ObamaCare has already done profound damage that requires new laws to repair-WSJ

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2/23/11, "ObamaCare is already damaging health care," Wall St. Journal Opinion, Lloyd M. Krieger

"Many of its changes don't kick in until 2014. But the law is forcing dramatic consolidation and reducing choice in the industry."

"The Republicans who now control the House of Representatives hope to repeal or defund ObamaCare, but the law has already yielded profound, destructive changes that

• will not be undone by repeal or defunding alone.

Active steps and new laws will be needed to repair the damage.

The most significant change is a wave of frantic consolidation in the health industry. Because the law mandates that insurers accept all patients regardless of pre-existing conditions, insurers will not make money with their current premium and provider-payment structures. As a result, they have already started to

• raise premiums and cut payments to doctors and hospitals.
  

Smaller and weaker insurers are being forced to sell themselves to larger entities.

Doctors and hospitals, meanwhile, have decided that they cannot survive unless they achieve massive size—and fast. Six years ago, doctors owned more than two-thirds of U.S. medical practices, according to the Medical Group Management Association.

• By next year, nearly two-thirds will be salaried employees of larger institutions.

Consolidation is not necessarily bad, as larger medical practices and hospital systems can create some efficiencies. But in the context of ObamaCare's spiderweb of rules and regulations, consolidation

• is more akin to collectivization.
  

It means that government bureaucrats will be able to impose controls with much greater ease.

With far fewer and much larger entities to browbeat, all changes in Medicare and Medicaid policies will go through the entire system like a shock wave. There will be far fewer individual insurers, doctors, hospitals, device makers, drug manufacturers, nursing homes and other health-care players

• to resist.

There is little mystery how the government will exercise its power.

• Choices will be limited.
• Pathways to expensive specialist care such as advanced radiology and surgery will decline.
• Cutting-edge devices and medicines will come into the system much more slowly and
  
• be used much less frequently.

This is why simply defunding enforcement of the individual mandate and other upcoming directives will not be enough: Given all this consolidation, limits on treatment choices are

• already becoming hardwired into the system.
  

Lawmakers must take concrete steps to stop and reverse this.

On the provider end, this means enacting tax and other economic shields for insurers and providers that choose not to succumb to the financial pressure encouraging consolidation.

• It means unwinding all of the rules—

about data compilation, reporting and compliance requirements, and information technology—designed to increase overhead to the point that only massive and easily regulated provider organizations

• can survive.

Legislators will have to scrub the 2,700-page ObamaCare law line by line to remove all of the disincentives for medical practices, hospitals and others to remain smaller and independent.

On the consumer end, reform means re-establishing choice at all levels of the system. Lawmakers at a minimum should change the individual mandate so that people can choose what type of coverage they buy. To do this, legislation has to ensure that all consumers have access to a menu of options for varying types of coverage, and that they are free to purchase policies across state lines. There should also be tax breaks for people who purchase medical care not covered by their insurance,

• so there is reasonable chance of escaping government-imposed limits on treatment choices.

System-wide, collectivization will be dismantled only by limiting the power of government agencies to determine what care gets funded. That means new legislation to supersede Section 1311 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which requires herding everyone into "qualified plans" and

• forcing doctors (via fines, penalties and nonpayment)
  

to follow care guidelines determined by the secretary of Health and Human Services.

ObamaCare is already doing great damage, even years before its individual mandate and

• other controls kick in.
  

Its systematic undoing is an urgent necessity."

"Dr. Krieger, a plastic surgeon, invests in health-care companies."

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ObamaCare has never been about health or care. With 35 million new patients, and fewer doctors than we have now (many will leave the practice before being herded around like cows) it was only to create chaos and misery. Except for the political class-which has a separate health plan to its own specifications. ed.

via Robert Zimmerman, Behind the Black

Another dangerous EPA flop at taxpayer expense--'green' homes too airtight, unhealthy, 'chemical soup.' Over to you, RGGI, Chevy

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"After spending big money to make their home energy efficient, the Hartmans now have to spend thousands more for devices that actually bring fresh air inside."...

2/24/11, "Too-Tight Energy-Efficient Home Traps Carbon Dioxide," WSMV TV, Nashville, Tn., Jeremy Finley

"The Environmental Protection Agency tells the Channel 4 I-Team it has concerns about air quality in some energy-efficient homes.

• Video: Pets Killed By Carbon Dioxide Trapped In 'Green Home'

A Murfreesboro home may explain why the government agency is worried. Price and Alison Hartman built their new home in Murfreesboro to be

• completely energy efficient,

• including upgraded insulation and energy-efficient windows and doors.

"We built a very energy-efficient house, a very tight house," Price Hartman said.But because it's so tight, it caused an unexpected problem.The first sign something was wrong was when the Hartmans' daughter's pet gerbils suddenly died.

• To try to cheer her up, they bought two more gerbils."(We) put them in there (the gerbil cage). We left, and

within 20 minutes, they both died," Alison Hartman said.Worried now, Alison Hartman decided to buy a mouse, just to make sure there wasn't a disease passing between the animals or something wrong in the gerbil cage.

• So they put a mouse in a new cage.

"It died, in a couple of hours," Alison Hartman said. The family called in a Hazmat team, but they found nothing. The Hartmans don't have gas heat or appliances, so there was no natural gas leak or carbon monoxide poisoning. The family then brought in

• an air quality expert, who found elevated levels of carbon dioxide in their daughter's room.

Carbon dioxide is what humans breathe out, but it can hurt or kill living things if the levels are high enough."They lost some gerbils. That's like a canary in a cave. This is not a good thing," said Victor McCauley, who is among the air quality experts who reviewed what's wrong with the Hartmans' house.McCauley described what's in the home

• as a "chemical soup."

He said the Hartmans' energy-efficient home is too tight and not enough fresh air is getting in to help

• remove the gases and chemical inside.

"A leaking house breathes. A new, highly insulated house, on the other hand, doesn't," McCauley said."We found that unhealthy air quality due to not enough ambient air is an issue with houses that are built very efficient," Price Hartman said.

• The findings from the air quality experts
  
• took the Hartmans by surprise,

because they all feel fine. But McCauley said if a chemically sensitive family lived in their home, it could be a big problem. "Are the super-insulated houses more harmful? To some degree, unless steps are taken to mitigate," McCauley said.

• While the EPA doesn't have numbers of how many other people have complained about poor air quality in energy-efficient homes, it did sent the I-Team a statement reading,

"The EPA is concerned about compromised indoor air quality associated with weatherized or energy-efficient retrofitted homes." The EPA stressed that relatively tight homes must have proper ventilation.

• After spending big money to make their home energy efficient,

the Hartmans now have to spend thousands more for devices that actually

• bring fresh air inside.

"Kind of crazy that you'd take all that time and extra money on the windows and the insulation, then you have to bamboozle yourself to spend even more money," Alison Hartman said.

• Tennessee's building code does require proper air flow in homes, and

the Hartmans' home is built to code. It's unclear why it still has the air quality issues."

-----------------------------------
7/28/10, "The secrets 10 states and Wall Street don't want you to know," by Mark Lagerkvist, NJ Watchdog (About RGGI)
-----------------------------------
2/22/11, " Chevrolet deal drives Maine low-income weatherization," Portland Press Herald



via Tom Nelson

Russia moving ahead with Arctic drilling, Norway to follow, Greenland has begun drilling- NY Times

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2/16/11, "Russia Embraces Offshore Arctic Drilling," NY Times, via Focus on Russis

"Earlier this month, Royal Dutch Shell postponed plans for drilling off Alaska’s Arctic coast, as the company continued to face hurdles from wary Washington regulators. The Russians, who control far more prospective drilling area in the Arctic Ocean than the United States and Canada combined,

• take a far different view.

As its Siberian oil fields mature, daily output in Russia, without new development, could be reduced by nearly a million barrels by the year 2035, according to the International Energy Agency. With its economy dependent on oil and gas, which make up about 60 percent of all exports, Russia sees little choice but to go offshore — using foreign partners to provide expertise and

• share the billions of dollars in development costs.

And if anything, the gulf disaster encouraged Russia to push ahead with BP as its first partner. In the view of Russia’s prime minister, Vladimir V. Putin,

• BP is the safest company to hire for offshore work today,
  

having learned its lesson in the gulf.

“One beaten man is worth two unbeaten men,” Mr. Putin said, citing a Russian proverb, after BP signed its Arctic deal with Rosneft, the Russian state-owned oil company. The joint venture calls for the companies to explore three sections in

• the Kara Sea, an icebound coastal backwater north of central Russia.

The BP agreement touched off little public reaction in Russia, in part because the environmental movement is weak but also because opposition politicians have

• no way to block or hinder the process.

The Arctic holds one-fifth of the world’s undiscovered, recoverable oil and natural gas, the United States Geological Survey estimates. According to a 2009 report by the Energy Department, 43 of the 61 significant Arctic oil and gas fields are in Russia. The

• Russian side of the Arctic is particularly rich in natural gas, while
  

• the North American side is richer in oil.

While the United States and Canada balk, other countries are clearing Arctic space for the industry.

• Norway, which last year settled a territorial dispute with Russia, is preparing to open new Arctic areas for drilling.

Last year Greenland, which became semi-autonomous from Denmark in 2009, allowed Cairn Energy to do some preliminary drilling. Cairn, a Scottish company, is planning four more wells this year,

• while Exxon Mobil, Chevron and Shell are also expected to drill in the area over the next few years.

But of the five countries with Arctic Ocean coastline, Russia has the most at stake in exploring and developing the region.

“Russia is one of the fundamental building blocks in world oil supply,” said Daniel Yergin, the oil historian and chairman of IHS Cambridge Energy Research Associates. “It has a critical role in the global energy balance. The Arctic will be one of the critical factors in determining how much oil Russia is producing in 15 years

• and exporting to the rest of the world.”

Following the template of the BP deal, Rosneft is negotiating joint venture agreements with other major oil companies

• shut out of North America and
  

intent on exploring the Arctic continental shelf off Russia’s northern coast. That includes Shell, its chief executive said last month. Rosneft’s chief executive, Eduard Y. Khudainatov, said other foreign oil company representatives

• were lining up outside his office these days.

Artur N. Chilingarov, a polar explorer, has embodied Moscow’s sweeping Arctic ambitions ever since he rode in a minisubmarine and placed a Russian flag on the bottom of the ocean under the North Pole, claiming it for Russia, in a 2007 expedition.

• “The future is on the shelf,” Mr. Chilingarov, a member of Russia’s Parliament, the Duma, said in an interview. “We already pumped the land dry.”

Russia has been a dominant Arctic oil power since the Soviet Union began making important discoveries in the land-based Tazovskoye field on the shore of the Ob Bay in Siberia in 1962. The United States was not far behind with the discovery of the shallow-water Prudhoe Bay field in Alaska five years later.

• What is new is the move offshore.

The waters of the Arctic are particularly perilous for drilling because of the extreme cold, long periods of darkness, dense fogs and hurricane-strength winds. Pervasive ice cover for eight to nine months out of the year can block relief ships in case of a blowout. And, as environmentalists note, whales, polar bears and other species depend on the region’s fragile habitats.

• Such concerns have blocked new drilling in Alaska’s Arctic waters since 2003, despite a steep decline in oil production in the state and intensive lobbying by oil companies.

In Canada, Arctic offshore drilling is delayed as the National Energy Board is reviewing its regulations after the gulf spill.

But Russia is pressing ahead. The central decision opening the Russian Arctic easily passed Parliament in 2008, as an amendment to a law on subsoil resources. It allowed the ministry of natural resources to transfer offshore blocks to state-controlled oil companies in

• a no-bid process that does not involve detailed environmental reviews.

Until recently Russia regarded the Kara Sea, where BP and Rosneft intend to drill, as primarily an icy dump. For years, the Soviet navy released nuclear waste into the sea, including several spent submarine reactors that were dropped overboard at undisclosed locations.

• Rosneft executives say their exploration drilling will not stir up radiation.

But in any case, Mr. Chilingarov, the advocate for Russian polar claims, said a little radiation was nothing to worry about. He said that his son was born on Novaya Zemlya, an Arctic testing site for nuclear weapons during the cold war, and is now “a bit taller than me.”

“In small doses,” Mr. Chilingarov said, “radiation is good for growth.”

.

Obama civility and tolerance? Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker was refused service in restaurant on 2/18. Update: Leftist blogger deletes post

2/25/11, Conservative Gov attempts to dine out in uber-liberal Madison, WI… and gets tossed for being “a nuisance,"" posted at 07:02 PM by BadgerBlogger Staff

Yes, you did, in fact, read that right. And the Wisconsin left is bragging it up.

“You know you’re not well liked when you are asked to leave a local tavern because people boo-ing[sic] at you causes an upset, but this is exactly what happened to Wisconsin State Governor Scott Walker

• on Friday the 18th of February.

The Merchant in Madison, WI confirms that on Friday night (2/18), Patrick Sweeney (one of the owners) politely asked Scott Walker to leave the establishment when other customers began boo-ing[sic] him. A bartender at The Merchant said that, “his presence was causing a disturbance to the other customers and

• management asked him to leave.”

This is how Madison businesses are treating the democratically elected governor of the state of Wisconsin. This is disgusting, and should not go unnoticed.

God forbid, someone who isn’t from Madison dare come here and challenge the ‘Madison Way.’ And they can’t even enjoy a fish fry on a Friday night?

• Isn’t Madison supposed to be an Isthmus of Tolerance?

“The Merchant’s” phone number is 608.259.9799. Give them a call and let them know how you feel about the way they treated our democratically elected governor, simply trying to dine at their establishment, on 2/18/2011.

---

UPDATE: It seems that the bold liberal blogger has deleted his post. But on the internet, nothing is truly deleted."

via Weasel Zippers

GOP Wimp & Sellout watch notes Eric Cantor and Kevin McCarthy for backing down on EPA changes and using gov. shutdown as lame excuse

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2/25/11, "Wimp & Sellout watch #7," Green Hell blog, Steve Milloy

"While we have high hopes that the newly empowered Republican Members of Congress will make every effort to fight the socialization of America, we are also aware that the GOP has an ignominious history of wimping- and/or selling-out, especially on environmental issues. Wimp & Sellout Watch is GreenHellBlog’s effort to spotlight the GOP’s weak links because:

In the 112th Congress, it should take more courage for GOP-ers to retreat than to advance.

Today’s update on potential wimps and sellouts to watch:

House GOP leadership. Greenwire reports,

House Republicans are preparing a two-week government funding bill for debate next week that amounts to a short-term version of the $60 billion in federal cuts they approved last week — but without that longer legislation’s

• restrictive riders on U.S. EPA and other agencies…

A House GOP aide confirmed that the two-week CR will not include language barring EPA from implementing its politically volatile greenhouse gas emissions rules, its

• transition to a higher ethanol blend in transportation fuels,
  

• its pending limits on water pollution from coal mining operations and
  

other riders that Republicans attached to their seven-month CR before its final passage early Saturday.

Cantor, House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and their lieutenants today repeatedly said the newest CR amounts to the

• GOP’s second attempt to avert a shutdown,
  

compared with the lack of action on a CR in the upper chamber.

“If they walk away from this offer, they are then actively engineering a government shutdown,” Rep. Peter Roskam (R-Ill.) told reporters, describing his conference’s new CR as

• “a commitment to keep the government open” beyond the current funding bill’s expiration. [Emphasis added]

• Yeesh…..

Don’t forget to check out previous editions of Wimp & Sellout Watch:

• No. 6 — Spotlighting Rep. Mike Simpson.
• No. 5 — Spotlighting Rep. Fred Upton.
• No. 4 — Spotlighting Rep. Fred Upton.
• No. 3 — Spotlighting Rep. Mike Simpson.
• No. 2 — Spotlighting Sens. Lindsey Graham and Rob Portman.
• No. 1 — Spotlighting Sens. Chuck Grassley, Rob Portman, Lindsey Graham and Scott Brown, and Rep. Fred Upton."

via Tom Nelson

Most European carbon markets remain closed due to rampant organized crime

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2/21/11, "Hackers target European carbon registries," USA Today, B. Acohido

"An Eastern European cybergang has perfected an emerging form of digital theft to steal millions of dollars from

• Europe's carbon registries.

Elite cybergangs are gaining deep access to corporate networks and carrying out Ocean's 11-like capers that are equal parts digital con game and digital burglary.

Another such gang, for instance, gained recent media attention for its deep access to Nasdaq's Directors Desk, a cloud-based collaboration service for senior executives. Authorities have released few details. But that gang went undetected for at least a year, giving it plenty of time to try different ways to pilfer sensitive corporate

• documents from 175 organizations.

"It's become very common for advanced groups to be in systems for a year or longer without being detected," says Kim Peretti, forensics director at PricewaterhouseCoopers....

Europe's carbon registries let companies buy and sell pollution credits. The gang that gamed them put a fresh spin on phishing, the art of tricking users into clicking on a poisoned link. They also tweaked a commonplace tool, called a banking Trojan, used to highjack online accounts, says Uri Rivner, senior researcher at RSA,

• the security arm of EMC.

Rivner disclosed details at the RSA conference last week. He outlined how the gang impersonated employees charged with buying and selling carbon emission permits. After gathering intelligence about the carbon registries in 25 nations, the gang began to target specific employees, most likely sending them carefully crafted e-mails enticing them to open a work document infected with

• the Nimkey banking Trojan.

From that foothold, the crooks methodically harvested account log-ons and closely monitored trading processes. At the proper moment, someone would log on as an authorized trader, execute a transaction and

• divert the proceeds into accounts controlled by accomplices.

"Creativity has never been in short supply in the criminal underground," says Rivner.

In one sting, the gang stole $31 million from a Romanian cement company; in another, they called in

• a bomb threat to the Czech Republic registry.
  

While the building was cleared, the bad guys exfiltrated $25.6 million. After several other large thefts, the European Commission shut down all the registries in mid-January. Some have been allowed to reopen, but the

• majority of Europe's carbon registries remain closed."

via Tom Nelson

US 4th quarter growth revised downward 'unexpectedly'-BBC

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2/25/11, "US growth estimate in surprise downward revision," BBC

"The US Department of Commerce has unexpectedly cut its estimate of fourth-quarter growth to an annualised 2.8%, from 3.2% previously.

Analysts had instead expected the figure to be revised up slightly to 3.3%.

• Lower government spending than previously estimated was the main reason for the downward revision.

Economic growth for the whole of 2010 was also revised down slightly, from 2.9% to 2.8%.

The latest figure for growth in the final three months of last year is the second estimate - the figure

• will be revised again next month....

There are widespread concerns in the US that economic growth is not strong enough to bring down the high unemployment rate, which currently stands at 9%.

Earlier this month, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke estimated it would take about 10 years for the unemployment rate

• to fall to a more sustainable
  

5%-6% at current economic growth rates."...

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RomneyCare, ObamaCare, same joker, different party

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from Weasel Zippers