Other People's Kids

Spent Saturday in the park with a friend's daughter. She's ridiculously adorable.

Three Good Reads

Jason Linkins on Rick Scott:

For future reference, here are some ways that you can tell if your state's governor is some sort of appalling grifter...

• He does vaguely scammy things to the people who worked on his own campaign.


• He spends an inordinate amount of money on self-celebration.


• He's got something of an itching palm.


• He seems to want to make it easier for other serial fraudsters to commit serial fraud.


• He avoids scrutiny like a vampire avoids sunlight.


• Oh! And he basically crafts policy for the sole purpose of personal enrichment.

Those are just the summary headlines. Do yourself a favor and read the whole rundown.

h/t to Chez who's also got a story about Rick Scott:

My point is this: When you've lost a bunch of pick-up-driving South Florida cops who hold their annual gala at a place normally reserved for rodeos, you've lost everyone.

And then there's Ari Berman on Jim Messina - former White House deputy chief of staff and now manager of Obama’s re-election campaign:

During the healthcare fight, Messina used his influence to try to stifle any criticism of Baucus or lobbying by progressive groups that was out of sync with the administration’s agenda, according to Common Purpose participants. “Messina wouldn’t tolerate us trying to lobby to improve the bill,” says Richard Kirsch, former national campaign manager for Health Care for America Now (HCAN), the major coalition of progressive groups backing reform. Kirsch recalled being told by a White House insider that when asked what the administration’s “inside/outside strategy” was for passing healthcare reform, Messina replied, “There is no outside strategy.”

The inside strategy pursued by Messina, relying on industry lobbyists and senior legislators to advance the bill, was directly counter to the promise of the 2008 Obama campaign, which talked endlessly about mobilizing grassroots support to bring fundamental change to Washington. But that wasn’t Messina’s style—instead, he spearheaded the administration’s deals with doctors, hospitals and drug companies, particularly the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), one of the most egregious aspects of the bill. “They cared more about their relationship with the healthcare industry than anyone else,” says one former HCAN staffer. “It was shocking to see. To me, that was the scariest part of it, because this White House had ridden in on a white horse and said, ‘We’re not going to do this anymore.’” When they were negotiating special deals with industry, Messina and Baucus chief of staff Jon Selib were also pushing major healthcare companies and trade associations to pour millions of dollars into TV ads defending the bill.

I encourage you to read this one in its entirety too.

Where I've Been

I was a much better blogger when it wasn't 80 and sunny almost every day.

Mad Clever

Check out the new pro-train video from U.S. PIRG and Funny or Die. The only problem I can see with it is if you're bright enough to get the subtleties (and/or you've ever traveled Europe), you already know rejecting high-speed rail development is a dumbass thing to do. (h/t KW via FB)

Fallon FTW

I haven't been following the Charlie Sheen circus all that closely, but I've heard bits and pieces and did catch the news this afternoon that he set a Guinness World Record for fastest time to a million Twitter followers (25 hours and 17 minutes). The Internet geek in me found this part fascinating:

For Guinness, this is the second high-profile application of the brand's records system to social media. Last month, the Nabisco cookie brand Oreo and rapper Lil Wayne squared off for the record for the most Facebook likes. Lil Wayne won that contest handily.

Is Guinness only just now starting to dabble in social media record keeping? And if so, what sort of social media records will it deem worth keeping? Very curious.

Anyway, in case you missed it, here's Jimmy Fallon doing a spot-on Sheen:

Governor Trainwreck

You'll have to forgive me once again for being a rotten blogtender the past few days. I've got some stuff cooking offline that's left me less time to post.

However, I'd be remiss if I didn't share one of today's Herald headlines:

Senators file suit against Scott over high-speed rail

This is my favorite part:

Thad Altman, R-Rockledge, and Arthenia Joyner, D-Tampa, contend Scott violated the Constitution when he rejected $2.4 billion for a Tampa-Orlando line after the Legislature had already voted to move ahead with the project.

“This is not a monarchy. He is not a king,” said Joyner. “This is a democracy. There are three co-equal, independent branches of government and it is necessary for them to be respected.”

I'm tempted to concede that a high-speed rail between Tampa and Orlando may not be the best use of federal funds right now, but if money allocated to that project cannot be used elsewhere and will simply go to some other state if rejected, Scott's got no business tossing aside $2.4 billion.

Planes, Trains, and ...

Rick Scott's the gift that keeps on giving.

He can disagree all he wants, but he's still wrong:

Scott announced the sale of the state’s two airplanes — a 2000 King Air 350 and a 2003 Cessna Citation Bravo jet — on Feb. 11. The King Air sold for $1.77 million, the Cessna for $1.9 million; $3.67 million all together.

Most of the proceeds paid off $3.4 million the state still owed on the Cessna. The money flowed from the buyers to the bank, bypassing the state treasury. What was left over went to the state’s Aircraft Trust Fund.

Alexander doesn’t oppose the sale. Just how it happened, arguing it violates the balance of power between the legislative and executive branches.

It's a little complicated, but the gist is that the governor's getting into the habit of just doing whatever he wants without paying attention to what's legal.

Here's the latest on the train debacle:

Then came Friday’s shocker. At 2 p.m., U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood issued a statement saying he had given Florida one more week to work out the deal.

“This morning I met with Governor Rick Scott to discuss the high speed rail project that will create jobs and economic development for the entire state of Florida,” LaHood said. “He asked me for additional information about the state’s role in this project, the responsibilities of the Florida Department of Transportation, as well as how the state would be protected from liability....“He has committed to making a final decision by the end of next week. I feel we owe it to the people of Florida, who have been working to bring high speed rail to their state for the last 20 years, to go the extra mile.”

Scott said he did not ask for additional time.

It's another slightly convoluted saga, but basically, the FL legislature voted in favor of building a high-speed rail between Orlando and Tampa. FL gets $2.4 billion from the federal government for the project. Scott's rejecting the money and the train, meaning another state will get the billions. Scott's made up some ridiculous excuse about the state ultimately being on the hook financially, but advocates have already come up with a solution that would make sure that doesn't happen.

It also looks like Scott may get sued:

The additional time comes as good news to one Republican state senator, Thad Altman of Melbourne, who is considering taking legal action against the governor to save the project.

Altman said he believes Scott violated the Constitutional limits of his executive authority by killing the project after the Legislature had voted to move forward with it.

We'll see how this shakes out next week. Could be entertaining.

Free Drug Zone

All it takes to get a sense there's a problem with pain pills here in Florida is to have a necessary, legal prescription. Try to get it filled at a CVS or Walgreens, and you run up against a lot of "We don't have it" and "We don't know when we're getting it in" and "No, we can't call another store for you." It took 5 trips to 4 pharmacies to get what the doctor ordered to mitigate the excruciating pain I suffered after slipping on a set of stairs and bashing up my lower back.

When I posted my plight on FB, a friend pointed me to the NYT. That same day, there had been a front-page article about the proliferation of painkiller-related crime across the country:

More than 1,800 pharmacy robberies have taken place nationally over the last three years, typically conducted by young men seeking opioid painkillers and other drugs to sell or feed their own addictions. The most common targets are oxycodone (the main ingredient in OxyContin), hydrocodone (the main ingredient in Vicodin) and Xanax.

(...)

In sheer numbers, Florida, Indiana, California, Ohio and Washington have had the most armed robberies of pharmacies since January 2008, according to the D.E.A.

Here in Florida, I've learned addicts also have an alternative. They go to pill mills which the Wall Street Journal describes as "shady storefront operations that provide a bounty of prescription drugs, such as oxycodone and hydrodone, for addicts and traffickers." According to the WSJ, the state passed a law in 2009 to set up a tracking system which "would include a centralized database to help identify buyers who are accumulating large numbers of pills and the doctors who are overprescribing them." But in true Rick Scott fashion, public health and safety take a back seat to money, and Scott's got some flimsy excuses for wanting to scrap the program, citing quetions about effectiveness, patient privacy, and cost. The Miami Herald:

But 34 states already have such programs up and running and say they don’t have the kind of problems Scott fears.

(...)

“I don’t think your governor understands the impact Florida’s pill mills are having outside the state,’’ said Kentucky Lt. Gov. Daniel Mongiardo.

“If there’s no prescription drug monitoring program in Florida, I’m toying with putting a billboard just over your state line that says ‘Welcome to the Oxy-tourism Capital of the World.’”

Bruce Grant, who led the Florida Governor’s Office of Drug Control under former governor Charlie Crist, said care was taken to address concerns in the three areas Scott has cited.

His office secured $1.2-million from nonprofits, private donations and federal grants so state money would not be used. As for privacy, the information in the database would be protected under the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, which safeguards patient confidentiality.

Chris Baumgartner of the Alliance of States with Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs said the 34 state programs all have “a very good track record’’ for privacy and cost control. On average, the programs cost $500,000 a year to operate, he said.

Fred Grimm sums up Scott's stance on pill mills in a strong opinion piece today:

The governor has managed to make himself the political ally of oxy addicts and drug dealers and the woman who drove her red Cobalt all the way from South Carolina. And he has managed to offend a constituency with a powerful, emotional message, while unwittingly lending his face to Florida’s shadowy trade in oxycodone, millions of pills sold in sham clinics, much of it for illicit resale.

I get the sense Scott's against anything that regulates anything, I mean, who needs rules when you know firsthand you can make hundreds of millions of dollars running a company that systematically breaks them?

The Rick Scott Experiment

I've been trying to figure out what (besides funny videos and casual observations) might be relevant and of interest to readers as I'm now down in South Florida and no longer entrenched in the daily DC grind. People here don't live and breathe politics like they do in Washington so it's much easier not to get as riled up. However, I have found following our old friend Rick Scott a fairly adequate substitute. See, almost every day, The Miami Herald has a story about Florida's new Governor, and very few - if any - have been flattering.

According to the Herald and other state papers, Scott has offended African American lawmakers, promised to repeal a much-needed program that would monitor Florida's dangerous pill mills, rejected federal money for a popular high-speed rail program, held a private dinner that possibly violated state law, and released a budget thick with cuts but thin on details. Keep in mind Scott's been in office 6 1/2 weeks, and this is only a fraction of the news. In fact, it's only a fraction of what I've read in the print edition of the Herald since I moved here at the beginning of the month.

And then there's this gem I just discovered via a quick Google search. Reported locally in October last year, the state of Florida once sued Scott for insider trading:

The Florida civil suit, which was separate from the federal investigation of Columbia/HCA that led to $1.7 billion in fines, was filed in Tennessee state court. But it was shelved in favor of a larger federal case that leveled many of the same claims as the Florida state suit. The list of defendants in the federal case also included Scott, who had been forced out as the company's CEO on July 25, 1997, about two weeks before the civil actions were filed.

The suit was settled six years later for about $14 million. Scott was never criminally charged.

I'm more than familiar with Scott's history as head of Columbia/HCA, but I didn't know that he'd once been party to a civil suit against the hospital chain. How rich.

So here's what I'm planning to do. Each time I happen upon a Scott story that may be of interest, I'm going to repost it. If there's even a shred of truth to the absurd suggestion that Scott may seek higher office someday, someone should be keeping track of the ridiculousness going on down here right now. The public tends to have a short memory, and I would hate to see Rick Scott successfully slither his way up the political ladder unchecked. After all, the man's a total snake.

Made in America

Just saw this ad on TV.

Wow.

If you thought it couldn't get worse than the Snuggie, you would be mistaken.

Cute, Inc.

"Thank you for buying Girl Scout cookies. 10 boxes is a lot! My goal is to sell 130 boxes. You helped me a lot! If you want more call mommy." - 7-year-old Ella to her Grandpa

Misleader of the PAC

The Miami Herald ran an opinion column this morning entitled "And the GOP front-runner is..." in which Doyle McManus of The LA Times writes:

The race for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination started in earnest last week at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington.

So let’s get started. Here’s the conventional wisdom, fresh from the corridors of power, on the state of the Republican race:

There are really only two spots on the GOP ballot. One is reserved for Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor who won nine primaries in 2008. The other is for someone who isn’t Mitt Romney — someone like Sarah Palin, Mike Huckabee or Tim Pawlenty.

Here's the problem. If the nomination started in earnest at CPAC and we're talking about the front-runner, shouldn't we actually mention the front-runner? Take a look at the results of both CPAC straw polls:



Guess how many times McManus mentions Paul in his piece. If you said 0, you win. He doesn't. Not once. I am totally unclear on how you write an entire column about the "race for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination" saying it "started in earnest last week" at CPAC and make no mention of Ron Paul. This is the comment I left on the Herald site:

Ron Paul won both CPAC straw polls - the First Choice ballot and the Combo choice ballot - and yet this piece makes no mention of him anywhere. If you title something "And the GOP front-runner is..." and you cite CPAC as the start of the nomination in earnest, how can you pretend the winner of the polls just doesn't exist? If you have an opinion of who might top the Republican ticket and you want to write that piece, great. But you can't use CPAC as your lead-in or proof if you're going to completely dismiss the guy who actually won.

I don't believe Ron Paul is going to be the Republican presidential nominee in 2012 - and clearly neither does McManus - but at the very least, he should explain why he's written off Ron Paul.

If he can't, then he's got no business writing about CPAC and GOP front-runners at all.

Seriously Florida, WTF: Great Scott Edition

My disdain for Rick Scott is well-documented, and I knew Floridians would suffer a serious case of voters' remorse once their newly-elected Governor started governing. Scott's been in office about a month now, and already the frustration seems to be building.

See, Scott's always been a "pro-rich; scam the the public sector; screw the poor, sick, and elderly; rules don't apply to me" kind of guy, and now he's bringing his destructive behavior and callous business model to Tallahassee. There's been a Scott headline in The Miami Herald every day since I've been down here, and as expected, not one casts the Governor in a flattering light. Today's gem (headlines slightly harsher in the print edition than online):

Scott budget eliminates homeless aid

Right underneath it:

Senator: Prison cuts won't fly

Scott wants to get rid of Florida's Office of Homelessness and privatize its prison system - firing 1,700 workers and shifting 1,500 prisoners to facilities that get paid per inmate. The Economist explains why a for-profit prison system is problematic:

Some experts contend that firms in the prison business reap profits by billing government for rather more than their initial lowball estimates while scrimping in ways that may make prisons less secure.

Sounds a lot like Rick Scott's style when he ran Columbia/HCA.

Florida elected a liar and a cheat, and now that he's attempting to run the state like he runs his businesses - money first no matter what - no one who bothered to do any homework on the man should be the least bit surprised. Sadly, not enough people did.

Patients but No Virtue

As I mentioned briefly last week, I've been nursing a banged up lower back. The pain's not subsiding so I made an appointment to see an orthopedist. Let's call him Dr. K.

I walked (slowly) into Dr. K's practice at 9am on Tuesday morning. The office was packed. I filled out the new patient paperwork and took a seat to wait. When they called my name about 20 minutes later, a man in scrubs immediately ushered me back to their x-ray area. When I explained that I'd already had x-rays, had them faxed down from DC, and they should be in my chart, he looked baffled. He called for the Physician's Assistant - let's call her C - and then insisted I sit in the x-ray waiting area which looked remarkably similar to the waiting area at the DMV.

When C showed up with my chart, she asked what the problem was. I explained that I had already had x-rays, and they had been faxed to the office the day before.

"Didn't you get them?" I asked.

"No," C replied. Then she opened my chart, and the packet of papers from Sibley was sitting right on top.

Now we speed ahead a bit. I see Dr. K. He sends me for an MRI. I get to the MRI facility (owned by the same orthopedic center), and the woman there recommends I make an appointment to see Dr. K the following afternoon since my file has been labeled "stat" and my results will be ready asap. I do. For 2:45pm on Wednesday. It's Dr. K's last available appointment.

2:40pm on Wednesday, I show up to see Dr. K with the MRI results. The facility gave me a CD to bring with me to my appointment. After about 10 minutes of waiting, the receptionist - let's call her F - asks if I have my MRI report. I tell her I have the CD, yes. She says no, the doctor needs the MRI report and that takes 3-4 days. I ask why Dr. K can't just look at the MRI images on the CD, but all F can say is that he needs the report. So F calls our friend C and asks if she has the report. She allegedly goes to look and comes back saying it's not in the system. F tells us to make an appointment for Friday and come back. She also gives us the number to call the MRI center to check on the progress of the report.

As we leave Dr. K's office, my Mom stops in the hallway and takes out her phone. She calls the MRI facility and speaks to the guy in charge of reports whom we shall call L. L tells my Mom my report was, in fact, labeled "stat" and was faxed over to the Dr.'s office about 45 minutes prior. With this new information, we head back into Dr. K's office, and that's when things get ugly.

Mom and I have a little chat with F who calls back C. C insists there is no report but says she will look again. Sure enough, the report turns up, and C plops it down on my chart. At the same time she says, "The doctor is gone for the day. You can come back and see him tomorrow."

It's now about 3:05pm and my appointment was for 2:45pm.

Knowing C's track record at this point, we refuse to back down. We know he hasn't left yet.

Mom: "I know he's still here. That's absurd. Our appointment was for 2:45pm. If he had to leave, why wouldn't someone come to the waiting area and explain that as opposed to just having us sit around?"

C: "He had emergency surgery. Someone is on the operating table. He had to go"

Mom: "Then again, why didn't someone come explain that to us? If it were true, how long were you going to let us sit before telling us he wasn't here?"

C clams up. "Well," she continues, "You can come see him tomorrow."

Mom: "Do you have a supervisor? I'd like to speak with her please."

C does some whispering with F: "He's still here. He will see you."

Then F stands up, puts a stack of pictures of wedding dresses in a manilla folder (the day before, I'd overheard the front desk staff joking with F about her wedding), grabs her things, and leaves. Nothing has been resolved, but she has chosen to dismiss herself from the scene. It's at that point a third woman steps in and demands my co-pay.

Knowing there shouldn't be a co-pay for this kind of follow-up but not wanting to argue further, I hand over my credit card. Then we wait some more. If Dr. K is in such a hurry to get to a patient on the operating table, there's certainly no evidence to support that.

Meanwhile, Mom sneaks a peek at the MRI report and sees it was faxed over at 14:34. That's 2:34pm. My appointment was for 2:45pm meaning the report had been there the whole time. No one had bothered to look.

After Dr. K sees me, scans the report, never looks at the CD, declares nothing's broken, and writes me a prescription for his center's physical therapy facility, Mom and I go hunt down the office manager - C's supervisor. We explain what went down, and she makes three standout comments:

1. C's a problem, and we know it, but she's Dr. G's assistant (another doc), and she keeps him from blowing up at patients (no joke) so we keep her around.

and

2. The MRI facility should have told us your report was here because we get lots of reports, and we can't be bothered to check all the time.

and

3. We have plenty of patients so while you seem like lovely people, we don't need your business so if you never come back, it's no biggie for us.

Tell me again we don't have a problem with our money-driven health care system. Tell me how you fear reform will make you feel like a number and not a person. Newsflash: You are a number. Lots of numbers. Dollar signs.

Wildly Funny

I'd embed this video, but I can't find the code so you'll have to click through to watch.

When Animals Interact

Seems to be a compilation from BBC's Walk on the Wild Side. Brilliant.

Re:Location

Despite my New Year's resolution to get back to blogging more, you've probably noticed things have been unusually quiet 'round these parts. I now can explain why.

I've moved.

After almost six years in DC, it was time to say goodbye. I'm ready for something new, and the temptation to continue that quest from the comfort of endless sunshine was too tough to resist. I'm now back in South Florida for the time being and will continue to pursue whatever next great adventure's in store from here.

My friend and I rented a truck, packed up my stuff, and drove more than 1000 miles down I-95. We took a couple of days to make the trip and had great fun sneaking the cat into hotels along the way. The picture above is Emmy making herself at home at a Holiday Inn in Daytona.

The only hitch in the whole plan was an unforeseen accident that happened last Friday night. I slipped on the stairs inside my apartment and landed on my lower back. Nothing's broken, but I'm in a lot of pain which means my friend had to do much more of the driving than either of us anticipated. She was a total rock star, and I am infinitely grateful.

The plan now is to learn how to take it easy and let myself heal. Easier said than done, but I intend to try.

Echo Chamber

Health Care for America Now launch on June 8, 2008:

“HCAN will mobilize millions of Americans to demand that the first order of business of the next President and Congress is to enact quality, affordable health care for all in 2009,” said Kirsch. “We will be asking Members of Congress this year to tell us if they are on our side or the side of the health insurance industry.”

Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) on the House floor today:

Roxi(oh really?)

I'm moving in a couple of weeks (more on that later), and I've decided to transfer all my old TV work from VHS to DVD and finally ditch the boxes of tapes I've been lugging from apartment to apartment for years.

I've got a VCR so I bought Roxio's "easy VHS to DVD for Mac." I got all the hardware connected and was able to capture the video without a problem. I also could turn my videos into quicktime movies. But when I burn the .mpgs to disc and try to open them, I get an error message telling me the .mpgs are not movie files. Same happens when I try to play the .mpgs off my computer.

I'm sure this is something easily remedied with a little more info so I logged on to Roxio's live chat for help. The following is a transcript of that chat. If you think Fred "hung up" on me, you would be correct (click to see larger image):



But here's the kicker. You may be thinking, "Why not just call?" Here's why:

Phone Support

We also provides a premium telephone support option at a rate of $1.89 (USD) per minute at (866) 434-9871 during the hours of Monday - Friday, 11:00 A.M. to 6:00 P.M., EST.

Nice work, Roxio. Epic customer service fail.

UPDATE: Did a little research and found a fix on my own. Turns out I'm even more tech savvy than I thought. As an additional aside, however, a quick Google search turns up a ton of problems with this product and an endless stream of complaints about Roxio and its lack of basic customer support.

If a Tree Falls in a Forest...

What would happen if the cable and broadcast networks stopped chasing Sarah Palin? What if they collectively decided her 15 minutes were up and she was no longer more than a future Jeopardy! answer and a desperate Presidential candidate's bad decision?

I say this because Palin - like a 4th grader who repeats the same bad joke to every adult in earshot - continues to call the press the "lamestream media." She purports to despise them, but the same time, she needs them. Desperately.

Let's say she puts a video up online. Let's say instead of every TV station putting it on air as if she's shown up in the studio and sat for an interview, no one plays it. No one. She may still get attention online, but she no longer reaches far beyond her loyal minions. She gradually becomes less and less relevant. A niche product. If she wants to marginalize traditional media, why are they not marginalizing her right back?

She's not smart. She's not well-read. She's not worldly. Her uninformed opinions don't contribute to or elevate our national debate. She's proven she's completely tone deaf to the nuances of basic human decency. Her thoughts on matters of substance are comical, and she's not an expert in anything other than self-promotion.

She was historically relevant during the last election. She's not anymore. And if she doesn't want to face the nation or meet the press or talk to anyone with any experience in journalism, she ought to be ignored by them altogether. News networks have no obligation to give her airtime, and yet they do. Straight, no chaser.

How about telling Palin that if she wants to reach people who watch TV news, she'll have to step out of her climate-controlled bubble and take some questions? (No, sitting down with an anchor from a network that pays her to be their pundit doesn't count.) And until then, she can be just another person with an opinion, a webcam, and an Internet connection. If people want to hear what she has to say, they're free to Google her or follow her on Twitter or friend her on Facebook, and the rest of us can be done with her once and for all.

Don't get me wrong. If she were informed or educated or her thoughts on anything leant substance to our collective national conversation, I'd be more forgiving. But she's consistently wrong. Not just ideologically wrong. Factually wrong.

I know she has a following, and those people are more than welcome to fawn all over her all they want. That's the joy of the Internet. There's a home for everyone. But there used to be limits on what news networks would pull from the web and amplify on television. I know because I was that gatekeeper for years. It was my job to help filter out the unreliable, the inaccurate, and the crazy. When it comes to Palin, she craps all over the very megaphone she needs to be relevant beyond her base, and yet, the press keeps wiping off the megaphone and handing it back to her.

Now would a great time for the media to take a stand. They all could stand up, wave goodbye to the one-way Palin PR machine, and walk away.

Imagine all the extra airtime we'd have for substance and stories that matter.

Truce?

In the aftermath of the tragedy in Tucson, I've seen many on the left ask that we please tone down the firebrand rhetoric and offer up the thought that regardless of why this madman did what he did, now would be the perfect time to reassess the way we speak to and about one another in the course of everyday political discourse. Sure, plenty (myself included) are singling out Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck as talkers with large audiences who could make a real dent in changing the way we communicate about politics if they were so inclined.

But I'll say it once again because clearly it needs to be repeated to sink in: I don't think Palin and Beck are personally responsible for the actions of a madman on a shooting spree. I do think the vitriolic and demonizing rhetoric they spew on a regular basis has shaped an environment in which IF someone brought a gun to a political event and shot a member of Congress in the head, no one would say they didn't see it coming.

Mark Shields did an excellent job of explaining what I mean during a roundtable on Newshour last night. He and I disagree on the Palin map in particular, but we are absolutely in line on the following:

MARK SHIELDS: ... But what I'm saying is this. David is a member of Congress, and so am I. This is what has happened to our language. And this is what's happening to our democracy. Instead of saying David on an issue on the other side is misinformed or mistaken, I say David doesn't love America. He's evil. He obviously doesn't believe in the same God we believe in. He doesn't believe in the same country that we believe in. He's owned by other people and other interests, probably foreign interests.

And when this happens, this not only debases our debate; what it does is, it forecloses democracy from working. It means that we won't be able to be allies in a future event or on a future issue, because I would then be trucking with somebody...

JIM LEHRER: Consorting with the enemy.

MARK SHIELDS: That's right, somebody who obviously doesn't love America.

In contrast, what I am seeing come from the right in the wake of Tucson is an active effort to defend the venomous speech, coupled with a mad rush to find example after example of people on the left who have said nasty stuff too.

Talk about missing the point.

In my opinion, the left isn't trying to demonize the right to score political points. The left is acknowledging that people like Palin and Beck have tremendous influence over millions of people, and if those two, for example, take responsibility for currently perpetuating a toxic level of communication peppered with misinformation often strategically designed to push buttons (death panels being the most obvious case in point) and seriously consider toning it down at this very moment in time, we may be able to eliminate some future risk.

There is a difference between laying blame and asking that we make this a learning moment and see opportunity in tragedy. Not political opportunity. Not gamesmanship. But the chance to change course and elevate the nature of political debate.

There has to be a little faith on both sides. I see that plea for decency coming from the left, but I fear the right is so defensive and skeptical that any sincere ask is falling on deaf ears.

It's not about who said what to whom when. It's about how we speak to and about each other from here on out.

Map Quest

The sheer number of people googling "DLC bullseye map" and landing on my site leads me to believe this whole Palin v. DLC map thing may become an issue. Here are the two maps we're talking about:

DLC 2004:



Palin 2010:



As I mentioned in the previous post, it would be a tremendous mistake for the media to take the bait and draw some false equivalence conclusion, suggesting the current state of overheated political discourse is the result of equally inflammatory rhetoric on both the left and the right. Here's what I said yesterday:

The DLC doesn't command a large following and doesn't tour the country whipping crowds into a frenzy spewing words of anger and hate. 2004 is not 2011, and the political tone now is infinitely more heated than it was six years ago. An archery target is not a gun sight, and the head of the DLC doesn't brag about gun ownership or star in a reality show wielding a gun. And finally, putting an archery target on a state is a lot different than putting a gun sight on a person, and Palin's map - unlike the DLC's - encourages followers to take aim at individual people.

One additional note: The DLC map was printed in Blueprint Magazine - a publication so popular that it's been gone since 2007. Plus, the DLC considers itself center left. To say it has any sort of real loyal grassroots following is comical. I guarantee you that when that map came out - in print - back in 2004, no one saw it.

Once again, I am not blaming Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, Sharron Angle, or anyone else in particular for Jared Lee Laughner's shooting spree. What I am saying, however, is that Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, Sharron Angle, and the rest of the angry right that is regularly and deliberating distorting the truth to intentionally get people riled up and then - in the same breath - either outwardly or implicitly advocating violent revolution as a solution to political discontent need to take a long, hard look at their role in spewing words that can easily be interpreted as a call to action. There is a reason why Rep. Giffords spoke of Palin's map in particular after her office was vandalized back in March. It's not a stretch to conclude that if you say enough of just the right inflammatory stuff over and over again, someone's going to snap.

Let's have a conversation about taking it down a notch. That's what Jon Stewart was trying to do with his Rally to Restore Sanity back in October. I'm sorry that message fell on deaf ears. I'm sorry it took the attempted assassination of a member of Congress and the murder of six other people to get us talking about the possible danger of firebrand rhetoric.

The point is that even if yesterday in Tucson wasn't at all connected to the current climate of heated political discourse, it easily could have been. And that's more than enough to want to make it stop.

Cause and Effect

When I was in Madrid last spring, two friends asked me if it was scary living in a country where people carry guns. At the time, I said no. After yesterday in Tucson, that's changed.

It's not scary because yesterday's rampage was unthinkable. It's frightening because yesterday's rampage was inevitable. (h/t to Chez for picking the perfect word)

We don't know enough yet about the Tucson shooter's motivations to definitively tie his actions to any one political figure or movement. However, if you advocate, encourage, and foster an environment in which violence is the answer to political disagreement, you then own the consequences when someone follows through. If you build a cult of personality that thoughtlessly and deliberately spreads lies designed to push buttons (death panels, for example), and you knowingly prey on the ignorance and/or desperation of people looking for someone to blame for their everyday struggles, you don't get to rewrite history or play dumb when the sparks you fanned catch fire.

There's a PSA running on TV in the DC area that shows a teenage kid getting a tattoo. As the camera pans out, you see his entire body is covered in ink - all insults. His cell phone buzzes, and he tells the artist the next one will be "worthless" and there's room on his back. The tagline: There's a thin line between words and wounds. It's an anti-digital harassment campaign, but it makes a good point the so-called adults running the angry right could stand to learn. Words can have consequences. You can't yell fire in a crowded theater and then be surprised - or claim surprise - when someone gets trampled.

I don't use Twitter very often, but I found it more useful than anything on TV as events were unfolding yesterday afternoon. The amount of speculation and rumor the cable networks were passing off as news was embarrassing. In contrast, I found a running conversation online that was helping to sort through the flood of information in real time. Nothing was confirmed until it was.

Twitter was also useful as the smart people I follow started offering educated opinions. For instance, from Peter Daou:

Infuriating that media never acknowledge profound imbalance: the left attacks the right's ideas, the right attacks the left's very existence.

Roger Ebert:

Sarah Palin rummages online frantically erasing her rabble-rousing Tweets like a Stalinist trimming non-persons out of photos.

Today, many are pointing to this piece by James Fallows who writes the following:

We don't know why the Tucson killer did what he did. If he is like Sirhan, we'll never "understand." But we know that it has been a time of extreme, implicitly violent political rhetoric and imagery, including SarahPac's famous bulls-eye map of 20 Congressional targets to be removed -- including Rep. Giffords. It is legitimate to discuss whether there is a connection between that tone and actual outbursts of violence, whatever the motivations of this killer turn out to be. At a minimum, it will be harder for anyone to talk -- on rallies, on cable TV, in ads -- about "eliminating" opponents, or to bring rifles to political meetings, or to say "don't retreat, reload."

I've already seen some on the right dismiss the conversation of violent political rhetoric as a deliberate diversionary tactic by the left. I challenge and encourage the media not to take the bait on this one. No one reasonable on the left is saying one crazy guy's actions are undoubtedly the fault of one particular political candidate or party. What they are saying is that political candidates and parties cannot endorse "2nd Amendment remedies" to ideological disagreements and then pretend they had nothing to do with setting stage for someone to bring a gun to a grocery store and shoot a member of Congress in the head.

As I write, someone on Twitter just produced this interesting nugget. Apparently, the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC) released a target map back in 2004. Here's why this is insignificant, and TV reporters should not use the DLC map as a counter to Palin's gun sight-speckled graphic. The DLC doesn't command a large following and doesn't tour the country whipping crowds into a frenzy spewing words of anger and hate. 2004 is not 2011, and the political tone now is infinitely more heated than it was six years ago. An archery target is not a gun sight, and the head of the DLC doesn't brag about gun ownership or star in a reality show wielding a gun. And finally, putting an archery target on a state is a lot different than putting a gun sight on a person, and Palin's map - unlike the DLC's - encourages followers to take aim at individual people.

Not every story has an equal point and counterpoint. Sometimes there is very clear imbalance. The political left doesn't promote violent revolution, physical confrontation, or bringing guns to public rallies. The rhetoric isn't coming from both sides of the aisle. This is a characteristic unique to the right. And any attempt by the press to dismiss that truth is just plain wrong.

The Tucson shooter targeted Rep. Giffords because she's a political figure, and whether or not his ideology lines up with any particular rhetoric or his motivation can be tied to any particular person or movement remains to be seen. But what's abundantly clear is that we've reached a tipping point. As Sheriff Clarence Dupnik (Pima County, AZ) just said in a presser:

I think that when the rhetoric about hatred, about mistrust of government, about paranoia of how government operates, and to trying to inflame the public on a daily basis - 24 hours a day, seven days a week - has impact on people, especially people who are unbalanced personalities to begin with.

We knew this was going to happen. It was bound to happen. And like everyone else today, I'm really sad it did.

Ingeni(x)ous

I've been entangled in an ongoing issue with my health insurance company for a few months now. I won my appeal, but their explanation letter makes no sense, and after reading it over carefully, I think they owe me money. I called yesterday, and they're supposed to get back to me.

In the meantime, I discovered something interesting. My issue involves being reimbursed for a percentage of what UnitedHealthcare considers "usual and customary." And they are still using Ingenix - the database they own and control - to determine what's "usual and customary."

You may remember that NY Attorney General Andrew Cuomo settled with UnitedHealth Group back in January 2009 wherein United and other insurance companies would stop using Ingenix. Here's why:

Attorney General Cuomo’s investigation concerned allegations that the Ingenix database intentionally skewed “usual and customary” rates downward through faulty data collection, poor pooling procedures, and the lack of audits. That means many consumers were forced to pay more than they should have. The investigation found the rate of underpayment by insurers ranged from ten to twenty-eight percent for various medical services across the state. The Attorney General found that having a health insurer determine the “usual and customary” rate – a large portion of which the insurer then reimburses – creates an incentive for the insurer to manipulate the rate downward. The creation of a new database, independently maintained by a nonprofit organization, is designed to remove this conflict of interest.

It's now been two years, and according to UHC itself, nothing's changed. The letter I got from United on November 19, 2010 reads as follows:

In October 2009 NY Attorney General announced FAIR Health, Inc., and an upstate research network headquartered at Syracuse University would develop a new independent database for consumer reimbursement and a new website. Ingenix would continue to calculate out of network benefits until Fair Health, Inc was up and running. I do not have any current information.

So two years after the settlement and more than 14 months after the announcement of a new research network, it seems the scam's still in place.

There are a handful of other shady discrepancies in UHC's correspondence - not the least of which is the Complaint Specialist's claim that she is "unable to access the Cost Estimator" I used to research possible "usual and customary" rates for similar providers in my area. It's an online tool. On the UnitedHealthcare website (3rd from the bottom on the right-hand side):



If she's got the Internet and can sign into the UHC website (which I assume as an employee, she can), she can access the tool. This came up on yesterday's call, and all the Specialist could say was that she knows where it is now.

I've procrastinated following up on the letter because I just wasn't in the mood to deal. I imagine this happens a lot and is exactly what the insurance company banks on. But my whole debacle was just too egregious to let slide, and now that I've started the ball rolling again, it will be interesting to see the response.

I'll keep you posted.

Happy New Year

I resolve to get back to blogging on a regular basis. Beyond that, let's just see how things shake out.

Have a good one. Be safe.