Downfleeced

Sick...

2009-02-12T11:10:00.002-05:00

I was just out on Yahoo News and the main picture as of this moment is this (below) in relation to the passage of the stimulus bill:

I know, I know, I know that our senators are RINOs, and I agree with Slublog that they probably are voting for what the larger portion of their constituents want (or maybe not) but COME ON!...

At this point Senator Snowe (more so than Collins,IMHO) needs to run her next election campaign as a moderate democrat and be done with it.

It was only a matter of time...

2009-02-08T21:08:00.003-05:00

EMHS's (the system I work for) credit rating was finally downgraded. Internally we were all told it was only a matter of time given this current economic cycle and the State of Maine's continued inability to pay its bills. A hospital system with a credit rating in the "A's" is a rare thing these days anyway given that nearly 20% of hospital systems across the US have a "Junk" rating.

Two things that the BDN mentioned but basically glossed over are:

Governor Baldacci's 2006 "promise" to have the state catch up and stay current on payments when they collectively were owed $300 million dollars, strangely that amount has grown to $424 million, not shrunk.
While EMHS's credit rating is getting downgraded and other hospitals are on the verge of the same the State of Maine is somehow able to keep its much higher rating free from trouble.

Blue Hill Memorial Hospital...

2009-01-08T09:47:00.002-05:00

I posted some comments over on the BDN site about their article predicting layoffs at Blue Hill Memorial Hospital (BHMH) and thought I should cross post them here for my long lost blog. The long and short of it is that BHMH used to be the hospital that everyone wanted to be and nobody could touch, they had a huge endowment and positive cash flow. How things have changed...my comments:

EMHS does not "own" Blue HIll but has a relationship with it as an affiliate. Based on the article it sounds as though Blue Hill would have shut its doors already if it wasn't for EMHS being able to lend money and expertise. It doesn't sound like Garrity or Provenzano were doing anything but cutting the brake lines as BHMH was driving toward a cliff. Things don't get this bad all of a sudden and I don't recall hearing any real measures Blue Hill was doing prior to Dr Steele showing up to stave off this disaster. Best of luck to Dr Steele as he does a task that may be very unpopular but extremely necessary.

Another Example...

2008-11-14T09:45:00.002-05:00

Here is another great example of what is wrong with the State of Maine (cut below). Governor Baldacci has mandated %10 cuts to most of state government. As this metric is applied to the Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Department (IF&W) they are looking to ax over 3million dollars (including reducing the number of Game wardens by almost %10). Problem is that IF&W gets less than 3 million dollars from the General Fund with the rest (some 20+million) coming from license fees, plates etc.

Money from licenses and the like has ALWAYS been promoted as going directly back into the management of natural resources. Commissioner Martin is correct to question this as using Baldacci's methodology would take money that the state says goes to maintain IF&W and the sports we love and dump it into the general fund. Clearly this needs to be addressed as Baldacci's spokesman (Farmer) isn't interested in doing so.

“As I have discussed many times in the past, I want to say again that I do not believe that the calculations of this department’s targets were either correct or fair,” Martin wrote in a letter accompanying his department’s proposed budget cuts.

Martin said a true reduction of 10 percent, based on the amount of General Fund money DIF&W receives, should be $275,536 and $322,643 during the next two budget years, respectively. Instead, the department is being asked to cut $2.8 million and $3.2 million, respectively.

Farmer was unsympathetic to those arguments.

Baldacci’s request for a 10 percent reduction in DIF&W’s total budget again is sparking debate about funding sources. That’s because less than $3 million of the department’s roughly $24 million budget comes from the state. The rest comes from revenues generated by the sales of fishing and hunting licenses, permits and registrations for things such as boats and snowmobiles.

Please contact the governor and let him know that this isn't right.

Dirigo Health's Continued Failure

2008-11-06T11:20:00.002-05:00

Thinking a little more about the veto of Dirigo Health's new funding mechanism and with the addition of a new article in the BDN "highlighting" (I use this term loosely) its need I can't help but go back to something that Tarren Bragdon (Maine Heritage Policy Center) said THREE YEARS AGO in reference to Dirigo's already abysmal results in a Heritage Foundation summary of Dirigo's Health program.

Conclusion. Dirigo Health is based on the premise that government officials can best control and manage the entire health care system. Predictably, it is being trumpeted nationally by those who support more government control and more taxpayer funding of health care coverage. In reality, it is proving to be a costly and ineffective expansion of bureaucracy and government control that will drive up costs and further undermine consumer choice and competition in the health care system.

There is a better way. Real and effective health care reform should be based on the core principle that personal health care decisions are best left up to individuals and their doctors, not government officials, state legislators, or well-intentioned bureaucrats. Real reform empowers the individual with the tools necessary to choose affordable, quality, and accessible health care services and health insurance coverage. It begins and ends with personal freedom.

Not surprising that three years later we're still in the same mess with Dirigo given that we (the people of Maine, no me) just voted back into government most everyone that helped concieve it.

Change...and some things stay the same

2008-11-05T09:47:00.002-05:00

Screedblog says it best..

Seriously, though: congratulations to President-elect Obama. Right or wrong - and I hope for more of the former, obviously - he’s my President now, dammit, and I’m not going to spend four years treating him with the contempt the Kos side heaped on Chimpy McPretzelchoker. He could turn out to be a horrible President. He could turn out to be a great one. History pushes people in unexpected directions.

On the Maine front it was business as usual with all the same clowns getting back into office by a typical wide margin, I don't understand how people can take a honest look at the shape of Maine and vote AGAIN for the same jokers. What is this 10th time is the charm?

On a positive note the new tax on healthcare bills, beer, wine and soda to prop up the much ailing Dirigo Health initiative got voted down handily...Now let it die, Please.

Taxes..

2008-10-30T14:07:00.002-04:00

Debra Saunders posted a commentary over on Rasmussen (the polling co) about questions we all should ask about Obama prior to voting, or specifically the realities of the things he has promised. The section on taxes stands out to me...

Taxes: During the last presidential debate with GOP opponent John McCain, Obama repeatedly claimed that under his plan, the rich would pay "a little more" in taxes.

A little more? Obama has proposed increasing the top tax rate to 39.6 percent from 35 percent. He also has talked about extending Social Security taxes on those with incomes above $250,000. The Tax Policy Center noted that if Obama carried through on the idea, which is not included in his official plan, "the proposal could raise effective tax rates on labor income for high earners above 52 percent (and more than 55 percent for residents of states with high income taxes such as California)."

The Tax Policy Center also estimates that, under Plan Obama, 49 percent of Americans will not pay federal income taxes. So when Obama talks up his plan to send a $500 to $1,000 "rebate" to American taxpayers, he is talking welfare. And if half of American voters don't pay income taxes, then what is to stop them from raising taxes on the half that does? So much for Obama's 30-minute television commercial calling for a "new era of responsibility."

Quin Hillyer over at American Spectator speaks to why McCain really should be who we all are voting for and has many forgotten reasons amid Obamamania. Its scary how obvious it is on paper who should be president vs. who is likely to become so...

Yes on 1

2008-10-29T09:28:00.002-04:00

Dr Jorgensen is the president of the Maine Osteopathic Association and hit a home run in his BDN bit on why as a physician (unlike many) he is not voting to keep the new funding mechanism for Dirigo.

75 million for 1% of Mainers covered (and they still have to pay a premium !). There is something wrong with that and moving toward socialized medicine isn't going to make it better. You have to realize that Maine is a poor state and has huge healthcare needs, it just doesn't add up.

We have the chance to vote out the imbeciles in Augusta that are not willing to follow PROVEN ways in making healthcare more affordable, as Dr Jorgensen notes is the case in many other states. Health care policy in Maine $6,000 a year, go across the border and you can get the same coverage from the same company for less than $3,000. Looks pretty simple to me.

Economic Ship...

2008-10-28T09:43:00.003-04:00

To all my friends living here in Maine with a (D) next to their voter registration, Please read Tom Sawyers Op/Ed bit in the BDN. It is clear, concise and lays out the failed economic "progress" that has been pushed in Augusta for decades now and how different other states are in their ability to retain industry, jobs and wealth.

You can't ignore that Maine is in a bit of a rough patch, and the future (debt obligations, further collapse of industry jobs) doesn't look that bright. This election cycle while your all voting for "change" at the federal level (I won't be voting with you, sorry), vote for change at the local level and do not vote for any incumbent that has pulled Maine in the wrong direction and that means the controlling majority. What do you have to loose?

Clock is ticking...

2008-10-24T15:21:00.004-04:00

Well...T-Minus and counting. This election cycle to me has been a real eye closer for me, don't you mean eye opener? you say...no, let me explain. I know the media is bias, the media knows they are bias, but call me a pessimistic optimist when I thought they would at the very least do their horrible job at covering it up. The past few months I have been beyond amazed at how outright brazen they have become in lying, ignoring the 1000 pound elephant(s) in the room to go after the mouse in the corner, the outright deceit they use to skew their coverage has made me do the only thing I can when I catch some of it...close my eyes. And they wonder why blogging and talk radio have taken off and each quarter they loose more and more viewers...

Vote "Yes" on question 1

2008-10-17T09:39:00.002-04:00

Heading into the final stretch of the election season and one of the things that Maine voters will be deciding is to allow the state to change it's funding mechanism for Dirigo Health (the states failed and highly flawed universal healthcare solution).

Instead of dreaming up a number of how much they believe they have saved hospitals and insurance companies and essentially billing them for that number, a contentious program, they want to tax all the evil beverages out there AND peoples medical bills. This plan would generate over 75 MILLION dollars a year, from now to kingdom come with no oversight taken to see if Dirigo is actually doing its job of saving money and reducing healthcare costs.

Sounds fishy right? It is and you will see a referendum question come election day asking if you would like to repeal it...Please vote "Yes" on 1. While this will not eliminate Dirigo it will force the State to continue to examine how poorly it has held up against expectations with the hope that someone will just shoot the dying horse as other states are correctly doing.

Healtcare Summit...

2008-09-26T10:22:00.002-04:00

In a effort of full disclosure I work for the "hosting" company mentioned in the article below.

EMHS hosted a healthcare forum this week for candidates for the state's legislative body to meet and greet and get a earful from the healthcare industry on how hostile Maine really is to try and run a hospital or other healthcare related company.

This is something I've longed for my company to do for a long time. Directly engage the legislative candidates when they actually appear to be listening (election season) on the bleak future of hospitals in Maine if something doesn't change (and I don't mean universal healthcare). As the BDN article shows we have a serious uphill battle...here is a snippet.

Citizen advisory council member and former EMMC chief of medicine Dr. Alan Boone expressed frustration that the state owes hospitals millions of dollars yet stands in the way of needed expansions and improvements.
“Is there any hope of getting rid of the certificate of need?” he asked of the seasoned legislators at the breakfast.
Assistant Senate Minority Leader Richard Rosen, R-Bucksport, said he introduced a bill in the last session to repeal the certificate of need requirement, but it garnered only three votes of support. Rosen also spoke in favor of deregulating private health insurance companies, arguing that New Hampshire’s less-regulated environment has resulted in “a more robust private market,” a greater choice of insurance products, and lower enrollments in the state’s Medicaid program.
Responding to Rosen, Sen. Elizabeth Schneider, D-Orono, said deregulation is not the answer. “We have a major health care crisis nationwide,” she said. “What’s needed is a significant overhaul of the health care system. … It’s not just about opening up our markets so people can make more money.”
Schneider said there is broad agreement in Augusta that the state should honor its financial obligations to Maine hospitals, but there is simply not enough money to go around. “We have finite resources and infinite need,” she said, adding that she expects the budget shortfalls of recent years to worsen in the future. The state’s first priority, she added, should be to ensure the well-being of those in the greatest need.

In other words, Schneider is saying that we're going to keep doing what we are doing even though everyones finances are going down the toilet...fast.

Call me crazy but ensuring the well being of those in the "greatest need" is going to be hard to do when there aren't any hospitals with open doors due to Maine's stranglehold on failed policies of regulate, regulate, regulate along with their blatant financial stupidity in increasing enrollment to services with out the means to pay for them. The quoted section above outlines what other states have done to successfully reduce the need for welfare assistance and increase availability of affordable health insurance but it falls on deaf ears.

VOTE OUT EVERY LEGISLATOR that approved or has the desire to spend money of which they do not have or enact legislation of which they do not understand the consequences to. We have way to many years of fiscal irresponsibility under our belt...and a single party that has had control of our state government. Coincidence...I think not.

Three cheers for MHPC!!!

2008-09-24T09:42:00.002-04:00

Freedom of Information Act postage: ~$200.00
Pizza & beer for web designer: $20.00
A searchable database on how the State of Maine spends our money: priceless

http://www.maineopengov.org/

Election Season...

2008-09-04T09:39:00.003-04:00

is always a draining time of year for those of habitual armchair politicians. Thank goodness in Maine it is followed by a season that allows you to vent your electoral frustrations by stalking animals in the woods for meat.

I have to admit I sent my first check off to the McCain/Palin campaign. I wasn't planing on giving any money this year but I have been impressed with McCain's pick of Palin, a real reformer, who I believe can bring the core Republicans fundamentals of limited government, limited spending back to the party.

I'm no longer being dragged kicking and screaming to promote my candidates. I'm looking forward to "Change" too but not BIG government adding more and more programs so I "get" more by giving. Limited government, reduced spending, capitalism at work...all what I consider enablers, things that allow people to step up and do great things on their own.

Now if only Maine was so lucky....

Privacy Rights....

2008-06-23T10:07:00.002-04:00

Daniel Solove from GWU Law school has a GREAT essay on why we should have problems with the nothing to hide argument. You know what I'm talking about....domestic spying, wiretapping, right down to the Walmart "exiter" who wants to check your recept. Most of us would just say "I've got nothing to hide" and move on. I have to agree with Solove that the deepest flaw in this theory is that privacy is only implied while doing something wrong and you should assume no manner of privacy is needed when one is doing something right.....food for thought, no?

Download the PDF version here. (at the bottom click on the icon with the closest download site).

Works for Oprah...not for Maine

2008-04-09T08:20:00.002-04:00

My wife has been near addicted to Oprah's BIG Give which is a prime time reality show where contestants are given wads of cash, a few rules and then told to go out and "make a difference". The idea is a grand one, spur everyone to give by showing them how much need is out there and how "easy" it is to make a difference in someones life. The catch for the rest of us (in the context of the show) is that it is always easier to part with something that is not your own, in this case its Oprah's money, and much harder to do when reality strikes and you have bills to pay and groceries to buy with yours.

This situation has bearing on the situation that our State Representatives are in, right now, here in Maine. We have a program that in its creation pledged to make healthcare more affordable, accessible and to "make a difference" and has failed on all accounts to do so. You see when you subsidize something your not changing the fundamental ways the market works (like abolishing the community rating and creating high risk pools for example) to actually reduce costs, you are just taking money from one group and using it to "make a difference" for someone else.

This is all fine and well when it is your own money (the Oprah model), but lawmakers need to reign in their shocked attitude when we the people resist the idea of them playing "The BIG Give" with our money in situations where it has CLEARLY been shown not to work.

THIS is the age old problem with the Dems in Maine...they think that sustaining very broken but still feel good legislation is good for the masses because it feels good and "the right thing to do" (Hannah Pingree's words). This might work for the fiscally solvent Oprah but not for Maine.

In the News
Slublog's comments

NOTE: Now I don't want you to think by reading this that I think giving is something that you can only do when you have lots of extra cash lying around, thats not it at all, even the smallest amount of money, time, effort, prayer can go a long way in a multitude of situations. My wife and I have done all of these in varying situations and have been blessed to see it be of use.

Budget Cuts

2008-03-28T09:25:00.002-04:00

I've been ranting over in the comment section of the BDN of late and on the boards over at AMG (As Maine Goes), so sorry for the lack of posting here....

In reference to this BDN article:

Augusta is currently looking at ways to balance the budget and nobody in the ruling party has really stepped up to the plate to make tough choices yet so what do they do....hmmmm....You know what a perfect opportunity for us (Augusta Democrats) to ax 5 of the 7 people working for OPEGA (Office of Program Evaluation and GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY) all in the name of forced budget cuts. Handicapping the states lone, non partisan watchdog organization that ROUTINELY sounds the alarm to the waste and overspending in this state is NOT the way to balance the budget. WVOM (local talk radio) had a sound cut of Hanna Pingree lamenting how they "tried so hard" to make cuts but those old Republicans just didn't want to play ball...Obstructionists.

HA!

WHAT TYPE OF PEOPLE ARE WE ELECTING TO SPEAK FOR US IN AUGUSTA?????

Who to believe?

2008-01-08T09:28:00.000-05:00

Researchers are reporting [Reuters] in the journal of Health Affairs that the US placed last in a survey of preventable deaths due to treatable conditions when thrown into a field of 19 industrialized nations. Upwards of 100,000 deaths could have been prevented if the US adopted socialized healthcare like everyone else.

Problem is....

According to the Daily Mail upwards of 70,000 people in Britain's NHS (National Healthcare System) went "vacationing" abroad for the purpose of receiving medical care due to fear of contracting an infection in the hospital and long waits for care. This is just Britain folks.

Further in the article the NHS tries to instill confidence in its system by stating that infections are down and that "over half of all patients are treated within 18 weeks of seeing a GP". Now call me crazy but in the US if you see your doctor and something needs to be done you aren't going to be expected to wait upwards of 4 1/2 mos to have a %50 chance of being seen by someone and treated.

So how does the US give access to preventative care to it's fattening population without ending up going to Hungary for dental care? It's easy to pose the question from the comfort of my expensive computer chair...

In the meantime here are 4 things that can prolong your life an additional 14 years:

Drink Moderately
Exercise
Quit Smoking
Eat 5 servings of fruit and veggies each day

Courtesy of Reuters

Ahhhh....Death and Taxes

2008-01-04T10:14:00.000-05:00

Our poor state, always making the AP news stories but for all the wrong reasons.

Story -> [MaineToday] [boston.com] [PI]

This time for taxing out of state residents for visiting/vacationing in Maine with their planes that were purchased, paid and registered not in this state. I expect we will be soon charging out-of-stater's excise tax on their cars when they vacation here. And we will have to as Maine (and a few other head in the sand states) are already being put through the ringer and being blacklisted by private pilots with future vacation plans.

piperowner.org
seaplanes.org
vagabondish.com
aopa.org

This was bound to happen though with our Governor mired in thought of how to "consolidate" the entire state government into one big potato pile and lying awake at night trying to find new ways to avoid making real cuts to overly generous and greatly abused social service programs.

Healthcare in Maine...Don't be a "pill"

2007-11-30T10:08:00.000-05:00

Tarren Bragdon (Maine Heritage Policy Center) has a op/ed bit up over at the BDN launching his opposition to LD 4 which bans the transfer of drug/patient information to the likes of pharmaceutical industries.

While Tarren says that any law affecting the flow of this information is bad for patient care and research I do support some legislation that allows doctors to opt-out of such requirements. I treat it kinda like the optional Do Not Call list.

I probably would have heartily agreed with him (which I typically do on most issues) if I had not recently read an piece in the NYT (of all places) called "Dr Drug Rep" which chronicle's a doctors downward spiral toward a full fledged puppet of the drug industry and finally breaking free.

Oh Speaking of expensive healthcare...can you imagine with health insurance still receiving a bill from the hospital for more than 1 million dollars? It is happening folks. This article just highlights the growing problem of the huge markups that hospitals routinely charge patients for items that normally cost next to nothing. Almost sounds as bad as the military's expensive toilet seats.

I recently got a finalized bill from when my wife had our son. One of the items my insurance didn't not touch was a field billed as "misc"...for $80. When I called the phone number to dispute this as it had no medical codes so my insurance was passing it off to me they stated that there were none available. Needless to say, after a few more calls it was removed as they could not justify why it was put on....grrrrrrrr

Cheers!

2007-11-04T16:13:00.000-05:00

Fall in Maine is THE time to enjoy our lovely, overtaxed state. And is the only reason anyone would believe that there has been a horrible lack of posts on the old blog. Trust this, soon enough we'll be all snowbound and I will have little opportunity other than the blog to keep chatting up about the state of things...

Oh and three cheers to the US kicking the Taliban out of Afganistan and for USAID, the World Bank and the European Commission taking dramatic steps to improve healthcare access in Afganistan. Back in the Taliban days only 8 percent of the population had access to medical care, today that number is 85%. Yahoo News

Ideas to "fix" the US healthcare market

2007-08-29T10:24:00.000-04:00

Wow...so it has been a while. I really struggled with the idea of shutting down the ol' blog for now but since it is primarily for me to crab about stuff and produces no income I guess I don't mind going on hiatus periodically due to work, summer, a new kiddo and the like.

CNN Money has a good overview of the 3 primary ways that the current presidential hopefuls are touting as thier mechanism for "reform". See if you can pair up the mechanism with the candidate.

Insurance isn't a right, its a responsibility.
The road to reform runs through the 1040.
Create a not-exactly-national health plan.

I'll tell you that a majority of the democratic contenders all fall into the third mechanism. While they might in a frenzied rally cry "National Health care!!!" it won't ever become fully one. There are two many people wary of a system like Canada's and GB's and the insurance companies have plenty of money to wine and dine senators until they see the light of their errors in a COMPLETE national healthcare plan. It will be interesting to see how this all plays out as we creap toward the elections.

Tax "Relief" - Update

2007-05-31T16:31:00.001-04:00

I've e-mailed or mailed all my representatives about this whole taxation shift and I imagine that they are getting pounded (as they should because you are hitting them too, right?) as normally I receive a little canned "Thank you for your comments", this time around, NOTHING.

Sometimes not saying anything may seem to be the safer thing but really speaks the loudest.

All these taxes changes are supposed to be "revenue neutral", meaning take less of personal income but make you pay more in sales & use that will make the system more "transparent" and "easy to use". This I don't buy....

Why then are these being rolled into balancing the budget in which (other than school consolidation) is not cutting any government services?

And HOW do you come up with this....

"Maine residents are going to end up with a considerable amount of money in their pockets.."

as said by taxation c0-chair John Piotti (Unity-D)

Revenue neutral (no cuts, more taxes) but somehow we are going to end up with more money in our pocket......how is that going to work?

PPH coverage

13 Monkeys...coming to a planet near you

2007-05-31T16:14:00.000-04:00

I assume anyone technologically savvy enough to read a blog on the internet has watched the movie 13 Monkeys starring Bruce Willis. In this futuristic sci-fi thriller humans are pushed underground due to a pandemic spread by and evil guy wanting to turn the earth back to before humans are around. How does this villain release his pandemic? By flying to multiple countries as he spreads the disease he has ingested.

Sound anything like some news stories you have read recently?

If you haven't already heard it a self centered LAWYER whose father-in-law works at the CDC ended up having a VERY drug resistant flavor of TB. Said lawyer then decides to still go on his European holiday and fly all over the place before the CDC could nail him down. What does he do fearing that he won't get good care in Italy? He skirts around our government imposed no-fly list and goes to Canada and drives across the border.

WHAT?

This folks is why a.) We need to secure the border by building fences and taking homeland security seriously (why are our border patrol people allowing no-fly people in the country? shouldn't it be a "no-entry" list not a "cant' fly but still can drive" list?) and b.) because of global travel and the dispersion of idiot lawers a epidemic will become a worldwide pandemic in no time...time to stock up on plastic wrap and duct tape again :-)

AP coverage and a handy "HOWTO" on flying with TB (humorous)

Tax "Relief"

2007-05-23T11:38:00.000-04:00

May is a wonderful month, we all have our personal taxes filed or extensions accepted and it is now time for our state to try and do the same. Excitingly, this year our cries for for income and property tax relief have not fallen on deaf ears. The legislature is finally worried enough about not getting re-elected to make changes to "help" us poor Mainers. But wait, can their proposed changes really be considered a relief?

"The Taxation Committee's plan also would bring in enough new money to compensate for the tax dollars that would be lost by lowering income taxes and providing more property-tax breaks. " [PPH]

Right...so the legislature is really doing it in the same way it always has and the only way it knows how, refusing to reduce bloated services, cut back spending and axing programs that do little but burn money.

Instead they are going start taxing goods and services currently not taxed (lawn care, snow removal, haircuts and taxi rides all the way up to movies, state parks and skating rinks) and raise those that are already heavily taxed (cable tv, telephone calls, magazines and the contentious health club memberships).

Even us "simple" Mainers should see this shell game a mile away and know nothing has changed....

Waterworks Update...Personal Edition

2007-05-09T10:16:00.000-04:00

Ahhhhh...Spring is upon us here in Maine. Flowers are beginning to bloom, leaves are starting to take shape and for some people that are lucky enough to have no job, "chronic" problems due to bad decisions like smoking and drinking and/or welfare babies they are moving into their new $200,000 riverfront apartments in the former Bangor WaterWorks building on the Penobscot River. I blogged about this ridiculous waste of money not long after I started Downfleeced as a perfect example of all that is wrong with the state my example is now open for business.

I found out that they are also allowing tenants to smoke in their units if they want and hey, why not, when you didn't pay for it, why should you be responsible for it? We all know what smoking does to apartments and motel rooms and I expect that these units are going to need major rehab every few years due to the abuse of the people living in these luxury condos at taxpayers expenses.

Oh, and don't give me that these people have it bad and don't have a sense of entitlement. I already heard (e-mail me and I'll tell you how) that the tenants don't need high speed internet because they are leaching it off a charitable organization that is across the street. Surprise Surprise...

Welcome back to Sherwood Forest..!!

2007-05-09T09:22:00.000-04:00

I'm thinking about changing my blog to "Long time, no post...", thoughts?

Well, I didn't fall off the face of the earth, although it may have seemed so. Things in the world of Fleeced have been busy, busy, busy. Preparing for a baby, major kitchen renovation, enough side jobs to keep 5 fire fighters busy all take their toll. I even considered powering off the old blog but it's times like these that I'm thankful that I have a place to vent.

I wish I had good things to report as far as healthcare changes, real budget reform or lawmakers "comin' to Jesus" but not in Nottingham...I mean Maine.

Governor Baldacci and his band of hoodlums have not reduced spending in our state and are finding new creative ways to tax or re-tax us to balance the budget. Lawmakers are even entertaining a provision to increase the states take at Maine's only Racino (located in Bangor). I didn't vote for the casino when it went to referendum but I have to support Penn National Gaming on this one. It sets a BAD precedent in the state that we encourage business to move here, promise, promise, promise and then turn around and slap them in the face with a "new deal" that reduces their investment. Glad to see Penn National is willing to play hardball and stop working on the proposed site [BDN][Editorial].

The state has a real problem relying on companies (Penn National) and lifestyles (smoking, drinking, snacks) it loves to hate but can't balance the budget without. As MANY have pointed out Maine has some of the highest taxes, most expensive healthcare costs (insurance and services), some of the largest Medicare and state assistance rolls and highest state and local governmental costs, administrative and otherwise.

Healthcare Mini-Mega Post

2007-03-27T14:15:00.000-04:00

Hillary has vowed [AP] that a universal healthcare system will be created if she becomes president. Let's hope for all our sakes that people examine Canada's UHS (universal healthcare system) and it's failures before trudging down the path that Maine is already (I swear) on.

Michelle Malkin's blog has a well timed bit [MM] on the whole subject and link to a new video onthefencefilms.com where they go into detail on Canada's UHS failure to provide timely surgeries for patients because of only being "allowed" to perform x number of procedures a year. The film then goes on to show the accessibility of sex change operations and how quickly "elective" surgeries can be had while people are dying or forced into critical care situations due to waiting lists and mandated waiting periods for needed procedures. This is a must see, don't forget to check the other films as well like "A short course in brain surgery".

Dr Eric Steele has a great BDN Editorial about the statehouses plan to raid the tobacco cessation fund by and additional $1million to help "balance (read:fund)" the budget. The bit is eye opening due to the constant call to raise the taxes on cigarettes to help stop smoking but in the $216million that Maine will receive from tobacco tax and settlement dollars only 6% goes to stop smoking campaigns. Currently Maine spends $14million in anti-smoking campaigns compared with the estimated $74million the tobacco industry spent in advertising dollars. Who do you think is going to win.

Lastly...Surprise, surprise. Even with all this tweaking to get extra funds from places that it should not be take from..."Revenue" (my quotes) is down [PPH coverage]. The quote from Rep Jeremy Fisher (D-Presque Isle) says it all, posted by

"...the governor and Legislature will have time to review replacement options"

They are talking about the "shortfall" (my quotes again).

Replacements do not equal cuts, they equal more taxes folks....something nobody should be surprised about.

Shift...

2007-03-13T11:46:00.000-04:00

Wow...Augusta seems to be on a roll. Two days in a row of bad publicity around ridiculous tax laws and the enforcement of them. Good Show!

The PPH outlined LD 850 (one of 70! bills that address taxes this session) and it's intent to tax gym memberships along with museum passes, fair admissions and others. Call me crazy but taxing peoples desire to get fit and unburden our healthcare system just doesn't seem...logical?

The bigger problem, obvious to all and quoted by MTA (Maine Tourism Association) CEO Vaughn Stinson is to, "Just stop spending". Seems like a novel concept I know...

Tax reform like this is not a cure for excessive state spending, it just shifts the burden from one group to another for fear of loss of revenue. I personally am glad that if this passes I can pay less (in theory) on my property taxes and more everywhere else...wait...huh?

Free Lunch....Bon Voyage!!

2007-03-12T21:20:00.000-04:00

Ever worked in food service and enjoyed free meals, drinks and snacks? Well those days have come and gone. Many states tax "prepared meals" but in Maine even if product is not used for a prepared meal it is still considered "taken out of inventory" and hence still subject to a "use tax" of 5%.

Learning about Use Tax when I was younger ended up being a huge ugly eye opener for me and frankly still makes me feel like throwing tea into the Penobscot River. Am I crazy to think that, sure, charge me for something I buy but don't make me cough up money each year to use it? Excise tax you pay on your car is a great example of this. It is also a great example of a tax that our state "can't" live without but many states do. Thats right, not every state requires you buy the privilege of using your car each year but I digress...back to food service.

It looks like the State Revenue Service is attempting to cash in on all those taxes that have been on the books but not enforced for many-a-year. I would imagine that this is part of Governor Baldacci's plan to not raise taxes this year and instead rely on cashing in on all the ridiculous tax laws that even the State Revenue office didn't want to enforce. Folks...auditing and then charging the hard working folks in the food service industry for providing a few SMALL perks for their employees is cheap, low and turns the revenue service into the Sheriff Of Nottingham.

Please Support Rep. Berry and Rep Burns as they work to stop these cheap tactics. This is not a way to fix a state budget crisis...it is called shrinking state government.

BDN Coverage

UPDATE:

The BDN had a little editorial comment this morning and summed it up marviously...

"The point of reviewing this tax and others would be to re-examine the balance of simplification and fairness in the state tax code. It is, in part, to avoid the reality and the perception that Maine taxes everything it possibly can....Legislators regularly attempt to reform Maine’s tax system and regularly fail because their proposals include sufficient tax increases to irritate a decisive number of constituents."

Vindicated

2007-03-12T14:04:00.000-04:00

Mention the words Healthcare and Maine and you will get a pretty simple rant from me...reform, reform, reform, deregulate, deregulate, deregulate, abolish the community rating and guaranteed issue, support high risk pools and subsidize it for those that fall into the category of unaffordable...remember these rants?

Well, a bottle of of my families finest wine is going to Bob Walker, M.D. House Representative for District 44 and is reassurance that I'm not crazy and was even on the right track.

Welcome LD 912 (An Act to Return Affordable Health Insurance to the State)! This bill (which I guarantee will not pass) is what is needed to get Maine back on track to actually helping the citizens of Maine, not socialization of government services.

The measure is worth getting behind and the BDN article about it is worth a read. Please contact your representatives and let them know your support for this REAL FIX to our REAL PROBLEM and that Governor Baldacci's healthcare patch called Dirigo Health is just cheap duct tape.

Hospitals playing nice....

2007-03-02T10:01:00.000-05:00

Buying power is a beautiful thing and for years hospitals in Maine have been working harder and harder to capitalize on it.

Hospitals have joined other hospitals to form healthcare systems with more buying power and now healthcare systems are finally looking to partner with other systems to do the same thing at a bigger level. Good for them and good for us the patient/customer as it helps keep prices low.

Years ago the hospitals and their respective healthcare systems in Maine tried to drag each other to the table to accomplish this but nothing came of it as the and finally necessity has forced them to be more open about change. Don't get me wrong, necessity's name is not John Baldacci or Trish Riley unless you include the language "haven't helped the situation one bit", no the hospitals have taken this upon themselves as a direct result of the continued downward spiral of our healthcare environment here in Maine.

You can read more about the start of this relationship at the BDN and PPH.

What the DEUCE?

2007-02-08T10:17:00.000-05:00

It was mentioned to me a few years back that most ANYONE could get a drivers license in the State Of Maine but with the advent of 9/11 and in this day of increased security and fear of new terrorist attacks Maine MUST have changed it's ways, right? WRONG. Jonette Christian's (Mainers for sensible immigration policy) has a OP/ED bit in the BDN today contradicting the states push back against the Real ID act. Jonette then goes on to blast the state for not requiring immigration status as a condition of receiving a drivers license, and even documents a specific time this has happened.

Think our newly re-elected Governor Baldacci is going to help? Let me draw your attention to his 2004 executive order that put a muzzle on our state employees ability to ask immigration status at the MCLUs behest.

CAN YOU BELIEVE THIS?

Like it or not drivers licenses are used for identification purposes all over the US. It will get you on a train, allow you to rent a car, eat delicious IHOP pancakes, and get on a PLANE. Our state has a loooong, wilderness border with Canada and we give our drivers licenses to people without asking where they from.

Folks this needs to change...please contact your state rep and let him know that you won't stand for this.

Cell Service Expanding

2007-01-31T11:20:00.000-05:00

Kudos to the BDN [Source] for highlighting the REAL reason for major improvements to our cellular phone infrastructure in Maine. Although the Governor would love to take credit for these improvements after decreeing it one of his priorities for 2005, the BDN correctly gives the people of Maine the pat on the back.

Through the FEDERAL Universal Service Fund, money that comes out of all of us one penny at a time, millions have been dolled out to cellular companies to improve service in Maine. I have to be honest and say that the USF is one of the few "taxes" I really don't mind paying as I actually see it going to good use. New cell towers for all and support of the Maine School and Library Network which provides free internet service to any school or library in the state are both good in my book.

I know since the wife and I finally plunked down for a phone (about a year and 1/2 ago), service has improved dramatically. We settled on t-mobile for a variety of reasons only to find part of the I-95 corridor (Waterville to Hampden) didn't have service. Now, a year later and with the addition of new towers from T-Mobile, Cingular (AT&T) and Unicell we have great coverage on all of I-95 and most elsewhere we tend to roam.

Once again...Thanks to the BDN for a job well done.

TAXES!...GET YOUR TAXES!!!

2007-01-30T09:30:00.000-05:00

The esteemed Blue Ribbon Commission on Dirigo Health reform have, after much ado, come back with recommendations to "fix" Maine's already broken health care system. [PPH] [BDN] I thought reform was supposed to happen to systems and programs that have been in place for a long time, not used on a program that was supposed to bring to Maine health, wealth and insurance for all.

Recommendations to "reform" Dirigo Health include:

1. A tax on tobacco products
2. A tax on snacks
3. A tax on soft drinks
4. A tax on Beer & Wine

Now, call me crazy but this looks more like a solution to FUND Dirigo Health not reform or fix it.

It also brought to the table the possibility of mandating that everyone must have insurance and that employers provide it. I'm guessing that the commission doesn't get out of the state much, as Massachusetts plans to do just that and is already running into problems with things such as federal law.

Don't forget now that we have regulated EVERY insurance company other than Anthem Blue-Cross out of the market so its impossible to get competition that would help reduce costs to employers if they were required to provide insurance, probably putting them out of business in the process. Unfortunately this is exactly what your governor wants and its called UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE. Governor Baldacci and his administration are orchestrating the failure of the horrible, over regulated "system" that we have now to prepare for something that we all know will cost us dearly.

Do you want to pay even more in taxes, assessments and fees for "Free" health care?

Do you want to wait weeks and months for procedures, appointments and care for your potentially life threatening disease?

Think I'm spreading FUD? We are currently spending TENS OF MILLIONS of dollars just to subsidize health insurance for less than 1% of the population (simple math 1.27 Million people in the state, 12, 000 people enrolled in Dirigo). Canada's universal health care system is about to collapse with its health care costs expected to reach 85% of its entire national budget in the next 15 years. More than 1 million people in Canada are currently waiting treatment for ailments. [Source]

Sincerely yours,

Scared in Maine

Tourism Director Goes on Permanent Vacation

2007-01-29T13:56:00.000-05:00

The (now former) Tourism Director, Dann Lewis, finally got what was coming to him after a long fight with blogger Lance Dutson over alleged mobster like back room deals.

While most of the news articles [PPH] [BOS] only hint at possible wrongdoings, we now know courtesy of Lance at www.mainewebreport.com that Dann Lewis had sold off Maine's advertising account to a New York company that he was formerly affiliated with, then denied it (lied) and then tried to cover it up going so far as attacking the source of the inquiry with a muli-million dollar lawsuit. This and his wife had the audacity to order a vanity license plate that spelled out "I Love New York" as parodied in the above cartoon. I'll spell the last one for you S-T-U-P-I-D, when you are the Director of Tourism for a state you are supposed to act like it. This would be like the wife of Steve Jobs (Apple CEO) getting a license with "ILVWNDWS".

Thankfully, perseverance and the blog-sphere paid off and he is now on his way to a "Permanent Vacation"....replaced by a Baldacci campaign activist, for her loyal service to him in the past election year...

Glad to see Maine politics back to the way we all expect them to be.

Wrong Direction...

2007-01-25T15:48:00.000-05:00

The WSJ had a lovely Opinion piece titled "Illegal Health Care" on Tuesday 22nd (Jan, 07). Much of the bit talks of Mitt's (Romney) "universal" health care coverage reform that may break a federal law known by the acronym "ERISA" that dictates employee benefits and employers right to look for multi-state health programs and provide coverage on a voluntary basis. This was hashed out through the court system in response to Maryland's "Wal-Mart tax".

Anyway, I digress. Now enters the bit that made me sick to my stomach, particularity for my beloved state of Maine. And I quote...

"This week brings one other piece of bad news for proponents of the MA model, by the way. Early bids suggest the soon-to-be compulsory insurance policies that will pass muster under the scheme will be expensive--starting at a whopping $380 per month, or $4,560 a year, for an INDIVIDUAL (emph-A-sis mine). That's hardly surprising when you look at costs in other states that over regulate their insurance markets, such as New York. But it's more evidence that the better way to get people covered is to mimic the practices of less-regulated states such as Connecticut, where a 35-year-old man can get covered for as little as $50 per month."

So, this has been my crusade since the beginning on my blog and I'll say it again as now the WSJ is behind me. To fix the problems with health insurance in Maine we need to:

1. Eliminate "Community Rating"
2. Eliminate regulations that squash "free market"
3. Bring back High Risk Pools.
4. Subsidize the High Risk Pool for those that cannot afford it.
5. Health insurance is now available for all.

I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that the current presidential front-runners (Democratic) that are already promising universal health care for all aren't going to follow this approach [Yahoo]...and its going to cost us all a pretty penny. It already does here in Maine.

a long time...

2007-01-17T10:12:00.000-05:00

So its been a long time since I posted here, apologies. I know when you commit to a blog you are supposed to do just that, commit to it.

My life has been a blur between work, home and other commitments and blogging along with many other activities (oh xbox, how I miss thee...!) have not made it to the front burner. On exciting news the wife and I are expecting a little kiddo (our first!) sometime around the middle of summer. I'm expecting that with a little practice typing with one hand in the middle of the nite will allow me for more time to blog than I have now. :-)

There has been so much that I have wanted to blog, rant, scream and cry about but time just wasn't there.

A few links for you:

Michelle Malkin just got back from Iraq, she was with the Dagger Brigade, Ist ID which my bosses son is currently operating with. It was a "small world" in a big world, on the other side of the world moment. Read about her time here.

What to know what our troops are up against in Iraq in our own language? Six paragraphs...I swear.

Ever wonder what they teach in some "conservative" Islamic Mosques? Channel 4 (UK) did a little investigative piece.

You might think that with all this "world" news that things back home (Downeast) have quieted down since the election. Well, we still have the same Governor, given a second chance from the people of our great state. His crusade this term is property tax relief, no word on reducing state government size, complexity and regulation.....hmmm

VOTE!!!!

2006-11-07T08:54:00.000-05:00

GET THEE TO YOUR CITY HALL OR POLLING PLACE AND VOTE!!!

On your way there I always ask myself these few things...

Am I voting for today or for the future I want to live in?
Am I voting for people that will truly represent my feelings and desires at the level they are running at (City, State, National)?
If I'm voting for an incumbent have they really showed themselves capable in their position? Has the incumbent sold out their constituents for big government or personal gain?
Have I taken the personal responsibility to research the candidates views enough to make a decision to vote for or against them?
Will I take the personal responsibility to vote for the betterment of our city, state or country and not for gain of myself through social services and other governmental freebies?

Lastly: Nobody in my house is allowed to complain about politics, national or local government if they didn't vote.

Extreme Insurance...

2006-10-31T16:36:00.000-05:00

...Just as painful as any other extreme sport and it's available all across the state of Maine.

Anthem filed this past week to raise insurance premiums by an average 20.5%. Anthem calls it necessary as it lost $3 Million operating as Maine's almost sole insurance carrier and not enough people were signing up to spread the costs among a larger subscriber base. Surprise, Surprise!

The interesting thing about this whole topic is that if the state had more lenient regulations that promoted a free market there would be competition and prices would fall, then more people would enroll so the costs get distributed and then prices fall farther (or rise slower) so more people enroll and then we have affordable healthcare.

Instead, the state clings to it's precious "comunity rating", where Anthem is the lone insurance carrier in the state, we have DirigoHealth (now 3 years old) which sells subsidized (your tax dollars) Anthem insurance, and the prices go higher....Something is wrong here.

My ears perked up on the way to work last week as there was an ad touting some new insurance plans for small business in Maine, setup by the Maine Small Business Association. But guess who was the only insurance carrier in the state for them to pair up with? Anthem. So the plans, while it make look new and improved...are the same.

Abolish the community rating system.

Bring back the high risk pool.

Change DirigoHealth to be a subsidy program for those that are low income and fall into the high risk category.

Then, and only then will the insurance problems in Maine start to melt away. Consumers choice restored, insurance premiums fall due to actual market competition, life is good.

AND...if you think voting for John Baldacci is going to make this happen, you haven't looked at his campaign site. He clearly states that he intends to "stay the course" with Dirigo Health and promises to give insurance to everyone through it by 2009. Folks, it has taken Augusta over 3 years to insure 12,000 people, most of which already had insurance prior to signing onto Dirigo Health. Vote for Change.
PPH coverage

What is TABOR...For your Family, Co-Workers and Friends

2006-10-31T16:29:00.000-05:00

I wrote this up to give out to some of my family, friends and co-workers that didn't know much about TABOR.

What is TABOR?

A citizen’s initiative ballot item derived out of the frustration with a tax and spend state government that would limit the amount that taxes can be raised to inflation and population growth at a state and local level. If there is a need beyond that a 2/3 majority vote and then approval of the voters would need to occur.

Why is TABOR needed in our state?

Let’s look at what it will change. Caps spending without voter knowledge and requires the people to vote alongside their elected officials to raise taxes above the limits set. Let me put it in simpler terms. Remember when you were a kid and would have to clean your room? Your mom and dad wouldn’t let you leave until they checked to make sure you didn’t just shove everything under your bed and in your closet right? This is EXACTLY what we are telling our state government is needed. They have consistently over the past many years when asked to do something, did a good job on the surface but a hack job overall, hiding most of the “junk” in the closet. We the People of Maine are now bringing them to task telling them that they can’t leave their room until it is done right.

What about the MEA and all those signs about public safety (police/fire) being at risk if TABOR passes?

That’s called FUD (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt) and it’s an attempt to scare you into voting with them. Let’s walk through a scenario and say TABOR passes and the city needs a new firefighter position and an extra $250,000 to buy a shiny new truck. The burden is on the city council to provide information to the public of what is needed and the consequences if it is voted down (slower fire response and fewer men to fight a fire if your house is up in flames). Then the City council needs a 2/3 majority to send it to the voters. The voters vote “yes” and the measure passes. So what happened here? Not only did the fire department get a new truck, the voters know exactly where their raises in taxes are going. Isn’t that the way it’s supposed to be?

The likes of the MEA, Citizens United and the Public Safety Unions are ALL excluding the simple facts about how TABOR works leaving only FUD. They believe that Maine people like you and I don’t have the discretion to have a say in what we want for our state and state supplied services.

This upcoming fiscal cycle the state is already projecting a 750+ MILLION DOLLAR shortfall in balancing the budget, here in a state of just over 1 MILLION people. All this on top of having some of the highest taxes in the union. Does something seem wrong here?

Like a moth on a hot poker...huh?....

2006-10-27T12:06:00.000-04:00

Things are heating up folks....

I've had PLENTY of things worth blogging about but little time to post. I work in the healthcare industry and we are t-minus 5 days to bringing one of larger hospitals in northern Maine live with an entire suite of new applications. The effort being put forth to make this cutover is immense and has taken up much of my time, of which I would rather do many things.

So what have we missed?

John Richardson and Hannah Pingree touting [BDN] the recent (election related?) democratic resolve to pay it's past hospital bills and in the process talking up Gov Baldacci as the continued savior of Maine. They go into much detail on how Baldacci's administration inherited 11 years of hospital debt and how he has struggled to make good on all these former ills he aquired. Too bad two legislators recently did a great job of exposing the hypocrisy in the above statement by highlighting Maine's "Debt Bomb" of unfunded liability owed to the MSRS (Maine State Retirement System) which currently sits at 3 BILLION dollars [BDN]. Former Gov. King has set this debt to be settled by 2019 at a total cost of 5.5 billion but Baldacci for short term gains streached the payment back to 2029 adding 2.4 BILLION dollars to the total cost. Oh and this next budget cycle they are predicting a $750 MILLION dollar gap that we must somehow fill....hmmmm

Elections Get Nasty...Smear Starts (strangely not from candidates)

In the comments section of a Mainetoday.com news article a poster made reference to Chandler Woodcock having (over the period of almost a decade) multiple liens put on his property due to unpaid sewer bills and the like (All of which were paid off within 2-6mos of there creation). Strangely this caused all other opponents to dig up what they might of been subject to as well, with 4 out of 5 candidates being subject to a lien at one point. NaPier has current lien on his marijuana operation (just kidding...). So far all candidates have tried cozy up to this new "information" showing that they too have struggled like everyone else here in Maine and at the same time putting distance between the original informant for fear of alienating voters. [BDN] [PPH]

The latest poll from Critical Insight done for the Portland Press Herald had current Gov Bladacci at 42% to Woodcock's 25%, Merrill's 11%, LeMarche's 7% and NaPier's 1% (rougly the student body at College of the Atlantic and Unity College's biology program). Unfortunatally with a strong showing from Merrill had done more to hurt Woodcock than anyone else I fear and come election day we will all pay the price for people's "independant" thinking.

I'll get to TABOR and Insurance in my next blog..

The TABOR Debate Turns...

2006-10-17T10:04:00.000-04:00

Today marks the 3 week mark before election day and boy are things warming up on the TABOR front.

Interestingly enough I had the privilege to catch one of the Pro-Tabor TV spots that had Colorado's Governor in them [BDN Coverage] while having some relatives from Denver here in Maine leaf peeping. Leon (one of my relatives) had the same things the TV spot shared about TABORs positive effects on Colorado's people, business climate and outlook now that spending has been reigned in. The Colorado Governor Bill Owens also stated that TABOR has helped keep it's graduating youngsters in the state, something that Maine has been struggling with for a LONG TIME. For me, it was nice to have reinforcement of a positive and personal nature as I've tried to dig down into the weeds of issues such as TABOR.

The Maine Sunday Telegram came out in favor of TABOR over the weekend. They do a great job of outlining how bad of a job Augusta has done with previous tax relief initiatives (such as the recent school funding tax cap where the legislature made major modifications to the original bill and then failed to require increases in funding to be put toward property tax relief). They also outline how HORRIBLE of a job the state has done controlling spending. If you have questions about TABOR reading the MST viewpoint will leave little to the imagination if it does not pass.

Should TABOR pass the MHPC (Maine Heritage Policy Center) published a report listing the things we could do if our tax level was the same as some other states in New England. Shockingly if we moved from our current 13% of personal income to Massachusetts 10.2% we could 1.) Lower the individual income tax by 93% or 2.) Lower individual AND corporate income tax by 85% or 3.) Eliminate the sales tax and reduce local property tax by 8% or 4.) Reduce all property tax mill rates by 1/2.... WOW, people is this not reason enough? You can see the whole list here.

Well, I've saved the worst for last....3 of Maine's largest and most powerful lobbying groups proposed a alternative to TABOR today. These groups are The Maine State Chamber of commerce, the MEA (Maine Education Association) and the MMA (Maine Municiple Association). Surprise, surprise they didn't input their ideas into the shaping of TABOR but are just now, 3 weeks before election day, trying to run TABOR supporters away. It kinda doesn't sound like they want ANYTHING like tabor to pass, and why would they. For years the MEA and the MMA have always considered themselves and their members outside of untouchable and have challenged anyone to make them tow the budgetary line like the rest of the state. They also have the most emotional sway over the general voter population as they use FUD (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt) to scare the voters into voting with them for fear of schools closing, roads not being plowed and police and fire departments not responding to emergencies. Folks, do not fall for this FUD....These folks have said that they will control spending on their own and have over and over again chose to go back to their own ways. [PPH Coverage]

Time is growing short...Let's respond to failure

2006-10-17T09:10:00.000-04:00

I got all my campaign junk in the mail yesterday (lawn signs, bumper stickers, literature for friends) for Chandler Woodcock. I'm worried that being only a few weeks before the election that lack of real organization is going to be the downfall of the Woodcock campaign. He seems to be to have the knowledge of where Maine is today, good vision for tomorrow, and the persistent thinking that something needs to change. I think Maine people know there needs to be change I just earnestly hope they follow through with it...

A few news links for you:

Baldacci not helping small businesses - Dan Baker of Baker's Ice Cream talks about his struggle under the current state administration of running a small business. My family owns a small business of it's own and the following comment rang as true as truth to me, as we've had the same exact experience,

"State and local officials should be doing all they can to support small business. In my experience , there is no evidence of such support. I have never had any contact with state or local government that has not cost me money".

My bolding...The rest the article is a good read as well.

Candidates for Gov attend Veterans Forum - Nothing surprising came out of it, Baldacci toted Dirigo Health stating that it has provided health insurance for a whopping 16,000 people. Pat LaMarche talked about her plan for a single-payer healthcare system (basically the same as the Baldacci administration but much less overt). My buddy Chandler said we need to bring in more competing to the state to drop prices (the way to do this would be dropping the community rating system and go back to a high risk pool, subsidized by the state of course). Chandler did state he would like to lower the income tax from a oppressive 8.5 percent to 5 over his term should he be elected...gotta love that guy

Clinton comes to Maine to campaign for Baldacci and states that "...under John Baldacci's leadership, Maine is addressing [it], and your making it better while it's getting worse nationally" as he referred to education, budget and healthcare. Let's see...the governor has had 4 years to make some real change and what do we have to show for it? He has sold the states long term money making departments, not paid it's extensive bills, pushed back it's long term loans (costing us BILLIONS more down the road), and has a healthcare SYSTEM that has only managed to support 16,000 people at a cost of TENS of MILLIONS of dollars...Yup...We're right on track.

Baldacci strikes a deal...

2006-10-12T11:04:00.000-04:00

Well it seems the Baldacci administration struck a deal with the MHA to pay all (read:some) of it's long overdue MaineCare (Medicaid) bills. These are HUNDREDS of MILLIONS of dollars of outstanding hospital payments the state has continually put on the payment backburner.

Some are calling this all in the Baldacci spirit of using it for his own election day benefits...Count me one more person jumping into that ring. I think the purpose is two-ply.

One of the Republican backed election topics is the discrepancy between the Baldacci administrations claim of a "surplus" and the very evident number of bills that are outstanding that the state has yet to pay.
The quote from Peggy Rotundo (D-Lewiston), the senate chair for the appropriations committee says it best when asking if TABOR passing would have an effect on this decision to pay some bills..."Any funding package for this settlement...Would be much more difficult". Another DOOM and GLOOM prediction if TABOR goes through.

So, the current administration isn't planning on using it's "surplus", it's not even planning on cutting back on spending or other ridiculous programs to pay it's bills, it's going to TAX the people of this state to pay for it. Super!

For those people that believe TABOR is too strong of a measure, you need to look at the above and see how badly the people in Augusta need a wake up...Let's make it happen.

Lastly, Chandler Woodcock (republican gubernatorial candidate) seems to have said it best this week, "It is amazing to me that it's big news in Maine when we pay our bills"...

PPH BDN coverage..

Living in Maine...continued

2006-09-25T10:14:00.000-04:00

Cheers to Greg Howat for his comment in the BDN editorial section over the weekend. This is the type of people that Mainers (like myself) are glad to live amongst.

I'm a transplanted Michigander (more than five years in Maine now) whose entire family is very happy to live in Bangor and Maine. When we first moved here, I surprised one Mainer by mentioning that we relocated to Maine. The response was: "Wow! We're all trying to leave." Not the most encouraging words to someone just coming to the state.

How much more we've appreciated hearing a positive view of the state from most we've met.

Although that negative viewpoint is not widely held, I have one suggestion for action by the Chamber of Commerce to boost the spirit of Mainers. It's an idea borrowed from the great and proud state of Texas. I'd like to be the first to slap the following sticker on my bumper: "I wasn't born in Maine, but I got here as fast as I could."

The Technology void...

2006-09-20T10:13:00.000-04:00

There was a well written article in the BDN today written by David Vasdauskas about Maine's current identity crisis. The first 1/3 talks about the cold air...blah blah blah but the rest of the article does a good job outlining Maine's technology void and how we will stay in said void, continuing the mass exodus of Gen Y'ers until we strenghten our technology marketplace.

Vasdauskas takes a ride on the technology passion train with this statement:

While we must continue to encourage technology entrepreneurism from within Maine, our economic development effort must also attract early stage technology companies to Maine - companies whose greatest growth is still ahead of them. Future growth that will occur in Maine. To do this, we must be at the table as leaders during technology summits throughout the country. Maine must stake its claim at the technology table and position its technology "brand" to Gen Y influencers. We must tout success stories at leading national venture capital firms and through influential national technology media and blogs.

Sure the guy has passion but unfortunatally change needs to happen from the top to the bottom and focusing on technology isn't going to get the changes he wants. Maine IS NOT a state that welcomes any business. It's tax burden, strangling regulations and the far reaching polocies courtesy of our state government put a strangle hold on ANY business wanting to expand in any sector. Today all business rely on technology in some form, bring ANY business to Maine and technology jobs that us Gen Y'ers want will come with it.

I'll address another piece of his article in my next blog...

Personal Rant: I swear that the technology plan for this state relys soley on continued funding or expansion of our O'l Angus's laptop program, which IMHO is a great waist of money that could be spent elsewhere. Kids can hone thier solitair skills at home...not in the classroom.

It's Fall, time to get back into the swing of things...

2006-09-19T10:25:00.000-04:00

So with schools back in session, fall house projects in full swing and my very busy summer coming to a close its time for me to start posting again...and with the elections nearing I should have plenty of topics to post on.

There was a great bit in the BDN this morning about winter in Maine...seemed like a excerpt from it was the perfect end to the start of my blogging again, you can read the whole thing here.

True enough, a nip in the air will arrive with glorious sunny days as the official start of fall approaches. Nip and all, there will be plenty more of this lovely weather as the trees turn yellow, red and bronze and the vees of ducks and geese head south.
Then will come winter, hesitatingly at first but downright seriously by January and February. Some Mainers actually hate the winter cold and flee to Florida for a couple of months...We are here because we love it. And our own attitudes may help persuade more businesses to settle here and more college graduates in Maine to stay here and those from other states to settle here.
Winter in Maine is an asset, not a liability. And if that sometimes seems hard to accept, remember that starting on Dec. 21 the days will start getting longer and the nights shorter in a cycle that we canÂt really do anything about.

BDN: Revenue forecasters Rejoice...MMMM, yes they would.

2006-07-19T09:20:00.000-04:00

So there was an OP/Ed bit in BDN this morning covering the 149Million "surplus" the state as amassed over the past year. It does a good admirable job of highlighting some of the gaping holes in the governors idea (courtesy of Rep Tardy and Sen Davis) of what a "surplus" is but slipped in a few gems under the radar that I think give too much credit to our friends in Augusta, like this one:

lawmakers have rebuilt the state's rainy-day fund. It's not yet near where it should be, but the fund hit $149 million and will continue to grow because of the spending restrictions both parties wanted in statute.

Excuse me??? But spending restrictions were not the reason that we have a rainy-day fund, taxation is. Maybe not the type of taxation we see from our paycheck each week but the number of fees, registrations and permits or their cost have all edged up since our meatball loving governor took office. Don't believe me? A few republican leaders put together a little spreadsheet to highlight some of the more noticeable ones...you can find it here. My good friend Slublog has blogged a bit on this over on his site.

Economic Outlook...

2006-07-17T15:51:00.000-04:00

Arther Laffer, financial advisor to Ronald Reagan and probably best known for the Laffer Curve came out with his yearly economic outlook as covered by BizJournal Mag [article link].

Before jumping to the link I'd like you all to reflect on all that our sitting governor has "done" for our great state and ask yourself what our standing probably is as compared to the other states in the union...10th?...15th?...20TH???? NNNNNNN(buzzer)...Maine ranked LAST.

People...this has to change...let me make a recommendation

Summer...Yum

2006-07-17T15:39:00.000-04:00

I warned you all about summer and the lack of meaningful post and/or rantings you would find here. Summer in Maine is short and meant to be enjoyed.

Thankfully there are some people that still have the ability to write and keep the rest of us thinking through these summer months like Jim Cyr and his GREAT op/ed bit in the PPH this past week....I'm reprinting it in its entirety as it needs to be read.

The outlook that hurts Maine the most
Nancy Grape's protestation in her June 25 column ("Don't revive regional resentments") that Mainers shouldn't see this year's state elections as some sort of "Portland vs. the rest of Maine" thing sounds reasonable enough.

After all, everyone suffers when Maine's economy is as weak as it currently is - and Portland's poor people are no better served than Bangor's or Lewis- ton's when the state offers little incentive or opportunity to do anything except jump through the hoops of a paternalistic, shortsighted social welfare system for an endless period of time.

Maine's proud history indeed includes an effort to refrain from exercising the divisive, harmful political maneuvers seen and practiced elsewhere.

But simply glossing over reality doesn't change it. Sociocultural factors in different parts of the state are already playing a strong role in current Maine political life.

Take, for example, the blue-state transplants who increasingly migrate to southern and coastal regions of Maine. Most arrive bringing a liberal political outlook along with their furniture and luggage, all parts of which they set about trying to transplant here in Maine - to recreate the motherland, I suppose.

By and large, that cohort doesn't have a lot in common with more deeply rooted Maine folks.

To the newcomers, "Maine" often means just their plot of land, the road they commute to and from work along, the road to Sunday River and the Maine Turnpike.

Beyond that, the rest of the state is - something vague and green out there.

It's impossible for most native Mainers to see the state that way. For example, they visit the county that Sarah and John's family had to transfer to after his employer closed some branches and John had to move to keep his job.

Gram and Gramps had friends who live 5 miles off that last exit we just passed, and we went to high school or college with a couple who live in the next town over. We still get together a couple of nights a month for fun.

Countless little connections run deep and wide like these, all over the state.

THE POOR MOVE ON

Poorer people move away, or further east or north, with or without a university degree. Meanwhile, those who can afford to live well in a nice house in Portland or in a scenic coastal town move here, buy property and settle down.

Many have good jobs (and sometimes still commute out of state to keep them) and some are retired. So, if their newly adopted state suffers from the economic version of "failure-to-thrive syndrome," how many personally suffer from it?

Taxes, industry, investment, welfare programs, the environment - in every aspect of Maine's current tragicomic economic situation, this dynamic shows up.

Whistling in the dark won't solve it. The newcomers are insulated against the results of decisions that keep too many in "old Maine" poor.

With their investment portfolios, advanced educations, telecommuter jobs and much, much more going for them, how deeply can they really feel the hardships of unemployed mill families and rural, disadvantaged youths with slim job possibilities, along with the businesspeople who struggle to stay in the black?

A FUZZY VISION

I've too often seen and heard the fuzzy vision that says that "things are a bit rough in (rural county A) but the people there are stoic, good-natured troopers who don't mind being poor all that much."

Few who share that vision ever lived in one of those "backwaters." But as long as that doesn't impinge too much on their reality, they'll keep on wanting Maine to remain what they call "pristine" - and what others call "poor."

If other Mainers don't profit from the booming national economy because the state's policies too severely restrict growth, well, the immigrant class has more than enough to pay its bills and taxes. It's not as if their support for failed fiscal policies and outdated philosophies has anything to do with their situation.

However, for those in southern Maine who still understand the folly of those ideas, or even for that rare liberal-state transplant who won't march to the beat of the "gotta-tax-and-spend" drum, good for you.

You are upholding an even greater, more sublime Maine tradition: Thinking independently.

- Special to the Press Herald

Sold out by our Senators

2006-05-26T08:38:00.000-04:00

I just finished writing Senator Snowe and Collins, our two RINO Senators from here in Maine. I had to tell them (yes I've held out this long), that I no longer feel it is right to vote for them. Both Senators voted for the horribly cobbled together Senate Immigration Bill that will give amnesty to millions of illegal aliens that currently run free in the USA.

Granted I should have seen it coming but I once again had grand hopes that they would vote to actually do some good for our beloved state and they let me down. Watching coverage on Fox last night I almost started screaming "et tu, brute?"....cheesy I know.

This bill is a slap in the face of every American that works hard and believes that their should be help but not handouts. Cripes! It even contains language that says we have to "consult" Mexico [malkin][via]

Where has all the common sense gone? before we start making additions or changes to the wall. [

[AP coverage]

Thankfully the House bill contains no such amnesty program; let’s hope that there are some serious compromises by the senate to get this thing passed.

10 days and counting

2006-05-22T08:58:00.000-04:00

Sorry for the lack of posts over the last week or so. Spring has finally made it to Maine and like everyone else that has spent a majority of the past few months inside I'm finally taking some time to accidentally mow over the wife's roses. I KNOW that as things come up I'll be writing about it...see you on the other side.

Curbside Clutter Passes

2006-05-12T14:08:00.000-04:00

The Curbside Clutter amendment was unanimously passed by our city council. The bit in the BDN described some of the items that this amendment was put in place to avoid making it to the curbside. These included sofas, mattresses, stained carpets and electronics, coincidentally the same items that were in front of my neighbors lawn prior to this weekend. She gets the BDN and I have a feeling that reading the coverage got her in action to have it all removed :-).

Curbside Clutter laws just make sense, they keep our city and it sidewalks clean and improve neighborhoods....3 cheers to the city council

We have a long way to go...

2006-05-12T13:37:00.000-04:00

A University of Maine environmental policy student released a report [pph] from a study he has been working on for the past several years dealing with Mainers and their automobile of choice if purchased new. Surprise, Surprise Mainers love thier trucks and while some would stear clear of pickups when gas prices go up nobody seems to think SUVs are all that bad. The most shocking was this...

Cohen also noted that 60 percent of survey respondents felt that all vehicles polluted the same amount, but that people were less likely to select trucks or SUVs when they believed them to be more polluting.

People...this is simple math (more miles per gallon = less gas burned = (> polution))

Curbside Clutter...

2006-05-05T12:43:00.000-04:00

Bangor, The Queen City gave me an early Christmas present this year....A Curbside Clutter Amendment to it's Solid Waste Ordinance to be voted on soon [BDN]. Years and years ago Bangor's "Spring Cleanup" used to be, make a huge pile on the side of the road of whatever (hazardous, non, tvs, debris) and we'll pick it up. Public Works ended this about 8 years ago and people still haven't learned. Currently, trash not be picked up on trash days will sit until the owner removes it, the city starts court proceedings against them or the finally bio-degrade, nice huh? Take a drive down many streets in Bangor and you will find examples of this. It's bad for the city, the neighborhoods and it degrades the marketability of the whole lot.

If you live, work or shop in Bangor, and feel similar about this please consider contacting the city council (list) with your support of this amendment. I did....

Councilor _________,

Elated does not describe how I felt when I was reading the BDN this morning and found an article about the proposed curbside clutter ordinance. I was born in Bangor, have grown up Bangor and now live and work in Bangor and it has pained me over the last few years (especially since I became a property owner) the lack of regard some people living in this city have displayed around trash disposal mainly how it is dumped at the curbside, left and ignored. I earnestly hope you intend to support this proposed amendment as I know it will help Bangor maintain it's cleanliness, attractiveness and community spirit that has kept me here these many years.

Thank You,

Downfleeced

Tabor going to the voters....again

2006-05-05T11:39:00.000-04:00

Maine's Supreme Court ruled Thursday that Matt Dunlap (Secretary of State) had the authority to allow extra TABOR petitions to be submitted after the statutory deadline which will reverse a lower court ruling and put TABOR back on the November ballot. To quote Chief Justice Saufley...

"Nothing in the [Maine} Constitution requires that petitions be filed within a year of the date of the first signature or invalidates an entire batch of petitions merely because some signatures are too old," Chief Justice Leigh I. Saufley wrote for the court. "Rather, the [Maine} Constitution leaves initiative proponents free to file petitions when they choose, understanding that any signatures that are more than one year old at filing will not be counted toward their goal."

"When viewed in light of the constitutional scheme," she continued, "the statutorily imposed one-year deadline for filing petitions is a substantial restriction, directly inconsistent with the circulator's more flexible options provided by the [Maine} Constitution."

This was to be expected and Matt's explanation for his "ruling" seemed pretty common sense to me. What I don't understand is how the lower courts ruled the opposite. I understand the politics and the liberalism that tends to have a stranglehold on the lower court system but it seems they are only shooting themselves in the foot by taking sides with something that the Supreme Court is going to unanimously turnover. BDN Coverage, PPH Coverage.

Now with the challenge thrown out let the fear mongering begin!!!

Solidarity...

2006-05-01T09:28:00.000-04:00

Hopefully most of Maine will be supporting THIS cause today.

Time to dig out the motorcycle

2006-04-27T11:48:00.000-04:00

Fuel (gas to the layman) prices have been holding here in central Maine at $2.90~ a gal with most places not willing to go over that invisible $3.00 per gal wall. Gasbuddy.com has a really cool "National Thermostat Map" that shows the price trends on a county level, all I have to say is poor, poor California.

Now I'm not going to get into the whole "Peak Oil" debate but I do think we're heading into some interesting times where there will probably be some pretty drastic changes in our energy use and direction. Here in Maine where it seems you have to drive several miles for anything and where we have two real seasons, 9 mos of winter and 3 of summer, this will probably be felt acutely.

My good friend Slublog has a great bit about America's addiction to the black goo, well worth a read.

And our democratic brethren, masters of spin, are already planning on using this to their advantage come election time, as they must with a strong economy, job growth and positive progress in Iraq, political points they don't reaallly want to talk about.

here and back again

2006-04-26T09:40:00.000-04:00

by downfleeced. I'm back for a quick few posts, blogging will still be sporadic as I wade through a site I'm designing , if you PM me I might even tell you where to find it.

One thing that I wanted to point out is the ongoing battle over the State of Maine's inability to pay it's bills. The BDN had a nice bit about it today that really did a good job of not sugarcoating it (which they do from time to time), it's well worth a read. I've blogged on this issue a few times and each time a quote seems to catch me in the gut this time it was this...

"To put it in perspective," Michaud said, "A child born today to a mother on Medicaid and the hospital delivering that child is not receiving payment until the child is in preschool."

It is similar to someone working this entire year and not getting a paycheck until 2009, Michaud added.

This should ring home to everyone, joe taxpayer, joe homeless even joe..I mean jose' illegal...can you imagine working this year and having to wait for 3 years till you saw a dime of it?

The Maine Hospital Association's (MHA) campaign called "Settle Up" is a good start in shaming the state into paying. Glad to see the BDN playing ball and helping to get the word out....

been a while

2006-04-19T07:29:00.000-04:00

Sorry for the lack of posts over the last few days, I really have stuff I'd like to blog about but have not found that other needed component, time. Outside of my normal job in the IT world and my other job ranting at the State of Maine I do a little amature web design on the side for my family's businesses. Well, each time a new business starts (not that often, thank goodness!!) I have to get a site up and running. Now you know whats been eating all my blogsphere time...no worries...this to will pass...

See you on the other side...

Ridiculous...

2006-04-14T09:27:00.000-04:00

In the town I live in (Bangor, ME) there is a construction project underway to rehabilitate an old waterfront structure called the "Waterworks". These buildings were part of a hydroelectric dam that was running up until the early 1970s or so and are now will be used to add low income "efficiency" apartments for our area, sounds like a great idea right?

rant hat on...

Well, a BDN article this morning opened my eyes to the ridiculous amount of money that is going into this structure that will house low rent apartments. The projects costs are estimated at $6,400,000 and will eventually have 35 apartments, sounds like a lot right?, it is and it gets worse. Let me break this down for you so you don't have to dig out your calculator. That's $182,857.00 per unit, not per house or per floor but PER UNIT! These units have 1 or two small bedrooms, a bathroom, living/dining room and a mini-kitchen. The whole project space is approx 18,000 sq ft which works out to $355 per sq foot....WOW

Now this all doesn't make me mad, I'm actually excited...no really. Why shouldn't people needing low income (subsidized) housing have access to $182,857.00 efficiency apartments? Or the ability to live in one of the most prestigious places in Bangor, along the river with tall windows and breathtaking views?

This is just another example of our current leadership (this was made possible through your tax dollars at the desire of our local town council) giving NO INCENTIVE for people that "require" MASSIVE amounts of state and federal assistance because they know the state will always be there to catch them when they decide to fall. This is one of the reasons Maine is and has been in the top 10 states with the highest state/federal tax burden imposed on it's citizens.

Think about it...

Rant hat off...

Tax Freedom Day Approacheth!!

2006-04-13T12:44:00.000-04:00

Tax Freedom Day will be April 26th this year according to the Tax Foundation. Tax Freedom Day (if you haven't heard of it) is an easy way to show you how much of your hard earned dough is shipped off to Uncle Sam by breaking it down to the number of days (paychecks) it would take in one lump sum. This year the Tax Day comes 3 days later than it was last year.

Now onto Maine...In Maine OUR Tax Freedom Day is May Day (May 1st), so there you have it, another great reason to give out May baskets! Maine is once again El Numero Uno when it comes to combined state and federal tax payout at 13.5 percent. Interestingly (or depressingly) enough Maine has been in the "top 10" combined payout states for every year since 1980, and outside of it only 3 years between 1970 and 1980. AND...drumroll please....we have been number 1 since 1997. You can see the breakdown of our state here.

Can you say TABOR?

TABOR going to the Supreme Court (round 1)

2006-04-12T20:14:00.000-04:00

TABOR, Maine's Taxpayer Bill of Rights is heading to the Supreme Court on the 25th over the argument of petitions filed after the "deadline". Secretary of State Matt Dunlap did his job and reviewed the laws and under his authority allowed the 4,000+ signatures to be added after the fact (signatures that were needed to put the referendum item on the ballot come Nov), well a judge didn't agree with the Secretary so the story goes. Boston.com has a good overview of this here.

The general consensus seems to be that Matt was well within his authority to allow said signatures but no matter how it plays out in the court later this month it's detractors (said judge included) have to understand that the people of Maine, this year or next year, will vote on TABOR. The momentum is there, the people are upset, it will happen.

TABORs next fight will be the constitutionality of some it's measures. The BDN had a short writeup about the coming fight, it should be interesting.

"Do You Love America ?".....UPDATE

2006-04-11T09:07:00.000-04:00

UPDATE: Immigration bill is stripped of felony provision.

I've been hesitant to blog on the illegal immigration rallys taking place all over the country but an anti-illegal protester was hit with something in Portland bringing this whole thing home.

Then as I was driving into work this morning I heard a soundbit from Sen Kennedy that just made my blood boil. In part of his speach he states "

Some whant to turn America away from it's true spirit..they believe immigrants are criminals..."

I'm sorry, are the people protesting anything about how the normal immigration process works, no, they are trying to "mob rule" us into allowing those in our country that are here illegal to get a get out of jail free card and get something you really can't put a price on, American Citizenship. Someone pinch me when leaders get a clue on the difference between illegal and legal immigrants, will ya?

Illegals in our country ARE criminals and why Sen Kennedy, should we reward them for this? Do you really think that these people arn't going to learn from this that the mob really does rule? Oh wait...you want the mob to vote for you next year, I forgot.

You can read more about this ongoing fun and games here:

Michele Malkin
The Political Pitbull

LD 1870 passed...

2006-04-10T14:19:00.000-04:00

LD 1870 passed with no opposition. This bill limits the use of eminent domain after the Supreme Courts ruling a few months back. Unfortunatally the bill will not protect a large part of Maine due to the "Blight exception". This I believe is because most everyone from North Boston (Portland) probably has a different idea of what "standard of living" means...I'll give you an example:

Flower pot in Portland

Flower pot everywhere else in Maine

nuff said...

Spin....

2006-04-10T13:17:00.000-04:00

So I was reading a White House press release "Economic Growth Continues, More than 5.1 million Jobs Created Since August 2003" and it got me thinking....hmmm, I wonder if any of these jobs came to Maine?

The boys and girls over a AMG way ahead of me, here is what was found:

The Department of Labor reports that between Feb 2004 - Feb 2006 we had a net LOSS of non-farm (farm jobs are considered to be non-permanent) and non-gov jobs in Maine.

THEN The Department of Labor reports that during the same time period we (Maine) had a net gain of over 1,000+ NEW jobs in Government.

So this much is obvious (it seems), we have had zero job growth in Maine since reported in Feb 2004 and the government grew by over 1,000, great. NOW, tell me how with this data that the Governor comes up with this,

"In 2003, the Total Resident Employment stood at 655,000---That figure rose to 677,000 for 2005. From 2003 to 2005, therefore, 22,000 more people are working."

Well it seems that if your trying to put spin on something to save face you'll use data that isn't normally used to calculate job growth. In this case the Governor included Farm wage, self-employed and even unpaid family members in an effort to add something to nothing. Nice.

Parking spaces go PC

2006-04-06T12:56:00.000-04:00

The Governor signed into law today a bill that raised the fines on those who would dare park close their store of choice or rather in a handicap parking spot. This is all fine and well but the bill also introduced a change in what we should call those spots, no longer will they be called "Handicapped Parking Spaces" instead now they will be called "disability parking spaces".

Personally, I think that the use of the word "DISability" is still too harsh. I have a cronic illness in which I COULD get a "disability parking pass" if I wanted and I know if I pulled into a parking space and saw the word "DISability" it would make me feel down.

I'm going to see what I can do about adding a change for next years "upping of the fines" to include changing the name to "HandiABLE parking spaces" or maybe "HandiCAPABLE parking spaces". Whats your choice?

FBI lags FAR behind Corporate America...

2006-04-06T10:05:00.000-04:00

Slate has an article up about the FBIs antiquated computer and communication systems and the numerous times they have tried and failed to throw lots of money at the problem to fix it.

Can you believe that...

The FBI can't afford or doesn't have the technology to give even 8,000 FBI employees e-mail addresses (out of 30,000)?
They still use pre-windows green screen systems to compile case data?
they still use faxes to circulate data (including the 100,000+ tips received in the 2002 D.C. sniper case?
Only 100 agents out of every 2,000 have Blackberries?

This problem was highlighted when I attended a FBI presentation about computer forensics that was put on by our local field office. While their lab was well put together and had everything needed for detailed forensic analysis, the agent speaking was trying to WOW us with some of their "new state of the art" hardware...ooooooooh 2 terabytes of storage on a rackmounted server in a closet.

Folks, this technology has been around for a LONG time, my employer has several 2+ terabyte ACTIVE databases, that each span 5+ racks worth of 10GB hard drives. We just put in a 10 terabyte network SAN for central storage. Our current e-mail system has capacity for 50,000users (we only have 5,000 employees). And....I have almost 2 terabytes of storage on my home backup server.

If the FBI wants to stay competitive to attract new talent and really be the organization it needs to be to fight terrorism at home it needs to play serious catch up with corporate America and soon with Joe Citizen...even in Maine.

Taking from the haves for the have-nots...again

2006-04-05T12:47:00.000-04:00

Maine's legislature (in large part) has had for a long time a subtle socialist slant toward much of it's "do good" bills that come before the Governor to sign. Many of these come from his office and are brought before the legislature by one of his own, the latest, a rural internet plan is no different.

This bill [PPH] taxes the broadband "haves" to provide tax incentives for businesses to invest in rural areas where broadband "have-nots" live. This fee (read:tax) will be applied to all users of regular phones and broadband connections and is said to amount to roughly $3bucks a year for the average broadband consumer with a phone.

Currently 86% of Mainers have access to broadband service, with %100 of rural users having access to some form of internet (dialup or satellite) and this bill will give over $1.5million dollars worth of tax breaks per year to some of the richest companies in Maine. Verizon is listed as #18 on the Fortune 500 list with last years profit exceeding 7.3 BILLION dollars. What is wrong with this picture?

What else could the Baldacci do to really sweeten the pot for me, let's add a new regulation authority to spend some of that money making sure it get used appropriately. That's right, part of the bill creates a new regulatory board that will be called ConnectME Authority.

Super.

No Serial Saturday...or Sunday for that matter

2006-04-02T21:15:00.000-04:00

Life...Yeah, its been a busy one through the weekend. I honestly don't expect that Serial Saturday will be an every weekend event as we move into the spring and summer months here in Maine. I will however keep it going as IT content fills my "favorites" in my favorite browser...Mozilla Firefox.

Talk to you all on the other side....

Sorry, "guests" don't use "forged" IDs...

2006-03-31T09:01:00.000-05:00

President Bush has been pushing his "temporary guest worker" program for some time now as the cure-all for our country's illegal immigration nightmare. I honestly had higher expectations for his plans on immigration reform, especially with him coming from Texas which has a HUGE illegal alien problem.

Alias, my hopes were not meant to be, currently there is a push to give illegal aliens a free pass (of sorts) to stay in the USA and work w/o requiring them to be bused back to the other side of the Rio Grande and apply for citizenship or residency like the rest of those looking to enter the USA. I understand the need for labor from south of the border but why should Mexico get a free pass to easy residency here? This program will NOT help us fight terror nor will it help us control the out of control costs of our social programs. The Real ID Act is a good first step, the Temporary Guest Worker Program is not.

We've all heard about illegals stealing people's identity to assist their hiding in the US but I was amazed at how good their forgeries are getting, Michelle Malkin has a bit about it and lots of pictures...check it out here.

Destroying Insurance Markets...Not Just Maine

2006-03-28T11:55:00.000-05:00

So the Heartland Institute along with the Council for Affordable Health Insurance came up with a comprehensive overview on how Guaranteed Issue and Community Rating killed (read: consumers could no longer afford) Insurance markets in 8 states. Maine is included in this but many states started FAR earlier and now are on the slow road to recovery.

CONTENT WARNING: The data and stories told in this overview will shock and scare you and make you fear for Maine's insurance market (read: your health insurance). Please sit down while you read this.

Direct from CAHI
Mirror (Not up yet)

Dirigo Health Going Self-Insured

2006-03-28T09:56:00.000-05:00

So this has been in the works for a while but I have to really touch on it as each time an article has come out or an "event" has happened I've been busy, thankfully Rep McKane (R-Newcastle) had a great bit in the BDN this morning about it and I finally feel up to blogging on it.

The gist of this is the Dirigo Health Agency thinks that it can do a better job at running or administering it's program than Anthem is doing today. A bill has been introduced to become self-insured and take all of Anthem's responsibilities over.

This is a horrible idea for a number of reasons

The Baldacci Administration has said that this change "...will eliminate the profit incentive that has made it difficult to price the product affordable". Since when has a state agency been able to reduce costs by taking over something....anyone?...that's what I thought.
Given the state's horrible track record of paying hospitals and other providers on time through MaineCare I expect the same thing will happen with Dirigo. This could force some healthcare facilities to close that are already working on a marginal budget.
The state's MaineCare program then ran the other end of the spectrum when fouled up in computer problems and sent hundreds of millions of dollars of "estimated" payments to hospitals and providers, much of which they are now trying to get back.
Reimbursement rates have not been outlined for Dirigo should (when) it goes self-insured, there is the distinct possibility that the state could set rates lower than what the actual costs of doing business were for the provider. Nothing like receiving a payment for $50.00 from the state when it cost you (the provider) $60.00 to perform.

Rep McKane said it best in his Op/Ed bit....

"The new-phase Dirigo program has been specifically designed to avoid mandatory compliance with the insurance laws of this state. It seems the governor believes that the new Dirigo program would be more successful if it were free from our burdensome insurance regulations - regulations that the insurance industry has been seeking relief from for years."

Huh...funny thing about that.

McKane Bit
BDN Article
Other BDN Article

Republican Candidates Offer Dirigo Fixes

2006-03-27T21:36:00.000-05:00

Two of the leading Republican Candidates for Governor (Peter Mills and Chandler Woodcock) have offered up their ideas, should they topple sitting Governor Baldacci, on how they would reform Dirigo.

Mills offers a seven step plan while Woodcock offers a six step plan, both include axing the upcoming SOP (saving offset payment), increasing healthy thoughts in people and increasing market competition. From there they slowly fork with different ideas that all sound pretty grounded at first blush.

On their march to the Blaine house though I have to side with Woodcock who speaks directly to "reducing regulations and state mandates"....I can only hope this includes bringing back high risk pools and scrapping Maine's failed community rating scheme.

You can read all of Peter Mills points here and an overview of Chandler Woodcock's here.

Maine's Energy Crisis...Fueling The Mass Exodus

2006-03-27T21:15:00.000-05:00

Maine has a problem, our state with it's desire to always be on the bleeding edge, deregulated it's energy market in 2000. Sounds great huh, free market and all, well, since then we've continually had some of the highest energy costs in the northeast.

Recently there has been a call for the PUC to investigate other options that might help our "situation", some of these include shacking up with Canada's energy companies and withdrawing from the New England ISO. Neither of these will regulate the market like the old days but with Maine's relatively small energy market they might prompt more competition in it's energy market.

Maine's current energy crisis is also one of the reasons manufacturers are pulling up their anchors and setting sail for greener pastures. This has been acutely felt in our area with the Georgia-Pacific Mill in Old Town closing down and their shutdown being blamed in part on energy costs. You can read the BDN coverage here

The BDN had a Op/Ed Bit on energy costs as well

Democratic Party Chairman steps down....UPDATE

2006-03-25T13:35:00.000-05:00

Well, Well, Well...finally the Oz curtain falls. Today or rather Friday Pat Colwell (Maine DC) admitted that the whole RI money fiasco DID play a part in him stepping down. His "mistake in judgement" finally caught up with him and under (I assume) pressure from the Demcratic Party he is out appologizing. Touched on by the BDN and the PPH

The best part of the PPH article was Governor Baldacci's quote,

"There are legal opinions which say that this transaction was legal, (but) we hold ourselves to a higher standard, and that's how I like to see things being done."

Sure Governor, Sure. Your party was caught with it's hand in the cookie jar, how does that coincide with holding yourself to a higher standard?

Serial Saturday Vol 4

2006-03-25T11:34:00.000-05:00

Welcome back to Serial Saturday...

Desktop Earth is a wallpaper generator that updates your wallpaper with an accurate representation of earth depending on the time of day, really cool.

A report out by the CRIA (Canadian Recording Industry Association) counters their own claims that P2P services are cause of the music industries downward spiral. A very good read.

For those of you that are Firefox users there is another must have extension out there for you, It's called ClamWin AV Glue and it uses ClamWin Antivirus to scan everything you download from within Firefox while web browsing. What?, you already have AV software, GREAT!, now go google something called "Defense in Depth".

Lastly, Google started it's own finance page this past week where you can now go check your stocks and get news about the market, It's still beta but check it out none the less.

Teacher Salary Backlash...

2006-03-24T14:13:00.000-05:00

One of Governor Baldacci's election year war cries has been the need to bump teachers starting salaries up to $30,000 a year. Sure this sounds like a great idealistic move, who would dare buck against giving the teachers of our children a better start, but real numbers are finally coming forth that show how much this little move will end up costing us (the taxpayer). The town of Holden (SAD 63) is the first town/district to raise objections that I know of and on paper it doesn't look pretty. [From the BDN]

"It could cost us up to $260,000 a year in additional funds," Varnum said of SAD 63, which comprises Holden, Eddington and Clifton. In a letter from Superintendent Louise Regan, dated March 14, she announced that the state is planning to chip in $16,000 in targeted funds toward the overall costs. "That means the burden of salary increases in this district will be paid by taxpayers of our communities," Regan's letter states.

An editorial in the SunJournal highlighted the taxpayer frustration further and pointedly tries to remind teachers how good they really have it...

let's see:

17 sick days over a 175 day school calendar (private sector workers work 260 days a year and have as little as 5 sick days per year)
already said but in a different context, teachers work175 days to a normal 260 days (approx)
teachers almost without execption have solid healthcare benefits
can you say guaranteed salary increases ?

To quote the SunJournal "It's a place most people don't share"

Lastly, do you want to know what was said after objection was raised to this increase? [SunJournal]

Last week, Auburn teacher Tina Vanasse - agitated that members of a government watchdog group questioned the budget - lashed out and angrily challenged the citizen examination as "ludicrous" and "arrogant."

WOW....

Maine Legislature Audio Links...

2006-03-22T19:53:00.000-05:00

Amazingly our legislature (for all it's faults) does a good job of allowing residents access to what is going on at the statehouse, part of this is by broadcasting streaming audio of chamber going ons even committee public hearings and work sessions. A great directory of whats available is here.

Republicans Happier than Democrats...

2006-03-22T18:29:00.000-05:00

An interesting survey done by the Pew Research Center once again reported that Republicans are happier than Democrats. Sure you'd say "Bush is President" but this has been a constant since 1972. Even adjusting for income reveals that poor Republicans are happier than poor Democrats. Just plain crazy when you think (I do) that Republicans tend to have a better grasp on just how much we shell out to support the Democrats bloating social service programs. Seems the Republican base is able to push this aside and just be happy...

You can read the Yahoo bit here and see the whole report here.

off topic

2006-03-21T14:47:00.000-05:00

This is off topic but to good to not blog on...Seems that you don't have to worry as much if your kids go "goth" according to a study done at Sussex University, in fact they likely will become doctors, lawyers or architects.

You can read the whole thing here

Democratic Party Chairman steps down....

2006-03-21T09:42:00.000-05:00

Well the wife and I had a great time this weekend down at Ikea and came back with our Jeep weighed down and our wallets light.

Looks like I didn't miss much this weekend outside of this GOLDEN nugget. On Sunday Maine's Democratic Party Chairman Pat Colwell stepped down to spend more time with his family and to start shopping for a private sector job. His timing seems strangely aligned with the recently unearthed controversy over party donations to a RI candidate. It looks like some folks in RI who already gave the maximum campaign contribution sent money to Maine which somehow made it back to RI.

what's stranger than campaign fund manipulations?....try a Democratic Party Chair actually stepping down, quickly, without a fight over a developing scandal...What happend to fights, denials and half-truths?

You can read more at BDN and PPH

Ah...Providence

2006-03-18T20:09:00.000-05:00

Well...Serial Saturday and any other ranting will be postponed till Monday as the wife and I migrated down to Providence, RI for the weekend. What you ask could bring me to immerse myself into this liberal hotspot? One word....Ikea

See you all on Monday.

small, subtle changes....part 2

2006-03-16T09:52:00.000-05:00

I listened to MPBN Radio's program Public Affairs yesterday which did a call in with Governor Baldacci. Nothing really surprising came out of it that I heard, more of the same from the Blaine House.

The saddest part of the whole program and this mornings papers (big surprise) is the lack of fallout from the constant shifting of words, phrases and figures. For years I honestly gave the people of Maine more credit for their sharp minds and quick wit that I believe they now deserve. How could the entire state not be in an uproar with the constant fudging coming from our current leadership.

The newest subtle change...after Trahan and McKane's revelation in a BDN Op/Ed bit (blogged earlier) with the help from the non partisan OFPR that millions upon millions of new taxes, fees and assessments have been added since Baldacci took office, the governor has changed his speak from "There have been no tax increases" to "there have been no broad based tax increases".

A subtle change that carries A LOT of weight.

small, subtle changes....

2006-03-15T13:06:00.000-05:00

Just an observation....

Have you noticed how over the past few months there has been a quiet change to the description of what Dirigo is by the Baldacci Administration and its media whores? Dirigo's original WOW factor was the idea to insure the uninsured here in Maine, now quietly, ever so quietly they have slipped in "...and underinsured Mainers".

Not that this is a big surprise really, our current Statehouse leadership has mastered long ago the art of manipulating words and numbers, I have plenty of posts to back that one up. Let's draw attention away from how horrible of a failure Dirigo has become when compared with it's initial goal and then champion it's ability to help previously insured Mainers now become better insured. Too bad the reason that they were probably uninsured was the exorbitant premium cost due to role of Community Rating....oops, I wasn't supposed to see that.

The Real ID Act

2006-03-15T11:21:00.000-05:00

Finally the Feds are taking steps to make it harder for illegals to acquire drivers licenses with the approval of the Real ID Act in May. The ID Act will require people seeking a license to prove they are in the US legally. The unfortunate part is that it doesn't go into effect until May 2008, plenty of time for the millions of illegals to pick up some ID.

Currently drivers licenses are (for all intensive purposes) state issued national ID cards and this is a great step in the right direction to protect them.

Now for the shocker, Maine Secretary of State Matt Dunlap was quoted in the AP article as saying

"What do you do with the people on the Gulf Coast, where so many records have been lost..", "We have no argument with the intent of Real ID. Our concern is what (it) is going to force us to do..."

SAY WHAT? Looks like Matt has had to much time at the Statehouse and is now fully motivated to hold everyone's hand along the path of life in our little welfare state...the responsibility should stay on the shoulders of the individual to prove they are here legally not shift to the states.

You can read the AP article here.

Operation Change the Subject

2006-03-14T15:08:00.000-05:00

It looks like Rep Stephen Bowen (R-Rockport) got hold of the Maine Democratic Party's Operation Manual last week based on his Op/Ed bit in the BDN. It came as no surprise to me that part of their current defensive strategy contained "Operation Change the Subject" which has been part of their playbook for many years.

Bowen goes on to highlight a few of their current fronts and the poor job they are doing holding up under a surprisingly relentless GOP army (Finally!!). Just to highlight a few (evil grin): Dirigo, run away spending, taxes, the blame game and Medicaid.

One would think come November the Ds might just end up with a healthy case of Gulf War Syndrome what with the large theatre of operation and all....

You can read the OP/Ed here.

Serial Saturday Vol 3

2006-03-11T20:53:00.000-05:00

Welcome back to Serial Saturday, our weekend break from Maine politics.

Want Photoshop but can't afford it? Try GIMPshop on for size. GIMPshop comes out of the GIMP open source project but it's GUI has been modified to mimic the 800 pound gorilla Photoshops. Check it out here.

UPS, FexEx, USPS and DHL Package tracking with Google Maps...really cool, check it out here.

A great article by Digital Camera Magazine about how to change convert color pictures to mono with Photoshop or GIMPshop using several different methods. Here

Have a hankering for some software but don't have the change? Here is a great list of free software you can download now.

How Tax Friendly is Your State?

2006-03-10T12:44:00.000-05:00

CNN Money published the Tax Foundations most recent surevey of taxes by states, if you live in Maine this will depress you.

To quote Curtis Dubay an economist with the Tax Foundation, "Topping the list of least tax-friendly places is Maine. Its number 1 ranking results from the great disparity between the fact that it is one of the lowest income states in the country yet has one of the highest rankings in terms of tax collection".

You can see the list here.

Targeting Dirigo - Part 2

2006-03-10T11:48:00.000-05:00

After the GOP took Dirigo to task the insurance industry (Maine Association of Health Plans) did so as well, with the backing of the Maine Hospital Association and Maine State Chamber of commerce. Thursday they introduced a plan that would reduce the state ordered payment to $2.7Million from the $43.7Million the state dreamed up as savings.

The new amount is the dollar figure that Dirigo actually had a hand in saving with the voluntary hospital cost cutting measures and other non-Dirigo health care savings the coalition stated.

It'll be interesting to see how this pans out and what the monetary figure they all agree on ends up being in the end.

You can read the Press Herald article here.

Targeting Dirigo

2006-03-10T11:11:00.000-05:00

Both GOP lawmakers and the insurance industry took aim at Dirigo yesterday.

The GOP had a little pep rally/press conference in which they outlined their ideas for fixing Dirigo and moving ahead in the upcoming months and years. I'm glad that they are finally working on a unified stance on this as well as presenting real alternatives to the problems Dirigo is facing and/or creating, It's been a long time coming. Now if they could only take some pointers from thier Democratic breathren on courting the media.

Much of their plan involves removing the flawed "community rating" and moving back to high risk pools (which I support), it also involves a commitment to the private insurance marketplace (something I also support).

The best part of the SunJournal write up [here] was a quote from the Socialist group Consumers for Affordable Health Care which warned "movement toward less regulation could raise the cost of coverage and reduce benefits for some groups without bolstering market competition." Talk about flawed...Maine, which arguably has one of the most regulated health insurance markets in the Union today also carries some of the highest premium costs. I'm guessing they don't have data to back up their FUD (Fear, Uncertainty & Doubt).

I'll follow-up about the insurance industry in another post.

Maine's Certificate of Need

2006-03-09T09:22:00.000-05:00

Disclaimer: I work for the parent company of Inland Hospital (EMHS).

Inland backed down today on it's high noon style showdown between MaineGeneral and it's plan to build a new hospital wing. This had been building for some months where both systems wanted to build new hospitals to the tune of $100Million plus. MaineGeneral still has a application in for it's project but the collaboration that was hoped for and Inland's decision to compete looks to be over for now.

The most interesting part of the MaineToday article [here] is the ridiculous cost JUST TO FILE THE APPLICATION, to the tune of $150,000. The CON program was created by our state with the idea that if you control hospitals expansion it will reduce their operating costs, which in tune should help control healthcare costs as a whole. Having the application for a CON cost what was quoted in the article seems to go against the very ideals of the CON program.

Over regulation at it's best....

Dirigo Watch Vol 3, Issue 2

2006-03-07T09:48:00.000-05:00

The MHPC came out with it's next issue of Dirigo Watch, this one specifically targeting Dirigo's funding strategy called the SOP or Savings Offset Payment. It essentially is a tax on all those with private healthcare based on a arbitrary amount of "savings" calculated by people that would like to see private insurance disappear in Maine, sound fishy?, it should.

Let me just highlight a portion of the report:

The SOP tax exemplifies the problems inherent in the Dirigo Health Initiative:

Consumers are not seeing the health "savings" despite the superintendent's ruling
The SOP tax reaches up to 759,000 Mainers, while funding DrigioChoice that reaches only 10,000 Mainers.

If insurers pass along the SOP tax to policyholders, then Maine individuals, small businesses and large companies will face cost increases of $70 per individual or $200 per family per year to fund Dirigo Health

The report then goes on to show that the way they calculated the SOP if flawed because you can use the same calculations against New Hampshire hospitals and show that Dirigo technically saved them money as well, where Dirigo is only a State of Maine program.

The report also highlights that due to the higher cost associated with the Tax, more Maine people will drop their private insurance. A one percent increase in health insurance premiums is estimated to result in 1,250 Maine people dropping health insurance coverage. Therefore, the SOP tax could cause up to 2,500 Maine people to become uninsured. That's 1,000 more people that would loose their health insurance than those that gained it in the first year of DirigoChoice.

Now color me silly but isn't Dirigo supposed to help more Mainers GET/KEEP health insurance, not give them no choice but to drop it.

Full article is here.

Trahan fights back...

2006-03-06T10:48:00.000-05:00

I can't believe I'm saying this but "Kudos" to the BDN for keeping this issue on the front burner and giving the M-GOP the space to claw back against things such as personal attacks.

So we've covered this a bit, or a lot, a little background first; Trahan and McKane write BDN Op/Ed bit [here] in conjunction with their "Fleecing in Maine" series [MGOP], Assistant House Majority Leader Robert Duplessie (AKA, "Dup") writes scathing personal attack in response [BDN] and finally Republican Assistant Minority Leader Josh Tardy fights back for Trahan and McKane with real numbers and a motherly reminder that personal attacks won't get you anywhere [BDN].

Today, Trahan fought back, once again putting real numbers behind his words (courtesy of the OFPR), reiterating his stance on our current fiscal crisis and not resorting to personal attacks... a must read, which you can find her e.

The Gov's Salary

2006-03-06T10:11:00.000-05:00

The Legislature recently took up the task of adjusting the Governors Salary from it's current $70,000 to (as of today) $102,000. Governor Baldacci (to his credit) wants nothing to do with it and the legislature has already scripted the bill so that it wouldn't become active until 2011.

With that the Press Herald decided to look into what the Governor really gets for total compensation along with his measly $70,000.

Some of which include:

Use of the Blaine House (Governors Mansion of sorts), which currently has six full-time staff people and costs $443,000 a year to run.
State car and State Police driver, the Gov currently has a Chevy Impala (31MPG) after trading in his Suburban to "conserve gas" but evidently his newfound South American friend Hugo Chavez has been able to funnel gas in his direction because the Governor just picked up a brand spanking new GMC Denali (15MPG).
Round the clock security, courtesy of the Maine State Police at a cost of $600,000 per year
A $30,000 stipend to pay for costs "associated with the job"
And finally good old health insurance from the state (NOT Dirigo), 12 paid holidays, 12 Sic days and 12 vacation days

I don't know about you but if I'm Governor and my housing, food, security, health insurance and transportation are all being taken care of, that's a lot of coffee money, oh wait...coffee sounds like a cost "associated with the job".

You can read the whole article(which includes a nice history on the Governors pay) here.

Serial Saturday Vol 2

2006-03-03T21:17:00.000-05:00

Serial Saturday Vol 2.

Time for tech dump number two.

Everyone knows and loves T-Mobile, now those of us with T-Mobile phones have another reason to rejoice. T-Mobile just kicked off a permanent addition to their lineup called "Free Wi-Fi Weekends". Now if your a T-Mobile phone customer, all weekend long, you get free wi-fi at any T-Mobile HotSpot. I'm looking forward to hitting Starbucks this weekend. You can read more at the T-Mobile site here.

For all of you that switch your background on your PC more often than not, here's the program for you. It's called John's Background Switcher and it works great...download it here.

Want to turn your blog, your photography or your amazing cooking into a real book? This is the place... hard bound, book sleeve, all the fixins....Start your memoirs with Blurb

Thats it for this weekend...!

Big step toward Universal Healthcare...

2006-03-02T16:09:00.000-05:00

LD 1927 sponsored by Beth Edmunds (D-Freeport) would require the state to compile statistics and information about employed participants in MaineCare (our Medicaid program). The "information" would include job sector, type of work, number of hours and wages earned and currently would only affect organizations with over 1,000 people.

The bill in it's original form was struck down as a "Hall of Shame" style list after much lobbying from the Maine State Chamber of Commerce which (rightly so) stated that the status of employees on MaineCare or not should not make a business "good" or "bad".

This bill has been touted by many legislators with a "D" to the side of their name as the first necessary step toward requiring employers to provide insurance for it's employees.

Here comes the scary part....from the bills sponsor no less

Edmunds goes on to state "If we are not yet prepared to enact a universal healthcare plan where everyone shares in the benefits and costs of health care, then we at least need to know where the employer model might not be appropriate anymore." SHUDDER....

DO YOU SEE WHERE THIS IS GOING FOLKS ? THE UNIVERSAL HEALTHCARE BOAT HAS ALREADY LEFT PORT FOLKS. I blogged on Canada's failing healthcare system the other day, read it here and understand why this should scare you.

I'm not even going to get into the whole capitalism, what are our unalienable rights (I don't think healthcare is one of them), go get a better job thing...I just don't have the energy.

Here is two links that discuss this bill [BDN] [SunJournal]

Heathcare and data management.

2006-03-01T10:07:00.000-05:00

DISCLAIMER: Not only do I work in IT, I also work in heathcare.

For all you out there that think all I can or will do is bash Badacci, this one is for you.

The BDN had a bit [Here] on data management in healthcare and the drive for a central repository of health records in the effort to drive down costs and increase access to needed information in time of emergency. This is an initative pushed by President Bush and is one of the only worthwhile parts to the Dirigo iniative.

Yet, it's something I'm still sitting on the fence about. The idea is worthwhile, you break your leg in Fort Kent or Florida for that matter and the ER people know your complete history after just a few clicks. The downside is that people will know your complete history after just a few clicks. Our organization audits the H-E-Double Hockey Stick out of our patient care system to see who looks at what and to make sure its not being abused. I'm confident about it because I'm the one doing the watching but that doesn't mean Jane Doe off the street has that same confidence in me, or that I have the same confidence that our government (especially Maine) will do the same.

Ever watched Enemy of the State ?

Universal Healthcare...Let's look to Canada

2006-02-28T16:28:00.000-05:00

As our Governor and his left leaning allies steam the HMS Maine toward universal healthcare don't be surprised to see their poster child (HMS Canada) passing in the opposite direction. The New York Times had two bits [Here] and [Here] (one of which was highlighted [Here] by the Kaiser Family Foundation) shining a spotlight on, or rather through, cracks forming in Canada's universal healthcare system.

It seems that Canada's Supreme Court struck down the law banning private healthcare insurance as "it violated patients life and personal security" due to exorbitant wait times for things as small as office visits. Kaiser goes as far to put numbers behind this statement with the average referral wait time from a family doctor to see a specialist is now at 8.3 weeks. Not the shortest timeframe if you have cancer that needed to be operated on yesterday.

The obvious fix to Dirigo's problems is not to expand it further (go universal) or throw more coal into the proverbial boiler but to turn this ship around and follow Canada back to a competitive market approach....