Could this be why Hillary didn't concede

[KD in CA]

What about Swiftboat? they aired that in what, July 2004 and kept hammering Kerry months after, dooming his election. Plus, it remains to be seen if the 527s or the conservative media lets go of Wright, Ayers, and all that. I just don't see them waiting if they have such a thing.

 

Despite the incessant whining about 'Swiftboating' from all the left wing pansies, that played a very minor role in why Kerry lost. A bigger factor was mistakenly assuming that vets would vote for a prissy elitist just because he spent six months in Nam.

[Alaska Darin]

Despite the incessant whining about 'Swiftboating' from all the left wing pansies, that played a very minor role in why Kerry lost. A bigger factor was mistakenly assuming that vets would vote for a prissy elitist just because he spent six months in Nam.

And then pissed all over them from the time he got back until he won the party's nomination.

 

Care to guess how many Veteran-related bills Senator Ketchup sponsored or co-sponsored during his first 19 years in the Senate?

 

Democrats just can't admit that they screwed up with their last 2 choices. Obama could very well make it 3-for-3, though the Republicans are doing their level best to nominate a really weak candidate as well.

[In-A-Gadda-Levitre]

And then pissed all over them from the time he got back until he won the party's nomination.

 

Care to guess how many Veteran-related bills Senator Ketchup sponsored or co-sponsored during his first 19 years in the Senate?

 

Democrats just can't admit that they screwed up with their last 2 choices. Obama could very well make it 3-for-3, though the Republicans are doing their level best to nominate a really weak candidate as well.

I'll admit that in a flash, the dems haven't fielded a serious candidate since Bill Clinton and he sure earned his name as the teflon kid. I never thought Gore could win either.

 

what's your take on the latest Veteran's Bill?

[Alaska Darin]

what's your take on the latest Veteran's Bill?

I don't really have one - I haven't read it.

[ConradDobler]

Or maybe she's just as arrogant, self-centered, and venal as many of us New Yorkers think she is....

 

May she and Billy-guy just go away and torment each other over what might have been....

 

 

Mark my words, the Clintons are not yet finished. If Hil doesn't get her foot in the door somehow with Obama's run this year, she will run for NYS Governor in 2010. Then we will have the additional insult of Chelsea running for Mom's senate seat.

 

In NYS they both will be shoo-ins.

 

WTF did we ever do to deserve these people?

[Wacka]

Kept voting for democrats like sheeple.

[OCinBuffalo]

Kept voting for democrats like sheeple.

Great signature line. I spent about 30 minutes tonight listening to the "enlightened" talk about health care. Normally I would toss a Hysterical. out, but it was so far and away stupid that it really isn't funny. I can honestly say that I haven't heard people spend so much effort on completely missing the point since my .com days. It staggers my imagination how not only could they not know any of the real, factual concerns at hand, but that they could draw such terrible conclusions based on those phony facts that they believe they "know". Of course I asked my standard two questions that blow this BS up every time, and of course there were no answers, just deer caught in headlights, as usual. I left laughing, and one of them chased me down asking me to stay and explain, but honestly, what's the point?

 

So much for their absolute certainty based on their pretend intellectual superiority. If they spent any time on the finding the truth, rather than repeating their ideological mantras, they might actually learn something. And then they might actually be worthy of the term "intellectual". Pathetic at best.

[pBills]

So much for their absolute certainty based on their pretend intellectual superiority. If they spent any time on the finding the truth, rather than repeating their ideological mantras, they might actually learn something. And then they might actually be worthy of the term "intellectual". Pathetic at best.

 

 

So enlighten all of us with the truth that you have found.

[OCinBuffalo]

So enlighten all of us with the truth that you have found.

Don't worry, I am working on a 3 pager(as small as I can make it) that details what is actually wrong with health care and how to fix it. I was recently asked to join a few industry groups directly due to the work, not talk, we do every day, and I figured I'd start off with that. Suffice it to say that I am a little intimidated because I have no idea if I will be laughed out of the room, and I like the immediate yes/no answer I get from clients rather than the "it's all a matter of perspective"(read: I have no idea what you are saying) arguments I normally encounter at these type of trade show "discussions".

 

However, I have seen the looks on our clients' faces when we deliver our goods, so at least I know we are doing something right. We are doing things nobody else is doing, in any industry, never mind health care, and that's not marketing speak, that's at the code/data model level.

 

So perhaps when it's ready I will link it for you. If you have been reading any of my posts, I allude to some of the difference between what is actually wrong and what is being portrayed as wrong, and I'm too lazy to write that all over again.

[DC Tom]

Don't worry, I am working on a 3 pager(as small as I can make it) that details what is actually wrong with health care and how to fix it.

 

You're wrong. But I look forward to reading it and explaining why to you.

[OCinBuffalo]

You're wrong. But I look forward to reading it and explaining why to you.

We'll see. I'd love to know what your qualifications are to make such judgments, because mine are apparently good enough to be invited to write the damn thing in the first place.

 

Please don't misunderstand me, nobody is bigger than the game, so who knows? Perhaps you can challenge my thinking after all. That's the kind of help I need anyway, because I'm not finding any better thinking that what I have already. I sure as hell haven't learned anything new from all the conference calls for the last year = all this extra time to post here and elsewhere. I think I have learned more on what to expect and what will work in terms of people's perceptions here than anywhere else. I would even include Molson in that, because nothing says "idiot proof" like being prepared for him....or "bullet proof" like being prepared for the rest of you.

[justnzane]

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/06/07/cli...nity/index.html

 

Hillary finally concedes. Now she can go back to her job of gagging on Bill

[/dev/null]

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/06/07/cli...nity/index.html

 

Hillary finally concedes. Now she can go back to her job of gagging on Bill

 

I've been flipping thru the channels and CNN has been covering the "event". Split screen showing the talking heads, a crowd shot....and Hillary's parked SUV

[DC Tom]

We'll see. I'd love to know what your qualifications are to make such judgments, because mine are apparently good enough to be invited to write the damn thing in the first place.

 

Please don't misunderstand me, nobody is bigger than the game, so who knows? Perhaps you can challenge my thinking after all. That's the kind of help I need anyway, because I'm not finding any better thinking that what I have already. I sure as hell haven't learned anything new from all the conference calls for the last year = all this extra time to post here and elsewhere. I think I have learned more on what to expect and what will work in terms of people's perceptions here than anywhere else. I would even include Molson in that, because nothing says "idiot proof" like being prepared for him....or "bullet proof" like being prepared for the rest of you.

 

I've actually helped write a couple of lectures on the topic. Part of my "read a hell of a lot, observe things around me, and apply common sense" mentality...but I'm also routinely surprised at how often people not only never challenge their basic assumptions but don't even realize they're making assumptions. From what I've seen, that's particularly true in American medicine, where statements handed down from the AMA get treated as holy writ with NO ONE questioning the basic assumption behind everything the AMA does: that health care is strictly individual (and the unspoken corrolary that follows from it: that public health care is a totality of individual health care).

 

Has me wondering right now: do you know the assumptions you're making in your own paper? I know you're making some; at three pages, you can't avoid it. And from reading your posts here, I'm pretty sure you rarely identify or challenge your assumptions, as well.

[blzrul]

Has me wondering right now: do you know the assumptions you're making in your own paper? I know you're making some; at three pages, you can't avoid it. And from reading your posts here, I'm pretty sure you rarely identify or challenge your assumptions, as well.

He's writing the Readers' Digest version. That's about all Americans can handle these days. If it's longer than My Pet Goat, it's just got too many words....

[Bill from NYC]

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iQRxkYT...kGtScAD913GE7O0

 

Maybe she's still holding out for something like this to give the Super Delegates second thoughts

 

What about this?

[OCinBuffalo]

I've actually helped write a couple of lectures on the topic. Part of my "read a hell of a lot, observe things around me, and apply common sense" mentality...but I'm also routinely surprised at how often people not only never challenge their basic assumptions but don't even realize they're making assumptions. From what I've seen, that's particularly true in American medicine, where statements handed down from the AMA get treated as holy writ with NO ONE questioning the basic assumption behind everything the AMA does: that health care is strictly individual (and the unspoken corrolary that follows from it: that public health care is a totality of individual health care).

I been away for a while working on this very topic.

 

I see we are on the same page, just coming at it from different angles. There is absolutely no doubt that there are boatload of faulty assumptions that are made in health care every day, especially by people whose main concern is their personal/political agenda. The difference between "most people"(as if there is such a thing , but I don't want to spend 3 paras on classification) and me is this: while their interest is geared towards solving their little piece of the puzzle first or maintaining their piece of turf, my interest lies in making the whole thing better. Yes, I have a vested personal, intellectual, and financial interest in this, like everybody else, but mine is defined differently.

 

My scope, and my profession, means that I have to make everybody happy and make them think, as well as feel, and therefore know, that they have gotten a much better deal than they had before we showed up. Everybody means everybody. And yes, I am aware of the danger of trying to make everybody happy. But, we are doing it. And, like I said, it appears to be working. Fundamentally we provide fact in place of assumption, it's as simple as that.

 

It's funny because as I write this, a Brown Chiari commercial just came on, again. They have been running "get nursing home" adds here incessantly. Their new one says "when you hold people accountable you get change". They have it backasswards, no surprise for lawyers. It's not them holding "people" accountable that makes real change. All that does is change the scenery/actors, not the plot. Real change comes from an organization holding itself accountable. But, there's no way to do that unless you create a culture where the organization can see the value in and therefore choose to hold itself accountable, and, where it is "safe" to do so.

 

The government sending in surveyors, who get paid by the amount of problems they find real or pretend, contradicts that, and creates an "unsafe" environment for process improvement. As you say, the government ignoring things they should look at individually, and doing the opposite on things that can easily be standardized, is a real problem.

 

The main problem is: we are all concerned about cost. I guarantee you that you will never resolve cost issues using financial allocation thinking = 1 palate of milk/# of people = # of cartons of milk per person. We need real activity based costing instead, that's what works, that's what we do, and the results speak for themselves. ABC allows for 0 assumption, BTW, by definition, as it reveals the real truth about what it actually costs to take care of each patient. It can be done, despite those who say otherwise. If it wasn't possible then how is it that we are doing it? That's an assumption for ya, why don't we start breaking that one?

 

Has me wondering right now: do you know the assumptions you're making in your own paper? I know you're making some; at three pages, you can't avoid it. And from reading your posts here, I'm pretty sure you rarely identify or challenge your assumptions, as well.

This is the funny part to me: you don't know how I got here and the fact that I have suffered significantly for NOT allowing assumptions makes me laugh at the irony. You don't know how I came to be "saddled" with health care as the first industry to deploy the architecture I have been thinking about/working on for the last 10 years. It's hysterical that you think I would make assumptions, rather than do my job properly, as I was trained, by the best there are. I have suffered greatly for it because I won't accept assumption or anything based on an opinion.

 

Perhaps one of the most important outcomes of what we do is to provide real information/business intellegince to EVERYONE in the organization, not just the Exec suite. That is a story for another time, but please understand that most of this started with solving a problem for a family member, rather than a good business plan, and I have taken a beating for not allowing any assumptions from anybody to exist anywhere near our stack, our company, or our projects. I kinda backed my way into this but once it got real, I started this thing based on doing my job right, no exceptions, for once. No idiot CEO/CIOs, no idiot ex-meat salesman, single programming book reading, VPs of Consulting, no trust fund babies, turned VCs, calling and asking why the client (um, Boeing) is so worried about their AR/AP charges and why can't we just get them to "deemphasize" them.

 

To wit, once it became clear that Health Care was where we had to start, per your rules:

1. I started by reading, everything I could get my hands on that was said to have any value regarding the industry.

2. As I was trained, first by my retired Anderson Consulting partner college professor and every firm since, I observed multiple health care organizations for a year straight before I allowed any kind of conclusion enter my mind. That's right, I gave up multiple Saturdays and many weekdays(I was a field project manager and my schedule has belonged to me only since 99), at all hours, observing health care activity right in front of me. Often times the people working there would forget I was even there. I had enough notebooks filled out to fill my spare room. I even took a turn at candy striping for a hospital in Philly. No, I didn't get to wear the dress. Interestingly: Obama shadowed a health care worker for a day. Who do you think did a better job of "observing"?

 

This is where I get my conclusions, not assumptions, like this one, right out of my notebook:

"The cook runs this nursing home because everything, care, meds, activities, therapy, centers around when food is delivered. If it is early or late, or if the resident is delivered to the proscribed eating area late/early, wherever that is, the entire schedule of planned work is now in question. This may continue into subsequent shifts and will therefore cause multiple unplanned work processes to be started that interfere with not only that resident's schedule but other's as well. As such, it's no small wonder that tension between the kitchen staff and the rest of the facility has reached the high level it has. It also is clear that this is the reason residents are made to get ready for meals as far as an hour in advance, and then placed as fighters on a aircraft carrier, waiting in the hallway for as much as 45 minutes. The chef's decision on when/where/how to serve food has absolute power over the rest of the staff. Clearly this is not in the best interest of the organization or it's customers, and is not fixable by any current software and/or improved efficiency on a fundamentally bad set of business processes."

 

See, no assumption there, just sitting there trying to figure out why people are lined up in a hallway for 30-45 minutes staring at the wall, and thinking that "if it was me, I'd be a behavioral problem, why should that change if I was older, if anything I would be worse." I checked, and the people who were made to sit the longest were the most likely to act out. What a shocker.

 

One the things our solutions provide is to identify situations like this, by identifying patterns like sit in hallway = not eat, get pissed, act out, and allowing the organization to fix this problem through removing dependencies thus minimizing unplanned work, as it sees fit, NOT as I see fit. Again, no assumptions are allowed in our efforts, except things like "people have a name" or "people do tasks for other people".

3. Finally, I was already working on a "common sense" platform. Frankly I was tired of arguing with sales people. They aren't going to change, this is common sense. I don't blame them, because clients aren't going to change, which is also common sense. I don't blame clients, I never allow that anyway, because they don't know any better, and they are good at their business not ours, as they are supposed to be, which is also common sense.

 

So, the only common sense thing to do, because I like the handshake I get and the little look of admiration in the eye on my client's faces as I head out to their airport for the last time, was to change how we work...how we manage our projects....but most importantly how our core technology and system design operates. When the only variable you can change is what you do, then common sense dictates that you must change, if you want better results.

 

So no, our system does not allow any business rules to determine our core functionality, therefore no assumptions, therefore we can change on a dime, a little or a lot, which makes us better than everything else, plus we can integrate to everything in days.

 

The difference Tom, is that I started doing this and getting results with it, before I started talking about it. People want to talk to us because of our results, not because of our papers or....our assumptions. The paper is an afterthought and is based on history, not projection, and certainly not my assumptions.

[Kelly the Dog]

I could save several billion tomorrow. Repeal or at least largely alter the 2002 law that makes doctors have to see you every year just so they can prescribe the exact same medicine. I have gout. Have a great doc and a great prescription (3 different ones actually) they work fabulous. I take them every two days or so. I will take them the rest of my life. But since 2002, once a year, I have to go see the doc, or else he can be fined 5-10,000$. The conversation goes like this: Still have gout? Yep. Medicine still working? Yep. Great, see ya next year. And then they charge the insurance company or me $150 for one minute of nonsense.