The State of American Healthcare: Boy Dies of Toothache

Twelve-year-old Deamonte Driver died of a toothache
Sunday.

A routine, $80 tooth extraction might have saved him.

If his mother had been insured.

If his family had not lost its Medicaid.

If Medicaid dentists weren't so hard to find.

If his mother hadn't been focused on getting a dentist for his brother, who had six rotted teeth.

By the time Deamonte's own aching tooth got any attention, the bacteria from the abscess had spread to his brain, doctors said. After two operations and more than six weeks of hospital care, the Prince George's County boy died.

Read the rest here, and tell me again about American Healthcare being the best in the world.

AARP: SeniorCare a Better Deal the Medicare Part D

Like we didn't know that...

Rejecting SeniorCare would be a mistake.

It would result in higher costs for nearly all of the folks who are enrolled in the program now. They're getting a better deal from SeniorCare than they would from Part D, according to an analysis by AARP Wisconsin.

It would be a mistake for the federal government, too. The AARP analysis also showed that the federal government saves about $25 million a year through those 105,000 people picking SeniorCare instead of Part D.

Am I too old to go on spring break?

Snow Removal

The Northwestern has a nice editorial about neighbors helping neighbors through the recent snow:

Oshkosh logged nearly a foot of snow over the last few days. Not exactly conducive to travel.

But snowstorms also are opportunity to bundle up, grab a shovel, gas up the blower and help out a neighbor who may have no choice but hunker down.

Especially if you live next door to an elderly or disabled citizen, take the opportunity to help.

Knock on his or her door, introduce yourself and offer to clear a path on his or her behalf.

I actually have a story that is the exact opposite of that...

I was out shovelling my sidewalk Sunday morning (and for those of you who don't know, I am a large young man), when the little, upper middle-aged woman who lives next door to me stopped by and asked if I wanted to use her snow-blower.

Not quite helping your elderly neighbors, but appreciated all the same. Sometimes it is nice to remember that assisting neighbors can go in all directions.

U.S. economy leaving record numbers in severe poverty...

An informative article here:

The percentage of poor Americans who are living in severe poverty has reached a 32-year high, millions of working Americans are falling closer to the poverty line and the gulf between the nation's "haves" and "have-nots" continues to widen.

A McClatchy Newspapers analysis of 2005 census figures, the latest available, found that nearly 16 million Americans are living in deep or severe poverty. A family of four with two children and an annual income of less than $9,903 - half the federal poverty line - was considered severely poor in 2005. So were individuals who made less than $5,080 a year.

The McClatchy analysis found that the number of severely poor Americans grew by 26 percent from 2000 to 2005. That's 56 percent faster than the overall poverty population grew in the same period. McClatchy's review also found statistically significant increases in the percentage of the population in severe poverty in 65 of 215 large U.S. counties, and similar increases in 28 states. The review also suggested that the rise in severely poor residents isn't confined to large urban counties but extends to suburban and rural areas.

The plight of the severely poor is a distressing sidebar to an unusual economic expansion. Worker productivity has increased dramatically since the brief recession of 2001, but wages and job growth have lagged behind. At the same time, the share of national income going to corporate profits has dwarfed the amount going to wages and salaries. That helps explain why the median household income of working-age families, adjusted for inflation, has fallen for five straight years.

These and other factors have helped push 43 percent of the nation's 37 million poor people into deep poverty - the highest rate since at least 1975.

The share of poor Americans in deep poverty has climbed slowly but steadily over the last three decades. But since 2000, the number of severely poor has grown "more than any other segment of the population," according to a recent study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

Every Monday at 9:01 PM...

.. I can't wait until Heroes is on next Monday at 8:00 pm.

Results Are In... (Oshkosh City Council)

Bryan L. Bain 2846 22.23% Tony Palmeri 2112 16.49% Meredith Scheuermann 2021 15.78% Jessica J. King 1842 14.39% Bob Cornell 1762 13.76% Mark C. Nielsen 1322 10.32% Kent Monte 885 6.91% Write-in 14 0.11%

The top 6 go on. The top 3 in April become Council Members.

Picture of the Year...

Read the caption here...

or

A float depicting U.S. President George W. Bush being spanked by the Statue Of Liberty passes by during the Rose Monday carnival parade in Mainz, western Germany, on Monday, Feb. 19, 2007. Thousands of spectators attended the traditional street carnival parade in the state of Rhineland-Palatinates's capital. (AP Photo/Bernd Kammerer)

Buses at the Jail

I sent an email to Sheriff Brooks with some questions about safety at the bus pickup outside the jail.

Here is the post. I'll keep up with any reply.

Monte is Again Online, Just With Content Missing and a Big Lie Added...

As a follow-up to yesterday's post about Oshkosh Council Candidate Kent Monte, it seems he is back up online.

However, he seems to have removed several of his posts - and added a bit of a logical puzzle.

As I mentioned yesterday, his blog seems to often traffic in rumor and innuendo, however after the blog shutdown of yesterday, many of the controversial posts seem to be nowhere to be found...

On his blog, he explains his offline time as:

the "glitch" that prevented my site from being viewed on Saturday night. It has been resolved (although I am not sure how)

However, in a comment on my little blog here, he explains:

I didn't change anything with my site and it was "repaired" this morning. It was not planned nor intentional for it to have gone off line sometime between Saturday and Sunday. I did get it fixed as soon as I became aware of the problem. Blogger assures me that it should not have happened and will not happen again.

Well, Kent, which is it? Was it something that was resolved miraculously in a way that you do not know, or did you work with Blogger to fix it? It clearly cannot be both.

Did you lie to everyone on your blog, or just to my readers here?

Also, if you note the timelines of past posts on the side of my blog, I have been using Blogger for almost 3 years now. I have never seen my, or any other blog, spontaniously require you to be part of the blog's inner circle to read it. That needs to be something that is selected by the blog owner.

Kent, where did the posts where you spread false innuendo about current council members go? If you are going to put a false story out there, be resolved enough to stand behind it or correct it, not just delete it as if it never happened.

Where is the post where you falsely claimed that a competitor took money he did not? Where is your explanation of why you went on WOSH to question another candidates integrity and intelligence?

What are you going to do once your are elected? Ask the clerk to go back and change the minutes of meetings if you are not happy with what you said or how you voted?

Kent, if you cannot stand by your word and get your story straight on these little blogs, what will you be on the Council Dias?

This is an odd way to get elected...

... shutting down public information.

above is a screen grab from Kent Monte's Blog site. Kent is a candidate for Oshkosh City Council who has been documented with posting and spreading rumor and innuendo. His blog has a regularly been criticized because of his habit of publishing attacks on councill members and community leaders before he has all the information, then editing or deleting the posts when it is pointed out to him that he is wrong.

It seems that now, Monte feels the best way to get elected is to not allow anyone not approved to view his website and therefore his opinions on the city and it's future.

You know, it may be the smartest campaign move he has ever made.

What do you know, you can ride an Oshkosh Truck to BFE?

Egyptian government, Oshkosh Truck ink deal
OSHKOSH — Oshkosh Truck Corp. Wednesday announced the company won a contract from the Egyptian Ministry of Defense to supply 30 medium tactical trucks.

The trucks will be specially designed to meet the ministry's logistics and transport requirements.

Oshkosh Truck, which is the parent company of Pierce Manufacturing with operations in Grand Chute and the Town of Menasha, said the contract, valued at $4.9 million, is the first major international order for the model line.

C'mon Ziggy, Can't You at Least Give Us Global Warming?

In a past post, I highlighted all the ways that Manitowoc's Bob Ziegelbauer parts from the Democrats that he caucuses with and claims to be a part of.

I can understand that, many of them are issues that really boil down to ones on political views. He happens to be swimming against the political Democratic mainstream, but I guess he could make his own argument.

But, now he is against established science:

"I am not one of those who is rushing to join the bandwagon of accepting as indisputable fact that we have man-made global warming that puts the planet in jeopardy," Ziegelbauer said. "I think that's grossly overstated and most importantly, far from scientifically decided.

"These proposals in the name of a global warming crisis are troubling especially because they use the hysteria to justify a massive government intervention into the day-to-day lives of our community and I find that especially threatening to our future prosperity as well."

The bill in Wisconsin comes after Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle called for creation of a global warming task force. Doyle also has proposed spending $30 million on additional renewable energy sources including solar, wind, hydrogen, biodiesel and ethanol.

Come on Ziggy, are you going to come out against evolution next?

The King Is Gone...

I remember seeing the King and His Court when they came to Princeton as a kid. I was supremely entertained.

Eddie Feigner, arguably the greatest softball player of all time, the amazing pitcher who led his four man team around the world playing conventional nine man teams for 61 years, died February 9th at the age of 81 in Huntsville, AL.

An American Torture...

A contracted interrogator tells his story:

American authorities continue to insist that the abuse of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib was an isolated incident in an otherwise well-run detention system. That insistence, however, stands in sharp contrast to my own experiences as an interrogator in Iraq. I watched as detainees were forced to stand naked all night, shivering in their cold cells and pleading with their captors for help. Others were subjected to long periods of isolation in pitch-black rooms. Food and sleep deprivation were common, along with a variety of physical abuse, including punching and kicking. Aggressive, and in many ways abusive, techniques were used daily in Iraq, all in the name of acquiring the intelligence necessary to bring an end to the insurgency. The violence raging there today is evidence that those tactics never worked. My memories are evidence that those tactics were terribly
wrong.
...
Some may suggest there is no reason to revive the story of abuse in Iraq. Rehashing such mistakes will only harm our country, they will say. But history suggests we should examine such missteps carefully. Oppressive prison environments have created some of the most determined opponents. The British learned that lesson from Napoleon, the French from Ho Chi Minh, Europe from Hitler. The world is learning that lesson again from Ayman al-Zawahiri. What will be the legacy of abusive prisons in Iraq?

Doyle Takes Amendment Head On

The pro-amendment people said that the point of it was nott o deny people benefits. Lets see them prove it.

Doyle Will Ask For Domestic Partner Benefits

POSTED: 2:59 pm CST February 11, 2007
UPDATED: 3:14 pm CST February 11, 2007

MADISON, Wis. -- Gov. Jim Doyle wants the state to pay for health-care benefits for domestic partners of all state employees.

Doyle said he'd put the request in his state budget proposal.

Doyle asked for a similar benefit package for just UW employees in his last budget, but Republicans took it out in the legislature.

Doyle said the benefits are needed to attract the best and brightest people to state jobs.

A spokesman for the Republican Assembly speaker said the governor's headed in "completely the wrong direction."

"Then the wolf shall be a guest of the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid"

From MSNBC:

Wal-Mart and unions unite on health care
Retailer, other big employers aim for ‘quality, affordable’ coverage

Executives from Wal-Mart and three other large U.S. employers on Wednesday joined union leaders in calling for “quality, affordable” health care for every American by 2012.

However, they did not propose any specific policies to achieve this goal, or commit to spending any extra money in the near-term to provide health coverage to more workers.

Joining Wal-Mart Stores Inc. CEO Lee Scott and Service Employees International Union leader Andrew Stern at a Washington press conference were top executives from Intel Corp., AT&T Inc. and Kelly Services Inc., a temporary staffing agency.
...
The partnership of business and union leaders laid out four main goals, including universal health-care coverage for all Americans and boosting the value of every U.S. dollar spent on health care. The business and union leaders’ coalition, dubbed “Better Health Care Together,” pledged to convene a national summit by the end of May to recruit others from the private sector, labor, government and non-profits.

However:

(Walmart's) Scott said Wednesday he would not withhold financial support from lawmakers and candidates who oppose universal health care. WakeUpWalMart spokesman Chris Kofinis called that stance “hypocritical,” pointing out that Scott blamed politics as the main reason the nation lacked universal health care.

The Automakers have also called for universal healthcare in meetings with the White House.

If you are against this, you are against history's current path. This is a fight that we can and will win. It is nice to see Wal-Mart aboard

I'm still not shopping there, however.

A Good Decision From Ford

As I noted in a previous post the Ford Taurus was discontinued even though it was their best seller.

Now comes this news:

Ford Set to Rename Five Hundred Sedan "Taurus"

NEW YORK (Reuters)
- Ford
Motor Co. (F.N) is planning to announce that its Five Hundred mid-size sedan will be renamed the Taurus, after its once-popular but now discontinued model, Dow Jones Newswires reported on Tuesday.
The newswire said Ford executives would announce its plan on Wednesday at the Chicago auto show.
No Ford spokesman was immediately available to comment.

Winnebago County Board Size

I have an update on my Winnebago County Board blog here....

Judiciary and Parks Meetings

For Parks And Judiciary click on them for the full agenda.

Parks will be discussing the soccer fees - Judiciary will look at maps for supervisory districts.

Something to remember when you read that Global Warming isn't happening...

Scientists and economists have been offered $10,000 each by a lobby group funded by one of the world's largest oil companies to undermine a major climate change report due to be published today.

Letters sent by the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), an ExxonMobil-funded thinktank with close links to the Bush administration, offered the payments for articles that emphasise the shortcomings of a report from the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Travel expenses and additional payments were also offered.

The article is here.

Happy Birthday, FDR

From NYTimes 'On This Day'

1882 - Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the 32nd president of the United States, was born in Hyde Park, N.Y.

Come again, we need you.

Irony:

1933 - Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany.

Also today:

1972 - Thirteen Roman Catholic civil rights marchers were shot to death by British soldiers in Northern Ireland on what became known as ''Bloody Sunday.''

It is also Dick Cheney's birthday. I believe good taste should dictate that Cheney reschedule his to a different day.

In Peoria, Bush Celebrates the End of the American Middle Class

The story that is not being told about Bush's visit to Peoria:

"There is a balance that must be struck,” Caterpillar group president Douglas Oberhelman told The New York Times, “between being competitive and being middle class.”

That is from a February 26, 2006 story in the New York Times (I blogged it here and here).

Remember this when you hear that:

Bush is touting Peoria-based Caterpillar as an example of how his administration's trade agreements and tax breaks can boost global sales and create jobs for U.S. workers.

What he is really saying is that by selling out real middle-class supporting jobs, Caterpillar can:

... net about $9 billion in sales outside of North America in 2006, when revenues of about $41.5 billion netted profits that topped $3.5 billion -- both company records.

Where is the extra profit coming from?

Highly profitable Caterpillar Tractor, for instance, now offers its new hires just $22 an hour in wages and benefits, half what it pays its more senior employees.

and:

After more than a decade of failed strikes and job actions — mainly in Illinois, where Caterpillar has its biggest factories — the U.A.W. reluctantly accepted a two-tier contract that provides for significantly lower wages and benefits for newly hired employees. The new second tier is as much as $20 an hour below the cost of employing Mr. Doty, 50, and a dwindling band of other veterans.

Bush is in Peoria today... Celebrating that community winning the race to the bottom, and the end of the American Middle Class.

And the $3.5 billion profit it netted his supporters.

Greg Baise, president and CEO of the Illinois Manufacturers Association, disagreed, calling Caterpillar the perfect stop ahead of Bush's economic address.

“Cat has had a very strong run the last few years. If there was a symbol of industrial might in America, I think they represent that as much as anyone,” Baise said.

Unfortuantely, he is correct.

Quote of the Day - Smoking Ban Edition

What a great point, do you think she was a debate champion?

Mary Lou Duerr, president of the Wood County Tavern League, does not want to see any smoking ban include taverns.

"There's something about drinking and smoking that goes together," she said.

Friedman on Bush's State of the Union:

As I read the president’s remarks, listened to the tepid public reaction and looked at his latest polls, which show Mr. Bush to be wildly unpopular, it seemed to me that the American people basically fired George Bush in the last election. We’re now just watching him clean out his desk. Both his energy proposals and his recent Iraq surge were about the best he could muster, given his pink slip.

Krugman Quotes FDR

A great editorial here.

Krugman compares the coming health debate to the New Deal (I agree).

“We had to struggle,” he declared in 1936, “with the old enemies of peace — business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering. ... Never before in all our history have these forces been so united against one candidate as they stand today. They are unanimous in their hate for me — and I welcome their hatred.”
...
But politicians who try to push forward the elements of a new New Deal, especially universal health care, are sure to face the hatred of a large bloc on the right — and they should welcome that hatred, not fear it.

Bush now at 28% - Clinton at 69% same time in his term

The latest CBS poll:

THE STATE OF THE PRESIDENCY
Only 28% of Americans approve of the way the President is handling his job, while more than twice as many, 64%, disapprove.
This is the lowest approval rating the President has ever received, but it is not much different from earlier this month, when 30% approved.
PRES. BUSH’S JOB APPROVAL
Now - 1/1-3/2007
Approve - 28% - 30%
Disapprove - 64 - 63
Interviewing for this poll was conducted Thursday through Sunday. Saturday was the third deadliest day of the fighting in Iraq for U.S. troops.
There is more bad news for President Bush. By a two to one margin, Americans think he does not share their priorities. Just 28% think he does, while 69% think he does not.
DOES BUSH SHARE YOUR PRIORITIES?
Yes 28%
No 69

Contrast this to January 25, 1999 - 6 years into Clinton's Presidency (and during his impeachment)....

Clinton's approval rating remains high despite the Senate trial, with 69 percent expressing approval of the way he is handling his job as president. But a majority say they have a negative opinion of Clinton as a person. One reason for Clinton's high approval rating is that 71 percent say the economy is the best it has been in their lifetimes.

Do your soul a favor...

...and read this about refugee soccer in Atlanta.

Why Does Nate Still Hate Bob La Follete? (Another History Lesson)

As I have discussed before, our buddy Nate is slowly trying to tear down Bob La Follette's Legacy.

First he went after the open primary system, and now he is trying to shoot down the Council-Manager form of governmtnet in this comment on Babblemur.

nate wrote:
I am confused, what the hell is a city manager. Is that something akin to a Mayor in a democracy. Is that something leftover from the mining days.
Posted on 19-Jan-07 at 5:28 am

Well, Nate - here's a history lesson, the Council-Manager form of government is a major reform of the Progressive Era lead by La Follette:

Wikipedia:

Many progressives hoped to make American governments better able to serve the people's needs by making governmental operations and services more efficient and rational. Reforms included:

Professional administrators

Many progressives argued that governments would function better if they were placed under the direction of trained, professional administrators. One example of progressive reform was the rise of the city manager system, in which paid, professional administrators ran the day-to-day affairs of city governments under guidelines established by elected city councils.

Regents US History:

Progressive reform began at the local or city level because it was easier to implement than at the vast state or national level. Urban corruption from political machines was a major focus, resulting in the reorganization of local government using the commissioner-and city-manager-styles of management.
City Reforms
CityCommissioner Plan
Cities hired experts in different fields to run a single aspect of city government. For example, the sanitation commissioner would be in charge of garbage and sewage removal.
City ManagerPlan
A professional city manager is hired to run each department of the city and report directly to the city council.

Encyclopeadia Britannica:

Despite initial differences among urban reformers, by the early 1900s the vast majority of them were fighting for and winning much the same objectives—more equitable taxation of railroad and corporate property, tenement house reform, better schools, and expanded social services for the poor. Even big-city machines like Tammany Hall became increasingly sensitive to the social and economic needs of their constituents. Reformers also devised new forms of city government to replace the old mayor–city-council arrangement that had proved to be so susceptible to corrupt influences. One was the commission form, which vested all responsibility in a small group of commissioners, each responsible for a single department; another was the city-manager form, which provided administration by a professionally trained expert, responsible to a popularly elected council (these two forms were in widespread use in small and medium-sized cities by 1920).

University of Arizona:

One of the key factors in good governance at the local level, advocated so successfully one hundred years ago in the Progressive Movement, is the professional public manager.(1) Professional public management, embodied in the council-manager form of government for municipalities and in the board-manager form of government for counties, requires an elected governing body to hire a professionally-trained public manager with broad authority to hire and fire department heads and to establish merit systems, competitive bidding procedures, and standardized accounting and auditing practices.

Nate, why are you trying to tear down Fightin' Bob LaFollette?

Approve - 35% Disapprove - 60%

Those are Bush's current numbers.

(I suppose it is far to late for 'We told you so'?)

Some highlights from the poll:

When President Bush delivers his next-to-last State of the Union address Tuesday night, he will confront this reality, according to the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll: Nearly two-thirds of Americans appear to have given up on success in Iraq and also on his presidency.

In addition, the poll finds that nearly another two-thirds believe he shouldn’t move ahead with his troop increase to Iraq, if Congress passes a non-binding resolution opposing it. And it shows that just two in 10 want Bush taking the lead role in setting policy for the country.
...
Perhaps more significant, a whopping 65 percent believe that Bush is facing a longer-term setback from which he’s unlikely to recover. That’s compared with 25 percent who think he’s facing just a short-term setback, and 7 percent who believe he’s facing no setback at all.

What’s more, only 22 percent say they want the president taking the lead in setting policy for the nation. Fifty-seven percent say they would prefer the Democratic-controlled Congress holding the reins.