MaxRedline

Once In, No Escape

Disney World, Orlando, Florida 

It seems that there's yet another little problem with Obamacare: people who signed up through an Exchange and later find a better deal on the direct market are finding it impossible to cancel their insurance plans. One man in Orlando enrolled, but shortly thereafter, he and his wife realized that they'd barely be able to afford the premiums, so they looked on the direct market and found a plan for less than half the cost. 

"I immediately called back the Florida Blue and asked them to cancel the policy I just set up," says Robinson.

"But he quickly learned canceling Obamacare is no easy task. ... More than six weeks later after spending 50 to 60 hours on the phone his policy is still not canceled and he is still waiting for the payment Florida Blue withdrew from his account to be refunded."

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What About Barky's Line?

Lurch  

It looks as though Pooty-Poot may not have heeded the warnings of our Dear Leader and his sidekick, Lurch. Russia has confirmed that they've moved troops into the Crimean Peninsula.

Who'd ever have thunk it? Oh, right - one person did: Sarah Palin.

What an idiot!

The U.N. "Security Council" is going to meet to discuss the Ukraine situation. That should accomplish a lot, since Russia has veto power.

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Water, Water Everywhere

Portland's $100 million underground water tanks on Powell Butte is supposed to hold 50 million gallons of water. Unfortunately, they can't; they leak. A lot. And so the Portland Water Bureau is doing their level best to hush things up in order to minimize any further public-relations issues.

“It appears our reservoir leaking is increasing. We are at roughly 200,000 gallons per 24-hour day in the east and 80,000 gallons per day in the west,” project manager Jim Hall wrote in one email.

Hall agreed to speak with KOIN 6 News — until he spoke with the Portland Water Bureau.

PWB put the kibosh on that sort of nonsense. It's just the latest in a series of abuses by the City Hall-run Bureau, which is why there's a ballot measure coming up to wrest control away from the  politicians there and place it under the purview of an independent, seven-person board. Naturally, the public-employee unions absolutely hate the idea.

Organized labor has a financial interest in preserving the status quo at the City of Portland's Water Bureau and we now see the first evidence of that—AFSCME Local 189 contributed $10,000 to the Stop the Bull Run Takeover PAC yesterday.

Longshoremen Paid For Not Working - $1 Million

Portland and Vancouver longshoremen (ILWU) have collected a million dollars from the west coast employer fund for standing around holding signs. They were locked out of two area grain terminals after contract negotiations stalled - in other words, the ILWU crybabies didn't get every little thing they wanted; that's why these things are called "negotiations", and they apparently didn't want to negotiate.

That’s about half the amounts paid for not working along the entire West Coast since the fiscal year began.

In the Vancouver standoff, the ILWU thugs vandalized equipment, including cutting hydraulic lines of freight cars, prompting considerable police activity, while on the Portland side, the thugs tried blocking ships. That effort also prompted police and Coast Guard activity.

Both terminals are now working without ILWU "assistance"; relying on others who are willing to endure the hazing in order to do the jobs that the ILWU "brothers" elected not to do.

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ILWU's NORTHWEST GRAIN CONFLICT- Business Unionism or Fighting Class Struggle Unionism

Retread Rides Again!

Skyline of Clatskanie, Oregon 

It's apparent that campaign season's just around the corner; Oregon's supposed "governor" has ordered a "top to bottom review of Oregon oil train safety" according to The Zero, and of course another Portland Democratic is sponsoring legislation on the subject. There's just one teensy little problem:

Oregon can't mandate the type of railcar.
It (via ODOT) could increase the number of hazmat safety inspectors looking at oil trains. (They currently have just one who looked at 8 of the 110 oil trains that went to the terminal near Clatskanie last year.)

Oregon can't ban oil trains.
It could pay inspectors what they make doing the same job for the Federal Railroad Administration (and promptly hire replacements when those inspectors retire).

Oregon could require:
* Railroads to tell emergency responders and the public what and where they're hauling oil and other hazmat.
* Railroads to plan for worst-case oil spills and mandate disclosure of emergency response equipment to state oil spill officials.
* Railroads to provide mandatory training for emergency responders (not just voluntarily).
* The same level of advance disclosure from railroads moving oil as is required of ships.
* ODOT could analyze records that railroads are supposed to file saying what they've hauled in the state and where and share that information with oil spill officials at DEQ.

So, although there are a few steps that the state can take - albeit at considerable expense to taxpayers, given the costs associated with hiring additional state employees with their Cadillac healthcare plans and other benefits - which might to some small degree provide extra margins of safety (although it should be noted that of the 110 oil trains that went to Clatskanie, not one spill or other accident occurred). 

But apart from those tiny steps, the Democratics are simply grandstanding' showing their base that "they care".

A Raised Middle Finger Means "Change The Channel"

A team at University of Washington has built a small device that correctly interprets hand gestures 90% of the time, so it can be used to control your television or other devices - and it's powered by the energy fields around us.

There’s energy all around us in the form of TV, radio and WiFi signals. Develop a device that doesn’t need much power, and you can harvest enough power from thin air to cut out the need for a battery entirely.

Better yet, it cost them about a dollar to build.

Sadly, Nothing Serious

Apparently, Holder's racism and rage temporarily got the better of him, and he was briefly hospitalized for "faintness and shortness of breath". Unfortunately, it wasn't the hoped-for heart attack, and they cut him loose to rest at home.

Longshoremen "Work" Costs Economy

Longshore worker hard at it

Oregon gov. Retread has leapt astride his trusty steed and ridden into the fray at Port of Portland's Terminal 6, where the ILWU crybabies have been engaged in a "work" slowdown for over a year. It's costing trucking companies and their customers, but the whiners don't care about them. Trucks may wait as long as seven hours waiting to be loaded, meaning that the companies are losing a lot of driving time. Many are refusing to stop at 6 any longer, while those who continue to call there are tacking on surcharges to help defray the costs of paying drivers to twiddle their thumbs.

As the Oregonian reports, Kitzhaber asked the Port on Wednesday to review the status of equipment at T6. The Longshore workers union claims T6 operator ICTSI Oregon is not maintaining the equipment. ICTSI claims union workers are "sidelining" good equipment.

But Retread's going to get to the bottom of this mess! This whole dispute is really harshing the state's "happiness index", after all.

There's really only one answer to it, though, and that's to eliminate every one of the ILWU jobs and start over, with people who are willing to work. The thugs have been doing slowdowns (when not vandalizing equipment) for so long that it's become a way of life for them; they really can't imagine doing anything else.

 

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Jealousy In Portland

Dubai, like a lot of places, is experiencing some traffic congestion issues. Portland-area politicians only wish they could pull off a solution currently under consideration in the emirate: banning poor people from owning cars.

According to emirates-focused newspaper The National, "a salary limit scheme that would restrict car ownership to those earning above a certain monthly income" is among the options on the table.

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Boeing Makes Planes - And Android Phones?

Barbara Bain and Alf Kjellin from  Mission: Impossible. 

It seems that they've come up with a phone for a few very select users; it self-destructs if anyone tries to mess with it. Kind of a high-tech "Mission Impossible" device. Wonder what else they're into?

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