Wednesday Open Thread [12.12.12]

Filed in Open Thread by on December 12, 2012

Lest no one say that I do not give credit where credit is due: Kudos to Commissioner Karen Weldin Stewart for doing her job in fining State Farm Insurance for shafting its insureds. Granted, 150K is a mere pittance to these multi billion dollar monsters who are awash in cash but still immorally deny coverage, but still. If there is one area where I am a socialist, it is on the issue of insurance. Private Insurance is nothing for than a fraudulent scam, and the entire industry should be nationalized.

All 22 Delaware Republicans in the General Assembly have written to the Delaware Compensation Commission and demanded that they not be given a pay raise. It’s the first fiscally responsible thing they have done in a few centuries.

Andrew Reding at the Los Angeles Times has a take on the unconstitutionallity of the filibuster that I had not considered before:

The Senate filibuster as presently constituted is arguably unconstitutional. It effectively negates the only constitutional authority of the vice president, other than succeeding the president: breaking tie votes as president of the Senate. With a de facto requirement of a 60% supermajority to pass a bill, there are no “equally divided” votes to break.

State constitutions also limited supermajorities to constitutional amendments or overriding gubernatorial vetoes. But they have been circumvented by powers not in the federal Constitution: initiatives and referendums.

Jonathan Bernstein on the lack of any Republcian “Big Ideas:”

“I think a large part of it is that there’s very little incentive from conservative audiences or conservative voters for policy; what gets them excited (and reaching for their wallets, in many cases) is partisan rhetoric, not policy. For the last several years, the way to get a big reaction in conservative circles is to make a teleprompter or a birther joke, not to bring up unsolved problems in the nation. Just as Swift boats and flip-flop jokes were all the rage before that, and Whitewater, Travelgate and the rest of the nonsense they threw at Bill Clinton was popular in the 1990s.”

“Of course, attack politics is always popular with partisans; Democrats certainly had their share of fun with Mitt Romney’s 47 percent, and earlier generations of Republicans enjoyed attacking Walter Mondale or Jimmy Carter (and certainly enjoyed attacking Ted Kennedy). But Republicans then (like Democrats now) also attempted to find real solutions to real problems.”

So the Dems are the ones serious about governing, and the Republicans are the petulant unserious children getting in the way? Sounds about right.

“I don’t know what she’s going to do, but I do know this: The Democrats want her to run. And I don’t just mean a lot of Democrats. I mean a whole lot of Democrats, like 90 percent across the country. We just want to win. We think she’s the best person and shut it down. And that’s across the board.” — James Carville, on This Week on Sunday, on Hillary Clinton’s presidential prospects in 2016.

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  1. Jason330 says:

    “Private Insurance is nothing more than a fraudulent scam, and the entire industry should be nationalized.”

    So true. Private, for profit, insurance should be outlawed because the business model is based on ripping people off. There are some mutual insurance companies that are okay because these are owned entirely by their policyholders.

  2. mathcheck says:

    We should nationalize everything and be done with it. After all, things worked out so well for the Soviet Union when government ran everything. Oh wait, it failed.

    Doesn’t anybody think that what State Farm did — cancel some 509 policies out of some 127,000 policies — might make some sense? These are all properties that were located close to the shoreline. Didn’t anybody see the news on Sandy? Why is State Farm required to provide insurance if the risk exceeds the monies being collected? Why should other policy holders have to subsidize folks with big houses within 1000′ of the ocean?

    Don’t forget, the Commissioner specifically found no unfair discrimination. Let me say that again — NO unfair discrimination.

    The so-called “problem” was failure to provide cancellation notices about the cancellation??? And in addition to paying a fine (for failure to give proper notice to 509 property owners who have properties within 1000′ feet of the ocean, my heart bleeds for them), now State Farm can’t cancel other policies for 3 years?????? Hello, how does that make sense?

    If insurance was as lucrative as everyone here seems to think, there’d be a lot more insurance companies rushing to fill the void. Most insurance agents and adjusters are regular people, doing their job and providing a service. When my parents had damage from a hurricane, the adjuster showed up in a relatively timely manner and the claim was paid, less the deductible. When my car was hit by an uninsured motorist, my damage was covered less the deductible.

  3. metoo says:

    KWS has fined companies relatively paltry amounts before, just for appearances, and no one talked about it. All of a sudden it’s worth kudos? I guess in her case doing her job is so unusual that when she does do it, it’s worth mentioning. She seems to have taken on this odd semblance of legitimacy since McDowell got her back in office for an undeserved second term.

  4. metoo says:

    @mathcheck:

    Maybe State Farm somehow pissed off KWS like Indemnity did? Maybe that’s why she fined State Farm for a minor transgression? And maybe State Farm will sue her for “unfair trade practices” like Indemnity did (in Baltimore federal court)? We can only hope. Indemnity’s suit against her and Steve Kinion was filed just before the primary and sealed at her request for obvious reasons, but that doesn’t mean the industry doesn’t know what it’s about.

  5. metoo says:

    Funny how this thread stopped cold after my posts. Where are you all on this? Especially the author, Del Dem. Is it too tough to face the truth? Oh wait…gotta protect those fellow Democrats no matter how incompetent and corrupt they are. If KWS were a Republican, you’d have ripped her to shreds years ago.

  6. JConnor says:

    Me3 you and DD deserve each other, differant forms of idiots. Honey, its almost the first day of winter you really need to crawl back in your hole:)

  7. Jason330 says:

    Please. (That’s my response to your 2:32)

    re 7:53 – Being sued must be part of the territory. Although I don’t recall Denn being sued.

  8. metoo says:

    @ Jason330: Being sued is NOT part of the territory because no other IC has ever pulled the kind of shit KWS has and gotten away with it because her political connections saved her sorry ass.

  9. metoo says:

    @JP: You’re KWS’s tool and everyone knows it, so STFU.

  10. Jconnor says:

    Hop in that hole quick sweetums the guys with the nets are closing in on ya babe. Cya in 2016;)

  11. metoo says:

    That’s right JP. Attack the source because you and your pathetic boss don’t have a leg to stand on when it comes to the facts. Story of your lives.

  12. JConnor says:

    you are the source of world class crazy….I hold no public position and never have….. your rubber romm awaits dearie:)