Summit City Health Care Summit
Dan Jehl of Fort Wayne Public 1 has spent a tremendous amount of time organizing the upcoming Health Care Summit and, based on the agenda, it looks like he’s done a fantastic job.
SUMMIT CITY HEALTH CARE SUMMIT
This health awareness forum is sponsored by Public 1, Inc. and cooperating community Sponsors including Parkview Hospitals, St. Joseph’s Health Foundation, Lutheran Hospitals, University of St. Francis, Ivy Tech, IPFW, etc.
September 24 Downtown Public Library Free Admission
MORNING SESSION
9:00 a.m. Welcome and Introduction, Karen Goldner (D-2), FW City Council
9:10-10:00 The Health of the Nation, Dr. Jon Walker, Practicing Physician with Allen County Retinal Surgeons, National Physicians for Health Care, and recent winner of Fort Wayne Business Weekly’s Healthcare Heroes Award
10-10:30 Behavioral and Mental Health and the Community, Paul Wilson, CEO, Park Center, Fort Wayne, Decatur, and Bluffton
10:45-11:30 a.m. Community Health and Programs of Fort Wayne and Allen County, Deborah McMahan, M.D., Director, Fort Wayne City-County Health Department
Note: The State of Indiana Office of Medicaid, a patient advocate from Matthew 25, and Lutheran Hospitals will be present at community resource/ information tables, with information on city, county, community, and state health resources.
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NOON SESSION Noon-1:00 PM
The Present and Future of the Fort Wayne VA Hospital and Medical Center
Moderator: Charlotte Weybright, Publisher, Berry Street Beacon, Advocate and Writer on VA
Tom Hayhurst, M.D., Fort Wayne physician and civic leader
Eve Bratton, RN, Veteran’s Hospital and Medical Center, ASK Ministries, and recent Fort Wayne Business Weekly Local Heroes award winner
Rev. Phillip Johnson, Associate Pastor, New Joshua Church, and war veteran
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AFTERNOON SESSION 1:00-2:00 p.m.
Keynote Address: The Health of Hoosiers
Introducer: Allen County Commissioner Linda Bloom
Indiana State Health Commissioner Judy Monroe, M.D.
AFTERNOON SESSION 2:00-3:00 p.m.
Is there a National Solution to Better Health and Healthcare for All?
Woody Myers, M.D., former State Health Commissioner, representing the Sen. Barack Obama Campaign
Rep. Matt Bell, representing the Sen. John McCain Campaign
Julia Vaughn, Healthcare Policy Consultant , Citizen Action Coalition of Indiana
Another post from Daily Kos I have to agree with
Two posts from Daily Kos I agree with in one day.
This one is from Hunter and you should read the post.
I want to state that I am 100% against the bailout package being considered in Congress. It is absurd. It is socialist. It forces the taxpayers to bail out companies that have made massive profits and taken excessive risks.
First of all the bailout does not fix anything; instead, it forces the taxpayers to bail out companies that have made mistakes. It does not fix the core problems.
Second of all the bailout will cost the taxpayers between 700 billion and two trillion depending on the final package. I feel that it will likely cost us at least 1.2 trillion dollars so I will use that figure.
This 1.2 trillion would be used to buy up toxic debt and save Wall Street firms from imminent failure. This is what the idiots in Congress are currently considering.
I agree with Hunter over at Daily Kos. I would rather see this money printed by The Treasury and directly mailed to the taxpayers. I do not want to see a dime spent on Wall Street.
The IRS has estimated that 130 million taxpayers will get an economic stimulus payment in 2008 (Most already have it). If we were to remove the income limits and just mail new bailout stimulus payments to all taxpayers regardless of income and regardless of the number of children they have we would be sending checks to about 150 million Americans.
If we spent the same 1.2 trillion Congress wants to waste on Wall Street then each taxpayer would get a check for $8000 in the next few weeks.
Taxpayers would then take those checks and spend them.
This would most likely have a much stronger effect on the economy then what Congress is considering.
Taxpayers would most likely choose to spend their bailout stimulus checks to catch up their mortgage payments. This would allow many Americans to stay in their homes for at least a year longer. This would allow many Americans to catch up on late bills and pay some of their credit card debt. It would allow many Americans who are behind on their car payments to catch up on their car payments. This would result in Americans removed debt from their personal balance sheets and these payments would shore up the balance sheets of Wall Street firms as well.
Many Americans also would likely save some of this money and this would shore up the banking deposits and hence reserves.
This plan certainly stimulates the economy and it would put money into the banks, mortgage companies, finance companies, etc. It would also stimulate consumer spending.
Better yet this plan would send money to every voter and would not send money to those whose failed policies created this mess.
This plan is far more “fair” then what they are currently proposing. At least this way everyone gets some of the money not just Wall Street.
I prefer the bailout plan listed above to the one being considered by Congress.
That being said I 100% oppose the bailout plan being considered by Congress. I also would oppose the bailout plan listed in this post; however, it would be a far better plan then the one being considered by Congress.
If either Democrats or Republicans embraced the plan I denoted in this post and passed it through Congress they would win the next election in my opinion.
What do you think?
Mike Sylvester
FWP Polling
We’re going to try putting polling questions up in the right sidebar underneath the local blogosphere widget. These polls will typically deal with local policies and politicians. I understand this isn’t a scientific sampling of the entire community, but I thought it might give us an interesting insight into the demographics of FWP readers.
So if you’re reading this then please take 5 seconds to vote in the current poll. I’m not sure how often we’ll update the question - I suppose it depends on how many people vote…
JG Editorial Staff Needs A Refresher On Journalism Standards & Ethics
It’s well known that the JG does not recognize blogs as a source of information for any of their reporting. They justify this with a policy that says if they can independently verify the information then there is no need to cite the original source. I can understand this in respect to their competitors. Frankly it would be a little ridiculous if all the local traditional media outlets were constantly saying “as reported at WANE (or WOWO or JG, etc).”
I think this policy fails to address the unique situation of blogs as we are not competitors but that is neither here nor there in regards to the real point of this post. What cannot be disputed is that if you lift a quote from another news source then you should absolutely attribute that information - no exceptions. Just so everybody is on the same page here was a quote from an editorial in today’s JG:
The chorus of Harrison Square critics already has chimed in on local blog sites, vowing to take its health care dollars elsewhere: “I sure will avoid any Parkview visits during the rest of my life – and you should too!” wrote one of the critics.
First of all that wasn’t written on “local blog sites” - it was written right here by John Kalb. But more importantly the JG has lifted an exact quote from another news source and didn’t bother to cite the source of the quote. How do readers know that the editorial staff didn’t just make it up?
If the JG wants to ignore blogs then go ahead and ignore us but don’t lift quotes from us and not give them proper attribution - it’s petty and in my opinion completely unethical.
Huge surplus of office space available for lease in Fort Wayne
The Fort Wayne Business Weekly has an interesting piece by Linda Lipp in the most recent edition. The article is entitled “Report says ’huge supply’ of suburban space available.
As many of you know my wife and I recently expanded ourpublic accounting firm. Early last year we spent a fair amount of time looking at existing office space for a suitable location. We wanted the office to be in a commercial space that was within five miles of our house; preferably within two miles of our house. We had several other requirements including that we wanted to own the space and not rent or lease the space since we plan on running our public accounting firm here for at least the next 20 years.
We looked at a house that was in a good location and we had a couple of contractors come in an give us estimates on what it would cost to renovate the house. We also looked at existing office space for sale. In the end we had a new office built per our specifications since it was cheaper…
The report quoted in the FWBW states that 35.8% of the existing office space for lease in Fort Wayne is vacant. That is a huge number! I believe that number based on all of the for rent and for lease signs I see as I drive around Fort Wayne.
The article says that per the report: “Because there is no overbuilding; however, the report predicted the supply should be in balance in one or two years.”
Really?
First of all there is some “overbuilding” going on in Fort Wayne; however, not as much as is normal. Case in point the office I own is part of an office condominium. I own about 1/4 of the building and the other 3/4 of the building is just a shell. It will be a shell until someone either buys it or leases it for several years so the owner will build another space out. So the office space I built last year was “overbuilt” and has space for up to three additional units.
I do not see how it is possible that in the next year or two all of this excess office space could possibly be leased; however, I certainly hope I am wrong!
Mike Sylvester
Local blogger seems to dislike Sarah Palin intensely
There have been numerous posts on this blog concerning the Republican VP, Sarah Palin. Some of the posts have been favorable to Sarah and others have been less favorable.
These posts have elicited huge numbers of comments from many readers of this blog.
It is obvious that the readers of this blog have widely varying views about Sarah Palin and that is to be expected. Most of the comments on this blog are well thought out and contain few, if any, personal attacks.
For example, Jeff Pruitt and I strongly disagree strongly about Sarah Palin; however, we have not resorted to calling each other names or attacking each other due to this difference of opinion.
I was reading another local blog, Fort Wayne News, when I came across a link to another local blog called Aint that Sherific. After watching Sarah Palin’s acceptance speech this week Sheri came to a much different conclusion about Sarah Palin then I have come to. You can learn more about Sheri’s opinion here.
Sheri is certainly entitled to her own opinion and America is a land where freedom of expression is protected; however, I think she could do better at critiquing Sarah Palin…
Mike Sylvester
Lloy Ball
Lloy Ball recently won an olympic gold medal in the 2008 summer olympics.
My daughter Kayla is in 2nd grade at OakView Elementary School. One of her classmates is the niece of Lloy Ball.
Lloy Ball took the time to come into school and meet with the entire class and discuss the olympics. He signed autographs and told the children about the olympics. He showed them his gold medal and the kids were allowed to touch the gold medal.
My daughter abolsutely loved the fact that she met Lloy Ball and she has been talking about it for two days!
Here is the fact she heard from Lloy Ball that interested her the most in the Olympics:
“There were 2000 coke machines and the athletes could get free beverages from the machines any time they wanted to.”
Mike Sylvester
A look at the experience previous Presidents had before taking office
I went back and researched Presidents from 1977 on. I looked at their experience prior to being elected President.
The experience of the prior five President’s of the United States are varied; however, all were easily more qualified from an experience standpoint then Barack Obama.
President Jimmy Carter
4 years at the Naval Academy
7 years as an officer in the USN, in submarines and then nuclear research
Ran fathers small agricultural business for 9 years after father’s death
8 years in the Georgia Senate
4 years as the Governor of Georgia
His relevant experience for President of the United States included seven years in the active duty military, running a small business for nine years, and four years as the Governor of Georgia.
President Ronald Reagan
4 years at Eureka College
5 years as a radio sports announcer
3 years in the Army
24 years as an actor
8 years working for GE as a Television Host and making guest appearances at GE plants
8 years as the Governor of California
His relevant experience for President of the United States included 3 years in the US Army and eight years as the Governor of California.
President Herbert Walker Bush
4 years in the USN
4 years at Yale
3 years in the oil business
2 years with a small oil company he founded
12 years as President of an oil company he co-founded
3 years as a Republican County Chair
4 years in the US House of Rep.
2 years as ambassador to the UN
1 year as an envoy to China
1 year as Director of the CIA
Updated at 11:12 PM. He also spent eight years as Vice President.
His relevant experience for President of the United States included four years in the USN, 3 years in minor roles in the oil business, 2 years with an oil company he started, 12 years as President of a large oil company, 4 years as a US Rep, 2 years as ambassador to the UN, 1 year as envoy to China, one year as Director of the CIA, and eight years as Vice President.
President Bill Clinton
4 years at Georgetown
1 year at Oxford
3 years at Law School
2 years as a Law Professor
2 Years as Attorney General of Arkansas
6 Years as Governor of Arkansas
His relevant experience for President of the United States included two years as the Attorney General of Arkansas and six years as Governor of Arkansas.
President George Bush
4 years at Yale
1 year at Harvard
Formed an oil business and ran it for 11 years
Managing partner of Texas Rangers for a year
6 years as the Governor of Texas
His relevant experience for President of the United States included running an oil business for eleven years, managing partner of the Texas Rangers for a year, and six years as the Governor of Texas.
When I look back at the past five Presidents I think that I would rank them as follows:
I think the most effective was Reagan closely followed by Bill Clinton.
Then Herbert Walker Bush was in the middle.
It is hard to choose between the last two because both were so bad. I will call it a tie and say that George Bush and Jimmy Carter were both terrible Presidents.
When I look for experience in a Presidential candidate I am looking for some military experience, some foreign policy experience, some Executive Governmental experience, and some experience in the private sector with large or small business. As far as ranking their relevant experience prior to the Presidency I think that:
By far the best from an experience standpoint is Herbert Walker Bush since he has everything except Executive Experience.
Next comes Jimmy Carter and George Bush.
Last comes Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton.
So in my mind the best two Presidents of the last five Presidents had the least experience…
Next let’s look at the experience of our current two main contenders:
John McCain
4 years at Naval Academy
9 years as a naval aviator
6 years as a POW
8 years in the USN after being a POW
4 years in the House of Representatives
22 years in the US Senate
His relevant experience for President of the United States includes seventeen years in the USN, four years in the US House of Reps, and 22 years in the US Senate.
Barack Obama
4 years of college
3 years of Law School
1 year working as an editor of a publication
3 years as a Community Organizer
Civil Rights Attorney for two years
8 years as a State Senator
4 years in the US Senate
His relevant experience for President of the United States includes four years in the US Senate.
When you compare these two men to the previous five Presidents it is easy to tell that Barack Obama has by far the least relevant experience, it is not even close.
John McCain’s experience is more comparable to that of the average of the previous five candidates.
That being said I think many of us would agree that Clinton and Reagan were the best two of the previous five Presidents and both were the least experienced of the five Presidents analyzed.
Mike Sylvester
My take on Obama’s acceptance speech
I took the time to watch Barack Obama’s acceptance speech earlier this week. Barack Obama gives good prepared speeches. I am rarely impressed with acceptance speeches at conventions by either Republicans or Democrats because they are overly partisan and are designed to “rile the base” rather then illustrate specific policies.
The positive items included:
- He supported expanding nuclear power in a responsible way.
- He talked about a program that would allow people to perform community service in return for college tuition.
- He talked about going through the Federal budget “line by line” to remove wasteful spending.
The negative portions of his speech included:
- He started his speech by telling a blatant lie about McCains Tax Plan. McCain’s tax plan actually cuts taxes for EVERYONE and further subsidizes the poor.
- He is against taxing employee health care plans. This is actually one of President Bush’s best ideas to reign in health care costs.
- He stated that the last eight years have been based on a society that is “on your own” and this is another blatant lie. Federal spending is up across the board and the Federal and State governments are spending far more on programs to help the poor and needy then the Federal government has ever spent in the past.
- He misstated the effects of his tax plans. He said that he would cut taxes on 95% of Americans and increase taxes on the other 5%. This is a factually incorrect statement his campaign has been putting out for some time. Approximately 42% of those who file individual tax returns are either: subsidized by the Federal Government, in other words they are paid back more money then they paid in during the year or they pay zero in taxes. Barack Obama should understand that you CANNOT cut taxes on those people who pay no taxes or more likely are subsidized by the Federal government via the income tax. What Barack should say is that his plan: Ensures that the 42% of Americans who pay no Federal income tax or are more likely paid a subsidy directly from other tax payers will get even larger subsidies from the Federal government, cuts taxes on 53% of Americans, and increases taxes on 5% of American households.
- He said that America would no longer be dependent on Mideast oil within ten years; this is a “pipe dream” and no reasonable person should believe this claim.
- He wants to help the auto industry “retool.” In other words, he wants to bail out the auto industry at taxpayer expense.
- He wants to help Americans afford new cars. He was not specific on how he wanted to accomplish this; however, it is not the Federal Governments job to help Americans purchase new cars.
- He wants to pay teachers more money. Teachers already make a very good wage and tend to have great benefits. I think teachers should make a good wage; however, they are not underpaid and it is not the Federal governments job to pay teachers more money.
- He spoke in favor of Universal Healthcare which a majority of Americans (including me) oppose.
- He spoke in favor of better family leave and more paid sick pay. The FMLA already allows employees to take up to 12 weeks unpaid leave for a large variety of reasons. It is not the Federal Governments job to expand this program or heaven forbid force employers to pay for a specified number of sick days.
Items I am unsure about:
- He talked about changing the tax code and said some things that make sense and others that do not. I will have to analyze his plans for the tax code at a later date.
- He talked about changing the bankruptcy laws. I would need to know more about what he wants to change.
- He wants to protect social security, I need to know more. The system is in financial crisis since we only have enough money to pay out 75% of the projected benefits from 2041 on.
Mike Sylvester
Obama Lays Out Platform
I kept hearing all week that he was going to use part of his nomination acceptance speech to lay out his platform for America. I was actually quite surprised that he discussed as many items as he did. In case you missed it or want to watch it again - here you go:
