Free Republic

Anyone notice the irony of this moron’s content on the site and then the name of his book?

“In a Special Comment, Countdown’s Keith Olbermann recounts asking every politician and commentator to renounce violent rhetoric and apologize for any use of it, even inadvertent.”

And then he titles his new book Pitchfork and Torches where he takes aim at Beck, et al. I suppose he doesn’t realize what those pitchfork and torches where used for when the mob took to the streeets?

What a moron. Good riddance. Now if we can get that hag Maddow off the airwaves...sheesh.

My friendly neighborhood census taker showed up today and asked me the battery of questions. I told her how many people lived there and said that’s all that was required of me. She rambled about how certain races and sexes get extra money from the Fed so I should answer. I told her that was absurd and I in no way agree with that statement. All I want is my fair representation in congress and now you have all the information you need so that I do. She tried to make me say I was refusing the census. I told her no, you will turn in the real census information, the count I just gave. What I refuse is your ridiculous non-census related questions that are used for gov’t programs that I don’t agree with in the first place. Then I closed the door on her.

+1 for Mehary being a total joke. The reason? Its an affirmative action black school that gets loads of tax dollars to accept black students with subpar grades. Obamacare has a provision for more of this exact thing. Vanderbilt residents have to work with those clowns and I have heard about many near death situations.

Also lots of gov’t run hospitals (VA for one; inner city hospitals) consistently use foreign med grads on the cheap. Expect way more of the same as we lose the talent to this BS.

As for docs switching to salaries, the current batch will still maintain the belief that they are getting screwed, its the new affirmative action and subpar grads that will be leftists. Also, this allows the gov’t to force them to take Medicare which is key to their takeover. As it stands right now, if the private docs got the cajones to abandon Medicare en masse, they can’t do a thing. If all docs end up earning a salary from hospitals (which are dependent on fed dollars AND beholden to the fed legally by precedent of many years) they will be taking Medicare by default. Then the docs will no longer care about managing costs or about the insurance payouts because they no longer see the bottom line. Then the chorus will chime in that we need to regulate this “madness” of spending and hello death panels 2.0.

At the same time they will cease to care to provide true service industry quality of service as there is ZERO incentive to do so. And the quality of care goes into the toilet. Docs do this NOW. If they are working on salary and some patient comes in in the evening or at some other unfortunate time, the doctor will give a middle finger to you and will come at their leisure as their bottom line will not change one bit whether or not they come to see you that night. If the doctor makes money based on visits and face time, you bet your a$$ they will be there that evening and again the next day to maximize their cash flow and to ensure that said patient returns (if applicable to the situation). If you’ve had the privilege of working with a salaried doc in a teaching hospital fed by tax dollars vs. a private hospitalist, the difference is startling.

No question. Chet Edwards is a complete leftist. He was a possible VP candidate for our traitor-in-chief. He keeps hanging on even though his district was redistricted to remove him last go around. Most recently he nearly lost. He only voted no to save his skin. He should be toast, but on the other hand the district has been proved easily fooled as shown in his 06 win against Republican Van Taylor (USMC) by 18%.

I worry to see what happens in this election. Amnesty, etc. If this doesn’t get resolved at the ballot box in Nov. it doesn’t look good IMO. Revolutions are only fought by 10% of a nation.

Not all cars’ software has a system to cut fuel to the engine when the brakes are pressed at the same time as the accelerator. This video doesn’t sow a design flaw in that regard. Those are some crappy brakes that can’t get the car below 30-40MPH though.

My take was the effects were definitely top notch. A step above anything yet but the impact would have been far greater a year or two ago before the latest batch of very good 3D offerings. That being said, it was seriously flawed. Putting all the obvious liberal BS aside, the thing was way too long. 30 minutes cut out would have done wonders. The acting was also B movie grade. Character development was not good at all. I wasn’t really cheering for anyone in this. I found myself wondering when it would end after about the first 90 minutes and rolling my eyes throughout. It was a good thing it was uber heavy in special effects. Worth seeing in IMAX 3D but that is about all. Effects over affect.

In the meantime, you can leave the pulp you already made to sit in the cheese cloth overnight or longer and you should get a majority of the liquid from it. Some things require quite a bit of time to fully drain/dry. Homemade mozzarella for instance. Never tried pear but this works for apple sauce.

Indeed. I went from Germany to Paris to London on my last European adventure and the first problem I had understanding someone speaking English was in England when trying to check into my hotel. I literally had to ask her to repeat herself 3 times before I got the jest of what she was saying. Even then I wasn’t quite sure I got everything. In Glastonbury, I was trying to follow a local priest describing some history of the abbey and it was a major struggle. And I had just told my wife the evening before in Paris that it would be good when everyone speaks English. Ha!

I think they meant she graduated not "pass out". Whenever I hear some English phrases from the UK it reminds me of my trip there or the quote from Snatch when Denis Farina goes to London and says:

Speak English to me, Tony. I thought this country spawned the f*****g language, and so far nobody seems to speak it.

As much as I believe the MSM lies, I am VERY familiar with the inner workings of this company and, in this case, the MSM was spot on. I’ll cede the point that they had an end justifies the mean mentality on this report. They could have found literally thousands of poor saps that got royally screwed and instead choose the lady from the report who was clearly a less than stellar witness.

I’ll venture to say we’ll hear very little from you in the future shadowbiker. One will note the company’s wholesale effort to blanket all social networks, youtube, blog site with this denial. I’ll use the term astroturfing.

This company are charlatans just like every other debt settlement company that takes payment before doing any work whatsoever on the clients behalf.

I mean this video response itself is a joke. 1000+ BBB complaints “but they were all resolved”. Yeah, OK. What company with even a semblance of customer service or legitimacy has 1000’s of BB complaints in a few short years even IF they were resolved.

Then we take the claim of $1 billion settled. Even if that was the case, the company was making upwards of $20 million a month in my recollection. So within 4 years they would have made as much money as they settled for the clients?!?! How bout I don’t buy a word they say until they provide some actual numbers like % of people who actual complete the program. Or better yet, percent of debt settled. I think you’ll find that number is in the single digits if it even made it to 1%. Somehow, I think you can find that inside information quite easily shadowbiker.

I am sure everyone else here has brain enough to doubt these jokers, but just to clarify. If you were considering talking to this company RUN, don’t walk. RUN!!! Head to the local bookstore and find a $10 book on debt settlement and do it yourself. I PROMISE you will be more successful.

Send the $1000’s you save to...:)

Its not quite an accurate statement to say that more doctors = lower cost. You would have to first lower the requirements to become a doctor or you would not have people applying. The demand for high value specialties is far lower than one would expect and the general practioners today would tell their kids to steer clear of medicine because they are already declining in salary for what they've had to do to be able to practice medicine. Rural and medicare docs make about what a top nurse does. It just isn't worth it.

And then you have the fact the costs are controlled by government regulation and insurance companies. You become a doctor and you sign on with a group of other docs to an existing insurance agreement or try to haggle your own. Haggle you own means a difference, but not a substantial one.

If people were paying cash for primary care and only carried catastrophic insurance, then the price would indeed react to market conditions. In ints current form it is FAR from a free market. And BarryCareLess is heading further in the wrong direction.

Me? I'd venture to say that if people were paying cash for primary care, they would balk at hospital prices and more urgent care clinics would come in and hospitals would be forced to conform. The urgent care clinic is already the next force in medicine. ER docs flee from a true ER due to must accept policies that force them to take illegal aliens and uninsured patients at a loss. You'll notice that most doctor-owner hospitals are in areas with a decent patient population (i.e. - low medicare). Ask a doctor a main criteria for choosing a clinic location and one will surely be the patient population.

The author makes some decent points but some of this is more government intervention to prevent government intervention. No thanks.

I've read both these summaries through and through and I come from a medical perspective. Suffice to say your misinformation link is filled with misinformation. I may agree to some hyperbole but let me show just a few points where the liberal "wingnut" making the counter points is being ridiculous. I won't bother with the obvious strawman arguments throughout.

First, the obvious:

• Page 203: “The tax imposed under this section shall not be treated as tax.” Yes, it really says that.

The author then complains about the period after tax and pastes in the full text which indeed says exactly what was claimed. True it had no period but the meaning is clear that any of the penalty taxes imposed can't be used in tax deductions and hence means exactly what it would with the period. I mean the author says he doesn't even understand the legalese while lambasting the original author for changing the meaning he didn't get in the first place. Great argument.

Next: • Page 127: The AMA sold doctors out: the government will set wages.

The rebuttal claims the author is lying and I can therefore outright say that the man does not even begin to have a grasp of how medicare and medicaid are run. It SETS WAGES! And in the referenced page it clearly states there are three types of doctors, all of which must accept the gov. fee as FULL PAYMENT. No collection of additional from the patient. Hence the government will set wages. Unless you buy into the complete fallacy that you can just not join. Read this heap of garbage through and you will see it makes plain the options are either be in the government plan or stop being a doctor. Many will choose the latter. As it stands right now, most doctors LOSE money on Medicare patients and make up for it in private payments which is ironic because private premiums have increased LESS than Medicare.

Which brings me to my next point: • Page 253: Government sets value of doctors’ time, their professional judgment, etc. and • Page 241: Doctors: no matter what speciality you have, you’ll all be paid the same (thanks, AMA!)

Read for yourself. Our liberal authorize begins hurling insults when the text of the bill is clear. Billing codes will be classified into two groups and prices fixed based on that category "without regard to the specialty of the physician furnishing the service". Yes it says that. AND I got the punctuation correct. No imagine the lack of specialists. Who would go through 23 YEARS of school and training minimum (12 years of primary, 4 years of college, 4 years of medical school and 3 years of residency minimum) and then decide to add on up 7-10 years more for heart surgery or neurosurgery for the same pay? Would you? Hell, at Medicare rate I know numerous other doctors that would stop practicing. And ask a random sample of doctors today if they would tell their child to become a doctor. The result should scare you. I already know what the answer will be. Who need the government to ration when lack of doctors will do it for you. I guess Juan from Primero Medical School of Jamaica would be fine for your healthcare?

Then: • Page 335: Government mandates establishment of outcome-based measures: i.e., rationing.

The liberal nut claims that outcome-based medicine is not rationing but the opposite. However, he fails to note that that is the exact method used in other socialized medicine programs. Outcome based means you ONLY give treatments and medication that have an outcome deemed positive by research. Now that is all and good for guidelines, but I can be 99% confident that nearly everyone one here has been prescribed something off-label; that is not approved for that use. Outcome based your would never have gotten that med. Furthermore, one need not look far for bogus politically motivated decisions from the FDA or CDC on medications and treatments and those are the ones who will decide what is part of a positive outcome. Experimental cancer treatments? Dream on. NOT ONE experimental drug is considered to be part of outcome based medicine. Again, the author proves his naivete.

I'll stop at: • Page 298: Doctors: if you treat a patient during an initial admission that results in a readmission, you will be penalized by the government.

The author says its made up and then defends the logic. The text of the bill is "(C) applying a payment reduction for physicians who treat the patient during the initial admission that results in a readmission;" so the idiot is clearly wrong on the whole made up thing. Should give you pause on believing him when he says it throughout his rant. But onto his logic. He states its like taking your car into a garage. You wouldn't pay a mechanic twice if they didn't fix it the first time. Now lets get real. If you took your car in to replace your engine because you failed to put in oil and then left and did it again would you come back and get a discount or a freebie? Its a ridiculous statement that shows that this man believes doctors are the bad guy out to just make a buck. A doctor treats someone in the hospital to the best of their ability. If they don't, its called malpractice and we already have laws, licensing, and lawsuits that take care of that readily. Once the patient leaves the hospital, they are free to use and abuse their bodies or be prone to any number of unforeseeable complications from their illness that is nowhere like a car repair that now the doctor will be liable for even without intent or negligence? There's a reason why you need no degree for car repair and decades of school for medicine. Except now they may be getting paid the same. Now imagine how many doctors will just pass on treating patients with complicated problems. It self-fulfilling rationing and its already happening in other countries. The evidence is there. Maybe this guy should believe in an outcome based healthcare system. If he did, he wouldn't be for this. There is no evidence to support his thesis. Only the contrary.

OK, last one: • Page 59: The federal government will have direct, real-time access to all individual bank accounts for electronic funds transfer.

Again the clown displays his ignorance. Ncdonna, nurse of 33 years was likely was never involved in billing. Most nurses never have. If she agrees with this clown at ALL it must be the case. He quotes the text of the bill "(C) enable electronic funds transfers, in order to allow automated reconciliation with the related health care payment and remittance advice;". He then says that clearly means only electronic transfer between doctor and government plan. First off, that alone is scary to anyone practicing medicine as a doctor and should be scary to a nurse who makes their livelihood assisting the same. Those penalties for readmissions, etc? Removed directly from your bank at the gov't choosing. Kiss those sky high nurse wages goodbye on this plan. Ncdonna, I would just like to point out that a doctor at a typical practice making just medicare fees would make at BEST the same as the top 10% RN today. Not quite a fair deal and if the doctor's wages drop, so will the nurses. But onto the technical here. When one receives remittance advice it has what amount was claimed, what amount was covered and then what is left for the patient to pay. The reconciliation of said advice consists of making that balance zero including BILLING THE PATIENT. So automated reconciliation would include deduction of premiums and copays electronically from YOUR bank account, not the doctors. Unless you believe this is free or something and you won't owe premiums or a copay at all. If you believe that, I have a bridge to sell you.

I could go on with every point this idiot tried to make. If, your entire argument consists of calling someone a liar, chances are thou doth protest too much. And making arguments that are clearly refutable such as the CBO claiming some savings with this plan when they have stated the OPPOSITE. Or one that resorts to hyperbole and emotion based politics while bashing the country in just 2 sentences:

"This offers everyone a chance at affordable health insurance, and stops the health care inflation that has crippled our economy for decades. But more than that, it will make us a proud nation, that cares about its people once again."

Or even in one: "Our country is becoming second-rate right before our eyes, and one reason is the money we're flushing away on health care for no one, while thousands of people die and thousands of others are pushed to financial ruin."

And anyone who references Sicko in glowing terms or peppers arguments with Bush bashing and class warfare is not one to be reasoned with. He is one to be defeated. Nothing more than another ultra liberal progressive out to destroy what's left of the country. The government cannot take control over even MORE of the economy. There is only a train at the end of this tunnel. That's not the sun.

P.S. - Frequent visitor who finally got so worked up as to sign up and post. My post #1.