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April 01, 2011 03:41 PM UTC

Open Line Friday!

  • 66 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

“I’m in one of those moods. I’m not gonna have much patience for lack of logic, stupidity, and other things. This drill, baby, drill, it’s exactly what we need to do, and we should have been doing it for decades!”

–Rush Limbaugh, Wednesday

Comments

66 thoughts on “Open Line Friday!

  1. Where is all this oil that would be available if someone somewhere would just allow it to be drilled?

    Is it in my backyard?

    Is it under 1000 meters of water?

    Is it trapped in rocks and sand?

    Where is it?

    And don’t tell me ANWR. All the oil in ANWR would last about 6 months  – net.

  2. Shinseki and Gates clinch deal on common health record

    Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki said Thursday he and Defense Secretary Robert Gates agreed on March 17 that their departments would develop a common electronic health record system.

    A former high-ranking federal health information technology official, who declined to be identified, said the agreement ultimately could save the two departments billions of dollars in development and maintenance costs.

    Shinseki, speaking at a hearing of the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs panel of the Senate Appropriations Committee said he and Gates had agreed to “merge our capabilities to come up with a common platform,” but provided few details.

    He disclosed the agreement with Gates well over an hour into the hearing in a back-and-forth dialogue with ranking member Mark Kirk, R-Ill. Kirk at one point asked if the Defense Department was ready to “surrender” on the continued use of its AHLTA electronic health record system and go with VA’s decades old Veterans Health Information Systems and Technology Architecture, known as VistA.

    Defense, Shinseki said, “understands its current system [AHLTA] is not what it needs in the future.” He then disclosed the agreement with Gates to develop a common system, and added the two departments will work on details between now and May.

    Not only is it amazing that two of the largest branches of the Federal Govt manage to come to an agreement about ANYTHING, but for Veterans filing a claim for disabilities, this is off-the-charts HUGE.

    Once this is implemented, a disability claim could be processed in HOURS instead of months. When a Vet claims to have been hurt in combat (or anywhere else), VistA is powerful enough to find that entry in seconds, including lab results, X-rays and any other diagnostic imaging.

    No more sorting thru warehouses of old records! WooT!

    (PS – Pres Obama, mandate that VistA be made open-source code software, and given away in partnership with the Mozilla foundation. Let developers continue to make installers for every OS, which will make the transition to Electronic Health Care records that much easier!)

      1. VistA is the world’s most widely used Electronic Health Record software. Since it’s available for free via FOIA request, several other non-VA facilities are using it, in 10 different states (to include David’s home, Hawaii.)

        And it works – it automatically flags a pharmacy order if it conflicts with another drug that may have been prescribed by another provider. This is common for when a Vet is being seen for PTSD, and then goes for a physical health issue. If the Medical doc prescribes something that might cause an interaction with a drug prescribed by a clinician, then it automatically changes it (or flags it) without letting the Medical doctor “see” his pysch records.

        And every record is accessible to anyone on the system, provided they have the correct permissions. Veterans who were evac’d to Houston from New Orleans during Katrina had all of their records available for review, including Xrays, CAT scans and lab results, even though the N.O. hospital was under water.

        It’s free and it works – why isn’t this good?

          1. Make it Win7, Mac OS and Linux compatible, with a slimmed-down installer that skips a lot of the imaging stuff (most offices don’t have a CAT or PET scanner to interface with.)

            If we can’t get it on Mozilla.org as an open-source project, why not do it yourself?

            1. 1. For areas far from a VA facility do they use private medical practices? If so, connecting directly into the VA system using their own copy of VistA would be a big advantage & cost/time savings.

              2. You need to add a module to submit charges to private insurance companies. Add that as a commercial product and then they all have to come to you.

              1. …because the VA will bill your private insurance for things, because you can get health care for non-service connected injuries. Sometimes they bill your health care for the stuff they are supposed to cover for free, but it only happens on occasion.

                And yes, private facilities do cover VA care in remote locations. The telemedicine and mobile van programs are expanded to try and reduce this, but it happens.

                I think it’s still a good idea to distribute VistA for free, since everyone would have an EHR program.!

  3. .

    Rep. Mike Coffman (R-Colo.) said the administration’s efforts to label the Libya mission a humanitarian intervention were dishonest. “This is the most muddled definition of an operation probably in U.S. military history,” he said. “To say this is not about regime change is crazy. Of course, it is about regime change.”

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/

    .

        1. for putting boots on the ground.

          From last nights Ed Schultz show:

          This Administration needs to be up front about this.  It is a shame that we missed taking out Qaddafi in ’86, and taking him down now is a good thing.  But the current leadership came in on a wave of anti-war sentiment, so they feel they have to edge in sideways incrementally to where they want to get to.

          1. The clip’s title is misleading however – there is no flip-flop.

            As Sestak says in the clip, “I didn’t support this intervention.”

            and “If I were the President I would admit I had erred” in thinking he could get rid of GoDaffy without using ground troops.

            He also says that if someone became President he thinks that new guy or gal should ‘extract’ the US from this Lub-yuh folly.

            I also see Big Ed, whom I usually like, has finally given up refering the Lib-yun rebels as ‘freedom fighters’ as he was doing earlier in the week.  

          2. Most of Special Ops is running around AFPAK, as Petraeus continues McSpook’s policy of hit teams running around knocking off various figures in the Taliban regime.

            A Stryker Brigade could probably single-handedly chase Gaddafi’s forces back into his compound, but most of their vehicles are either deadlined from being beat to shit in numerous deployments, or still in AFPAK.

            A real mechanized tank or infantry brigade would take 3-4 weeks to get to the Med from Europe, provided they weren’t in deadline status with broke-dick vehicles and exhausted troops.

            I can see the French govt, which seems dick-hard on flexing their military muscles for the world press, to send their military units, poss. along with a few British units. Considering that they’d face a mostly mercenary army that would bail the moment things looked bad, it might be who does end up with “tracks on the ground.”

            1. As for mechanized brigades going into Lib-yuh, let the French do it since they’ve got such a hard-on (to continue your metaphor) about GoDaffy. They ought to be pretty tanned, rested and ready by now…and have much more of a vital national interest in the matter than we do.

          3. I heard, and I’m paraphrasing, “I’m against using the military in Libya, but if I was in charge I would take out Ghadaffi with military force.”

            Wait what?!

            1. He said he feels the President ‘erred’ in deciding to intervene. And that if he was President he would ‘extract’.

              (But he said if he was Obomber – having already made the initial mistaken decision – he would say to the country, “Look, we made a mistake. We need to match our military assets with the policy objective, and use those assets to target & remove GoDaffy.”)

              Too bad he’s not in the Senate.

    1. Unbelievable and just plain stupid.  I hope they get a hell of a lawyer to file on their behalf and make the state pay the attorney’s fees. I bet they would win!

    2. “DelDOT is sympathetic to parents wishing to provide young people with recreational opportunities; however, public streets are not a safe location for those activities.  The Delaware General Assembly passed a law in 2005 stating “sporting and recreation activity taking place in and adjacent to the State’s public rights-of-way . threatens the safety of the recreants as well as members of the motoring public,” and that law stated that “the Department shall make every effort to remove from public rights-of-way devices such as basketball hoops.”.  17 Del. C. В§ 149(c).

      DelDOT crews acted on Friday March 25, to remove seven basketball goals within public right-of-way in the Ashbourne Hills and Radnor Green subdivisions in New Castle County.  DelDOT did so only after receiving a complaint from a resident of the area in which the basketball hoops were located.

      Since that time, the eight homeowners with basketball hoops in violation of state law were contacted multiple times via certified mail about the need to remove the obstacles from the public right-of-way zone.  One resident voluntarily did so.  The remainder did not.  Because the basketball hoops were not removed, state law requires that DelDOT remove the goals to protect the public.  The final goal was successfully removed by the state at approximately noon on March 25.”

      http://www.ibtimes.com/article

      The guy in the video received the letter, telling him that if DOT had to remove it, he would be billed, and that they would impound the thing until the bill was paid.

      1. looked REAL dangerous sitting down there at the end of that cul-de-sac.

        Looks like a classic example of a case in which mediation among neighbors would have been the better way to go. Rather than the gu’mint adhering blindly to a strict interpretation of the law.

        1. Damned when they strictly adhere to the law.

          Damned when they interpret a law some other way than what you want.

          And, damned whenever it chooses to apply leniency and discretion.

          State Line, you and your people are the most priggish, boring, narrow-minded, insulated bunch of one-trick ponies . . . sometimes it would be nice if you even tried to learn one new song.

            1. Single payer health care, publicly funded or not- common sense

              Progressive tax structure – common sense

              Solidly funded public education, well maintained roads, bridges and public infrastructure, and respecting the one resident one vote: common sense

                  1. For the record, I think the Tea Party is for the most part (not entirely) comprised of know-nuthin’ nativists, the proudly ignorant.

                    The sort who are always present in American society, who but become particularly ‘twitchy’ at times of increased social crisis.

      2. The basket was positioned so kids using it would be shooting from the street.  Letters were sent, etc. One wonders if there had been accidents. I remember when we  got a stp sign in my old neighborhood after a fatal auto/kid accident that wasn’t even judged to be the driver’s fault.  Kid darted out on bike without looking.  Not high speed but nobody wore helmets then and it was a fatal head injury.  

        The official did lie when she said he could keep it, though.

        1. Government can’t – and shouldn’t try to – protect us from every possible eventuality in life. And thereby wring the life out of our neighborhoods.

          Silly by-the-book gummint overreach.

          1. And if proper notification was sent this level of hysteria on the part of the home owner seems a taste extreme.  He could have moved it.  

            Not making any value judgement on whether or not they should have come up with the rule in the first place. As I said, would be intereted to know some history, such as possible tragic accidents, complaints from motorists over kids in non-cul-de-sac streets with same situation, etc.  

            That’s what always used to get a stop sign put up on a side street in the ‘burbs back in the day. Maybe putting up a stop sign after a rare fatality was overkill then too but it was pretty typical. I don’t think the officials involved handled the situation very well either.

          2. Sober, fit, skilled operator driving in light traffic, cloudless, sky dry and clear roads, with new tires, and exceeding the posted speed limit.

            Traffic signal with inop actuator loop, red in the middle of the night, stops motorcycle who chooses to run the red light.

            I could on and on and on where laws that make sense sometimes make more sens to be broken.  But they are still broken laws.

            The question of kids playing in the street is an easy one for me.  Don’t.

            Likewise, seatbelts, boosster seats, helmets, vaccinations, annual physical exams: do.

             

          3. Rather than letting government officials make judgement calls, everything is written very specifically and then enforced by the book. We’d be better off if a city official had said that there was no need in this case to enforce the law.

  4. BREAKING NEWS: Wisconsin Democrats just announced that local activists submitted over 100% of the signatures needed to “recall” Republican state senator Dan Kapanke from office!

    After local officials certify the signatures, a new election will be scheduled for Kapanke’s seat. Today’s news is sending shockwaves throughout Wisconsin, and it gives huge momentum to efforts in other Senate districts to gather recall signatures.

    Got this in e-mail from Progress Now or something.  Hope it was way over because there will be searching with a fine tooth comb to disqualify.  

    1. http://m.lacrossetribune.com/n

      The state Democratic Party provided infrastructure support but “not a single paid canvasser was needed to trigger the recall versus Dan Kapanke,” said party spokesman Graeme Zielinski, who credited volunteers for collecting more than 20,000 signatures in less than 30 days.

      1. You sometimes have problems with lots of sigs getting tossed out when dealing with paid signature collectors who aren’t interested in taking the time to make sure, as best they can, that the signatures they collect are legit.  Also people respond much more positively when you can say I’m not a paid stranger.  I’m a neighbor and I’m doing this as a volunteer because it’s so important to me and here’s why.

  5. in other countries.

    Why is it they insist on cutting government at home, but demand complete US government control in Iraq and Afghanistan?

        1. for the corporate elite.  Oh, and lots of devotion to babies before they’re born.   As soon as they pop out, if they chose the wrong parents (hey it’s a free country, silly babies) they’re on their own for healthcare, decent education, etc. Don’t you just love all those posters and billboards about how the most dangerous place for an African American baby is in the womb?  They’re concern for African Americans is truly touching.  Damn those abortion loving liberal racists!

  6. Why does any military action have to always result in a regime changing war?

    Why do people think the US has to be in charge of the military forces in Libya?

    Why is it hard to understand that we want Ghadaffi out of power, but we don’t want to use our military as the main tool to make that happen?

    Why can’t people understand that our military’s role in Libya is to work with the U.N. in enforcing a no-fly zone? That’s it!

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