The Senate healthcare bill that passed cloture and is now up for debate in the Senate floor is NOT healthcare reform by a long shot. 

This is more like a PAY NOW HEALTHCARE LATER. The tax proposals in this bill will take effect as soon as it is passed but the healthcare benefits will not kick in until 2014. 

What does that mean to you? 

It means that you are still going to be paying your premium and deductibles from your private insurance while your taxes are going up to pay for your healthcare. DOUBLE WHAMMY!

 Besides that, as soon as this bill becomes into law, all your medical supplies will cost more because of the new taxes on them. BAM! SCREWING YOU BOTH WAYS!

 How about the elderly? They are getting screwed in every orifice in their bodies. CUTS IN MEDICARE, HIGHER TAXES, MORE EXPENSIVE MEDICAL SUPPLIES.

 This Democrat controlled Congress sure is creative in raising our taxes but very inept in cutting the spending. By the way, the cost estimate they did would make Bernie Madoff proud. Like I pointed out earlier this is a pay now healthcare later scheme. The first five years, 2010-2014, is not factored in the cost calculation because YOU ARE PAYING FOR NOTHING. But on 2014 the real cost of the bill will hit the fan.

 From NY Post:

The CBO reports that, in their true first 10 years, the House bill would cost $1.8 trillion, and the Senate bill would cost $1.7 trillion. Pelosi would raise Americans’ taxes by $1.1 trillion over that period, while Reid would hike them by $1 trillion.

And the House bill would siphon about $800 billion from Medicare to spend it elsewhere, while the Senate bill would suck out about $900 billion.

So the financial bottom lines are almost the same.

And if we discount the bills’ claims to divert hundreds of billions of dollars from Medicare (which is already on the edge of insolvency), the CBO says the House bill would raise our national debt by about $650 billion in its real first decade, while the Senate bill would up it by $740 billion

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/prescriptions_for_disaster_lrgi3GBjbGlIZFrM8hHXJO#ixzz0Xt5ezaNZ

The Democrat controlled Senate bill by the numbers: 

2,074 — pages in the bill

$1.2 billion — cost to taxpayers per page

70 — new government programs authorized by the bill

1,697 — times the Secretary of Health and Human Services is given authority to create, determine, or define things in the bill

24 million — people left without health insurance

$8 billion — taxes levied on uninsured individuals

$25 billion — additional Medicaid mandates placed on states

$28 billion — new taxes on employers not providing government-approved plans

$118 billion — cuts to Medicare Advantage

$465 billion — total cuts to Medicare

$494 billion — revenue from new taxes/fees levied on American families and businesses

$2.5 trillion — cost for the first ten years of full implementation of the legislation

  Numerous Government and Private Studies Have Confirmed that Premiums and Costs Will Go Up Under the Majority’s Health Care Plans

 1. CBO Letter to Sen. Baucus on September 22, 2009, on premiums

 http://cbo.gov/ftpdocs/106xx/doc10618/09-22-Analysis_of_Premiums.pdf

 Additional, Updated CBO table sent October 9, 2009

http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/106xx/doc10642/SFC_Subsidies_Penalties_10-09.pdf

  “Premiums in the new insurance exchanges would tend to be higher than the average premiums in the current-law individual market.”

  “People with low expected costs for health care, however, would generally pay higher premiums (all else being equal).”

 2. JCT Memorandum on the high cost plans excise tax, September 29, 2009

  “The staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation estimates that the excise tax would be mainly passed along through increases in premiums, and that many consumers respond by reducing their demand for insurance above the excise tax cap.”

  “The imposition of the excise tax on insurers can be expected to lead health insurance providers and consumers to take measures to minimize their burden from the tax. As insurers pass along the cost to the consumer by increasing price, the cost of employer provided insurance will increase.”

 3. CMS Office of the Actuary Memorandum, October 21, 2009

 http://republicans.waysandmeans.house.gov/UploadedFiles/OACT_Memorandum_on_Financial_Impact_of_H_R__3200_.pdf

  “In aggregate, we estimate that for calendar years 2010 through 2019 national health expenditures would increase by $750 billion, or 2.1 percent, over the updated baseline projection that was released on June 29, 2009. As a result, the NHE share of GDP is projected to be 21.3 percent in 2019, compared to 20.8 percent under current law.”

 4. Oliver Wyman Analysis, October 14, 2009

 http://www.bcbs.com/issues/uninsured/background/Oliver-Wyman-Report-Showing-Impact-of-Healthcare-Reform-on-Premiums-pdf.pdf

 Assuming 89 percent of the total population has health insurance, Oliver Wyman expects:

 Ø Claims in the individual market could be 50 percent higher than they are today; claims are expected to be even higher in some states, ranging between 60-73 percent higher than today.

 Ø This translates into premium increases of roughly $1,500 a year for single coverage and premium increases of roughly $3,300 a year for family coverage.

 Ø Premiums for small businesses could be 19 percent higher.

  Will federal subsidies help individuals and families afford the premium increases?

 Ø YES, for the 8 million current individual market members and 25 million uninsured earn between 100 and 400 percent of poverty and will have access to subsidies in the exchange which will help offset these cost increases.

 Ø NO, for the 18 million people, including currently uninsured and existing individual market members, are NOT eligible for subsidies through the exchange.

  The bills before Congress require certain minimum benefit levels that are higher than the average of what people are purchasing in the market today. Experts estimate 50 percent of the individual market policies purchased today and about 20 percent of the small business policies purchased today have actuarial values that are lower than what the bills mandate, which means all of those Americans will be forced to buy richer plans.

  Compliance with just these “actuarial value” benefit requirements could cause premiums for Americans purchasing coverage on their own to increase by about 10 percent; premiums for small businesses will increase by about 3 percent.

 Additional analysis released by Oliver Wyman on age rating analysis, September 28, 2009

http://www.oliverwyman.com/ow/pdf_files/OW_En_HLS_PUBL_2009_AgeRatingAnalysisFinal.pdf

 The bills restrict the ability of health plans to provide age discounts to young members by specifying certain age bands. Oliver Wyman estimates that in most states, premiums for the youngest-healthiest third of individuals would increase by 69% in Year 1 compared to reform with 5:1 age bands.

  “Age rating is widely used by insurers in setting premiums today to encourage young individuals to purchase insurance. A substantial number of young individuals do not purchase coverage even at premiums that are often under $100 per month in states that permit flexibility in age rating. Over 40% of all the uninsured are ages 18-34. Young people ages 21-24 have uninsured rates more than triple those of people aged 55-64. Too often young people think they are healthy and invincible and do not need insurance.”

 5. PriceWaterhouseCoopers Report, October 2009

http://americanhealthsolution.org/assets/Reform-Resources/AHIP-Reform-Resources/PWC-Report-on-Costs-Final.pdf

  Eventually the “Cadillac Plans” tax will start hitting Chevys and Buicks—not just Cadillac’s. PWC estimates that in many metropolitan areas, the lowest option “bronze” plan under the Finance Committee bill would be considered a so- called Cadillac plan as early as 2016.

  Public programs such as Medicare and Medicaid reimburse less than the cost of care for hospitals. The net effect of the bills before Congress will make the cost shift even more severe, raising the cost of private insurance premiums for large employers by $255 a year between 2015 and 2019. (This statistic only estimates the impacts of cost shifting from hospitals; including the impact on physicians will make the increased cost shifting even more severe.)

 6. HayGroup Analysis, October 5, 2009

 http://www.weeklystandard.com/weblogs/TWSFP/Impact%20of%20Proposed%20Health%20Care%20Reform%20Bill%20on%20the%20Nongroup%20Market%20%20-%20Hay%20Group.pdf

  Proposals such as the various excise tax provisions on various industries that raise average premiums in the market. Because of these taxes would be non-deductibility (rare for excise taxes), for every $1.00 in tax more than $1.00 would need to be passed to consumers.

 7. Milliman Analysis, July 13, 2009

(no link; study attached)

 8. Wellpoint Data on State Specific Premium Increases

http://www.wellpoint.com/newsroom/stats_facts.asp

 9. Office of the Actuary at CMS Memorandum, November 13, 2009, estimate of HR 3962

http://thehill.com/images/stories/news/2009/november/weekend111309/cmsactuarynumbers.pdf

  Speaker Pelosi’s bill would bend the cost curve in the wrong direction: National Health Expenditures would increase by a net 1.3 percent in 2019. The coverage provisions increase NHE by 3.4 percent in 2019 and the Medicare/Medicaid cuts reduce NHE by 2.1 percent in 2019. (Of course, the net 1.3 percent may be greater because the Actuary later notes that the reality of the Medicare cuts happening may be “unrealistic.”) While America spends 17 percent of our GDP on health care today—more than any other country in the world—the Pelosi bill increases that to 21.1 percent by 2019.

 Speaker Pelosi’s purported cost-savings policies won’t work: “…we estimate that most of the provisions of H.R. 3962 that were designed, in part, to reduce the rate of growth in health care costs would have a relatively small savings impact.”

 Speaker Pelosi’s bill could increase costs and hurt access to care: “The additional demand for health services could be difficult to meet initially with existing health provider resources and could lead to price increases, cost-shifting, and/or changes in providers’ willingness to treat patients with low-reimbursement health coverage.”

 Speaker Pelosi’s $1.2 trillion bill could increase the deficit because her offsets are “unrealistic”: OACT notes that the net $571 billion in cuts to the Medicare program would increase the solvency of the Trust Fund until 2022. Then OACT quickly points out that the estimated savings may be “unrealistic,” and “In addition, the longer term viability of the Medicare update reductions is doubtful.”

 10. Long-Term Cost of the America’s Healthy Future Act of 2009; As Passed by the Senate Finance Committee, October 30, 2009.

http://www.lewin.com/content/publications/Peterson_Finance_Report.pdf

  “the cost of the excise tax payments will be passed on to employers and consumers in premiums”

 “…most of the cost of the new excise taxes is passed back to employers and consumers in the form of higher premiums. In 2011, this would add $13.4 billion to premiums for private firms that continue to offer coverage.”

http://coburn.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Files.View&FileStore_id=2fd3e74b-d513-4a64-bbcc-a88f3e1739f9

Super-Wolf – Can Do It

Fick ett underbart löjligt leende på läpparna när jag hittade denna på YouTube. Hade aldrig hört den innan men fastnade direkt för den på grund av att jag ju kände igen beatsen som han använt sig av . Därtill har de snyggt producerat in lite egna gitarrer och övergångar så det inte bara är en ren ripoff.

Denise LaSalle – I’m So Hot

Ja, det är den här gamla pärlan som fick släppa till takten till Supervargen. Den här låten är extremt starkt förknippad med Mayday Club för mig. Den är nämligen med på den enda kassett jag ägt med liveinspelning av DJ-setet från en kväll på Mayday. Lite otippat att just denna spelades på Mayday med tanke på att den är rätt tunn i takten så det är ingen låt som man vädrar ur ett par jordbävningshorn med precis.

Men det här fyndet av Super-Wolf drar igång en massa idéer i skallen om att man skulle samla ihop alla liknande projekt som kom på den tiden då detta med att låna beats var tämligen nytt. Vill inte kalla det sampling eftersom sampling är så starkt förknippat med digitala samplers. Annars så kan man väl rent tekniskt kalla det sampling oavsett hur det har gått till väga.

Inser dock att jag varken har tid eller ork att sitta och samla ihop och försöka styra upp en samling med låtar och deras ripoff-projekt. Nöjer mig istället med att det säkert kommer dyka upp flera såna som jag kan ta med på bloggen istället.

Tjillevippen

notbugs

May 13, 2008: Allstate Texas Lloyd’s policyholders in Texas have a $71.3 million payday to look forward to, now that the insurance company has reached a settlement with state regulators in a dispute over homeowners insurance rates.

Real Estate; Building Plan In Detroit Starts Debate

Published: Wednesday, August 22, 1990

COMERICA INC., one of Detroit’s largest banks, has won approval for a controversial plan to tear down a riverfront auditorium that was donated by the Ford family to the city and put a new corporate headquarters on the site.

After a series of heated public debates, Detroit’s City Council voted 6 to 3 last month to approve the plan by Comerica and the developer, Gerald Hines Interests Inc. of Houston, to buy the Ford Auditorium, demolish it and build a 28-story headquarters. The design, by the architect Cesar Pelli will be made public next month. Comerica will start razing the auditorium, now rarely used but once the home of the Detroit Symphony, this fall, and construction will begin next summer.

The controversy centers not only on the location of the proposed 750,000-square-foot building but also on the economic incentives given by the city. Under an agreement with Mayor Coleman A. Young’s office, the bank will be allowed to buy the site for $7.5 million, with payments delayed 28 years, and receive an $18 million, 28-year interest-free loan for construction.

Downtown Detroit has been the site of relatively little major office construction since the Renaissance Center was built in the late 1970’s. The Comerica project comes just a few months after Gerald Hines began construction of a 50-story office building nearby, and many local real estate people fear a glut of offices in the downtown market.

Opponents, among them an array of business and civic leaders and some members of the Ford family, say the site next to Hart Plaza, a large public space with a huge fountain and an amphitheater, is inappropriate for a high-rise office structure. Woodward Avenue, Detroit’s main commercial thoroughfare, leads into the plaza, making it the core of the city’s riverfront. They also assert that the auditorium should not be torn down. It was built in 1956 to house the city’s symphony orchestra and abandoned last year because of poor acoustics. The orchestra now performs in its original home, Orchestra Hall, which was refurbished in 1989.

Comerica’s supporters say the project will be an important investment by the bank that will keep approximately 1,200 jobs downtown and put a new, world-class office building on the riverfront. The bank defends its plans, saying it could not find another site downtown appropriate for its headquarters that would attract investors to help build it.

Critics say Comerica blackmailed the city by hinting that it would move to the suburbs if the project was not approved. William Clay Ford, grandson of Henry Ford and the largest single shareholder of the Ford Motor Company, criticized the bank’s proposal in a letter to the city and said his family would no longer make donations to the city as long as the Young administration was in office.

Mel Ravitz, one of three City Council members who voted against the proposal, is a party to a lawsuit to stop the project. He said he opposed the plan because the city would be selling an asset to a private company that had been donated for public use.

”This seems to be a violation of the public trust,” Mr. Ravitz said. ”My primary concern now is that other developers will be looking to the city to bargain for other public lands.”

The controversy started in May when Comerica and the city announced the project. The bank said then that it had spent several months looking for a site because the lease in its current headquarters would expire in mid-1993.

”The Ford Auditorium site was the one that best guaranteed that we could attract the financing and tenants to make the building an economic success,” said David Taylor, a Comerica spokesman.

In an interview with EW Adam Young, aka laptop sensation Owl City, admits his no. 1 single “Fireflies” and the Postal Service in general “are pretty similar,” but at the same time claims he’s “a lot more of a Death Cab fan.” For example, he’d only heard Get Up “a little bit” before people started pointing out the pilfering:

I’ve become more of a fan having started Owl City, actually. I had some friends in high school that would have it playing in their cars and stuff. It was cool, but it never really caught my ear. It’s kind of ironic, looking back at it, because a lot of people do relate the two projects. I can totally see it now, but I didn’t really then, for what it’s worth.

It’s worth a lot, now that you’ve sold over 100,000 fireflies. There’s more. In the form of an unintentional punchline. (Speaking of which, yes, that’s real merch pictured above. Real sad merch.)  (VIA Stereogum)

Don’t fall for the “free” samples of the Acia Berry and Colon Cleanse products too easily. I ordered the “free” sample and authorized the payment of the shipping and handling (only $3.95?). The next day, I received a phone call from a “Thomas” thanking me for ordering the “free” samples. He spoke very quickly with a bunch of verbage spewing out of his mouth, then, I picked up on something about…”…we will go ahead and set you up for a 3-month supply.” I stopped him and asked him to repeat what he just said. He repeated what I thought I heard. I then spoke very slowly, carefully, and adamantly. “Thomas,” I said, ”DO NOT set me up for a 3-month supply.” “I only want to try the samples, first.” He said, “OK”. Guess what he did, he charged my credit card for TWO 3-month’s supply. Over $160.00 worth. They lied, they did not follow my instructions, etc. BUYER BEWARE

Anthony

To hold you over until the next Analogues (It’s coming soon. I swear!) Test Zero put together this short review of one of the most disappointing video game adaptations of a TF-centered novel series ever.

Enjoy!

OINKS! So, and stop me if I mentioned this already, but I’m trying to save money. Yeah, one day I got to thinking that, I’m, like getting old, I mean thirty-one is old. Remember when you were like fourteen and whenever you would see like some guy that was thirty-one walk by you would think man, look at gramps there, his days on earth are limited. Well, now that gramps is me and well, I’m thinking, someday I might like to retire and spend my remaining days on the sofa just relaxing. You know, just sitting at home drinking beer – or, Capri Suns for all those minors out there reading – and watching the History channel, and that would pretty much be a day-in-the-life of Zoinks when I retire. But that is still three or four years down the line, so I’m thinking I should save up some money, you know, so when I’m no longer working and retired I have money to by beer (or Capri Suns). Long story short – too, late – the day that I was thinking all this stuff was ironically the day my Car insurance through State Farm was due, so I call them up to pay and ZOINKS! my bill is $206! And I’m like, it was a $163 last month – crappy still, I know, but better than $206 and certainly better than the month before that which was $218. So I’m asking the guy why all the ups and downs on my rate, I mean, you take my bill and plot it on a line graph and it starts to look like a landscape photo of the Rocky Mountains, and he just gives me a shoulder shrug, or at least I think it was a shoulder shrug, I mean, we were taking on the phone after all. But anyways, I was like I can’t pay that, and I start to explain to him that I’m getting old and that I’m trying to build my nest egg, and he just says “ah-huh,” so I was like I think I’m going to have to get insurance through someone else.

So I start calling around and one of the first places I call is Progressive, because, you know, they have that commercial that allows you to build your or policy, I’m like cool, ’cause I want to build the policy that makes it so I have to pay like less than $100 a month. So I call and they quote me $252 a month, and I try to explain to the guy that I must wanting to add my truck and small SUV; I don’t, like, drive a Jag or a Hummer or something. And he asks me, well, how much were you looking to spend? So I tell him, only this time I’m being a little more conservative and I say $150 and he’s just like yeah, no?

So, I’m not sure what to do because Progressive is like not having any stores like in the commercials, although I did see a crappy house down on Colfax with a Progressive sign in the front yard, so I might take a walk down there tomorrow and have my dog crap in their yard, but other than that there ain’t much I can do, except to say don’t shop for insurance with Progressive or State Farm.

I made this video to highlight the …. plagiarism.

So much for insurance costs getting lowered. Great.

Didn’t I just write in my last blog entry, a few hours ago, that if health care insurance costs aren’t kept down, that none of that half-hearted “reform” is gonna work?

Well, as if the insurance companies weren’t already making enough profits…as if they already weren’t having legislation written on their behalf to force everyone to buy their worthless overpriced product from them, now they even have the balls to say they’re going to need more money?

If you’ve read any of my past blog entries on this, you know that I consider the health insurance companies to be the whole problem that health care reform is supposed to fix. And yet we end up with some scheme that basically extorts the American public into buying health insurance or else.

I mean, what is it about American health care that sucks that needs to be fixed in the first place? Well, insurance premiums are too high, insurance companies deny people life-saving care, and the insurance bureaucracy is drowning every hospital and doctor’s office in a mountain of paperwork. 

Also, drug companies are allowed to charge absolutely insane prices for their drugs, and they seem to have no shame at all in charging hundreds of dollars for a pill that wholesales for four.

(here’s a link to the Keith Olbermann article where his pharmacist tells him this.)

And yet our government is actually forbidden by law to negotiate drug prices for Medicare with those companies! Forbidden! And you know who wrote those laws–Congressmen with ties to the health insurance companies and the drug companies. 

If private enterprise was going to fix this problem, it would have done it already. It’s had plenty of time. But corporations aren’t persons, and they don’t feel guilty about ripping off humans. 

A corporation is like a shark–it is programmed to eat. It’s not programmed to care about the feelings of what it’s eating. That doesn’t make the shark (or the corporation) evil per se, but you still want to use reasonable caution when you have to deal with one.

I’ll say it again–I want a universal, single-payer system that covers everyone. Any system that caters to the desires of the health insurance industry is bound to fail. 

I mean, at what point do we quit calling health insurance a “service” and start calling it a “crime”? If people were paying reasonable premiums and reasonable rates for health care and there weren’t scores of people in America (with healthcare!) going bankrupt and losing homes over medical bills, then maybe health insurance could be called an “industry”. 

But they’re systematically ripping off people and killing people! Lots of people! What else do they have to do to cross that line?! When are we going to start calling it what it is? Let’s call it crime. Fraud. Murder. A colossal scam masquerading as a business. 

Here I’d like to quote a short passage from a Douglas Adams book, one of the “Hitchhiker’s Guide” series, and I can’t remember which one, don’t have copies of them at hand so I can’t quote it verbatim, but the jist of it was this:

“I hear they’re giving the death penalty to insurance agents now.”

“For what crime?”

“What do you mean, what crime?”

I like that. 

On September 29th, I reported on a seller who lost $770.10 on eBay.  Here is a link to the original blog post: How would you like to lose $770.10 on eBay?

Tell me again how much you lost?

The story came to the attention of Jim Griffith (Griff), the Seller Advocate at eBay, and he asked for the details.  I passed on his contact information to the young seller, who promptly forwarded all the information to Griff.  It certainly looked as though eBay was going to make this story have a happy ending, albeit a very belated one.

Alas, over a week has passed and Griff has not bothered to respond to our young seller.  Not a simple, “received it, thanks” or a “wow, that buyer should have at least bought you dinner before doing that to you,” or even a “so sad, too bad” email.  Nothing. Nada. Zip.

I find your lack of WIN, disturbing.

I know, it’s only been a week.  But buyers who get shafted get their money back within minutes of complaining of a potential ripoff.  A newbie seller like the one who lost $770.10 should not be treated any differently.  This should be a feel good story, not another, “well, you know how risky eBay is” story.

Come on, Griff.  Tell John Donahoe to pull out his wallet.  After all, it’s only walking around money to him!

I pluck the idea out of the air, like this!

]]> http://behlerblog.wordpress.com/2009/10/07/save-me-from-the-ftc-and-pass-the-chips/ Wed, 07 Oct 2009 13:41:09 +0000 lynnpricewrites http://behlerblog.wordpress.com/2009/10/07/save-me-from-the-ftc-and-pass-the-chips/

Warning: This is a commentary, and Lynn is breathing fire.

Oh dear god. Once again, our government works its magic in order to meddle in affairs for which it has no experience or knowledge. What am I talking about? I’m talking about how the Federal Trade Commission has seen fit to revise their “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials.” It states that bloggers who review books or video game systems must now disclose if they got those books or video games for free. Why the necessity for disclosure, you ask?

Because the FTC trembles in fear that those freebie copies we send out – called Advance Reader Copies – are the equivalent of an endorsement – that we send out books with the “expectation of a favorable review.” If these idiots at the FTC knew anything about publishing, they’d realize that we have absolutely zero expectation of a favorable review. Heck, we don’t even know if we’ll even get reviewed. It’s a crapshoot.

I’d sure like to see the FTC’s proof that freebies = favorable endorsement because I don’t know of a single publisher who has seen this be the case at all.  In fact, I’ve seen any number online reviews that were anything but laudatory about books they’d read, and we all know the books were sent for free.

This is just all kinds of stupid because it lacks any scintilla of logic. For one thing, book review bloggers are no different from the trade magazines and newspapers who review. But Bureau of Consumer Protection representative, Richard Cleland, insists that newspaper and magazines are exempt because “the newspaper receives the book and it allows the reviewer to review it, it’s still the property of the newspaper.”

Now Cleland has no problem with a blog review provided the blogger doesn’t keep the book after h/she’s done reviewing it. In Cleland’s mind, hanging on to the book is paramount to the blogger being compensated, and this requires a disclosure. Good grief, I can see bookslut.com saying, “Hey, dudes, we got this book for freeeee…” Well no shit, Sherlock. Every reviewer gets free books, and no one is complaining. If no one cares, why does the FTC? Furthermore, why won’t they even listen to those who are in the business?

Does the FTC presume to know more about the publishing/review business than we do? Apparently so, since he told Edward Champion in an interview, “You simply don’t agree, which is your right.” Well, dang my buttons, Mr. Cleland, thanks for at least allowing us to disagree with you. But I’d like to know why is it when someone disagrees with a government action that we are dismissed, rather than consulted as to why we don’t agree. We don’t agree because we know our business – something Cleland clearly lacks.

And get this; if those bloggers don’t comply, they can receive an 11K fine. I’m curious as to how the FTC plans on implementing this policy. Have they hired a bunch of brown shirts to invade the homes of thousands of blog review sites and verify whether those books are sitting on the shelves or have been properly disposed of?

Who the hell is the FTC to make distinctions about what is “compensation” and what is simply going about the course of performing one’s job? You want to talk about an industry dirty secret, let’s talk about magazines who strenuously peddle their ad space? It’s a well-known fact that buying ad space increases your chances of getting a book review. Ad space is far from free. But do we all go running to the government because we don’t like it? Of course not. It’s the nature of doing business.

Just who is getting hurt here? If Cleland spent a week sitting in my chair, he’d realize that bloggers are as far from paid endorsements as the beagle is finding sobriety.

And speaking about those newspapers and magazines; does he really think those books don’t disappear off the shelves once they are reviewed? Puhleeze.

Why is the blogger injudiciously accused of being compensated when there are very big trade magazines that offer paid reviews? They don’t disclose which reviews are paid for, so anyone reading the review section is none the wiser. All the publisher or author has to do is fork over some hefty cash and get a guaranteed big-name review. To me, this is far more compensatory than some blogger who keeps a freaking book because the author or publisher does have the expectation of a favorable review.

Lastly, I wonder why the FTC cares? Cleland’s answer to this is predictably anemic.

“If a blogger received enough books,” said Cleland, “he could open up a used bookstore.”

I really, really want what this guy is smoking.

My god, when I think of all the paid graft that takes place in the entertainment industry, attacking bloggers makes as much sense as sending the beagle to the Betty Ford Clinic. They have some real problems to deal with, like e-book piracy. Attacking a segment of the review industry for some trumped up grievance is pathetic at best.

Why does the government feel the need to “fix” what ain’t broken? I know, I know, the answer is “because screwing things up is what they do best.”

There are some very good articles that articulate the facts far better than I. I excel at righteous outrage.

http://www.edrants.com/interview-with-the-ftcs-richard-cleland/

http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/lit_crit/ftc_blogger_rules_carry_11k_fines__139253.asp

After reading about this latest gasp at government intrusion, I’m reminded of one of my favorite lines; who is John Galt?

I cannot wait to volunteer up another slice of my digital self to google… realertime

volunteer yourself into waveslavery

(yes, that does sound like wage slavery except the latter is socialism fantasy become extant)

Wave is true innovation… once you completely ignore CU-SeeMe whiteboard software from FIFTEEN year ago.   Yay google?  Yup google innovation by rebranding something and making it shiny! Whiteboard + IRC ( email (hosted IM) ) = wave

Chrome has to be awesome: the name itself is shiny!!

wave is equal parts branding and ripoff

Hold all wavicle puns for now

But no…they have enough problems!….

They just don’t get it and have my sympathy.

October 09 Update: Apparently You Tube and WMG have reached some sort of agreement. That’s great for Youtube, but I still will never trust them. Trust, like fine China, is never the same once broken.

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Rob Liefeld’s ability to steal great comic ideas and created terrible bastards never ceases to bring me pure and utter joy. Whether it is the Ultimates (as seen above), Supergirl,  Captain American, Hulk, Justice League, or the Authority – this hack has them all.

Honestly his characters always seem like bad forum avatars – he thought Superman was cool so he created his own lifeless version called Supreme and thought no one would ever tell the difference *side eye*.

I guess I’m just really disappointed after 25 years in the comic industry he still try to pass off recycled ideas as original thought. To be fair, I don’t have a problem with homages at all but there comes a point when it isn’t a homage – it’s a ripoff.

Urgh I still can’t believe they are making a move out of his Avengers/JLA/X-Men/Teen Titans rip-offs. If only someone would give him the “shaft”.

I bought my last Blackberry from Best Buy.  I paid for their warranty.  I even paid for their insurance.  What does that net me?  Nothing!!  My phone broke, and instead of replacing it, like the sales rep told me they would do (liar), they shipped it off to KY for repair.  At the end of September, by his calculations; I should have my phone back.  So, what exactly did I pay extra for???  Good question.  I feel very ripped off.

During my stay at the Hard Rock Hotel in Chicago, I was given two room keys, which also double as $25 gift cards to the Ticketmaster owned TicketsNow scalping service. I saw that Friendly Fires is coming to Boston in November, so what the heck, I’ll order a couple of tickets, use this card, save a little cash that could be used for beers, and be done with it. Sounds easy doesn’t it? It was not to be.

You see, TicketsNow is own by Ticketmaster as a kind of legal way for them to scalp tickets at an extremely inflated price. I don’t know why it’s legal for them to do this but for some reason, it is. The image below shows the regular $15 + $5 fee (there’s a whole other topic) x 2. $40, no big deal to see a band I like.

LiveNation regular price for Friendly Fires tickets

Now, here is where I hoped to save $25 with the gift card that will as of now, never be used:

This is the overpriced TicketsNow version

Pretty unbelievable huh?

A similar thing happened recently when tickets for Andrew McMahon went on sale at 10am for a show in Somerville and by 10:01, it was sold out yet tons of tickets appeared on StubHub immediately (which is another one of these “legal” scalping services). Tickets for this show were going for 2-3 times the original price. It’s really sad because this show benefits the Somerville Arts at the Armory which ironically, helps out artists.

Bruce Springsteen fans have also been burned by this practice. More info here.

How can these companies go on ripping off their customers like that and think nothing of it? Wasn’t Congress looking into this at one point? Why didn’t Pearl Jam keep up their fight?? I miss the days of standing in line for tickets that only had a 1-2 dollar fee associated with it. Earlier this year, I attempted to get tickets for the Nine Inch Nails/Jane’s Addiction tour. I don’t recall the exact price but the fees were close to 40% of the ticket price. Needless to say, I did not go.

This practice needs to stop! Someone needs to step forward, stand up to these giant corporations, and create some kind of viable alternative that does not rip off the customer. In the meantime, if the bogus fees are over a certain percentage of the ticket price, they will definitely lose my money.

Hey, asshole. Sure, the gloves get rid of the fingerprints, but the sleeves are a dead giveaway.

As the nation’s deficit continues to skyrocket, politicians are scrambling to come up with solutions to counterbalance their reckless spending.

I kid, of course. The politicians could care less. They’re too busy trying to shoehorn someone’s useless airport into the back pages of our latest trillion-dollar fiasco. So while they look for more ways to sell your kids up the river, we have come up with a few suggestions on how to get the income to match the spending (or carpet to match the drapes, whichever comparison gets your attention quickest).

Fly-by-night tax collection agencies.

Check the White House sofa for any millions that may have slipped beneath the cushions.

Bake sale every Friday – first theme: “Fine. Score one for the bumper sticker-buying hippies. A bake sale to fund a bomber purchase.”

Pay wall for government websites.

Audit fucking everybody.

National “Swear Jar.”

Reorganize the government as a non-profit; accept donations from other countries.

$8 admission fee for illegal immigrants.

Buy more generics.

Effective tax rate on top earners to increase to 110%.

Federal withholding tax will now include a 35% “convenience fee” and a $10 “handling charge” (tip of the hat to Ticketmaster).

Same thing with filing a tax return.

Andrew Jackson was well known for his controversial views on slavery; love of floating pie charts.

Federal Disaster Relief packages now limited to a Sympathy card and whatever cash the people at the office chipped in ($43).

Several hundred post offices to convert to malfunctioning self-service kiosks.

Air Force One limited to one (1) “major city buzzing” per administration.

FDA Testing Department trimmed to one person: Karl “the Iron Stomach” Magnusson.

Casinos fucking everywhere.

Hell, smokers have an unlimited amount of money, right?

Americans encouraged to adopt foreign teens and immediately have them seek employment.

Increase the budget for “Alchemy R&D.”

Start accidentally knocking some zeroes off the end of the deficit total. Just until it’s down to something manageable.

Annex Central America and the rest of North America. Tax the hell out of our “new citizens.”

Take advantage of Australia’s penal colony status and stash our tax-dollar eating federal inmates “down under.”

Trim the DEA’s funding by 90%. Anti-drug operations going forward to consist of D.A.R.E. t-shirts and occasional “Won’t Somebody Think of the Children?” hysterics.

Yeah motherfucker. You may have my wallet, but I got your money-leaking hat!

All national parks and wildlife preserves to be converted immediately to money-making resorts/amusement parks/petting zoos.

All retail transactions to be “rounded up” to next even dollar amount, with difference going to “Deficit Spend-Down” account.

President, Cabinet to look for second jobs.

Library of Congress to “aggressively pursue” late fees.

When buying Congressmen, lobbyists must now pay a 25% service charge.

Secret Service now off nights and weekends.

Proposed bills now must be printed using both sides of the paper.

All interstate road work to be subcontracted to KFC.

Iraq, Afghanistan operations to convert to “Operation: We Can’t Fight All Your Battles for You.”

More “sexually attractive” government employees now required to “turn tricks” 4 hours a day.

Americans encouraged to “give till it hurts.” Or be hurt.

-CLT