Time for a little political theater to show opposition to the $800 billion "Porkulus" bill headed through the United States Senate, formerly the greatest deliberative body in the world.
Logic and good sense being in short supply, let's go to the book: Alinsky's "Rules for Radicals." Time to pull out Ridicule as a weapon. Here's a couple of ideas. You all are welcome to post more in the Comments section below.
1) Fax your senator a "government check" made out to "Porkulus" and overstamped "Insufficient Funds";
2) Let's get a crowd up to Capitol Hill, each with an oversized credit card, chanting "Over Your Credit Limit!"
3) Drive a herd of pigs up to the Senate and White House.
4) Anyone got a spare pig costume?
5) OINK your Senator!!
What other ideas have you? Post them below!
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Friday, February 6, 2009
Hope and Change Give Way to Politics
Supposedly the President's rally speech wasn’t intended for general consumption – which makes the whole spew even more…well, honest in its attempt to rally support for a nearly $900 billion economic stimulus bill.
Stimulus means spending, starting with the government, the President asserts. Tax cuts, he contends, don’t turn the trick. So the minions in Congress do what they always do with any omnibus opportunity, they sweep the floor for any idea to urinate money on the national economic conflagration. The words attributed to Illinois Senator Everett Dirksen are writ large in this bill: “A billion here, and a billion there, and soon you’re talking real money.”
Yesterday came reports that the government overpaid by tens of billions for those ill-liquid toxic securities that brought on our current economic woes. The government jumped into a market that was working, albeit slowly, as buyer and seller were negotiating price. In this case, the banks wanted to minimize their losses. Buyers wanted margin for the uncertainty these securities presented. “Investors are going to assume a value that will be conservative and then add a risk premium." Slowly, prices were being determined by the private sector, generally about 35 cents on the original dollar on originally AAA-rated investments.
The government couldn’t stand a bargain, and paid $78 billion more than the actual value of the assets at the time, according to the Congressional Oversight Panel. It was such a gap, Senate Banking Chairman Chris Dodd (D-CT) admitted, "No one is expecting perfection between the price you pay and what you think you're getting. But that's a pretty large disparity." That’s a pretty large admission!
The government’s reaction to the entire episode is wholly political. Politicians aren’t generally concerned about the long term effects of their “taking action.” The knuckleheads in Congress and the White House either haven’t a clue, or simply recognize a crisis to exploit. As WHCOS Rahm Emmanuel said after the elections: “Rule one: Never allow a crisis to go to waste. They are opportunities to do big things.”
What this crisis is offering the American people is another “big fleecing” to first save two entities who abused trust: The government and the moneychangers. Had Bush-Paulson allowed the private sector to settle accounts, turning bad investments into well-deserved economic punishments for the entire securities industry, the American economy would have rebounded in time, stronger in the sense that bad business has crummy consequences. Instead the administration created a crisis. It netted a $750 billion TARP fund and a presidential candidate posing as a loon, paving the way to a Democratic victory.
From climate change to energy, education to infrastructure, housing to bird flu epidemics, food safety to environment, terror to healthcare, the American people are perhaps finally getting wise to the crisis manufacturers and false scare mongers. Polls show a drop in public support for the latest “stimulus bill.”
The President meanwhile sees the stimulus as a spending bill. "So then you get the argument, well, 'this is not a stimulus bill, this is a spending bill.' What do you think a stimulus is? That's the whole point," he said Thursday. There’s spending, and there’s spending…and this is spending wastefully and wantonly.
The next stop is a going out of business sale.
Stimulus means spending, starting with the government, the President asserts. Tax cuts, he contends, don’t turn the trick. So the minions in Congress do what they always do with any omnibus opportunity, they sweep the floor for any idea to urinate money on the national economic conflagration. The words attributed to Illinois Senator Everett Dirksen are writ large in this bill: “A billion here, and a billion there, and soon you’re talking real money.”
Yesterday came reports that the government overpaid by tens of billions for those ill-liquid toxic securities that brought on our current economic woes. The government jumped into a market that was working, albeit slowly, as buyer and seller were negotiating price. In this case, the banks wanted to minimize their losses. Buyers wanted margin for the uncertainty these securities presented. “Investors are going to assume a value that will be conservative and then add a risk premium." Slowly, prices were being determined by the private sector, generally about 35 cents on the original dollar on originally AAA-rated investments.
The government couldn’t stand a bargain, and paid $78 billion more than the actual value of the assets at the time, according to the Congressional Oversight Panel. It was such a gap, Senate Banking Chairman Chris Dodd (D-CT) admitted, "No one is expecting perfection between the price you pay and what you think you're getting. But that's a pretty large disparity." That’s a pretty large admission!
The government’s reaction to the entire episode is wholly political. Politicians aren’t generally concerned about the long term effects of their “taking action.” The knuckleheads in Congress and the White House either haven’t a clue, or simply recognize a crisis to exploit. As WHCOS Rahm Emmanuel said after the elections: “Rule one: Never allow a crisis to go to waste. They are opportunities to do big things.”
What this crisis is offering the American people is another “big fleecing” to first save two entities who abused trust: The government and the moneychangers. Had Bush-Paulson allowed the private sector to settle accounts, turning bad investments into well-deserved economic punishments for the entire securities industry, the American economy would have rebounded in time, stronger in the sense that bad business has crummy consequences. Instead the administration created a crisis. It netted a $750 billion TARP fund and a presidential candidate posing as a loon, paving the way to a Democratic victory.
From climate change to energy, education to infrastructure, housing to bird flu epidemics, food safety to environment, terror to healthcare, the American people are perhaps finally getting wise to the crisis manufacturers and false scare mongers. Polls show a drop in public support for the latest “stimulus bill.”
The President meanwhile sees the stimulus as a spending bill. "So then you get the argument, well, 'this is not a stimulus bill, this is a spending bill.' What do you think a stimulus is? That's the whole point," he said Thursday. There’s spending, and there’s spending…and this is spending wastefully and wantonly.
The next stop is a going out of business sale.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Healthcare Reform = You pay for mine
Last weekend my daughter injured her foot while moving furniture. Seems she caught a step the wrong way and rolled the foot and ankle. She had no health insurance coverage. And now, for the rest of the story…
Her plan was to put ice on her foot and take ibuprofen for the swelling and pain. She strapped herself up in an airboot to stabilize the injury, and used crutches to take the pressure of walking off the appendage. Still, the next day, she was concerned that something was broken. She called me, and as a concerned dad, I told her to call around to these “urgent care” facilities that are springing up to see what an exam with an x-ray would cost her.
The prices ranged from $162 to $400 for the same services. She went with the $162 - money she was loathe to spend, expressing remorse for not having her own policy to pick up the bill. Her husband’s employer offers a “free” policy with a $2000 annual deductible. One can largely avoid the deductible by paying about $200 per month…so, let’s do the math: $2000 annual deductible, or $2400 “full coverage” premiums…hmmm. Either way, $162 won’t top the deductible, nor significantly offset the premiums.
Healthcare and its “affordability” are largely bogus issues. From street corner clinics and care centers to your doctor’s office and the nearby General Hospital, healthcare is readily available and expanding. To paraphrase Yogi Berra, “It’s always so crowded, no one goes there anymore.” Been to your doctor’s waiting room lately? Is it empty? Been to a hospital, especially its most expensive component, the emergency room? Is it empty? How can anyone afford it, you may wonder. The answer is that healthcare today thrives on volume, and there’s plenty of it.
Years ago, when steak was forty nine cents a pound, I recall my mother and aunts wondering how anyone could afford beef anymore. When gasoline jumped over thirty cents a gallon, the lines at the pump dropped off until a gallon dropped back to 29.9 or less. Those were days when a “five figure salary” was big money. And, like today, people wondered how they could afford to live. In those days people had “hospitalization” insurance. One paid the “family doctor” and the corner pharmacist with his own money. Because one did, your GP was subject to the market - his prices affected his patronage. Like the gas station, if his price hit a certain point, his patients might stop coming.
A few years ago the Baltimore Sun carried a column by a retiring “family doctor” from the Eastern Shore. He reminisced about how he did house calls, knew his patients well, was involved in all the area births and deaths. He told how his patients paid with chickens, eggs and oysters when they had no cash. And he spoke of how the family would gather as grandma neared death in her bed.
He then contrasted that to his contemporary practice, where he dealt with insurance companies for payment, and visited dying grandma in a hospital where the family clung to preposterous hopes of recovery. And when presented with the fact that grandma was nearing death, he said there was always one who demanded medical heroics to keep her alive. Heroics cost. On average, three-quarters of lifetime medical expenses are incurred in the last year of life. Average life expectancy at birth in the United States is 78.06 years - 79.96 years if you’re female, 74.83 years if male.
Our national response to the myth of runaway healthcare costs is to squander public funds, or force others to squander theirs. Why are emergency rooms always full? Because most seeking care there have no emergency, but realize treatment there can be free. It’s not because they’re necessarily indigent, unable to pay, but FREE is quite a draw. The costs are passed along to the paying customers, or absorbed by the hospital. Insurance companies are incentivizing use of alternatives, like urgent care, to avoid the added costs in hospital emergency room charges. And many hospitals nationwide are closing their emergency rooms.
The Los Angeles Times reported this week that in 2007 emergency room doctors provided more than $100 million in services to Medi-Cal patients because the state’s reimbursement often barely covers half the cost of treatment. Free, it turns out, is very expensive.
There’s the real healthcare crisis.
Her plan was to put ice on her foot and take ibuprofen for the swelling and pain. She strapped herself up in an airboot to stabilize the injury, and used crutches to take the pressure of walking off the appendage. Still, the next day, she was concerned that something was broken. She called me, and as a concerned dad, I told her to call around to these “urgent care” facilities that are springing up to see what an exam with an x-ray would cost her.
The prices ranged from $162 to $400 for the same services. She went with the $162 - money she was loathe to spend, expressing remorse for not having her own policy to pick up the bill. Her husband’s employer offers a “free” policy with a $2000 annual deductible. One can largely avoid the deductible by paying about $200 per month…so, let’s do the math: $2000 annual deductible, or $2400 “full coverage” premiums…hmmm. Either way, $162 won’t top the deductible, nor significantly offset the premiums.
Healthcare and its “affordability” are largely bogus issues. From street corner clinics and care centers to your doctor’s office and the nearby General Hospital, healthcare is readily available and expanding. To paraphrase Yogi Berra, “It’s always so crowded, no one goes there anymore.” Been to your doctor’s waiting room lately? Is it empty? Been to a hospital, especially its most expensive component, the emergency room? Is it empty? How can anyone afford it, you may wonder. The answer is that healthcare today thrives on volume, and there’s plenty of it.
Years ago, when steak was forty nine cents a pound, I recall my mother and aunts wondering how anyone could afford beef anymore. When gasoline jumped over thirty cents a gallon, the lines at the pump dropped off until a gallon dropped back to 29.9 or less. Those were days when a “five figure salary” was big money. And, like today, people wondered how they could afford to live. In those days people had “hospitalization” insurance. One paid the “family doctor” and the corner pharmacist with his own money. Because one did, your GP was subject to the market - his prices affected his patronage. Like the gas station, if his price hit a certain point, his patients might stop coming.
A few years ago the Baltimore Sun carried a column by a retiring “family doctor” from the Eastern Shore. He reminisced about how he did house calls, knew his patients well, was involved in all the area births and deaths. He told how his patients paid with chickens, eggs and oysters when they had no cash. And he spoke of how the family would gather as grandma neared death in her bed.
He then contrasted that to his contemporary practice, where he dealt with insurance companies for payment, and visited dying grandma in a hospital where the family clung to preposterous hopes of recovery. And when presented with the fact that grandma was nearing death, he said there was always one who demanded medical heroics to keep her alive. Heroics cost. On average, three-quarters of lifetime medical expenses are incurred in the last year of life. Average life expectancy at birth in the United States is 78.06 years - 79.96 years if you’re female, 74.83 years if male.
Our national response to the myth of runaway healthcare costs is to squander public funds, or force others to squander theirs. Why are emergency rooms always full? Because most seeking care there have no emergency, but realize treatment there can be free. It’s not because they’re necessarily indigent, unable to pay, but FREE is quite a draw. The costs are passed along to the paying customers, or absorbed by the hospital. Insurance companies are incentivizing use of alternatives, like urgent care, to avoid the added costs in hospital emergency room charges. And many hospitals nationwide are closing their emergency rooms.
The Los Angeles Times reported this week that in 2007 emergency room doctors provided more than $100 million in services to Medi-Cal patients because the state’s reimbursement often barely covers half the cost of treatment. Free, it turns out, is very expensive.
There’s the real healthcare crisis.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
3-D This, NBC!
One of the many NBC Super Bowl promos was an invitation to watch a Monday evening 3-D broadcast of its show “Chuck.” I’d never watched it before, but I’m a sucker for novelty…and I had the bi-colored specs leftover from the game…so, why not? The 3-D glasses were distributed at supermarkets compliments of Pepsi, Intel, and Dreamworks as part of a Super Bowl promotion of a cartoon film “Monsters vs. Aliens.” Pepsi presented 3-D spots with the SoBe Lifewater dancing lizards…so far, so good.
Expecting more of the same, my wife, a public school teacher, offered the glasses leftover from our football gathering to her fifth grade class to watch “Chuck.” She thought it would be an innocuous family comedy. Wrong! Starting with the steamy beginning, where one could oogle Yvonne Strahovski’s breasts on prominent 3-D display during a bedroom fantasy, the show was not something I’d recommend for family viewing.
My point is NBC again demonstrates why commercial television is losing viewers. It again demonstrates disregard for the family by broadcasting such fare, which later featured two babes stripping the central character by undoing his belt and zipper while headed for a king-sized bed. Apparently there no more standards or practices folks to oversee this sort of stuff…or, this suggestive trash has become the standard.
Worse was that NBC and the others who sponsored and distributed those glasses abused a trust. Sleaze is not what one associates with the NFL, Dreamworks, Intel or Pepsi. All four have community reputations for quality – and that trust was damaged in my household Monday night.
Expecting more of the same, my wife, a public school teacher, offered the glasses leftover from our football gathering to her fifth grade class to watch “Chuck.” She thought it would be an innocuous family comedy. Wrong! Starting with the steamy beginning, where one could oogle Yvonne Strahovski’s breasts on prominent 3-D display during a bedroom fantasy, the show was not something I’d recommend for family viewing.
My point is NBC again demonstrates why commercial television is losing viewers. It again demonstrates disregard for the family by broadcasting such fare, which later featured two babes stripping the central character by undoing his belt and zipper while headed for a king-sized bed. Apparently there no more standards or practices folks to oversee this sort of stuff…or, this suggestive trash has become the standard.
Worse was that NBC and the others who sponsored and distributed those glasses abused a trust. Sleaze is not what one associates with the NFL, Dreamworks, Intel or Pepsi. All four have community reputations for quality – and that trust was damaged in my household Monday night.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Freedom to Shaddup! And California "Rainbow Shirts"
Hardly a week…have we already come to whispers?
Here’s how it begins: An office cooler conversation turns to public affairs, and “the note” shows up that pronounces the conversation “distressed” one who was overhearing, that the distressed one “couldn’t believe” the things she was hearing, and how it remains unbelievable such conversation could even take place in this civil environment and that an official complaint will be made if such is ever heard again.
The note was a classic shutdown bomb thrown at an unleashed contrary thought threatening to invade the gray cells of a “tolerant” and “open minded” individual. The formula is pretty standard: Describe the speech or behavior as “inappropriate” or “distressing”; express dismay or shock that such could even occur; demand the speech or behavior stop; threaten “consequences” if it recurs. First one expressing offense always wins!
The freedom to speak was once an absolute American right: “I may not agree with what you say, but to your death I will defend your right to say it.” No more. A modern citizen might say: “As I do not agree with what you say, I take personal and social offense at your saying it. And I demand that such inappropriate utterances stop – or, there will be consequences.”
American society, which once celebrated its brashness and freedoms, is now self-censoring and fearful because the society has concurrently become censoring and fearsome. Hardly a day goes by without some reported speech transgression.
But that ain't all!
There is a significant attempt to shut up Americans occurring in California as radical homosexuals threaten to retaliate against contributors to efforts to pass Proposition 8. Prop 8 limits marriage to that of a man and a woman. Today U.S. District Judge Morrison C. England Jr. disagreed, ruling, "The court finds that the state is not facilitating retaliation by compelling disclosure." The threat of goon tactics certainly creates a chilling effect that strikes at the heart of the American political tradition.
In this case, because of the involvement of the Catholic and Mormon churches, there are actually two "freedoms" at stake.
And where is the Obama Justice Department?
Here’s how it begins: An office cooler conversation turns to public affairs, and “the note” shows up that pronounces the conversation “distressed” one who was overhearing, that the distressed one “couldn’t believe” the things she was hearing, and how it remains unbelievable such conversation could even take place in this civil environment and that an official complaint will be made if such is ever heard again.
The note was a classic shutdown bomb thrown at an unleashed contrary thought threatening to invade the gray cells of a “tolerant” and “open minded” individual. The formula is pretty standard: Describe the speech or behavior as “inappropriate” or “distressing”; express dismay or shock that such could even occur; demand the speech or behavior stop; threaten “consequences” if it recurs. First one expressing offense always wins!
The freedom to speak was once an absolute American right: “I may not agree with what you say, but to your death I will defend your right to say it.” No more. A modern citizen might say: “As I do not agree with what you say, I take personal and social offense at your saying it. And I demand that such inappropriate utterances stop – or, there will be consequences.”
American society, which once celebrated its brashness and freedoms, is now self-censoring and fearful because the society has concurrently become censoring and fearsome. Hardly a day goes by without some reported speech transgression.
But that ain't all!
There is a significant attempt to shut up Americans occurring in California as radical homosexuals threaten to retaliate against contributors to efforts to pass Proposition 8. Prop 8 limits marriage to that of a man and a woman. Today U.S. District Judge Morrison C. England Jr. disagreed, ruling, "The court finds that the state is not facilitating retaliation by compelling disclosure." The threat of goon tactics certainly creates a chilling effect that strikes at the heart of the American political tradition.
In this case, because of the involvement of the Catholic and Mormon churches, there are actually two "freedoms" at stake.
And where is the Obama Justice Department?
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Hon. Phil Gingrey: Post-Partisan Republican Apologizes
The Hon. Phil Gingrey called Rush Limbaugh to apologize for the remarks that I remarked upon below that he made yesterday to Politico.
"I just wanted to tell you, Rush, and -- and all our conservative giants who help us so much to maintain our base and grow it and get back this majority that I regret those stupid comments."
So, why'd Doc Gingrey make them?
"I was trying to defend John Boehner, who basically is leading -- providing very good leadership on this issue."
Well, maybe Mr. Boehner is, but once the words are out and recorded - they'll pop up somewhere as "proof". A three-term Congressman should know when to put a sock in it.
Dr. Gingrey concluded with a flash of the obvious: "Rush, congressional Republicans and our leadership need you and other conservative giants to galvanize the millions of Americans who don't live in Washington. They may not even live in Republican districts."
Damn straight!
"I just wanted to tell you, Rush, and -- and all our conservative giants who help us so much to maintain our base and grow it and get back this majority that I regret those stupid comments."
So, why'd Doc Gingrey make them?
"I was trying to defend John Boehner, who basically is leading -- providing very good leadership on this issue."
Well, maybe Mr. Boehner is, but once the words are out and recorded - they'll pop up somewhere as "proof". A three-term Congressman should know when to put a sock in it.
Dr. Gingrey concluded with a flash of the obvious: "Rush, congressional Republicans and our leadership need you and other conservative giants to galvanize the millions of Americans who don't live in Washington. They may not even live in Republican districts."
Damn straight!
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Hon. Phil Gingrey: Post-Partisan Republican
“It’s easy if you’re Sean Hannity or Rush Limbaugh or even sometimes Newt Gingrich to stand back and throw bricks. You don’t have to try to do what’s best for your people and your party.” - Hon. Phil Gingrey, R-GA(11D)
Dr. Gingery comes from a safe district (PVI=R+17) that includes Marietta. He took 68 percent of the vote in the past election against token opposition.
“You know you’re just on these talk shows and you’re living well and plus you stir up a bit of controversy and gin the base and that sort of that thing,” Dr. Gingery continued.
Dr. Gingery is an Obama tool, providing “social proof” for detractors. The whole thing is a set-up, Doc. You are contributing to the “Everyone agrees” the Dems are developing, the one where everyone agrees that Limbaugh and Hannity are partisan blowhards out to queer the post-partisan era that began last week. Doc, you are spiking your partisan artillery, and to what end? Surrendering early?
If the John McCain candidacy proved anything let me suggest this: Aimlessness doesn't “gin the base,” or anyone else. Admitting a knowledge hole in economics, then suspending a campaign to wander aimlessly around Washington – well, it was less than awe-inspiring. Politics is about forming a coalition with the middle to make a majority. McCain just had no clue how to connect with moderates, especially after the “September Shock” that included an incumbent Republican president trying to save our free markets in a panic-induced “sacrifice” that required passage "by Friday." The last gasp of “Compassionate Conservatism,” but not of aimless Republicanism.
Dr. Gingery is living proof of that.
Dr. Gingery comes from a safe district (PVI=R+17) that includes Marietta. He took 68 percent of the vote in the past election against token opposition.
“You know you’re just on these talk shows and you’re living well and plus you stir up a bit of controversy and gin the base and that sort of that thing,” Dr. Gingery continued.
Dr. Gingery is an Obama tool, providing “social proof” for detractors. The whole thing is a set-up, Doc. You are contributing to the “Everyone agrees” the Dems are developing, the one where everyone agrees that Limbaugh and Hannity are partisan blowhards out to queer the post-partisan era that began last week. Doc, you are spiking your partisan artillery, and to what end? Surrendering early?
If the John McCain candidacy proved anything let me suggest this: Aimlessness doesn't “gin the base,” or anyone else. Admitting a knowledge hole in economics, then suspending a campaign to wander aimlessly around Washington – well, it was less than awe-inspiring. Politics is about forming a coalition with the middle to make a majority. McCain just had no clue how to connect with moderates, especially after the “September Shock” that included an incumbent Republican president trying to save our free markets in a panic-induced “sacrifice” that required passage "by Friday." The last gasp of “Compassionate Conservatism,” but not of aimless Republicanism.
Dr. Gingery is living proof of that.
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