Monthly Archives: September 2011

Karen Weldin Stewart’s Appeal to Nowhere…

…on behalf of, well, not the people of the State of Delaware, has been dismissed by federal regulators. The News-Journal story has a distinct Karen in Wonderland flavor to it.

To (half-)wit: Our elected insurance commissioner, apparently on her own, applied for a three-year waiver to:

“exempt Aetna and UnitedHealthcare from spending 80 percent of premiums on medical care rather than administrative expenses or profits.”

You see, our Insurance Commissioner, who was elected by the people of the State of Delaware, felt that these much-maligned companies should only have to pay 65 cents of every health care dollar for, you know, health care. Her quote, in the form of a Yogi-worthy mixed metaphor:

“Sometimes it’s better to take baby steps than it is to swallow whole,” Stewart said Monday.

Before I proceed, can we all agree that this homily deserves consideration for end-of-the-year awards?

Thought so.

In other words, unless my reading comprehension skills have completely left me, our Insurance Commissioner, who was elected by the people of the State of Delaware, fought for higher executive salaries, higher commissions, and higher overhead and marketing costs for Aetna and United Healthcare to the detriment of health care delivery for Delaware policyholders. To the tune of 15 cents out of every health care dollar. She specifically was carrying the torch for insurance brokers/salespersons who were facing slashes in their commissions. That is precisely the kind of wasteful spending that leads to high healthcare costs and needs to be slashed. If everyone has to have health insurance, someone shouldn’t get a commission to sell it to you. And why should this small group of greedy individuals carry more weight with our elected IC than those whose health care would suffer to the tune of 15 cents out of every health care dollar?

Plus, even with the exorbitant golden parachutes BC/BSD execs are eying hungrily, Blue Cross/Blue Shield Delaware easily exceeds the 80% mandate. It ain’t that hard to do.

By Stewart’s own admission, the denial of her federal application will lead to “either lower premiums or rebates for about 6,300 Delawareans with individual insurance plans”. Lower premiums or rebates that KWS didn’t want you to have. Um, did I mention that she was elected by the people of the State of Delaware? Just want to make sure.

And I just want to make sure that this misbegotten sop to the insurance industry never gets near elective office ever again. She is truly one of the worst elected officials in Delaware history. And that’s saying something.

Is This ‘The Reveal’ We’ve Been Waiting For?

For those of you who don’t know what “the reveal” is just google “The Reveal” & Obama and a post by yours truly should be in the top 50 results. If that is too much work for your lazy ass, just read this quote from Henry IV, Part 1

I know you all, and will awhile uphold
The unyoked humour of your idleness.
Yet herein will I imitate the sun,
Who doth permit the base contagious clouds
To smother up his beauty from the world,
That when he please again to be himself,
Being wanted, he may be more wondered at
By breaking through the foul and ugly mists
Of vapours that did seem to strangle him.

What follows is no “The American President” smack down… but it is something.

By Greg Sargent

* Obama team aggressively moving to reset the dynamic on jobs: The notable thing about the current standoff over Obama’s jobs bill is that the White House seems to be aggressively trying to reset a dynamic that has repeatedly bedeviled the President in the past.

Yesterday Republicans came out against Obama’s plan to fund his proposal largely by raising taxes on the rich, and signaled a willingness to entertain passing only parts of his jobs bill. But Obama and his advisers continue to rebuff the GOP’s overtures, such as they are. Rather than signaling a willingness to compromise at the outset, as Obama and Dems repeatedly have done previously, Obama advisers continue to insist the GOP must pass his whole jobs package.

The exchange this morning on ABC News between Obama senior adviser David Axelrod and George Stepanopoulos is notable:

STEPHANOPOULOS: Is it all or nothing?

AXELROD: The President has a package. The package works together. We need to do many things to get this economy moving and people back to work, not just one thing. Tokenism isn’t enough. We want them to pass the plan. The American people want them to pass the plan. We don’t want to play games. We don’t want to engage in brinkmanship. We want to put people back to work. This package will do that. They ought to act now.

STEPHANOPOULOS: So it’s all or nothing?

AXELROD: We want them to act now on this package. We’re not in a negotiation to break up the package. It’s not an a la carte menu. It is a strategy to get this country moving.

Stephanopoulos is echoing the GOP framing of the debate here, but Axelrod isn’t taking the bait. Even if Obama advisers don’t expect the plan to pass in its current form, and are staking out this hard line only to strengthen their leverage, that alone is notable, and represents an effort to try a new approach, one rooted in a more accurate reading of the current political reality than the one that drove Obama’s approach in past standoffs. Make no mistake: If this approach holds, it’s a major reset.

Hold on a sec…

I saw an ad for a hotel this weekend. In the ad the hotel chain seemed to boast that it put fresh sheets on the bed every time a guest checked out of the room.

Does that mean that other hotel chains are not changing the sheets for every new guest?

Tuesday Open Thread

Karen Weldin Stewart is in the news today, sticking up for the health insurance lobby. MJ will have an article on that this evening.

So what were your thoughts on the Teabagging debate last night? I can never bare to watch, so I followed the reaction on several blogs I follow and on Twitter. Besides Santorum’s Freudian slip, the most outrageous, disgusting and revealing moment of the evening was conservative crowd cheering the death of the elderly uninsured. Now, the Republican position on healthcare has always been that if you can’t afford health insurance, then it sucks to be you. Now that has evolved to cheering for the deaths of the uninsured.

Truly evil.

Truly un-Christian.

Satanic.

Dover City Proposal affecting Employee speech defeated.

A Dover city committee rejected a proposal that would prohibit city employees from making any negative comments about individuals or groups based on race, gender or other legally protected characteristics on social media websites, blogs or other online forums, including Facebook, Twitter and other online social media networks, no matter if they were on or off duty. The proposal would have also banned disparaging comments about co-workers, superiors or members of the public they may interact with in the course of their jobs.

Now, I would love to ban racist or discriminatory statements from the public square. Hell, I would love to ban racist or discriminatory thoughts and opinions. For I view such statements and opinions as pure evil, revealing the immoral character and the rotten soul fo the person speaking or thinking them.

But I can’t do that. It would be unconstitutional. It would definitely infringe on the worker’s First Amendment right to free speech. The city can regulate the employee’s statements in the workplace, but not outside it.

Now, the truly horrible consequence of this is that David Anderson and I are on the same side of the issue. Remember, Mr. Anderson is a Dover City Councilman now. I will wait until you finish screaming. Ready? Good. Here are his comments on the matter:

Councilman David Anderson said the language was a serious overextension of the city’s power.
“It goes far beyond existing policies,” he said. “It treats free speech as an action. My thoughts are not regulated.”

Wagner classifies efforts to get him to do his job “frivolous.”

Some months ago, Richard Korn, the former Democratic nominee for Auditor, filed suit against state Auditor Tom Wagner, alleging that Wagner was violating a state law that requires the auditor to review school district budgets annually and has been doing so since changing the audit procedures in 2002. However, a Chancery Court judge has dismissed the suit, ruling that the Chancery Court did not have jurisdiction to hear the case, and that the Superior Court would be the proper venue.

Naturally, given the genetic stupidity of Republican officeholders, Tom Wagner thinks he has been vindicated.

“Another frivolous lawsuit thrown out the window,” Wagner said. “We have other things to worry about.”

What other things? You seem to have some time on your hands, given the lack of audits you are conducting, Mr. Wagner. I love how Wagner classifies efforts to get him to do his job “frivolous.” But I digress. Korn and his attorney say they will be filing suit in the Superior Court per the Chancery’s Court’s recommendation.

With so many debates… sooner or later….

…the GOP’s innate racism would shine through… Rick Santorum on the GOP attracting Latino votes:

“What what Gov. Perry has done is he provided in-state tuition for illegal immigrants, maybe that was an attempt to attract illegal vote — I mean Latino — voters,” Santorum said.

In the lizard brain of nearly every Republican, all Latinos are illegal. They are wrong. They shouldn’t be here in America. Because America is for white people. Not brown people.

Sorry about that….

I think it might have been a first, but yesterday Delaware Liberal had no new posts. No, it was not an extended moment of silence for the 10th year anniversary of 9/11. It was just a mix up of schedules. Our apologies. Now back to politics….

Never Forget the Stupidity

Never forget that we turned a terrorist attack into a huge win for jihadists.

Never forget that on 9/11, rather than being called to be our highest and best selves, we were asked to go shopping,
Rather than being told the truth, we were told that the air is fine and everyone should hurry back to southern Manhattan.
Never forget that 9/11 allowed us to invented evidence to facilitate an attack a country unrelated to the 9/11.
Never forget that we responded out of fear and invaded a country with no plan for the occupation.

Never forget the lie that oil revenue will pay for the war. Never forget that we ruined the economy by cutting taxes during wartime. And never forget that we turned our backs on our history and traditions by decided that abusing human rights was justified by our fear.

Never forget that we adopted police state policies in order to feel “safe.” Never forget that we allowed the terrorist who attacked us to evade justice for ten years out of laziness. And never forget that we pretended that waving the flag and being more outwardly patriotic fulfilled our civic duties.

That’s a short list of the bungling and stupidity.

We should not forget. This should be a day of national resolve that this country must never forget the stupidity. That we must never again elect a mentally retarded psychopath to the office of the President of the United States.

UPDATE: I wrote a draft of this at about 10:00 this morning. I had already heard Andrea Mitchell say, “Republican and Democratic administrations were caught flat footed by terrorists. I heard that lie once and knew that we would forget the stupidity. How can we remember when we have a news media that is no better than PRAVDA?

Ten Years Later – What We Remember and What 9/11 Means to Us

Like most Americans, we at Delaware Liberal were witnesses to the attacks on New York and D.C. ten years ago. In remembrance of that day we have decided to do a group post would look back on that day and what has happened since.

MJ:

I will never forget this day. I was still living in DC. I was outside of my building (a Federal government agency) talking with a colleague from the Department of Treasury. She was in town from San Francisco and was getting acquainted with my agency. She needed a cigarette break. As we were talking we heard a very loud explosion. At first we thought it was a dump truck going over one of those steel plates that litter the roads in DC. But then we felt the shock wave. I’d never felt anything like that before. You’re pushed like a giant wind gust had just hit you, but there was no breeze. We then saw dark smoke rising above the tree line over the Mall. At first I thought that a plane had crashed at National Airport, but I looked closely and could see the control tower clearly. I looked to the left and thought that something had crashed on I-395 or the 14th Street Bridge.

I ran back into the building. We had been glued to the television all morning watching the scene unfold in NYC, not thinking that it was related to what I was watching a few miles from me. The evacuation order came and I made sure my co-workers had left. Since I usually rode my bike into work, I changed into my cycling clothes and left. For some reason, my cell phone was working. My dad in Denver and my brother & sister in California called to see if I was OK. I assured them I was fine and on my way home. Strangers asked to use my phone and I let them call their families. Traffic was at a standstill, but since I was on my bike, I was moving without any problem. I got home and just sat all day and watched CNN. Even though we were given the option to take leave the next day, I was back in to the office. Actually, I was the only one in my office that day.

I finally understood what my father had gone through when Pearl Harbor was attacked. A sense of vulnerability. What was happening to us and how would we respond? Instead of going after the perpetrators of this attack, our government decided to avenge an alleged assassination attempt against the sitting President’s father some 10 years before and dragged us into a needless war in a country that had nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks, a war that has cost hundreds of thousands of lives and maimed hundreds of thousands more. We went from having budget surpluses to record deficits, all the while giving tax breaks to those who needed them the least. We have become more polarized politically. I lived through the Viet Nam War and what it did to our country. My only hope is that we don’t travel down that road again. But those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it.

nemski:

I first heard about a plane crashing into one of the Towers via email from my wife. We had just spent the prior year in Jersey City and the lower Manhattan skyline was a very familiar sight. My first thought was, “Why hadn’t it happened sooner?” You see airplanes and helicopter flying just above the New York City skyscrapers was a familiar sight prior to September 11th. So Mrs. Nemski watched the grainy picture on our cableless TV and soon we all knew it was a terrorist attack as another plane struck the other tower. A lot happened that day but our family had some decisions to make. Our boy was turning 4 in a few months and we made the decision not to hide it from him. Other friends hid these terrible days from their kids, but instinctively we knew that if we were affected so would he. For days afterwards as the skies were free of airplanes, we watched the TV and tried to make sense of it all. 9/11 brought out the best of our country and, sadly, it brought out the worst. I believe we are still healing as a country and maybe this horrible political rancor we are having is just one of the symptoms. But what I do know is this: my son and his generation have lost something very dear.

pandora:

I had dropped my son off at school and my daughter at pre-school when my husband called to tell me about the first plane. I turned on the TV and watched the scene while talking with Mr. Pandora. While we were on the phone the second plane hit. That moment will forever be with me. In a heartbeat, a horrible “accident” revealed itself to be deliberate. I remember telling Mr. Pandora that I had to get the kids and hanging up the phone. All I knew was that I wanted my family together – and that having my family intact was now a luxury denied to so many.

The images and memories of that day remain crystal clear to me. I avoid 9/11 documentaries, specials, etc. I’m not ready to relive that day.

Delaware Dem:

I was a new associate at a small law firm in Wilmington. I was working, when I heard my secretary exclaim “What!?! A plane hit the World Trade Center?” after hearing it on the radio. It was the first plane. So she came into my office as I was checking CNN.com, but the page was frozen, probably because everyone else in the country was trying to access the page at the same time. I then received an email from a friend in Midtown Manhattan about seeing a plane just crash into the tower. So we go into the conference room to turn on the TV, just in time to see the second plane. The next hour was spent hearing rumors over the radio and TV, and frantic calls to my family. I actually had the operator break into a phone call my mother was having with my Aunt Ginger. Both of them were just talking away blissfully unaware of what was going on. And does anyone else remember hearing on the radio that a bomb exploded at the State Department?

Then came word that Governor Minner (shudder) ordered the evacuation of Wilmington. Well, all I think she did was suggest that employers close for the day in one of the larger financial centers on the East Coast, but it seemed like an evacuation as I and hundreds of other employees walked up 12th street to various parking garages. I got home, and spent the next several hours in front of a TV. At some point, I went outside, only to see neighbors in the street all just talking. Overhead, there wasn’t the sound of airliners making their descent into Philadelphia International. It was peaceful. Neighbors were sharing their experiences, and what they have heard. It was a day of chaos, but a day of community, in the end. When I remember 9/11, I chose to remember my reactions to it, and the end of the day, rather than the beginning, and what others did to us.

I am never going to forget 9/11, but I also don’t want to relive it. Yeah, I guess I just relived it a little bit here. But I what I am really talking about is the media coverage of today. Like some years ago, several networks are just replaying their broadcasts from that day. Yeah, I don’t want to see that. I don’t want to relive every second. I don’t want to live in fear and horror. I want to live through a day once, reflect on it, and then take lessons from it. And then it is time to move on.

Unstable Isotope:

One thing I strongly remember about September 11, 2001 is that it was a beautiful day in Buffalo, NY where I was living at the time. Like a lot of people I was at work on the day of September 11. I don’t have any dramatic stories from that day. My technician at the time came into my office to tell me to turn on the radio after the first plane hit. I was listening to the news when the second plane hit. I called my husband at home to tell him to turn on the TV and then I think I made a pretense of trying to work for a while and then we all gathered in a conference room to watch the television coverage.

I remember my co-workers talking about putting together a blood drive. We thought the Red Cross might need the blood. It became apparent within the day that they wouldn’t be pulling victims alive from New York. I remember watching Bush at Ground Zero and his statement with the megaphone. Like practically everyone, I pumped my fist in agreement. I remember the members of Congress holding hands and singing “God Bless America.” I remember Rudy Giuliani breaking down during a press briefing. We were all united as Americans.

My first twinge of unease came during the service at the National Cathedral. Bush spoke and all he seemed to talk about was war, war, war. Not long after there was a national address by Bush where he said Americans can help by going shopping. So my memories of 9/11 are tangled in the response that came afterwards and remind me how much Bush ruined everything.

On this day I don’t want to watch the footage again. I feel like those pictures are seared into my brain. I will never forget. I want to remember the heroes and victims of that terrible day and the sense of unity we all felt. The days where we said “we are all Americans.”

El Somnambulo

I was at a working meeting on nursing home reform at Buena Vista. At some point, someone said that she’d received an e-mail from her daughter that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. Nothing else, nothing about terrorism, we assumed it was a terrible accident. Presumably, the tony people who keep Buena Vista humming were reading up on the phony duPont Family largesse that created this ‘gift’ to the state, and paying no attention to the news.

Heard nothing more about it until I got into my car after the meeting reached its uninterrupted conclusion around, I think, 10:30 am or so. What I heard on the radio was so shocking that I went numb. Headed back to the Carvel Building even though WDEL had reported that the building was being closed and all state employees sent home. Realized it when I got stuck in perhaps the largest 11 am traffic jam in Wilmington history.

Instinctively headed to Wilmington Friends, my daughters’ school. The lower-school principal calmly told me that, of course, if I wished, I could take my daughters home. However, the teachers and staff were spending the day helping these very young children try to understand this monumental event, and he was suggesting that parents let their children stay and be part of that rather than sit in front of the TV gulping down horror in huge doses. That made sense.

I headed home, only to find that, for some reason, many traffic lights were out, and that there was traffic headed north everywhere I went. All I could think of was the ‘airborne toxic event’ in Don DeLillo’s White Noise.

My one thought about September 11 is that it was the Day the Terrorists Won. Civil Liberties? A luxury.  The War in Iraq? A necessity. The obscene human and financial toll? The price we must pay.

Only they weren’t.

Markell v. Biden

As I read this it sounds like Biden is saying that criminals need to face justice and Markell is saying “C’mon now. Boys will be boys.”

“To get our nation’s economy moving again, we need a strong and vibrant financial services industry that responsibly provides credit and capital, and that is properly and fairly regulated,” Markell said. “As long as these lawsuits continue to drag out, they will continue to drag down our economy.”

Biden said in a written statement late Friday that his duty was to “protect homeowners, investors and all Delawareans affected by the abuses of the mortgage industry that created this economic crisis.”

“I do not settle matters that have not been investigated, and there remains a lot of work to be done in understanding the scope of the mortgage industry’s bad conduct that has hurt so many,” Biden said. “Our economy works the best when everyone plays by the rules, and we must hold those who brought our financial system to the brink of collapse to account.”

Perhaps my take on Jack’s position is jaundiced by my sense that President Obama is absolutely dedicated to a policy of holding all banking malefactors harmless, and I’m pretty sick of Democrats comforting the comfortable.