Serendipity

The Longest Bill Ever, and How We Can Change That.

Republican lawmakers are whining up a storm about the length of the proposed health care bill. You’ll recall that Senator Orrin Hatch from Utah bloviated that HR3962 was “longer than War & Peace.”

Not so.  War and Peace has about 560,000 words and the Senate Health Care Bill has a mere 314,900, so there.  Granted the bill is longer than any other since 1999. The second longest one (authored by Alaska’s Republican Congressman Don Young) was the awkwardly named “Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users 2005″ (Presumably the name of the bill was tortured until it gave up a lame acronym. SAFE-TEA? Ugh.) Young’s bill boasts only 68 fewer words. Can we please have SOMEbody go through that bill and remove 69 words? 

via www.themudflats.net

A convoluted tale and Kudos to Linked In Social Networking.

A convoluted tale.

Our daughter’s old [6 years] laptop computer was dying and she called in great distress, since she used it for communication, to take her online courses and for many other purposes.  I said I’d get another and ship it off to her, thinking nothing of it [well, knowing the expense, but Christmas is coming up].  I got the new one [an Apple] that day and researched how to get it to her and, via US Mail, selected the “Global Express International Guaranteed” service.  I packaged it in an international priority mail box to send to her in Chile and went off to the US mail.  I had already printed out the $184 in postage fees on the label for Global Express mailing [6 pages in all including a customs copy].  That was all I knew to do.  I’ve sent other International Priority packages to Chile and though they take about 2 weeks to get to her [packages come once a week] they do get there;  I figured sending it expedited might make it quicker.

I went to the main post office, thinking they’d best know what to do, and the postal officer wouldn’t take the box because it was a Priority Mail box and even though marked for international use it wasn’t a Global Express box.  So, the next day I repackaged it and took it to the E. Des Moines office, which the USPS web site said was one of the few to understand how to do this.  The person there had never done this before and I asked for someone who had, but he was the only person in the office.  So we both carefully read the instructions and followed them to the letter.   And I thought it was off to her.  This was on Friday the 23rd.

In the mail on Saturday afternoon was the box, returned, with a FedEx label on it saying “commercial invoice required”.  Of course, I had marked it as a gift and declared fully what it was, but evidently I needed that document, the other 6 pages wouldn’t do, despite one being marked as a Customs copy.  And the USPS offices were all closed.

So, thinking that FedEx had be involved in the shipment [it is evidently contracted with by the USPS for some overseas deliveries - remember the movie “Cast Away”?], I went to  the main FedEx office.  There I found out that there is a whole separate “Commercial Invoice” form to fill out and that I couldn’t just resend from there but had to go through the USPS office, which would be closed until Monday.  So, I paid another bunch of money [$284] for expedited service to Chile, thinking that would work.  No one told me of any further things needed and I filled out the additional document with full declaration of value.

Off the box went and it did, finally, make it to Chile.  Then, up on the tracking screen popped up “clearance delay” and we then learned that the package was hung up there, in Santiago [Kate is 12 hours south in a tiny town].  It had to be released to a non-FedEx customs broker to walk it through customs, a point which was not made plain to me by anyone, whether the USPS or Fed Ex.  

Fairly irate, I contracted Fed Ex’s international desk and after being transferred up the ladder to someone a bit more versed in the issue, she did all she could to help.  I can’t really complain of Fed Ex’s treatment, other than not warning me of this need and to make arrangements.  Evidently, once you send something out of the country it might need a customs agent to work with the country’s customs department to get a package through customs and on its way.  No one told me, nor did I know this nor did I read the warning anywhere on the websites.  So, now the package is in Santiago, Chile, hopefully in safe storage at FedEx and we are hunting all over for a customs broker who can facilitate the last steps so it can get to our daughter.  Today is Thursday the 26th and it’ll be a week from when we tried to send it “expedited” to her.

I posted the Q of how to find a customs broker and who would be reliabel on LinkedIn [in the Discussions area], Facebook and Twitter.  No responses so far from the latter two, but within one hour someone on Linked In answered my Query, explained it a bit, gave me someone to contact and wished me luck.  Subsequent to that four or five other persons have also sent information, and I’ve spent the better part of two days tracking down someone in Santiago to do this.  And, just a few minutes ago I received a kind email from someone [at www.panalpina.com] who will see if they can try to help.  

I sent to him the waybill and tracking number and he has asked someone in his office to see if he could help.  So, Kudos to LinkedIn!!  And, I hope, to that kind customs person in Chile.

Options on Health Care/Coverage Reform

Options on Health Care

1.  Do nothing;  44,000+ people die each year from preventable deaths and the cost of policies for individuals and businesses will continue to increase, especially for small business.

2.  Do nothing;  people who need coverage are denied it [pre-existing conditions, etc.], complicating their future health or bankrupting them if they pay for it themselves.

3.  Do nothing;  and never again will the issue come up in Congress.  If the Democrats can’t pass their view of health care/insurance reform this year, they’ll never do it.

4.  Do nothing;  give Republican members of Congress the power to stop any of President Obama’s proposals, appointees [Supreme Court and otherwise].  Invalidate the election last November.

5.  Do nothing;  watch Democratic senators, of all kinds, get defeated in the next elections.

1.  Pass reform without a Public Option:  have some form of health care/insurance reform [44,000+ people get to live if they can afford to buy their insurance from an insurance company], but no competition for the insurance companies.

2.  Pass reform without a Public Option:  have reform, but also have the government subsidize in full all people needing access to coverage - in effect, using non-Public Option health care reform to underwrite profits for the insurance companies.  Almost a form of socialism, if you think about it. That’s what Senator Grassley is for.

3.  Pass reform without a Public Option:  cover more people, subsidize the insurance companies who will be covering them, ensure profits for those insurance companies, prevent any competition between companies since they will all have more money rolling in from the government, resulting in higher costs and eventually bankrupting the government while allowing insurance and health care executives to make even more money and retire wealthy.

1.  Pass reform with a Public Option:  have some form of health care [44,000+ people get to live] and have some type of competition for coverage between the “public option” entity or choices and the insurance companies.  How else will competition be fostered?

2.  Pass reform with a Public Option:  have some form of health care and because there is competition, the cost of insurance and health care decreases or stabilizes.  Unless of course, the people against the public option are right and competition won’t result in lower or stable prices, which calls into question the free market economy premise entirely.

3.  Pass reform with a Public Option:  have some form of health care coverage and and have competition with the insurance company provision of coverage, and use that to contain the rising cost of health care/insurance, while cutting down on bankruptcies of people and small business.

I know what should happen and hope it will.

Be a Squeaky Wheel, not a Nihilist.

Greta Christina's Blog discussed why calling, emailing, writing your public officials is not a waste of time and, in fact, essential.  It's so long, but good, I've created a pdf of it and it is attached HERE.  

But don't be a nihilist. Don't give up. People fought and died for the idea of participatory democracy: not just in the United States, but all over the world. In many parts of the world, they're still fighting and dying for it. You're lucky. You don't have to fight and die to keep this idea alive. You just have to call or email your elected officials. You just have to program the phone numbers of the President, your Senators, and your Congressperson into your phone. Or else Google the "contact the President/ your Senators/ your Congressperson" webpages, and bookmark them.

Greta Christina's Blog

[Her article provides links to find addresses, phone numbers and emails]

What is going to happen if there is NOT reform this year?

There are a number of reasons to have health care [or health insurance] reform].  The main one is what is being forgotten or ignored by the 535 members of Congress, left-right-and-center.  It is the consequence of not doing anything.

It's happening right now.  People who are either mired in the present system or not in it are suffering the very real consequences of public officials wrangling over policy positions as if real people weren't going to be impacted.  The fact is those on the right or who are conservatives will not provide or vote for a plan to reform the system and those on the left or progressives will not support any plan unless it has a public option need to look in the mirror.  They will be the reason people die.

Without some form of health care/insurance reform, people who are in or outside the system will suffer disease, blindness, amputations, organ failure, death, becaus of the stubbornness of those who will not realize it's necessary to pass reform now.

I know I wouldn't want that on my conscience.  Fine, fight for your principles and put forth your arguments, but at the end of the day realize that people in this country will become sick and die because of what you do.  

What is the Reality of the Health Care System in the U.S., now?

I woke up, unable to sleep, thinking about the present debate over heath care [or insurance] reform and decided to engage in some writing on the topic.  My initial comment follows and my more detailed analysis will be coming soon.  I am not doing this as a person with great knowledge about the medical care system or insurance system [except as an observer or consumer], but as someone who has seen how the system has operated over these years and has a view of how to improve it for the future.  After all, if we can't improve something, then it must be 'perfect' or unimportant.  That is not true at all of our U.S. health care system.

First point:  What is the Reality of this system, at this point in time?

Any improvements to the present system depend on recognizing what that system is and how it operates.  We are trying to change reality not build change on something that does not now exist.

The reality:  health care in the U.S. is tied to financing;  money drives health care, not personal decisions or choice.

 We have a medical care system in which people get care when they can or will afford it [through personal finances or  insurance coverage for the cost of the care] and when they cannot [through personally funded medical care or visits to an Emergency Room].  Because this system has grown up over the years and because of a traditional American skepticism of government and desire for independence, moving to a Single Payer system or abandoning the insurance policy-coverage methodology is not going to happen at this time in this country.  The system we are reforming relies on the participation in it of insurance companies as the source of funding for it.

Now, onto the goals of this reform process this year [coming]

70% Young Americans can't qualify for military service

The full story explains what's being done about this, but obviously this compromises national security, plus limits the opportunities for some youth who want to use military service as a method to gain education, and other benefits.  The basic point of the article:

Money spent on early-childhood education today can help protect America's national security tomorrow, former military leaders said yesterday at a news conference in Richmond.

About 70 percent of the nation's military-age young people cannot enlist in the armed forces because of inadequate education, criminal records or physical problems.

"We estimate that only about three out of 10 American youth between the ages of 17 and 24 are fully qualified for military service," said Douglas Smith, a spokesman for the U.S. Army Recruiting Command at Fort Knox, Ky.

Richmond Times-Dispatch

Mudflats: Alaska Senator Mark Begich on public service

A long interview [40 min.] which is really interesting:

There are moments in time…I’ve always believed that you can never create those moments that change things as rapidly as you would like, but certain things will happen and it’s a question of creating that opportunity out of that.  In a lot of ways I’m reminded of the legacy that he [Kennedy] leaves as a person, and what he did, and what we have to do.  Maybe we agree or disagree with his politics, it’s a question of the bold leadership and the willingness to step out for those that  are unable to represent themselves in the halls of congress with the special interest lobbyists that, you know…  Literally, you know, some day I’ll write the book on how thick it is back there, and reminding yourself of who you are and what you’re there to do. 

 And I sit around with Senators at times and we have discussions, and when they start whining about, you know, ”Geez, I got this call, I got that call, I got this…” and I look at ‘em and I say, “Look, we’re one of a hundred people out of three hundred million.  We are fortunate to be here.  We have a job to do, and we better get busy.”  Because when I’m hearing any of them whine about their time there, or about how difficult it is, or Geez, the schedule…  I always look at ‘em and say, “Hey, man.  Time to move on.  You’ve been here way to long, or been here with a jaded attitude, and we’re one of a hundred people out of three hundred million. We’re not always going to get it right, but we have been called to duty to do something that’s different, and bold and not the same old business as usual.”

via  Mudflats

From 1960, works of JFK on citizen duty

I'm going through papers etc. and sorting, tossing etc. and came across this quote.  It's from John F. Kennedy's address at Wittenberg College in 1960.  Apt today:

All of us in this country, in a sense, are officeholders.  All of us make an important decision as to what this country must be and how it must move and what its function shall be, and what its image shall be, and whether it shall stand still, as I believe it is now doing, or whether it shall once again move forward.

The current lack of civility in today's political arguments

I received one of Organizing for America's emails ref. visiting my representatives's local offices and signed up to visit Grassley and Boswell.  My intent is to hand-deliver a letter, not a screed, explaining my views on health care/insurance reform.  I'm fairly certain my views won't matter to Senator Grassley [I'm in favor of the public option], but I won't be going there to yell, scream, ask questions or whatever.  I'll be going to make the point that I care, seriously, about this debate.

I do think that the cable news & other shows which for the past 20-30 years have featured yelling talking heads [see e.g., McLaughlin, Matthews, Riley etc.] should take a big part of the blame for the lack of rational political discourse.  When people who earn thousands or millions of dollars a year come into our homes for that many years, they're going to affect how people see or learn how to debate.  And yes, I know our country's history is littered with examples of the 'rough and tumble' of politics.  Does that excuse the lack of civility now?  Aren't human beings capable of learning and growth and development or are we doomed to always repeat the mistakes of our ancestors?

Purple Tunnel of Doom Pictures

at my Flickr Photostream - Obama Inauguration

Purple Tunnel of Doom

Facebook Group: Survivors of the Purple Tunnel of Doom

More tales to come of our experience in the Purple Tunnel, and pictures. . . it was quite an experience.

Want to speak out on all sorts of topics?

Go to the Citizen's Briefing Book at Change.gov and offer your own ideas and best yet, vote on the suggestions of others:  support light rail [there are several of these concepts spoken of], health issues, technology, security = the whole gamut.  Even if you don't want to offer up your own ideas [some people seem to want to self-promote as opposed to merely suggesting concepts and explanations], you can vote on the others.  Well worth your time.  

Want to feel good this season?

Go to Kiva.org and provide loan funds for micro-enterprises and other needs around the world.  Last year I provided $25 for three enterprises.  By the same time this year, money had been repaid and I used that plus another $40 to help four more.  It may not seem like much, but in other countries $25 is quite a bit of money.  You can research who to loan to and the safety or riskiness of the loan [because most are through loaning partners and they have a long term trackrecord].  Do yourself a favor this holiday season, spread your cheer beyond yourself.  

Man in window in Burano, Italy.

John Maynard Keynes, a Letter to FDR

Published in Brad DeLong's blog, fascinating and relevant these days.

Keynes to FDR

Employment Opportunity!

I was trying to find places to take/recycle styrofoam or those peanuts. A google search found a discussion at ThriftyFun - and on checking some of the links, hoping to find something here in the Des Moines area I came up dry.

Then it occurred to me that there might be a good opportunity for someone enterprising enough to set up a franchise or company or entity to do recycling of things Metro Waste won't take.

Additional information and the various groups involved in this can be found here.

The Economic Meltdown

I was thinking the other day about the argument over the reason for the meltdown, and the discussion behind it as being because of a lack of regulation or because of greed. This triggered something in my memory, lines from Federalist Paper #51 by James Madison:

It may be a reflection on human nature, that such devices should be necessary to control the abuses of government. But what is government itself, but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself. A dependence on the people is, no doubt, the primary control on the government; but experience has taught mankind the necessity of auxiliary precautions.

Not that this was an original thought, because it harkens back to early Roman governance. But a truism that it would have been helpful for leaders to remember [or learn].

Emergency Room Medicine

I read the quote by John Goodman, an advisor to John McCain, that people in the US don't need health insurance coverage because they're covered by the presence of emergency rooms in our hospitals. Then, in Paul Krugman's column yesterday he noted this view is actually held by President Bush: "I mean, people have access to health care in America. After all, you just go to an emergency room." [a statement made by him in 2007]

Putting aside the fact that most people know and understand that preventative health care is a good idea, how in the world are the emergency rooms of this country supposed to deal with chronic, non-emergency care? Not to mention the fact that, as Krugman notes, it's not as if people aren't billed for and owe for ER care [a cause of many bankruptcies]. ERs have to provide care in emergencies, but they don't have to eat the costs and, I suspect, they don't have to accept all patients beating down their doors to get in. How must ER nurses and doctors feel about being assigned by this and the possible McCain administration to be medical care providers for everyone, not just those in extremis?

Who has the power to make the law?

President Bush has a very bad habit of making signing statements to reduce the authority of Congress to say what it thinks the law is. For more information on Signing Statements, go here.

Unfortunately, until a lawsuit is filed and decided by the Supreme Court, we won't know whether the Congress makes the laws or the President.