Friday, August 21, 2009

MoJo Puts it Clearly

This morning, Joe Scarborough gave me the most solid list yet to express what kind of reform the voters want and would support:

Not Health Care Reform,

but

Consumer Protection

in a bill that addresses these elements favored by most of us who are willing to pay for our health insurance, rightfully expecting value for our contributions and reasonable stability of our liabilities.

1. My insurance cannot drop me for reaching some arbitrarily derived threshhold.
2. My children can stay on the family policy until the age of 25.
3. If I get fired, or otherwise lose the employment to which my health care insurance is tied, I won't be charged exorbitant costs for COBRA that expires in 18 months.
4. My insurance, once established, will follow me for three years.

Each of these elements address the true issues

consumers actually have with their coverage not the
problems with health care itself.


Rather than villifying Insurance Companies, I wish to make a stand-up statement about them that is fostered by the respect acquired through my work with them. Wall Street and the Government programs notwithstanding, Insurance Companies' funds pool has been the financial source of much of this country's economy. If not for insurance policies on the consumer, banks wouldn't loan you the cash to purchase an automobile or a home. Sure, the bank is fronting the risk of your keeping your word and making all the installment payments on your car. But in addition to the threat of repossion, the Bank also goes to good ol' American Security Insurance Corporation and purchases a two dollar per month insurance policy to back itself up and adds that to the cost of your loan. You pay the premium as the debtor, but the Bank owns the policy and collects the equivalent of the balance on YOUR loan if you default. Your company life insurance, the liability on your property, even the dental plan for preventive care you wish you had, are all regulated by the States in which they do business. The Federal Government is not in the position to make universal regulations affecting health insurance.

President Obama is slummin' with the folks who continue to support him as he lets them in on his "thought processing" about his (and by extension, their) political enemies. He targets those hard working Americans employed in the vast insurance administration business, who are on the job year in and year out finding better ways to build their communities into the kind of places where they can earn an honest living doing business among the neighbors and projects they fund.

I'm sick of being talked down to by a too cool critic who is clueless about the amount of work that goes into the management of an Insurance Company. Like the hospitals they reimburse, these Americans are 24/7/356 at the wheel. Fair business practices and quality products are their bread and butter. AIG and the Wall Street cronies who looted the pool should be hearing his denigrating remarks. The folks seated behind him at the Town Hall meetings are foil for sound-bytes. He dredges up his old rival for the fad-of-the-moment adulation he briefly ceded to Sarah Palin before his junkyard dogs "took care of her." By their approving applause and demeaning laughter, his "peeps" show they agree that the August vapors make disposable citizens all

"Wee wee." Jeez! I love how the Left glorifies their chosen one for his tough Chicago Style, hard knuckle politics and sees no loss of dignity when their boy gets down with them and drives home the unsavory JOB they've been doing.
Instead, why is he not focusing unflattering dirision - in detail - on those individuals who first violated their insurance business licenses by mismanaging the funds, then took obscene bonuses from the rescue moneys coughed up in the name of the very taxpayers they've robbed?

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Ed Rendell HOUNDS the Mobsters as "Crazies"

I never thought much more of Beck and O'Reilly than I did of Matthews and Olbermann. But, I borrowed the Audio book of Bill-o's "Bold Fresh Piece of Humanity" from the library and listened to it when I was driving. I found it to be a reflection of the people educated in Catholic Schools. Little did I expect to understand so much or laugh so loudly. Direct TV News Mix on channel 102 or 352 show eight news channels at once, CNN, Headline News, Bloomberg, CNBC, MSNBC, Fox Business, Fox News, and the Weather Channel. you can monitor the screens and tune in the sound on whichever you want. I compare the coverage and find real differences. For example, Fox treats the town hall incidents as news. NBC lumps all the protestors into the 'birther, crazies, republican sponsored.' Rendell was even on there today saying the "Majority of Americans are going to be turned off by these crazies, and are going to stand up and be heard." News Flash, Eddie, tea baggers birthers and protestors ARE the majority of Americans. It left me wondering why I've put myself in uncomfortable positions defending him. The very people he's describing are the ones who voted for him. What these people want is information in a language they can process with relevance and results they can see as the direct result of the actions our leadership takes. They want it paced responsibly, without the stampeding and doomsday predictions of the terrible things that will happen if we don't pass them RIGHT NOW!!! when the terrible things happen anyway! They simply do not believe they are getting straight answers. They don't appreciate being denigrated, dismissed and defamed when they question. They saw Obama pledge with McCain to accept the public financing for his campaign. He swore he'd filibuster FISA, then voted FOR it. He campaigned on the lily pure assurance that lobbyists would not run his white house, then both his first and second appointments were lobbyists. All records of his work at Occidental, Columbia and Harvard are sealed: we can't even read his dissertations or Harvard Law Review editions. So everything adds up to a person who we are to believe on his word, who has repeatedly failed to keep his word once he's in the position required by trust. It is little mystery that these people are "nuts" - they are the classic victims of deception!

My closest comparison is a bad boyfriend who makes a date with you, and after you've turned down other appealing offers, stands you up. Or the spouse whose affair is common knowledge to your social circle, yet NOBODY tells you the truth, they change the subject, clam up or your trusted friends pretend not to know about it. People are uneasy because the things that are happening do not correspond to the promises that were made, nor do they reflect traditional American values.

We sat through years of these people disrupting meetings, led by Kreiss who challenged and denigrated our efforts. They were roused to attend the meetings by the very people who were funding the illegal activities that victimized our good faith efforts. We were called liars and fascists, shouted down, hissed and subjected to interruption whenever we spoke. The blog they posted savaged our reputations, yet they carried on like babies when exposed. The footnote I have attached to my signature is from Roberts Rules of Order. Five of us voted against the suspension of the rules to elect Larry chairman, yet our votes were dismissed and the minutes say he was unanimously elected. There was no discussion because we had no quorum and felt no need to engage, yet badda-bing! They didn't have a quorum, but they had a majority, so they forced themselves in. And Larry assures them that the State Committee will back him up! Instead of finding common ground, we find constantly shifting rock underfoot where nothing can grow or be built. The Tea Party people are Americans who have heard enough, seen for themselves and made up their minds to doubt the media and the Administration. Good salespeople recognize these gestures as an invitation to up-sell. They're missing it. Instead, they inflame the voters with personal insults to their intelligence thus bringing ever more protestors to the street. That filibuster proof majority is a curse on both our houses. Rendell acknowledges that he has never seen this level and intensity of rage.

"The fundamental right of deliberative assemblies require all questions to be thoroughly discussed before taking action! The assembly rules - they have the final say on everything! Silence means consent!"*
*Roberts Rules of Order


So, if you don't want to be taken advantage of just because you reserve comment as a gesture of restraint, let it fly! Either way, YOU'RE pickin' up the tab.

Saturday, August 8, 2009

The Empire Says: "We Double-Dare You!"

Chicago tactics fall short. Accomplished diplomats burnish the façade, but fail to justify Obama's rapid rise through the ranks predicated on the willingness to violate rights. Where's the elected Win / Win approach?

"If they hit, we hit back twice as hard."
"If they bring a knife to a street fight, we bring a gun."
Such thuggish language! You need your mouth washed out with soap.
You cannot possibly hear and see yourselves, or you'd tighten up and observe WORK ZONE RULES!!! We evolve as reviewers of Presidential Leadership.

The White House is the seat of Constitutional Law Enforcement. The pyramid of power peaks at the Oval Office, yet its occupant resorts to street-level consciousness and the bully pulpit. We the People expect our President to undertake the exercises that legitimize and build consensus.

The DNC – taken over by the AxelPunks and moved to Chicago, served as the template for these MöB tactics. Overtly aggressive operatives were delivered by Obama campaign buses to disrupt, commandeer and, yes, rig (known in low level mob circles as Game) the 2008 Caucuses.

The Blog Rolls of the Just Say No Deal Coalition testified to the tactics of suppression leveled at Pro-Hillary posters on such sites as Daily Kos. Scandalized, shocked and utterly unprepared to meet with such un-American violence of our first amendment rights, the mantra, “Country before Party!” synchronized rebellion. Holding the Democratic Party Accountable was the mission. And now we hear our principles; abandoned during the Primaries, preached against the very level of public misconduct we were shown. We demanded; “Where is Obama? Where is the Leadership? Why has he not spoken out against this unacceptable conduct from his supporters?” Underground entities – practiced in secrecy and espionage – HOPE to intimidate a free people into compliance. Ayers, Wright, Acorn were explained away. "No Drama" Obama, who then remained 'above the fray', now appears - daily- donning Nixonian bluster, to force what he is unable to sell.

Bots, paid to troll pro-Clinton sites, did as coached. Piranha Schooled, they swarmed and consumed political opponents. You are what you eat. Social experiment in the Presidency is disorder. LBJ, elevated by an act of unspeakable violence, was the quintessential demonstration of just what NOT to do.

We are bemused. The Obots exploded into the consciousness of patrons of change, billed as new “Sopranos.” Knowledgeable Opera fans heard for themselves and had their doubts. Opera, Italian for work, was never documented by these pretenders. Where was the score for reviewers to follow? Where were the notes indicative of original composition? They were all sealed from review. Scholars were forbidden access to any of the early works by which we evaluate and substantiate the influence and genius of the untested, unproven freshman Senator, endorsed for his ‘leadership,’…. Study Group colleagues are neither identified nor interviewed. We have, on the other hand, the transcripts of Hillary Clinton’s college day speeches, documentation of her activism and corroboration by her contemporaries.

It’s Violence against our Spirits, not violins in those unique cases; a mob of pretenders to Executive Office using tactics of intimidation to assert their half-baked concepts. Concerned Citizens, alarmed by inexplicable haste, concerned by recent admissions of having "Mis-read" the severity of problems, reject the ruse “Urgency of Now.” They are driven to crazed outbursts by the continued gestures of dismissive contempt from their own representatives! The message they bring to their Town Hall meeting is; "Read the Bill!" "Let us look at it together. We're not here to be told what you want us to believe, to be spun and judged incapable of self-determination."

On display is the Audacity of Incompetence, sloppy research, failure to communicate. We who actually work at our jobs are neither impressed nor convinced by these occupants of the Agencies of the People. We expected to find them undertaking actual Work, as the BUSINESS OF THE PEOPLE prescribes. Throughout a six month review period, we’ve indulged trial-and-error-chaos, having seen none of the touted superior judgment and leadership we were assured would shine through.

At Town Hall meetings, we, the owners of this country, express disappointment and disapproval, urging a change in the approach, not the System!

The School Board steps in; the Stock holders, who have become mere “bag-holders,” demand supervision of these first time Administrators pending a successfully completed probationary performance. Did we not pass over a qualified, experienced commodity at the urging of these young cult leadership pitch people?

“Oh Captain, My Captain!” Whitman’s ode to fallen President Lincoln, suggests, perhaps a game changer. While the Media and DNC have adopted the Chicago Style of citation, it may actually be appropriate to cite via the AMA Style. http://en.wikisource.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Cite&page=O_Captain!_My_Captain!&id=776898.

Do surgical candidates want the medical student who is tops in his class, or the surgeon who has performed in the operating theatre under the scrutiny of accomplished performing providers?

The town hall mobsters are saying: “We're making you an offer you cannot refuse!”
Tables turn.

We’ve objectively observed the tactics of this crowd. We are hearing the bases of our own complaints, dismissed in the primaries, now being righteously recycled as their defense. The "Mobs" reject deaf D.C. insiders, social climbers posing as journalists and fugitives from justice launching political careers. Put the workhorse in its rightful place: before the bandwagon.

What the Health Care Reformer presents is perceived as clear and present danger to the Citizenry. Incapable of reassuring us, the Aristocratic Citizen of the World ratchets up name-calling, threats and the Bully Pulpit. The mis-named Mobsters reject their Representatives’ failure to represent them. They represent themselves, responding in kind, to the tactics used against them. These were the same less-educated, downscale voters Obama's campaign tried to buy with newspaper endorsements in Appalachia. He had the opportunity to hear these people out and understand their needs during the campaigns, but hid, instead, behind the Race card.

Town hall meetings are intended to be an exchange. The Citizenry has observed a collapse of our financial system, the corruption of our political system and the hijacking of our Fourth Estate by special interests. We arrive ‘ginned up’ for the bullies we have learned by experience to confront. We demand that our President present Health Care ideas clearly, patiently and respectfully. People who aren't normally disposed to attend these meetings can no longer trust that their interests are being represented. Taking personal responsibility for their future, the urgency of now has shifted to "Now hear this!"

Let’s all get up and dance to a song
That was a hit before your mother was born,
Though she was born a long, long time ago,
Your mother should know,
Know-ow
Your mother should know.
Know-ow
Sing it again! McCartney-Lennon

These very Congress People, Super Delegates trusted to provide a grown-up’s sensibility to the nominating process, got their guy.

OK, you won; get over it! The Election is history. You’re on the clock, now. Get serious!

Saturday, August 1, 2009

Add this to the pile already on the camel's back, and it shouldn't be long before the "straw" that breaks it drops. I'm in a little wrestling match with the County Committee again. They scheduled a meeting to elect a new chairman for last night, but failed to get a quorum. Undaunted, they moved to go ahead and elect the unopposed nominee anyway, and dismissed the bylaws by a voice vote. When they heard a few "no's," they counted a show of hands for no's only, and a mere 5 of us were expecting to observe our own rules of order. I had to reflect on the irony of these "by the book" by-laws thumpers making such an overt power grab. Even more ironic, is that the alledged power of this organization is zero, due to their capricious practice of only observing the rules that serve their agenda of the moment.
In submitting letters of resignation, those Committee People who have left, cited the organization's failure to conduct business in the atmosphere of respectful consideration of one another and regard for their reputations. The remaining participants are either ignorant of or indifferent toward procedures and protocol by which all in attendance are singing from the same hymnal. aa