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DEL.ICIO.USAn archaic law ill-serves state and its patients
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Few topics being debated in the Georgia State Senate evoke tears.
But listening this week to State Sen. Ross Tolleson (R-Perry) stand and talk tearfully about a family history of cancer that, one after another, claims its victims — “I’ve seen them go out in peace and I’ve seen my sister go out in pain” — empathic sadness descends. “My sister [Laurie Ann Tolleson of Atlanta] died at age 52,” he said. “My 52nd birthday” is days away [April 26], so I am probably next. But that’s OK. I will be ready.” Two uncles, one 68, the other 64, and a grandfather died of cancer. His father is a lung cancer survivor. “The longevity is not there,” he said later.
Doc Thomas — State Sen. Don R. Thomas (R-Dalton), a physician — took the well, too. His 26-year-old granddaughter was diagnosed with leukemia in his office. With treatment, it went into remission. On Nov. 14, doctors found that it had returned. A year to the day from the original diagnosis, she died. Just before the start of the session, his wife, Emma Jean, found that she has lung cancer.
Both rose and revealed the horrible impact of cancer on their families’ lives by way of declaring their support for Senate Bill 433. It would allow Cancer Treatment Centers of America to locate a facility near Atlanta’s airport. Others did, too, including the bill’s sponsor, Senate Majority Leader Tommie Williams of Lyons, whose stoic father died slowly and painfully.
The insight into the personal lives, the vulnerabilities and fears, of public figures brings poignancy to a policy debate that goes to the heart and soul of what Republicans stand for — and how they will govern Georgia.
The key question is whether Republicans intend to reshape government in any meaningful way — or whether they are merely the next wave of politicians who sweep into town to enjoy the perks of power and tend the affairs of interest groups. At the core of this effort by Georgia’s hospitals and the Georgia Chamber of Commerce to keep competition out is a monopoly-protecting health care regulatory system that President Ronald Reagan recognized as a failure more than 20 years ago. It’s called “certificate of need.” When first imposed in New York more than 40 years ago, the premise was that health care inflation could be contained by controlling supply — the number of hospital beds, new equipment purchases, facility expansion. That regulatory system was created. It mostly didn’t work. But it did effectively give hospitals a license to limit their competition.
It’s the health care version of the conflict between those who want choice in public education and the alphabet-soup interest groups that bitterly defend their turf and the status quo. On education, though, the new legislative majority has begun to set a course that will eventually put parents in control of their child’s education. They’ll no longer be prisoners of a Clayton County, for example.
Certificate of need is a relic. It preserves the status quo to await the arrival of HillaryCare. That the Georgia Chamber of Commerce, an organization presumably devoted to the free enterprise system and to competitive markets, so readily joins forces to defend protectionist regulation and to block a legitimate company from opening a new business in Georgia is one of its most shameful performances.
Republicans really should be wary of going down that road, of casting their lot with a regulatory system that is a substantial barrier to competition — or with those who link arms to protect it. In the case of Cancer Treatment Centers, the company readily consents to put into law an agreement that they will pay $1 million into the Georgia Indigent Care Trust Fund if they do not live up to a promise to draw 65 percent of their patients from outside Georgia. And, furthermore, they agree to provide free care to the poor equal to 3 percent of gross revenues. The facility, expected to cost in excess of $150 million, is projected to employ 400.
Williams’ bill, which would create a “destination hospital” exception to the “certificate of need” regulations, passed 31-23. Six Republicans voted in opposition. The bill goes now to the House.
“I think we need to have a good look at CON to see if it is serving its purpose,” said Dr. Thomas. “The time has probably come when we need to do away with CON. …”
Yes. That time has come.
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Comments
By Bush Derangement Syndrome
March 1, 2008 6:26 PM | Link to this
“That you think this is a right wing blog merely provides more evidence! Outnumbered, out-gunned and outsmarted.*”
Oh THAT is rich, AmWay sales weasel. You have done NOTHING but b*** about the Right all day long, and NEVER attempted to pick a post apart, piece by piece.
Face it numbnut liberal: you are worthless. You are nothing. Your life is this blog, and that is just sad. Really.
BTW, the last time I checked, Wooten was a Conservative. So tell me sweet cheeks, how can this NOT be a Conservative blog?
Deranged liberal FREAK.
By Bush Derangement Syndrome
March 1, 2008 7:00 PM | Link to this
That^^ post belonged to the Tax blog from Friday and one of the resident liberal wankers. My apologies.
Anywho, check out Jack’s ad for Shrillary. Even the most deranged brethren amongst us has to have some sort of faith in the CSS KKKlinton Kampaign. How delusional.
My favorite captions from the One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest patient:
“We need someone who will bring our troops home … restore credibility around the world.”
Ask the surviving families of the victims of the Spanish, British, and New York City terrorist attacks if they give a roasted pig’s hind quarters what “world” opinion means to them.
By AJC Management
March 2, 2008 8:06 AM | Link to this
{{{{“The ringleader was a man trying to recruit women to carry out SVEST [suicide vest] bombings. The cell leader used his wife and another woman to act as carriers of his next SVEST attack,” the military said.}}}}
{{{{Women have recently been used more frequently by al-Qaida in Iraq as bombers.-Urinal}}}}
Where have all the young men gone?
Long time passing
Gone to allah every one
When will they ever learn?
Bwa.
~~~~~
{{{{The divorce rate in the armed forces held steady last year at 3.3 percent, a surprising finding given the stress that marriages are under during persistent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, blah, blah, blah.-Urinal}}}}
It’s not a story but we’re gonna make it one anyway!
{{{{Some veterans questioned whether the figure, reported by the Pentagon, presents an accurate picture.-Urinal}}}}
Oh now there’s a reliable source for your story “some veterans.”
“Veterans” of what, I wonder, a twenty year hater of the military, maybe?
Hey Angela Tuck: Not biased, eh?
~~~~~~
Ahh, the demokrats are still tearing each other limb from limb, what a wonderful sight it is:
{{{{Developer’s (Tony Rezko) Obama connections resurface-Urinal Hit Piece}}}}
I can do better than that:
Ku Klux Rodham White House fund raising with Rezko!
~~~~~
{{{{A week ago, CBS’ “60 Minutes” aired a segment in which a Republican political activist, Alabama attorney Jill Simpson, charged that Rove was deeply involved in the effort to bring down Siegelman —- repeating many of the allegations she’d made under oath to the House Judiciary Committee last September.-Queen Pinko, Urinal}}}}
Man, you want to talk about the pinkos getting desperate:
{{{{For one thing, Simpson consistently has made claims of being a longtime, and fairly high-level, Republican activist in Alabama. My Republican sources in Alabama say they either don’t even know her or barely remember her having done some rather low-level volunteer work.}}}}
{{{{Yesterday, longtime activist Toby Roth said of the 2002 campaign (around which most of her allegations revolve), “I was the campaign director [for now Gov. Bob Riley’s challenge to Siegelman]. I did not know her. Never met the lady.”}}}}
{{{{As for the ludicrous charges that the Siegelman prosecution was a Republican plot led by Rove, again, the truth is that Curran’s groundbreaking and meticulously documented investigative stories clearly were the impetus for the Siegelman investigation. The stories were not pushed on him by Republican activists but instead came from his own independent perusal of financial records.}}}}
{{{{Moreover, the two lead state prosecutors on the case had Democratic pedigrees. Louis Franklin was hired at the attorney general’s office by Redding Pitt, later chairman of the state Democratic Party. And Steve Feaga is a career prosecutor who earlier, under Democrat Jimmy Evans, had successfully prosecuted former Republican Gov. Guy Hunt.}}}}
Another lib fairy tale.
~~~~~
{{{{You’ve probably noticed higher prices at the supermarket, and you can expect them to keep rising. Leading U.S. makers of consumer goods, such as laundry detergent, cereal and boneless chicken breasts, said recently they will raise prices to make up for higher raw material and energy costs. Corn and oil, in particular, are key inputs pushing up costs for a wide-range of consumer goods and their packaging.-Urinal}}}}
Duh.
And for this you can thank the environmental terrorists.
“Man made” global warming and the effect of CO2 on climate change are wholly discredited, so what does our world class legislature do other than push on with their mindless junk science:
{{{{Carbon spawns a new market- ‘Cap-and-trade’: Congress considers greenhouse gas credits that can be bought, sold.-Urinal}}}}
It honestly seems to me that Congress’s goal is to destroy the economy of the United States.
Why?
Political purposes?
~~~~~
{{{{Obambi is hoping to appoint cross-party figures to his cabinet such as Chuck Hagel, the Republican senator for Nebraska and an opponent of the Iraq war, and Richard Lugar, leader of the Republicans on the Senate foreign relations committee.}}}}
So are they still RINOs or can we officially proclaim them demokrats?
{{{{Senator Chuck Hagel, Republican of Nebraska, said today that the report, known as a National Intelligence Estimate, made clear that “it essentially isn’t going to make any difference how many more troops” are sent to Iraq. February 4, 2007}}}}
Ever wonder why you don’t hear much about Hagel anymore unless it has to do with some lib surrender monkey?
~~~~~
{{{{The Dallas Morning News gets hold of KKKlinton caucus “training materials,” in which supporters are instructed to fight for procedural control of caucuses.}}}}
{{{{The materials say in part, “DO NOT allow the supporter of another candidate to serve in leadership roles.”}}}}
{{{{It goes on to say, “If our supporters are outnumbered, ask the Temporary Chair if one of our supporters can serve as the Secretary, in the interest of fairness.}}}}
{{{{“The control of the sign-in sheets and the announcement of the delegates allotted to each candidate are the critical functions of the Chair and Secretary. This is why it is so important that Ku Klux Rodham supporters hold these positions.”}}}}
Don’t you just love “democracy?”
By Crenshaw8
March 2, 2008 8:26 AM | Link to this
With the fifth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq fast approaching, the British Stop the War Coalition is preparing for a massive demonstration in London on March 15.
As part of the run-up, the coalition sponsored an evening with various speakers, including Ibrahim Moussawi, the editor of Al Intiqad, a Lebanese newspaper linked to Hizballah.
In a short speech occasionally interrupted by applause and cheers, Moussawi told his audience that it was the support of the anti-war movement that kept Hizballah going during its brief war against Israel in 2006.
“They appreciate everything you did and say you are partners in victory,” he said.
Partners in Hizballah’s victory. Now there’s something you anti-war wankers can be proud of.
By The Oddball
March 2, 2008 8:45 AM | Link to this
Jim, you missed the boat on this one. I’m no fan of the “certificate of need” laws either, but a legislative study commission set up in 2005 spent two years gathering information to determine whether the CON laws should be abolished, modified or left as is. Its report came out in December 2006, but the General Assembly was too busy with other matters (tax cuts for wealthy seniors, gay marriage amendments, etc.) to attend to it. Read the report and then write a column on the subject.
By @@
March 2, 2008 8:46 AM | Link to this
So Jim…..we should do away with the “Certificate of Knead”. Got it!
Momcat:
I saw your post to me late last night. You need to go back and read my response to you at Luckovich’s. I never accused you of supporting Margaret Sanger’s (Planned Parenthood’s) racial eugenics. I responded only to your comment on Comstock’s Law, and pointed out how “progressives” operate.
You overreacted….you assumed, and I wasn’t involved.
By Robert
March 2, 2008 8:48 AM | Link to this
Jim, your blog is swirling around the bowl. It has been destroyed by one ranter with his one trick subject matter. And you guys wonder why the republican party will be nothing but a black smoking hole. Everytime cretins like the guy above goes on a tyrade it gets associated with right wing garbage (republicans)and more votes are lost.
By Blogfather
March 2, 2008 8:57 AM | Link to this
Palette cleanse.
By Blogfather
March 2, 2008 8:57 AM | Link to this
Palette cleanse.
By Craig also
March 2, 2008 9:03 AM | Link to this
Hey oddball, thanks for your reasoned post, on topic. Helped me understand it a little more.
unlike, of course, duh’s lengthy screed of nonsense.
By Heeso
March 2, 2008 9:13 AM | Link to this
Care to share some of that understanding on the topic Craig also?
Looks like you just wanted to whine about other posters.
By Redneck Convert
March 2, 2008 9:28 AM | Link to this
Well, I’m with this Duh guy, whatever it is he’s saying. Best I can make out from reading him, Republicans are good and Democrats are evil. The war is great. Excepting maybe for the troops in it, and they don’t count. Taxes is stealing. Which they are.
I don’t care about the hospitles law. They can build as many as they want, far as I’m concerned. Just don’t make me pay taxes to pay for somebody elses doctoring. If I don’t get nothing from it I don’t want to pay for it. Only a commie would want somebody to live on my dime. If God wanted you to live he wouldn’t of give you cancer in the first place.
Anyhow, it looks too good outside to be wasting time on this blog. Some of the people on it need to get out and watch a tractor pull or maybe do some 4-wheeling. But be sure to go to church first before you have your first beer.
Have a good day everybody.
By zeke
March 2, 2008 9:29 AM | Link to this
10-4 good buddy!!
By Ghostwriter
March 2, 2008 9:31 AM | Link to this
-Everytime cretins like the guy above goes on a tyrade it gets associated with right wing garbage (republicans)and more votes are lost.- Robert
Somehow Robert, I think that is more wishful on the likes of your thinking ilk (democrats) than anything else. I highly doubt whatever is posted on blogs makes a two bit difference to anyone’s political affiliation, let alone changing the course of it. But you go on believing that if it makes you feel better about yourself.
-unlike, of course, duh’s lengthy screed of nonsense.- Craig also [Craig also what, also is a moonbat?]
I suppose that’s the extent of engaging in discussions here by the loon left. What a waste of time on a weekend dealing with these moonbat libs.
By Ron
March 2, 2008 9:36 AM | Link to this
Good morning Jim,no to Certificate of Need laws.Now the good news;The water problems are going to be solved by the Feds.Currently they are trucking water to Barrows Alaska,and storing it in tank trucks inside heated warehouses,ready to be shipped south, with a two month lead time.The tankers will go via Massachusetts where they will be topped off to compensate for any evaporation or leakage.From Mass. they will cross the Canadian border so they can be x-rayed for contraband,and then shipped directly to a bottling plant in Mexico for distribution to Tennessee,where it will be dumped into the Chatahoochee in anticipation of a Supreme court victory in favor of Georgia in the boundary dispute.This will take place in 2018,in June.By TW
March 2, 2008 9:58 AM | Link to this
BAGHDAD - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Sunday his landmark visit to Iraq opened a new chapter in “brotherly” relations between the two countries, which were once bitter enemies
Glad to know we could help. How many Iranian soldiers were lost in the ‘liberation’ of Iraq? How much are they out?
By AJC Management
March 2, 2008 10:09 AM | Link to this
{{{{At least two dozen Palestinian civilians, including a baby, were among those killed Saturday, and militants said 25 fighters died. Health officials said about 200 people were wounded, 14 of them critically.-Urinal}}}}
Oh O.K. this coming from the same people that were found to be staging pictures of the dead, carrying the same body through the street for several different funerals.
I got an idea, instead of the AJC calling these people “militants,” the same cowards that launch rockets at unarmed civilians, why don’t we call them scumbags like they really are?
{{{{The Israeli attacks, mostly from the air on a clear, bright day, were aimed at stopping rocket fire from Gaza into Israel, the Israelis said, especially after Ashkelon, a large city 10 miles from Gaza, came under fire from more advanced, Katyusha-style rockets of Iranian design.}}}}
{{{{More than 80 Palestinians have died since fighting surged on Wednesday; in addition to the soldiers, an Israeli died in Sderot from a rocket, and six Israelis were wounded Saturday from rocket strikes in Ashkelon.-NYTimes}}}}
We can empower the terrorists with our liberal propaganda machine, thereby causing further death and destruction, or we can call these POS criminals what they really are.
Notice what the AJC’s choice is.
By Ron
March 2, 2008 10:12 AM | Link to this
Redneck,my good man,I recommend a cup of my high octane coffee before church service.It consists of a cup of strong coffee,A tablespoon of cocoa,a tablespoon of sugar and an ounce of pure vanilla extract.This will keep you wide awake during the sermon,in fact,you won’t even be able to blink your eyes for about two hours.Limit this to one a week though.
By Craig also
March 2, 2008 10:13 AM | Link to this
Heeso if you had bothered to look up what oddball referenced, you wouldn’t have had to ask a stupid question. But then that gave you the opportunity to toss out an insult, didn’t it, so I guess it was all worthwhile for you.
The wingnuts are especially grouchy this morning aren’t they. Maybe it’s the realiziation that the Iranian President can visit Baghdad and be welcomed with flowers, while Bush has to sneak in the back door unannounced. Yeah our policies there are really doing wonders for us.
By AmVet
March 2, 2008 10:19 AM | Link to this
Some months ago over at Luckovich’s the ever erudite Curly and I had a confab about his stunningly stupefying claim that Sen. Hagel of Nebraska was a RINO.
Alas, he did it again.
What ensued was classic, and a great example of how the most illogical cannot backup an inane assertion with ANY supporting facts, data or evidence.
I posted excerpts from, and links to, numerous pages showing that in virtually every other area, Sen. Hagel voted with his party. His conservative record as a Republican is not even in doubt.
He voted with his party 90% of the time and supported President Bush 95% of the time!
95%!!!
http://www.ontheissues.org/senate/Chuck_Hagel.htm
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/1/16/185310/186
But on Bush’s chosen and bungled invasion and occupation of Iraq, he disagrees.
So what was Curly’s evidence that the much decorated combat vet from Nebraska is a RINO?
An op-ed piece from an Australian newspaper.
I sh!t you not.
Is it any wonder then that this clearly irrational neo-con watched his never-served, never-will “heroes” get absolutely decimated in the last election? And again in this year’s GOP primaries?
Can you say, decimation part deux this November?
By AmVet
March 2, 2008 10:21 AM | Link to this
Some months ago over at Luckovich’s the ever erudite Curly and I had a confab about his stunningly stupefying claim that Sen. Hagel of Nebraska was a RINO.
Alas, he did it again.
What ensued was classic, and a great example of how the most illogical cannot backup an inane assertion with ANY supporting facts, data or evidence.
I posted excerpts from, and links to, numerous pages showing that in virtually every other area, Sen. Hagel voted with his party. His conservative record as a Republican is not even in doubt.
He voted with his party 90% of the time and supported President Bush 95% of the time!
95%!!!
http://www.ontheissues.org/senate/Chuck_Hagel.htm
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/1/16/185310/186
But on Bush’s chosen and bungled invasion and occupation of Iraq, he disagrees.
So what was Curly’s evidence that the much decorated combat vet from Nebraska is a RINO?
An op-ed piece from an Australian newspaper.
I sh!t you not.
Is it any wonder then that this clearly irrational neo-con watched his never-served, never-will “heroes” get absolutely decimated in the last election? And again in this year’s GOP primaries?
Can you say, decimation part deux this November?
By AmVet
March 2, 2008 10:22 AM | Link to this
Some months ago over at Luckovich’s the ever erudite Curly and I had a confab about his stunningly stupefying claim that Sen. Hagel of Nebraska was a RINO.
Alas, he did it again.
What ensued was classic, and a great example of how the most illogical cannot backup an inane assertion with ANY supporting facts, data or evidence.
I posted excerpts from, and links to, numerous pages showing that in virtually every other area, Sen. Hagel voted with his party. His conservative record as a Republican is not even in doubt.
He voted with his party 90% of the time and supported President Bush 95% of the time!
95%!!!
http://www.ontheissues.org/senate/Chuck_Hagel.htm
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/1/16/185310/186
But on Bush’s chosen and bungled invasion and occupation of Iraq, he disagrees.
So what was Curly’s evidence that the much decorated combat vet from Nebraska is a RINO?
An op-ed piece from an Australian newspaper.
I sh!t you not.
Is it any wonder then that this clearly irrational neo-con watched his never-served, never-will “heroes” get absolutely decimated in the last election? And again in this year’s GOP primaries?
Can you say, decimation part deux this November?
By AmVet
March 2, 2008 10:26 AM | Link to this
Sorry for the triple post.
Router and script blocking issues!
By @@
March 2, 2008 10:39 AM | Link to this
AmVet:
I so enjoy “outing” you!
By AmVet July 30, 2007 7:00 PM
And BTW, @@, I have never been to DailyKos, but I get your point.
Look up at your 10:22 - a DailyKos visit.
Must be one of your newest bad habits eh?
Yea buddy!
By Ernie Pyle
March 2, 2008 10:39 AM | Link to this
Take a double dose of Ron’s wake-up specific, Craig also, and then rethink just why it is that Iranian Weasel is welcomed in Bagdad (as he is at Columbia University). Gee, ya think maybe his friends are there? Ya think maybe THAT’S WHY WE’RE THERE?
Better yet, just sleep it off.
By AmVet
March 2, 2008 10:50 AM | Link to this
Yes, indeed boobs. I still haven’t. I just posted the link from here:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=hagel+conservative+voting+record&btnG=Google+Search
But I knew it would draw out a lurking troll or two like you!
Fetch! Roll over and play dead!
So what do you think slow boobs? Is Hagel a RINO or not? You did read the links didn’t you? And made an informed decision about the topic at hand? NO?!
So you’re just busy with some light mental masturbation before you go to this morning’s sermon at the Church of the Unredeemable? (I think they broke off from the Southern Baptists as they thought them too liberal).
By AJC Management
March 2, 2008 11:00 AM | Link to this
Nothing like threatening people’s families first thing on Sunday morning, is there Amvet, you obsessed blog psychotic?
{{{{Senator John McCain’s lifetime rating of 82.3% from the American Conservative Union is often cited as proof that he is conservative. Here is a closer look at that 82.3 rating.}}}}
{{{{First, a rating of 82.3 is not really that high. It puts Senator McCain in 39th place among senators serving in 2006, the latest year for which the ACU has its ratings posted online. For that most recent year in particular, McCain scored only 65, putting him in 47th place for that year. Ben Nelson (D-NE) and Chuck Hagel (R-NE), for example, scored 64 and 75, respectively, in 2006.}}}}
I know of what I speak.
By edg12
March 2, 2008 11:21 AM | Link to this
“He voted with his party 90% of the time” [snip]
Sounds like Lieberman the former Democrat to me.
“But on Bush’s chosen and bungled invasion and occupation of Iraq, he disagrees.”
So a Republican is against the war, and a former Democrat is for it. How many congressional Democrats gave Bush authority to go to war again? Oh yeah, over 2/3 of them, including one currently running for office of the president under the Democrat ticket. Politics is a grand thing, isn’t it?
Why are people spending a gorgeous Sunday on a blog anyway?
By AmVet
March 2, 2008 11:25 AM | Link to this
On the issues, Hagel has voted with the President more than any other US Senator today and has a lifetime rating of 85 from the American Conservative Union.
That from their web site.
Hagel is pro-life, defends an individual’s right to bear arms, and supports a flag-burning amendment. A self-made millionaire—he started a cellular phone company that eventually became part of Vanguard Telecommunications in the ’80s—he draws high marks from pro-business and property-rights groups.
Yep sounds like a RINO to me too, tool…
Parse it how you will, Curly.
You, as usual, are DEAD wrong and you know it. That you haven’t the nads to admit it is irrelevant.
By AJC Management
March 2, 2008 11:32 AM | Link to this
Except for the Iraq war, Bushie is a RINO too, dimwit.
Real Conservatives have a rating of 95% or higher, just like Obambi is a 100% liberal.
Obsessed psychotic.
By Van
March 2, 2008 11:44 AM | Link to this
You all need to get a hobby. It is a beautiful day outside. Go out and get some fresh air. Nature is not liberal or conservative. And no, I will not be around to read your responses.
By AmVet
March 2, 2008 11:47 AM | Link to this
Hallelujah! I thought for a moment even Curly isn’t so delusionally stupid to go there, but he doesn’t disappoint!
BREAKING NEWS!
The President of the United States of America, the son of a previous Republican US President, is a Republican in Name Only!!! According to our resident political scholar!!!
Therefore, may one assume that the Vice President, the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Defense, Bush’s numerous other advisors and practically all of the Republicans in the US Congress, who support him lock, stock and barrel are also RINOs???!!!
This is indeed BIG NEWS! RINOs everywhere!!! Do we need an elephant gun?
And that must infer that there are what? Four or five REAL Republicans in the entire US government???!!!
Curly, do you even think about what you are going to write before you do???
Back away from the keyboard REAL Republican!
It is better to be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt.
By Glenn
March 2, 2008 12:05 PM | Link to this
Good column, Jim. I’ve never cared for the Gimps in the Gallery ploy, of which the Tear-jerkers on the Floor gambit is an even more in-your-face variant. But federal and state regulations I do understand, and CON laws—-and the cons who use them—-are at this point indefensible.
Once again there’s some pinhead on your blog who can’t see the forest for the pine needles. You’re right to ignore the report of the CON Commission. On the off chance that you haven’t already seen that report, allow me to summarize it for you: A blue ribbon panel of blue-nose central planners thinks that their factotums can do a better job of implementing the central plans of blue-nose elites. Result: if you’ve got cancer, dress warmly; it’s apt to be cold in Rochester, Minnesota this time of year.
When I was charged with oversight of the country’s two largest university systems, the American Medical Association would come around every budget season to argue for reductions in the number of med school admits. Fewer budgeted enrollments meant fewer doctors, and less competition meant higher prices for scarcer services. The AMA has lots of tricks like that up its caduceus. (Just ask the nurses.) The Association exists to enforce market restrictions such as the CON laws.
But I’m afraid that the remedy is not one of the many things which lie at the Statehouse, because the CON regs are federal progeny. So if the State Senate can find a carve-out for the cancer center, then great; but, going forward, it’s a job for the Georgia Congressional Delegation.
It would be interesting to see what would happen were the cancer center to sue upon the state’s first interference with its plans, arguing that it warrants no Certificate of Need because Georgia’s CON regs are but threads attached to the strings attached to the federal coinpurse, whereas it seems likely that the center could certify to a judge that it need accept no federal funds. The cancer center, in cutting the strings thereby, also would cut the state out of sticking its blue noses into the People’s business.
[Hoover 08]
P.S. If you truly believe that “the new legislative majority has begun to set a course that will eventually put parents in control of their child’s education”, then you’re raping cashews, if you get my drift.
By AJC Management
March 2, 2008 12:13 PM | Link to this
{{{{And that must infer that there are what? Four or five REAL Republicans in the entire US government???!!!}}}}
Getting a little excited, aren’t we?
Uh, maybe you aren’t that good with math, but there are 46 U.S. Senators more Conservative than Chuck Hagel.
Out of 49.
Look stalker, you may find it your mission to catalogue each and every debate you have on some silly political blog and then bring them back two years later like some Shining Moment Of Triumph, but me, I think that is just a little bit bizarre.
It seems as though you’ve taken things here way too seriously and consider it your duty in life to harass instead of debate.
But you go right ahead and rant and rave about me, your blog demon, as though this is the only thing that matters.
By RW-(the original)
March 2, 2008 12:26 PM | Link to this
{{{{{Yes, indeed boobs. I still haven’t. I just posted the link from here (a google search result pafe):-Blowhard}}}}}
{{{{So what do you think slow boobs? Is Hagel a RINO or not? You did read the links didn’t you? And made an informed decision about the topic at hand? NO?!—By Blowhard}}}}}
So Blowhard, how did you make an informed decision about the content of your link without ever going to it?
By Blogfather
March 2, 2008 12:30 PM | Link to this
Conservatism is the socio-theological dimension of our government’s 3-branched system of checks and balances. It’s the necessary foil to avant-garde liberal zeal. No American would want a government without contrarian philosophical oversight.
William F Buckley Jr. is the new Karl Marx. Communism and conservatism share narrative symmetry. Visit the US Communist Party’s websight. Read as much of the pop-up manifesto as you can stand. Notice the vagueness. Communism and Conservatism are both cloaked in self-serving wisps of generic mission statements, implied revenge tactics, and polarizing demagoguery.
The change that Obamania represents is not grounded in semantical antics, but rather in the fullfillment of the providential compact that Lincoln himself invoked with his blood-soaked prayer at Gettysburg seven score and four years ago.
By Blogfather
March 2, 2008 12:41 PM | Link to this
Sorry to blow all your minds.
By John McCain
March 2, 2008 12:52 PM | Link to this
I’m proud to be called a RINO by the likes of Senator Kennedy, and Senator Feingold, and Senator Landrieu, and Senator Lieberman and Senator Dorgan and my Gang homeboy Senator Bird. Proud, my friends. Proud.
By @@
March 2, 2008 12:54 PM | Link to this
You so funny AmVet.
But I knew it would draw out a lurking troll or two like you!
Just like you knew dropping Todd Rudgren’s name, Nader’s name, blah blah blah would help me out you as HUGE, JJG, and whatever other name you’ve posted under. Get over your bad self.
No HUGE/JJG/AmVet/???, your overblown ego is what outs you as a liar who hides.
I’ve never really paid any attention to Hagel so I wouldn’t know whether he’s a RINO, nor do I care.
Andy said: Except for the Iraq war, Bushie is a RINO too, dimwit.
That ^^^ post is what got you off your “poo”.
Too funny. I’ve heard Andy say that numerous times - other conservatives as well. I guess you weren’t paying attention.
Preferred to stay “warm in your own knowledge”.
I think I’ll start calling you “Whiney the Poo”.
By AJC Management
March 2, 2008 1:01 PM | Link to this
{{{{By Blogfather March 2, 2008 12:30 PM William F Buckley Jr. is the new Karl Marx. Communism and conservatism share narrative symmetry.}}}}
Polly:
{{{{The American Conservative Union is the nation’s oldest and largest grassroots conservative lobbying organization. ACU’s purpose is to communicate and advance the goals and principles of conservatism through one multi-issue, umbrella organization. ACU’s Statement of Principles expresses our commitment to a market economy, the doctrine of original intent of the framers of the Constitution, traditional moral values, and a strong national defense.}}}}
I forget what the communists called their “constitution,” you’ll have to help me out.
{{{{We believe that capitalism is the only economic system of our time that is compatible with political liberty. It has not only brought a higher standard of living to a greater number of people than any other economic system in the history of mankind; more important, it has been a decisive instrument in preserving freedom through maintaining private control of economic power and thus limiting the power of government.}}}}
Obambi: Government health care, government tariffs on free trade, government regulated home financing, government mandated credit card rates, government provided bankruptcy shelter.
{{{{We believe that collectivism and capitalism are incompatible, and that when government competes with capitalism, it jeopardizes the natural economic growth of our society and the well-being and freedom of the citizenry.}}}}
Uh, that’s right.
By Blogod
March 2, 2008 1:04 PM | Link to this
Blogfather, you’re fired. Whaddidyu, wake up with a horse head this morning?
All of a sudden you can’t tell conservatism from reactionism? Some smelling salts: William F. Buckley was far more effective in relegating reactionaries to the dustbin than any liberal pinhead like you ever was.
And WTF is “Conservatism is the socio-theological dimension of our government’s 3-branched system of checks and balances” supposed to mean? Huh.
Take a little drive with Costanza, Godfather. Get some air.
By AJC Management
March 2, 2008 1:18 PM | Link to this
Chalk one up for the good guys:
{{{{A U.S. military helicopter fired a guided missile to kill a wanted Al Qaeda in Iraq leader from Saudi Arabia who was responsible for the bombing deaths of five American soldiers, a spokesman said Sunday.}}}}
{{{{U.S. Navy Rear Adm. Gregory Smith said Jar Allah, also known as Abu Yasir al-Saudi, and another Saudi known only as Hamdan, were both killed Wednesday in Mosul.}}}}
{{{{Al-Saudi was the man who headed up the Al Qaeda network in southeast Mosul, an insurgent hotbed where U.S. forces wage daily battles against the group.}}}}
By @@
March 2, 2008 1:30 PM | Link to this
Gosh! I was able to track down the sources (2) of AJCM’s post at 1:18. All it takes is a little desire and effort.
ShamVet would much rather spend his time complaining.
By Blogfather
March 2, 2008 1:39 PM | Link to this
Conservatism as a real political movement is a myth wrapped in a lie. It’s meaning is both open-ended and undefined. Most of William F Buckley’s spoken conservatism was clever double entendres about some liberal ancestoral shortcomings. What passed for intellectualism was actually word-play. Thus it’s easy to morph conservative doctine into attack-politics, just as Communism’s banal bromides can easily be translated into revolution.
Homework assignment for the self-aggrandizing wonders of modern punditry who comment here 24/7 365: Define five terms commonly found around the house: Conservatism. Republic. Democracy. Fiscal Policy. Monetary Policy.
I think if you will complete the homework assignment you will see how convoluted your politics are and from just how flimsy a platform your unchaperoned, unchastised and unreasoned self-actualization has emerged.
That’s why you’re unable to rally against Obamania. You’re so out of touch with America that you are defacto default-expatriots. No country. No party. Nothing but arrogance, and dreams of victory.
By Blogfather
March 2, 2008 1:45 PM | Link to this
Sorry to crush all your spirits.
By Blogfather
March 2, 2008 1:53 PM | Link to this
Conservatism is the new last-refuge of a scoundrel, replacing both the flag and religion. Indeed, it is the new shield for corruption, a benedictive password for conformity, like the key to the executive washroom in a house of ill repuke.
I know, you get the bit.
By Blogfather
March 2, 2008 2:03 PM | Link to this
Most of William F Buckley’s debate-winning points about conservativism were clever double entendres about some overmatched liberal’s ancestral shortcomings. Thus it’s easy to morph conservative doctine into gridlock-inducing attack politics, which does define the history of our congress since the New Republic was borne.
By Glenn
March 2, 2008 2:06 PM | Link to this
You’re big on “chastisement”, aren’t you, you blood great fool? Yours consistently is the attitude of a homeroom nun, enjoining “homework assignments” to columnist and blogger alike, scolding with the reproductive obscenities of the barren and sex-deprived, insisting that in all the world only you know the great secrets of the damnedest, most obvious things. You’re one twisted, p!ssing gargoyle, all right.
And your political theory is as bizarre as that of a LaRouche or a Mosley or a C. Fourier.
Stick to what you do well: urinating.
By Hillary Care Sucks Better than Monica
March 2, 2008 2:06 PM | Link to this
I already have excellant health care coverage, for life and at no cost to me, part of my retirement package from the executive suites. I will be damned if I will allow that coverage to be stolen by hillarity the clown, and added to the resources of National Health Care, while downgrading my care to what is provided to the poor. We want WAR hag, we rich old guys can give it to you…..
By Ron
March 2, 2008 2:21 PM | Link to this
A few years back I thought about becoming a conservative after listening to Limbaugh and discovering how easy it was.You say the name, “Clinton”,then you foam at the mouth and pop a couple of pills.How difficult is that?
By AKMED ABDUL: ECONOMIST
March 2, 2008 2:24 PM | Link to this
You have murdered many Arabs and Muslims, now you will pay as your economy dies, dies, dies…
“Economist Stiglitz Says Iraq War Costs May Reach $5 Trillion
By Vivien Lou Chen and Thomas Keene
March 1 (Bloomberg) — Nobel economics laureate Joseph Stiglitz, author of a new book that claims the Iraq war will cost the U.S. more than $3 trillion, said the final tally is likely to climb much higher than that.
It's much more like five trillion,'' Stiglitz said yesterday in an interview with Bloomberg Radio.We were trying to make Americans understand how expensive this war was so we didn’t want to quibble about a dime here or a dime there.”
His analysis comes as the Senate debates a Democratic plan to begin withdrawing troops from Iraq. The 2001 Nobel winner’s initial estimate of $3 trillion drew criticism from Republican Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas, who said that the number ignores the price the U.S. would pay if Iraq became a terrorist state.
“Three trillion is a lot of money no matter how you look at it,” said Stiglitz, 65, a former economics adviser to President Bill Clinton. The conflict has driven the nation’s energy costs higher by adding $5 to $10 to the price of a barrel of oil, and may enlarge the national debt by $2 trillion in the year 2017, he said.
This war is the first war ever that's been totally financed by borrowing, by deficits,'' said Stiglitz, a professor at Columbia University in New York.Because we haven’t raised taxes, because we’ve tried to pretend this war is for free, we’ve been skimping on our treatment of veterans.”
Bills Pile Up
Bills from the Iraq war will pile up for decades to come as the government spends hundreds of billions of dollars providing medical care and disability benefits to about 70,000 soldiers injured in the conflict, he said.
The government also will have to pay back with interest money it borrowed to finance the war, which will drive total costs higher, he told Congress’s Joint Economic Committee earlier this week.
The Congressional Budget Office said last month that $752 billion will have been appropriated so far for the Iraq war, the conflict in Afghanistan and other activities associated with the war on terror once lawmakers approve the remainder of President George W. Bush’s 2008 war-funding request. The administration’s request for $70 billion more for fiscal 2009 would push that past $800 billion.
Stiglitz and co-author Linda Bilmes release their new book, called the “The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Cost of the Iraq Conflict,” starting this month.
By AJC Management
March 2, 2008 2:28 PM | Link to this
{{{{McCain’s broadsides have covered Iraq, taxes and trade, each a key issue to many voters. The attacks had an echo of Clinton’s charge Obama is not ready, a fact that may help Clinton stave off elimination in Tuesday’s primaries. That, too, would benefit McCain. The longer Obama and Clinton keep fighting each other, the less time the winner will have for McCain.}}}}
I too am torn, torn I tell you, by this reality, as much as I want to see that bit-ch be gone, the truth is, that we, ack, uggg, need her.
Nah, screw that, let’s get rid of this monstrosity once and for all, may the Repugs in Texas give the demokrats another “large turnout” and let’s vote Bruno the Hag into political oblivion.
Bwa.
Say, where’s al-Gitmo been?
By Prin. Margie
March 2, 2008 2:31 PM | Link to this
Wrong! You’ll have to stay after class and answer for that answer.
Had you read your assignment you’d have known that the way to become a conservative is to click the heels of your jackboots, thrust out your right arm, palm down, and shout Heil Buckley! Heil Buckley!
Now you’re going to have to right those most important words on the blackboard 100 times. And if you don’t do so exactly as I say, I’ll take down your pants and say scary things about your penis and your bottom.
By Ron
March 2, 2008 2:40 PM | Link to this
Prin margie,I hope you’re a girl and a girl of your word.
By AKMED ABDUL: ECONOMIST
March 2, 2008 2:48 PM | Link to this
Due to over exposure and consumption of estrogen and estorgen mimicks, the size of the american penis has shrunk to less than 3 inches.
By Yes, I Hate Hillary, She Stinks like a three day old tuna fish sandwich with mayo left in the hot su
March 2, 2008 3:00 PM | Link to this
In Hillary’s only RED phone call at three am, Bill’s Arkansas State Police detatchment called to report Bill was spending the night with some woman. Hillary reacted instantly, smashing the telephone, the television, three framed photo’s, and cutting up Bill’s cloths with sissors. Do we really want an emotionally unstable person answering the crisis line at 3am? She just might initiate a nuclear exchange out of rage….Ivan and Cho will have to respond to her emotional instability, perhaps with a first strike of their own as a form of self preservation….JUST SAY NO TO HILLARY AND HER EMOTIONAL INSTABILITY
By Ron
March 2, 2008 3:17 PM | Link to this
Oh it gets much bigger, Akmed. But not for you.
By Blogfather
March 2, 2008 3:19 PM | Link to this
Sure, I followed THAT along.
By Backroads
March 2, 2008 3:25 PM | Link to this
Jim, I may not be the best at math, but the Repubs have been in power long enogh to know they don’t plan to do anything constructive for the common citizen. Only the lobbyists and their “customers” will reap the benefits from this august legislative body and the not=so-sunny Guv’s office!
By Backroads
March 2, 2008 3:26 PM | Link to this
Jim, I may not be the best at math, but the Repubs have been in power long enogh to know they don’t plan to do anything constructive for the common citizen. Only the lobbyists and their “customers” will reap the benefits from this august legislative body and the not-so-sunny Guv’s office!
By Backroads
March 2, 2008 3:26 PM | Link to this
Jim, I may not be the best at math, but the Repubs have been in power long enogh to know they don’t plan to do anything constructive for the common citizen. Only the lobbyists and their “customers” will reap the benefits from this august legislative body and the not-so-sunny Guv’s office!
By Ron
March 2, 2008 3:35 PM | Link to this
Hey,I finally arrived,someone posting under my name.Ron@3:17
By Backroads
March 2, 2008 4:12 PM | Link to this
Sorry for the triple post.
Router and script blocking issues!
By Glenn
March 2, 2008 4:21 PM | Link to this
Backroads @ 3:25, 3:26,
I’m with you. And I’m GOP.
By Glenn
March 2, 2008 4:43 PM | Link to this
And by the way, Backroads, you write like a ‘Crat. You think like a ‘Crat. You smear like a ‘Crat.
Are you sure you’re not a ‘Crat?
By jbmlaw
March 2, 2008 4:59 PM | Link to this
Good afternoon all. I can add little to Glenn’s essay at noon. If one set out to design a system to keep prices high, one would begin by constricting services the free market would provide otherwise. Thus (as Glenn noted) restrict the supply of doctors in the pipeline, restrict the number of end points where services can be provided (such as via a “certificate of need”), and then get as much subsidy of the demand as one can envision (such as tax breaks for employer subsidy of health insurance, or dream of dreams, direct taxpayer subsidy.) We pay a lot for our collective economic ignorance.
By Blogfather
March 2, 2008 5:02 PM | Link to this
Conservatism is a suspicion, a preference, and a belief. Conservatives fear that earthly power would replace divine will in governing man. Goldwater himself realized too late what his conservative superstitions hath wrought. His repudiation of the evangelical right was the turning point in the grassroots abhorence of conservativism which now finds itself in the throes of Obamamania.
Ike’s conservativism was his belief in protecting the institutions of segregation from a more rapid dismantling by our civil rights movement.
Nixon’s conservativism was his suspicion of the progressive social insurgency of the sixties. Americans truly were sick of long hair, sit-ins, and Twiggy.
Reagan’s conservativism was a hybrid; not so much Prius as it was Pious, yet he shared not Ike’s belief in institutions, nor nixon’s elitism, nor goldwater’s nostalgic pragmatism.
We all want less taxes. We all want liberty. We all want a strong defense, but accomplished through our will, not divine will. Conservative’s symmetry with Communism stems from the suspect motivation of allocating resources according to needs or divine will. It simply doesn’t work. Conservativism, like Communism, is so rooted in layers of intricate ideology that it can only become a dogmatic bludgeon against the unwilling, unsuspecting and unparticipating masses.
By Bush Derangement Syndrome
March 2, 2008 5:25 PM | Link to this
“Communism and conservatism share narrative symmetry. Visit the US Communist Party’s websight. Read as much of the pop-up manifesto as you can stand.”
If that isn’t the most deranged post by a disgusting socialist neo-Stalinist lib, I don’t know what is.
Uh, let’s see here: “progressive” income taxes; the confiscation of inheritance via taxes; the right of the state to take private property.
Uh huh, that’s just SO conservative, isn’t it? Guess what, those three attributes I just described are listed in the Marx’s Communist Manifesto.
Derangement, liberalism becomes thee.
I see at least our resident FREAK on the left heeded my advice from yesterday and actually got out today.
By jm
March 2, 2008 5:28 PM | Link to this
Good thing Mr. Wooten decided to write a softball column today, otherwise some of you might not have taken the time to enjoy what a beautiful day it was (and still is). If the weather continues like this, I may rescind the contract I took out on the groundhog.
As for the softball topic du jour, what guarantees are there that if we introduce competition on the high end services that hospitals will continue to support the low end services. If the new hospital takes away the cancer patients with insurance coverage, what reason will the existing hospitals have to provide the services (that are money losers) whose costs were offset by the patients insurance coverage (the argument about how health care is paid for is a completely different topic to be argued another time). One of the reasons that the US purchases flu vaccines from overseas, ED medicine is more profitable, so big pharma would rather make that than life saving vaccines. Of course, the argument can be made that ED medicine is life saving (or at least marriage saving).
By Bush Derangement Syndrome
March 2, 2008 5:30 PM | Link to this
“Conservativism, like Communism, is so rooted in layers”
Uh huh. And that’s why so many LAWYERS who are in Washington as politicians just so happen to be in the RAT party. Can anyone else believe the sewage oozing from this twisted liberal twit?
By Bush Derangement Syndrome
March 2, 2008 5:37 PM | Link to this
‘Easily Terrified, Mindless Fundamentalist Evangelical Christian Lemmings’ Columnist links religious belief and ‘dumber than dirt’ generation of teens.
You know there is something wrong with the mental disease of liberalism and those on the left when they fear Christians more than the radical “bogeyman” Islamic terrorists as the pantywastes on the left call them.
By AJC Management
March 2, 2008 5:41 PM | Link to this
{{{{Democrat Ku Klux Rodham faced pressure Sunday to abandon her White House bid heading into pivotal contests in Ohio and Texas that are unlikely to dent Barack Obama’s surging momentum.}}}}
{{{{Senator Richard Durbin, who is backing his Illinois colleague Obama, denied that KKKlinton would face orchestrated pressure to bow out after Tuesday “because all of us respect her and her family.”}}}}
{{{{“But I hope that there’s an honest appraisal of her chances to win the nomination after Tuesday,” he told Fox News Sunday.}}}}
{{{{“And having made that appraisal… I hope she’ll understand that we need to bring our party together and prepare for a victory in November, which is the ultimate goal.”}}}}
Hahaha, you Code Pinkos don’t understand Bruno very well, do you?
That disgusting hag would rather see the demokrat party in shambles than give up her perverted lust for power.
Either way works for me.
By Bush Derangement Syndrome
March 2, 2008 5:46 PM | Link to this
CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez moved tanks to the Colombian border and mobilized fighter jets on Sunday, warning Bogota could spark a war after its troops struck inside another of its neighbors, Ecuador.
Oh goodie! Carter and Castro’s bested buddy on the planet may get to flex a little muscle! Well, perhaps we can put those shiny new (no, make that matte finish) F-22 Raptors to good use. This would be a beauty to watch: Venezuelan pilots in their little used tin foil planes getting blown out of the sky like the Brits did to the Argentinians.
I give Hugo the Huge about two years. Tops. Good job Mr. Jimmuh Cartuh, you global peace hero you.
By Bush Derangement Syndrome
March 2, 2008 5:51 PM | Link to this
“That disgusting hag would rather see the demokrat party in shambles than give up her perverted lust for power. Either way works for me.”
Touché, ACJM. Touché.
By Bush Derangement Syndrome
March 2, 2008 5:53 PM | Link to this
Obama Says Clinton Ad Plays On Fears - Obama Says Clinton Ad Scares Voters, Asks Wrong Question About National Security
All together now with the Al Sicko Sore on W: HE HAS BETRAYED THIS NATION! HE HAS PLAYED ON OUR FEARS!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pq9X7pn-MtI
By NO-BAM-A
March 2, 2008 5:54 PM | Link to this
ALL PRESIDENTS need to learn in office. In relative terms, though, both Hillary Clinton and John McCain are pretty much ready now. Obama is going to need two or three years. So the good news could be that Obama will eventually understand what needs to be done; and the bad news is what happens during his learning period.
Given current trends, it is quite possible that by the time he gains the needed comprehension, Iran will have nuclear weapons, Lebanon and Iraq will be satellites of Teheran, and Hamas will run the West Bank. In addition, conceiving of Obama as naive and appeasement-oriented - not my invention but an inevitable perception in the region - will embolden extremists and make relative moderates rush to cut a deal with what they will see as the winning side.
Or, to put it another way, the economist John Maynard Keynes said that in the long run we are all dead. In the Middle East, in the medium-run we will all be in very serious trouble.
NO-BAM-A!
By Glenn
March 2, 2008 5:57 PM | Link to this
jm, while you’re enjoying the sunny day, perhaps you can find a T-ball game in which “competition” comes with the “guarantee” that everybody wins!
Here’s a thought. Take the topical word “anthropogenic”, excise the prefix “anthro-” and replace it with the prefix “iatro-“.
That’s what governmentally operated hospitals are. What “guarantee” does one have that the public hospital will make one sick? None. Only a mere probability.
Blogmother,
It’s kind of ahistorical, your theory, but it’s coming out clearer now. And what is your theory of history qua history? Still cyclical?
Do your homework and try again later.
There’s a good boy.
jbm,
Somebody had to keep the free market end up in your absence…
By Blogfather
March 2, 2008 6:12 PM | Link to this
That was easy. But I shouldn’t tweak the ignoble’s noses any more today.
Tuesday night will send a message to any lingering conservative footsoldiers in step with the arch-enemies of the national conscience: America is standing up for itself, and demanding justice, or change (same thing), and you fellows who would loiter in the civic blasphemy that embodies conservatism will find yourselves strangely alone in bed with nothing on but the radio, (invariably Rushannity), as you wait for the pendulum to swing back. But this time, the pendulum conspires with the pit to disembowel conservativism once and for all. (and for the common good).
By @@
March 2, 2008 6:14 PM | Link to this
Well since Hugo was mentioned, let’s see what Evo is up to.
But on Feb. 28, Morales’ Movement Toward Socialism party held a hurried and irregular legislative session to push through the demand for a national referendum. Only a few opposition lawmakers were present — thousands of pro-Morales demonstrators outside the legislature prevented the others from arriving — so the vote passed in less than an hour. The referendum is scheduled for May 4.
In other words, after years of bitter political struggle, Morales has decided to spark a serious confrontation with the opposition by cutting them out of the new constitution and holding a referendum that he is sure to win.
The move makes strategic sense for Morales’ camp because not only does the president have support from the indigenous majority, he also controls Bolivia’s armed forces, which comprise 46,100 active personnel. Military assistance will be necessary to enforce the proposed constitution.
This Evo guy has what…a third or eighth grade education?
From socialism to communism. But it’s all in the interest of the poor who will become more so at the mercy of a middle schooler’s intellect.
BTW, Hugo has offered his military to assist in putting down the opposition.
By Bush Derangement Syndrome
March 2, 2008 6:22 PM | Link to this
“*conservatism will find yourselves strangely alone in bed with nothing on but the radio, (invariably Rushannity), *”
Yet another asshater who hates AM talk radio, yet CANNOT give a SINGLE example of someone here who LIFTED a comment from Rush or Hannity.
Sick freaks from hell is all you worthless liberal demonRATs are. You people make me SICK.
By jm
March 2, 2008 7:37 PM | Link to this
Glenn, you misunderstand. If you wish to open up competition, open it up all the way. That way, much like a restaurant, a hospital (any hosptial) can refuse treatment to those who lack the ability to pay. Eliminate any and all requirments of treatment that a hospital has to provide. If the hospital chooses not to treat you, that is their choice, not the states. Pure free market, pure competition.
Using you analogy, the new hospital gets to hit the ball off of the T, while existing hospital has to contend with a Johan Santana fastball.
By Dennis
March 3, 2008 9:12 AM | Link to this
Mr. Wooten writes, “On education, though, the new legislative majority has begun to set a course that will eventually put parents in control of their child’s education.”
Mr. Wooten. Mr. Wooten.
You still don’t get it.
Unless they are physically sitting in the classroom and continually disrupting the teacher’s presentations because they don’t agree with the presentation, or the text book (and they will), parents will never be in control of their children’s education.
And then, you throw this in; “They’ll no longer be prisoners of a Clayton County.”
All you see in Clayton County, Mr. Wooten, is a mess. And it is a mess. But, with no quick fix solution.
Especially, vouchers.
And if the kids are given vouchers, as you want, and shipped to some other school system, what will be left to fix in Clayton County? What about all theose empty school buildings?
And we can’t forget about the unused football fields.
In fact, it will probably cost more in transportation costs and additional teachers at their new schools to ship these kids wherever they go than to leave them where they are.
And do you expect parents and children to get up extra early to travel to another county, then turn around at the end of the school day and get home later? All with a smile?
C’mon, Mr. Wooten.
You’ve beaten this voucher thing to death. You know?
You don’t have to be a blind conservative not to see it, just an ignorant one to deny it.
By Blogfather
March 3, 2008 9:22 AM | Link to this
Conservatism is dead. Sen. Craig sounded taps, with his flag at half-mast.
By Dusty
March 3, 2008 9:49 AM | Link to this
Dear Jim Wooten,
This editorial has given me some doubts. Somehow, I feel that big business has entered the healthcare field only to make a big profit on the sadness of cancer. I feel no medical impetus to have another treatment center if there is no shortage. Are doctors begging for new centers to which their patients might go?
Most of the big hospitals have already invested large amounts of money in their “treatment centers”. Just as a hospital aspirin may cost four dollars, that cost only reflects the whole system of supply, pharmacists, doctors’ prescriptions and goes to supplement the whole hospital system. In other words, the few profit making parts of a hospital go to the upkeep of the whole.
A treatment center is geared toward one type of procedures and those make a profit. Why would business men even bother with a company that is not based on the idea of profit? They don’t.
Cancer is the present scourge of humanity. The best investment would be in learning the cause and preventing it. Cancer treatment is after the fact and much needed. But… unless there is a SHORTAGE of treatment centers in Atlanta, why short change our hospitals which must be available for treatment of all illnesses? I do hope there is much research about this suggested treatment center.
By jm
March 3, 2008 10:14 AM | Link to this
Wow, let it be said that there is something that Dusty and I agree on.
By cranky old man
March 3, 2008 2:27 PM | Link to this
I’m not sure I understand the whole certificate of need thing, but I suspect it’s something like this:
Many public hospitals lose money on many/most of their patients because they either a.) don’t have insurance, or b.) have only Medicare or Medicade, which cap their reimbursement rates. So the hospitals have to make up the loss by charging extra for those patients who can afford to pay or have decent private insurance.
Now, if you let a private hospital open up it can cherry-pick only those patients with good insurance or those who are wealthy enough to just pay for their care out of their pockets. They can do this because, being a specialty clinic, they aren’t required to maintain an emergency room, which would require them to accept patients without regard to their ability to pay. This means those patients won’t be going to the local public hospitals, thus removing their only real source of revenue, which will eventually force those hospitals to close.
Is that the gist of the argument? Or have I got some of it wrong?
By cranky old man
March 3, 2008 3:11 PM | Link to this
Okay, I think I understand the logic behind this certificate of need thing. The argument goes something like this:
Many hospitals have a high percentage of patients who either have no insurance, or only have Medicare/Medicaid, which cap their reimbursement rates. So, in order to stay in business, they need to make up the difference by charging extra for those patients who can afford to pay or have good insurance.
Now, if you let a specialty clinic open in the neighborhood, they will be able to cherry-pick only (or mostly) those patients who can pay their bills. They can do this because, unlike a regular public hospital, they aren’t required to maintain an emergency room. This lets them avoid treating the gun shot wounds, drug overdoses, broken arms, colds, ear infections, etc. of people who can’t pay, but must be treated if they show up at an emergency room. So the regular hospitals are now without their only regular source of revenue, and will eventually be forced to close, or be bailed out by the government.
Is that the general idea behind CON? Or did I get something wrong?