Seattle’s Crocodile Cafe has reopened, and I’ve already managed to miss Soundgarden!

“Fell On Black Days” from “Superunknown”. Just buy the entire CD, and turn it up loud…

The Crocodile Cafe, one of the more well-known music venues in Seattle, closed last year. Much mourning ensued. Even if I am older than dirt, I spent my fair share of time there listening to local music and enjoying it. (It didn’t hurt that I used to work with a guy in a fairly popular local band.) Luckily for everyone, they’ve reopened.

According to a local radio announcer, the original members of Soundgarden made a guest appearance there last week. I MISSED IT. While I am musing on the absolute unfairness of this, (like I was going to get The Dauphin to go there, anyway, ) enjoy one of my Soundgarden faves, okay?

-S

More fun and games with health insurers: Take a prescription drug, get declined

We lost our health insurance in November. We applied for private health insurance. We were declined momentarily. After all, we’re playing the “pre-existing condition” game.

I’m very interested in the following article. It seems that the pre-existing condition is a mask for another underwriting trick. Insurance companies maintain a list of prescription drugs that will get you an automatic decline as well.

Trying to buy health insurance on your own and have gallstones? You’ll automatically be denied coverage. Rheumatoid arthritis? Automatic denial. Severe acne? Probably denied. Do you take metformin, a popular drug for diabetes? Denied. Use the anti-clotting drug Plavix or Seroquel, prescribed for anti-psychotic or sleep problems? Forget about it.

This confidential information on some insurers’ practices is available on the Web — if you know where to look.

What’s more, you can discover that if you lie to an insurer about your medical history and drug use, you will be rejected because data-mining companies sell information to insurers about your health, including detailed usage of prescription drugs.

These issues are moving to the forefront as the Obama administration and Congress gear up for discussions about how to reform the healthcare system so that Americans won’t be rejected for insurance.

It’s especially timely because growing numbers are looking for individual health insurance after losing their jobs. On top of that, small businesses, which make up the bulk of South Florida’s economy, are frequently finding health policies too expensive and are dropping coverage, sending even more people shopping for insurance.

The problem is, material available on the Web shows that people who have specific illnesses or use certain drugs can’t buy coverage.

Interesting, huh? The above article mentions information on health insurers in other states, too.

Single-payer is off the table at the White House, even after the President promised we’d all have the same health coverage as members of Congress. Expanding Medicare to cover all Americans is deemed as “too expensive”. We’re currently fighting two expensive (and ill-advised) wars. Wouldn’t this be a better use of our tax dollars?

The information I’ve seen over the past few days indicates that the White House is now looking at requiring everyone to purchase private medical insurance. (The insurers claim they’ll skip the pre-existing condition exclusions, but more reading points out that they’re reserving the right to charge more based on age, location, number in family, and a few other issues. I might also mention that the pre-existing condition stuff is evidently still in force for small business owners attempting to purchase insurance for themselves and their employees.)

Just a question, Mr. President: Who’s running the country? You, or the insurance companies?

-S

And Officer Powell of the Dallas Police Department has now released an apology

In the interest of fairness, I’m printing the following.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/03/27/national/main4898503.shtml?tag=topStory

A police officer apologized for a traffic stop involving an NFL player whom he kept in a hospital parking lot and threatened to arrest while his mother-in-law died inside the building.

Officer Robert Powell also drew his gun during the March 18 incident involving Houston Texans running back Ryan Moats in the Dallas suburb of Plano.

On Friday, Officer Powell issued a statement exclusively to CBS 11 News in Dallas-Fort Worth through his attorneys.

“I wish to publicly and sincerely apologize to the Moats family, my colleagues in the Dallas Police Department, and to all those who have been rightfully angered by my actions on March 18, 2009. After stopping Mr. Moats’ vehicle, I showed poor judgment and insensitivity to Mr. Moats and his family by my words and actions. With great remorse I accept my responsibility for adding to their grief in an already difficult time.

I have attempted to reach Mr. Moats to express my personal condolences directly to his family and my regret about my actions. While these efforts have been unsuccessful so far, I hope we can talk soon.

Again, I am very sorry for what I did and ask for the forgiveness of all those touched by these unfortunate events.”

Officer Powell, I have a few things I’d like to say to you, and I’m not a member of the Moats family.

My husband’s father is a former Washington State Patrol officer. My husband is an 11-year volunteer with a local police department. I am a former city council member in our hometown. One of my responsibilities was our police department. As a result, we know a lot of police officers. I consider myself lucky to know them. They take their jobs very seriously — they go to work every day to serve and protect. They are in danger frequently. They deal with situations the average person will never see.

Just two examples: There was an incident in our former neighborhood a few years back. Our friend John was one of the responding officers. It seems our neighbor had left two kids in a running car (and kids and car got carjacked.) He told her, with tears running down his cheeks, “This will not happen on my watch.” He and his colleagues found those kids, safe and sound, after going to incredible lengths to do so.

I’ll also never forget a guy in our hometown approaching the police chief while he and I were having a little chat at a meeting, to say the chief had saved his life. He’d arrested him on a drug bust. He made sure the guy got into treatment. The chief is one of the most humble, unassuming guys I’ve ever met. He’s the last person that would brag about something like this, but I know it has to have happened over and over through his career. I saw tears in his eyes that day, too.

There are police officers that make mistakes. They are human. At the same time, I prefer to believe that those mistakes are few. It takes someone unusual to do such a thankless job. Those who purposefully shame themselves, their badge, and their colleagues by bad behavior need to find another line of work.

You, Sir, need to think long and hard about your future. You’ve only been on the force for three years. I don’t know what was going through your mind when this happened. I don’t know if this is the only incident. At the same time, when I think of the men and women we know, I’m pretty irritated with you. When things like this happen, it makes their job even harder.

To all those officers, in Dallas and all over our country, that do their best day after day, thank you for your service.

-S

Bill O’Reilly, please stalk me. I need the traffic!

Could there be a more appropriate song for this post?

Dear Bill,

It seems that your ratings are sliding, and you’re in need of some controversy. How better to get it than to send two goons after a female blogger who dared to criticize you?

Amanda Terkel is the managing editor of Think Progress, which I read, and I’ve excerpted here before. She questioned why a rape victims’ advocacy group would ask you to speak at their fundraiser after your inflammatory comments about rape victims. Evidently, this was upsetting to you, but it just didn’t fit into your schedule to do your own dirty work. You sent your two goons to stalk and ambush a woman a fraction of their size. Of course, the irony of two much-bigger guys menacing a woman is completely lost on you, isn’t it?

For a man that’s called paparazzi “the scum of the earth”, is it different when you’re the one initiating the ambush?

The economy’s tough on everyone right now, including me. I’ve been musing on accepting advertising for the blog. It would definitely pay some bills. At the same time, I need traffic to drive the ad revenues. I have traffic. I need more. Therefore, I’m offering you an opportunity that will benefit both of us. You’ll get your controversy. I’ll get some revenue. It’s a win-win!

First of all, Bill, go big or go home. You’d better show up yourself. After all, if you’re not here in person, I’m going to deduce that you just don’t have the balls to face a middle-aged woman a foot shorter than you are in her own driveway. You should also know that I’ll be asking a few questions of my own, and I’ll definitely have someone else here to document what happened, as opposed to your heavily edited version. We’ll start off with a few questions about Andrea Mackris and that situation, for instance. You won’t mind talking about it on-camera, will you? We can move on to why you seem to believe requiring others to gather your “ambush journalism” is appropriate. By the way, I’ll be calm, I’ll be polite, but I’m definitely not going to give you the tongue-bath you’ve been getting from the right wing for years now. If you’re still here (and not curled into the fetal position in our front yard, crying and calling for your mama,) there’s a few other subjects I’d like to explore.

Again, Bill, I’m here. It’s not tough to find me. We live in a town of 5,600 thirty miles east of Seattle. We’ll see if your taste for menacing women bloggers suddenly changes when you’re confronted with one who can stand up to you. I might also mention that, again, if you fail to show up yourself, your goons will be cooling their heels in the local pokey as quickly as I can dial a cell phone.

So, Bill, c’mon down. I don’t think you’ve got the guts. Prove me wrong, big guy.

-S

Officer Robert Powell of the Dallas Police Department doesn’t care if your mother-in-law’s dying. You ran a red light!

If this piece of tape doesn’t leave you truly angry, I’m not sure what would. I’m also sure that if there were no dashboard cam on the police car and Ryan Motes wasn’t a pro football player, there would have been an even bigger problem. It seems that he got a ticket in Plano, TX,  ostensibly for the red light he ran. I submit it was for driving while black. He, his wife, his wife’s grandfather and her aunt were en route to the hospital to see his mother-in-law one last time as she was dying.

It was interesting to me that even after Officer Powell realized the situation, he continued to threaten the parties involved with increasingly serious charges. Mr. Motes and his grandfather-in-law were detained by Officer Powell’s actions until after his mother-in-law died, despite the fact that a nurse emerged from the facility to state they needed Motes’ permission to code the patient, and other police officers told Officer Powell to let the family leave. His response? “I’m almost done here.”

http://www.kvue.com/video/index.html?nvid=345766&shu=1

“Attitude is everything”, Officer Powell? Typically, I am a staunch defender of the police. They have a very tough job. I should also mention that The Dauphin is a long-time volunteer at a local police department. In this case, though, Officer Powell reinforces to me yet once more exactly why we avoid spending time in Texas. The last time I was there, I watched a TSA employee at Dallas/Fort Worth Airport flip out on a woman who did nothing more than ask him how to get to the gate she needed to board her flight at.

I’d also be the last person to recommend that someone be relieved of a job in this economy, but if this is an example of Officer Powell’s typical behavior,  he needs to find another line of work.

-S

And today is The Dauphin’s birthday

Happy birthday, Honey.

I love you,

-S

Happy second birthday to us!

Lemon cupcake from Seattle’s Trophy Cupcakes www.trophycupcake.com

Two years ago today, I threw open the clubhouse doors and invited everyone in. It’s been quite an adventure, hasn’t it? Plus, I’m not done yet!

I’d like to thank my readers. You make it worth it to show up at the empty page every day.

xo,

-S

Hey, Chuck Todd of NBC News, you suck

The White House: Now in complete sentences.

Ahh. Another Tuesday evening, another Presidential news conference. Of course I tuned in. After all, watching President Obama administering the smackdown to some journalists that desperately deserve it is great entertainment. Plus, I wanted a little more explanation of what the President is up to these days.

Mr. Todd had an incredibly penetrating and intellectual question for the leader of our country. After all, he gets paid the big bucks to come up with this stuff.

Thank you, Mr. President. Some have compared this financial crisis to a war. And in times of war, past presidents have called for some form of sacrifice.

Some of your programs, whether for Main Street or Wall Street, have actually cushioned the blow for those that were irresponsible during this — during this economic period of prosperity or supposed prosperity that you were talking about.

Here’s my favorite part of his question. Wait for it…

Why, given this new era of responsibility that you’re asking for, why haven’t you asked for something specific that the public should be sacrificing to participate in this economic recovery?

Let me get this straight. Mr. Todd does not think that the American people have “sacrificed” since October? Let’s have a list of what’s happened. After all, I’m sure he never leaves the newsroom or the White House press room. He doesn’t see a lot of real life out there. He needs some help, doesn’t he? After all, there’s been a real “cushion” for Main Street, hasn’t there? I’d LOVE to hear his explanation of what that “cushion” might be.

Unemployment in the USA is currently at 8.1%. The new numbers come out Friday, April 3. This statistic does not count those who’ve fallen off the unemployment rolls, or those who are chronically unemployable. We lost 697,000 jobs in February alone, for example. This also leads to an increase in the uninsured. After all, those who’ve lost their jobs typically lose their health insurance, too. The most recent statistics I could find were 2005; 44 million uninsured Americans. Since we’ve shed over 2 million jobs since October of 2008, I’m sure that number has gone up. Ten percent of the population of the United States, or thirty million people, are now on food stamps. When all this wasn’t happening, millions of Americans were watching their 401K’s tank. If you really won the economic trifecta, you’re either losing your house or you’ve lost your house due to an ARM, and you lost one or both jobs in the household as well. One of the more interesting comments from President Obama this evening: Forty percent of all mortgage holders are eligible for the homeowner bailout.

I’m not even going to get into the billions American taxpayers have handed banks and investment houses since October, only to watch them either sit on the money or spend it on neato corporate jets, like JP Morgan/Chase did yesterday.

Let’s talk about the biggest sacrifice the average American has made since last October: Peace of mind. It’s nice to not wake up in the middle of the night and worry about how you’re going to pay the bills. How you’re going to send the kids to college, how you’re going to swing the braces your preteen needs, how you’re going to keep the car running one more year. How you pray that nobody gets hurt or sick, because you don’t have medical insurance, and you can’t even afford to walk past a hospital, let alone go inside. How you’re going to feed your family when the unemployment runs out and how you’re going to explain to them that you’ve applied for every job you could find, but eight hundred people showed up a month ago to apply for one meter-reading job in Tacoma, WA, for instance.

It seems the collateral damage of the economic meltdown is not enough of a “sacrifice”. Mr. Todd, what did you have in mind? Please share with the class. Frankly, I can’t wait to hear what you think might be more of a sacrifice than watching your and your family’s future implode. In other words, the ruling class got their hands slapped and had to give back a fraction of the funds they looted were awarded, so now there’s going to be hell to pay.

Am I angry? You bet. Would I say this to your face? In a heartbeat. I can’t believe that Helen Thomas didn’t get up out of her chair and smack you with her notebook. The American people deserve better than the above. You’re paid to find out, and that’s the best you could come up with?

I think you and your colleague, Mr. Hardy of CNN, should have to sit in the back of the room until you can come up with a substantive question. I’m sure there are multiple bloggers (Jane Hamsher and Christy Hardin-Smith of Firedoglake, Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo, Atrios of Eschaton, Digby of Hullaballoo, for instance,) that would take their chance to quiz the President seriously.

I don’t know about anyone else, but I think I need to lie down for awhile.

-S

Seattle’s Bailey-Boushay House faces a funding crisis

Photo: www.virginiamason.org

There are angels on Seattle’s Capitol Hill. They work at Bailey-Boushay House. Bailey-Boushay was founded to care for AIDS patients; they now provide care for people with varying diagnoses. I am bringing this story to my little soapbox today because we’ve had first-hand experience with Bailey-Boushay.

There is no easy way to say goodbye to a loved one. Bailey-Boushay goes out of their way to provide excellent care for their patients, and to support the friends and family members who need that care and nurturing as well. It seems their funding is jeopardized as the result of our state’s revenue issues.

http://www.seattlepi.com/local/404025_Bailey20ww.html

Last week at the Bailey-Boushay House, Shelley Anderson met some friends for lunch, did a little meditation, and worked on a quilt in zingy rainbow sherbet.

She also met with people who helped her feel better about her homelessness, HIV infection and recovery from cocaine and alcohol abuse. She saw a nurse for her daily pills for anxiety, arthritis, a MRSA infection and heart condition.

“Without Bailey, without the nurses, I bet at least half of us wouldn’t be here,” said Anderson, a feisty, pixie-ish 50-year-old client of Bailey-Boushay’s outpatient services.

“I would be dead, and that’s a fact. It’s literally a healing machine.”

But the prominent Madison Valley facility — renowned as the country’s first skilled nursing home designed and built for AIDS patients — is facing a funding crisis that may force the closure of its outpatient program.

The vast majority of the program’s funding comes from the state, which is now facing a $9 billion shortfall. Separate from Bailey-Boushay’s nursing home, the outpatient program serves 200 HIV and AIDS patients with mental illness, addictions, a history of homelessness and other challenges.

“They have histories of being on the periphery of society, in one way or another,” said Brian Knowles, the executive director of Bailey-Boushay, which is managed by the Virginia Mason Medical Center.

We lost our uncle’s partner, Stephen, to complications of AIDS in the mid-90’s. Out of respect for his birth family, I am deliberately vague on identifying information.

I could never express to another person who hasn’t gone through this what it’s like to know your loved one will not get better, and you don’t have the resources to take care of him properly. Stephen went to Bailey-Boushay. We are grateful still that he had the option.

If someone you love has ever died in a hospital, you probably remember the fact there were rules. Couldn’t sleep in the room. Couldn’t spend more than a limited amount of time in the room with them, either. Personal items were discouraged. Most of all, you dealt with doctors, who had a varying degree of impatience or lack of compassion. My mom was in a local hospital for almost three weeks before her death in 1991. The nurses were very kind. I wish I could say the same about her doctors. One of them told me taking care of my mother was “wasting his time”. After all, he could be treating someone who would actually recover. (That was when I discovered that yes, it was possible to fire a doctor.)

When The Dauphin and I went to visit with Stephen at Bailey-Boushay, there were few rules. He could have his things around him, like the colorful afghan one of his family members crocheted for him, the music he liked, and photos from loved ones where he could see them. We could bring in favorite foods that might tempt his almost-nonexistent appetite. He had his own room, so visiting didn’t bother anyone else. We could come and go as we liked. We spent more than a few nights sleeping on the couch in his room. After all, up till the end, Stephen was lucid. He also had a very dark sense of humor. (I was busy at the office, and couldn’t make it for a couple of days. I walked into the room to hear Stephen say, “I thought you were dead.”) Mostly, we were treated as family. They helped us as much as they cared for him. We could go to the office without worrying that he was alone, that he’d had his medications, and someone was with him always. He wasn’t an afterthought, or just another person taking up their time. He was treated with dignity. He was allowed to spend his last days in the care of those who were not afraid of or repulsed by him and by his diagnosis.

I can’t say enough great things about Bailey-Boushay. Our experience with them remains overwhelmingly positive. To die in America usually means being hooked up to every machine known to man, lots and lots of medications that render you unable to communicate, and the whole scenario is less than real. The end, for him, was peaceful. We sat with Stephen for awhile after he was gone. We told him we loved him one more time, that we hoped he was in a better place, out of pain, and hopefully, there was plenty of barbecue there. Mostly, we were grateful for the opportunity.

I realize that a budget deficit the size of Washington’s requires some very hard decisions to be made. I also realize that there has been discussion afoot to divert the hotel/motel/rental car tax revenues to fund the renovation of Husky Stadium. I am quite a sports fan, but to my mind, this isn’t even a question. Fund Bailey-Boushay with a fraction of that money. Their work pays off in the community over and over again.

Also, if you have a little extra money, please consider sending them a donation.

Thank you again, from the bottom of our hearts, to everyone who’s ever worked at Bailey-Boushay. We will always remember you.

-S

If I didn’t already love Michelle Obama…

Michelle Obama, not wearing the “Star Trek” belt

photo: www.telegraph.co.uk

I read the following aloud to The Dauphin late last night. Let’s just say it’s the new family catchphrase.

President Obama does not understand why his wife needs more than one pair of shoes. It’s the national lament, right, guys? Why? If it’s not shoes, it’s coats. If it’s not coats, it’s a handbag, or a new lipstick. We like to dress up. Men of America, suck it up and deal. After all, the president of your country has the same problems!

Reporters are not the only ones with a particularly keen interest in what Michelle Obama wears. Her husband, Mrs. Obama says, notices everything. In fact, she has learned not to wear a certain gray metallic belt when the president is around.

“Barack calls it my Star Trek belt,” the first lady said in an interview this week. “He doesn’t understand fashion.”

The interview, which started out on the subject of the new White House vegetable garden, ended up ranging over a variety of household topics, which Mrs. Obama addressed with substantial fun-poking at her husband, her mother and herself.

On the president and her wardrobe:

“He’s always asking: ‘Is that new? I haven’t seen that before.’ It’s like, Why don’t you mind your own business? Solve world hunger. Get out of my closet.”

She’s telling him how it is, isn’t she? Ladies, you know there are a variety of things you could use that “Solve world hunger” thing for. Unfortunately, we’re not all married to the leader of the free world, so we’ll have to improvise!

In the meantime, I’ll be back later. Our University of Washington Huskies basketball team is playing in less than an hour. Snacks must be made!

Go Huskies!

-S