WASHINGTON — Two weeks after President Barack Obama signed the big health care overhaul into law, Americans are struggling to understand how — and when — the sweeping measure will affect them.

Questions reflecting confusion have flooded insurance companies, doctors’ offices, human resources departments and business groups.

“They’re saying, ‘Where do we get the free Obama care, and how do I sign up for that?’ ” said Carrie McLean, a licensed agent for eHealthInsurance.com. The California-based company sells coverage from 185 health insurance carriers in 50 states.

Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/04/06/91696/health-care-overhaul-spawns-mass.html#ixzz0kc8SKeLT

Sorry folks, you were suckered.  You were tricked into thinking you were getting “free Government Healthcare” which, by the way, wouldn’t really be a terrible idea.  Don’t get me wrong, I support the idea of better Healthcare for everyone.

But the recent ObamaCare bill isn’t going to be what the people want, or even what they think it is.  Instead of Government based coverage for everyone you’re basically getting a system that will end up subsidizing the Insurance industry by forcing everyone to get insurance whether they need it or not.  You’re still going to be paying too much for services and surgery, it’s just now you also get to pay for Insurance you may not want, need, or be able to afford.

So hey, it’s ok isn’t it?  They told you it was going to be great!  There were a few guys out there telling you “write your congress person” and “don’t let it pass” but they are just crazy guys ranting about whatever for ratings right?  They don’t know what they are talking about right?  They are all just “evil republicans” jealous of the democrat’s in power or crazy Tea Partiers.  We should all just trust in Obama because he talks nice and has a good smile.  Also we can’t hate him because people will claim we’re just racist against the first minority president.

Besides, he told us we’d get free Healthcare!  Well didn’t he?  We know he said it somewhere, or was that just media hype and confusion.  Does anyone even really know what’s in this Healthcare bill? Do we need to know?  Our congress people all know, they know what’s good for us don’t they?  We voted them in didn’t we? Well, not all of us voted,. that would require we take time out to care and think and leave the house on voting day.

Sort of like how writing letters is a good idea but we should leave it to someone else.  These congress people are much too busy to read *my* letter, and surely someone else who is more able then I will make a stand right? Besides Tiger Woods is screwing some prostitute and Sandra Bullock wants to kill her Nazi Ex Boyfriend.  That’s WAY more important than some bill in congress.

Besides, those guys in Washington know what they are doing, they care about us, we voted for them after all…. they care… right?

President Obama signs the death note for the Constitutional process as he signs a Bill that was “Deemed to be Passed” as opposed to “Actually Passed” in the house.

There’s also that part where we all get enslaved to insurance companies who will continue to be free to sue every doctor and charge outrageous prices for prescriptions and procedures.

YAY DEMOCRACY!

Source…

Be sure to tell your family and friends, Congress is doing it’s best to piss all over the constitutional law making progress and the voice of the people in general.

Basically, the house is trying to put up some blatant smoke and mirrors to vote on the Senate Healthcare Bill without actually voting on it.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/15/AR2010031503742.html

Instead, Pelosi (D-Calif.) would rely on a procedural sleight of hand: The House would vote on a more popular package of fixes to the Senate bill; under the House rule for that vote, passage would signify that lawmakers “deem” the health-care bill to be passed.

Basically they vote of if it passed or not.  Not to pass it, but if it passed.  The main reason for this is that the bill itself will never pass.  It’s extremely unpopular all around.  No one wants to have their name down for a yes vote because they all have the sense to know that the thing is a train wreck in the making.  Meanwhile there is excessive pressure from those in charge to pass SOMETHING.

I’m still not sure why there is such a rush to ramrod this thing through.  The only thing I can figure is that the longer they wait, the more people will realize that the whole plan is going to cost everyone a ton of money in taxes and whatnot without actually solving the inherent problems with the healthcare system as a whole (insurance companies and pharmacy companies scamming people with price gouging on over priced drugs).

There is also the part where Obama has promised this package constantly and even with a guaranteed win all around with Democrat control everywhere in the government, they still managed to screw up passing this Bill.  Essentially Obama NEEDS this to pass in order to help save face.  Especially after that previous blatant lie that everyone was talking about a few months ago.

So, since they know they can’t pass this bill with normal procedures, they will circumvent the rules and requirements, making up procedure as they go to fake pass a bill that, while good in idea, is so full of BS and hidden agenda that it’ll be terrible for all those involved.

California Residence to Pay for 911 Calls

Tracy residents will now have to pay every time they call 9-1-1 for a medical emergency.
But there are a couple of options. Residents can pay a $48 voluntary fee for the year which allows them to call 9-1-1 as many times as necessary.
Or, there’s the option of not signing up for the annual fee. Instead, they will be charged $300 if they make a call for help.

What a scam we have here.  Sure, most people technically pay for 911 service through taxes, and these residents of California probably pay taxes on top of these fees for the service.  But when you are giving people a “choice” such as the one above, mow much choice is there?

I’m reminded of the strange practice done by phone companies with “overage” charges, where suddenly a minute is worth 5-6 times as much because you didn’t pay for it in advance.

Now, I will give it to you that most people probably never call 911, so opting to simply not pay for the service seems like a viable options.  In fact, I have never dialed 911 in my life.

But you know this money making scam will be accompanied by PSAs and stories along the lines of “Don’t be left with a high bill in an emergency, sign up today”.  Not to mention the businesses that will be more or less forced to sign up for liability reasons.

Finally, does this fee cover any phone you call from?  If a person signs up and then calls 911 from a neighbor’s home or from their cell phone is that covered or does the neighbor get a huge honking bill when someone decides to mess with him and calls the police a dozen times while he’s away on vacation as a way of getting revenge in some suburban quarrel?

Filed under Climategate.  Who needs the approval of the Senate (aka “the people”) when you’re trying to make money on carbon trading?

While the Cap & Trade Bill sits in the senate, Obama is gearing up to use Executive Orders to put the EPA in charge of regulating Carbon emissions and the trading thereof.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/13/us/politics/13obama.html

Well why shouldn’t he?

The senate has wasted months of valuable carbon producing time on not passing this bill without which companies can’t have an excuse to trade credits and make themselves (and Al Gore) rich.

You know, I’m all for being environmentally minded and “green” but if these guys were really serious there would not be a Cap & Trade bill, there would be a Cap bill.  Cap carbon emissions at X and tell companies that every year the cap will drop by say, 5% for the next ten years.  This would give companies time to green up.  The current system doesn’t give any real incentive for being green since companies can simply buy the credits they need.

Go Pollution!

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/01/20/facebook_fundraiser/

By Tuesday afternoon, over 212,000 had signed up, but were then informed that the organisers were actually the Svenska Nekrofil-föreningen (Swedish Necrophilia Association).

A message on the Facebook page read: “As many already know, it is the Swedish Necrophilia Association which is now sending 500,000 kronor to ensure that the bodies which are brought home from Haiti are in as good shape as possible.”

The moral of the stoy is, don’t just donate to any old group. Sure, support a good cause, help the poor people of Haiti, jsut make sure you’re note randomly throwing money around “just because”. The fact that 200,000 people donated to this thing before realizing it was a HOAX is pretty rediculous.

Something else to consider when donating. There are ads talking about “Donate $10 by texting to this number”. Remember, the money doesn’t go anywhere until your bill actually comes in, which may very well be in a month or more.

Also consider that when donating to th Red Cross, money may be going to a “General Fund” and not nessesarily irectly to Haiti victims.

This advice is good for any donation crisis in general. Make sur there’s No Agenda hidden in the reciever’s motivations.

From Dvorak Uncensored….

This isn’t a new practice by the way. Companies to this sort to thing all the time. They send a check or a “rebate” then if you cash it, you agree to some terms, generally a monthly fee of some kind.

I really don’t see what idiot in charge or marketing got the idea that this sort of thing was EVER a good idea. I can see the meeting now…

TopExec: “Sales are down boys, what can we do to increase our revenue?”

Exec1: “Well, Maybe we could all take pay cuts, we do individually each make more than our entire workforce combined”

[Pregnant pause]

[Laughing by all board members]

TopExec: “That was a good one, you’re a good comedian, I’ll give you a raise for that.”

Exec2: “I know, let’s send out checks to people! Everyone needs money these days”

TopExec: “Give away money, are you crazy?”

Exec2: “No, see, if they cash the check, they enroll in our program. The monthly fee will be triple the amount of the check, we’ll make our money back and then some! Also we’ll gain tons of loyal customers who won’t in anyway hate us eternally for scamming them. They’ll probably instead build statues in our honor for being brilliant and tricking them into using our product!”

TopExec: “Brilliant!”

Seriously, what’s wrong with these companies. This sort of activity is nothing but bad press and REEKS of greed.

I’m going to agree with the commentators on the video on this one. He’s not being snubbed, he’s introducing the guy he’s with. People are pushing this as if he’s offering ot shake hands and no one is taking. He’s gesturing in introduction.

http://cleantechnica.com/2009/09/17/san-francisco-launches-first-airport-carbon-kiosks/

San Francisco, caught up in the “Green Initiative”, has added Carbon Credit Kiosks to one of it’s airports. These kiosks allow you to to spend large amounts of cash and in return to get a “feel good” feeling that maybe that money is actually going to possibly help cut down on Carbon usage…. somewhere….

The idea is of course because flying on an airplane is bad for the atmosphere due to CO2 from the jet’s engines. While I’m not concerned about global working, I do like the idea of at least trying to reduce pollution and generally keeping things cleaner but I hate these sorts of initiatives. It’s sort of like “feed the poor kids in Africa”. The whole thing comes off like some sort of scam where maybe 1% fo the money taken in actually goes toward whatever cause they are pushing. Especially in the more or less bankrupt state of California.