frankhagan.com

Cross-posted to Donklephant

Politics Barack Obama, humor, State of the Union

It’s been a bad week for Democrats. Republican Scott Brown won the special election for the Senate seat formerly held by Sen. Ted Kennedy, leading to predictions that the House and Senate will not be able to cram through their strictly partisan health care reform bill. To add to the nervousness already felt by the Dems, the Supreme Court struck down components of campaign finance reform that favors incumbents and Democrats specifically.

But the GOP shouldn’t sit back and gloat. There is a unique opportunity to actually work with the Democratic leadership and get some things done that remain popular with the American people. And failure to act on them may expose the GOP to the same anti-incumbent mood that swept them from the majority in 2006. USA Today reports:

A 55% majority of Americans say President Obama and congressional Democrats should suspend work on the health care bill that has been on the verge of passage and consider alternatives that would draw more Republican support, a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll finds.

. . .

An overwhelming 72% of those surveyed Wednesday say Brown’s victory “reflects frustrations shared by many Americans, and the president and members of Congress should pay attention to it.” Just 18% say it “reflects political conditions in Massachusetts and doesn’t have a larger meaning for national politics.”

What kind of reforms should the GOP put forward? There are a number of blocked proposals the Dem leadership should now allow on the floor for debate. From the GOP.gov website:

For more information about some of the other common-sense health care reforms proposed by Republicans, please visit the links below:

• Empowering Patients First Act  (Republican Study Committee  Health Care Reform Bill, introduced July 30, 2009)
• Improving Health Care for All Americans Act (Shadegg Health Care Reform Bill, introduced July 14, 2009)
• Medical Rights & Reform Act   (Kirk-Dent Health Care  Reform Bill, introduced June 16, 2009)
• Help Efficient, Accessible, Low-cost, Timely Healthcare (HEALTH) Act   (Gingrey medical liability reform bill, introduced June 6, 2009)  
• Small Business Health Fairness Act of 2009   (Johnson small business health plans bill, introduced May 21, 2009)
• Promoting Health and Preventing Chronic Disease through  Prevention and Wellness Programs for Employees, Communities, and Individuals Act of 2009   (Castle Wellness & Prevention Bill, introduced July 31, 2009)
• Improved Employee Access to Health Insurance Act of 2009  (Deal auto-enrollment bill, introduced October 15, 2009)
• Health Insurance Access for Young Workers and College Students Act of 2009  (Blunt bill to improve health insurance coverage of dependents, introduced October 21, 2009)

The Heritage Foundation, a leading conservative think tank, explains these bills further, and points to several “guiding principles” that Republicans can support in other proposals:

Tax Equity: Today, if an individual purchases health insurance through their employer, they receive unlimited tax breaks on the value of their insurance. But if you purchase your insurance on your own, you receive no such benefit. This is inequitable and regressive. Ideally, Congress could replace the current tax exclusion with a system of universal tax credits. But at the very least, Congress should provide tax relief for those who purchase coverage on their own, and redirect other health care spending to help low-income individuals and families purchase private health insurance coverage.

State-Based Reform: Every state is different when it comes to health care challenges. Some states face high rates of uninsured citizens while others face spiraling costs. Instead of a federal one-size-fits-all approach, Congress should embrace federal-state partnerships that preserve diversity in the states. The states could devise their own way to achieve reform, like a mechanism for portability (i.e. take your insurance from job to job). Individuals should also have the freedom to purchase insurance from any trusted source and not be restricted by where they live (i.e. buying insurance across state lines).

Entitlement Reform: Not only are Medicare and Medicaid increasingly costly, they’re not delivering value to American taxpayers. If health providers could compete directly for the business of seniors and the poor, the cost-curve would truly be bent and private innovation would flourish. Right now, the tsunami of entitlement spending is on an automatic course for disaster, with locked-in spending, and more to come. Long-term costs of entitlement programs must be built into the annual budget process so Congress can no longer ignore the crisis that is continually pushed off on future generations. Americans can no longer blindly pay into an entitlements system that offers little incentives to providers to offer better value to the consumer and the funding taxpayer.

There is a difference between saying “no” to a bad plan, and just saying “no”. The task for the GOP will be to come up with common sense alternatives that people can support.

Cross posted to Donklephant

Politics GOP health care proposals, health care reform

I’m always amazed by the Apple Fan Boys, because any time I’m forced to deal with anything from Apple I end up wanting to tear my hair out. Great hardware, but their software is written by the devil.

In preparation for the new system that is coming, I’m trying to head off the pending disaster that is moving iTunes to a new computer. Horror stories abound about this process, and nearly every tutorial out there has been written by someone who has obviously not done it. But I wanted to start organizing now, and try to head off disaster.

I copied every music file to my MediaSmart Server’s “Music” network share. It is organized by Artist / Album in folders. After spending time doing that, I think a fresh install of iTunes will work fine.

But I read a tutorial, from an Apple fan of course, who said to just consolidate your library and then copy that folder over when the new system comes. Well, that sounds easy. But, as with all things Apple, not so much.

Consolidating your library in iTunes means that the program copies all your music files registered in the program from their original locations and puts them in the /My Music/Itunes/Itunes Music/ folder. That sounds nice! So clicking on “File * Library * Organize Library * Consolidate Files” started the process. Then it stopped. With the error message “Copying files failed. The filename was too long or invalid.” But without any indication which file it was, so you are completely in the dark.

Because you can’t rely on Apple to actually fix a problem, you search the various fan sites for a solution. You find this problem has been around since iTunes was introduced, so it must be a “feature” in Apple parlance. And the solutions are either extremely time consuming or ineffective. You could go through your library and select a few songs at a time, right click and select “Consolidate Tracks”. At least that way you know its in that selected group. So I tried that … but it only finds the first one as you narrow down to smaller and smaller groups of files. And iTunes’ non-standard way it treats highlighting and the arrow keys will drive you crazy. One enterprising programmer wrote a little javascript program to tell you that it can’t find the filenames that iTunes is choking on (a valiant effort, but to no good effect).

You can also wade through the XML file to try and find a path that isn’t to the iTunes folder, but that takes forever; every song has about a dozen lines of code in that XML file.

So for me, the solution will be to point a fresh installation of iTunes to my network share and “consolidate” from there, so it copies the files to the local drive. That is, if that will even work.

Tech iTunes, iTunes consolidate library

We have had an interesting Christmas season at the Hagan household. A refrigerator died just before Thanksgiving, then our old 36″ CRT TV died two weeks later. So our Christmas presents were replacement appliances.

We set out to get a 52″ Samsung LCD TV, but our local Fry’s Electronics had a great sale on their new 55″ “LED” model, the Samsung UN55B7000 (it actually is a LCD model with LED a backlight). What a great set, but it wouldn’t fit in the entertainment niche with the shelves I had constructed. So out they came, and new woodwork is being put in place.

From the department of “One Thing Leads to Another”, the TV has “connectivity”, so we are hoping to get the grandkid’s pictures and home videos streaming to the family room rather than crowding everyone into the office upstairs. So I ran Cat5e ethernet, coax and telephone lines down to the entertainment niche by dropping from the attic, under the bedroom floor, then down to the first floor family room. Quite a process, but the connection is now much faster than with wireless.

I found a factory recertified HP MediaSmart EX485 Windows Home Server for $329 (now it looks like it is $349). I had been looking at the Acer easyStore model, but it is rarely under $400 now. HP has done a great job with this machine; it is backing up our various computers, running as a print server (an undocumented feature), and is able to stream media to the Samsung TV. But the included utilities on the TV are not very robust. For instance, I’m not able to pause, rewind or fast forward on my copies of digital movies now stored on the server. While they stream beautifully, once you start its all or nothing!

Because of that I’m going to add a Western Digital WD TV Live Network-ready HD Media Player to enable things like fast forward, rewind, pause, etc. The UI looks pretty slick on this, and I understand the box can be controlled by my Logitech Harmony 880 Remote.

It has been fun getting techy again, but “real life” will be back soon enough.

Tech HP MediaSmart, Samsung UN55B7000, WDTV Live, WHS, Windows Home Server

There’s nothing to see here, move along, move along.

Democratic apologists have been telling us that the surprising results in Virginia and New Jersey were not repudiations of the Democrats in Congress, but regional results that really don’t reflect on the wonderful 27% approval rating of the Congress. There is nothing to see here, really.

But the Jedi Mind Trick wears thin with the recent polling in the special election to replace Sen. Kennedy in that bluest of blue states, Massachusetts. Scott Brown, the Republican challenger for the open seat, has vowed to block health care reform if elected, and his poll numbers are surging. The Bay State’s voters are evidently familiar with government health care schemes.

Real Clear Politics shows the polling results. Public Policy Polling conducted the latest poll, and shows Brown a point ahead of Democrat Martha Coakley. As Political Wire reports:

A new Public Policy Polling survey in Massachusetts finds Scott Brown (R) leads Martha Coakley (D), 48% to 47%, and is “buoyed by a huge advantage with independents and relative disinterest from Democratic voters in the state.”

“Here’s the reality: the Republicans and GOP leaning independents are going to come out and vote for Scott Brown. There’s no doubt about that. But there’s also a much larger pool of potential Democratic voters in the state. If Coakley can get them out, she wins. But this race is well past the stage where Democrats can take it for granted that will happen. It will be fascinating to see what happens the final ten days and we’ll do a second poll on the race next weekend.”

This table of poll results from Real Clear Politics shows a steady erosion in support for Coakley:

Massachusetts Senate – Special Election

Public Policy Polling points to several reasons for the surprising narrowing in this race, with one key factor for both parties to take into account:

-Brown has eye popping numbers with independents, sporting a 70/16 favorability rating with them and holding a 63-31 lead in the horse race with Coakley. Health care may be hurting Democratic fortunes with that group, as only 27% of independents express support for Obama’s plan with 59% opposed.

Everyone start practicing now. Wave your hand like a Jedi and say “Nothing to see here, move along, move along.”

Cross posted to Donklephant

Politics 2010 Elections, MA Senate Race, Massachusetts, Republican resurgence