Two midmorning quips; July 23 09

Talk about an interesting political stroke: the Republicans filed a nonsensical health care amendment:

Senator Tom Coburn is a physician who until recently still went home to Oklahoma to deliver babies. He believes Congress should weigh the dangers of a nationalized health system much more seriously than it has. In the tradition of someone using a 2×4 to win the attention of a mule, yesterday he successfully pressed the Senate Health Committee to approve his idea of requiring Members of Congress themselves to enroll in whatever “public plan” is passed to compete with private insurance companies.

“Let’s demonstrate leadership — and confidence in the system — by requiring that every member of Congress go into it,” Mr. Coburn told his colleagues as they were marking up the health care proposal championed by Senator Ted Kennedy. His idea wasn’t exactly greeted warmly by many public plan supporters. Senator Jeff Bingaman, a New Mexico Democrat, responded: “I don’t know why we should require ourselves to participate in a plan that no one else needs to participate in. This bill goes to great lengths to show that the choice is there for everybody.”

So, why file such a stupid amendment (one that would give MORE restrictions to Congress than to the general public?)

Here is why: look at the title of this “article”: see? EVEN CONGRESS DOESN’T WANT OBAMA CARE!!!
(of course, the amendment isn’t offering Obama care to Congress; one of the points is to allow the public to have the same options that Congress currently has).

But many of the rank and file conservative idiots don’t know that; right now on facebook and on other sites, they are going around spreading this misinformation.

No, I am not calling it a “lie”: technically the Republicans didn’t lie; they just put it out there knowing that their desperate followers will misread and misunderstand it and therefore spread this misinformation. They think that they are being honest.

It is disingenuous, really.

Scandal in New Jersey: organ selling?

Just through MSNBC at least 20 arrested including the mayors of Seacaucus and Hoboken. Preliminary reports also state a human organ transplant ring and money laundering outfit attached to the crime.

Reporting is also out showing several Rabbis being arrested. I will update this diary, or deleteit entirely if a better arrives.

The Associated Press

NEWARK, N.J. – FBI agents are sweeping across northern New Jersey Thursday, making arrests in what reportedly is described as a major corruption probe.

WNBC-TV in New York reported and showed images of the mayors of Hoboken and Secaucus being taken into FBI headquarters in Newark. The station also showed rabbis being taken into custody

23 July 09 (am)

Workout notes yoga, then a 8K (5 mile) walk (9 goose loop laps: 38:15 via 12:55, 25:56) doing the 2-1. Tired from yesterday’s festivities. I didn’t get dive bombed but the geese did hiss at me.

Note: during yesterday’s run, I actually felt my knees lift for the first two laps. If I can make my legs strong enough to lift my knees for the entire mile or 5K, my running will improve drastically and I might become a stronger walker too.

Articles: How does one test for drug use on a community wide basis? Sample the sewer water! Of course this can only help the authorities find how widespread drug use is in a community; I wonder if is only a matter of time before one can get a warrant to, say, tap into a sewer line coming outside of an individual john, building or house?

Science Here is an interesting article on how ants make a decision and it’s contrast with the human decision making mechanism.

Comment (Just saying) PZ Myers complains about the New Atheist article on Wikipedia. But here is the reason I am linking to this complaint:

This is an article that actually belongs on Conservapædia—it is that bad.

Health care: DemConWatch warns of the perils of having a health exchange with no public option:

There is no guarantee that insurance will be affordable to anyone under the Exchange system.

Trust me, I’ve looked. And I believe that since the top end of premiums is capped, the insurance companies will bump up the base rates.

Let’s look at some numbers. They vary from state to state, so your mileage may vary. These are Pennsylvania numbers from last year, and while the rates have risen, the order of magnitude remains the same.

* If you are a 23 year old who needs basic coverage, meaning no preventive care, and capped benefits for major medical (heart attack, cancer, etc.), with a high deductible, no dental, vision or prescriptions, you can get a policy for about $70/month.

* If you are a 40 year old with one pre-existing condition, say: high blood pressure, a previous high-risk pregnancy, a prior, completely treated skin cancer, IF you can get a policy, it will start at about $400/month.

* If you are a 50 year old with a serious pre-existing condition, say, a prior heart attack, Type 1 diabetes, or on-going cancer treatment, you will NOT be able to get health insurance, except from the provider of last resort (Blue Cross/Blue Shield in Pennsylvania) which will offer you limited benefits for a minimum of $900/month, and they will exclude for 2 years anything ongoing (like current cancer treatment.)

Under all the bills with an Exchange, the most they can charge someone is two times the amount they charge the person to whom they offer the lowest premium. BELIEVE ME when I tell you that the $70 premium is going away. The most base rate will have to rise to at least $300/month PER PERSON.

The insurance companies cannot give up that 15% – 20% they need for overhead, obscene salaries for C-level employees and profit for the stockholders. (What they call “administrative costs”)

You could knock at least 12% of the premium cost off if there were a Public Option, as public health insurance programs have administrative costs of 2 – 4% at most. That could decrease to 1% under Single Payer.

So when you hear the talk that “exchanges” or “co-ops” are a true change because there will be transparency, and insurers will compete with one another, don’t believe it. Think of it like pricing gasoline for your car: a lot of transparency because the prices are posted on the big signs. But there is a minimum none of the providers fall below. And if they can get an extra penny out of you, they will. They don’t care about you, they don’t care about your car. They care about profit. It’s no different here. Without a true public option, or better yet, Single Payer, there is little true change in how insurance is provided.

I warmly welcome rebuttal to this point, but informed rebuttal only please.

Paul Krugman on President Obama’s performance last night:

OK, so let me get this straight. The initial reaction of the cable talking heads was that Obama blew it because he didn’t couch his argument in terms of personal anecdotes, Reagan-style. Then, when it was pointed out that he did, in fact, offer a number of specific examples of people harmed by our current system, the whine became that he didn’t give their names.

Now, it’s true that George Bush liked to give names of people who would benefit from his tax cuts; but Ronald Reagan’s anecdotes — about, say, the Cadillac-driving welfare queen — generally didn’t name names. And there was a good reason for that: with rare exceptions, Reagan’s folksy anecdotes weren’t true.

So what are the talking heads really complaining about? It’s not what Obama didn’t do — it’s what he did, namely talk seriously about policy. How unpresidential of him!

I love this guy.

Pres. Obama: Public option will restrain insurance industry – Daily Kos TV (beta)

Full video can be found here.

more about "Pres. Obama: Public option will restr…", posted with vodpod

Note: Paul Krugman is worried because he liked the press conference too much; the President had too good of a command of the issues.

The Gates comments

Pres. Obama to GOP: Health reform isn’t a political game – Daily Kos TV (beta)

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Peoria Area Track Club and Meet

Yeah, I was the only one who showed up for the 1600 meter (1 mile) run.

Result: 1:38, 3:20, 5:06, 7:03
1:38, 1:42, 1:46, 1:57. Needless to say I died on the last lap! I am simply not used to running.

Here is the remaining schedule from Adam White: (meets are held at Peoria Stadium; today’s events started at 5:30, with sign ups starting at 4:30; contact Running Central for information:

Update: here is a link to the official schedule (pdf file).

Wednesday, July 22 –

50 Meters – (JH and younger)

1600 Meters – JH and older)

100 Meters

400 Meters

Long Jump – HS-Older then JH and younger

High Jump – JH and younger then HS-Older

Shot Put – JH and younger then HS-Older

Tuesday, July 28 –

50 Meters – (JH and Younger)

800 Meters – (JH and Older)

200 Meters

3000 Meters – (JH and Older)

Long Jump – HS-Older then JH and younger

High Jump – JH and younger then HS-Older

Shot Put – JH and younger then HS-Older

Wednesday, August 5 –

50 Meters – (JH and Younger)

1600 Meters – (JH and Older)

100 Meters

400 Meters

3,000 Meters – (HS and Older)

Long Jump – HS-Older then JH and younger

High Jump – JH and younger then HS-Older

Shot Put – JH and younger then HS-Older

Tuesday, August 11 – Tentative

100/110 Hurdles

50 Meters – (JH and Younger)

800 Meters

200 Meters

5000 Meters – (HS and Older)

Relay?

Long Jump – HS-Older then JH and younger

High Jump – JH and younger then HS-Older

Shot Put – JH and younger then HS-Older

Discus – HS-Older

Wednesday, August 19 – Tentative

100/110 Hurdles

50 Meters – (JH and Younger)

800 Meters

200 Meters

3000/5000 Meters – (JH and Older)

Relay???

Long Jump – HS-Older then JH and younger

High Jump – JH and younger then HS-Older

Shot Put – JH and younger then HS-Older

Discus – HS-Older

Tuesday, August 25 -

100/110 Hurdles

50 Meters – (JH and Younger)

1600 Meters

200 Meters

3000/5000 Meters – (JH and Older)

Relay???

Long Jump – HS-Older then JH and younger

High Jump – JH and younger then HS-Older

Shot Put – JH and younger then HS-Older

Discus – HS-Older