Posse Incitatus

Wax Job

I was discouraged to learn earlier today that Rep. Henry Waxman, Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, managed to pull in enough of the Blue Dog Democrats to secure committee passage of the worst of the health care bills.  Who knows what kind of promises he made, and whether he will be able to keep those promises without alienating his left-wing base.

All is not lost.  These two paragraphs from the Politico account give me encouragement:

But changes are sure to roil the party again once the bill moves to the House floor and Democratic leaders marry this measure to ones passed by the Education and Labor and Ways and Means committees.

"This is one step in a long and complex legislative process," said Ohio Rep. Zack Space, a Blue Dog who accepted the chairman's deal.

If you listen to talk radio and pay attention to the polls, Americans have grave reservations about the Democrats' grandiose plans to overhaul health care.  It is my hope that during the next several weeks, when the Democrat Blue Dogs are back in their districts, they will be lambasted by angry voters who deliver an ultimatum: Vote against this hideous boondoggle, or you'll be looking for a job come November 2010.

I am reminded of a verse from Weezer's "The Sweater Song" (1994):

If you want to destroy my sweater
Pull this thread as I walk away (as I walk away)
Watch me unravel I'll soon be naked
Lying on the floor, lying on the floor
I've come undone

We can only hope!

One thing I have noticed, reading op/eds, seeing guests on talk shows, and hearing callers on talk radio, is that there are a considerable number of physicians, nurses, and other health care professionals — articulate, intelligent, knowledgeable people — who are appalled at the thought of Obamacare.  They regard it as the ultimate example of throwing the baby out with the bathwater. 

It's as if my 2001 Taurus needs a new muffler, so I'm going to put a bunch of high school auto shop hacks to work doing a ring & valve job, replacing the timing chain and head gasket, overhauling the transmission, and giving it a front end alignment for good measure.  By the time they get done, I may wish I still had that loud muffler.

Holistic Communications

It occurred to me the other day that I ought to add a few thoughts to my “Talk-Talk” blog.

I focused on the new technologies that have burst onto the scene in recent years, and the problems resulting when people get too obsessed with their communications devices at the expense of being considerate toward others, and being attentive while driving or walking.

There are a couple of other areas to discuss. One is the importance of nonverbal communication.  Did you ever send an email to someone, and it came across as cold or harsh, when that is not at all what you intended?  Tone and meaning can be misconstrued; this happen all too often in the business world.

During a face-to-face conversation, the listener can pick up cues about the message from the speaker's body language, facial expression, tone of voice, and eye contact.  Especially if the listener knows the speaker and is familiar with his or her personality traits.  The speaker can also perceive how his or her message is being received by observing the listener's nonverbal communication.

But e-mails and text messages are devoid of the nonverbal signals, hence they can be misunderstood, which can lead to hurt feelings or worse.

Also, many things do not need to be communicated. Some people feel the need to constantly be in touch with others.  Standing in line at the supermarket, they can’t bear to have a few minutes of silence and MUST pick up that cellphone, dial a friend and say, “How are you doing? This is so-and-so; I’m just standing in line at Kroger...Just called to see how you were doing…” Other customers often are subject to an inane chit-chat and annoying cackling. Hey, it happens!

And many people insist on putting the most trivial and silly details of their daily lives on FaceBook or MySpace, or Tweeting on Twitter about their latest activities.  This addiction is similar to the folks who, when video cameras first became affordable and widespread, had to tape every single get-together with family and friends, plus birthday parties, Halloween, Christmas, and other special events.

Why can’t people just live the moment, be spontaneous, and enjoy the memories?  Does anyone really want to read all those breathless reports about what your puppy did today, or your toddler’s latest play date?  Do people WANT to sit and watch long video tapes of uninteresting family gatherings? No and no.

Embedded Social Engineering

Unfortunately, it is looking like the Blue Dog Democrats might lie down like dogs, heeling to the commands of their masters: Nancy Pelosi, Steny Hoyer, and Henry Waxman with regard to ObamaCare.

However, the situation is fluid, and may change by the time you read this.  As I type (late afternoon), lawmakers are meeting behind closed doors, marking up the House bill and doing the usual horse trading to secure votes.

We've already covered the main reasons for opposing this bill: It would inhibit personal choice in health care, lead to rationing and waiting lines, unconstitutionally mandate that employers provide health insurance and uninsured citizens buy insurance, and exacerbate already serious budget deficits.

Now, it looks like there is another good reason for opposition: social engineering might be the devil embedded in the details.  The Investors Business Daily editorial I linked to warns of Obama's intended "redress of health care disparities on the basis of race" by requiring hospitals and health plans to collect, analyze and report health care quality for minority populations and hold these institutions and companies accountable for disparities found.

The potential for mischief is tremendous: Medical schools seeking federal contracts or grants might be pressured into using an affirmative action type quota system to admit underrepresented minorities over better qualified non-minorities.

Besides, health care is a two-way street: The patients need to do their part.  If they don't cooperate, the best doctors in the world cannot help them, and ought not be held accountable.

The reasons for health care disparities by race are complex, but many of them are not the fault of health care providers or insurance companies.  For example, pregnant teen mothers often engage in unhealthy habits like smoking and drinking.  There are too many people with unhealthy diets, widespread sexually transmitted diseases, too much obesity and smoking, and way too many liquor stores rather than grocery stores in inner city neighborhoods.  Go ahead, liberals, scream at me for "blaming the victim." Bring it on.

I believe in accountability, and I also maintain that bad things that happen to minorities ARE NOT always because of racism and the system being stacked against them. 

Along these same lines, don't be surprised, if this health care clusterhump passes, to see, buried somewhere on about pages 867-901, mandates that coverage must include sex change operations, breast enhancements, tummy tucks, and partial birth abortions.  Just more of that "compassionate liberalism" at work.

Talk-Talk, Talk Talk

Does anyone remember that '80s song "Talk Talk," by Talk Talk? Yes, you heard me right, the song had the same name as the group! It was typical of the era: that dreamy new wave aura, lush synthesizers, hypnotic lyrics, and probably a tad overproduced.

The song comes to mind because it seems like, for us old timers who grew up in the days of land lines, three or four TV channels, and typewriters, there is too much opportunity for people to communicate, and consequently, the content gets diluted.  (Today, type-type is just as apt a phrase, and I'll get to that.)

Cell phones came on the scene big-time in the 1990s, as did widespread use of the Internet.  America Online used to send out floppy discs or CDs of its software to introduce people to the World Wide Web back when most folks had dial-up connections with 14.4 or 28.8 baud modems.  AOL was known for its many live chatrooms, which seemed to be the hot thing ca. 1996.

A few years later, Instant Messaging came on the scene, blogs proliferated, then text messaging for cellphones, Blackberrys, etc., followed by MySpace, FaceBook, and Twitter.  To use the words of New York Post writer Kyle Smith, there's a lot of "info-snacking" and "narrow bore commentary" going on out there.

Too many drivers endanger themselves and others by talking, dialing, or texting on the cellphone while operating a motor vehicle.  Pedestrians have literally walked right out in front of a car and been run over because they couldn't get their noggins out of their phone or Blackberry screen while crossing a street.

But aside from the dangers posed by excessive use of communications media, there's the rude, inconsiderate behavior so many people exhibit — both toward surrounding people (loud cellphone chit-chat) and readers of their messages/blogs/Tweets/Facebook postings, etc.

What amazes me is that people are willing to risk getting in an auto accident, walking in front of a Mack truck, or having an IT administrator discover how much time they're wasting on the employer's dime communicating with friends, all for the sake of what is often utterly inane drivel.

I've perused Facebook, and I never cease to be amazed by the frivolous, throw-away pap people post day in and day out.  There is always the temptation to link to other people through pictures and quotes.  It can chew up a lot of time.  Sometimes it's nice to see photos of a friend's family, but there are also immature young people who severely damage future job prospects by posting pictures of themselves in party animal mode or exhibiting a public display of vulgar language.

It's too bad so many people waste so much time on such trivial activities. But then again, I suppose people said the same thing when television came on the scene in the 1950s. It's been around for 60 years, and we're still alive and kicking.

Friday Afternoon News Dump

When an elected official wants to make an announcement or release documents that might generate negative publicity, typically it is done late on a Friday afternoon.  By this time, many reporters and editors have already bellied up to the bar or are fighting traffic on their way home. 

Besides, far fewer people read the papers or watch the news on weekends, so some potentially damaging stories can slip through the cracks because by the time Monday arrives, new events and incidents are competing for reporters’ attention.

So it is no surprise that the Obama administration announced late Friday afternoon its decision to loosen restrictions on officials discussing stimulus-related policy with lobbyists. 

This is just another retreat from Obama's portrayal of his administration as a lobbyist-free zone.  During last year’s campaign, Obama promised to prevent past lobbyists from taking policy-making executive positions.  How’s that working out, Barry?

In March, the President announced that government officials would not be allowed to consider the views of lobbyists regarding specific stimulus projects unless the requests were put in writing.  Lobbying groups, with help from the ACLU and other organizations, managed to get the President to back off.

Friday's memo requires government officials to promptly disclose on the Internet all oral and written communications with lobbyists concerning policy or projects funded under the recovery act. They also have to disclose any written communications with lobbyists regarding pending applications for competitive funding.

The Office of Management & Budget’s 11-page memo requires greater documentation for questions and discussions that are more advocacy-related than general or logistical in nature.  Check out this excerpt, written in government-ese, with an Orszag dialect:

The prohibition on oral communications between Federal agency officials and federally registered lobbyists regarding specific Recovery Act projects that was contained in the earlier guidance has been clarified to apply to the stage and context where concerns about merit-based decision-making are greatest – during the period commencing after the submission of formal applications for, and up through awards of, competitive grants or other competitive forms of Federal financial assistance under the Recovery Act.

Got that? Good - there’s a quiz tomorrow.

The requirement for administration officials to document contact with lobbyists sounds cumbersome and unworkable.  For one thing, it would be impractical even if “lobbyist” were a straightforward, clearcut term.  But in the cesspool that is Washington, consultants, pollsters, trade association flacks, influence peddlars, think tanks, and dozens of other parasites could qualify as lobbyists in spirit, intent, and actions, if not in an official registry.

Like so much of what Obama does, this “transparency” is nothing more than window dressing.

Paper Perforation Night

Posse Incitatus founder K.N. McBride is much more of a gun aficionado than I am.  He owns numerous firearms, and has for quite a few years.  I just purchased my first gun, a used Smith & Wesson .357 Magnum, about four years ago.  It's nice to own a firearm in case I ever need it, but I'm more into classic cars and classic rock than guns. If this blog site was founded to appeal mostly to gun enthusiasts, I apologize.  But I trust readers of this site, avid Second Amendment supporters, will share many ideological and philosophical tenets with K.N. and me.

I do not have a CCW permit, as does K.N.  My gun usually stays locked up in a safe, and once every few months or so, K.N., a few other friends and I will haul out our guns and head for the local firing range for what we call "paper perforation night."  (We shoot at paper targets hung from a wire line — you know the drill.)

What I really want to do is find someone with some rural property who will permit me to shoot at tomatoes, apples, cans and bottles sitting atop a fence.  That would be a lot more fun. 

I don't know what the future holds, but I do believe our economic woes (especially here in Michigan) will drag on for a long time.  It is not unreasonable to suggest that, with property tax revenues plummeting, lower income tax revenues, high unemployment, and endless budget cuts, there will come a time when local governments will be hard-pressed to afford adequate numbers of police officers.  It could be good times for criminals. 

And if the economic doldrums drag on endlessly, jobs are nowhere to be found, and criminals think they can prey upon people with impunity, the presence of a trusty old six-gun on the premises might help me and my family sleep better at night. 

Meantime, I shouldn't allow too much time to elapse between perforating sessions.  After all, gun control means holding that piece steady and hitting your target, right?

Entitlement Tipping Point?

I have been saying for years that Medicare and Social Security are middle-class welfare programs.  Many SS recipients, for example, get more out of the program in benefits in 3 or 4 years than they paid into it over 30 or 40 years.  This is partly because they were paying a much lower levy back in the 1950s and 1960s than today's workers pay, but also because retirees are living far longer today than in the 1930s when SS began.  Today, employees and their employers each pay a 6.2 percent FICA tax — typically several thousand dollars per year per person, and the ratio of workers to recipients is 3-to-1, compared with 16-to-1 decades ago.

Medicare, absurdly, pays the medical bills of ALL seniors, not just those of modest means who cannot afford to pay their own bills.  A significant percentage of seniors are more well-off than young and middle-aged people.  Many of them have been more prudent with their money, saved diligently, and also worked for decades at jobs offering defined benefit, rather than defined contribution (e.g., 401k, IRA) pensions. 

That's commendable, but it doesn't entitle them to stick their hands in the pockets of millions of workers who earn far less and compete in a far more difficult job market than existed 40 years ago.  For example, although I am all for women getting an education, having greater opportunities and being independent, I must admit that it makes for a much tougher job market for middle-aged men such as myself.  When my father was in his 40s, far fewer women held bachelor's and master's degrees, and women were less likely to be working full-time.  Again, not complaining about the competition from females; just stating a fact.

As it is, young workers (mainly high school and college-aged) often earn minimum wage or close to it.  Yet they get FICA and Medicare taxes taken out of their checks to pay for Social Security and Medicare for millions of seniors who simply don't need the welfare but gladly take it.  Some seniors use their SS checks as casino slot machine money. No kidding.

Both Social Security and Medicare are headed toward insolvency in the not too distant future.  Combined, the two have literally tens of trillions of dollars worth of unfunded liabilities. Medicare, at least, ought to be means tested. 

Maybe a silver lining to the obscene deficits being racked up by Obama and the drunken sailor Congress will be that fear of rampant inflation and sky-high interest rates will wake us all up like a bucket of ice water.

We cannot continue down the path we're on.  It will lead to economic ruin (e.g., Weimar Republic-like hyperinflation), and literally could turn this great nation into a banana republic.

Lunatics Running the Asylum

HILLARYCARE REDUX? — It’s looking more like 1994 all over again...By the way, where is Ira Magaziner these days?  The Wall Street Journal’s Kim Strassel nails it with her assessment of how Obama erred tactically in his efforts to get major health care legislation enacted. 

Of the errors cited by Ms. Strassel, perhaps the biggest was allowing the left wing gang of Pelosi, Reid and Waxman to put their imprint on the major bills.  Their policy proposals may have pleased their comrades over at DailyKos.com, but they upset and discomfited the conservative Blue Dog Democrats, many of whom are already worried about constituent reactions toward their “yes” votes on the cap-and-trade monstrosity a few weeks ago.

Letting the hard left loons of Congress draw up the health care legislation and call the shots is tantamount to leaving your 16-, 17-, and 18 year-old children home alone one weekend with a refrigerator full of beer, and a liquor cabinet full of the hard stuff.  You just know they can’t be trusted — that’s why 99 percent of parents wouldn’t do such a thing.

But for those parents reckless and negligent enough to make this mistake, while they are off having a little weekend getaway, the hormone-dominated wild things will be partying up a storm and trashing the house.

FOOTBALL SEASON 2009 — My riding partner, K.N. McBride, occasionally writes about his beloved alma mater, Michigan State University.  It so happens that MSU is my alma mater, too, although I was there long before K.N.

We are now only about five weeks away from the beginning of the college football season, always an exciting time of year in East Lansing and other college towns.

If you live in Michigan, you’re either green or blue. (Green-and-white, the colors of the MSU Spartans, or maize and blue, the Michigan Wolverines’ colors).  Few people are neutral. I come from a big family, and five of us including me are Spartans. I have one sister who graduated from the University of Michigan. (We'll forgive her.)

Michigan, the winningest college football program in the land, has been a powerhouse for decades (the exception being last year's 3-9 season), and has won something like 40 Big Ten championships.  It has dominated MSU in football for way too long.  But there was a time, in the 1950s and 1960s, when the MSU Spartans won several national championships and were led by superstars such as Bubba Smith, George Webster, Gene Washington, and Earl Morrall.

MSU seems to be on the upswing at long last under Coach Mark Dantonio.  Last season, the Spartans played in a January 1 bowl game for the first time in 9 years.  The Spartans are predicted by many preseason football magazines to finish in third place in the Big Ten this season.  Michigan might be headed for a .500 season.

MSU football isn't as well-known nationwide as Michigan Wolverines football, with its long history of Heisman Trophy winners and great teams.  But MSU basketball is a different story.  Even folks in other parts of the country are aware of the Spartans' enormous basketball success in recent years: five Final Fours since 1999, a national championship in 2000, and runner-up in 2009 to a North Carolina team with three players taken in the first round of the NBA draft.

Michigan, which was placed on probation in 2002 and had its scholarships cut back, has been paying a heavy price in basketball for its transgressions during the Fab Five days, but last season made the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1998.  They are getting better.

MSU is a land grant university, and its students and alumni tend to be more down-to-earth than what we perceive as the arrogant elitists from Ann Arbor.

Personally, I know and have worked with some fine people who are University of Michigan graduates.  Many of them are NOT arrogant or smug.  And they're highly intelligent, motivated people.  But what drives me nuts (and I can speak for K.N. on this) are the bandwagon U-M fans who not only didn't go to Michigan, but never went to college at all, and have the nerve to trash talk about Michigan State.

We Spartan fans have a nickname for them: Wal-Mart Wolverines.  They often wear mullets, drive beat up old cars with glass-pak mufflers, crank out the Bon Jovi, and are heavily into NASCAR.

If Michigan State succeeds in reviving its long dormant football program and can win at least 50 percent of its games vs. Michigan, and our hoops program keeps rolling along under the competent, steady hand of Tom Izzo, these barnacles are going to be in a world of hurt.

CAMBRIDGE COP FLAP — I'm not going to recap the entire Cambridge Police and Harvard professor story.  It's been repeated ad nauseam on talk radio and cable news.  Just a quick observation: President Obama should not have spouted off about how the Cambridge Police "acted stupidly" if he didn't know all the facts, which was indeed the case.  Ironically, the arresting officer, Sgt. Jim Crowley, once taught a class on racial profiling at a police academy.  I guess it was Obama's community organizer background and past affiliations with the likes of Rev. Jeremiah Wright and Bill Ayers that prompted him to pipe up. Why am I not surprised?

A Blessed Reprieve

A few weeks ago, President Obama seemed insistent on getting a health care bill passed by both the House and the Senate prior to the August recess.  But as the days went by, and the massive flaws of the House legislation became more apparent not just to the public and Republicans, but to Blue Dog (conservative) House Democrats, that prospect became unlikely.

Today, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid stated the Senate will not vote on health care legislation until after the August recess.

This is tremendous news for opponents of this Rube Goldberg scheme who fear Uncle Sam will do to health care what it did to airport security.  Despite assurances from the President that he favors a plan that would not put private insurance companies out of business, anyone with half a brain realizes how idiotic that claim is.  The government is nonprofit, can fund health care with deficit spending, and can command huge chunks of the market. 

Untold numbers of employers would drop their health care coverage to save money, and many employees might decide on their own to ditch their employer-provided health care benefits if they can simply get health care from the government (often with lower deductibles and co-pays). There is talk about removing employers' deductibility of health care benefits.  Also, under the current legislation, employers would be hit with an 8 percent payroll tax if they don't provide their employees with health insurance, but many might find that to be a cheaper alternative.  ObamaCare likely would crowd out most if not all private insurers.

During last night's news conference, a reporter asked Obama what the rush was to meet his August deadline for passage of House and Senate bills.  The President replied: “I’m rushed because I get letters every day from families that are being clobbered by health care costs. They ask me, ‘Can you help?’ ”

Mark my words, it won't be long until the liberals start trotting out the children as sympathy props.

"Oh, it's for the children," they'll plead.  Yeah, yeah, we've heard it all before. Spare us the melodrama.  Maybe the real reason Obama is in a hurry is he doesn't want any reporters (or the public) to actually peruse the 1,000-page-plus health care legislation and be horrified by its contents.

The several-week break in the action is a blessing to Republicans and anyone else who wants to build momentum against the ObamaCare juggernaut.  Many of us realize that if Uncle Sam takes over health care, the quality of care for tens of millions of people will decline, and the government's debt will grow even faster.

We also realize that the 46 or 47 million uninsured figure bandied about the Obama's sycophants in the mainstream media is totally bogus.  A big chunk of those people could afford health care but decline to purchase it because they are young and healthy.  Another big chunk are illegal immigrants.  And some of the supposed 47 million are eligible for Medicaid or Medicare, but have not applied, perhaps because of language or cultural barriers.

Last fall I sent faxes and e-mails to Michigan's two left leaning Senators, Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow, begging them to vote against the Bush TARP bill.  I told them the scare tactics being used by then Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson were bunk, and that the money would be squandered and largely unaccounted for.  They went ahead and voted for it.

I know my pleas will fall on deaf ears if I write them again in opposition to ObamaCare, but I will do it nonetheless.  Let's hope millions of equally concerned Americans will also contact their elected representatives.

We can win this thing, just like we repudiated the amnesty bill two years ago. Let's do it!

Follow the Money

The mainstream press delights in exposing conservative Republicans who have conflicts of interest or are hypocritical in any way.  And granted, there have been a number of them, most notably former Congressman Duke Cunningham of California, who now resides in the big house for taking bribes from defense contractors.  Former Vice President Dick Cheney, not in Cunningham's corrupt league, was always a liberal pinata due to his former employment with Halliburton, a major contractor in Iraq. (He divested himself of Halliburton stock upon taking office in 2001, but retained stock options).

Forgive me, then, for doing what the lamestream press won't do: point out the duplicity from the likes of  greenhouse gasbag Al Gore, wind generator king T. Boone Pickens, and President Obama himself.

Al Gore, the Chicken Little of global warming, is a media darling, and adored by European leftists.  But his  act has really grown old in the minds of many people.  To use Gore’s own phraseology, perhaps we’re at a “political tipping point” with regard to his hot air.

Recently a talk show caller made a funny observation:  For a couple of years after the disputed 2000 election, Gore maintained a low profile and kept his mouth shut.  But suddenly, a few years into G.W. Bush’s first term, Gore burst onto the scene, heavier, with a beard, and doing little to conceal his anger.  The caller compared the newly unleashed, snarling Gore to an uncaged animal that had been cooped up for far too long and could now growl and howl with impunity.  Gore’s rage at Bush, conservatives, and anyone else who didn’t buy his snake oil, was palpable.

Despite the growing skepticism about human-caused global warming, and the fading chances of the massive kneecap & tax bill that passed the House a few weeks ago, Gore continues to beat the drum for carbon offsets.  No wonder.  Gore and David Blood co-founded Generation Investment Management, nicknamed "Blood & Gore," which owns 10 percent of the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCE), through which Gore stands to benefit financially if carbon offsets are bought and sold. (CCE, in turn, owns half of the European Climate Exchange.)

Hmm, I wonder if Gore's anger is more because of the money he'll miss out on if his Chicken Little warnings fall on deaf ears, than because of the real damage he believes will be done to the earth?

Turning now to wind power, a year ago, when gasoline was about $4 per gallon, it was hard to watch a few minutes of TV without seeing a commercial for T. Boone Pickens, the Texas billionaire, touting wind turbines for generation of electricity.  As this article points out, Pickens was planning on investing heavily in the industry.  Anyone who thought his interest was reducing our oil consumption and halting our crude oil purchases from the likes of Venezuela and Saudi Arabia was bound to be disappointed. (Pickens has since pulled back from his bold plans, perhaps because of declining oil prices and the recession.)

And then there's President Obama, who tried mightily to portray himself as above it all during last year's campaign.  Well, it just so happens that one of the companies to benefit tremendously from the Wall Street bailout was Goldman Sachs — one of Obama's biggest campaign contributors.

Despite the tough economy, Goldman Sachs just reported record quarterly profits between April and June, and is preparing to hand out huge bonuses to its employees.  The company received about $10 billion in federal aid last fall. 

Quid pro quo? YES WE CAN!