For those of you who live in states where the IC is an independent elected official, rather than a political appointee of the governor, I would urge you to give very close scrutiny to the candidates for that job whenever it's up for election. While it's certainly not a glamorous position as elective offices goes, it's nevertheless a vitally essential one, a fact which you'll quickly learn to appreciate if ever you have a problem.

There are untold thousands of Southern California homeowners and business owners who suffered damage from the 1994 Northridge earthquake, and who could tell you lots of horror stories about the immediate fate of their claims because the corrupt Chuck Quackenbush so happened to be the state's IC at the time, rather than someone who wasn't squarely in the insurance industry's back pocket.

It took the State of California the better part of a decade to clean up the mess that Quackenbush left in his wake, once he finally resigned his office in the face of pending impeachment proceedings in the state legislature.

obamavate's bill is due

....The bill for the health care expansion is coming due, just as the recipients will be heading to the ballot box to vote in the first primaries for the 2016 election. More than a few are likely to be annoyed.

Last week Oregon's insurance commissioner, Laura Cali, announced that the state had approved a 25 percent premium increase for the largest health insurer on the state's exchanges. The second largest insurer did even better: It received permission to boost its monthly charge to consumers by 33 percent.

Oregon might be the first health insurance exchange equivalent of a penguin getting shoved off an ice floe, but it won't be alone in the freezing-cold waters for long. For example, BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee requested an average 36 percent price increase for the plans it offers--after receiving a 19 percent bump last year. And that sounds like a relative bargain compared with Minnesota and New Mexico, where the BlueCross BlueShield family is looking for increases of more than 50 percent. Even if the final numbers are lower than the asks, it seems quite likely these states will approve substantive premium increases.

The problem is simple. As Trudy Lieberman reported this month in Harper's, the ACA made a decent stab at solving the problem of Americans lacking insurance. Unfortunately, the bargain struck to get the bill to a point where lobbyists for the hospital, insurance, and pharmaceutical industries to sign on, or at least not fight it, did not adequately address the issue of overall medical costs.

And that's where the consumer comes in. Someone is "it," the party paying the bill. And that "it" is increasingly you, whether you receive insurance on the exchanges or from an employer.

SNIP

True, more than 80 percent of those purchasing insurance on the exchanges are eligible for subsidies for their premiums. But that's not a solution, in either the short-term or the long-term. First, there are still deductibles, and although subsidies covering parts of the deductible and other approved costs are available to those meeting certain income limits who sign up for particular plans on the exchanges, it's a complicated, difficult-to-understand process.* Second, subsidies don't mean freebie. The taxpayer pays the money to the insurance industry, leaving less funding for other priorities. Third, of course, it leaves the people who are not eligible for subsidies feeling like chumps, stuck paying the bill for a health insurance expansion that, no matter how necessary, many of them don't see as offering them enough in return for their own personal increased costs. It's highly unlikely they will give the reforms a pass simply because premiums were also increasing before the ACA became law. Obamacare, after all, was supposed to put a stop to this sort of thing.

I realize it's dangerous to overlay, or compare,  one's experience vs someone else's. But, reading the story you've told here is very reminiscent to the many experiences I've had. I'm talking about more than 40 years of bureaucracy, both private insurance, the VA, and subsidized (Medicare.)

Now, there is no doubt that the companies factor in, plan for, a certain percentage of clients simply giving up, and walking away. The frustration of debating life & death situations with profit maximizing entities is, sometimes, unbearable. But, that's exactly when the patient, or caregiver, needs to adopt a calm, systematic, "game-on" attitude, and, in my case anyway, it's proven to be most effective.

I don't think it was just luck of the draw.

The other tactic - one of them - is the "oh, we never got the records we asked you to send," even though you have proof that you sent them and that someone on the other end either signed for them, or their fax machine confirmed receipt.  If you remember, people dealing with mortgage lenders and banks went through the same thing trying to keep their homes out of foreclosure by refinancing - months and months of "we never got your paperwork," and "we have no record of your contact with us," all in an effort to prevent the relief people were seeking.

For someone who claims to be so experienced in the ways of bureaucracy, you can exhibit a cluelessness that is really kind of breathtaking.  Yes, Howdy gets kudos for hanging in there, but why should he even have to be subjected to the kind of tactics that were used on him?  They gave in because they were forced to - and I don't believe for one minute that will make them stop doing it to anyone else; they count on people just giving up and taking "no" for an answer - especially sick people who don't have the physical or mental wherewithal to pursue it to the right conclusion.

I don't think one single step of that was incompetence.  I think it was business as usual.   I think the goal is to wear people down.

His issue was customer service and internal processes, not competition because of mergers or ACA.

Can you "average" something like racism?  Does the fact that I don't believe I've ever been discriminated against because of my race make the blatant racism someone else has experienced less significant?

I think some of us move in circles where we don't experience it, don't see it, don't feel it, don't practice it - but that doesn't negate or cancel out the very real racism that's clearly still out there.

This Confederate flag thing has been an eye-opener.  I am simply appalled at how desperately people are clinging - with pride, no less - to the flag of what was a rogue nation that formed for the express purpose of maintaining the slave culture.  I don't see anyone fighting to fly the Union Jack, do you?  Trying to preserve the heritage of what was, for many colonists, their mother country?  Do you see the swastika being flown with pride on the grounds of German government buildings?

What is the metric, prison population, wages, unemployed, poverty, education, what metric would suggest the US is being misrepresented about racial inequality ?

The way I read, I am part of the 'we' and part of the 'many people'.  We are a racist county, we don't lynch people in the streets, but if you want to know about ones socioeconomic status, race would be the most reliable variable.  The vast majority or power and wealth is controlled very unproportionately to the population demographics.

And in case you have been sleeping, 9 people were murdered because of one thing, their race.  The idea that we aren't racist nation is shocking for me to read.  The idea that racism in America is dead or dying is absurd.  The KKK openly operated in many states, same with other white supremacy groups.

We aren't 1960 Mississippi, but that hardly means everyone here is afforded the same rights and opportunities.  Christ we have a presidential candidate being denounced by an entire community and county over his racist rants that a good portion of the county agrees with.

Or, "many racists truly believe they're not racist."

And, "A lot of racists are so delusional as to think the Blacks are really the racists."

Also, "By definition, to be racist is to be mentally impaired." So, should we incarcerate convicted racists to mental institutions?"

She said he retired from serious competition because his memory wasn't as reliable as when he was younger.  He did continue to play it recreationally, IIRC, until recent years.

So sad. We use to have some commentators on the Left who could make a point, take a point and in general have an interesting discourse.

BTW - Mordiggian writes:

he could've been a threat when he didn't do anything aggressively in the first place. And I didn't deny there was a second man there.

One more time. They have a video of the suspect continuing to walk towards the officer while the officer was telling him to stop.

NYShooter - Always happy to oblige and I am always glad to help a fellow Tennessean, even if he is a transplant and didn't even know what "sides" were. Now, if I could just get some of Coulter's money...

Donald writes:

This week's vote in the South Carolina legislature to exile the Confederate battle flag from the Capitol grounds ought to dispel everyone of that particular notion.

Too bad the Democrats couldn't dig up the ex-KKK member and Senator from W VA and give him a chance to declare he won't use the N word...

I mean we know that resigning, which is what Forrest did, isn't enough.

You guys are so scared of Trump it's funny.

Face it.

You are frightened of giving the electorate a clear choice between politics as usual and some guy who says he's gonna changes...

FYI, I have emailed her noting my use of the word and asking for her comments and suggestions.

As for Mordiggian and Scott, I don't remember all those warnings. Perhaps you can provide some links.

I did find some discussions and suggestions.

And while it is hard for me to believe Trump will get the nomination he is, like Bernie, fun to watch and is pulling their respective parties away from the middle.

Donald, nice try at reframing the argument. But, the facts are that there is a video and an investigation on going. From your link:

After several minutes of patrol, he returned to his vehicle and reported a false alarm. Then he saw a Toyota pickup on the west side of the business. Clark turned on his emergency lights, police said.

The motorist did not stop but drove out of the parking lot and onto the southbound service road of Texas 121.

Clark turned on his siren and let dispatchers know that he was pursuing the pickup. Police said the Toyota driver got on the freeway at a "high rate of speed" and was seen "weaving through and around" heavy traffic and even driving on the shoulder.

When the pickup stopped on an outside shoulder of southbound Texas 121 near the Cheek Sparger Road exit just inside Euless, Clark called to the driver to put his hands outside the Toyota, according to police.

García "gets out of the car with his hands up and stands outside his car, while Officer Clark commands him to stop. Officer Clark gives him further commands to not move," Grapevine police spokesman Robert Eberling wrote in a news release about he incident.

But García walked toward Clark even though he was repeatedly told to stop, Eberling said. The dash-cam video shows García raising his hands "and/or placing them on his head" while continuing to walk toward Clark's front bumper.

ROE's for everyone interfacing with the police.

1. Don't flee at a high rate of speed.

2. Don't walk towards them when told repeatedly to stop.
   

Why would they ignore that.

I appreciate you don't like him.  Who does.  Do I want him to stay in the race?   As an independent if necessary?

Solutions are seen not only as simplistic, but ridicule is made of complexities.  Diplomacy is for those effete, elitists.  Straight talk is golden.  Military might is the only right.  Nuance, shumance.  

The high rollers who have invested in the Bushes for years, with great rewards, have invested in still another family member--despite his lack of fire--and smarts. If protection of the investment was not the primal reason, Jeb would be long gone. No other reason for him to still be around.

Trump is to the Republican establishment as the monster is to Dr Frankenstein.  And, Trump is to the Republican base as Dr. Frankenstein is to the monster.  Trump has stitched together their carefully cultivated  grievances, bigotry, and fear giving the composite, life.   The more Trump is attacked, the more support.  Victimization is innate to the Republican base who see "their American" going away.

I really wanted to get a moped, but my mother and grandparents balked at that idea because they considered mopeds to be dangerous. They were right, of course. Further, my baseball coach also frowned on his players riding mopeds. So instead, Mom gave me a brand-new 10-speed for Christmas during my freshman year. That was probably the most well-used present she ever gave me.

My favorite places to ride in the Puget Sound region were three islands -- Vashon, Bainbridge, and Whidbey. I had a teammate and good buddy who was from Vashon Island, and who also loved to ride bikes. We'd take the ferry over there on some weekends in the fall and use his parents' house as our base, and we'd pedal all over the place. I still love that island.

In that respect, I would refer you to that department's "Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices, 2009 Edition, as Revised." I would also look to the City of Seattle's rules and ordinances governing on-street parking. (You might also want to print this SDOT brochure and keep it in your glove compartment for future reference.)

Now, all that being said, unless the street in question has clearly been designated as one-way -- which you didn't specify, so I am assuming otherwise -- it sounds as though you were facing in the wrong direction while parking on one side of a two-way street.

Therefore, while that sign was correctly posted so that approaching drivers in in the eastbound lane could both see and read it, you quite obviously were not, because you were parked while facing due west.

I don't think it really matters if all the parked cars on both sides of the street were facing the same westerly direction. In many other cities and towns throughout the country, you could've also been cited for parking in the wrong direction, because you'd have posed a potential hazard when you vacated that spot and crossed immediately into a lane of oncoming traffic.

So, given your description, I think this one's probably on you, and not the City of Seattle. It was your responsibility to check that sign on your side of the street to note its restrictions. Sorry.

But what you might want to do, in the interest of being a good citizen, is talk to your city councilmembers and urge them to require SDOT to clarify the proper direction in which cars should be parked on city streets, and on that street in particular.

Otherwise, some judge might rule at some point in the near future that city street signs should henceforth be mounted on both sides of the signpost, for which compliance would entail a rather large outlay of funding and effort.