It’s open enrollment time for my health insurance, which means that this is the first time in about a year that I’ve had the occasion to look at my coverage in depth.

I’m sure that I’ll find more gems in this piece of shit health care takeover that the government rammed through last year, but here’s the first two things that jump out at me, and will cost me more money immediately.  So much for bending the cost curve downward.

We have a Flexible Spending Account, or FSA.  That means a small part of each paycheck is put into a special account, managed by our insurance company.  The money is taken out on a pre-tax basis, which means that it decreases the amount of pay that the government taxes. The limit on this money is $5,000 per year.

We can ask for reimbursements from this money when we spend on qualified health-related expenses like co-pays, Over The Counter drugs like Advil or Zyrtec, Contact Lens Solution, Prescription Glasses, etc.

So, we play a game each year to guess how much money we’ll spend on health-related products, and then set that money aside.  We get the benefit of not paying taxes on that money, the trade-off is that we have to jump through hoops with the insurance company to get reimbursed.  (The catch, by the way, is that if we don’t spend it all by December 31, we just lose it.)

It’s a lame system, but it’s a way to cut down on health care costs.

But now, starting in 2011, Over the Counter drugs are no longer qualified expenses.  So whereas this year we were able to be reimbursed for Advil, or my allergy medicine, next year we can’t.  So on every OTC drug purchase, we will pay more.

And, as an added super-special bonus, the $5,000 limit drops to $2,500 in 2013.

To put things into perspective, The Wife and I put $1,300 in our FSA this year.  We’re two (reasonably) healthy people who are under 30. (I guess technically I turned 30 this year, she’s not quite 30 yet.)  We ran out of FSA money in about October.

If we were a little bit older, a little less healthy, or we had even one child, we’d hit that $5,000 limit pretty easily.  We’d shatter the $2,500 limit for sure.

I’m only through the first few pages of the Open Enrollment guide.  I’m sure that more surprises await me.

So our elite betters passed the bill, now we get to find out what’s in it.  And as expected, I’m not liking what I see.

There’s a natural inclination not to believe in voter fraud in this country, or to discount it as not a big issue.  After all, we’re the United States of America, not some backwards pseudo-Democratic state, right?  Right?

Er…

• Blogger Solicits Blank Signed Ballots
• I Voted All Republican, the Machine Registered all Democrat
• When I went to vote, Harry Ried’s name was already checked
• Hundreds of voters in Illinois won’t have their votes counted
• When we said to fill in the oval above the name, we meant to fill in the oval below the name, but nobody reads the instructions anyway, right?
• And let’s not forget: Vote Whitey!

Senator Al Franken was unavailable for comment.  Be careful out there, people.

About a week ago the VFW was in the headlines for a controversy surrounding their endorsement of candidates in the upcoming elections.  Actually, the VFW doesn’t endorse candidates, which is part of the problem.  The VFW operates a separate yet associated entity, called the VFW PAC, which does the endorsing.

Last week, the PAC announced their list of endorsements, and members of the VFW were outraged.  Among the endorsed candidates was Barbara “don’t call me ma’am” Boxer, which was bad enough, but the real kicker was that the VFW PAC endorsed several incumbents over their challengers, despite the fact that the challengers were actually, you know, Veterans of Foreign Wars.

With the VFW membership up in arms, the VFW leadership called on the PAC to review and/or rescind their endorsements.  The PAC… declined.

So, the Commander-in-Chief of the VFW used his power under the bylaws to remove the PAC directors from office, effectively killing the PAC.  He also plans to propose dissolving the PAC entirely at the next national convention.

The ruling class within a group makes a decision that outrages the members, and the members respond by kicking them out of office… why does that sound familiar?  Oh, Well.

For more background, read this, and for a very interesting perspective on the future of the VFW, read this.

So, it isn’t a secret that I happen to frequent trashy “celebrity” sites.

Today, this article caught my eye with he following:

“It’s not so bad,” he said. “It does not keep me awake at night, but I feel bad for little girls who want to send messages to their hero and it gets to this [points to himself].”

This poor guy happens to have the name of Justin Bieber. For realz.

He is a 35 year old dude who likes pinball and is being harassed by tweens. The worst thing he has to say about it? He hates that the tweens will be disappointed when they find out they are getting him instead of the teeny-bopper. I’m sure they are making his life hell and he is worried about the feelings of the Teen Girl Squad.

At first glance, the headline seems appalling, but the Devil, as they say, is in the details:

Firefighters watch as home burns to the ground

OBION COUNTY, Tenn. – Imagine your home catches fire but the local fire department won’t respond, then watches it burn. That’s exactly what happened to a local family tonight.

That seems a little odd… I’m sure there’s more to the story, right?  Well yes, in fact, there is.

Residents of Obion County Tennessee have a choice.  They live in a part of the country without fire protection service.  However, if they pay an annual fee of $75 to the nearby city of South Fulton, the city will respond to fires outside the city limits.

The homeowners in question made the choice not to pay the $75.  Then their house started on fire.  Then they were shocked when the fire department did not respond.

The fire eventually spread to a neighbor’s home.  The neighbor did pay the fee.  The Fire Department responded and put out the fire at the neighbor’s property, but wouldn’t respond to the fire at the original home.

That’s how we get to the sensational story of Firefighters “watching a home burn but doing nothing about it.”

The homeowners here had a choice.  They could pay $75 for fire protection or not.  They chose to not.  They have to live with the consequences.

They also have a choice on where they live.  They chose to build in an area that does not provide fire protection.  I’m going to go ahead and guess that one of the reasons they chose that area was low taxes.  The taxes are low because the county doesn’t provide expensive services, like, you know, fire protection.

Now, I don’t think it’s wise to have a system of optional fire protection.  If I were a homeowner in the area I’d probably work with the local governments to come up with a better solution.  But the residents of the area are aware of the process, and they have a choice.

Conservatives, generally speaking, are in favor of more choices.  But with those choices comes the responsibility to be accountable for the results of those choices.

If you want to live in an area without fire protection, fine by me.  If you want to not pay the optional $75 fee for fire protection, fine by me.  But then don’t blame the Fire Department when they do what they told you they would do, and let it burn.

A seemingly simple story from the Washington Post…

Headline: Woman’s car lost after police move vehicles for security near Obama speech

Hmmm… sounds interesting.  I should read this in case I can use it to score cheap political points against Obama.  He’s always pretending to care about the little people, but he doesn’t care if this woman loses her car…

Martena Clinton drove to the Congressional Black Caucus dinner at the Washington Convention Center on Saturday with high expectations. A friend had arranged a ticket, and Clinton wore a special diamond pendant over her black dress. She parked in a handicapped spot close to the intersection of 9th Street and Mount Vernon Place and glanced in the mirror. She decided the diamond pendant didn’t go with her dress, took it off and put it in a console.

Simple enough.  A journalist who wanted to be a novelist.

She displayed a handicapped tag prominently, locked her car and checked with a police officer who happened to be parked right behind her. He assured her the spot was legal. Clinton put her credit cards, cash and makeup in a pocketbook and left it in the trunk, carrying a small purse into the dinner. It was 5:30 p.m.

When she emerged from the dinner at 11:30 p.m., her black 1994 Lexus was gone.

What?  The outrage!  How could they… oh… they do this all the time?

The police officer who responded to Clinton’s distressed call told her that the Secret Service had done what many Washingtonians have grown begrudgingly used to: They ordered numerous cars removed from the area as a security precaution because President Obama was speaking at the dinner.

So, she knew this was possible, but is shocked, shocked, that it happened.  In fairness, she did ask a cop if the spot was legal, and he said yes.

It should have been simple for Clinton to find her car – police told her that relocated vehicles are typically towed to different spots within a few blocks – but this time police had not kept track of where they had moved it. The Lexus was lost.

District police searched for the car for two hours Saturday night, circling the neighborhood again and again. Clinton, who is a travel consultant, and Gardine Tiggle, the friend who invited her to the dinner, waited at the spot immediately outside the convention center where Clinton had parked the Lexus. Clinton has the handicapped tag because her husband suffered a stroke.

Note how this little tidbit is buried here- she has the handicap tag because her husband, who was not with her, suffered a stroke.  So, she’s a cheater who abuses the handicap parking program, yet we should feel sorry for her.

By 1:30 a.m., police had searched a one-mile radius of the convention center and found not a trace of the car.

Embarrassed about the missing vehicle, an officer called area hotels and helped Clinton find a room for the night. On Sunday morning, police resumed the search. Still nothing.

“We don’t know if it has been lost or stolen,” said Lt. Jonathan Munk, of the 3rd District, who was supervising the search. “I was told the cars were relocated, but we don’t know. It could have been stolen. We just don’t know.”

So, the police have now searched a one mile radius, with no luck.

The possibility that Clinton’s car had been stolen before police relocated the group of parked cars – which could have explained why officers did not have a record of the car being moved – was pooh-poohed by Clinton and Tiggle. It made no sense that someone would steal an old Lexus parked in a high-traffic area swarming with police and Secret Service agents, they said.

Clinton said she accepted that people in Washington are sometimes inconvenienced by presidential security, and she said she’s okay with the idea, generally. But it seemed incomprehensible to her that someone’s car could be lost as a result.

Something tells me this genius didn’t use the word “incomprehensible”- that would be the work of the frustrated novelist.

“I can’t believe this,” Clinton, 64, of Randallsville, Md., said in an interview Sunday morning. “I am the caregiver for my 95-year-old mother, whom I take to church every Sunday. The police did not put a record of the car in the system. It’s a mess. . . . I am getting very upset.”

Although I’ll give her the fact that the system seems messed up, the sob story here is gratuitous.  It gives you insight into the character of the “victim” here.

Tiggle spent the night with Clinton at a downtown hotel, and then on Sunday they called police, the mayor’s office and the Secret Service. They said they were shuffled from one office to another in an endless rigamarole.

“We have been told at least four times that this is an issue they are having with several vehicles,” said Tiggle, speaking of the District police. “It is their responsibility. They moved it. They tell us, ‘If we find the car’ – not when we find the car – ‘we will call you. If we cannot find it in 30 days, you should call your insurance company.’ This is totally insane.”

Clinton said police told her that while the District’s tow trucks might have moved the car, the trucks are operated by civilians who are supposed to note the car’s license plate number and new location. That had not happened. Police also said they did not have a roster of tow-truck operators and therefore could not track down who moved the car.

Wait, a government program that is not well designed or well executed?  I’m speechless!  I thought the government was the solution to everything.

Police did not answer questions about how the process should normally work, but cars that are relocated and put into police records should not be difficult to find if a driver can provide police with a license plate number.

Now, this is unclear, but it seems to imply that Ms. Victim couldn’t provide her plate number.  It’s not like people should have to be held accountable or anything.

Tiggle, a practitioner of meditation, urged her friend to stay positive. But Tiggle also was embarrassed that it was her invitation that led to the car’s vanishing. With no change of clothes and the batteries on their cellphones running low, Tiggle asked her husband to come down from their home in Mitchellville, Md., with supplies and cellphone chargers.

Presented without comment.

When the police search failed to produce the car by Sunday afternoon, Clinton called a reporter to say her friend was driving her home. Tiggle was still urging a positive outlook.

“Visualize a black car,” Tiggle was saying repeatedly. “See yourself getting it back. Do it with emotion.”

But Clinton had already passed from dejection into despair. The police seemed disinterested and had stopped returning her calls. The car, the pocketbook, and the diamond necklace were history.

Despair!

Tiggle’s GPS told her to make a right turn onto New York Avenue NW. They were around the corner from the convention center and about a block from the police building at 501 New York Ave. Suddenly, Tiggle burst out: “There it is!”

“What?” Clinton asked, still on the phone with a reporter.

“The car, the black car!”

“She found it!” Clinton exclaimed.

The Lexus was in front of 628 New York Ave. NW, a half-block from the convention center. It had been parked – without any indication that law enforcement had left it there – in a no-parking zone.

And it was right in front of a fire hydrant. It had not been ticketed.

Moved a half-block?  (Also note: on the phone with a reporter- I probably would have spent my time walking around looking for my car rather than tracking down the media.)

“If you can’t find a car within a block from the convention center – that you moved – how are you going to find anyone else?” Tiggle said a few moments after Clinton ensured that the diamond pendant and her pocketbook were still inside the car. “And put it in a tow zone in front of a fire hydrant?”

An hour later, Clinton was nearly home. She had not called police to report that her lost car had been found.

Remembering how police had stopped responding to her pleas – and considering the $165 hotel bill she had just footed – she fumed: “Let ‘em keep looking.”

And there we have it.  “Let ‘em keep looking.”  What a peach.  I mean, one officer helped you call hotels and all, but screw them.

So let’s recap the lessons here:

1) Being a dumb bitch means bad things will happen to you (ask your meditation friend to explain Karma to you)

2) Government is ineffective

3) Cops probably don’t put a lot of emphasis on finding a car for a bitchy handicap spot stealing whiner who doesn’t have her plate number and is too lazyto look for her own car.  Either that or the D.C. cops can’t find a car within a one mile radius.  I’ll leave it up to you which one to believe.

Oh, and as a bonus, I’ll leave you with this: a photo of a dumb bitch pretending to be Jesus Christ on the cross, or something.

Unlikable Woman Trying her best Christ Pose

I’ve been meaning to write this post for a few months now, but it turns out that today is Constitution Day so today’s the day.

Kim Crockett over at True North basically stole my thunder, so please go read that post, follow the links, then come back here.  If you’re lazy, just read on.

Basically, it boils down to this: the feds are out of control.  The states have the power to call a constitutional convention under article V of the Constitution.  It takes 2/3 of the states to do so.  When proposed amendments pass out of the convention, they must be ratified by 3/4 of the states.

I think there are many things that could, and should be addressed in a constitutional convention.  The beauty of the idea is that you have built in protection against nuttery.  The thresholds for actually passing an amendment are huge.  It would be hard to get 3/4 of states to agree on much, so the craziest ideas would just die out.

But we could address a few important things:

• Clarifying the 2nd Amendment’s individual right to bear arms
• Clarifying the “Separation of Church and State” nonsense
• Putting some type of limit on Federal spending (however this would look)
• Clarifying (and extremely limiting) this “Interstate Commerce Clause”
• Giving the states the ability to repeal Federal law – I just read this idea today, but I think I like it

There’s a lot more, and maybe I’ll expand later, as I read more Constitution Day articles today.

Now I’m not sure of the legalities of this, but I’m such a radical I say it’s time to throw out the whole constitution and start over.  It’s not that I don’t love the constitution.  I think we can and should keep the old Constitution around and call it Constitution 1.0.  But I think it may be time for a refresh.

Let’s take the ideas that were presented in the Constitution and rewrite them in 21st century language.  We can take the opportunity to clarify some of the things that have been ambiguous throughout the years, and remove some of the stuff that is irrelevant.  Like the 3/5 clause.  I think we can all agree that doesn’t need to be around anymore.

Just… clean it all up a bit.  There’s no shame in updating a document that is a few hundred years old.  The Founders did a bang-up job, but it’s time for a little refresh.

Let’s just do one example together.  We’ll do Article V, since that’s the topic of today’s post.

The current Article V:

The Congress, whenever two thirds of both Houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose Amendments to this Constitution, or, on the Application of the Legislatures of two thirds of the several States, shall call a Convention for proposing Amendments, which, in either Case, shall be valid to all Intents and Purposes, as Part of this Constitution, when ratified by the Legislatures of three fourths of the several States, or by Conventions in three fourths thereof, as the one or the other Mode of Ratification may be proposed by the Congress; Provided that no Amendment which may be made prior to the Year One thousand eight hundred and eight shall in any Manner affect the first and fourth Clauses in the Ninth Section of the first Article; and that no State, without its Consent, shall be deprived of its equal Suffrage in the Senate.

New Proposed Article V (we’ll keep the Roman Numerals for the sake of tradition):

This Constitution may be amended. This is a two part process.  First the amendment must be proposed, then it must be ratified.

An amendment may be proposed in one of two ways:

1. By the U.S. Congress – An amendment shall be sent for ratification after it has been passed by a 2/3 vote of both houses of congress.
2. By the States – States may call for a Constitutional Convention.  If 2/3 of the states call for a convention, the convention is convened.  The convention may produce amendments, which are then sent for ratification.

Ratification- After an amendment is proposed, it must be ratified by 3/4 of the states.  The states will each decide the process for ratification in their state.  As soon as the amendment is ratified by 3/4 of the states, it becomes law.

See, we just refreshed a bit and used some bullet points instead of run-on sentences.  And we got rid of the whole “Year one thousand eight hundred and eight” thing since it’s no longer relevant.  I’m sure my translation is not perfect, but that’s what the convention is for.

So let’s go here.  It’s time for a Constitutional Convention.

Earlier this week, the Democrats started creating buzz about a “major announcement” that would come this week.

Democratic National Committee Chairman Tim Kaine plans to make what’s being billed as a major announcement Wednesday about the future of the party, according to a Democratic source with knowledge of the speech.

The source tells CNN that Kaine will announce something that will excite Democrats across the country. Kaine’s event comes as Democrats face the difficult task of holding onto their majorities in the House and Senate this November.

Well, the day has come, and we now know what Democrats are so excited about.  This:

Yep.  It’s a new logo.

If your party is teetering on the brink of a major electoral upset in 45 days, what do you do?  Unveil a new logo, of course.

And they were really, really proud of it too. From the Democrat blog:

Before a standing-room-only crowd at George Washington University’s Jack Morton Auditorium today, DNC Chairman Tim Kaine unveiled a new look—and a new website—for the Democratic Party.

Can you imagine the reaction of the standing-room-only crowd when the d-in-a-circle was unveiled?  I can.

The LA Times has more:

“This new identity for our party captures the spirit that unites us all. Democrats — all of us — are working for the change that matters,” DNC Chairman Tim Kaine wrote in a blog post announcing the change.

The emphasis of the letter “D” in the logo evokes what has become a regular feature of President Obama’s campaign speeches of late. After arguing that Republicans drove the nation into a ditch, Obama says that to move forward, you put the car in “D,” but to reverse you put it in “R.”

The logo also has a circular shape that resembles Obama’s campaign logo, as does the color scheme. Gone is the American flag and the familiar donkey.

Any rebranding effort, particularly one so close to an election, risks criticism. Kaine was mocked during a recent visit to the liberal-friendly “Daily Show” set for handing host Jon Stewart a keychain meant to fit into the Obama car analogy.

If this is the great Democrat strategy, I’m feeling pretty good about the mid-terms.

Oh, and don’t miss the most important analysis of the new logo here.  It’s a must-see piece.

I don’t remember the last time I saw an article shift direction as much as this one does. Enjoy.

Interview with Castro

Also,

I noted that we had a meeting scheduled for the next morning, with Adela Dworin, the president of Cuba’s Jewish community.

Cuba has a Jewish community… Really?

One of the jobs I have requires spending quite a bit of time monitoring Twitter.  I follow and respond to political news for a client.

The other day I noticed that almost all of the Democrats that I follow put out a message thanking the American Worker on Labor Day.  None of the Republicans did.

That got me wondering about the history of Labor Day.  I figured it had something to do with Laborers (Union Workers), but to me, Labor Day means two things: 1) the last day of the MN State Fair 2) School starts the next day.  Even though I haven’t been in school for quite some time now, I still have a subconscious hatred for Labor Day.

I get the other American holidays-  Memorial Day, Independence Day – those make sense.  And I get that some people are upset that the days have lost their true meaning and merely become excuses for furniture stores to have sales.

This Labor Day, however, was something I never understood.  And for good reason.

Labor Day became a Federal holiday in 1894, during a time of unrest between the government and the labor unions.  The Feds had just killed some striking workers during a violent protest, and President Grover Cleveland wanted to calm the waters.  They also wanted take out at the knees another holiday, International Worker’s Day, which was gaining in popularity, yet had the potential to become dangerous because it was tied to another violent protest.

So, Labor Day was born as a non-controversial holiday.

Give the workers a day off, make some pro-labor speeches, and maybe things can get back to normal.  It pretty much worked.

And now we get a day off at the end of summer.  And no-interest financing until 2030 on anything we can find at Levitz.