Lost In The Shuffle

Way too many times, when we're busy sniping and ducking fire, we forget to look at what's actually happening.

WaPo:

Over at Health Affairs, Andrew Steinmetz, Ralph Muller, Steven Altschuler and Ezekiel Emanuel decided to see how health reform looked to hospital executives. They surveyed 74 C-Suite executives from institutions that, on average, employed 8,520 workers and saw annual revenues of $1.5 billion. The survey wasn't scientific by any means, but in a speculative conversation that's proceeding mostly by anecdote, these individuals have a better vantage point on the changes that health reform is making to actual health-care systems than virtually anyone else.

The results? Hospital executives think health reform is going to make the health care they deliver a whole lot better -- and a bit cheaper:

Fully 65 percent indicated that by 2020, they believe the healthcare system as a whole will be somewhat or significantly better than it is today. And when they were asked about their own institutions, the optimism was even more dramatic. Fully 93 percent predicted that the quality of care provided by their own health system would improve. This is probably related to efforts to diminish hospital acquired conditions, medication errors, and unnecessary re-admissions, as encouraged by financial penalties in the ACA.

These are the guys who make money on your being sick.  Not like the docs and nurses who mostly earn every penny trying to take care of us - an awful lot of these guys are cut-throat MBA types with no clinical background, who often speak of their patients as products, and who just as often believe they can't afford the luxury of having honest human emotions when it comes to the business of healthcare.

65% of 'em think healthcare in USAmerica Inc will be better under ACA.
91% think the cost aspects will improve.
And 93% are convinced that the quality of care at their own facilities will improve.

How can there possibly be any question as to why Repubs (and their Press Poodles) are constantly slagging Obama and "Gubmint Healthcare"?

A Bit Shocking

...cuz, when you think of "librul pinko-socialist utopia", you just automatically think - Utah(?)

From NationSwell, via Democratic Underground

Utah has reduced its rate of chronic homelessness by 78 percent over the past eight years, moving 2000 people off the street and putting the state on track to eradicate homelessness altogether by 2015. How’d they do it? The state is giving away apartments, no strings attached. In 2005, Utah calculated the annual cost of E.R. visits and jail stays for an average homeless person was $16,670, while the cost of providing an apartment and social worker would be $11,000. Each participant works with a caseworker to become self-sufficient, but if they fail, they still get to keep their apartment.

And did you catch the part about saving tax dollars?  Wow - turns out the sensible, business-like thing to do is to be generous and charitable.  Hoodathunkit!?!

So, when the clear-eyed rational tough-love austerians are talking about how "we just can't coddle these people because all we're doing by giving them handouts is teaching them to be dependent"? - well, now we have some more very good empirical evidence that they really are just being the short-sighted narrow-minded pricks we tho't they were in the first place.  Not that this particular bit of very good empirical evidence won't be lost on 'em, like it usually is.  To wit:

In a new HuffPost/YouGov poll, only 36 percent of Americans reported having "a lot" of trust that information they get from scientists is accurate and reliable. Fifty-one percent said they trust that information only a little, and another 6 percent said they don't trust it at all.

Science journalists fared even worse in the poll. Only 12 percent of respondents said they had a lot of trust in journalists to get the facts right in their stories about scientific studies. Fifty-seven percent said they have a little bit of trust, while 26 percent said they don't trust journalists at all to accurately report on scientific studies.

So it's a complete crapshoot on whether we get our collective head out of our ass, but hey - there's never a bad time to throw some Carlin at ya:

Prison Break

I'm Dressin' Up Like Santa --Bob Rivers

Sometimes Small Is Big

Sarah Jarosz via NPR's Tiny Desk Concerts
w/ fiddler Alex Hargreaves and cellist Nathaniel Smith

Today's Rant

Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American consumer.

Happy Solstice

Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas --Bob Evans

Today's Pix

What Comfort Can Be Found

Of all the aspects of religiousness that make my skin crawl, that's kinda the big'un - the fact that a "Christian" like Erick Erickson is comforted by the thought of other people suffering because they don't believe in his imaginary friends.

That's pretty fucked up right there.

hat tip = Little Green Footballs

God Love The Onion

Meanwhile, Back At The Executive Mansion

From WaPo, via Richmond Times Dispatch:

Federal prosecutors told Gov. Bob McDonnell last week that he and his wife would be charged in connection with a gift scandal, but senior Justice Department officials delayed the decision after the McDonnells’ attorneys made a face-to-face appeal in Washington, according to people familiar with the case.

Dana Boente, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, told the McDonnells’ legal teams that he planned to ask a grand jury to return an indictment no later than this past Monday, people familiar with the conversations said.

The governor and his wife, Maureen McDonnell, would have been charged with working together to illegally promote a struggling dietary supplement company in exchange for gifts and loans from its CEO, the people said.

The legal teams for Vaginal Bob and Lady McDonnell met with a Deputy USAG and got something of a reprieve.  Nobody's talking about it, but it could be just the usual delaying tactic of pleading for the indictments to be postponed until after McAuliffe's inauguration.  That way (per conventional wisdom), we can pretend that the stench of corruption is totally (and only) attached to these two people, and doesn't point directly at a political system that's growing into a full-blown institutionalized scheme of coin-operated politicians.

I'm not convinced yet that McAuliffe has what it takes, but it sure would be nice for him to start things off by declaring simply and straight out that taking the big bucks from the big donors doesn't mean he'll be manufacturing policies that are custom made to fit an agenda that has practically nothing to do with - and may well do some real harm to - the people who can't afford to make those high-dollar contributions.

And There Ya Have It

Richmond Times Dispatch:

On the final day of the statewide recount in the race for Virginia’s attorney general, Republican Mark D. Obenshain conceded to Democrat Mark R. Herring, the certified winner of the Nov. 5 election, ending what Obenshain called “a vigorous and hard-fought campaign.”

Herring’s victory gives Democrats all five statewide offices — governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general and the two U.S. Senate seats — for the first time since 1969.

“The recount is almost over, and in this contest it’s become apparent that our campaign is going to come up a few votes short,” Obenshain said Wednesday afternoon at a news conference at the state Capitol, his wife, Suzanne, and daughter Tucker by his side.

Herring ended Election Day with a margin of less than 120 votes, and the recount as of yesterday had him up by a little over 900.

Repubs have been very busy trying to "win" elections by making it harder for certain demographic segments to vote.  They can say whatever they want about how the new restrictions apply to everybody and so they're not discriminatory at all, but anybody with a lick of sense (and the tiniest inclination to look into it) knows that's a complete crockful o' shit.

Here's the takeaway that I suspect will be totally lost on "conservatives": Democracy works pretty well even when you try to fuck with it.  So, could ya please stop fucking with it now?

Government As Usual

Another step towards "making government run more like a business":

A BILL 

To amend the Trademark Act of 1946 to provide for the registration of marks consisting of a flag, coat of arms, or other official insignia of the United States or of any State or local government, and for other purposes. 

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

SECTION 1. REGISTRATION OF CERTAIN MARKS OF THE UNITED STATES AND STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS. 

Section 2(b) of the Act entitled ``An Act to provide for the registration and protection of trademarks used in commerce, to carry out the provisions of certain international conventions, and for other purposes'', approved July 6, 1946 (commonly referred to as the ``Trademark Act of 1946''; 15 U.S.C. 1052(b)) is amended by inserting after ``simulation thereof'' the following: ``, except that this subsection shall not prevent the United States, or any State, municipality, county, political subdivision, or other governmental authority in the United States, from obtaining registration under this Act of any mark that consists of or comprises its own flag, coat of arms, or other official insignia''.

Designated HR3713, introduced by Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY08), and cosponsored by Ted Poe (R-TX02).

Cuz that's exactly what we need to spend tax dollars on - Gubmint Watchdogs to protect the viability of The Government Brand; to decide who does and who doesn't get to use Ol' Glory and in what way.  There's a fortune to be made by USAmerica Inc, simply by extracting licensing fees and royalties from anybody who wants to use anything "government-related" for any commercial purpose.  

This avid corporatizing is a sickness.  And it's especially offensive when we're ready to apply the empty and meaningless bullshit of Brand Value Marketing to government.

Here's a quick tho't - maybe we could concentrate on the substance of government, and stop obsessing over the fucking style.

hat tip = Irregular Times

Today's Quote

hat tip = Democratic Underground

Ann The Man Coulter

What she said:

“By the way, Republicans don’t have a problem with women. They have a problem with unmarried women who think, ‘No, we don’t need national defense, we need our birth control paid for.’ [...] And why? Because single women look at the government as their husbands. [They say] ‘Please provide for me, please take care of me.’”

Coulter is a single woman.  Coulter pisses on other single women for "being dependent on Government" - "please provide for me; please take care of me", etc.

If you substitute 'GOP' for 'government', then it becomes clear that Ms Coulter is slagging herself.

Just another self-loathing 'conservative' who hates herself for being who she is.

For any 'conservatives' out there who are starting to get wise to the Long Con that Repubs are running; who would like to get back to a better spot on the political spectrum; who just wanna be regular humans again?  First thing ya gotta do is get Ann Coulter's dick outa yer mouth.

hat tip = Addicting Info

Seriously Stoopid

From Little Green Footballs:

Kotaku reports that a Tea Party group in Florida posted a picture from the game Bioshock Infinite on their Facebook page.

For those who aren’t familiar with it, Bioshock Infinite is a game that takes place in a 1912 in a flying city by the name of Columbia. It’s run by a man who is a cross between Bryan Fischer and Pat Buchanan. The place is a racist, sexist theocracy. When I played the game it seriously creeped me out.

So these Tea Partiers took an image from what is essentially a condemnation of their stance and posted it as a serious display of their beliefs.

These are really stupid people.