Month: September 2013

Countdown to the Health Insurance Marketplace

by

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

4The latest conservative media enrtainment complex "ObamaCare is a trainwreck" freak-out (see related story: AZ GOP National Committeeman Bruce Ash shows his racist side again, GOP Official: Obama ‘Shucking And Jiving’ On Health Care Law) is the temporary delay in the small business (SHOP) program online, and the temporary delay in the Spanish language program online. Geezus, people, hasn't everyone epxerienced glitches with Microsoft products over the years? Hello! Glitches hold up elements of health-care sign-up process:

Small-business health exchanges run by the federal government will not
open for online enrollment until November, the Obama administration said
Thursday. But applicants may still enroll by phone, mail or fax
beginning Oct. 1.

* * *

Instead of putting a live application online, the federal government
will post a PDF version Tuesday. Sometime in October, a live application
will go up on the Web, the administration said.

“In November,
small businesses will be able to enroll in coverage options, well ahead
of when coverage begins on Jan. 1,” Joanne Peters, a spokeswoman for the
Department of Health and Human Services, said. “The individual
marketplace will still open on time on Oct. 1 with full online
enrollment and plan shopping options.”

* * *

Also Thursday, White House spokesman Jay Carney said that the launch
of the HealthCare.gov Spanish-language Web site will be delayed until
later in October. There will still be Spanish speakers reachable by
phone on Oct. 1 to begin the enrollment process.

Carney said the
administration estimates that 70 percent of the Latino population will
enroll through English-language portals, suggesting the online delay
would not have a large effect.

So relax and chill out! I have been advised repeatedly that October 1 is a "soft opening," and the people running the program do not expect a rush of people signing up for insurance immediately. They expect people to visit the web site to learn more about it before enrolling at a later date.

K12 Inc. says I “may be a good fit” for one of its schools

by

by David Safier h/t to Politico's Stephanie Simon for noting this in her article, From China to Chicago, K12 Inc. markets more than virtual schools. (You also might like her Cyber schools flunk, but tax money keeps flowing). K12 Inc. has a recently added new venture, Insight Schools, targeted to low achieving students who are … Read more

Senator, You Are No Five-Sylable Henry

by

By Tom Prezelski Re-posted from Rum, Romanism and Rebellion I was going to write a snarky piece which said that Senator John McCain's takedown of Ted Cruz, while effective, was nowhere nearly as awesome as what his predecessor, Senator Henry Fountain Ashurst, did to Huey Long in 1935, but my brother beat me to it … Read more

AIRC Update: Arizona Daily Star op-ed condemns Arizona Legislature’s lawsuit

by

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

I posted about the filing of the latest GOP lawsuit assault on the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission (AIRC) back in August, AIRC Update: Tea-Publican deadbeats sue the AIRC with your tax dollars to overturn Prop. 106 that created the AIRC.

Last Friday, the Arizona Legislature filed a Motion for Preliminary Injunction and requested consolidation of the hearing with a trial on the merits. Steve Muratore at the Arizona Eagletarian blog posted a good summary. More GOP Legislative Contempt for Arizona Voters…:

Last Friday, attorneys acting on behalf of majority Republicans in the Arizona Legislature filed a brief asking a federal court to essentially immediately and permanently nullify the Congressional district map currently in use.

…Arizona State Legislature hereby moves this Court to preliminarily enjoin the enforcement of Article VI, part 2, section 1
of the Arizona Constitution insofar as it takes the power to establish
congressional districts away from the Legislature and conveys it to the
Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission; as well as the use of any
federal redistricting maps created by the Commission; and additionally
moves to consolidate the hearing on this motion with the trial on the
merits.

* * *

In explaining their rationale (as irrational as it may be), the GOP counsel states:

In 2000, a voter-generated referendum, Proposition 106 (hereinafter
“Prop. 106”), removed the Legislature’s constitutional role in that
process and granted it instead to the Arizona Independent Redistricting
Commission (hereinafter “IRC”), an unelected, nonrepresentative body.

"Voter-generated referendum" is the code they want to use to hide — or at least minimize — the fact that it was really an actual legislative act** conducted by citizen initiative.
Technically, yes, the citizens acting in a legislative capacity DID
relieve the Legislature of its role in redistricting. I've been over
that issue hundreds of times. Case law as cited in the AIRC briefs in this lawsuit makes it crystal clear.

I explained at length in my post above why the case of the Tea-Publican legislators seeking to overturn Prop. 106 in their contempt for the will of the voters is not supported by case precedent and is lacking in merit.

Craig Barrett, Whitney Tilson really thinks your K12 Inc. sucks

by

by David Safier

Once again, I address my concerns about K12 Inc. to Craig Barrett, Gov. Brewer's spokesman on education, president and chairman of BASIS charter schools, one of the prime movers behind the Common Core, rich ex-CEO of Intel, and also one of 10 members of the K12 Inc. Board. I don't expect a response from Mr. Barrett. I'm only a lowly blogger, after all. But I hope someone with more stature than I asks him about K12 Inc. His silence on the subject speaks volumes. A response to a few key questions would speak even more voluminously.

So there's this guy, Whitney Tilson, who runs Kase Capital hedge fund. He's shorting K12 Inc. stock big time. Since I posted about this last time, Tilson has put together an amazingly detailed, very long document supporting his case, complete with graphs and quotes. The man makes a very good case. I've read countless negative stories about K12 Inc. — I've written a number myself — and Tilson creates the most comprehensive argument against the corporation I've seen.

Here's the funny thing. I don't agree with Tilson on most things educational, but I have to give him credit for having some idea what he's talking about. His parents were educators. He was one of the first people to teach for Teach for America. He supports the conservative "education reform" and for profit education — if he thinks it's good education, that is. He has his own School Reform blog, where he brags about being on what he calls "Diane Ravitch's Enemies List." So he's not my kind of education guy, but he knows whereof he speaks. He's far closer to Craig Barrett than to me, both in net worth and educational viewpoint. But he thinks the for-profit company whose board Barrett sits on — K12 Inc. — stinks.

According to Tilson,

Like subprime lending and for-profit colleges, the business [K12 Inc.] makes sense on a small scale
but, fueled by lax regulation and easy government money, the sector has run amok.