We're under attack!
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2010-03-31
2010-03-30
If this doesn't scare the crud outta ya...
...then you deserve what you get.
It all sounds so nice... Until you hear the little , scary part. I'll give you a hint, it's the last sentence, yeah the one where the president openly admits to taking 68 billion from private business because he wants to...
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The bill Obama signed into law overhauls higher education financing, doubling funding for Pell grants, allowing students to borrow directly from the government and easing payment structures once they graduate. Loan repayments will be capped at 10 percent of a graduate's salary, down from the current 15 percent cap, starting in 2014. The bill, Obama said, will save the country $68 billion that would otherwise have been spent on "the middle men" -- financial institutions that previously managed the loans.
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Anyone wonder why this was coupled with the health care reform so we wouldn't notice what might be in the shadows?
It all sounds so nice... Until you hear the little , scary part. I'll give you a hint, it's the last sentence, yeah the one where the president openly admits to taking 68 billion from private business because he wants to...
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The bill Obama signed into law overhauls higher education financing, doubling funding for Pell grants, allowing students to borrow directly from the government and easing payment structures once they graduate. Loan repayments will be capped at 10 percent of a graduate's salary, down from the current 15 percent cap, starting in 2014. The bill, Obama said, will save the country $68 billion that would otherwise have been spent on "the middle men" -- financial institutions that previously managed the loans.
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Anyone wonder why this was coupled with the health care reform so we wouldn't notice what might be in the shadows?
You haven't lived life...
Until you've played an Andy created game called "Zombie Attacks" that takes place on a Scrabble board!?
Haha!
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Oh my!
Just the thing a birthday-boy-to-be needs, the latest Lego catalog!
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2010-03-29
Not bad!
Turns out, Dad is a pretty decent shot. Here, he's put 2 right through the center.
I had a good time.
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Shooting Dad...
Shooting Dad...
Originally uploaded by FlickPics88
I mean, shooting WITH dad!
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2010-03-27
States Find Burdens in New Rules on Health Care
Imagine that...!!?? The states who thought the new healthcare would solve are their problems...are finding out that the opposite is actually true!
From the New York Times...
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/27/health/policy/27impact.html
Because of the new health care law, Arizona lawmakers must now find a way to maintain insurance coverage for 350,000 children and adults that they slashed just last week to help close a $2.6 billion budget deficit.
From the New York Times...
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/27/health/policy/27impact.html
Because of the new health care law, Arizona lawmakers must now find a way to maintain insurance coverage for 350,000 children and adults that they slashed just last week to help close a $2.6 billion budget deficit.
Louisiana officials say a reduction in federal money to hospitals that treat the uninsured under the bill could be a death knell for their state-run charity hospital system.
In California, policymakers estimate they will have to come up with an additional $500 million a year to make necessary increases in payments to Medicaid providers.
Across the country, state officials are wading through the minutiae of the health care overhaul to understand just how their governments will be affected. Even with much still to be digested, it is clear the law may be as much of a burden to some state budgets as it is a boon to uninsured consumers.
States with the largest uninsured populations, like Texas and California ...are precisely the ones that will face the biggest financial strains, in many cases magnified by existing budget shortfalls.
“The federal government has to account for states’ inability to sustain our current programs, much less expand,” said Kim Belshé, secretary of California’s Health and Human Services Agency.
But even with more federal help, the challenge for states like Alabama, Arkansas and Texas that now offer only limited Medicaid coverage will be substantial. In addition, Ms. Dunkelberg said, many children who are currently eligible but are not enrolled in Medicaid and the state Children’s Health Insurance Program will emerge and want to join, potentially costing the state several hundred million dollars.
Some states, like Arizona, face an immediate fiscal conundrum because of stipulations in the law that prohibit them from rolling back their existing Medicaid programs before the required expansion takes effect. About a decade ago, voters in Arizona approved a measure to expand Medicaid to include childless adults whose incomes were at or below the federal poverty limit. As part of an effort to close a $2.6 billion budget gap next year, state officials recently decided to end that program, along with the state’s Children’s Health Insurance Program. Gov. Jan Brewer, a Republican, signed the cuts into law last week. Now, however, the state must come up with the money to restore the programs, estimated at a billion dollars annually. “Any flexibility we used to have is gone with the new mandate,” said Tom Betlach, director of the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, which runs Medicaid.
Because the circumstances of the states are so varied, the challenges facing them under the legislation diverge considerably. In Louisiana, there is particular concern about what the statute will mean for the future of the state’s charity hospital system, which has a long and storied history of treating the poor in the state. The state-run hospitals are heavily dependent on special federal payments to institutions that treat large numbers of the uninsured. The new health care legislation cuts those payments significantly.
California’s fiscal woes have been particularly devastating and unrelenting. The state is now facing a $20 billion shortfall. Besides the anticipated flood of new enrollees to Medicaid, an equally urgent concern there has to do with increases to the reimbursement rate for Medicaid providers, which are currently among the lowest in the country. Under the new health care legislation, states will have to raise the Medicaid rates paid to primary-care doctors to the same level the federal government sets under Medicare, the program for the elderly. For the first two years, the federal government will pay the difference. After that, it is left up to the states whether to continue paying the higher rates, which could mean an additional $500 million in costs a year for California, officials said. But California officials said they also believe they will have to significantly raise rates for other outpatient Medicaid providers to ensure an adequate supply of providers for all the newly insured. They believe this will cost an additional $2 billion a year.
Obama Saves Beavercreek!
You might ask, "what's the difference between these two street lights?".
Well, one is perfectly functional and has been working fine all these years. The other, is a new one. Guess what, it's our piece of the stimulus money. We even have a $2,700.00 sign on the highway to prove it. They've been working on this project for a year now. It amounts to replacing the perfectly good street lights with other street lights. Let's just hope they're, at least, perfectly good too...
I'm glad we can trust the government to spend our money wisely...
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2010-03-26
Moral of the story
Just because he may be out of town, don't assume it's safe to park in the owners spot!
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2010-03-25
I am a Right Wing Wacko
To Census Takers
"I hereby affirm that the provisions of Title 13 ``requiring'' me to disclose my race, personal financial data, birthdate, or any other personal, private information to the Bureau of the Census, an agency of the United States government; constitutes an unreasonable, unwarranted search of my person, house, papers, and/or effects; and a governmental invasion of the sanctity of my home and the privacies of life. As such, these provisions violate the Fourth Amendment of the US Constitution, and are thus wholly void and I am not bound to obey them.
I have completed only those sections of the Census form pertaining to the Constitutionally-mandated actual enumeration, as follows:
The actual number of people living at the address printed on the form, excluding untaxed Native Americans;
Age of each person in accordance with US Const. Amendment XIV, Section 2.
Sex of each person, in accordance with US Const. Amendment XIV, Section 2.
I have thus fulfilled my obligation to the attainment of the actual enumeration of the populace of the United States.
Any fine or other sanction that is levied by any office or organization stemming from the unconstitutional provisions of Title 13 in connection with my response to this or any other Census-related questioning will be challenged in a court of law."
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I posted this on my door after answering the questions as indicated above... If you don't see me again, you will know what happened...
2010-03-24
Really!?
Hoyer today obliquely referenced the online campaign by the Republican National Committee to "Fire Pelosi" and an e-mail from Sarah Palin's PAC that depicted targets/crosshairs over the congressional districts of some Democrats who voted for the health care bill.
"When people start talking in the rhetoric of putting people on firing lines, that if they don't do something they will have physical harm done to them, that other rhetoric of that type, or they put a target on their faces with crosshairs, that activity ought to be unacceptable in our democracy," he said.
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What's unacceptable in a democracy is ignoring the majority and pushing forward with your socialist agenda in spite of it because "YOU'VE WANTED IT for a hundred years". When people try the political system and it is ignored, what option is left?
II-2010
2010-03-23
2010-03-22
History Repeats
IS THIS SCARY??? Cartoon from 1934
This cartoon was in the Chicago Tribune in 1934. Click on the picture and look carefully at the plan of action in the lower left corner.
"Those who do not remember the past are doomed to repeat it."
One more tidbit
Just so you don't all think I am some kind of raving lunatic (no comments!), you can see that lots of folks are fired up about all this too!
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The House Republican leader, Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio, said lawmakers were defying the wishes of their constituents. “The American people are angry,” Mr. Boehner said. “This body moves forward against their will. Shame on us.”
Republicans said the plan would saddle the nation with unaffordable levels of debt, leave states with expensive new obligations, weaken Medicare and give the government a huge new role in the health care system.
The debate on the legislation set up a bitter midterm campaign season, with Republicans promising an effort to repeal the legislation, challenge its constitutionality or block its provisions in the states.
Representative Paul D. Ryan, Republican of Wisconsin, denounced the bill as “a fiscal Frankenstein.” Representative Lincoln Diaz-Balart, Republican of Florida, called it “a decisive step in the weakening of the United States.” Representative Virginia Foxx, Republican of North Carolina, said it was “one of the most offensive pieces of social engineering legislation in the history of the United States.”
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Let's think about how well government programs work...
1. Social Security - bankrupt
2. Welfare - bankrupted Social Security
3. Post Office - nearly bankrupt
4. Income Tax - impossible
5. Education - failed/failing
6. Medicare/Medicaid - insufficient funds
7. BMV - think, long lines!
8. Cash for Clunkers - bankrupt
These have all been so great, efficient, and easy to deal with, so now let's add:
9. Healthcare
Did we do enough?
Well, I guess that doing something is a better approach than doing nothing...
They still managed to pass the health care bill by the narrowest of margins. At least we convinced them to abandon the crime of "deem and pass".
Here is what CNN reported about how house Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, felt about Democratic leaders betraying the trust of the public by pushing ahead with a bill that lacks broad public support.
"We have failed to listen to America and we have failed to reflect the will of our constituents," he said. "And when we fail to reflect that will, we fail ourselves and we fail our country."
He also slammed what he characterized as a legislative process marked by a lack of transparency and accountability.
"Look at how this bill was written," he said, his voice steadily rising. "Can you say it was done openly? With transparency and accountability? Without backroom deals? ... Hell no you can't!"
Brown, however, decried the vote and said the nation can't afford the measure. "Today's vote shows that leaders in Washington continue to ignore the will of the people," he said. "Americans have sent a message to Washington for the past year, including with my election, that they are opposed to this multitrillion-dollar health care bill that will raise taxes, increase premiums, cut Medicare and leave future generations with a mountain of debt."
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Just look at them laughing as they stick it to the working man and small business... The bill passed in a 219-212 vote after more than a year of bitter partisan debate. All 178 Republicans opposed it, al
ong with 34 Democrats. The measure, constitutes the biggest expansion of federal health care guarantees since Medicare and Medicaid were enacted more than four decades ago. It represents a significant step toward the goal of universal coverage sought by every Democratic president since Harry Truman. Most Americans will now be required to have health insurance or pay a fine.
GOP leaders have repeatedly warned the plan will lead to a government takeover of America's private health care system. They have also argued it will lead to higher premiums and taxes while imposing harsh Medicare cuts and doing little to control spiraling medical costs.
Oh yeah, I almost forgot. They took over the student loan system too... "The speaker sweetened the deal for some progressive members of her caucus partly by adding additional subsidies and a major student loan overhaul measure to the compromise plan. The measure -- a priority for Obama -- would end the practice of having private banks offer student loans and would expand direct lending from the government."
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All is not lost. It still has to get through the Senate. House Minority Leader John B
oehner, however, argued Friday that the vote was "pretty tight." Boehner had said the revised health care bill was worse than the original legislation, adding that the "American people are going to hear about every payoff, every kickback and every sweetheart deal that comes out."
So, don't give up. If it doesn't pass the senate, or gets changed, it still has to go back to the house...
Quote for the week...
I didn't say this, of course, but one of my colleagues at work did...!
Sent via wireless hand held
2010-03-21
I come home to find Andy squishing the life out of Daisy while snuggling her. :)
I come home to find Andy squishing the life out of Daisy while snuggling her. :), originally uploaded by FlickPics88.
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That's him...
I caught him looking at us. That's him in the back of the Suburban. This is just a screen capture off the back of my camera.
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2010-03-20
What a coward!
This is how far we had to move back because "the president is coming". We wouldn't want him to hear our opinion. Tax payers, run away, Obama is coming!
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Taken it to the steps!
I just watched congress empty out. Shook hands with five or six. Even a congress man from Illinois who is voting NO and os pro 2nd amendment!
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2010-03-19
Indian Okra Date
Julie met me for lunch and we branched out for an Indian lunch. We represented a measly 4% minority.
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2010-03-17
Anyone remember our "flying squirrel" video clip from a hotel about 2 years ago...?
Anyone remember our "flying squirrel" video clip from a hotel about 2 years ago...?, originally uploaded by FlickPics88.
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I took a big chance this week
I rented a Prius. First, I tested the brake accelerator thing. Then, off we went. 99.9mpg. Not bad!
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Nothing but tarmac and hills
San Francisco Airport from my trip earlier this week.
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