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Open Thread Thursday, May 29, 2014, AD

by — ,

– I’m not sure at what point we should just fire everyone in SPD who can’t follow the use of force policies.

– I didn’t even realize Tacoma Link not being free was on the table, but it’s nice to see businesses stepping up.

– Saying that women have put you in the friend zone implies that even a little non-sexytime time spent around women is tortuous. It implies that spending time around women, just talking to them or listening to them is time wasted. It implies that women are not women–not potentially interesting friends or colleagues, but sex robots who’ve granted or denied you permission to insert your girder.

– Today in Sally Clark is such a problem, Sally Clark is such a problem.

– Missing your bus stop is the worst.

Comments

  4. 4

    The WHY of the VA problem is fascinating. Pure and simple greed. The medical center directors get big bonuses if they beat appointment time targets, so they cheated so they could get paid more. For this to work, they would have needed to keep Mr. Shinseki in the dark.
    “But it stated that a “direct consequence” of the inappropriate waiting lists was that the medical center’s leadership “significantly understated the time new patients waited for their primary care appointment” in its performance appraisal accomplishments for the 2013 fiscal year, which was a factor considered for bonuses and salary increases.”
    http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05......html?_r=0
    We saw the same greed when charter schools hacked their test score results and Enron manipulated energy prices, all just to get better bonuses.

  5. 5

    @ 4

    I suspect the reasons had little, if anything, to do with ‘bonus and salary increase’ consideration. In the VA system there isn’t much wiggle room for large increases in salary or substantial bonuses. This isn’t Franklin Raines/Fannie Mae shenanigans.

    I suspect they had to/wanted to make their numbers, they didn’t have the resources to do so, and so they falsified. Coincidentally, they were evaluated for merit enhancements to their income on the basis of their ability to meet or exceed expectations.

    We really don’t know what the size of the bonuses and salary increases might have been for the individual employees, or at least the piece you linked didn’t go into it. We only know that there’s a correlation. My wife works at the VA and has received a bonus each year so far. It’s a small measure of appreciation that makes her like her job even more. The fact that she gets it doesn’t impact her performance one bit, and the size of it wouldn’t cause anyone else she works with to possibly commit fraud to get a bonus like hers.

    Suppose you made $250k and you might get a $5-10k bonus for good performance. Would that be enough to cause you to commit fraud on the job? Probably not. Or maybe so, if you really needed the money. But probably not.

    If you needed to make your numbers or you get fired, that might be a different story. But it’s hard to get fired, or even demoted, in the VA system.

    My politics say I should take advantage of this and go for the kill. My gut tells me that a bunch of men and women in VA management had a problem, and they addressed it using what turns out to be fraudulent methods. My gut tells me that if they had more resources it would not have happened.

  6. 6

    @5. Sorry I don’t believe your rational. “I suspect they had to/wanted to make their numbers, they didn’t have the resources to do so, and so they falsified.” That doesn’t make sense. Every org or company I know would use the reason that they didn’t have the resources to make their numbers as loud as possible, to GET those resources.
    It’s not like they would be fired. You yourself said ” But it’s hard to get fired, or even demoted, in the VA system.”

    Everything I have read said it was pure Greed.

    The Veterans Affairs Department health care scandal has deepened in recent days, with new revelations of incompetent management and misplaced spending priorities, including millions of dollars paid out in bonuses at the very hospitals where services were the worst.

    • One in five employees at the Phoenix VA received bonuses in 2013, with some receiving extra pay of $5,000 or more. The total bonus payouts were $337,885.

    http://news.investors.com/ibd-.....nuses-.htm

  7. 7

    And petty Greed too.

    It had been previously reported that Helman received more than $9,000 in bonus pay in 2013 on top of her annual salary of $169,900. The VA office of inspector general began investigating the Phoenix VA for wrongdoing in December 2013, months before Helman received the additional $8,500 bonus.

    http://www.weeklystandard.com/.....93434.html

  8. 8

    GOP lawmaker says bonus money drove VA healthcare scandal

    Rep. Ted Poe (R-Texas) said Wednesday that basic greed drove Department of Veterans Affairs officials to lie about long wait times at VA health clinics, since telling these lies meant huge cash bonuses for these officials.

    http://www.theblaze.com/blog/2.....e-scandal/

    Heck, it’s even obvious to republicans.

  9. 9

    “Greed is Good”! Everyone knows that. If you take away the greed factor, all you have left is socialism and income equality. If people are not allowed to be greedy, we should go Galt and leave!

  10. 10

    @ 6-8

    Again, not enough money to cause widespread fraud on this level, I don’t think.

    And as far as those piling on, like I said above, that’s what the politics say should happen.

  11. 11

    Steve Ballmer Buys L.A. Clippers For $2 Billion

    This is a big day for news, and I’ve been out of the loop since Tuesday, because I spent all day yesterday in an ER after my chronic bronchial infection and asthma spun out of control. I have a pretty good idea of what waterboarding must be like.

    First, Microsoft ex-CEO Steve Ballmer won a bidding war against groups led by Hollywood mogul David Geffen and a group of L.A. investors by ponying up $2 billion for a basketball team that most observers appraised at $500 to $750 million. Looks like basketball is returning to Seattle.

  12. 12

    Second, as you know by now if you get news from HA, business interests won a victory today by getting a city council committee to approve amendments that exempt nearly everyone from the $15 minimum wage that will be gradually phased in over the next millenium or two. The 15Now campaign apparently is going ahead with signature gathering on a charter amendment that would enact a real increase in minimum wages.

  13. 13

    Third, broadcast journalist Ken Schram of KOMO-4 TV’s “Schrammie Awards” fame died today at age 66. That’s younger than me! Scary.

  14. 14

    Third, broadcast journalist Ken Schram of KOMO-4 TV’s “Schrammie Awards” fame died today at age 66. That’s younger than me! Scary.

  15. 15

    Despite all the pissing and moaning by small-ball entrepreneurs about what a $15 wage will do to them, unproductive Capitalists continue to get paid as usual. I made $2,252 in the stock market today while perched in the outhouse with my head over the hole coughing up and spitting out what’s left of my battered guts. Based on an 8-hour work day, although it’s been well over a decade since I did 10 minutes let alone 8 hours of work, that works out to $281.50 an hour for doing absolutely nothing. I think maybe you can understand that we Capitalists are slightly bemused spectators of the blood sport some people are making over table scraps like $15 an hour. Work ethic? You gotta be kidding. In this country, you don’t get paid for working, for God’s sake. You get paid for owning. Workers get whatever’s left after the owners (i.e., Capitalists) eat their fill. All the fat people (and fat cats, and fat rabbits) in this country are Capitalists. When was the last time you saw a worker driving a Bentley or gorging on filet mignon? When are the rest of you going to realize that work is something you do for free, or nearly free, so us Capitalists don’t have to work.

  16. 16

    In other news, traffic backed up for 10 miles on I-5 south of downtown this morning after a chain dangling from a truck damaged a freeway expansion joint. I sure am glad I don’t have to commute through traffic like that for a job paying $9.35 an hour. Hell, I wouldn’t even do it for $15 an hour! Why should I when, by being a Capitalist instead of a Worker, I can make $281.50 an hour for not working?

  17. 17

    Yet another business is paying a fine for dishonest behavior.

    http://abcnews.go.com/Business.....s-23915228

    Roger Rabbit Commentary: Anybody wanna guess why, when business says it can’t afford a $15 minimum wage, nobody believes them? Could it be because nobody can remember when business people were truthful about anything?

  18. 18

    It’s the bagger House’s job to “go big”…

    WASHINGTON — The House Ways and Means Committee pushed ahead a set of tax breaks Thursday that would add another $304 billion to the deficit over 10 years, on top of $310 billion in loopholes it voted for last month.

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.....12865.html

    So the Senate brings this whackadoodle a bit more down to earth.. Krapheads still get a lot of what they asked for.

    How “fiscally responsible”..

  19. 19

    And I as reported earlier, It’ll be our turn soon enough:

    WASHINGTON (AP) — Species of plants and animals are becoming extinct at least 1,000 times faster than they did before humans arrived on the scene, and the world is on the brink of a sixth great extinction, a new study says.

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.....12571.html

    Ho hum.. Nice knowing you all.

  20. 20

    @5 “I suspect they had to/wanted to make their numbers, they didn’t have the resources to do so, and so they falsified. Coincidentally, they were evaluated for merit enhancements to their income on the basis of their ability to meet or exceed expectations.”

    Nice way to rationalize away a half-century of Republican garbage-can-lid-banging for employee evaluations and merit pay. What this scandal really does is decisively blow away another Republican meme. Others that have already fallen: Contracting out to the private sector saves taxpayers money; private enterprise is more efficient than government; businessmen are the best qualified people to run governments.

  21. 21

    Roger Rabbit Quiz

    This question is especially aimed at all of you trolls who think paying workers at least $15 an hour means the end of the world as we know it:

    How many $15-an-hour workers own NBA teams?

  22. 22

    Roger, we appreciate you paying attention to the news after you revive from your intestinal problems, but please don’t tell us in such detail what they were. Ick.

  23. 23

    Heck, it’s even obvious to republicans.

    Hey blockhead… your team been running the show since 2009. Obummer knew about it from transition team in 2008. Complained about it in 2007. Didn’t really care until it became a political liability today! The problem is DUMMOCRETINS didn’t think it was obvious…

    and http://youtu.be/Id7fE4_jInQ – Regarding this DUMMOCRETIN idiot… When you win your erection by this big of a margin… it proves two things

    1) You can say the most idiotic things because…
    2) Your district is full of low information voters.

    Too bad facts CONTINUE to elude worser!

  24. 24

    Ho hum.. Nice knowing you all.

    The clueless crazed cretin going extinct?

    Party at Puddy’s house!

  26. 26

    Meanwhile in real news…
    and of course libtards screamed for this religion of piece member’s release. Good to see someone actually cared!

  27. 27

    add another $304 billion to the deficit over 10 years, on top of $310 billion in loopholes it voted for last month.

    Chickenfeed to Obummer’s debt load and counting… In 5.3 yrs under Obummer it has increased: $6,863,170,573,665+

    cha-ching…

  28. 28

    Person playing Puddybud @ 25,

    “If Benghazi is such “old news” why are DUMMOCRETINS meeting in semi-secrecy to “plot Hillary’s Benghazi strategy”?”

    Ummm…you might consider reading your own fucking link, dumbass…

    “They see an opportunity to wrest control of a narrative that some allies fear could be damaging to Clinton if she moves ahead with a 2016 presidential campaign.”

    Translation: We see an opportunity to mock Republicans over their unnatural obsession with Benghazi along with their bizarre amnesia about the killing of over 4,000 U.S. soldiers in a hunt for non-existent WMDs.

  29. 29

    Person playing puddybud @ 26,

    What’s with the messy raw link in your comment? Have you forgotten how to add a simple html hyperlink tag to your links?

    Let me know if you need some remedial HTML training….

  30. 30

    To Da Perfessa playing as “host”.

    Naaah too lazy for the links. Following Roger’s lead…

    Regarding this

    “They see an opportunity to wrest control of a narrative that some allies fear could be damaging to Clinton if she moves ahead with a 2016 presidential campaign.”

    First… Glad to see you read Puddylinks
    Second… She lost the narrative with her “What difference does it” make scream to Congress! Seems it didn’t make any difference to her that she left Ambassador Chris Stevens and the others without adequate protection.
    Third…Four dead people under her watch when the Ambassador asked for additional protection and she rejected it
    Fourth… Rand Paul destroyed her in the 2013 testimony why she left them there when everyone else left Libya
    Fifth… As more information continues to come out through court orders we see the whitey house was the originator of the fake video narrative, not the CIA as the whitey house lied and tried to get others to swallow
    Sixth… Now we see DUMMOCRETINS circling the wagons narrative… If it doesn’t matter why do they need to meet in secret? Why all the subterfuge over something that doesn’t matter. Why are they worried unless IT DOES MATTER and something is well known about to come out with the FOIA judgments?

    See ya! Europe is fun fun fun

  32. 32

    Chickenfeed

    Notice that the salt mining fiend is tacitly admitting the fiscal irresponsibility of the baggers and isn’t covering the bagger House’s ass by claiming these tax cuts will “create jobs”..

    Heh. Not buying the bagger bullshit. How progressive of him..

  33. 33

    My my my… the crazed clueless cretin
    or is it the clueless crazed cretin
    or maybe cretin, clueless, crazed,

    Anyway… Another place you can only wish.. Ummm no, was sent here for a great job… Finished early. Made new friends… saw some sights… sux to be you.

    Vacay’ed her in 2011 with Mrs Puddy… stopped by saw the Queens Jewels among the many sights at so many sites; fortunately nothing you can cite… and they were not attached to Prince Philip either… still sux to be you!

    Now onto the chickenfeed… Somehow facts are lost on your neanderthal shaped granite cranial orifice. Didn’t Joe BiteME tell everyone how many jobs they were going to create with the “new Obummer” economy… Yes that cranial orifice forgot that among many facts you tend not to accept…

    “Some time in the next couple of months we’re going to be creating between 250,000 jobs a month and 500,000 jobs a month,” – Joe BiteMe

    Hey clueless crazed cretin… Puddy already used this line many times. Check the crazed databaze. Find the date and time BiteMe said it! You can figger out when you lost your leetle picometer sized mind for the 634,468,239,868,934,543,123rd time on HA DUMMOCRETINS. Remember jobs is a three letter word – Joe BiteMe!

    And there have been many job bills from the house killed by Harry Reid. Of course that fact is lost for the 634,468,239,868,934,543,124th time.

    Sux to be the crazed clueless cretin of HA DUMMOCRETINS!

  34. 34

    @23 “Hey blockhead… your team been running the show since 2009.”

    Really? Who are the guys driving the gravel truck in front of us?

  35. 35

    @27 “Chickenfeed to Obummer’s debt load and counting…”

    Yeah, what’s a measly $614 billion of additional deficit spending, compared to what it has cost to clean up the last mess you guys made?

  36. 36

    @31 Why should Puddy work? I don’t. Nobody should work. It doesn’t pay anything.

  37. 37

    Yeah, what’s a measly $614 billion of additional deficit spending, compared to what it has cost to clean up the last mess you guys made?

    Roger IDIOT Wabbit… That’s not even one-tenth the already realized debt as an estimate over 10 years. Something else lost on you and the cleueless crazed cretin.. And since the ‘recession’ officially ended June 2009, the rest is just profligate Obummer spending!

    Sux to be as stooooooopid as the crased clueless cretin!

  38. 38

    Person Playing Puddybud,
    “Naaah too lazy for the links. Following Roger’s lead…”

    Oh…okay. Well, since it is just laziness on your part, I hope you don’t mind if I delete any lazy links that spill over the edge of the frame.

    The Rabbit isn’t an IT pro, so I am likely to be more lenient. Laziness…nope.

  39. 39

    Person Playing Puddybud,

    “First… Glad to see you read Puddylinks”

    Someone had to, as you obviously didn’t!

  40. 40

    The Sudanese Christian woman gave birth to a little girl chained to her bed… Will Da Perfessa actually write something useful in the Friday Night Comix about this travesty or will it be more useless DUMMOCRETIN swill?

    Puddy noticed nothing from HA DUMMOCRETINS over this disgusting religion of peace display!

  41. 41

    Meanwhile the Bilderberg conference is starting and some of the biggest in US DUMMOCRETIN political thinkers and donors are atttending… Will Da perfessa display their names

  42. 42

    To Da Perfessa…

    Knock yourself out since you hate the truth about DUMMOCRETINS provided by the Puddylinks. Y’all took out the embedding code so… You run da show so hey it’s your choice.

  44. 44

    @43 This website isn’t big enough to list all your whoppers. It would burn out the host server.

  45. 45

    Will Da Perfessa write about the failure of Obummer/Shinseki on the VA? Since Obummer knew about this since 2007 and the Obummer presidential transition team told Obummer about this in 2008, no excuses. Yet DUMMOCRETINS still trying to provide cover. The politics got to bad for Obummer! Ed Morrissey destroyes Mother Jones.

  47. 47

    With Steve Ballmer buying the Clippers seems MSFT Clippy will finally have a home. Will that be the new official uniform symbol?

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