Further practical considerations

Next in an on-going series of my evaluation of the real world implications of  various political actions.

There has been much discussion about the on-going and intensifying departure of physicians from the family medicine/general practice fields.  The reasons for this are manifold and are not the point of this post.  One of the more frequent suggestions is to permit, if not require, physicians assistants and/or nurse practitioners to take over many of the functions currently performed by physicians.  This includes initial evaluations, taking of histories, physical examinations and other such actions.

Here's a problem that I have not seen discussed elsewhere, possibly because it isn't that obvious of a problem.  What happens in workers' comp and liability cases when the evaluations and care are almost exclusively performed by a PA/NP.  This is not an idle question on my part.  For those who do not know, I work in the personal injury field, plaintiff side.  Many of our clients are receiving their primary care from a PA/NP for a work injury or after being in an accident.  It is routine for opposing counsel to attack the treating physician's opinion on the grounds that the treating physician didn't actually do the examinations and didn't actually take the history and is relying on someone who isn't a doctor to make medical determinations.  This line of attack has varying success but it is always, always done.  The theory behind this is that a PA/NP does not posses the requisite skill, training and experience to make medical determinations.  That is to be left to a physician.

So what's going to happen in the future?  The public is being told that a PA/NA is qualified to make those determinations and provide that treatment.  If that is the case, then what will happen on the legal side of it?  Will state workers' comp law be altered to require acceptance of a PA/NP's determination as to the cause of an injury?  What about expert witness qualifications?  Will a PA/NP now be deemed qualified to provide expert testimony in a medical malpractice case? 

The ramifications of the Health Care Reform bill go far beyond the obvious.

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"...to provide all students the opportunity to achieve the knowledge and skills necessary to become contributing citizens in our society."

The title is part of the mission statement for Denver Public Schools.

I didn't get too riled up when there was Obama campaign material in the Department of Technical Services building of Denver Public Schools, right outside the CTO's office.  And I've ignored the fact that the district is a hostile work environment for just about anyone holding conservative beliefs.  It is, after all, an urban school district, and many of the people holding administrative and teaching positions are to the left of Bill Ayers.  It's just the nature of the beast.

But really, DPS?  You're really going to refuse to train your employees because you disagree with a law a state has passed?  Denver has a mayor whose restaurant employed an illegal alien cop-killer who had been stopped multiple times prior to the murder for traffic violations, and Denver is widely known as a sanctuary city thanks to its refusal to enforce immigration laws.  Do you really want conservatives boycotting Denver based on its refusal to deal with its illegal immigration issue?  Are illegal immigrants paying so much more in tax dollars, are illegal immigrants so much more culturally valuable than citizens, that it's worth it to the city of Denver to alienate middle America?  And WTFingF makes Denver Public Schools think it has the right to make a political statement of any sort? 

The best part of the stupidity is this:

A written statement released by the district this morning said DPS is forming a Citizens Advisory Committee to study the issue further.

  Pretty please, Denver Public Schools, could you form a Citizens Advisory Committee to puzzle out how to make your graduation rate go up from its current 76.9%?  Could you form a Citizens Advisory Committee to puzzle out how to make it less than a thousand dollars a month to insure a family, so that your employees don't have children dying of asthma because they're forced on to public assistance for their insurance?  Could you form a Citizens Advisory Committee to puzzle out how to teach your administrators and teachers to deal with children in ways that don't involve duct tape?  Seriously, Denver Public Schools, could you form a Citizens Advisory Committee to educate the district about what does and does not help the district achieve its mission of educating children? 

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Andrew Sullivan Fought The Stupid, And The Stupid Won Again

But at least it made Chris Matthews look marginally sane.

But at this point, shouldn't he drop the "Power Glutes" nickname and go for the "Flabby Glutes"? I mean, he hasn't been missing many meals recently.

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Once in a while...

...rules are meant to be broken. And this is, I'm pretty sure, only the second time that I've broken the rule about linking anything written by Andrew Sullivan.

I hate to drive any traffic his way, but Fair Use is the law, and I would have to quote his entire post in order to demonstrate just how hilariously stupid it is.

Okay, here's a sample:

And that means the uncomfortable task for real conservatives of stoutly defending this president as the best option we now have. The epistemic closure on the right is how other conservatives still manage to blind themselves to the pragmatic virtues of this president's remarkable 15 month record at home and abroad.

To paraphrase Glenn Reynolds (who is mentioned in Sullivan's clusterfuck about "real conservatives"), read the whole heh fucking incomprehensible mess indeed.

Posted by: Sean M. at 05:29 AM | Comments (11) | Add Comment
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What, no Holocaust references?

Hey, if it was my shady, arguably criminal organization under scrutiny ox that was being gored, I might think the whole situation was kind of dire, too:

McCarthyism? Jim Crow? Segregation? Japanese internment?

Child's play. ACORN CEO Bertha Lewis says the times people are living in now will "dwarf" all those stains on America's history. And she points to the Tea Party movement -- or "bowel movement," in her words -- as a harbinger of the persecution to come.

Oh, but, wait. While that's interesting, here's my favorite part...

"They are coming. And they are coming after you," the embattled head of ACORN said during a talk last month to the Young Democratic Socialists, the youth branch of the Democratic Socialists, the U.S. branch of the Socialist International.

It should be noted, of course, that President Obama has never, ever worked in conjunction with ACORN. Furthermore, any implication that he might harbor socialist sympathies is beyond the pale. Because"socialist" is a racist code word...

"Any group that says, 'I'm young, I'm Democratic, and I'm a socialist,' is all right with me..."

Lewis, is, um, a notorious white supremacist who hates Barack Obama.

Yeah.

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Philly politician outed -- as straight

In the city of brotherly love, Democratic State Rep Babette Josephs outed her primary opponent Gregg Kravitz as not being bisexual, but straight.

"I outed him as a straight person," Josephs said during a fund-raiser at the Black Sheep Pub & Restaurant, as some in the audience gasped or laughed, "and now he goes around telling people, quote, 'I swing both ways.' That's quite a respectful way to talk about sexuality. This guy's a gem."

Kravitz, 29, said that he is sexually attracted to both men and women and called Josephs' comments offensive.

"That kind of taunting is going to make it more difficult for closeted members of the LGBT community to be comfortable with themselves," Kravitz said. "It's damaging."

In case you didn't pick up on it, this is another red-on-red situation. Score!

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It's. Not. Your. Money.

Per Jake Tapper's Twitter feed, Pres. Obama will say the following in his speech on Wall St. reform today "Some on Wall St forgot that behind every dollar traded or leveraged, there is a family looking to buy a house, pay for an education..."

Fair enough as far as that goes.  It's rather like what I do, I'm constantly reminding my co-workers that something that's just a file to us is actually the client's life.  That's a serious obligation.  I do think it's clear that there are some working on the derivatives who forgot the real world impact of default swaps and the like.  I do not believe this was malicious, more a result of being lost in the numbers, but I do think it happened.  People are legitimately angry that their money was treated as simply part of a game. 

Having said that, I would like to remind Pres. Obama, Congress, Federal regulators, state governments, local municipalities and all other forms of government that behind every dollar in taxation or licensing fees or fines or the like there is a family looking to buy a house, pay for education, buy food, pay the light bill and on and on and on.  The same principle applies.

My money is no more the government's than it is Wall Street's.  Actually, no.  Wall Street has more of a claim to my money since my money is given to Wall Street voluntarily and not at the end of a gun.  Be it through direct investment, participation in a retirement fund or other form of investment, my money is being invested because I chose to put it there.  I have no choice but to pay taxes, fees, etc. unless I want it to finally end with a gun in my face.  That is the reality that far far too many politicians ignore.  There is all the difference in the world between voluntarily putting money into a mutual fund and having funds taken from your check so that you don't end up in jail for tax evasion.  These things are not the same. 

So you'll forgive me, Mr. President, if I find your moral posturing on this issue to be as risible as I do your claim about anything else.  You, sir, want to demonize Wall Street while you laugh at American citizens for exercising their rights to protest the forcible taking of their earnings.  Mr. President, I do wish to remind you that you work for us, not the other way around.  So, Mr. President, while you stand there fanning the flames of populist rage against those fat cat bankers, I'm going to sit here and do my best to fuel legitimate anger at the government's desire to take my money.  Fair is fair.

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St. Heartache Must Have Dipped Into His "Special" Pouch Of Crazy Weed Tonight

Holy Fucking Fucklickity Split With A Fuckrag On Top! This is some really fucked up shit!

Here's a revealing glimpse into how a delusional, incompetent, pathological liar has managed never to hold a real press conference and yet remains a credible public figure.

But enough about Team Obama.

Oh, wait! Lemme guess. He meant somebody else, right?

Yup.

The reason I banged on and on about Palin's bizarre story about her fifth campaign prop during the campaign was not because I wanted to invade someone's privacy, or engage in loony conspiracy theories. The reason is simply that this story raised legitimate questions of fact, and that the press decided that it would never ask the relevant questions {like Bristol and Levi? Like "I can see Russia from my house"? Like "what books do you read"? Like hacking into her yahoo mail account?-ed}, and indeed ostracize and ridicule those who did {if by "ostracize and ridicule", you mean a paycheck from a formerly prestigious publication and repeated appearances on cable TV to flog your silliness, then I want to suffer as you did-ed}.

But wait! It gets better!

The problem here is not really Palin. Every delusional, ignorant nutcase should have a chance to get away with running for national office {see: Kucinich, Dennis-ed}. The problem here is the system - a system that allowed someone no-one knew anything about to get very close to being a 72-year-old's heartbeat away from the presidency, a system that deems some questions unaskable {like asking Joe the Plumber about his tax records yet avoiding a vetting of Obama's policy papers?-ed}, a press that is more concerned with maximizing ratings and avoiding offence than in getting answers {yeah, and that is why they are so willing to hammer Obama every night and give the GOP a pass, right"-ed}. This system is dangerous {but that Chinese Politburo or the Chavez System? Fucking Awesome with a capital J!-ed}. If you construct a sealed media cocoon {like the DC Press Corp protecting Obama and MSNBC?-ed}, and false narrative, and a massive money-machine {how much did Obama spend to pimp his agenda in 2009/10? But we can't have that! We must investigate a woman's uterus-ed}, you can get further than most people imagine {see: Obama, Barack 44th President of the United States-ed}, . And remember, presidents have been elected with 43 percent of the vote before {and Abe Lincoln won a 4 way race. Your point?-ed}.

Jeebus Baconfucking On Cereal Christ! That is some fucked up shit right there. I wonder if Sir Sacsucker McSwampass even realizes that he just self parodied the rise of Obama and the media cocoon used to protect him. But I guess that is too much to ask of a man who has lapped Charles Johnson in the mentally fucked up category and is busy burning donuts in the infield with his trophy of craziness.

Oh well. Glad to see him stay at The Atlantic, so that he can continue to amaze and impress all comers with his rank stupidity and dementia. Crazy people need jobs too.

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Red on Red two-fer

I refuse to call it "blue on blue" because (a) everybody knows red is bad, and (b) red is the color of the (democratic) socialist parties 'round the world... except here for some reason.

Story 1: Anyway, Snarlin' Arlen Specter has a really nasty (and effective) ad up against his primary opponent Congressman Joe Sestak.  Sestak's saying he's being "swiftboated", which I just find all kinds of hilarious.

Story 2: Donny Douchebag Deutsch Douchebag got canned from MSNBC because he criticized Olbermann.  I guess that sheds some light on the not-so-oblique references made on Morning Joe when Joan Walsh just couldn't come up with anybody incendiary on the Left side of the media spectrum.  Of course, when the Olby fill-in gets better ratings than the real Olby, it's pretty obvious that you're running a raw propaganda machine rather than anything even pretending to be a capitalist venture.

--Couldn't happen to nicer people!

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Don't You Hate Seeing Rich Greedy Republicans Taking Money From Companies?

Yeah, especially when this happens.

But the mere $151,722.42 (inflation adjusted) in contributions from Enron-affiliated executives, employees, and PACs to Bush hardly add up to Obama's $1,007,370.85 (inflation adjusted) from Goldman-affiliated executives and employees. That's also not taking into account how much Goldman contributed to Obama cabinet member Hillary Clinton ($415,595.63 inflation adjusted), which was itself almost three times as much as Bush received as well. It would be fair to say that the total amount the Obama administration has received from those affiliated with Goldman Sachs is ten times that of what Bush received from Enron.

Goldman is being sued for civil fraud by the Securities and Exchange Commission for deliberately putting unwitting clients on the wrong side of a mortgage security trade that had been designed to fail {which helped spur the economic collapse that helped Obama win. Funny how that happens-ed}

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Hey Marc Ambinder?

The Moral Urgency of Obesity? Really? Really? I still await the philosophical justification for the position that my body is the government's business.

Mr. Ambinder, I have the following modest propositions for you. All of these propositions flow from your apparent belief that it is, in fact, the government's business to tell me what to do with my body.

1. There is a fierce moral urgency to ensure that those who are lonely find surcease from their pain. Thus, the government has the right to tell me with whom I must engage in carnal relations. 

2. There is a fierce moral urgency to ensure that the birth rate increases in order to maintain the needed levels of population for taxation purposes to fund government programs. Thus, the government has the right to force me to have a minimum of 3 children (one of the father, one for the mother, one for the state).

3. There is a fierce moral urgency to ensure that our nation's infrastructure is maintained. Thus, the government has the right to require me to work on a project repairing roads, cutting down forests, repairing dams and other such work.

Seriously, if the government has the right to regulate my body in one aspect, it has the right to regulate it in all other aspects.  It's the dick/donut proposition. If you cannot tell me what to do with one, you cannot tell me what to do with another.

My body does not belong to the government. Funny, didn't we fight this incredibly bloody war to firmly establish that idea?

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Filthy, Racist, White Trash Teabaggers Doing Something Or Other, Vol. Eleventy

Yeah, I just hate seeing those racist, violent, traitorous teabagging thugs being all racist, violent, and traitorous.

At this point, the invective the left is throwing at those of us opposed to Teh Won proves that they are frustrated and angry for seeing not only their power slip away from them, but their old bag of tricks is not working as it did in the past. And you know what? I fucking love it. I fucking love seeing them in a panic because their OODA loop is being fucked with, and they don't know how to react to it.

Oh well. Fuck them. Fuck them with Charlie Sheen's fake mustache for what they are doing to my daughter's future, and sneering at us when we protest. Fuck them for calling legitimate and legal protests terrorism and sedition. And fuck them just because I can't fucking stand to be around them.

And in case you lefties still fail to see that your projection of your sins upon us is foolish, feats your fucking eyes on this:

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In lieu of doing my own analysis

I'm going to steal Beldar's discussion of Obama's hurray teh gheys can visit their sick relatives order.

Go read that because it's smarter than what I was going to say.  Done?  Okay.  Here's the very short version of my reactions to this whole topic and to the discussions surrounding it:

1.  Lawmaking by executive order is abhorrent not to mention unconstitutional.  I do not care that it's for "my" side.  The United States is not a Kingdom and the President is not King.  The checks and balances exist for a reason.

2.  He who pays makes the rules.  This is true no matter the issue.  If an entity/person accepts federal money, the feds get to set the conditions.  Think about the fights we had about limits on executive compensation to companies that took bailout funds.  This is an enormous problem and it will become far, far worse as the tentacles of government entwine into all aspects of life.  See also Catholic Charities and adoption.

3.  The matter of advance directives is for the state.  Pennsylvania enacted a very detailed statute about the proper form for directives and what to do if there isn't one and what to do when there's a fight about who holds the right.  The federal government does not get to undo all of that with the stroke of a pen. 

4.   Once again the sob stories were totally inaccurate.  Qulle surprise. 

5.  I love that this was presented as an executive order when it's not.  Nice understanding of the legalities WaPo!

Look, I'll admit that part of what makes me furious about this stuff is that this gives ammunition to those who believe that The Homosexual Agenda is all about enactment by decree.  It's hard to argue otherwise when things like this happen. 

Posted by: alexthechick at 11:14 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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The Next Time You Hear Lefty Outrage Over The Kagan Rumors

Consider the left's own history of treating those with whom they disagree as it relates to sexual orientation.

Personally, I don't give two flying fucks of fuckitude what Ms. Kagan or anybody else does behind closed doors, so long as laws are not being broken. But, the leftist hypocrisy and history of "outing" gay Republicans/Conservatives, or swirling shady rumors of their opponents, should preclude them from any serious discussion on the matter.

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Fun with unemployment

Or rather, misery with unemployment, geoff shows what is happening with regards to unemployment.  Blech.

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Yeah, Those Violent Teabaggers And Their Violence-y Ways

Oh.

Never mind.

And this:

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Say...

...a few weeks ago, wasn't there some talk in the MSM about some kind of "Caffeinated Beverage Party" that was sweeping the country as an alternative to those stupid, nasty, racist Tea Party troglodytes? What was it called again? Because I don't seem to have heard much about those folks today.

Oh, wait, here's something...

As the Tea Party Rally train rolls across the nation, the new "Coffee Party Protestors" gathered on the steps of the Boise Capitol building to spread the message that taxes mean more jobs and a stronger economy.

Well, there's a winning position right there. Furthermore, here's a super-coherent statement from one of their (I'm sure) grassroots organizers:

"We've had a system that has advantaged the wealthy for a very long time," Adrienne Evans, United Vision for Idaho Director, said," and people know that's skewed. We're not advocating big government, but a responsible and compassionate government, that gives people tools to the resources and access so they can enhance their own lives and that of their communities."

Yeah. That doesn't sound like big government or "spreading around the wealth" or anything.

Be sure, by the way, to click on the link to see a photo of this massive rally.

Posted by: Sean M. at 08:48 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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So, apparently Congress voted to strip themselves of health care until 2014

First reaction when I read this?

Posted by: doubleplusundead at 11:18 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Who could have known?

Yawn, another day, another Obama supporter who's all surprised that Obama is a leftist, marxist, Chicago-machine politician follower of Reverend Wright who is working on getting Israel destroyed.

Ed Koch supported Bush against Kerry because Bush was better on protecting us. Remember when he spoke at the GOP convention?
So, naturally, he endorsed Obama over McCain. He said Obama would be better for the world.
According to Jay Nordlinger (where I saw the above link), Koch also said,
If the vice president were ever called on to lead the country, there is no question in my mind that the experience and demonstrated judgment of Joe Biden is superior to that of Sarah Palin

Praising Joe Fucking Biden's judgement?

So now what's he saying? He's all surprised that Obama is such a wimp on the world stage.
The funniest part? He opens his column praising Obama for opening up offshore drilling, when we've all seen he did no such thing. He opened up some areas for further investigation into if maybe we should possibly do some drilling, so long as Greenpeace doesn't have a problem.

So even as Koch has his column where he doesn't even ask how he could have been so wrong, he's still drinking Obama brand Kool Aid (twice as much sugar, half as much taste).

I am absolutely uninterested in being nice to idiots like that.
They were fooled because they wanted to be fooled and now, they can't admit that Sarah Palin was right and they were wrong and none of them, not one, will admit that Joe Fucking Biden is the biggest joke of a VP in the history of our nation.

Figuring out how you were fooled so badly is the first step in not being fooled again. Alas, America has shown that such introspection is very unpopular.

All Obama has to do in 2012 is spew more hope and change and blame everything on the GOP and he'll cruise to re-election.
And then the zombies come.
So it's a mixed bag I guess.

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From The "No Fucking Shit!" Files

In a way, I am surprised that we are at 66%, given how fucking stupid at least 52% of the population is. But the fact that almost 2/3 of America is pissed off should not bode well for the proponents of Obamacare.

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