[Guest post by DRJ]

In an article about Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee’s health care town hall meeting held Tuesday 8/11/09 — the meeting attended by “Dr.” Roxana Mayer — the Houston Chronicle reported her constituents and the public were given one day’s notice of the meeting if they called Jackson Lee’s office the day before:

“Several of Jackson Lee’s constituents opposed to the health care plan complained the meetings were never posted on the congresswoman’s Web site. They also said they had called her office repeatedly but were only informed about the meetings when they called the day before it happened.

“Someone kept telling me that it would be on her Web site or they would make a list and call me. But they never did. I was lucky to find out about it,” said Linda Lehman, a retired accountant, who is “terrified” by how much the health care reform package may cost.
***
Allan Meason, another constituent, who thinks the health care bill won’t work without controlling malpractice lawsuits, agreed, “I kept calling every office she had for three weeks.”

In response to a question about why the meeting wasn’t posted on her Web site, Jackson Lee said anyone could learn about it by calling her office. “I will be having a series of these meetings and the notices will be different,” she added.

Other attendees from the Fifth Ward said they had received a notice in their door informing them of the meeting the day before or learned about the forum when showing up for their senior citizen program at the center that day.

Jackson Lee is known for aggressively promoting her events by e-mailing and calling local news media. But the Houston Chronicle didn’t receive any notifications from her office about the Tuesday forum.“

But some people may have received advance notice of Jackson Lee’s health care meetings — the Precinct 224 Democrats:

According to the Page Info for that website, the Precinct 224 Democrats knew about Sheila Jackson Lee’s health care meetings no later than August 8, 2009:

Maybe some constituents are more important than others.

— DRJ

[Guest post by DRJ]

Congressman Joe Sestak (D-PA) says the Cash-for-Clunkers program is denying 4-out-5 reimbursement claims filed by automobile dealers:

“In the letter [to President Obama], Sestak said only 2 percent of claims have been paid and that four of every five applications have been “rejected for minor oversight.”

In recent days, auto dealers across the country have been complaining that the reimbursement payments are slow to process. And they said some of their applications were being rejected because of apparent procedural issues. The statistics Sestak cited suggest those complaints are not based on isolated incidents.

Staffing could be one problem. According to sales data summarized by Transportation Department officials, dealers have submitted requests for rebates on 338,659 vehicles sold.

But while Congress just expanded the $1 billion program by $2 billion, the Department of Transportation says a staff of just 225 people is reviewing those claims.”

This means each Transportation staff member is processing 1,500 claims. Sestak says the Administration should assign 1,000 processors to handle claims.

Just imagine how many processors the government would need to handle health care claims. I wonder what percentage of those claims would get paid?

— DRJ

[Guest post by DRJ]

No. 1 ranked Tiger Woods led by 2 strokes going into today’s final round of the PGA Championship at Hazeltine but he ended as runner-up to South Korean Y.E. Yang, the first Asian-born golfer to win a major golf championship. Yang is ranked No. 110 in the world rankings.

Until today, Woods was “14-0 when he went into the final round of a major atop the leaderboard [and he] had not lost any tournament around the world in nine years when leading by two shots.”

Will this be remembered as “Woods losing a 54-hole lead for the first time in a major?” Maybe … it had to happen sooner or later. However, Woods was also runner-up in the PGA 7 years ago at Hazeltine when he “birdied the last four holes and came up one short of Rich Beem.” Woods was charging then while today Woods faded at the end, but I think Woods and the last day at Hazeltine just don’t mix. Especially when it comes to putting.

— DRJ

[Guest post by DRJ]

I’m working on something where I need to verify what “Page Info” means on a webpage. I think it involves the properties of the webpage — the language used, the URL address, the date created or modified, and other information. I’m most interested in what it says about the date.

If I right-click to get the Page Info for a webpage and it tells me the “Date Last Modified” is August 16, 2009, doesn’t that mean the webpage was created or last modified on August 16, 2009? If that’s true, is this always correct or are there exceptions?

— DRJ

The AP reports:

Bowing to Republican pressure, President Barack Obama’s administration signaled today it is ready to abandon the idea of giving Americans the option of government-run insurance as part of a new health care system.

Facing mounting opposition to the overhaul, administration officials left open the chance for a compromise with Republicans that would include health insurance cooperatives instead of a government-run plan. Such a concession probably would enrage Obama’s liberal supporters but could deliver a much-needed victory on a top domestic priority opposed by GOP lawmakers.

Officials from both political parties reached across the aisle in an effort to find compromises on proposals they left behind when they returned to their districts for an August recess. Obama had sought the government to run a health insurance organization to help cover the nation’s almost 50 million uninsured, but he never made it a deal breaker in a broad set of ideas that has Republicans unified in opposition.

You know, it doesn’t really matter that Republicans are unified in opposition. It matters that Democrats are not. But I’m willing to let the GOP take the “blame” if it kills the public “option” — which would inevitably result in government-run health care.