Health Care Part II

We are being warned that if we get universal healthcare our own care will begin to suck like Mark Foley at a Fire Island hot tub party.

Say what?

My daughter needs a physical for summer camp a month from now. I can't get her in to see her doctor until sometime in September, several weeks after camp is over. (I admit that I should have scheduled this sooner, but who knew?)

A few years ago I was having some problems my general practitioner couldn't diagnose. I had to schedule an appointment with a neurologist. That wait was 3 months.

I never see an OB-GYN; to get to see one of those at my clinic would mean making an appointment ONE YEAR in advance. I'm supposed to see a physician's assistant for my annual exam, so in truth it's not even possible for me to go to a doctor.

The nurse at the pediatrician's office just called me and suggested one of those quick clinics at Walgreens or Wal Mart. Earlier, I called a free clinic and offered to trade time or a nice donation for my daughter to get a physical. The clinic said they weren't able to do that kind of exam.

A few years ago when I had very comprehensive and expensive health insurance I used to go to Planned Parenthood for my exams. I shudder when the conservatives fight to close those clinics just because they believe that crazy notion that parenthood should be planned. Crazy kooks.

Sorry folks. This is what we've gotten for the most dollars ever thrown at healthcare in all the world. I simply do not believe it will get worse.

Now I've got to find a Costa Rican directory so that I can schedule some dental work.....

How's About Some Health Care?

Lord, lord.

My brother in law is both a republican and an insurance agent. And yet, I feel that he might be drifting from his rock solid republican roots.

Here's one of the biggest reasons that I want to speak freely as a small business owner (yes, I actually am a partial owner of the business now, but I generally refrain from throwing that around. I get lots and lots of mileage from salespeople and others who assume that because I'm a girl that I'm the receptionist. So be it)

I despise the money that I spend in insurance. Republicans always tell you that the small business owner is choked out of new hires bytaxes, but I have found that is not true at all. Insurance is our own personal smack down.

You know how you hear stories about guys like Willy Nelson who didn't pay their taxes and oh, woe unto them? I find that Uncle Sam is alot more forgiving than the private for profit insurance companies that I have to give money to.

It comes down to this: Money that I pay in taxes is based on money that I have earned. It's a simple percentage. Granted, sometimes I hate paying my sales tax,when, as a contractor, my client may not pay me for 60 days.

What I despise are my fixed costs. And my biggest most fearsome fixed cost is health insurance. Also,I am required by law to carry worker's comp and general liability. These are charges that go up or down once a year based on my volume. The money essentially is private for profit in the way that, had GW Bush gotten his way, our social security money would have gone.

I ramble. The point is simply this: Don't believe anyone who tells you that the government can't run something better than the private sector, because they can.

Second, insurance simply shows us that the privatization of needed services that includes a profit motive will kill a small business 100X faster than a tax will

Third, small business owners who still believe in the Republican Party and/or Jim Cramer from CNBC will be flipping hamburgers next year.

Good onya lovs.

My Own WPA project

I've emerged again.

Let me say, I miss you and I love you.

Kiss. Kiss.

That aside, I dropped blogging simply due to time constraints. For the last six months or so, simply breathing had to be scheduled. Every time I even slightly considered a blog post it only sounded like whining to me with the added distraction of me spending time on the computer obsessed with me - a negative - so I've avoided you guys for well over two months.

Last week I picked up a book by a Wisconsin author, Michael Perry, who writes about himself and his life in his small town up Nort', as we say.

He is self deprecating and honest, which I admire. He's a bit worduluous which has put at least my father off of his books. (I made up wordulous. It mostly means using a bigger, off-putting word where a smaller humbler word would've worked. For the record, Mr. Perry NEVER overuses adverbs, and the overuse of adverbs is a sure sign of a horrible writer.)

Perry made me think that maybe I should stop shying away from my blog and just writstraight and true about the crap that has been going down lately. I think that if I simply tell you these stories without an agenda then maybe I'll have a record of how things went down ITE (cool people shorthand for "In This Economy")

Here's the deal. Or Chapter One.

One year ago I was a stay home mom. I put my two girls in all the rec. department classes I could fit them into. In the afternoons we went to the swimming pool and I knit mittens or socks or other small things while they played.

In September the guy who was runnning my family's company called me and asked me to come help him get caught up. I was really the perfect candidate since I hired him and trained him in the first place. My good friends will recognize that I first described him as the "Republican Dude".

The day I went in to discuss starting working for him he offered me $10 an hour. I knew that he started ( and I left at) a much higher pay scale ten years ago. I said I'd work for $15.

Then I came in on my first day and fired up the computer. Exactly three seconds after looking at our books I knew we were fucked.

But really, I spent the time between September and the end of November trying to save things through straight but silly will power alone.Then one day I went to work and the Republican Dude criticized a suggestion that I had.

At that point I already knew that he had fucked our company to the point that he knew he couldn't afford me on the payroll at $15 an hour. I volunteered to be a 1099 independent and I didn't take money until they had it.

So after two months of working for nothing, he criticized me in front of the accountant. I blabbed. I told everyone who would listen that he grew our company in half.

He should have been fired on the spot.

Rather, I was told to go home for the week and cool off.

I did.

But when my brothers who own the company looked closer, they realized this guy was killing us.

He's been a friend of the family for nearly 30 years. Did I mention that?

We decided that he should work as a salesman. We'd knock his salary back but kick up a comission. If he went out I.T.E (in this economy) and brought us new business he'd get the comission.

For some reason, this made him collapse.

Rather than fight for his life, or even the life of our company, which he had an ownership of, he just gave up.

More tomorrow.

National Day of Prayer....How's That Working?

The last eight years were the most prayerfyin' years in the history of the United States, or at least since the crackpots of the 1830's ran amok*. Yet, one would think that if praying for the United States had any efficacy, we'd be in a much different place today than where we are.

Unless of course Jesus thought the prayers of the last eight years were just kinda lame.

And he is punishing us.


*I seem to remember reading somewhere that in the early part of the nineteenth century people were particularly religious. But I'm too bored of the subject myself to google it, so if I'm wrong, suck it.

They Fear the Frankenspecter Monster

" The issue, he said, "really relates to ... whether or not in the United States of America our people want the majority party to have whatever it wants, without restraint, without a check or balance."


---Senator Mitch McConnell on Arlen Specter's defection to the Democratic Party

Hey, Mitchie. Would that be like letting the majority party go into a trillion dollar war, tank the economy and ruin the environment?

Just wondering.

Every post same as the last post

Please don't think that I haven't thought that I ought to come over here and post some crap on my own blog, fer cri-yi.

I have thought that. It's just that for the last 100 days every post I've thought about in my head was of the same theme: "How fucking stupid do the conservatives think we are?'

And the answer is always "Pretty goddamned stupid".

Today's affront was caught by me on an am blather-radio station who's right wing harpie host was congratulating Fox for not broadcasting President Obama's next press conference, scheduled to mark his first 100 days in office.

They can't, she breathlessly remarked, possibly cave in to the Obama love fest. Really? Really?

This from the same network that would run as breaking news anytime President Bush got in a taxpayer funded aircraft to get himself back to Crawford for some brush clearing?

Further, thanks to the fact that I work in an industry that inexplicably hosts a lot of conservatives, I get loads and loads and loads of rightie crap in my inbox.

No. 1 - I would never discuss my political beliefs with suppliers OR clients, so the fact that conservatives always do just proves how unprofessional they really are, all the while claiming the superior end of business acumen.

No. 2 - George Bush didn't do press conferences. When he did, liberals watched. We prefer to be engaged in our government. Conservatives just prefer to be pushy. And god forbid, intelligent discourse.

S'okay. Their self-proclaimed "Know-nothingism" is turning off the vast majority of the American public.

Fortunately, self-identifying republicans are falling by the wayside day by day.

And as they fail, so they give off the stench of desperation.

And no one believes them anymore.

Barbara Bush Receives Heart Implant

Barbara Bush is recovering from heart surgery.

Which, means, I suppose that she just got implants because I don't recall there being a heart there previously.

boom bappa chee! Don't forget to tip your waitress.

When I first discovered that I am an asshole.

First off--my friends who check me to see if I am still alive--I am.

Second--those of you who care about my position--prone and breathing or prostrate and not-- I thank you for checking in.

Here is what I have learned while I have been away.

I. Am. An. Asshole.

Okay, matter being what it is, I really WAS an asshole and am no longer an asshole because we are all in a constant state of flux. I am on a post-Assholian trajectory. Yet, I do think I need to own up to the historic data set that has called me out as an asshole.

When I was a stay at home mom, I picked our organically grown vegetables from a local sustainable farm. I knew the first name of the farmer. (Chris) (his dog's name was Frost).

Now that I work 60 hours a week I hope to never have the Costco Representative have to help me with my self-service check-out of Preservative Laden Lasagna.

Remember that I insisted that every product that came into our home was made in America?

Now I simply hope that most products don't have too much of an overbearing chemical Chinese carelessness smell about them. (And I am discovering misting sprays).

I used to volunteer in my children's classrooms. Now I just hope they remember my name and that I do, kinda, care if my kid crosses all the acceptable thresholds they expect of her. If they don't, maybe I can send in another pan of brownies?

Dear Mr. President:

Dear President Obama*

Thank you for your bold move on Gitmo, and for declaring that our government will no longer spy on us citizens. Excellent start in your opening days.

Now I have a little request:

Please in the next few days declare the phrase "Who are you wearing" as well as the term "Ginormous" to be illegal and punishable by Ex-President Bush** era techniques.

I thank you in advance for your consideration of these important issues,

Yours in peace and democracy,
Jess Wundrun.

*Yay
**YayYay

A President Who is Smarter than Me

Once again the man and woman living in the White House are smarter than me. It's a great feeling.



Of all the images and memories of the inauguration the one that will stick with me forever is when Chief Justice Roberts flubbed the lines of the oath, and President Obama* gave a slight nod and waited for Roberts to correct himself.



I was listening on Democracy Now! at work. Our accountant was here and when that part happened he whipped his head around -- we both thought Obama had messed it up.



When I got home Tuesday night I watched the inauguration and saw what really happened.



The presidential oath of office is written into the Constitution. It is important to get it right. (Remember, if you will, that ex-President George W. Bush** did not). Our new president who once taught Constitutional Law, knew that. I'm going to assume that the Chief Justice was simply very very nervous.



The man who should have had shaky nerves-the President-showed his mettle. How many billion people around the world were tuned in at that moment. President Obama is completely unflappable.



That moment showed me that we chose the best possible American to lead us in these times. Everything we need to know about him took place in those few seconds.



We have overcome.

*My first use of the phrase. Yay!
**Dean Wormer's favorite phrase. I plan to use it LIBERALLY.

The Last Night of Self-Loathing

I'd like to drop some profound bon mots on the fact that this is the very last night that a Bush will EVER be in charge of our country. Shhh, Jeb and the lesser generations don't yet know all that.

I wonder how many times someone on our side will tell a rightward soul "America, love it or leave it"? It's almost a shame that conservatives have been given a free pass. There ought to be some penance for their sins. And yet, as many times as Ol' Newt Gingrich has been gassin' up the airwaves lately, I'm sure that we'll all just move along and his own brand of partisanship AS politics will be forgotten.

I may never be able to stop hating them.

But that's me. Apparently, President Obama will find room for bi-partisanship. And when it is all said and done, I bet you that he will not get the credit for it that he deserves. There is still far far too much of the "two sides of the story" meme in the MSM.

Now that our side is in charge, do you think our talk radio will resemble intelligent conversations regarding our possibilities, or do you think it will resemble the vocal equivalent of a steroid-addled wrestler bringing down a figure four leglock on the popcorn vendor?

Well, it's been a damned long time since I was proud to be an American. It's nice to know that this is the very last night in a very very long nightmare.

If I Could Save Time in a Bottle

We fired RD.

If I never run across another republican who thinks he knows how to run a business (or a country) again, it will be too soon.

The truth is that if I hadn't gone to work and looked at the books, RD would have run the company out of business within the year.

When I mentioned this to him at his "exit interview" he said, almost blithely, that "companies are going out of business left and right, right now".

Not ours, buddy.

So I've been trying to figure out everything that he did, both right and wrong, and get us turned around. It's taken all of my time.

I've started a few blog posts about the whole situation, but then I toss them because they've been a bit too whiny.

So that's where I've been. All is well and is getting weller. At least I hope so.