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December 03, 2011 04:02 PM UTC

Weekend Open Thread

  • 58 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

“Don’t wait for the last judgment–it takes place every day.”

–Albert Camus

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58 thoughts on “Weekend Open Thread”

  1. You know the economy is bad …. hundreds of thousands of Americans gave up looking for work last month, ratcheting down the unemployment rate to an 18 month low …. when Barry allows Americans eat horse meat.

    Let’s face it, Obama is so disparate that he actually had to reverse course in hopes of regenerating 400-4,000 old jobs he helped kill in 2006. At least he now seems to understand that private sector jobs result in payroll taxes and create economic multipliers impacting loans from US Bancorp to jobs making Slurpies at the local Gas ‘n Go.

    I’m wondering if Michele will be out doing PSAs for horsemeat and it’s usefulness to school hot lunch programs?

    On November 18th, as the country was celebrating Thanksgiving, President Obama signed a law, allowing Americans to kill and eat horses. Essentially, one turkey was pardoned in the presence of worldwide media while in the shadows, buried under pages of fiscal regulation, millions of horses were sentenced to death.

    http://technorati.com/lifestyl…

    2. But it’s completely misleading.

      First, horse slaughter was never banned. Inspectors for the slaughterhouses were defunded. The new bill doesn’t prohibit funding them, but it doesn’t appropriate funds for them, either; the USDA will have to find the money in its existing budget if they want to provide those inspectors.

      Second, there are two bills pending that would actually ban horse slaughter (the correct solution; defunding just ended up sending them to slaughterhouses in Mexico and Canada, which was much less humane). And the new bill that doesn’t include the funding block is only good until fall 2012 — not sure any of the companies that were slaughtering horses really intend to reopen under those conditions even if the USDA finds money to fund inspectors for them.

      I personally own two horses rescued from slaughter. One of them was about 48 hours away from shipping when I got him. If Obama had signed a pro-slaughter bill, I would have not one word to say in his defense. He didn’t. He signed a bill that lacked an inadequate stopgap measure used in place of a proper ban. When said inadequate stopgap measure was in place, I saved horse #2 from slaughter. She was not one bit safer with no plants operating in the US — she was just looking at a much longer, unsafe, inhumane trailer ride to be killed in Mexico.

        1. Congress has found what many may think of as an unexpected supporter in its decision to bring back horse slaughter facilities to the US after a 5-year-ban: People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), the often-controversial animal rights group known for campaigns like “fur is murder.”

          In an interview with the Monitor, PETA founder Ingrid Newkirk said the US should never have banned domestic horse slaughter – a stance that has put the organization at odds with other mainstream animal rights groups, like the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA).

          http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2…

        2. In recent days you may have seen news reports regarding horse processing in the U.S. To help you understand what has happened and to provide you with information that may assist you with keeping your clients or colleagues informed, the AAEP has prepared a summary of the status of horse processing in the U.S.

          Congress Passes USDA Appropriations Bill – USDA Inspection of Horse Processing Allowed to Resume

          A provision that had prohibited USDA funds being used for personnel inspecting the slaughter process at horse processing facilities was not included in the Fiscal Year 2012 Agriculture, Commerce/Justice/Science, and Transportation/Housing and Urban Development Appropriations bills signed into law by President Obama on Nov. 18. The appropriations bill passed the House on a vote of 298-121, while the Senate voted 70-30 in favor of the bill. The bill funds a variety of federal programs and agencies and is not solely a bill addressing horse processing.

          What does the passing of this bill mean for horse processing?

          It means that USDA can now pay inspectors to inspect horses and meat that may be processed for human consumption at U.S. plants.

          This bill does not, however, appropriate any new money to pay for these inspections. The USDA would have to find the money in the funds appropriated in the FY’ 12 bill.

          Is there a federal law that has been reversed?

          No. There has been no law passed or changed dealing with processing itself. There is no current prohibition on the processing of horses in the U.S. The federal bills introduced in Congress to prohibit this are still before Congress. The only change is that for the past five years the USDA was not allowed to fund the inspection of horses at the plants – even though no plants were open – and now they are should a plant begin operating.

          Will horse processing plants open?

          While a plant could open and start processing horses, it should be understood that this appropriations bill is only good until September 30, 2012. In addition, as mentioned above, there are two bills currently in Congress proposing to ban horse processing in the U.S.: H.R. 2966 and S. 1176.

          Due to state laws passed in Texas and Illinois, the home of the last plants to process horses in the U.S. in 2007, the processing of horses for human consumption in those states, even with USDA inspections allowed, will not be possible. Horse processing also is banned in California.

          Does AAEP support the reopening of processing plants in the U.S?

          With challenging economic times continuing to impact the United States, the large number of horses in our country that are considered unwanted and without viable care options remains a tremendous concern. Because of the increased potential for abuse, neglect and abandonment faced by this population of horses combined with the lack of financial resources for their long-term care, the AAEP does not oppose the reopening of processing facilities in the United States provided the facilities meet the following provisions:

          1. Strict oversight of operations by the U.S. Department of Agriculture under the Commercial Transport of Horses to Slaughter Act and the regulations there under, including the presence of and inspections by USDA veterinarians at the facilities.

          2. Horses are euthanized by trained personnel in a humane manner in accordance with the requirements of federal law and guidelines established by the American Veterinary Medical Association.

          3. Transportation to the production facility is conducted according to the law and guidelines established by the USDA.

          When other humane options do not exist, the AAEP supports processing as an acceptable form of euthanasia under these controlled conditions.

          Additional Resources:

          History of USDA inspection funding

          Since 2007, no federal money has been allowed to be used to inspect horse slaughter facilities in the U.S., as stipulated in the Agricultural Appropriations bill over the past five years. Without U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) inspections, horse processing facilities could not process horses for human consumption because the meat could not be shipped internationally or interstate and a majority of the market for horse meat is overseas. Although this clause had support due to the undesirable idea of horse meat for human consumption in the U.S., many, including the AAEP, believe the ban had “unintended consequences” and this was again emphasized in a June 22, 2011 report issued by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) titled – “Horse Welfare: Action Needed to Address Unintended Consequences from Cessation of Domestic Slaughter.”

        1. 1) It’s not. They use slaughterhouses designed to process cattle. I could easily eat 5,000 words up describing why that’s not cool, but the biggest difference is that the captive bolt guns used to stun cattle rebound off of horses’ thicker and differently shaped skulls fairly frequently, so there are often horses still conscious or regaining consciousness when, say, being skinned. Creative googling would turn up videos; I’m afraid I can’t stomach doing it myself or posting links right now, sorry.

          2) It’s an unsafe food product. My gelding (boy horse) was rescued from slaughter a couple weeks after his last race. In Thoroughbred racing, most horses are taking multiple medications and supplements not approved for use in animals intended for human consumption. Many of these are known to be harmful to humans, including “bute,” the most common painkiller given to domestic horses.

          3) There’s little oversight to ensure they don’t slaughter stolen horses. Every equestrian knows someone who lives near a horse slaughter plant and/or the Mexican or Canadian border who has had a horse disappear from a pasture and never return. They don’t check for microchips (granted, these are rare in horses still) or compare horses that come in to stolen horse reports. Basically, when the US slaughterhouses were open, you could lead any horse up and collect a few hundred bucks and the evidence would be cut up into steaks within a day or two. Easier money than stealing cars, for anyone with a truck and trailer.

  2. In a shocking …. SHOCKING … turn of events union members healthcare premiums are skyrocketing due to Obamacare.

    The scale of the coming year’s increases shocked retirees, such as Paul Stoehr, who retired in 2003 after 30 years with CenturyLink’s predecessor companies Qwest and U S West.

    Stoehr said his insurance premium will increase from about $70 a month this year to $254 for the same single-person coverage in 2012.

    “When I opened the (benefits) package this year, I was absolutely blindsided by what I read,” Stoehr said in an e-mail. “We expected an increase, as we have seen in the past few years, but a 300 percent increase is totally unreasonable.”

    Read more: CenturyLink will let union review books after retirees bemoan skyrocketing health premiums – The Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com/busi…

    Read The Denver Post’s Terms of Use of its content: http://www.denverpost.com/

    “In 2011, the cost of health care coverage for all businesses increased more than it has in the last six years, and we have worked hard to defray that cost for our retirees,” spokesman Mark Molzen said in a statement.

    Dont tell me, the big nasty corporation was saving up excessive costs for 6 years, making their owners eat these massive cost hikes year after year, just waiting to pin them on the senator from Chicago when he became Prez?

      1. WHY did you face a 13% increase in an economy that has at most a 2-3% inflation rate?

        The companies that need to open their books are the health insurance companies that are gouging us like this – and if it turns out the problem is downstream in the provider network, the same for them too.

        We cannot sustain this kind of crap – and it’s been going on for a very long time now.

        1. And that’s why tinkering with our health care and health insurance systems will not fix the spiraling costs.  We need a whole new system.  Reminds me of the conversation I had with a hospital staffer earlier this year over an outrageous bill — I got a “deer in the headlights” look when I asked if the facility was proud enough of the bill to have it published in the newspaper.

        2. It’s that medical inflation is growing much faster than the general inflation rate. But we’re not big enough to force anyone to do anything.

          The federal government had the opportunity to address this in the healthcare bill. But Obama chose to not address the cost side of the problem and instead kick that can down the road. (Yes the bill had a little, but it was really window dressing to try and hide the fact that they weren’t addressing it.)

          1. You think it’s medical inflation, but you don’t know.  Do you even know exactly what “medical inflation” is comprised of?

            For the vast majority (95+%) of procedures performed and conditions treated, is there a good reason behind any medical inflation attached to them?

            My point is – there’s no transparency here.  The entire health care industry could hide an elephant under its skirts and no-one would be the wiser.

            1. And God love’em for it, most make well over $250,000

              Also Kaiser allows doctors to do PT hourly work. They can augment their pay or afford that BMW just by putting in a few hours at Kaiser.

              God love these 53%ers

    2. Good lead-in, Lib.

      Today is the day that the health insurance companies have to start spending at least 80% of their premiums on actual medical care (85% for large group plans).  HHS released their guidelines, and they do not appear to have caved to the insurance industry’s requests for leniency (e.g. commissions for sales == health care).

    1. First opportunity to vote mine went for St George. An American hero.

      I recommend watching the Contenders on CSpan. Last night it was about Senator McGovern and he was going to be on but fell and cut his head resulting in hospitalization.

      I’ve decided that I’m going to Mitchell, SD next summer and see the museum that bears his name and try to see him and personally thank him. Hope he recovers fully.

    1. possibly an old guy (I have no idea), but I’m fairly certain a GJ guy; if you see ardy (or if he sees this), could you tell him to send an email to Progressive Cowgirl that’s actually for me? Seems I was inadvertently rude by inattention.

      PC’s email is in her profile. (I can’t remember the password for my non-outing email. Do you mind, PC?)

      1. you wonder why I don’t email PCG, I’ve also forgotten the password to my “non-outing” email.

        I have no idea what event you are referring to as far as your being inadvertently rude. No hard feelings from my end, but if you wanted to remind me I could attempt to be offended if that would be appropriate. 😉

        BTW, I’ve got a ton of catching up on work to do, so I probably won’t be able to make it out to the Ale House today. (Also, I am not yet old enough to be worthy of attention from AARP.)

  6. For RedGreen and others – a good explanation about why Netflix split their business.

    But not irrational, “Why is that man licking paint chips?” kind of stupid.  More like garden variety “People sometimes do stupid things when they don’t have any very good choices” kind of stupid.  In fact, I think that Reed Hastings is a very smart, very capable CEO bumping up against a very, very difficult strategic problem.  I wouldn’t bet against his cracking it, either.

    1. I pay over $100 a month for comcast, and that with very few of the goodies — no hbo, etc.  I dumped netflix dvd when they upped the price to $10 (not eight, it’s ten if you want the Blu-ray.  My $8 for streamingly mostly goesa to old murder she wrote reruns we watch in my bedroom TV to put us to sleep.  Only a dollar per hour basis, I pay vastly more to Comcast. And the providers aren’t likely to miss a chance to gouge customers.   Netflix indeed has a dilemma.    

  7. The Economist – Steve Jobs and America’s decline

    As bad as their politics has got, Americans could always comfort themselves with the knowledge that their business leaders, entrepreneurs and workers were the most dynamic and innovative in the world. But they may look back on 2011 and see three events that undermine that story: the downgrade of America’s credit rating; the last flight of the space shuttle; and Mr Jobs’s death.

    …

    American global economic leadership has, in the last decade, benefited an ever narrower slice of its people. They have become fabulously wealthy, while the vast majority of job growth has been in areas like education and health care, where productivity and wages are stagnant, a trend well documented by Michael Spence.

    …

    It would be unfair to lay this all at the feet of American politicians: widening inequality and the decline of middle-class manufacturing jobs is a global phenomenon that vexes governments everywhere. Yet this does not excuse American governance for making matters worse.

    While the President and Congress fiddle, the country deteriorates.

  8. Poorly Designed, Broken Websites Are Costing Canadian Corporations Millions

    I see stuff like this on the websites of big Canadian companies all the time, and as a professional web developer who cares about producing quality work, this situation is totally unacceptable to me. I obsess about things like A/B testing how well a certain piece of text on a button works. These companies are producing websites that just don’t work at all. It’s crazy, it’s embarrassing, and it’s costing them millions.

    I hit the same thing with the Anthem Blue Cross Colorado website for ordering my prescriptions. It used to work fine and they made some change where some prescriptions could not be renewed while others were doubled (I now have a years supply of one drug). I ended up going back to the in store pharmacy at King Soopers. And yet the top executives there probably have no idea the system is broken. (One thing Apple does well, the top executives read a sample of the incoming complaints.)

    Everyone here can probably relate a story about a large corporations website that is so bad as to be unusable. But it’s amazing that companies present their public face with something so broken.

  12. The Cain Train just officially derailed.  Now I  have to go back to Perry for my one liners.  I am going to be very sad for a very long time missing Herman.  

    Oh never mind I am over it already.  

    As Sondheim so eloquently wrote in 1973 about the GOP 2012 Field:

    “Send in the clowns.”

  13. If Hanauer’s name doesn’t sound familiar, he’s a very successful venture capitalist, playing a role in the creation of companies like Amazon.com. This week, he took on a standard Republican talking point: the notion that job creation suffers if taxes go up on the rich. Hanauer explained very well why the GOP’s approach is backwards.

    I can start a business based on a great idea, and initially hire dozens or hundreds of people. But if no one can afford to buy what I have to sell, my business will soon fail and all those jobs will evaporate.

    That’s why I can say with confidence that rich people don’t create jobs, nor do businesses, large or small. What does lead to more employment is the feedback loop between customers and businesses. And only consumers can set in motion a virtuous cycle that allows companies to survive and thrive and business owners to hire. An ordinary middle-class consumer is far more of a job creator than I ever have been or ever will be.

    It appears that Hanauer, unlike GOP policymakers, understands supply and demand, and that three decades of concentrating wealth at the top doesn’t create an economic base that ensures broad prosperity. Republicans can keep lavishing more and more money on the rich, but they’ll only spend so much. […]

    Hanauer’s advice? Raise his taxes, make public investments, and get some money in the pockets of middle-class consumers.

    http://www.washingtonmonthly.c…

    Isn’t that what Obama’s policies and the stimulus has done?

      1. First off, Congress pretty much passed what Obama and the Dem leadership asked for in the stimulus bill. The Republicans realized that the voters would crucify them if they stopped a stimulus bill at that time.

        President Obama asked for too little and a significant amount of what was in there was not terribly useful.

        In addition, after that Obama and the Democratic leadership turned their focus to healthcare, global warming, financial reform, and numerous other issues. That’s not to say the Republicans would have gone along with additional stimulus, but the Democratic leadership never made it a priority.

    1. Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

       Author – crazy socialist

    2. Police officers are charged with maintaining public safety. Period. That does not include the use of chemical weapons (you know, those things we invaded another country and spent billions of taxpayer dollars trying to find?) on civilians who pose no present threat to public safety or to police officers, such as protesters sitting on the ground and engaging in civil disobedience. The police have the authority to arrest people who interfere with their operations, no matter how unconstitutional those may be. They do not have the authority to find those arrestees guilty and impose cruel and unusual punishment.

      It frightens me that you misunderstand your rights to such a degree that you think this video is anything resembling justification for the use of chemical weapons against peaceful protesters.

  16. aaaand, the fuse has been lit. Insurers are not happy. Not even a little bit. What they feared most about the Affordable Care Act — more than insuring people with pre-existing conditions, more than leaving children on their parents’ policies until age 26, more than having to lift lifetime caps, more than any of those things — was the limited Medical Loss Ratio (MLR).

    The PPACA limits the “padding” between actual claims paid and premium collections to 15% for large groups and 20% for individuals and small groups. Any excess the insurer has must be refunded to insureds by the end of the year for which the MLR is determined. Everyone scoffed at the time over these limits, figuring the regulations would be broad and wide enough for insurers to run through the loopholes.

    But no. Final rules were issued last week and insurers didn’t get anything they wanted. Via Rick Ungar at Forbes:

    This is the true ‘bomb’ contained in Obamacare and the one item that will have more impact on the future of how medical care is paid for in this country than anything we’ve seen in quite some time. Indeed, it is this aspect of the law that represents the true ‘death panel’ found in Obamacare-but not one that is going to lead to the death of American consumers. Rather, the medical loss ratio will, ultimately, lead to the death of large parts of the private, for-profit health insurance industry.

    Why? Because there is absolutely no way for-profit health insurers are going to be able to learn how to get by and still make a profit while being forced to spend at least 80 percent of their receipts providing their customers with the coverage for which they paid. If they could, we likely would never have seen the extraordinary efforts made by these companies to avoid paying benefits to their customers at the very moment they need it the most.

    Ungar’s logic at the end is a little bit wrong. The current MLR, just for perspective, is about 40-45%. That means for every dollar paid toward health coverage, only 60 cents or so goes to actual health costs. The rest is considered overhead — agents’ commissions, big CEO salaries, and of course, that shareholder profit that benefits those with the money to actually buy shares in these companies. Medicare, on the other hand, has a very low overhead attached to it — about 7-8%, because it is in the business of providing medical benefits, and not making a profit or paying CEOs handsome salaries.

    The only reason for insurers’ efforts to deny benefits was simply to boost up the bottom line, and in many cases, the only reason for big premium hikes was also to boost that bottom line and the profits distributed to shareholders. Now insurers will find themselves in the business of actually paying for medical benefits.

    The regulations, by the way, do not allow them to include agents’ commissions in their “medical expense” column.

    http://crooksandliars.com/

    1. There are already some insurance companies that meet the 80% guideline, and a handful that meet the 85% mark (and probably more when talking about the large group market).

      Remember, the original bill had these numbers at 85% and 90%, and it was understood that these were attainable targets.

      No, it won’t make investors hog-wild about health insurance companies, but I think it’s time we start admitting that there are a few things out there we don’t want looking like rabid money-making ventures.

      1. The effect of this requirement will be an improvement over the status quo. Is it a real fix, probably not. Is it a slippery slope in the right direction, most certainly.

  18. It is late in the fourth, the good guys are behind and here come TT.  Tebow? Nope. Tancredo.

    Tom Tancredo called into the caplis/silverman show  (and isn’t it your turn, Jason, to be monitoring this??) outraged at the sudden surging of Newt Ginrigch…explaining in angry detail what had happened when Newt was Speaker of the House and had to leave in disgrace….saying that the repubs just couldn’t let him be the nominee…

    Tommy did not volunteer to run for president (there is still plenty of time)….but he did not do that badly running for governor at the last minute…and I call on all good dems to come to the aid of the party and urge,

    Tommy to join in and run…again.

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