Thursday, April 14, 2011
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Economic forecast - the end of Capitalism?
The budget deficit of Japan's economy was more than twice the country's GDP (as of June 2010) before the current tsunami/nuclear crisis.
Most of the major European economies are struggling with massive debt.
The United States, UK, Europe, Japan...and so it goes...announcing that things can only get worse if austerity measures aren't introduced right away.
What conclusions can be drawn from what has been widespread and collective economic mismanagement? Could this be the end of Capitalism or is that Doomsday talk?
Economics experts predict conflicting views, but then most 'experts' disagree with each other anyway. However, austerity measures being pursued throughout the world will surely have a recessionary effect.
Less spending power in people's pockets = less to spend on goods and services = businesses and business turnover will suffer = tax revenues will fall and unemployment payments rise.
Japanese governments have been borrowing heavily since their economic bubble burst 20 years ago. Ongoing deficits have been shored up by issuing long-term government bonds which are now unsustainable. It is the same for the United States, UK, Europe etc.
So many countries in financial turmoil...why?
The problem seems to be not a failure of Capitalism as a philosophy, but more a failure of the reporting mechanisms that support governments with their collection and interpretation of economic data. That and poor decisions...buy now, pay later.
The impact of the economic news coming out of Japan, the UK and EU are a threat to economic and political stability. So far, we've seen very few civil protests by disaffected workers forced to accept cuts in their incomes. So far that is.
It may be that the airplane called Capitalism has been flying off course for so long that the collision no-one thought possible...running out of fuel and ditching in failure.
Most of the major European economies are struggling with massive debt.
The United States, UK, Europe, Japan...and so it goes...announcing that things can only get worse if austerity measures aren't introduced right away.
What conclusions can be drawn from what has been widespread and collective economic mismanagement? Could this be the end of Capitalism or is that Doomsday talk?
Economics experts predict conflicting views, but then most 'experts' disagree with each other anyway. However, austerity measures being pursued throughout the world will surely have a recessionary effect.
Less spending power in people's pockets = less to spend on goods and services = businesses and business turnover will suffer = tax revenues will fall and unemployment payments rise.
Japanese governments have been borrowing heavily since their economic bubble burst 20 years ago. Ongoing deficits have been shored up by issuing long-term government bonds which are now unsustainable. It is the same for the United States, UK, Europe etc.
So many countries in financial turmoil...why?
The problem seems to be not a failure of Capitalism as a philosophy, but more a failure of the reporting mechanisms that support governments with their collection and interpretation of economic data. That and poor decisions...buy now, pay later.
The impact of the economic news coming out of Japan, the UK and EU are a threat to economic and political stability. So far, we've seen very few civil protests by disaffected workers forced to accept cuts in their incomes. So far that is.
It may be that the airplane called Capitalism has been flying off course for so long that the collision no-one thought possible...running out of fuel and ditching in failure.
Saturday, March 19, 2011
US Civil War and Moammar Gadhafi's Libyan military forces vs rebels in the east. The principle of free choice?
| On one hand | On the other hand |
| Moammar Gadhafi's military forces pushed into the rebel stronghold of Benghazi on Saturday. Artillery rounds landed inside the city, and pro-Gadhafi tanks rolled into the town firing rounds, witnesses said. U.S., European and Arab leaders met Saturday at a last-minute Paris meeting on Libya. "There is minute-by-minute consultation between the United States and the militaries of other countries that are considering their support of action" under a U.N. resolution authorizing the use of force, a senior State Department official told reporters. | In the United States of America in 1860, a war of northern aggression was caused by the north deciding that it wanted to impose their laws and morals on the southern states instead of allowing the southern states to chart their own course. This war was transformed, in the words of Abraham Lincoln, into a war for a "new birth of freedom." The 60,000 death casualties of a Civil War was the worst in American history. Rebels from the south fought against government forces of the north. |
|
On 21 February 2011, the state television HQ in the Libyan capital Tripoli was breached by anti-government demonstrators and a government building was set ablaze as protests continued. | On October 16, 1859, John Brown, [a northerner who hated slavery and had previously raided pro-slavery strongholds in New York, Kansas and here in Virginia] and twenty-one men attacked the armory at Harpers Ferry and rounded up sixty men from the area as hostages. Brown and his compatriots planned to take the federal arsenal and armory there and use the weapons to arm slaves in a rebellion they hoped would spread throughout the South. Government forces, headed by Colonel Robert E. Lee, attacked the armory, killing ten men--two of whom were Browns sons. Brown survived the attack but was wounded. He was charged with murder and treason and was hanged on December 2, 1859. Following Brown's hanging, the southern militia was formed into a viable fighting force. This was the beginning of the Confederate Army. |
Friday, March 18, 2011
How do illegal immigrants actually harm?
Our society maintains an infrastructure of support to its citizens, paid by its citizens, earned by its citizens and defined by them. Whenever a non-citizen makes use of the infrastructure resources, it reduces the availability to those who rightfully deserve it.
Roads, water supply, sewers, power grids, telecommunications, social services, markets etc. are examples.
Your family is limited in its resources...how would an uninvited stranger living in your home, eating your food, using your electricity etc. affect your life? There is some degree of degradation to you in every aspect of your family's life by the presence of that stranger.
The degree of degradation of infrastructure resources, and the increased cost of the infrastructure, is significant in direct proportion to the number of illegal immigrants. 11-12 million illegals living within the 300 million persons in the United States may only be 3-4 percent nationally, but in some border areas that percentage is much much higher. Additionally the great majority of these require above average infrastructure support and contribute below average support for the infrastructure...medical care for example...making the effect more like 8-10 percent.
So take a 10% cut in your income and consider the impact.
Roads, water supply, sewers, power grids, telecommunications, social services, markets etc. are examples.
Your family is limited in its resources...how would an uninvited stranger living in your home, eating your food, using your electricity etc. affect your life? There is some degree of degradation to you in every aspect of your family's life by the presence of that stranger.
The degree of degradation of infrastructure resources, and the increased cost of the infrastructure, is significant in direct proportion to the number of illegal immigrants. 11-12 million illegals living within the 300 million persons in the United States may only be 3-4 percent nationally, but in some border areas that percentage is much much higher. Additionally the great majority of these require above average infrastructure support and contribute below average support for the infrastructure...medical care for example...making the effect more like 8-10 percent.
So take a 10% cut in your income and consider the impact.
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
It takes 33 years?
ATLANTA (Reuters) A federal judge refused late on Tuesday to issue a stay of execution for a man who claimed Georgia's supply of lethal injection drug sodium thiopental has "almost certainly" expired, meaning he would be subjected to an unnecessarily painful death.
In his ruling, Judge Timothy C. Batten held inmate Roy Willard Blankenship failed to prove his claims Georgia's supply of the drug has expired.
"Even if Blankenship could show that it was sure or very likely that the sodium pentothal has expired, he has failed to show that the expired drug is less effective and that its use will therefore cause him to needlessly suffer," Batten also ruled.
Georgia claims its stockpile of the drug does not expire until 2014.
Blankenship, sentenced to death for the 1978 murder and rape of a 78-year-old woman, had been scheduled for execution by lethal injection February 9 but the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles issued a stay through February 17.
Sodium thiopental has been in short supply nationally after the only U.S. company that manufactured the drug halted production because it does not want it to be used in executions.
-------------------------------------------------
Thirty-three years after a heinous crime the criminal will be killed in the most humane manner known. Roy Blankenship, for those who don't know, was tried and convicted for the 1978 Savannah rape and murder of 78-year-old Sarah Mims Bowen.
The pathologist described the elderly victim as having been beaten severely about the face, arms and over much of her body. There were numerous signs that the victim had been sexually assaulted and sodomized. The pathologist concluded that there were three possible causes of death: heart attack; heart failure; or strangulation, as indicated by marks on her neck.
Of course due process of law was in full force to do right by Roy:
The Original Trial and Appeal Proceedings (1980-1981)
First Resentencing Trial and Appeal (1982-1983)
Second Resentencing Trial and Appeal (1986-1988)
FirstStateHabeas Proceeding (1989-1992)
First Federal Habeas Corpus Proceeding (1993)
Second Habeas Corpus Proceeding (1993-2005)
Second Federal Habeas Corpus Proceeding (2005-2008)
11th Circuit Court of Appeals (2008)
United StatesSupreme Court (2009-2011)
So! For over 30 years Roy has been fed, housed, given medical care, clothed etc. at a rate of $17,500 (Georgia) which is less than the national average of $28,700...
somewhere between a half a million to $800,000 ... not counting court costs, public attorney, repeated lab tests or the damn paperwork for all this.
The Social Security Administration awarded $250 to Sarah Bowen for her burial.
The cost for a lethal injection of Sodium Pentathol is estimated to be less than $35. Sodium thiopental, is a fast-acting barbiturate (about 10 seconds) and general anesthetic. Along with pancuronium bromide and potassium chloride, thiopental is used in 37 states of the U.S. to execute prisoners by lethal injection. A megadose is given which places the subject into a rapidly induced coma. Executions using the three drug combination are usually effective in approximately 10 minutes.
Sarah, being strangled, was conscious and in extreme pain longer than that before she died. Roy has been alive 30 years beyond that.
I truly think that Roy should be thankful. We spent too much time and money trying to be politically correct. A Muslim, a couple of days after Roy was convicted, would have given him an opportunity to pray to Allah and then beheaded him causing more pain but for a shorter time frame. Justice is swift!
In his ruling, Judge Timothy C. Batten held inmate Roy Willard Blankenship failed to prove his claims Georgia's supply of the drug has expired.
"Even if Blankenship could show that it was sure or very likely that the sodium pentothal has expired, he has failed to show that the expired drug is less effective and that its use will therefore cause him to needlessly suffer," Batten also ruled.
Georgia claims its stockpile of the drug does not expire until 2014.
Blankenship, sentenced to death for the 1978 murder and rape of a 78-year-old woman, had been scheduled for execution by lethal injection February 9 but the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles issued a stay through February 17.
Sodium thiopental has been in short supply nationally after the only U.S. company that manufactured the drug halted production because it does not want it to be used in executions.
-------------------------------------------------
Thirty-three years after a heinous crime the criminal will be killed in the most humane manner known. Roy Blankenship, for those who don't know, was tried and convicted for the 1978 Savannah rape and murder of 78-year-old Sarah Mims Bowen.
The pathologist described the elderly victim as having been beaten severely about the face, arms and over much of her body. There were numerous signs that the victim had been sexually assaulted and sodomized. The pathologist concluded that there were three possible causes of death: heart attack; heart failure; or strangulation, as indicated by marks on her neck.
Of course due process of law was in full force to do right by Roy:
The Original Trial and Appeal Proceedings (1980-1981)
First Resentencing Trial and Appeal (1982-1983)
Second Resentencing Trial and Appeal (1986-1988)
FirstStateHabeas Proceeding (1989-1992)
First Federal Habeas Corpus Proceeding (1993)
Second Habeas Corpus Proceeding (1993-2005)
Second Federal Habeas Corpus Proceeding (2005-2008)
11th Circuit Court of Appeals (2008)
United StatesSupreme Court (2009-2011)
So! For over 30 years Roy has been fed, housed, given medical care, clothed etc. at a rate of $17,500 (Georgia) which is less than the national average of $28,700...
somewhere between a half a million to $800,000 ... not counting court costs, public attorney, repeated lab tests or the damn paperwork for all this.
The Social Security Administration awarded $250 to Sarah Bowen for her burial.
The cost for a lethal injection of Sodium Pentathol is estimated to be less than $35. Sodium thiopental, is a fast-acting barbiturate (about 10 seconds) and general anesthetic. Along with pancuronium bromide and potassium chloride, thiopental is used in 37 states of the U.S. to execute prisoners by lethal injection. A megadose is given which places the subject into a rapidly induced coma. Executions using the three drug combination are usually effective in approximately 10 minutes.
Sarah, being strangled, was conscious and in extreme pain longer than that before she died. Roy has been alive 30 years beyond that.
I truly think that Roy should be thankful. We spent too much time and money trying to be politically correct. A Muslim, a couple of days after Roy was convicted, would have given him an opportunity to pray to Allah and then beheaded him causing more pain but for a shorter time frame. Justice is swift!
Thursday, March 18, 2010
We don't want it but legislators do - why?
Poll after poll shows that people, by and large, have made up their minds about current health care reform legislation. In the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, 36 percent said they believed Obama's health-care plan was a good idea while 48 percent called it a bad one, leaving just 15 percent without an opinion. The trend for a year has been that opposition runs in the upper 40%, support runs in the low 40% . If congress voted proportionally the same, no such legislation would pass.
So why is there concern?
Many congressmen will not vote according to their constituent's wishes.
So why won't they?
They have political motives of self interest and/or they believe they know better what's good for Americans.
Isn't that a bit harsh?
Compare the benefits rendered to a one-time congressman, legislated by congress for themselves, to the benefits of a common citizen. Compare the application of health systems, retirement benefits, security and government entitlements.
The American public is divided over this bill -- what's in it, what it will do, whether it's the right thing -- but not at all unclear on how they feel about it.
So why is there concern?
Many congressmen will not vote according to their constituent's wishes.
So why won't they?
They have political motives of self interest and/or they believe they know better what's good for Americans.
Isn't that a bit harsh?
Compare the benefits rendered to a one-time congressman, legislated by congress for themselves, to the benefits of a common citizen. Compare the application of health systems, retirement benefits, security and government entitlements.
The American public is divided over this bill -- what's in it, what it will do, whether it's the right thing -- but not at all unclear on how they feel about it.
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
To Congress
To congressmen, with love!
These votes you make on health care reform today are going to be stories to tell your children and great-grandchildren. This could be one of the big moments in your political life; don't make it your last!
These votes you make on health care reform today are going to be stories to tell your children and great-grandchildren. This could be one of the big moments in your political life; don't make it your last!
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Global Warming - Duh?
| Systemic Information Failure Events Trigger New Call for EPA to Reconsider its Global Warming Decision   In two separate filings Tuesday, the Competitive Enterprise Institute challenged massive energy regulations forthcoming from the Environmental Protection Agency. The actions come in the wake of damaging disclosures this week by Phil Jones, head of the disgraced British Climate Research Unit, who reversed himself on several basic issues in a BBC interview. CEI, along with nonprofit ally FreedomWorks and the Science and Environmental Policy Project (SEPP), filed a lawsuit in federal appeals court challenging EPA plans to regulate greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act. The lawsuit asks the court to review the EPA’s regulation. In addition, CEI joined with SEPP and the Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change in updating its petition demanding that EPA reconsider its decision. Feburary 2010 |
William Wordsworth (1770-1850) |
It began as: Original English : "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that thy are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among men, deriving their powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of Government becomes destructive of those ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new Government....." It was ordered to: Original Newspeak : Times 3.12.83 reporting bb dayorder doubleplusungood refs unperson rewrite fullwise upsub antefiling [Translation of above order:] English Translation : The reporting of Big Brother's "Order of the Day" in the Times of December 3rd 1983 is extremely unsatisfactory and makes reference to nonexistent persons. Rewrite it in full and submit your draft to higher authority before filing. And ended as: crimethink - To even consider any thought not in line with the principles of...[sic. the government]. Doubting any of the principles of [sic. the government] All crimes begin with a thought. So, if you control thought, you can control crime. Eric Arthur Blair (1903–1950) A.K.A. pen name George Orwell |
Monday, March 15, 2010
These are segments of a Washington OP-ED about Health Reform plus separate personal commentary at the end.
Obama's illusions of cost-control
By Robert J. Samuelson
Monday, March 15, 2010 Click here to read the original
Almost everything you think you know about health care is probably wrong or, at least, half wrong.
"What we need from the next president is somebody who will not just tell you what they think you want to hear but will tell you what you need to hear."
-- Barack Obama, Feb. 27, 2008
One job of presidents is to educate Americans about crucial national problems. On health care, Barack Obama has failed. Almost everything you think you know about health care is probably wrong or, at least, half wrong. Great simplicities and distortions have been peddled in the name of achieving "universal health coverage." The miseducation has worsened as the debate approaches its climax.
How often, for example, have you heard the emergency-room argument? The uninsured, it's said, use emergency rooms for primary care. That's expensive and ineffective. Once they're insured, they'll have regular doctors. Care will improve; costs will decline. Everyone wins. Great argument. Unfortunately, it's untrue.
A study by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation found that the insured accounted for 83 percent of emergency-room visits, reflecting their share of the population. After Massachusetts adopted universal insurance, emergency-room use remained higher than the national average, an Urban Institute study found. More than two-fifths of visits represented non-emergencies. Of those, a majority of adult respondents to a survey said it was "more convenient" to go to the emergency room or they couldn't "get [a doctor's] appointment as soon as needed." If universal coverage makes appointments harder to get, emergency-room use may increase.
You probably think that insuring the uninsured will dramatically improve the nation's health. The uninsured don't get care or don't get it soon enough. With insurance, they won't be shortchanged; they'll be healthier. Simple.
...expanding health insurance would result,at best, in modest health gains.
Think again. I've written before that expanding health insurance would result, at best, in modest health gains. Studies of insurance's effects on health are hard to perform. Some find benefits; others don't. Medicare's introduction in 1966 produced no reduction in mortality; some studies of extensions of Medicaid for children didn't find gains. In the Atlantic recently, economics writer Megan McArdle examined the literature and emerged skeptical. Claims that the uninsured suffer tens of thousands of premature deaths are "open to question." Conceivably, the "lack of health insurance has no more impact on your health than lack of flood insurance," she writes.
How could this be? No one knows, but possible explanations include:
(a) many uninsured are fairly healthy -- about two-fifths are age 18 to 34;
(b) some are too sick to be helped or have problems rooted in personal behaviors -- smoking,diet, drinking or drug abuse; and (c) the uninsured already receive 50 to 70 percent of the care of the insured from hospitals, clinics and doctors, estimates the Congressional Budget Office.
Though it seems compelling, covering the uninsured is not the health-care system's major problem. The big problem is uncontrolled spending, which prices people out of the market and burdens government budgets. Obama claims his proposal checks spending. Just the opposite. When people get insurance, they use more health services. Spending rises. By the government's latest forecast, health spending goes from 17 percent of the economy in 2009 to 19 percent in 2019. Health "reform" would probably increase that.
Unless we change the fee-for-service system, costs will remain hard to control because providers are paid more for doing more. Obama might have attempted that by proposing health-care vouchers (limited amounts to be spent on insurance), which would force a restructuring of delivery systems to compete on quality and cost. Doctors, hospitals and drug companies would have to reorganize care. Obama refrained from that fight and instead cast insurance companies as the villains.
He's telling people what they want to hear, not what they need to know. Whatever their sins, insurers are mainly intermediaries; they pass along the costs of the delivery system. In 2009, the largest 14 insurers had profits of roughly $9 billion; that approached 0.4 percent of total health spending of $2.472 trillion. This hardly explains high health costs. What people need to know is that Obama's plan evades health care's major problems and would worsen the budget outlook. It's a big new spending program when government hasn't paid for the spending programs it already has.
"If not now, when? If not us, who?" Obama asks. The answer is: It's not now, and it's not "us." Pass or not, Obama's proposal is the illusion of "reform," not the real thing.
What people need to know is that Obama's plan evades health care's major problems and would worsen the budget outlook.
[Ed.Note:]
There at least three other very good reasons to avoid further government in health care issues.
The government performace track record:
Financial Help Failures!
Healthcare or Insurance?
failing government programs
We don't know what this bill does!
Ownership Tax Act of 2009 (Introduced in House)[H.R.3590.IH]
[PDF]
2 . Service Members Home Ownership Tax Act of 2009 (Engrossed as Agreed to or Passed by House)
[H.R.3590.EH]
[PDF]
3 . Service Members Home Ownership Tax Act of 2009 (Placed on Calendar in Senate)
[H.R.3590.PCS][
PDF]
4 . Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Amendment in Senate)
[H.R.3590.AS]
[PDF]
5 . Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Public Print)
[H.R.3590.PP][
PDF]
6 . Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Engrossed Amendment as Agreed to by Senate)
[H.R.3590.EAS][
PDF]
Obama's illusions of cost-control
By Robert J. Samuelson
Monday, March 15, 2010 Click here to read the original
Almost everything you think you know about health care is probably wrong or, at least, half wrong.
"What we need from the next president is somebody who will not just tell you what they think you want to hear but will tell you what you need to hear."
-- Barack Obama, Feb. 27, 2008
One job of presidents is to educate Americans about crucial national problems. On health care, Barack Obama has failed. Almost everything you think you know about health care is probably wrong or, at least, half wrong. Great simplicities and distortions have been peddled in the name of achieving "universal health coverage." The miseducation has worsened as the debate approaches its climax.
How often, for example, have you heard the emergency-room argument? The uninsured, it's said, use emergency rooms for primary care. That's expensive and ineffective. Once they're insured, they'll have regular doctors. Care will improve; costs will decline. Everyone wins. Great argument. Unfortunately, it's untrue.
A study by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation found that the insured accounted for 83 percent of emergency-room visits, reflecting their share of the population. After Massachusetts adopted universal insurance, emergency-room use remained higher than the national average, an Urban Institute study found. More than two-fifths of visits represented non-emergencies. Of those, a majority of adult respondents to a survey said it was "more convenient" to go to the emergency room or they couldn't "get [a doctor's] appointment as soon as needed." If universal coverage makes appointments harder to get, emergency-room use may increase.
You probably think that insuring the uninsured will dramatically improve the nation's health. The uninsured don't get care or don't get it soon enough. With insurance, they won't be shortchanged; they'll be healthier. Simple.
...expanding health insurance would result,at best, in modest health gains.
Think again. I've written before that expanding health insurance would result, at best, in modest health gains. Studies of insurance's effects on health are hard to perform. Some find benefits; others don't. Medicare's introduction in 1966 produced no reduction in mortality; some studies of extensions of Medicaid for children didn't find gains. In the Atlantic recently, economics writer Megan McArdle examined the literature and emerged skeptical. Claims that the uninsured suffer tens of thousands of premature deaths are "open to question." Conceivably, the "lack of health insurance has no more impact on your health than lack of flood insurance," she writes.
How could this be? No one knows, but possible explanations include:
(a) many uninsured are fairly healthy -- about two-fifths are age 18 to 34;
(b) some are too sick to be helped or have problems rooted in personal behaviors -- smoking,diet, drinking or drug abuse; and (c) the uninsured already receive 50 to 70 percent of the care of the insured from hospitals, clinics and doctors, estimates the Congressional Budget Office.
Though it seems compelling, covering the uninsured is not the health-care system's major problem. The big problem is uncontrolled spending, which prices people out of the market and burdens government budgets. Obama claims his proposal checks spending. Just the opposite. When people get insurance, they use more health services. Spending rises. By the government's latest forecast, health spending goes from 17 percent of the economy in 2009 to 19 percent in 2019. Health "reform" would probably increase that.
Unless we change the fee-for-service system, costs will remain hard to control because providers are paid more for doing more. Obama might have attempted that by proposing health-care vouchers (limited amounts to be spent on insurance), which would force a restructuring of delivery systems to compete on quality and cost. Doctors, hospitals and drug companies would have to reorganize care. Obama refrained from that fight and instead cast insurance companies as the villains.
He's telling people what they want to hear, not what they need to know. Whatever their sins, insurers are mainly intermediaries; they pass along the costs of the delivery system. In 2009, the largest 14 insurers had profits of roughly $9 billion; that approached 0.4 percent of total health spending of $2.472 trillion. This hardly explains high health costs. What people need to know is that Obama's plan evades health care's major problems and would worsen the budget outlook. It's a big new spending program when government hasn't paid for the spending programs it already has.
"If not now, when? If not us, who?" Obama asks. The answer is: It's not now, and it's not "us." Pass or not, Obama's proposal is the illusion of "reform," not the real thing.
What people need to know is that Obama's plan evades health care's major problems and would worsen the budget outlook.
[Ed.Note:]
There at least three other very good reasons to avoid further government in health care issues.
The government performace track record:
Financial Help Failures!
Healthcare or Insurance?
failing government programs
We don't know what this bill does!
There are 6 versions of Bill Number H.R.3590 for the 111th Congress
1 . Service Members HomeOwnership Tax Act of 2009 (Introduced in House)[H.R.3590.IH]
[PDF]
2 . Service Members Home Ownership Tax Act of 2009 (Engrossed as Agreed to or Passed by House)
[H.R.3590.EH]
[PDF]
3 . Service Members Home Ownership Tax Act of 2009 (Placed on Calendar in Senate)
[H.R.3590.PCS][
PDF]
4 . Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Amendment in Senate)
[H.R.3590.AS]
[PDF]
5 . Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Public Print)
[H.R.3590.PP][
PDF]
6 . Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Engrossed Amendment as Agreed to by Senate)
[H.R.3590.EAS][
PDF]
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
From the State of the Union Speech - comments
And one year later, the worst of the storm has passed.
Impossible to verify and denied by a majority of citizens in various polls.
They don't understand why it seems like bad behavior on Wall Street is rewarded but hard work on Main Street isn't;
Wall Street is the gambling playground of the rich and powerful.
Main Street is the workplace of the poor and have nots.
Money begets money, work begets more work.
or why Washington has been unable or unwilling to solve any of our problems.
The ability for citizens to elect honorable, capable and responsible servants is tainted by politicians, wealth, media, political parties and corruption.
I campaigned on the promise of change - change we can believe in, the slogan went.
Change occurs even without promise. Our hope is that only change for the good of all would be considered but the trend to do otherwise continues.
And right now, I know there are many Americans who aren't sure if they still believe we can change - or at least, that I can deliver it.
Some never believed in either. Most that did were hopeful but now discouraged.
Impossible to verify and denied by a majority of citizens in various polls.
They don't understand why it seems like bad behavior on Wall Street is rewarded but hard work on Main Street isn't;
Wall Street is the gambling playground of the rich and powerful.
Main Street is the workplace of the poor and have nots.
Money begets money, work begets more work.
or why Washington has been unable or unwilling to solve any of our problems.
The ability for citizens to elect honorable, capable and responsible servants is tainted by politicians, wealth, media, political parties and corruption.
I campaigned on the promise of change - change we can believe in, the slogan went.
Change occurs even without promise. Our hope is that only change for the good of all would be considered but the trend to do otherwise continues.
And right now, I know there are many Americans who aren't sure if they still believe we can change - or at least, that I can deliver it.
Some never believed in either. Most that did were hopeful but now discouraged.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
What has changed?
"Their concerns must be our cause," said President Barack Obama in his first speech to Congress on Feb. 24, 2009. To demonstrate the focus of the goals of his administration he physically presented three persons with real life concerns. This is where change would be made. Now a year later here are the results.
Leonard Abess (Banker)
distributed his $60 million payout on retirement as majority stakeholder in Miami's City National Bancshares among current and former employees, deciphering amounts based not on job title but on years of service. Some janitors received more than vice presidents.
"The risk here is that people are going to lose hope. I worry about what it does to our society, having people out of work for so long and struggling so hard to find work and getting into despair and things like that. People want to work and need to work. It goes beyond making a living. A lot of people are very scared, and they're starting to lose their spirit."
He once inspired hope but is now greatly depressed at Wall Street's behavior. He sees Wall Street bonuses, and says "Wait a minute! Didn't anybody learn their lesson? "
Bob Dixson (Mayor) Greensburg, Kansas
Tornado devastated 95% of city. Federal money spent to rebuild - $20 Million. Another $20 million from state and donations. Half the residents left. Small businesses initially interested in Greensburg have been unable to procure loans. "We think we're about ready to land a company and bring in some jobs, but then reality hits. They don't have the cash. They can't get a loan."
"We're just trying to fill in the town."
The only way to lure people back is with jobs and the only way to create jobs is by bringing in employers. But in the continuing recession, Greensburg's redevelopment seems unlikely. Town redevelopment cost todate equals $50,000 per remaining citizen, but they have no jobs to sustain living there.
Ty'Sheoma Bethea (8th grade student) Dillon, S.C.
112 year old J.V. Martin Junior High School's gym is a converted boxing arena with a leaky ceiling and a wooden floor that buckles and slopes. During his campaign Obama visited J.V. Martin twice...once spending two hours touring the decrepit old building. "He's getting us a new school," she said.
Architects and CEOs flew in from across the country to propose plans for a new school. Gone would be the condemned auditorium with busted-out windows, the cold classrooms in mobile trailers and the dirt playing fields surrounded by barbed-wire fencing. School officials contemplated a $55 million proposal. "We just wanted a working ceiling, and now we were talking about having the finest of this, the best of that." Dillon's unemployment rate is 18 percent. Its largest employer is a chicken processing plant that pays $9 an hour. All six of the town's schools remain in various stages of disrepair.
"There was a lot of smoke, a lot of talk about getting a new J.V. Martin, but it's just gone nowhere," the mayor said.
The only stimulus money that arrived has gone to road resurfacing. The city struggled to procure a substantial loan in an unstable economy. With no immediate funding, CEOs stopped touring J.V. Martin, and architects moved on to other projects. The superintendent of school's budget will be cut by 15 percent next year, so that means slashing administration jobs, furlough teachers and no substitutes.
The basic information used in the above article was taken from an article written by Washington Post Staff Writer Eli Saslow and published on 26 January 2010.
Leonard Abess (Banker)
distributed his $60 million payout on retirement as majority stakeholder in Miami's City National Bancshares among current and former employees, deciphering amounts based not on job title but on years of service. Some janitors received more than vice presidents.
"The risk here is that people are going to lose hope. I worry about what it does to our society, having people out of work for so long and struggling so hard to find work and getting into despair and things like that. People want to work and need to work. It goes beyond making a living. A lot of people are very scared, and they're starting to lose their spirit."
He once inspired hope but is now greatly depressed at Wall Street's behavior. He sees Wall Street bonuses, and says "Wait a minute! Didn't anybody learn their lesson? "
Bob Dixson (Mayor) Greensburg, Kansas
Tornado devastated 95% of city. Federal money spent to rebuild - $20 Million. Another $20 million from state and donations. Half the residents left. Small businesses initially interested in Greensburg have been unable to procure loans. "We think we're about ready to land a company and bring in some jobs, but then reality hits. They don't have the cash. They can't get a loan."
"We're just trying to fill in the town."
The only way to lure people back is with jobs and the only way to create jobs is by bringing in employers. But in the continuing recession, Greensburg's redevelopment seems unlikely. Town redevelopment cost todate equals $50,000 per remaining citizen, but they have no jobs to sustain living there.
Ty'Sheoma Bethea (8th grade student) Dillon, S.C.
112 year old J.V. Martin Junior High School's gym is a converted boxing arena with a leaky ceiling and a wooden floor that buckles and slopes. During his campaign Obama visited J.V. Martin twice...once spending two hours touring the decrepit old building. "He's getting us a new school," she said.
Architects and CEOs flew in from across the country to propose plans for a new school. Gone would be the condemned auditorium with busted-out windows, the cold classrooms in mobile trailers and the dirt playing fields surrounded by barbed-wire fencing. School officials contemplated a $55 million proposal. "We just wanted a working ceiling, and now we were talking about having the finest of this, the best of that." Dillon's unemployment rate is 18 percent. Its largest employer is a chicken processing plant that pays $9 an hour. All six of the town's schools remain in various stages of disrepair.
"There was a lot of smoke, a lot of talk about getting a new J.V. Martin, but it's just gone nowhere," the mayor said.
The only stimulus money that arrived has gone to road resurfacing. The city struggled to procure a substantial loan in an unstable economy. With no immediate funding, CEOs stopped touring J.V. Martin, and architects moved on to other projects. The superintendent of school's budget will be cut by 15 percent next year, so that means slashing administration jobs, furlough teachers and no substitutes.
The basic information used in the above article was taken from an article written by Washington Post Staff Writer Eli Saslow and published on 26 January 2010.
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Yes, Haitians suffer and they did so, well before the recent earthquake.
There are issues of human suffering all over the globe, some at the hand of nature but more at the hand of man himself. A point to consider is that in every instance not all suffer within each country. There are some who live relatively much better and some outrageously better. Most often these well to do are of, or exert significant influence upon, a governing body which can be any form from socialist to monarchy. As never before in history, the masses have been incapacitated - unable to revolt except by death in massive numbers. In the past with such conditions, revolution occurred and sometimes made changes for the better.
Now consider that the ruling classes are willing to aid in cases of natural disaster. But why not before when thousands of Haitians were dying weekly from malnutrition? Where men of means control, they insure the status quo. Where nature controls in some foreign place, men desire to show a good face...as if in fear for that which cannot be controlled.
In fact, most efforts for outsiders to resolve suffering within a region, where intervention was employed, resulted in failure. History has it well documented.
"The Tree of Life is Self-Pruning"
There are issues of human suffering all over the globe, some at the hand of nature but more at the hand of man himself. A point to consider is that in every instance not all suffer within each country. There are some who live relatively much better and some outrageously better. Most often these well to do are of, or exert significant influence upon, a governing body which can be any form from socialist to monarchy. As never before in history, the masses have been incapacitated - unable to revolt except by death in massive numbers. In the past with such conditions, revolution occurred and sometimes made changes for the better.
Now consider that the ruling classes are willing to aid in cases of natural disaster. But why not before when thousands of Haitians were dying weekly from malnutrition? Where men of means control, they insure the status quo. Where nature controls in some foreign place, men desire to show a good face...as if in fear for that which cannot be controlled.
In fact, most efforts for outsiders to resolve suffering within a region, where intervention was employed, resulted in failure. History has it well documented.
"The Tree of Life is Self-Pruning"
Sunday, November 08, 2009
Healthcare or Insurance
The House of Representatives has passed a bill which addresses insurance. Insurance does not address health care, it addresses how health care is paid. U.S. citizens pay more for medical care than most other countries and the care received is less accomplished than in most other countries. Medicaid and Medicare are current government programs which are much more costly than ever was projected. By forcing insurance the government hopes to defray some of that cost. The legal system has forced health care facilities to provide medical care to indigent persons regardless of citizenship. If one does not have insurance and does not pay for their medical care, the cost of their care is passed to those who do as if it were overhead. Check you medical bills. When a stay in a hospital costs thousands of dollars just for the bed and board, the next bed is occupied by a stranger whose care you will pay for within your bill. The hospital has no choice but to array its costs among those who do pay.
If more of these "don't pay" patients are covered by insurance, due to government program, the cost of insurance will rise to cover the additional costs to insurance companies. Why? (1)Because the effect of the government program does not reduce greed on the part of the insurance companies or patients. (2) Because the number of malpractice claims in courts will increase the potential of lawyers who feed at that trough with ever increasing greed. (3) Because the program does not resolve a shortage of competent doctors entering the system, less capable physicians remain, providing cause for more legal claims and less in the value of care given.
In fact there is no "reform" in the government program, if you consider reform to mean improvement will result. Medical care costs have risen because the cost to provide it have increased. This increase not based upon value, but to cover the extraordinary insurance cost for providers to avoid risk and to cover the cost of significant increases of "non-paying" patients.
It is a simple problem to resolve:
(1) Allow medical facilities to deny non-paying customers.
(2) Establish a fair and reasonable limit to malpractice claims.
(3) Provide medical education at government cost to students who contract to provide medical practice at locations determined most needed, for a period of obligation, at a reasonable wage. A student who fails, would be charged the full costs expended.
A doctor who reneges on his obligation, is jailed where he can provide for other criminals.
Inhumane? No, just practical. Sickness and poor health is not caused by society or government. Whether by accident, misfortune, genetic predisposition or neglect, the health of an individual is an individual responsibility. The risks must be assumed by the individual. If I were to become ill with a horrible disease must my neighbor then take on all of my care and needs unwillingly? If my neighbor feels compassion or charity towards me can he not give what he believes to be reasonable care within his means? Could I die? Inevitably yes. At what point in life is society responsible for my continuing living? Under what conditions should I expect strangers to care for me...regardless of what I have done to care for myself?
Reform must begin with the individual.
If more of these "don't pay" patients are covered by insurance, due to government program, the cost of insurance will rise to cover the additional costs to insurance companies. Why? (1)Because the effect of the government program does not reduce greed on the part of the insurance companies or patients. (2) Because the number of malpractice claims in courts will increase the potential of lawyers who feed at that trough with ever increasing greed. (3) Because the program does not resolve a shortage of competent doctors entering the system, less capable physicians remain, providing cause for more legal claims and less in the value of care given.
In fact there is no "reform" in the government program, if you consider reform to mean improvement will result. Medical care costs have risen because the cost to provide it have increased. This increase not based upon value, but to cover the extraordinary insurance cost for providers to avoid risk and to cover the cost of significant increases of "non-paying" patients.
It is a simple problem to resolve:
(1) Allow medical facilities to deny non-paying customers.
(2) Establish a fair and reasonable limit to malpractice claims.
(3) Provide medical education at government cost to students who contract to provide medical practice at locations determined most needed, for a period of obligation, at a reasonable wage. A student who fails, would be charged the full costs expended.
A doctor who reneges on his obligation, is jailed where he can provide for other criminals.
Inhumane? No, just practical. Sickness and poor health is not caused by society or government. Whether by accident, misfortune, genetic predisposition or neglect, the health of an individual is an individual responsibility. The risks must be assumed by the individual. If I were to become ill with a horrible disease must my neighbor then take on all of my care and needs unwillingly? If my neighbor feels compassion or charity towards me can he not give what he believes to be reasonable care within his means? Could I die? Inevitably yes. At what point in life is society responsible for my continuing living? Under what conditions should I expect strangers to care for me...regardless of what I have done to care for myself?
Reform must begin with the individual.
Friday, September 18, 2009
A Schedule Retreated
To my funeral I could not go, on my schedule it was not.
With undeniable force, I was there, but not laid at rest.
One's life must be defined, managed, and given a slot.
Adherence to that is the measure of living done best.
Timed frames for duty and diligence are needed!
These planes of life you cannot refuse as if blind.
Meetings met at appointed times well heeded,
Have worth greater than mere presence of mind.
I check mark with glee a clocked event as done
A pleasure precisely so accomplished each one.
I could not go to my funeral as it wasn't planned
No allotment of my life listed was open to it.
While busy counting marks I was untimely banned
My worldly casket was shut and I lay restless within it.
Had I but defined an emptiness for the slots of calendar
The event could have been checked off as won.
I could sigh in pleasure for the penciled reminder.
But now I ask where love and life went undone.
Here in darkness I see regret, not for that which pleasured
in times done , but for that which was not so measured.
Kenneth Brahmer, 2009
With undeniable force, I was there, but not laid at rest.
One's life must be defined, managed, and given a slot.
Adherence to that is the measure of living done best.
Timed frames for duty and diligence are needed!
These planes of life you cannot refuse as if blind.
Meetings met at appointed times well heeded,
Have worth greater than mere presence of mind.
I check mark with glee a clocked event as done
A pleasure precisely so accomplished each one.
I could not go to my funeral as it wasn't planned
No allotment of my life listed was open to it.
While busy counting marks I was untimely banned
My worldly casket was shut and I lay restless within it.
Had I but defined an emptiness for the slots of calendar
The event could have been checked off as won.
I could sigh in pleasure for the penciled reminder.
But now I ask where love and life went undone.
Here in darkness I see regret, not for that which pleasured
in times done , but for that which was not so measured.
Kenneth Brahmer, 2009
Saturday, September 12, 2009
It's time for revolution!
Today I received yet another email from our President...asking me to write congress urging them to support his health reform...and asking for money to support the cause.
Citizens have funded campaigns in the selection of elected officials. Why should citizens continue to pay for their elected officials to do their job? I pay taxes and they receive salaries with immense perks with those taxes. I've already paid, damn it!
The problem, which our founding fathers did not desire, is that elected officials do not focus on serving the citizens of this nation. The congressional entanglements are more interested in what will get them re-elected and what they must do to satisfy their party...and that goes for the president too! The backroom games, the maneuvering, the party line guidance and the outright extortion or vote buying within congress has value only to special interests and not the populace at large.
Advanced citizenship for elected officials means they do things right and they do the right things according to a conscience devoted to the people.
Most of us do NOT get paid to arrive at our workplace and then expect to be paid extra to do our job...nor do we spend inordinate time at work trying to retain our job regardless of the survival of the company that employs us.
So here's my urging to congress. Quit screwing around and do your job!
And to the President, I say - if the only way you can get the right things done is to get more money from me, then I'm going to start by getting another President.
But to my fellow citizens, I say - it's time for revolution!
Citizens have funded campaigns in the selection of elected officials. Why should citizens continue to pay for their elected officials to do their job? I pay taxes and they receive salaries with immense perks with those taxes. I've already paid, damn it!
The problem, which our founding fathers did not desire, is that elected officials do not focus on serving the citizens of this nation. The congressional entanglements are more interested in what will get them re-elected and what they must do to satisfy their party...and that goes for the president too! The backroom games, the maneuvering, the party line guidance and the outright extortion or vote buying within congress has value only to special interests and not the populace at large.
Advanced citizenship for elected officials means they do things right and they do the right things according to a conscience devoted to the people.
Most of us do NOT get paid to arrive at our workplace and then expect to be paid extra to do our job...nor do we spend inordinate time at work trying to retain our job regardless of the survival of the company that employs us.
So here's my urging to congress. Quit screwing around and do your job!
And to the President, I say - if the only way you can get the right things done is to get more money from me, then I'm going to start by getting another President.
But to my fellow citizens, I say - it's time for revolution!
Friday, August 21, 2009
Insurance is NOT health care reform!
My fellow Americans (grin):
After days and many hours spent reviewing data sources, fact checkers, census reports, politician statements, truth reports and commentaries about health care in the USA, it is clear to me that Orwell was an optimist regarding the manipulation of language and communication functions. As for statistics the old saying applies, 'Liars figure and figures lie.' You can construct an argument for or against with significant 'factual reference' and 'truth' evades logic.
There are three facts about health care reform which seem most clear:
1. There isn't just one bill. The legislative process has many miles to go before each chamber enacts a final version of reform -- if it gets that far. What "THE" bill will include is mutable.
2. The federal government has a poor track record in accomplishing the stated promises of social programs. The bureaucratic entities managing them are ever increasing in cost as are the programs they administer. The real costs have never been as were initially estimated.
3. The various legislative and administration processes address insurance - not health care improvement. If there is a direct correlation between health care insurance and the quality of health care, I cannot find it. More people insured does not equate to better health care for the average citizen. It means more money for the insurance industry.
Wouldn't it be nice if Congress and the President could improve the quality of health care for everyone nationwide for less money?
Yes, but are they, can they and will they?
[If you are holding your breath for this to happen you will not be improving your health care!]
http://politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/
After days and many hours spent reviewing data sources, fact checkers, census reports, politician statements, truth reports and commentaries about health care in the USA, it is clear to me that Orwell was an optimist regarding the manipulation of language and communication functions. As for statistics the old saying applies, 'Liars figure and figures lie.' You can construct an argument for or against with significant 'factual reference' and 'truth' evades logic.
There are three facts about health care reform which seem most clear:
1. There isn't just one bill. The legislative process has many miles to go before each chamber enacts a final version of reform -- if it gets that far. What "THE" bill will include is mutable.
2. The federal government has a poor track record in accomplishing the stated promises of social programs. The bureaucratic entities managing them are ever increasing in cost as are the programs they administer. The real costs have never been as were initially estimated.
3. The various legislative and administration processes address insurance - not health care improvement. If there is a direct correlation between health care insurance and the quality of health care, I cannot find it. More people insured does not equate to better health care for the average citizen. It means more money for the insurance industry.
Wouldn't it be nice if Congress and the President could improve the quality of health care for everyone nationwide for less money?
Yes, but are they, can they and will they?
[If you are holding your breath for this to happen you will not be improving your health care!]
http://politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/
Thursday, August 13, 2009
This is the most salient question on health reform !!
Tom Coburn, a U.S.Senator from Oklahoma and a medical doctor, raised concerns in his article of 10 August 2009 regarding "health-care reform" entitled 'Ten Questions Politicians Won’t Answer.' [Source article]
You may hold issue with some or most of the Ten Questions, but there is one which I think is the most salient, most prominent of all. The way he put it was, "How will a government-run public option perform better than other failing government programs, such as Medicare, Medicaid, and Indian Health Care?"
To that I will add numerous other government programs, oversight and regulatory agencies that have failed to accomplish what was their original intent.
One example of failure comes to mind as a fair measure. The Department of Energy. (see details below *)
Another example is the Federal Reserve.
The Social Security system was originally defined with some simple goals. Subsequently it has been altered by congress over the years with incremental additions and coverage which now put its costs orders of magnitude greater than originally described and defined.
Our history is replete with examples of governmental ineptitude and inefficiency in management of efforts to "do something" about issues that were deemed beyond the private sector and individuals themselves. In the great majority of these government added little value and made it worse.
Some facets of life should not be subjected to governmental intrusion. One of them is my health. To measure, I ask what is the practical and sustainable value added? What government has done to date has made the health cost problems we face today...caused by legislation, lawyers and insurance companies. All three of these enhance themselves by the "reforms" being presented.
At the risk of improperly quoting the saying, I believe that government that governs least governs best.
* On August 4, 1977, President Jimmy Carter signed the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Organization Act (Public Law 95-91), centralizing the responsibilities of the Federal Energy Administration, the Energy Research and Development Administration, the Federal Power Commission and other energy-related government programs into a single presidential cabinet-level department. The DOE, activated on Oct. 1, 1977, provided the framework for a comprehensive national energy plan by coordinating federal energy functions. The new Department was responsible for long-term, high-risk research and development of energy technology, federal power marketing, energy conservation, energy regulatory programs, a central energy data collection and analysis program, and nuclear weapons research, development and production.
In simple terms, in the 1970's an Arab oil squeeze threatened to strangle U.S. commerce and transportation. To prevent this from occurring in the future, the DOE was established with a clear understanding it was to develop means to avoid our dependence upon foreign oil and it's leverage against our country.
For FY2009 the DOE requested a budget of $25 billion dollars and noted approximately $200 billion expended in the past eight years. It began with about 20,000 employees with a budget of $10.4 billion. The number of people employed and the offices established now are greater.
Yet, the U.S. dependence upon foreign oil is even greater today than in 1977...much much greater. And that department has not developed other energy sources. All of the fine goals and promises for the changes made came to nothing and worse.
You may hold issue with some or most of the Ten Questions, but there is one which I think is the most salient, most prominent of all. The way he put it was, "How will a government-run public option perform better than other failing government programs, such as Medicare, Medicaid, and Indian Health Care?"
To that I will add numerous other government programs, oversight and regulatory agencies that have failed to accomplish what was their original intent.
One example of failure comes to mind as a fair measure. The Department of Energy. (see details below *)
Another example is the Federal Reserve.
The Social Security system was originally defined with some simple goals. Subsequently it has been altered by congress over the years with incremental additions and coverage which now put its costs orders of magnitude greater than originally described and defined.
Our history is replete with examples of governmental ineptitude and inefficiency in management of efforts to "do something" about issues that were deemed beyond the private sector and individuals themselves. In the great majority of these government added little value and made it worse.
Some facets of life should not be subjected to governmental intrusion. One of them is my health. To measure, I ask what is the practical and sustainable value added? What government has done to date has made the health cost problems we face today...caused by legislation, lawyers and insurance companies. All three of these enhance themselves by the "reforms" being presented.
At the risk of improperly quoting the saying, I believe that government that governs least governs best.
* On August 4, 1977, President Jimmy Carter signed the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Organization Act (Public Law 95-91), centralizing the responsibilities of the Federal Energy Administration, the Energy Research and Development Administration, the Federal Power Commission and other energy-related government programs into a single presidential cabinet-level department. The DOE, activated on Oct. 1, 1977, provided the framework for a comprehensive national energy plan by coordinating federal energy functions. The new Department was responsible for long-term, high-risk research and development of energy technology, federal power marketing, energy conservation, energy regulatory programs, a central energy data collection and analysis program, and nuclear weapons research, development and production.
In simple terms, in the 1970's an Arab oil squeeze threatened to strangle U.S. commerce and transportation. To prevent this from occurring in the future, the DOE was established with a clear understanding it was to develop means to avoid our dependence upon foreign oil and it's leverage against our country.
For FY2009 the DOE requested a budget of $25 billion dollars and noted approximately $200 billion expended in the past eight years. It began with about 20,000 employees with a budget of $10.4 billion. The number of people employed and the offices established now are greater.
Yet, the U.S. dependence upon foreign oil is even greater today than in 1977...much much greater. And that department has not developed other energy sources. All of the fine goals and promises for the changes made came to nothing and worse.
Friday, July 03, 2009
Black like me excuses
You're black? So?
I was raised in the deep south at a time and place where negroid people were treated as a separate race, with separate public facilities, separate social structures and separate rights. Since that time many social changes in America have addressed the plight of negroes. Despite the legal destruction of "separate but equal" judgement for negroes, they are still treated as a separate race in the affairs of daily living...often because negroes enjoy the advantage of being treated with separate distinction. It is still heard as the cause of unrest, that negroes were slaves and their descendants suffer as victims of that enslavement.
I never learned to think of negroes as inferior due to difference from me. I do not have a bigot's view so that I abhor negroes or consider them with negative prejudice.
I do however, abhor the "negro excuse" employed by so many to be treated as victims in this day and time. I am prejudiced against irresponsibility, stupidity, the purposely ignorant and those who do not contribute as members of the human race.
You're black? So? And I'm not! So?
If you are a negro and feel you are a victim because of it, read below to learn you yourself are not a victim anymore than any person in this country. Do something positive to rid yourself of the "negro excuse."
If you are not a negro and feel negroes are unimportant to your society, make no impact on your life or are inherently inferior, read below to learn differently. Do something positive to rid yourself of prejudiced behavior or thought regarding negroes.
The first black slaves were enslaved by other black tribes (a common occurence in Africa) and sold to traders who brought them to America beginning in 1619. In 1808 United States law banned import of slaves. No person alive today was brought to this country as a slave. The immensely greater majority of negroes in this country are not first, second, third or even fourth generation offspring of slaves.
So many negroes have distinquished themselves as significant contributors to our daily lives, that to somehow erase the presence of negroes in our past would severely impoverish our society. Their existence is proof that there is no valid "negro excuse" for blacks that they are unable or prevented from improving themselves and society today. Every ethnic or other grouping in this country is a "victim" of prejudice from some other group. There is nothing unique in encountering difficulty in life because you are labelled as a member of a group disdained by another group more interested in advancing members of their group. But that has not prevented any one individual or group from advancement.
Blacks have been achieving presence and recognition at all levels of society for a century. Albeit, persons without talent, intelligence or drive have not and that applies to all of us. Here are examples:
1920
Lucy Slowe became the first black woman tennis champion in the United States. During a tournament in Baltimore, she won the woman's singles title.
1921
Bessie Coleman became the first United States black female pilot.
1924
Clifton Reginald Wharton, Sr. became the first black to pass United States Foreign Service exam.
1939
Jane Matilda Bolin became the first black woman judge in New York City.
1950
Ralph Bunche became the first black to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.
Charles Cooper became the first black player in NBA. He played for the Fort Wayne Indiana Celtics.
1947 Jackie Robinson
* The first African-American to play on a Major League baseball team in the 20th century.
* The first Rookie of the Year Award is awarded to Jackie Robinson.
* The first African-American to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
* The first Major League baseball player to be honored on a U.S. postage stamp.
* The first baseball player to have his uniform number (42) retired across all teams by the Major League.
* The first UCLA student to earn a varsity letter in all four sports: baseball, basketball, football and track.
* The first African-American baseball player to receive the Congressional Gold Medal.
* The first African-American to serve as Vice-President of a major American corporation, Chock Full O' Nuts 1957-1964.
1954
Benjamin O. Davis, Jr. became the first first black general in the United States Air Force.
1955
Marian Anderson became the first black singer at the Metropolitan Opera.
1957
Althea Gibson became the first black tennis player to win a Wimbledon singles title.
1958
William O'Ree became the first black hockey player in the NHL, playing for the Boston Bruins.
Ruth Carol Taylor became the first black woman to become a stewardess.
Clifton R. Wharton became the first black US foreign minister.
Learn the value of contributing members of society -
History is repleat with examples of slavery. Consider the Hebrews of ancient Egypt. I have never met a Jewish person who expected advantage in compensation for their ancestors having been slaves.
I was raised in the deep south at a time and place where negroid people were treated as a separate race, with separate public facilities, separate social structures and separate rights. Since that time many social changes in America have addressed the plight of negroes. Despite the legal destruction of "separate but equal" judgement for negroes, they are still treated as a separate race in the affairs of daily living...often because negroes enjoy the advantage of being treated with separate distinction. It is still heard as the cause of unrest, that negroes were slaves and their descendants suffer as victims of that enslavement.
I never learned to think of negroes as inferior due to difference from me. I do not have a bigot's view so that I abhor negroes or consider them with negative prejudice.
I do however, abhor the "negro excuse" employed by so many to be treated as victims in this day and time. I am prejudiced against irresponsibility, stupidity, the purposely ignorant and those who do not contribute as members of the human race.
You're black? So? And I'm not! So?
If you are a negro and feel you are a victim because of it, read below to learn you yourself are not a victim anymore than any person in this country. Do something positive to rid yourself of the "negro excuse."
If you are not a negro and feel negroes are unimportant to your society, make no impact on your life or are inherently inferior, read below to learn differently. Do something positive to rid yourself of prejudiced behavior or thought regarding negroes.
The first black slaves were enslaved by other black tribes (a common occurence in Africa) and sold to traders who brought them to America beginning in 1619. In 1808 United States law banned import of slaves. No person alive today was brought to this country as a slave. The immensely greater majority of negroes in this country are not first, second, third or even fourth generation offspring of slaves.
So many negroes have distinquished themselves as significant contributors to our daily lives, that to somehow erase the presence of negroes in our past would severely impoverish our society. Their existence is proof that there is no valid "negro excuse" for blacks that they are unable or prevented from improving themselves and society today. Every ethnic or other grouping in this country is a "victim" of prejudice from some other group. There is nothing unique in encountering difficulty in life because you are labelled as a member of a group disdained by another group more interested in advancing members of their group. But that has not prevented any one individual or group from advancement.
Blacks have been achieving presence and recognition at all levels of society for a century. Albeit, persons without talent, intelligence or drive have not and that applies to all of us. Here are examples:
1920
Lucy Slowe became the first black woman tennis champion in the United States. During a tournament in Baltimore, she won the woman's singles title.
1921
Bessie Coleman became the first United States black female pilot.
1924
Clifton Reginald Wharton, Sr. became the first black to pass United States Foreign Service exam.
1939
Jane Matilda Bolin became the first black woman judge in New York City.
1950
Ralph Bunche became the first black to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.
Charles Cooper became the first black player in NBA. He played for the Fort Wayne Indiana Celtics.
1947 Jackie Robinson
* The first African-American to play on a Major League baseball team in the 20th century.
* The first Rookie of the Year Award is awarded to Jackie Robinson.
* The first African-American to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
* The first Major League baseball player to be honored on a U.S. postage stamp.
* The first baseball player to have his uniform number (42) retired across all teams by the Major League.
* The first UCLA student to earn a varsity letter in all four sports: baseball, basketball, football and track.
* The first African-American baseball player to receive the Congressional Gold Medal.
* The first African-American to serve as Vice-President of a major American corporation, Chock Full O' Nuts 1957-1964.
1954
Benjamin O. Davis, Jr. became the first first black general in the United States Air Force.
1955
Marian Anderson became the first black singer at the Metropolitan Opera.
1957
Althea Gibson became the first black tennis player to win a Wimbledon singles title.
1958
William O'Ree became the first black hockey player in the NHL, playing for the Boston Bruins.
Ruth Carol Taylor became the first black woman to become a stewardess.
Clifton R. Wharton became the first black US foreign minister.
Learn the value of contributing members of society -
Apollo Theater
http://apollotheater.org/
BIO's Black History Study Guides
http://www.biography.com/classroom/blackhistory.jsp
History.com's Voices of Civil Rights Site
http://www.history.com/classroom/voices/
History.com's Black History Site
http://www.history.com/minisites/blackhistory
The King Center
http://www.thekingcenter.org/tkc/index.asp
Library of Congress - African-American Mosiac Exhibit
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/african/intro.html
Library of Congress - African-American History Month
http://www.loc.gov/topics/africanamericans/
National Underground Railroad Freedom Center
http://www.freedomcenter.org/
National Visionary Leadership Project
http://www.visionaryproject.org/index.asp
National Civil Rights Museum
http://www.civilrightsmuseum.org/home.htm
An MLK site with documents from the National Archives:
www.archives.gov/education/lessons/memphis-v-mlk/
History Classroom Brown v. Board of Education minisite:
http://www.history.com/classroom/brownvboard/
History is repleat with examples of slavery. Consider the Hebrews of ancient Egypt. I have never met a Jewish person who expected advantage in compensation for their ancestors having been slaves.
Monday, June 22, 2009
Twenty-twenty hindsight is often bashed as "easy for you" to affix blame. But it also allows you to examine the flaws which lead to disaster. So this is about an hour's worth of simple research from which I draw some conclusions that you might want to consider as you think about what you can do to determine cause not blame.
Whose work is 1000 times worth more than yours? Here's some of the gurus that helped make the current financial crisis what it is today:
- Royal Bank of Scotland:£9.6m pay package for chief executive Stephen Hester.
- HSBC: Michael Geoghegan receives a basic salary of £1.1m and a long-term incentive of £7.5m.
- Lloyds: Eric Daniels is paid an annual £1m in basic salary, plus a maximum of 200 per cent of salary, or £2m, as a long-term incentive.
- Citigroup: Vikram Pandit was awarded a $10.8m compensation package for 2008.
- MasterCard: recruited Mr Banga a $4.2m signing-on fee and stock and options worth about $7m.
- Merrill Lynch: executive vice president Peter Kraus leaves with more than $10 million in compensation. (500 lose their jobs)
- Merrill Lynch: Peter Kraus received a payout of $25 million dollars for working at Merrill Lynch for just three months.
- Merrill Lynch: Just before being taken over by Bank of America $4 Billion was paid as bonuses to executives.
- Citi senior exeutive Ajay Banga leaves to join MasterCard as president and chief operating officer. He is in line to become chief executive of the credit card company next year. MasterCard is paying Ajay Banga a $4.2m signing-on fee and stock and options worth about $7m.
I stopped looking at the large array of exhorbitant executive compensation packages. I'd seen enough to know.
How is money handled by those in positions of control?
- A former Morgan Stanley vice president (36 year old Richard Garaventa Jr.) has been charged with embezzling
more than $2.5 million from the investment bank. - A former China head of Morgan Stanley Real Estate is being investigated by the United States Securities
and Exchange Commission for possible violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
The S.E.C. believes that Mr. Peterson violated the act to make several property deals for the bank in China. - Bernard Madoff (one-time Nasdaq chairman) caused $50 billion in losses - perhaps the biggest scam in Wall Street history.
- Texas billionaire R. Allen Stanford (Stanford Financial Group) was jailed on charges his international banking empire was a Ponzi scheme built on lies, bluster and bribery. More than $1 billion from Stanford's alleged scheme remains unaccounted for, and if anyone has access to it, it's Stanford.
I stopped looking at the financial criminals of this past year. I'd seen enough to know.
- 40 banks failed/closed so far in 2009 in just three states Georgia, North Carolina and Kansas.
In the past year (as of June 2009) 99 banks failed according to the FDIC.
The FDIC expects roughly $70 billion in losses due to the failures of insured institutions over the next 5 years. - $700 billion in bailout money to faltering financial institutions.
- AIG $100 billion bailout by the U.S. government
- For 30 years of incompetence by American auto companies leads to sales off more than 30%...and requests for $34 Billion bailout by the U.S.Government to forestall meltdown.
- CitiGroup 75,000 job cuts and $20 billion handout from the U.S. government and backing $300+ billion of its toxic assets to keep it from collapsing. Most of these were off-the-books Structured Investment Vehicles (SIVs).
- Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac balance sheets riddled with toxic assets and the equity holders were wiped out.
- Money market funds, auction-rate securities, the Reserve Fund, Collateralized Debt Obligations (CDOs) decimate Wall Street with loses in supposedly secure investments that were given the AAA seal of approval by the ratings agencies.
- Moody's, Standard & Poors and Fitch gave AAA top ratings for Collateralized Debt Obligations (CDOs), which are based in part on pools of subprime mortgages. These agencies get paid by the issuers of the CDOs to make a supposed objective rating.
- Hedge funds - see Bernie Madoff and his $50 Billion scam.
- Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan whose reputation was deemed infallible, erred terribly in the risks in the system from subprime mortgages
and the bonds sold against them. So he admits.
In spite of the troubled environment, market rates for bankers has changed, improving the pay for bankers partly driven by a need to hold on to good staff – and partly to offset the threat of bonus taxes or caps in the US – UBS, Merrill and Morgan Stanley have all increased their basic pay substantially. Citi now plans to do the same. According to insiders and rivals, market salary rates for managing directors have jumped from about $250,000 (€180,000) only a few months ago, to closer to $400,000. As well as base salary hikes, banks are once more offering guaranteed bonuses to staff approached with lucrative offers by rivals.
Regulators will be concerned – increasing basic pay and guaranteeing bonuses run
directly counter to their efforts to push banks towards pay that better reflects
long-term performance.
Despite the many areas, layers and levels of financial managers; despite
the oversight and national financial regulation by the Federal Reserve, the
Security and Exchange markets; the gurus of the market and the corporate might
which has never been so massive - systemic failure!
Many of the money managers, despite reputations and ratings, are corrupt,
inept, dishonest, and seemingly beyond the reach of laws in any effective manner.
Of all those affected, the average "have not" citizen will suffer the most and those inthe "have" positions will recover soonest.
These are elements which have historically lead to revolution. And in many casesthese have resulted in autocratic rule emerging even where revolution was fomentedto ease the burden of the average person. Almost always the means by which autocrats achieve this - the promise of change and them at the hand of the government which first represses opposition (and thereafter ever increasing).
Beware Greeks bearing gifts, orators promising a return of glory and the
arrogance of the wealthy. Thus will the meek inherit the earth following
armeggedon.
Nothing! Like 300 million citizens will do. You'll sit back and take it. You hope
some charasmatic leader will come to the rescue. You'll seek your personal level of
greed, safety and satisfaction by working around the system to simply survive.
I ask you how could one percent of the population impoverish the ninety-nine percent without that segment's fear, apathy or willing acceptance?
Sunday, April 05, 2009
How did things get so bad and what now?
Japan once found itself trying to recover from disaster after WWII in much the same conditions as the United States now finds itself. At that time it was generally accepted that anything "Made in Japan" was of little value. In fact, one manufacturing town made use of its name which was Usa to label its products "Made in USA" (Usa, Japan is located in Oita Prefecture on Kyushu Island and was so named a thousand years before WWII). Today "Made in USA" does not carry the distinction it once had. Competitors in Japan and China have overtaken the USA marketplace in quality, price and quantity. So much so, that a significant number of daily use items can only be obtained via Japan or China because US manufacturers could no longer compete and quit.
So how did we get where we are now and how did Japan surpass us?
It is convenient, if not totally accurate, to place the blame for the US economic collapse on various political entities who served the populace poorly. Be that as it may, closer examination reveals that at the base of the economic pyramid, the value of significant national products have greatly weakened due to the practices and leadership of our production as manufacturers of the finest and best. The automobile industry is good example. And so as government officials often do, they throw money at the "problem" but it rarely does more than entrench the problem.
We don't produce much...and not the finest and best. That applies to most of our institutions and providers. Education does not produce as it once did. Manufacturers do not produce well. Government does not serve as well. The populace does not contribute citizenship as well. Our military is inept under the existing conditions and forms of conflict. Even our religious entities do not serve as well. You may argue. However, what some consider "as well" is not good enough if not bad. That is how we got here. Fingers point almost in every direction except towards the pointer himself. But that is where the problem resides.
That was Japan 1946. What did it do? Unsung leaders gathered to recruit and follow the business and cultural methods of an American. Dr. William Edwards Deming.
Deming's 14 points
1. Create constancy of purpose.
2. Adopt the new philosophy.
3. Cease dependence on mass inspection to achieve quality.
4. Minimize total cost, not initial price of supplies.
5. Improve constantly the system of production and service.
6. Institute training on the job.
7. Institute leadership.
8. Drive out fear.
9. Break down barriers between departments.
10. Eliminate slogans, exhortations, and numerical targets.
11. Eliminate work standards (quotas) and management by objective.
12. Remove barriers that rob workers, engineers, and managers of their right to pride of workmanship.
13. Institute a vigorous program of education and self-improvement.
14. Put everyone in the company to work to accomplish the transformation.
If we want change...the above explains what that change must be like.
You will note that the above isn't something you should expect government, industry and commerce should do for YOU. It is what everyone must do in everything they do and that includes your personal efforts.
http://www.lii.net/deming.html
http://www.managementwisdom.com/index.html?gclid=COSG9aPZ2pkCFQZlswod81n8Wg
http://www.4ulr.com/products/productquality/jedwardsdemingphil.html
So how did we get where we are now and how did Japan surpass us?
It is convenient, if not totally accurate, to place the blame for the US economic collapse on various political entities who served the populace poorly. Be that as it may, closer examination reveals that at the base of the economic pyramid, the value of significant national products have greatly weakened due to the practices and leadership of our production as manufacturers of the finest and best. The automobile industry is good example. And so as government officials often do, they throw money at the "problem" but it rarely does more than entrench the problem.
We don't produce much...and not the finest and best. That applies to most of our institutions and providers. Education does not produce as it once did. Manufacturers do not produce well. Government does not serve as well. The populace does not contribute citizenship as well. Our military is inept under the existing conditions and forms of conflict. Even our religious entities do not serve as well. You may argue. However, what some consider "as well" is not good enough if not bad. That is how we got here. Fingers point almost in every direction except towards the pointer himself. But that is where the problem resides.
That was Japan 1946. What did it do? Unsung leaders gathered to recruit and follow the business and cultural methods of an American. Dr. William Edwards Deming.
Deming's 14 points
1. Create constancy of purpose.
2. Adopt the new philosophy.
3. Cease dependence on mass inspection to achieve quality.
4. Minimize total cost, not initial price of supplies.
5. Improve constantly the system of production and service.
6. Institute training on the job.
7. Institute leadership.
8. Drive out fear.
9. Break down barriers between departments.
10. Eliminate slogans, exhortations, and numerical targets.
11. Eliminate work standards (quotas) and management by objective.
12. Remove barriers that rob workers, engineers, and managers of their right to pride of workmanship.
13. Institute a vigorous program of education and self-improvement.
14. Put everyone in the company to work to accomplish the transformation.
If we want change...the above explains what that change must be like.
You will note that the above isn't something you should expect government, industry and commerce should do for YOU. It is what everyone must do in everything they do and that includes your personal efforts.
http://www.lii.net/deming.html
http://www.managementwisdom.com/index.html?gclid=COSG9aPZ2pkCFQZlswod81n8Wg
http://www.4ulr.com/products/productquality/jedwardsdemingphil.html
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