Insurance Executive Salaries

Our Congress Critters have spent the summer putting together a 1000 or more pages of a bill that does nothing but patch the corrupt health insurance industry with bandages designed to camouflage their excess, obscene greed so that not quite so many egregious denials of coverage exist.

The logic of all these patches does not lead logically to "a public option" as a pitiful small part of another huge industry subsidy, but rather to a public option as the only option allowed. Insurance companies can suck money out of us by providing supplemental coverage similar to those for current medicare program for those of us "lucky" enough to be over 65. Again,  Ask yourself:

• Do you love your family?
• Do you love your insurance company and these executives?

** Stay tuned, and if you are bored, total up the salaries of the listed insurance company executives--- Doug Wiken

 

* Max Hocus Baucus,  Democrat of Montana has sucked several $million out of the health industry and apparently something in the neighborhood of a million in this last go round. He is in charge of making sure no public option or single payer system comes out of congress as he smiles and talks about reform.

* George McGovern in a talk in Winner, SD recently responded to a question of mine regarding the complexity of society and issues wondering how many congress critters were actually capable of comprehending what they claim to be doing. McGovern politely danced around that and implicitly indicating the problems in Congress were not mainly due to ignorance or mental deficiency, but rather to the nearly incomprehensible amounts of money flooding incumbents of Senate and US Congress. He expressed some sympathy for them suggesting that they were not now really free agents. I guess in terms more of us less politic might say, " Our congress critters have become political prostitutes. They are bought and paid for with multimillion campaign "contributions".

* We have recently had most of the South Dakota delegation Sen. Johnson, Sen Thune, and Representative Herseth-Sandlin back here in South Dakota pretending to really, really be interested in the concerns of people burned and bankrupted by health problems and problems with health insurance. Then they go back to Washington and build a 1000-page incomprehensible bill which is claimed to be reform, but is really a boondoggle stimulus package for the health insurance and health industry.

* Our representatives talk to us a bit like did George Carlin when he gave the sports scores," 10-7, 24- 8, 6 -1 and a partial score 14.

" Our representatives Democratic and Republican are feeding us partial scores that only include bits and pieces of what the health insurance industry wants us to hear. There are a few lonely voices, but they are few and far between. The Republicans who oppose health care reform are mostly not doing it because they want something better, but because the status quo, fouled up as it is, benefits their largest contributors.

*Democrats in Congress who fail to listen to George McGovern's prescription for a single line bill, "Extend Medicare to every Citizen" are failing to comprehend the benefits to the Democratic Party and the country of that best single payer option. If Obama and Democrats pass such a bill, the Republican Party will be a small voice crying in the wilderness for the next 40 years.

*The GOP has opposed nearly every program that benefited everyday people including most of us South Dakotans. Had Republicans won on the REA, The RTA, hydro power development, farm policy, Medicare and Medicaid, and social security, South Dakota would be dark every night at dusk with sick poverty stricken elderly huddling in the cold without washing machines, TV or radio. South Dakota would be even more like a third-world country than it is now.

*Add opposition to an efficient universal health insurance plan and the GOP will be not just an empty bag of tricks, but a vacuum-packed empty bag. The current steaming pile of amendments and patches for a defective system is worse than nothing. If the smoke and mirrors congress passes this "reform", we will be hearing for the next 20 years if we live that long that "We just reformed health insurance." even as the industry demonstrates that it is all just a new bit of sham legislation to raid the US Treasury and still leave millions uninsured.

* The putrid stench from Washington regarding health insurance "reform" is a powerful reason to ban all poitical contributions and have only publicly-fiananced campaigns. I don't think our political prostitutes should be allowed to accept so much as a free cup of coffee from constituents or lobbyists.

* Big money makes democracy irrelevant. Throw the Democratic and Republican bums out. Drag the money changers out of our political "temples".  Much is yet to be done.

*** Stay tuned for the partial weather report --- Doug Wiken

 

We are using converters and our TV viewing options have effectively doubled as a result.  Image quality is significantly improved...except when it disappears completely in rain or snow.  Also, you may find you don't want to keep dumping money on cable or satellite TV if you happen to be in an area with several good TV broadcasters and haven't yet recovered from the Bush administration economic disaster or you have analog tape of DVD recorders.

  Public Broadcasting in SD has three TV signals.  The regular programming channel, A "World" channel, and a "Create" channel. KELO has their regular channel and "My TV" which is almost devoid of useful content.  KSFY has only one channel out here.

 

Application Deadline. Eligible households may continue to apply for TV converter box coupons while supplies last, until July 31, 2009. Applications for coupons will continue to be accepted online, by phone, by mail and by fax until 12 midnight Eastern Time. IMPORTANT: Consumers who apply for coupons are approved on a first-come, first-served basis, while supplies last. If the Program experiences high demand, it may be necessary for the Coupon Program to place applicants on a waiting list. Should this happen, we may distribute coupons to over-the-air only households first to ensure that as many U.S. households as possible have at least one working television now that full power local TV stations have completed the transition to digital television broadcasting. Coupons will expire within 90 days of the date they are mailed.

The Coupon Program is accepting applications from consumers whose coupons expired without being redeemed. The Coupon Program limits each U.S. household to a total of two redeemed coupons. Therefore, if you have redeemed one coupon toward the purchase of a TV converter box and the other has expired, you may request and be approved for one replacement coupon; if you have redeemed two coupons you will not be approved for additional coupons. Replacement coupons will only be issued to eligible households upon request. Consumers who wish to apply for a replacement coupon can do so at www.DTV2009.gov/ApplyCoupon.aspx

, by calling 1-888-DTV-2009 (1-888-388-2009), mailing an application to P.O. Box 2000, Portland, OR 97208 or faxing it to 1-877-DTV-4ME2 (1-877-388-4632). Deaf or hard of hearing callers may use 1-877-530-2634 (TTY).

One last chance to make good use of your old analog TVs before the winter doldrums strike.

*** Stay tuned even if TV isn't your choice for background noise --- Doug Wiken

 

 

Blue Dogs' Obedience These Blue Dogs are indeed obedient to their masters: the profitable health care providers and insurers, just not to their President, party, constituents, districts or states. They are pandering to their patrons and benefactors: Top recipients of contributions from insurers and health care industries are:

• Max Baucus $3,973,485
• Evan Bayh $1,565,088
• John McCain $7,677,742
• Kent Conrad $2,154,200
• Dianne Feinstein $1,749,887
• John Kerry $8,994,077
• Mary Landrieu $1,653,943
• Joe Lieberman $3,308,621
• Ben Nelson $2,214,715

They have millions of reasons to prevent our citizens and businesses from the benefits of a low cost, quality health care system.

Letters: The Blue Dogs flunk obedience school - Salon (22 July 2009) http://letters.salon.com/news/feature/2009/07/22/healthcare/view/index4.html?show=all http://snipurl.com/nq3u4

That is about $35 Million total coming out of health insurance premiums and medicare payments to guarantee that the current grossly inefficient greed-driven system continues ...and continues to provide political contributions to continue ..............

Sanford and MeritCare are on the way to being "too big to let fail" when all the huge executive salaries crash the system they will be whining for more pay.

 

While she hasn’t stated it in the hearings, her statement was prefaced with “I hope….” No matter what the GOP politicians say, they could get away with a statement of the kind, “I hope my experience as a White male ….etc….”

I am not at all impressed with identity politics and certainly Obama nominating an Hispanic women kills two birds with one stone in the identity politics area. That said, it seems more obvious to me every day that this woman is VERY, VERY intelligent, informed, thoughtful, hardworking, and prepared…. and she has remarkable tolerance for fools.

Her statement was unfortunate in that it could be so easily pulled out of context and made to appear as if it is the basis of a monstrous issue by political hacks more interested in scoring points with the NRA and the anti-abortion dark ages groups than in actually learning anything relevant to the approval process.

That the GOP is using something pulled from a speech and not from something like 3,000 judicial decisions is an indication of the poverty of their unified talking points. Marcia Coyle of the National Law Journal on PBS noted something to the effect that “Sonia Sotomayor has made clear the distinction between diversity factors in understanding versus in interpreting or applying the law.” [NOT an exact quote.]

That pretty well explains why the GOP attacks have been irrelevant from day 1.

The GOP has also been trying to make hay with one of Obama’s obvious political puffery points regarding the nomination. They know better than to pretend this is an actual issue relevant to the nominating process they are engaged in.

Democrat Senators have fawned a bit too much, but they have also asked some interesting questions. Republican Senators have all asked essentially the same questions over and over again apparently all expecting to get a different result or answer. That kind of behavior has been labeled as a kind of insanity.

The GOP Senator’s problem with the confirmation hearings is not so much an actual perception Sotomayor has, as it is with their intentional or ignorant misconception or illegitimate presentation of Sotomayor's perspectives and/or the context of her remarks.

They have been left exposed as attempting to build mountains out of molehill pseudo-issues and creating strawman arguments.

When they start resorting to attacks in the form implying she is some kind of a pointy-headed intellectual lawyer markedly different than the general public when they start saying stuff like, “Fine legal minds might accept that, but the American People (as if these clowns represent all the American people) want this explained in terms they can understand”, you have another measure of their desperation and the poverty of their arguments.

While the GOP Senators have been mostly hammering on Sotomayor's expressed preferences as if she has let them influence her judicial decisions despite no evidence for that, their own positions appear as if they could all be predicted by the contribution reports of their major special interest supporters and business interests.

**Stay tuned for the soon to appear "full-court" press coverage--- Doug Wiken

 

 

The news appears to be that there will be no immediate attempt at another opt-out.  Apparently some funds were found or could be shifted to current emergency.  Not sure, but apparently with several new board members, it seems unlikely that another attempt will be made within the next 6 months.

Getting that locked down in concrete by any board members or administrators was not possible for me tonight however.

The other bit of news is that KELO-TV apparently presented general information as something that appeared to be a quote from Doug Long, board member, but which several who heard his actual remarks say he never said.   What appeared to be a direct quote as I listened at 5PM was something like, "The ranchers of Tripp County were responsible for the defeat of the previous opt outs". 

It may well be that is at least part of the situation, but was probably not something that came directly out of Doug Long's mouth.

The tax situation in Tripp County in the Winner School District is something to the effect of 60 or 80 percent of the school property tax revenue coming from Ag land with only about 20 percent of the students coming from the rural areas paying the tax.  It makes it a lot easier for the influentials in Winner City itself to wax nearly poetic "in support of the children".  It makes most of us in the rural area want some more careful analysis of school expenses even if we don't know what can or should be cut or even if anything can be cut.

The other bit of near gossip coming out of the meeting was the tabling of a motion to hire Jensen and Massa as the school attorneys.  One audience member said that Paul Jensen had failed to vote in the opt out elections and she was not happy about that.

I guess my concern about such contracts has more to do with those involving out of town attorneys and computer network consultants.  Those contracts appear to warrant some very severe scrutiny by unbiased evaluators and there is a lot more money in those.

I thought I had a photo of the new school board members, but it was so fuzzy that I could not use it here even if my wife could recognize everybody in the photo.

That is enough about that tonight. The local Wednesday newspaper will have more details and I expect, the names of all the board members..new and old.

***Stay tuned even if there is some fog in the news --- Doug Wiken

 Obama has stated that giving encouragement to the protesting Iranians would have a negative consequence in that it would give an excuse for the ruling religious leaders to attack the protesters as tools of the "Evil Satan" USA.

Today a few GOP senators where riding their latest lame hobby horse and attacking Obama. CBS Hotsheet on GOP Attack Dogs

I guess they think the US should repeat what Eisenhower did regarding the 1956 revolt in Hungary.
Eisenhower statement on Uprising in Hungary
You may be old enough to remember that Eisenhower's statements were viewed by Russians as giving the Hungarians more rope to hang themselves.

Of course, on the other side of the great moves of the Republican Party, we have the GOP State Department apparently giving a wink and a nod to Saddam attacking Kuwait. April Glaspie and Saddam Hussein

Obama seems to be taking a sensible middle road showing no great desire to repeat great GOP errors and boondoggles no matter how much the GOP noise machine bangs on their empty political garbage cans in the hope that doing the same things over again will produce a different result. Which as you may remember is one definition of insanity.
** Stay tuned for more from the sensible middle--- Doug Wiken

 

So-called "far-left loons" have noted that O'Reilly attacked Tiller in columns and TV shows at least 25 times...apparently with O'Reilly repeating the "Tiller the Killer" phrase.  Now O'Reilly is claiming that criticism of him is part of some well thought-out, coordinated campaign to "silence Americans who are appalled by late-term abortion".   You can read his whole long whine in the paper or wherever O'Reilly's dribble is posted.

First, I think O'Reilly is trying to have it both ways here.  He is trying to claim that his attacks were not a factor in the assassination of Dr. Tiller.  He is also implying that he is terribly significant in the fight against the actions of people like Dr. Tiller..so significant that any criticism of him is somehow an attempt to silence a whole bunch of people.  While David Brooks is fretting about the lack of humility he sees in President Obama, he seems to be missing O'Reilly's simultaneous "I am the greatest" and his "What me as a columnist aid and abet murder of an abortionist?"  line of BS.

But, here is the free advice to Bill O'Reilly (less affectionately known as "Bile O'Lielly):  "If you can't stand the heat in the kitchen, stop throwing gasoline on the fire."

In a somewhat related issue, The June 15, 2009 TIME magazine page 45 has a comment on Islamic leaders who within years of the 632 death of Mohammad began conquering lands far and wide giving birth to the "jihad" idea which mandated battles to the death against unbelievers with the aim of conversion.

This cautious phrasing seems to be describing the Islamic  "better dead than infidel" version of the rightwing "better dead than red".  I do wonder if both kinds of these right-wing fanatics see their reflection when they see their "opposite" and fully comprehend and appreciate the incredible harm and damage their lunacy  does in the world.

In any case, "Better read than dead", So.......... **Stay Tuned--- Doug Wiken
.
Read the original post and comments at Dakota Today

 

WIRED Magazine on the Keymasters

Interesting story. KELO-TV several years ago had a story on Tobias picking some variety of lock with the inside of a ball point pen if my memory is correct.

May also have been a story or two about a big house he purchased. WIRED doesn't mention Tobias in connection with South Dakota wired schools or state radio, but my probably faulty memory suggests that there was some news there that never got the investigation it deserved...but then my memory might have him and them confused with those and that..or something and maybe the Prison Industries don't get monitored by the South Dakota Legislature.

 Tobias may also have had something to do with the Brown murder case investigation here in Winner, SD years ago. Ironic that SDPTV has been showing video about the first real "Wild Bill" right now. Wikipedia can't get much of a topic going on Bill Janklow (another Wild Bill) without having much of it either mindlessly laudatory or libelous and then deleted. Nothing there. But, Google did find this:

Court Reports on the Winner, SD Brown Murder case trials and retrials, etc.

Fill in the details if your memory is better than mine. WIRED story is interesting reading no matter what are the connections to South Dakota. Read original post at Dakota Today and Comment

**Stay tuned even if South Dakotans on Oprah aren't my kind of news-- Doug Wiken

 

Anyway, in the article, Leslie Unruh is quoted as saying something like, "I've never liked federal money, " she said, decrying the restrictions attached to such grants. "If I had my way, I'd want no federal money going for this." I do wonder why anybody in the press ever takes anything Leslie Unruh says seriously without doing some checking.

 In fact, Leslie Unruh has pursued federal funding like a nymphomaniac whore pursuing funding for an unlimited source of Viagra for her clients. Note the information below in a long story on Leslie Unruh, the twice-married, once-divorced messenger of virtue for others and master exploiter of federal funds.

Her timing could not have been better. After years of watching hundreds of millions of government dollars flow to such ideological rivals as Planned Parenthood, abstinence advocates could finally drink deep from the federal-funding trough themselves. In 1996, Rector's abstinence-education program was inserted into the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (aka the Welfare Reform Act); Republicans argued that reducing teen pregnancy would help fight poverty, and President Clinton signed the bill into law. Fifty million dollars a year for five years was earmarked for education programs that would, as the act specified, teach "the social, psychological, and health gains to be realized by abstaining from sexual activity," and that "all sex outside marriage is likely to have harmful physical and psychological consequences."

In 2000, Congress authorized another multimillion-dollar abstinence-education initiative, Community-Based Abstinence Education grants. "I'm pretty certain President Clinton did not understand what would happen [when he signed abstinence-only education into law]," Unruh crowed to a reporter in 2002. In fact, funding has more than quadrupled in the United States.; all told, more than $1 billion in federal money has been spent on domestic abstinence education in the past 12 years. This windfall is exclusively for school programs that teach only about abstinence. By 2005, government contributions and contracts accounted for 71 percent -- about $1 million -- of Abstinence Clearinghouse's annual revenue.

That same year, government grants accounted for 41 percent ($241,839) of the revenue at Unruh's crisis pregnancy center. Today, Abstinence Clearinghouse affiliates -- among them hundreds of crisis pregnancy centers -- pay Unruh and her staff to show them how to secure federal grants and then how to negotiate the government's review process. And today, says the women's rights advocacy group Legal Momentum, about 12 percent of all abstinence education funds go to crisis pregnancy centers or groups closely affiliated with them.

Leslee Unruh's Facts of Life - Page 6 - MORE Magazine (25 May 2009) http://www.more.com/2050/2814-leslee-unruh-s-facts-of-life/6 http://snipurl.com/iqtpx

Lesliee Unruh's Facts of Life

Other links suggest that Unruh has pulled out something like $154,000 per year out of such programs to enhance her own lifestyle. She has been part of the distribution of the same federal funds she decries in her sanctimonious sour-grapes,  pious GOP current cant.

 A Google search for -- leslee unruh federal funding -- is all it takes to get more than you want to know about the woman with friends in former high places.
 Barack Obama and Abstinence-Only
Anti-Abortion site decries federal cuts
 Lesliee Unruh on Bristol Palin... a truth bridge to nowhere
Leslee Unruh explains how to suck in money from the gullible..(pdf on fundraising) Probably actually some useful information here for any group on any side of any issue. The kind of stuff that Pat Powers used to put regularly into SDWC.
The Free Republic Wingnut site on Leslee and Funding
Todd Epp on the tactics of Unruh and her friends

Unruh and the Laws she and friends ignore

Well, those are a few items for those who might want to think twice about assigning any credibility to anything Leslee Unruh says. A charitable observer might suggest she was a bit disingenuous, an uncharitable observer might suggest her name should be changed to "LesLIE Unruh".

EDIT at 6PM May 25,2009:  It appears that the ARGUS should be happy to see that a number of people still try to find news buried in the ads there and also that South Dakota has more than a few bloggers who like to read newspapers since "Leslie's Lies" caught the attention of a number of them and was conspicuously ignored by a few: Those who also noticed include:

Dakota Women note "Leslie never really wanted all the money"

Cory Heidelberger noted "Leslie's Latest Lies"

SD Humanist asks, "Say What, Leslie?"

 

 Stay tuned even if you too are too old to ever need an abortion and long past the point of needing abstinence-only "education"--- Doug Wiken

 

I don't imagine this video explains everything or shows everything about the technique, but spinning stuff around and moving it on small rocks works if everything is already on a nice flat concrete slab. Not sure how he does it across a rolling pasture however. Interesting anyway and as he claims, may even explain how Stonehenge was put together without backhoes, cranes, and bulldozers.

 The J-walk blog has other interesting stuff too.
 Cut across the internet highway to J-Walk Blog

Still working on the great compilation of about 6 years of Dakota Today posts in e-book form. It is basically all there, but needs a lot of housecleaning removing blank lines and inserting at least some of the photos and images which never made it when TypePad exported the blog to a text file.
**Stay tuned for more "stuff"--- Doug Wiken

Today, April 27, 2009, in Winner, SD, 4 members of the SD PUC put on a dog and pony show with executives and others from the TransCanada pipeline company.  About 160 local residents and press turned out to mostly fill 158 seats in the community theater and a few spot along the aisles.

The pipeline apparently moves oil under 1440 pounds of pressure per square inch. That takes a lot of horsepower and electric power. If the line is to move 700,000 barrels of crude per day, each pumping station requires three 6500 hp electric motors running on 17 megawatts of power night and day. If the flow rate is increased to 900,000 barrels per day, five 6500hp electric motors are required. That would use 25 megawatts of power. So the four pumping stations will use 68 megawatts of power or 100 megawatts if the higher flow rate becomes possible.

One woman in the audience noted that she wasn't educated or informed enough to know about the information being presented, but she felt it was a lot like being in a poker game and feeling that you were actually losing without knowing the reason why.

For more information, photos, and pipeline route see the original post at Dakota Today ..PUC Meeting in Winner, SD

 

 In the opt-out election which would have tacked on another $500,000 in school taxes for three years for a total of $1.5 million of extra real estate taxes, there were 1046 NO votes (aprox 69.4%) and 461 YES votes (approx 30.6%) Total approx 1507.

 This is the second rejection of an opt out this year in Winner district. The first rejection was for an opt-out or opt-up of $1 million per year for three years. The rejection may be tempered somewhat by the approximately $138,000 of Title 1 stimulus money that according to the ARGUS LEADER will get to the Winner district. It is chicken feed compared to the $4,000,000 or so which will go out to Shannon County, but helpful in any case  depending on restrictions on use.

 In the school board member races, incumbent Clint Vanneman was defeated. The approximate unofficial results are below:

Mike Calhoun........ 790 votes
 Steve Kubik............587 votes
------------------------
Dawn Covery...........542 votes
 Brad Norid.............442 votes
 Clint Vanneman ....327
votes total counted.2688 votes

There appeared to be a significant pile of spoiled ballots as well.

 Two slots were open, so it appears likely that Mike Calhoun and Steve Kubik will be two of the new school board members. Congratulations to them in walking into the middle of a hornet nest.

That is about all I can write tonight. Perhaps more tomorrow on related education issues.

 

 

I don't know enough about these systems to me more than puzzled about why AVERA and SANFORD appear to be re-inventing the wheel at great expense when the VA system has been working for years and is available free and is continuously being improved. I first read about it a year or two ago in one of the Linux magazines.

 It will run on the free Linux operating systems. That may be why it is not being considered by South Dakota Health operations. Nobody is traveling the country with a briefcase and free lunch pushing a free medical records system that doesn't generate huge profits for some corporate entity that continues to generate huge profits with expensive maintenance contracts.
 More information on the VISTA and MUMPS can be found via Wikipedia. Wikipedia on Veterans Health Information Systems (many links to more info)

If you know more about the VA system and the AVERA and SANFORD systems, I would appreciate your comments and any other information you believe the taxpayers and patients paying medical bills in South Dakota should know. And, if you want a free subscription to PRAIRIE BUSINESS MAGAZINE, check their PrairieBizMag Homepage. Click on the "subscribe" option in small text at top of page. It is well worth the time it takes to get on their mailing list.