman Truck Series.
  • After Haas Racing lost $1 million in both 2000 and 2001, due in large part to the failing condition of CART in its losing war against the Indy Racing League, they and the board agreed to finally replace the crumbling 1930s WPA-built grandstand and somewhat-newer bleachers to the tune of $20 million, with the bleachers replaced in time for the 2002 racing season and the grandstand replaced in time for the 2003 racing season to help alleviate that. Of note, while Haas Racing lost $1 million in 2001, the State Fair made $395,000 off that agreement.
  • An estimate done by a private company in 2000, specifically the same one that did an analysis of the effects of building what became the very-troubled Expo Center (that story is for another post), claimed that, after a 1st-year loss of about $200,000, the new grandstand and the additional dates and revenues it would allow would let Haas make a profit of between $360,000 and $720,000.
  • As part of that construction, the board and Haas Racing restructured their deal in 2002 to eliminate the minimum guaranteed rental, change the debt-service requirement to be in effect only if Haas turned a profit, create a hard 50% profit-sharing agreement, give the board veto rights over Haas Racing’s track operating budget, and give the board several new termination rights.
  • In November 2002, Jim Doyle (D) won the gubernatorial election over Scott McCallum (R), who took over the governor’s office in 2001 when Tommy Thompson left to become HHS Secretary. That began to shift the makeup of the board as two members of the cabinet (the secretary of tourism and the secretary of agriculture, trade and consumer protection) are automatically members, and the 7 other members not tied to the Legislature (each house has a majority and a minority member) are appointed by the governor to 5-year terms.
  • In May 2003, citing a loss to the Fair Park of $341,743 due entirely to $376,000 in debt-service payments Haas Racing did not make as they did not make a profit in 2002 (thanks also in part to the bleacher-only nature of the track in 2002 as the new grandstand was not complete), the board bought out the contract for $250,000 two days before the CART racing weekend and took over operations. That grandstand had been greatly scaled back to reduce its cost, which also had the effect of reducing its money-generating potential.
  • Despite getting IRL to come to the Mile in 2004, the board lost $693,600 on track operations in 2003 (including the $250,000 buyout of Haas Racing), $3.6 million in 2004, and $2.9 million in 2005. Debt service increased to $1.8-$1.9 million in the latter two years as the full effect of the new grandstand and other track improvements mandated by the various series took effect. Of note, the 2004 LRB report made the claim that the 2000 study was grossly optimistic, but failed to note that the scope of the grandstand rebuild was cut.
  • The board attempted to get an unnamed promoter to assume operation of the track beginning in late 2004, with requirements that the promoter pay off the entire remaining debt service through the license fee, secure a letter of credit to ensure that 2 years’ of payment would be made, and pay for all maintenance and future improvements to the track outside the board’s bonding authority, but that initial attempt fell through in April 2005.
  • Doyle was the grand marshal for the NASCAR Busch Series race in June 2005, and he was roundly booed (I remember because I was at that race).
  • In August 2005, with Doyle appointees, cabinet members and the Democrats now in the majority, Milwaukee Mile Holdings LLC, a brand-new entity with no prior experience at track promotion, was announced as the new promoter, and they took over in 2006, with an average license fee of $1.8 million. The board did give MMH parking revenues for the 134 days per year it had control over the track (something not originally envisioned, and something that Haas Racing did not enjoy), secured the first year of the $3.6 million line of credit for MMH (with a requirement that MMH renew it annually), and knocked $1.5 million off the 2006 fee. MMH also acquired a 4-year right to buy a park-surrounded property owned by a gas company and give it to the board after remediation in exchange for board-owned property between the track (still owned by the board) and Greenfield Ave to the south.
  • With ChampCar (nee CART) departing the Mile after the 2006 season, MMH was once again reduced to two major series weekends, with the IRL assuming the CART/ChampCar weekend-after-Indy date in 2007.
  • In April 2007, MMH assigned its right to buy that gas tank farm to the board (which then bought the land from the gas company) and agreed to pay the board for that transaction if it decided to acquire the land south of the track (never acquired), while the board agreed to defer $722,000 of the $1.8 million payment from June 2007 to December 2007 and agreed that the license agreement could be reopened after the 2007 racing season.
  • In December 2007, MMH filed notice of claim against the board seeking $6.4 million and a release from the license agreement claiming, among other things, a loss of a track sponsor due to the board’s actions and a misreprentation of revenues in the 2005 negotiations.
  • In February 2008, MMH and the board agreed on modifications, including a reduction and further deferral of that $722,000 down to $400,000, a reduction in the license fee to $1 million (with a sliding-scale deferral of those payments to 2017-2023), a reduction in the number of days MMH had control of the track to 75, and a change in the land swap from ownership to ground-lease rights on a smaller parcel. It also required MMH to secure a fresh letter of credit that included all the defered payments by March 2008.
  • MMH failed to do so by either March 2008 or its original annual renewal date of August 31, 2008. They claimed to have sustained $5.1 million in losses since 2006, and wanted to get rid of the license fee entirely before providing an updated letter of credit. The 2009 LAB memo on State Fair operations is unclear whether one was produced for 2009.
  • MMH ultimately provided a 2-year notice of termination in December 2008, stating at that time it could not pay the IRL or NASCAR fees, and giving the board permission to get another promoter. The board and the Department of Justice responded in February 2009 by terminating the license agreement due to a lack of a letter of credit, deemed by the DOJ as an act of default. The 2009 LAB report indicates that the DOJ plans on suing MMH for $2.7 million in damages.
  • MMH then-President of Operations Charles Napier formed Wisconsin Motorsports LLC to assume racing operations, which then entered into a 10-year agreement with the board – $180,000 in license fees plus 10% of gross monthly revenue (less only directly-related sales costs and NASCAR/IRL sanctioning fees). That revenue-sharing was to be capped at $300,000 in 2009, $350,000 in 2010, $400,000 in 2011, and $450,000 in 2012.
  • Meanwhile, three things severely hampered Wisconsin Motorsports’ ability to make a go of it in 2009, even if they had money and not just a couple people who worked for MMH:
    • The economy continued to crater.
    • Wisconsin Motorsports decided to honor $1 million in tickets sold by MMH even though MMH did not turn over the money. Related to that, MMH owed vendors between $500,000 and $800,000 as of May 2009.
    • NASCAR implemented a ban on unsanctioned testing at all tracks where it runs a race at any level. In previous years, since the Winston/Nextel/Sprint Cup Series did not have a race at the Mile, Cup teams could test here, usually in preparation for the races at New Hampshire.
  • Unfortunately, Wisconsin Motorsports did not have the money. They owe IRL about $200,000 in unpaid sanctioning fees, and despite NASCAR taking all the vendor money directly during their weekend here, they owe NASCAR $1.8 million in unpaid sanctioning fees.
  • In July 2009, Wisconsin Motorsports went under, and cancelled the Wisconsin All-Star Weekend scheduled for the end of August. Limited minor events, such as an SCCA event, did go on, while the board searched for a new promoter. The board declared that it would not be responsible for the overdue sanctioning fees.
  • In August 2009, Historic Mile LLC, comprised of Tony Machi, Jim Beaudoin, and Wisconsin Motorsports GM/COO Steve Jones (who left the group later in the month), was announced as the intended promoter for 2010. That was dependent on them getting committments from IRL (which had already released its 2010 schedule without the Mile on it) and NASCAR. They were chosen over several other groups, including one featuring the Giuffre brothers and reportedly including long-time CART/IRL team owner and owner of the Menard’s home improvement store chain John Menard (later confirmed to be part of the group).
  • In mid-September 2009, NASCAR announced that the Mile would have both Camping World Truck and Nationwide Series dates on the same weekend as the Sprint Cup race in Sonoma, just as in recent years.
  • Despite a disagreement between Historic Mile and the Giuffres on whether the Giuffres would provide Historic Mile a loan, as well as a lack of disclosure from Historic Mile who beyond Machi and Beaudoin was involved in that venture, the board and Historic Mile signed a 10-year agreemnent-in-principle at the end of September 2009. At the time, Machi claimed that Historic Mile made NASCAR “happy” (since disproven).
  • Simultaneously, while Dominic Giuffre said he was no longer interested in running the Mile, Frank said he was, and listed his other partners as Menard, fellow track promoter John Kaishian, and the Deckers that put on Eagle River’s World Championship Snowmobile Derby.

Where Have All The Racists Gone?

by @ 5:35. Filed under Politics - National.

In 2008 with Barack Obama running for President, campaigning on a platform (if you were willing to listen) of ideas that would move the nation dramatically to the left, New Jersey supported him by a 16% margin and Virginia supported him by a 5% margin.

In 2009 New Jersey and Virginia voters did not support the white, Democrat candidates running who had campaigned on platforms that mirrored Barack Obama’s of 2008.  The election results were not a mild rebuff.  Rather, they were a complete rejection with a 21% swing in New Jersey and a 24% swing in Virginia.

It’s hard to believe that in 10 short months an electorate who solidly elected a new President would just as solidly reject men who campaigned on nearly identical terms.  If it wasn’t a rejection of the policies, what would explain the dramatic reversal?  The AP has an answer:  Racism!

In both states, the surveys also suggested the Democrats had difficulty turning out their base, including the large numbers of first-time minority and youth voters whom Obama attracted. The Virginia electorate was whiter in 2009 than it was in 2008, when blacks and Hispanics voted in droves to elect the country’s first black president.

Wow!  Did I just read that right?  Youth, blacks and Hispanics voted for a black president but wouldn’t invest the time it takes to mark a ballot to give him support?  They voted for a black president but when it came time to vote for men who walked lock step with him in each major policy, they sat on their hands? 

There is one other explanation to the rapid evaporation of the youth, black and Hispanic vote. Perhaps these voters, like so many others, have been shocked to their senses by the audacity and self indulgence of the man they voted for last year, and wanted to make sure that he had no additional support to implement his new view for America?

Youth, black and Hispanics; they either don’t like what Obama is doing or, as the AP points out, they’re racists.  You decide.

November 3, 2009

Karzai Warns American President: Time For New Chapter

by @ 5:29. Filed under International relations, Politics - National.

From the AP of all places:

WASHINGTON – President Hamid Karzai greeted Barack Obama’s coat tail loses of Tuesday with as much admonishment as praise on Monday, pointedly advising Afghanistan’s partner in war he must make more serious efforts to end corruption in America’s government and prepare his nation to ultimately defend itself.

“I emphasized that this has to be a point in time in which we begin to write a new chapter,” Karzai said in describing his phone call to the American president. When Obama offered back assurances, Karzai said he told him that “the proof is not going to be in words. It’s going to be in deeds.”

At least that’s how the article should have read!

November 2, 2009

Once a RINO, Always a Democrat

by @ 5:51. Filed under Call me Carnac, Politics - National.

After Dede Scozzafava announced that she was suspending her campaign, I thought it was odd that she didn’t immediately endorse Hoffman.  In fact, you can see my comment about that in my Saturday post.  I guess this was just another of those “call me Carnac” moments.

On Sunday, Scozzafava endorsed the Democrat in the race, Bill Owens.  In attempting to explain her endorsement, Scozzafava wrote:

You know me, and throughout my career, I have been always been an independent voice for the people I represent. I have stood for our honest principles, and a truthful discussion of the issues, even when it cost me personally and politically. Since beginning my campaign, I have told you that this election is not about me; it’s about the people of this District.

It is in this spirit that I am writing to let you know I am supporting Bill Owens for Congress and urge you to do the same.

Just last Friday, for a FOX story, Scozzafava was quoted as saying:

“I have been a Republican my entire life, I will be a Republican until I die. I believe in the Republican party that stands for less government interference in the lives of individuals. I believe in self-sufficiency versus government dependence. I believe in lower taxes, less government regulation, I believe in less government spending.”

I wonder what “honest principles” it was that Scozzafava was upholding when after being “endorsed” by the GOP patronage of the area and receiving $900,000 from the NRCC, she believes that the best person to carry on her beliefs is a person who:

  • Will vote for the government takeover of health care
  • Is happy to take all the pork Washington will dish up
  • Believes that increasing taxes will help the economy

Oh, yeah, all of that should be right in line with a “Republican” who was pro choice, pro gay marriage and pro card check.  In what is becoming all too common in today’s politics, it appears that Scozzafava was willing to vote with Republicans before she voted against Republicans!

During the course of the Vikings/Packers game (BTW, Vikings won in case you missed it), HeatherRadish made a comment that she hoped the NRCC could get their money back from Scozzafava.  I shot back that they don’t deserve a dime.  Just like the folks who voted for Obama, the NRCC had all the information they needed, to know who they were supporting in Dede Scozzafava.  Also, just like the folks who supported Obama, to claim after the fact, that “they didn’t know” or that this is not the “fill in the blank” they thought they knew, is disingenuous at best and bordering on criminal at worse. 

The RNC, NRCC and other national Republican organizations need to understand that people like Dede Scozzafava and Arlen Specter while termed RINOs are not even that.  People like Scozzafava and Specter are/were Republicans only because their constituents wouldn’t elect a Democrat.  They were ROCOs, Republicans of convenience only.

It’s time people understand that politics is not just an adult party game.  It’s time for people to understand that politics, who you support and vote for, is consequential.  It my be trite but elections do have ramifications and it’s time for people to vote understanding what those ramifications will be.

It’s ironic that the same day that Brett Favre returned to complete against his career long team in Green Bay, Dede Scozzafava turned against the party that she claimed life long affinity to.  While my friends in Wisconsin may disagree, Farve’s change in loyalty only impacts a game.  Scozzafava’s impacts the real lives of the people of her district and this country.  Shame on you Dede Scozzafava!

November 1, 2009

PSA – set your clocks back

by @ 9:01. Filed under Miscellaneous.

This is the Emergency Blogging System. This is not a test; a test has questions.

For those of you in the US (and not in those parts that don’t observe Daylight Savings), Daylight Savings Time ended at 2 am local time today. If you have a WordPress blog (whether it is on WordPress.com, a WordPress stand-alone, or WordPress MU – this includes Blogivists and Conservablogs), and you had the time changed for Daylight Savings, you need to change it back to Standard Time (Central UTC -6, Mountain UTC -7, Eastern UTC -5, Pacific UTC -8, and check your clock for other locales). To do so, go into your wp-admin panel, select “Settings”, and under the “General Settings” page that pops up, select the right time zone. Don’t forget to hit “save” when you’re done.

Again, this is not a test. Had this been a test, you wouldn’t have been given official news, instructions or information. This concludes this broadcast of the Emergency Blogging System.

October 31, 2009

A Victory for Conservatives

by @ 9:47. Filed under Politics - National, Tea Party Movement.

WWNY-TV is reporting that Dede Scozzafava is about to announce that she will release her supporters to Doug Hoffman. 

The anticipated announcement is apparently as a result of this poll just released by Siena University.  The latest poll shows Hoffman and Owens in a statistical tie and shows Scozzafava supported by just 20%, a drop of 1/3 in just a couple of weeks.

The Party people in DC and at state level Republican politics, have been telling themselves that the teapartiers, and those who sympathize with them, are all emotion and no substance.  They tell each other that they don’t have to pay attention to the teapartiers, that they will fall back into the cattle line if ignored long enough. 

The Party people in DC and at the state level had better be paying attention.  Even if Hoffman loses, it’s clear that the folks sympathetic to the teaparty perspective can muster political muscle.  If Hoffman wins, it will reinforce the teaparty movement and bring people who have been so far, watching from the outside, into the movement. 

If Steele, Newt, Graham and others continue to have their heads in the sand, it will be a long year for them; Halloween 2009 will be just the beginning of a very scary year.  If they recognize the value, principle and passion of the teaparty folks it will be the Democrats who will fear 2010!

Update 12:10 PM – She’s out!  Interesting that she didn’t endorse Hoffman.  You’d think that if she really was all that the NRCC said she was, she’d heartily endorse the only remaining candidate that wants to shrink government and lower taxes.

It will be interesting to watch the spin of the RNC, NRCC and other national Republican leadership as they now attempt to hop on the Hoffman bandwagon.  I’m sure they’ll all try to hang their hat on some variation of “supporting the endorsement.”  From their standpoint, I’m not sure if it matters whether Hoffman wins or loses.  If he wins, the Teaparty movement gets a big feather to stick in their cap.  If he loses, all the fingers will point to the national leadership for having screwed this race up.

October 30, 2009

Paul Ryan drops off a copy of H.R. 3962 at the Franklin Public Library

by @ 14:33. Filed under Health Care Reform, Politics - National.

I attended Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-WI, and my Congressman) townhall meeting at the Franklin Public Library, where he dropped off a copy of the 1,990-page present House version of PlaceboCare. If you have the 36 minutes to watch the entire townhall, the 4-part video is below (and yes, it is recommended). If you don’t read the Cliff’s Notes version while you watch the short version from Ryan’s office:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bN8O8-R45aw[/youtube]

  • Ryan would have brought more copies, but with the bill being over a foot tall, he couldn’t carry more than one on the plane. Fortunately, he did put it up on his House website.
  • H.R. 3962 would represent the largest tax increase in the history of the country, with a surtax of 5.4% on those making over $500,000 per year ($1,000,000 for couples) hitting most small businesses as well, a 2.5% medical device tax, a new payroll tax and the removal of the tax-exempt status of Health Savings Accounts.
  • Abortions would be paid for under the public option, and the bill would also establish an accounting gimmick to justify subsidizing private plans that cover abortion.
  • In order to make it appear to be deficit-“neutral”, it removed a $245 billion provision that would reverse a planned reduction in Medicare reimbursement rates, with plans to pass that as a stand-alone bill (or more-likely, attached to something else).
  • The $170 billion in Medicare Advantage cuts will, according to Medicare’s actuaries, cause 64% of those on Medicare Advantage off that program and raise the rates paid by those remaining in it.
  • Speaking of rate increases, Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Milwaukee estimates that the bill will increase the insurance rates of those in their twenties by 199% (that’s essentially tripling it), those in their 40s by 122%, and those in their 50s by double-digits.
  • Instead of attempting to fix the joint state-federal Medicaid, which is currently bankrupting a lot of states, it increases its size by 50%.
  • The malpractice tort “reform” will be limited to states that do not cap damages, thus making it anything but reform (Ryan called it a “fig leaf”).
  • While the House Republicans will be offering a “consolidated” substitute amendment next week, it is unknown whether House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, as part of hers, President Barack Obama’s and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s plan to use one-party rule to ram this through, will even allow it to see the floor.
  • On the House side, the current plan is to get this to the floor on Thursday, with a vote on Saturday. On the Senate side, a cloture vote is expected sometime in the third week of November, but ultimately it won’t be necessary as the groundwork has been laid to pass this through “reconciliation”, which requires a simple majority instead of 60 votes to invoke cloture.
  • Even though the current tally of the correspondence at the Ryan office is 9-1 against, he urged people to once again call Senators Kohl and Feingold to keep the pressure up, especially because it is not inevitable.
  • He explained why this was his first opportunity to come back to the district after the August recess – Pelosi is trying to keep everybody in Washington so they don’t hear from their constituents.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ww5jwQkip0[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGznTy69Bhk[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghgSq3K4law[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0m7Fxnk_AM0[/youtube]

Revisions/extensions (5:02 pm 10/30/2009) – Just received word that the new bill has a new bill number. It is now H.R. 3962.

R&E part 2 (5:28 pm 10/30/2009) – The preliminary CBO first-decade scoring is in. Between the “meeting” with Obama resulting in some “technical” changes, the removal of planned fixes to the reduction in Medicare reimbursements (removing $245 billion in costs), a further reduction in those reimbursement rates (which, along wth other cuts in Medicare amount to $426 billion), and taxes/fees/penalties equalling $739 billion, they were able to squeeze out a debt “reduction” of $104 billion out of a bill spending $1,055 billion (that would be $1.055 trillion for those who missed the comma) in new outlays.

Two More Czars

by @ 8:07. Filed under Health Care Reform, Politics - National.

President Obama has acquired two more Czars.  Here’s a clip from their first meeting:

These are Czars I could accept!

H/T Big G

Oh, This Will Help!

by @ 5:50. Filed under Health Care Reform, Politics - Minnesota.

Queen Nancy unveiled her new version of Placebocare today.  Amongst the more than 1900 pages is a nice little gem:

Under Pelosi’s bill, anyone earning up to 150 percent of the poverty line will be eligible for Medicaid. This is an increase on previous iterations?and the Senate bill?which only covered people up to 133 percent of the poverty line.

I can’t tell you for sure, how many additional people this is going to put into the Medicaid ranks.  I have read various reports suggesting that the total numbers will increase 20% to 30%.

Medicaid?  We’re relying on an expansion of Medicaid to get more people health care?  I seem to remember that there were concerns about Medicaid….what were they?  Oh yeah, I remember!

According to Medicalnewstoday.com, in 1996-1997, 29% of solo practitioners did not accept Medicaid.  In 2004-2005, that number had increased to 35%.  The same analysis showed that group practitioners rejected Medicaid at the rate of 16% and 24% in the respective years.  The total number of practitioners who rejected Medicaid was less than 13% in the first period and 14.5% in the second.

Healthcarefinancenews.com reports that in a recent survey, 35% of all medical offices now refuse medicaid while only 17% refuse Medicare.

Why is it that more physicians are refusing Medicaid?  There’s a simple answer:

84% of physicians who did not accept new Medicaid patients in 2004-2005 said reimbursements were a factor; 70% of physicians said billing requirements and paperwork were a factor; and two-thirds said delayed payments were a factor (HSC release, 8/17).

Let’s see if I have this right.  Nancy’s plan significantly increases the number of people on a program that has fewer care providers each year.  For the rest of us, her plan lowers the reimbursements, increases the requirements and paperwork and will further delay or deny reimbursement payments.

If the definition of insanity is to repeat the same action over and over and expecting a different outcome, then Nancy Pelosi and anyone who supports her version of Placebocare certainly fit the definition of insane!

October 29, 2009

Open Thread Thursday – Extra blues edition

by @ 7:39. Filed under Open Thread Thursday.

This thread is open…

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etv4eXWndOU[/youtube]

Have at it.

White House v. AP on Porkulus

by @ 7:35. Filed under Politics - National, Press.

(H/T – JammieWearingFool)

Let’s walk through the timeline of the latest war on the media by the Obama White House, this time involving the Associated Press (that’s right, the AP):

  • At 12:02 am Eastern, the AP issued an “Impact” story stating that the White House overstated the effect of Porkulus by at least 16%, as in a partial review of 9,000 federal contracts they found that at least 5,000 of the 30,000 jobs “saved or created” were neither “saved” nor “created”. In some instances, they found that the same “saved or created” job was counted at least ten times; in others, there was no job at all.
  • At 12:15 am Eastern (via Fox News), the White House hit back saying that the AP cherry-picked the data, and that the larger set of data (100,000 contracts provided by state governments and various non-profits) to be released Friday will be correct.
  • The AP is not backing down, as they included the following in a 6:35 am Eastern story – “The reporting problem could be magnified Friday when a much larger round of reports is expected to show hundreds of thousands of jobs repairing public housing, building schools, repaving highways and keeping teachers on local payrolls.”

That, folks, is the reason why ABC, CBS, NBC and CNN stood up for Fox when the Obama administration tried to freeze it out of the pool. They know that they could be next.

The Coming Debate

by @ 5:35. Filed under Health Care Reform, Politics - National.

In May of 2009, President Barack Obama presented a commencement speech at Notre Dame. The belief that he is the most pro abortion President ever, caused a significant controversy both over his appearance at this Catholic University and even more so over the honorary degree he received that day.

Amongst some booing, catcalls and derogatory shouts, President Obama presented the graduates with a his view of how polarizing issues should be addressed in the United States. Here is a clip of President Obama as he applies his view to perhaps the single most polarizing issue in America, abortion:

In case you missed it, here is what President Obama said in this clip:

Now, understand — understand, Class of 2009, I do not suggest that the debate surrounding abortion can or should go away. Because no matter how much we may want to fudge it — indeed, while we know that the views of most Americans on the subject are complex and even contradictory — the fact is that at some level, the views of the two camps are irreconcilable. Each side will continue to make its case to the public with passion and conviction. But surely we can do so without reducing those with differing views to caricature.

Did you get that?  According to President Obama, even when debating what is arguably the most polarizing issue in America, he believes the cases can be made with “passion and conviction” and without “caricatures!”

Surely if abortion, an issue where people are polarized on the very point of whether to do it at all, can be discussed in the fashion that President Obama outlines, the discussion on an issue like health care reform should look akin to a love in from the 1970s!  After all, hardly anyone disagrees that something should be done with health care, the discussion is entirely over what specifically to do to improve health care and it’s costs.

It’s being reportedthat Nancy Pelosi will unveil her new and improved health care bill to the House on Thursday. Harry Reid is scrambling to find a way to 60 votes in the Senate so that he can bring his bill to the Senate floor.

Amazingly, well not really, while Pelosi and Reid are ready to debate their bills, not a single Republican has seen either bill.  In fact, what we know about either bill is that we really don’t know what is in either bill other than what Reid or Pelosi have told us.  It’s likely that neither bill will come close to satisfying President Obama’s pledge to not spend more than $900 billion and make it deficit neutral but we don’t know.

What we do know is that passage in either chamber is not even close to assured.  Pelosi has 52 “Blue Dog” Democrats.  Many of these Democrats come from districts that were previously Republican holdings.  With elections for each House member coming less than a year after a final vote, many of these folks are going to be torn between the promises of Nancy Pelosi and the expectations of the constituents.

In the Senate, it’s hard to see a clear path to 60.  With a public option in, it appears even the RINOs will hold with Republicans.  Add to them Lieberman, Bayh, Lincoln, Nelson and it looks like you’ve got a number of ways to hold 40 votes even if Reid suddenly drops the public option.  That said, I would never suggest Reid can’t get his 60.  Who knows what promises have been made that could put the Democrats back in lock step and get Snowe to come along.

I suspect the debate in both Houses will be filled with “passion and conviction.”  However, the “caricature” threshold was long ago bypassed.

The outcome of the debates and subsequent votes have the potential to dramatically change the United States as we know it.  While I’m hopeful that the bills as they are rumored, won’t pass both chambers it’s clear that President Obama has invested a significant portion of his political capital in the effort.  These bills aren’t going away in any natural fashion.

Stay vigilant, stay focused or the next caricature we’ll be talking about will be that of people who knew what it was like to live without an all controlling government.

Remember:  Stay on target, stay on target!

October 28, 2009

Distortion – Noun Meaning “You Don’t Agree With Me”

by @ 15:58. Filed under Miscellaneous.

Must-see PJTV – Trifecta takes on PlaceboCare

by @ 12:35. Filed under Health Care Reform.

The only bad thing about PJTV is they don’t allow people to embed videos. Do not, however, let that discourage you from viewing today’s Trifecta with Bill Whittle, Stephen Green and Scott Ott skewering PlaceboCare. They take on the Soviet-style lines for a government-issued flu shot, government workers handling needles, probes and speculums, HarryCare (or is it hari-kiri?), chain-gang health care, and the rebranding of the public consumer competitive America is AWESOME!!!1!1!!eleventy!!1! Government Takeover “option”.

They’re Doing What?

by @ 5:20. Filed under Miscellaneous, Politics - Minnesota, Politics - National.

With all the challenges our country faces, one would think that Congress might want to focus its attention on any of a number of issues….Placebocare, cap and trade, energy policy, Afghanistan, Iraq, Korea, Iran, Russia, Social Security, the economy, the deficit, the budget etc. etc. etc.  These are all topics worthy of focused time by Congress.  Rather than dealing with issues that might impact the country, Congress has meetings scheduled for this:

Congress has scheduled a hearing next week to scrutinize a controversial Minnesota law allowing Kevin and Pat Williams to fight their suspensions in Hennepin County and thwart the NFL’s authority to discipline the Minnesota Vikings Pro Bowl tackles.

The hearings stem from a situation where the Williams boys tested positive for an NFL banned substance.  The players say the banned substance was in an off-the-shelf supplement they took that did not have the substance listed as an ingredient.  The NFL said “too bad.  Ignorance is no excuse!” 

The NFL tried to get the players suspended last season but in an interesting legal maneuver, the players turned the tables and got accused the NFL of violating Minnesota’s drug testing laws.  The NFL is now running to Congress in an attempt to get them to back the NFL, under the guise of “we’re just doing what you told us to with steroids!” and getting a law that gets around Minnesota’s testing laws.

It seems completely preposterous that Congress should spend even a minute on this topic, they’ve got some serious issues to deal with!

Last week the Obama administration told the Justice department not to enforce any of the controlled substance laws if a State had laws allowing medical marijuana.  While I don’t believe in using illegal drugs under any circumstances, I do believe in State’s rights and thus support the administration’s position. 

In the same fashion as the administration’s position on marijauna, I believe Congress should keep their noses out of the fight between the Williams’ and the NFL.  The NFL has some really difficult and arcane rules in their zero tolerance drug policies.  In the case of the Williams’, it’s hard to rationally argue that anyone should be accountable for every ingredient in each and every item they consume if there is no information about the product that should cause them concern.

It’s time for Congress to get their act together.  Our country is in trouble and we have no leadership that seems to have any notion how to correct the problems.  If this is really what they think rises to the level of requiring Congressional intervention it’s time to change out the entire lot!

October 27, 2009

New NRE poll – What is the proper response to Favre’s purple return to Lambeau?

by @ 18:39. Filed under NRE Polls, Sports.

Wendy has the perfect set-up to get me away from politics for a while, though it may not be exactly safe with the readership on the far side of the Mississippi/St. Croix…

What is the proper way to greet Favre in his return to Lambeau?

Up to 1 answer(s) was/were allowed

  • Lusty booing. (30%, 13 Vote(s))
  • Silence. (20%, 9 Vote(s))
  • Wild cheering. (20%, 9 Vote(s))
  • Polite applause. (18%, 8 Vote(s))
  • What is this "football" you're talking about? (7%, 3 Vote(s))
  • Mild booing. (5%, 2 Vote(s))

Total Voters: 44

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Apology to the Lawton family and note to my readers

by @ 12:27. Filed under Presstitute Follies, The Blog.

Last night, I linked to an audio report from WTAQ-AM’s Jerry Bader which offered a guess on what caused Barbara Lawton to abandon her gubernatorial run that ultimately turned out to be wrong. I apologize to Lawton and her family for running with that, as I believed that Bader had run down a sufficient number of sources.

I forgot one of the cardinal rules of journalism; if your mother tells you the sun is shining at noon, go outside to check. I do have to thank WIBA-AM for doing what I should have at least attempted to do, and ask whether there was any “there” there.

When I discovered that WTAQ initially pulled the story earlier this morning, before either the retraction from Bader or the WIBA/Lawton interview had come out, I attempted to find out why the story had been pulled, and when I did not get a response, I decided to delink to the audio and note that it had been pulled. I further attempted to find out and notify those who got the story from me to let them know that the story had been pulled.

Further down the Babs rabbit hole

by @ 11:13. Filed under Politics - Wisconsin.

The pieces behind Lieutenant Governor Barbara Lawton’s decision to suddenly pull out of the Democratic governor’s race continue to shift around:

Revisions/extensions (11:50 am 10/27/2009) – In an interview with WIBA-AM, Barbara Lawton flatly denied any extramarital affair. I apologize to the Lawton family.

Different Movie, Same Ending

by @ 8:37. Filed under Health Care Reform, Politics - Minnesota.

Sometimes it’s tough for Mrs. Shoe to watch movies or especially, TV shows with me.  You see, I’m very much a believer in the formulaic approach to watching media.  In my world, 95% of most TV and movies follow the same, generally predictable plot lines.  In my world, all of the “whodunits” boil down to; someone dies, the investigator has some “ah ha” moment which results in someone being caught for the murder. 

One big advantage to watching media believing they are formulaic is that it allows me to “experience” an hour of television while only actually watching 5 or 6 minutes of the show.  In my world, I can’t always tell you who the killer will be but I can tell you that the show will end with a killer being caught.

The reason I tell you about my media watching experience is that it is much like my experience with government; government is very formulaic.  First, government tells us that a program is good for us in some way.  Then, government tells us that the program will cost only a minimal amount.  The ending of every government program results in the program not accomplishing it’s goals and costing multiple times its anticipated costs along the way.

A new study is out on Amtrak.  The study says that Amtrak’s required subsidy was $32 per passenger.  While that doesn’t sound bad on the surface, Amtrak’s analyzed study was 4 timeswhat the pseudo government agency said that its subsidies were.

If you think that the discrepancy may be just two groups of bureaucrats fighting over arcane kinds of analysis, nope:

Subsidyscope says its review counted certain capital expenses that Amtrak doesn’t consider when calculating the financial performance of its routes, namely wear and tear on equipment, or depreciation.

Wow, what a concept!  Taking depreciation into account with a capital intensive business like railroads!  Not including depreciation in the costs of a railroad would be like looking at your household budget needs without considering what it costs you to live in your house! 

The apologists for Amtrak were quick to justify Amtrak in light of the new study:

“Let’s not hold rail up and say it needs to make money when highways don’t make money, transit doesn’t make money and a lot of small airports don’t make money and they all get subsidies,” Van Beek said.

This is the same canard brought to you by folks who are into light rail and other forms of transit funding and it’s wrong.  None of these areas need to “make money.”  It’s usually coupled with “but my pet program doesn’t lose as much money as this other government program so my pet program deserves funding.”  This is the same mentality that has bureaucrats screaming that their budgets are “being cut” when in fact, the “cut” is cutting back from an automatic increase in their budget, an increase that is rarely justified.

Admittedly, in the scheme of things, Amtrak’s annual subsidy of $2.6 billion is small.  My point is that even with this relatively small subsidy the government can’t really figure out what the true costs are.  This, with a service that has a long history to analyze and draw conclusions from.

Placebo care continues to wind through Congress.  No one knows what it will eventually become but we all know it will be some freakish parody of what Nancy Pelosi claims it is.  In fact, I think the new name for Placebo care should become Frankenstein care.  Back to topic…Depending upon who’s telling you, Frankenstein Care will cost anywhere from $900 billion to $1.5 billion but remember our experience with Amtrak and the formulaic approach to government.  The chances of Frankenstein Care’s actual cost coming in under $1.5 billion are equal to those of President Obama supporting a right to life amendment in the Constitution; neither will happen!

Tuesday Hot Read – Robert Stacy McCain’s “STOP BUMMING ME OUT, MAN!”

by @ 0:47. Filed under Politics - National.

I think it’s safe to say that Robert Stacy McCain, who has gone up to New York’s 23rd Congressional District to do some on-site reporting, is tired of the nay-sayers:

If Hoffman can pull off a miracle upset victory in NY23, it would be a shot across the bow of Obama, Pelosi and Reid that they won’t be able to ignore.

The Blue Dogs will freak out, and the RINOs will start wondering about the possibility of a Tea Party/Club for Growth/Sarah Palin convergence in their GOP primaries. They’ll find an excuse to pull the plug on ObamaCare and start looking for opportunities to denounce deficit spending. Heck, you might even see some of them work up the gumption to suggest a vote to extend the Bush tax cuts.

All of this is possible, if Hoffman wins. But a Hoffman win isn’t a random hypothetical we can postulate and discuss like we were in some damned poli-sci grad-school seminar. The battle for NY23 is the kind of desperate tooth-and-nail fight that doesn’t lend itself to dispassionate theoretical discourse.

There is a reason why it’s a desperate tooth-and-nail fight, with both halves of the bipartisan Party-In-Government targeting Doug Hoffman – he is a personification of the Tea Party movement. Since Stacy already took a look at what happens if Hoffman wins, and since I’ve done all I monetarily can to help Hoffman win, allow me to take a look at what happens if he doesn’t.

There are actually four scenarios, only two of which are likely – the RepublicRAT Dede Scozzafava wins with Hoffman coming in second, Scozzafava wins with the Democrat Bill Owens coming in second, Owens wins with Hoffman coming in second, and Owens wins with Scozzafava coming in second. Given the most-recent set of polls, I highly doubt that Scozzafava wins the race.

First up, and in my humble opinion the most-likely of the four, a Owens/Hoffman/Scozzafava finish. That would give at worst a flashing yellow light in the middle of the night at an empty intersection to the Blue Dogs to go along with the worst of the Leftist agenda. It would, however, leave the larger battle for the Republican Party’s soul wide open as both sides will claim that, if the other half hadn’t abandoned it, it could have held onto the seat.

The other three, all of which I believe both halves of the PIG would be entirely happy with, would mean an end to the Tea Party movement as a national movement, and the full liberalization of the GOP north of the Mason-Dixon Line. It would give the green light to not just the Blue Dogs, but the liberal Republicans to jump all over the worst of the Leftist agenda.

October 26, 2009

Project Valour-IT – 2009 edition

by @ 23:04. Tags:
Filed under Miscellaneous.

If it’s the last week of October, it is time once again for Soldiers’ Angels to run the annual Project Valour-IT fundraiser to raise money for technology that reconnects wounded warriors and supports their recovery. This year, they’re running it until November 11, Veterans Day.

As I have in years past, while I will not be joining a single team, I will be donating to all of them, as well as featuring the 4-way competition between the Army, the Navy, the Air Force, and the Marines at the top of the blog (unless you’re viewing this on the mobile version). That means the Day by Day cartoon is moved to the right sidebar for the duration of the fundraiser.

Just because I can’t join a team, that doesn’t mean you can’t:

Now, go and donate in the name of one team or all. After all, all the money, no matter in which team’s name you donate, goes to the same worthy cause. They take all major credit cards, PayPal, electronic check, and even checks sent via the United States Postal Service.

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