{"id":1828,"date":"2009-10-27T07:01:27","date_gmt":"2009-10-27T11:01:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/morningseditionists.com\/msblog\/?p=1828"},"modified":"2009-10-27T08:09:30","modified_gmt":"2009-10-27T12:09:30","slug":"tuesday-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.morningseditionists.com\/msblog2\/2009\/10\/27\/tuesday-5\/","title":{"rendered":"Tuesday"},"content":{"rendered":"

So, the “Public Option” will be in the Senate version of health care reform (albeit with a state “opt-out” provision), assuming all the Democrats, Joe Lieberman, and Bernie Sanders vote for cloture when the Republicans try to filibuster. Olympia Snowe is very “disappointed” by all of this<\/a>. Aw, poor Olympia. No more queen for a day. This is being hailed as a big victory, though I think we’ll have to see what the public part consists of – and what this opt-out really looks like – before we do any celebrating. Then there’s the whole House version, which isn’t set yet, and appears to not have the votes for a “robust” public option (which is thought to mean reimbursement rates set at the current Medicare rates + 5%). We also don’t know what it’ll cost to buy into the public plan. But Republicans and insurance companies seem to be really pissed, so it must be OK.<\/p>\n

I’m really looking forward to next Tuesday, because I’m really tired of the negative campaign ads running on the lo-cal news (which is pretty much the only time I ever see commercials). It’s bad enough I have to watch these things for an election that’s not in my district, but since there are three people running, there are at least 33% more ads than usual (maybe more). There are ads by the Democrats attacking the Republican, ads by the Republicans attacking the Democrat, ads by the Conservative, attacking both<\/em><\/strong> the Republican and the Democrat – sometimes in separate ads, sometimes together – and now an ad by the Democrat attacking the Conservative (and his riverfront mansion and classic car collection). I haven’t seen an ad by the Republicans attacking the Conservative yet, but we’ve still got a week to go. It’s good for the local teevee stations, I guess (since it’s the only Congressional race going on – I think – the RCCC and DCCC are spending big bucks on ads, and the “Conservative” Party candidate – now backed not only by Sarah Palin and Michele Bachman, but also by Tim Pawlenty<\/a> and Grampa Fred Thompson<\/a> – apparently has deep pockets, too), but annoying for viewers. <\/p>\n

Turns out those two pilots who missed Minneapolis had a good reason: they were on their personal laptops and lost track of time and ignored the radio<\/a>. The claim to have been all involved with new scheduling procedures or something, but come on. I don’t buy that. As far as I know, Northwest flights don’t have the Internet, so what the hell could they have really<\/em><\/strong> been doing? Watching DVDs or something? Is that what they do up there in the cockpit? I mean, I’ve been known to spend a little time on the old computer at work (which is actually part of my job description), but I still answer the damn phone. Now, if they’d been bangin’ the stewardesses, I’d be more understanding. Personally, I think they suffered lost time due to being abducted by aliens, and either don’t remember what happened or aren’t willing to admit the truth.<\/p>\n

Here in NY State, we’re about to be officially in the red as our General Fund hits a $1.4 billion shortfall<\/a>. The Governor is calling a special session of the State Legislature (like that’s gonna do any good), and is proposing $90 million more in cuts to SUNY, $53 million to CUNY (City University), cutting $260 to state aid provided to each community college student, and getting rid of the $120 TAP payments for poor kids. I think he’s proposing even more cuts to school districts, too. As far as I can tell, that doesn’t come close to $1.4 billion (doesn’t even come close to the “.4” part). <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, State residents are bailing out as fast as they can. Eight percent of population has left since 2000. Well, they’re not getting rid of me<\/em><\/strong> that easy. Unless my job becomes part of the budget cuts, of course. If that happens, I’m outta here as soon as my unemployment runs out.<\/p>\n

Till then, I guess I gotta go to work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So, the “Public Option” will be in the Senate version of health care reform (albeit with a state “opt-out” provision), assuming all the Democrats, Joe Lieberman, and Bernie Sanders vote for cloture when the Republicans try to filibuster. Olympia Snowe is very “disappointed” by all of this. Aw, poor Olympia. No more queen for a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1828","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.morningseditionists.com\/msblog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1828","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.morningseditionists.com\/msblog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.morningseditionists.com\/msblog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.morningseditionists.com\/msblog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.morningseditionists.com\/msblog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1828"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.morningseditionists.com\/msblog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1828\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1838,"href":"https:\/\/www.morningseditionists.com\/msblog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1828\/revisions\/1838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.morningseditionists.com\/msblog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.morningseditionists.com\/msblog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.morningseditionists.com\/msblog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}