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Lovely.

The pimp hand of State of Taxachussetts slaps its citizens once again.

So how about Massachusetts?
 

It sounds like exactly what I asked for. now if they'd vote out Teddy Kennedy i might consider opening a second office there. Chinaski & GGG- Attorneys at Law!

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I suspect that they'll be paying far, far less than anyone else in the country for healthcare, and its insurers, providers and employers will be happy too.

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I thought you advocated the Ownership Society. No?

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Right now, without the bill, there is a sense in which Massachusetts already has universal health coverage paid for with some combination of tax dollars and private money; this just rationalizes the system.

If someone is uncovered right now, they are still able to get free treatment (though not for all that ails them) at tax-exempt hospital facilities; to the extent the patient doesn't have funds to pay for the care, they go into an uncompensated care pool that is funded by levies on the more profitable hospitals and by tax money - that is, the uncompensated care adds to the cost of other people's healthcare and comes out of taxes.

The basic idea behind this bill was to get all the interested parties in a room to hash out how the uninsured were covered and to rationalize it, providing them with fuller coverage while cutting back on some of the costs. There's some new money coming from taxes, but much of that is spent on tax reduction for people who are covered. Most of the new money will come from the third party payors, but if it works there will be a long-term cost savings from the rationalization (less emergency healthcare, more preventative care = less total cost). There is a spirited debate right now, however, over whether the uninsured really do use ERs to a disproportionate extent, and if the traditional wisdom is wrong, there will be higher premiums partially offset by increased tax deductions.

Note that the bill is going to be signed by a Republican Governor currently running for President as a right-wing nutcase.

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In light of the study suggesting that most people who go to the ER have insurance that came out last week, this is really interesting. BTW, I *heart* the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

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F the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

He should be focusing on getting the NY Jets our own stadium.

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Is he already a right-wing nutcase, or just putting on airs for the election?

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There are those who will argue that he is a right-wing nutcase who put on airs to get elected Governor, and others that will argue that he is really a moderate republican who is now putting on right-wing airs to get elected President.

I believe that in his heart of hearts he is a true right wing nutcase. This should make Slave happy.

He also has the most impressive sense of entitlement I have ever seen.

He's actually not a dumb guy. He wasn't bad before Congress either. And he's got a somewhat compelling case in his "I'm a scapegoat" defense. The word amongst politicos in DC (that I heard from drunken sources while screwed out of my tree at a hotel bar) was that Chertoff is a four star imbecile who will be on hiw way out as soon as it can be done in such a way as to not make it look like a firing for incompetence.

I don't think, from what I've read, Brownie fucked up out of sheer stupidity. He just didn't care and never expected to deal with such a serious issue. He was a guy riding a good resume-building gig, like 9 out of 10 heads of agencies. He just happened to be the unlucky bastard who had a disaster happen on his watch.

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He's a right-wing nutcase if you are a lunatic, tin-foil "no blood for oil" socialist from Taxachussetts, like GGG.

Otherwise, he's a GOP moderate.

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Yes, this study has been much discussed. I haven't read all the footnotes in the debate, but my basic understanding is that the results of this study contradict the experience of the uncompensated care pool in Massachusetts, where the amount being paid for emergency care that didn't need to be emergency care is significant. But Massachusetts is putting a lot of chips on the table on betting on Green, even though there's this spectator named Robert Woods sitting on the side yelling "Red! Red!".

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They didn't have any fucking business up there anyway.

I love watching all these fuckwad incompetent bureaucrats try to "fix" health care, wealth disparity, etc...

The best these uncreative idiots can muster are programs for wealth redistribution. In this case, Mass is just taking from coprs and giving (ostensibly) to citizens as tax breaks. You know what this "glorious win" for labor will effect? You guessed it - a shitload of layoffs and unemployment from companies leaving the state.

You can't "create" money by state machination/program. The only thing that creates money is the economy, and the only thing that creates a hot economy is less regulation and less govt. Every "boom" we have results from a new industry thats not regulated. Once the states sticks its filthy hands into an industry, the profits flatten.

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no. the "tax" a few hundred bucks per employee for a company w/o health care is minimal. Most national companies- read those that can move- already have HC so they'll not be bugged. Local companies can't leave if their business is local- but they only need pay a few hundred per employee so no biggie.

I don't know how they pay for it- but at least initially it's not the burden of GGG's "free" plan.

Does this mean he will go back to being a judge again? Fuuuuccckkk.

Dissent. While he may have been scapegoated, any guy who sends emails about how he is a fashion god, and looks so good that someone else would vomit, is just not desperately trying to get aid to the citizens of a ravaged city. Just because Chertoff is an imbecile doesn't mean that Brownie isn't one too. With this administration, that seems to be a threshold requirement to run an agency.

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:violin:

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Chertoff, Brownie, and the Bush Administration during Katrina?

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Yeh, you should play that violin for Romeny and his wife.

She did an interview with Boston Magazine a few years ago where she talking about how she knew what it was like to live hand to mouth, because during business school she and Mitt had to "entertain" on nothing but a $10,000 per month distribution from his trust.

:violin:

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Standing next to JFK and Mrs. Ketchup, she had a good point.

that was apparent when he stepped down from being a judge to run a massive bureaucracy with no direction or competence. He's surpassed ken starr, who went from DC Cir/S. Ct. short list to dean of pepperdine law school. Only the climate is more attractive there.

Ken at least had the sense to fund his retirement in Malibu by making several million at Kirkland. Maybe Chertoff is expecting to cash in after he steps down from DHS.

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Does he have a brother named Peter?

Epicenter of the Universe = Spanky
 

This has got to stop. I don't look at the board for forty eight hours and there are hundreds of posts. I don't have time to read all that.

Everybody is forgetting that this board is all about ME. If I don't have time to review the board then no one should be posting.

The California primary is June 6th. I won't really be able to participate much until then so everybody needs to go post on the fashion board or some other place where they disucss stuff I am not interested in.

Not that many four-star imbeciles have his credentials. However, this does not mean he's politically savvy enough to run with the Beltway politicos, and he's presiding over a massive clusterfuck of a cabinet department, by all accounts.

Especially unlucky then that he was put in charge of disaster planning and management.

Epicenter of the Universe = Spanky
 

More importantly, answer my friggin email about Friday dinner.

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Who gives a fuck? The South ain't electing no Mormons president.

When the Jesus Freaks get a faceful of Mormon history from the Dems, they'll treat Mitt like a syphillitic leper with oozing facial chancres.

I like the Mormons I know, but its real easy tp paint them (particularly after after reading excerpts of the Krakauer book, which the Dems would publish all over the damned place if Mitt ran) as near-Scientologists. Mitt would have to run against his heritage, and nobody votes for a person trying to disown his history. If he stands up for what he is, he's fucked. If he doesn't, he's fucked.

Add the fact that he's a flip-flopping rich kid, the likes from which this country is presently suffering a pretty strong hangover, and... well, he's just fucked.

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You forget the HBO factor.

By 2007 - everyone's gonna loooooove them Mormons.

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Tony Soprano for President?

Or John Gotti, Jr.?


(Sorry, Hank -- I know that watching the Sopranos is racist, but I just can't help myself)

I don't expect the Fed Govt to do anything for me in a disaster. Call me crazy, but when someone says to me "Your choices are depend on Uncle Sam to chopper your ass from harm's way or git off your ass and steal a fucking car to get away from the storm if you have to," I'm taking my chances with the grand theft auto charges...

Anyone who actually trusts that a fucking fed govt agency is equipped to do anything difficult correctly or efficiently has himself to blame when he finds himself trapped on a debris pile. We have a duty to protect the disadvantaged, but come on... I mena, isn't it incumbent on somebody to get on the local news and say "Hey! You're fucked! Get the hell outta town! Don't trust the govt to save your ass!" Betting Uncle Sam or the local idiots will save your ass is like assuming your health insurer will pay for the finest care available. It ain't fun being a horrible cynic, but it is nice that you never get caught in The Deep Shit that always seems to find the gullible...

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you and I can- my brother- it's cool.

Do you get Italian-American Lawyer magazine? Stories about the brave pro-bono fighter opposing Service mark registration applications for Ma Fia's for restaurants, etc. They don't have anything better to do?

I was briefly, thank god only briefly, part of a 20 hour traffic jam when everyone took this approach at once. It wasn't exactly a winner.

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Does that outweigh the Showtime factor? Because if it doesn't Hillary's gonna win.

Washingtonienne in legal trouble.
 

• A judge on Wednesday allowed a lawsuit to proceed against Jessica Cutler, the former Senate aide who posted details of her sex life on the Internet.
  
  The case brought by Sen. Mike DeWine's former counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee, Robert Steinbuch, alleges that Cutler engaged in an invasion of his privacy in 2004 by publishing sexually explicit facts about a relationship with Steinbuch.

linky

Washingtonienne in legal trouble.
 

That's a good article.

it explains that:
1) The statute of limitations is one year
2) The judge held the statute begins to run when the postings were made on the internet
3) The postings allegedly invading privacy (or nearly all) were made more than one year before the suit was filed
4) But the suit can continue.

?

(unless it's now limited to the statements posted wihtin the one-year limit).

Washingtonienne in legal trouble.
 

That seems to be the case:

Apropos of nothing in particular, I bring you this picture of Carol Channing and Justice Roberts:

http://underneaththeirrobes.blogs.co...hn_roberts.jpg

Enjoy!

What? No caption contest?

Whoa
 

Ok, maybe not Rove: I wonder if Libby's looking into the witness protection program...

Whoa
 

And if Bush effectively declassified the information by approving it, then he wouldn't have to carry out his promise to fire himself for committing a crime.

I'm beginning to understand better the virtues of the Unitary Executive. Oh, George, why must you taunt us with your wily ways?

Caption, please!

http://underneaththeirrobes.blogs.co...hn_roberts.jpg