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Monthly Archives: June 2014

That’s an impressive buffer zone you got there. It would be a shame if anything happened to it.

30 Monday Jun 2014

Posted by Michael Bersin in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

ACA, contraception, health care, Hobby Lobby, Obamacare, Supreme Court

The Supreme Court decision in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores [pdf] summarized:

Alexandra ‏@aliemalie

Shorter #SCOTUS: Corporations are people, women are not. #HobbyLobby 9:23 AM – 30 Jun 2014

And other commentary:

A. N. Devers ‏@andevers

Women take birth control for medical health reasons, not for religious reasons. They are now imposing other people’s religions on employees. 9:26 AM – 30 Jun 2014

Adam Griffiths ‏@adamgriffiths

It’s probably a good thing that on days like today #SCOTUS has that buffer zone, no? 9:21 AM – 30 Jun 2014

Jessica Podhola ‏@jessicapodhola

I’m incorporating. I’ll have more rights that way. #SCOTUS #waronwomen 9:35 AM – 30 Jun 2014

jess mcintosh ‏@jess_mc

Good thing elections never hinge on the votes of women. 9:31 AM – 30 Jun 2014

Just a bit of sarcasm:

MrJM ‏@MisterJayEm

Great News!!1! The Court’s narrow decisions only affect: 1) working women’s reproductive rights & 2) work traditionally performed by women. 9:36 AM – 30 Jun 2014

Andrew Shaughnessy ‏@andrewshag

Founders would roll over to know that corporations held stronger power than people in the eyes of #SCOTUS 9:27 AM – 30 Jun 2014

Imani ABL ‏@AngryBlackLady

So #SCOTUS refuses to recognize that women’s repro healthcare is actually healthcare. Which is sweet. And by “sweet” I mean “typical.” 9:33 AM – 30 Jun 2014

Top Conservative Cat ‏@TeaPartyCat

Supreme Court rules that corporations have the right to impose a theocracy on their employees, but limited that right to Christian men. 9:47 AM – 30 Jun 2014

David Waldman ‏@KagroX

If you own enough stock, you can write your own exceptions to federal law. That’s pretty cool. 10:00 AM – 30 Jun 2014

Hailey ‏@haileym77

I suppose that my greatest mistake in life was being born as a female rather than as a corporation. #HobbyLobby #SCOTUS 11:03 AM – 30 Jun 2014

Thanks for nothing, Ralph.

Campaign Finance: Which side are you on?

30 Monday Jun 2014

Posted by Michael Bersin in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

2016, campaign finance, Catherine Hanaway, governor, missouri, Missouri Ethics Commission

It’s the last day of the quarter – when there’s always a flurry of campaign contributions. Today, at the Missouri Ethics Commission, for one of the republican candidates for governor:

C141055 06/30/2014 HANAWAY FOR GOVERNOR August Busch III One Busch Place St Louis MO 63118 Retired Retired 6/30/2014 $25,000.00

[emphasis added]

Is that the beer caucus? Just asking.

Previously:

Campaign Finance: waking up at the end of the quarter (June 25, 2014)

Campaign Finance: different friends (June 14, 2014)

Campaign Finance: This probably qualifies as an oxymoron… (May 22, 2014)

Update:

C141055 06/30/2014 HANAWAY FOR GOVERNOR James Hebenstreit 5828 Pembroke Court Mission Hills KS 66208 Bartlett Company CEO 6/30/2014 $10,000.00

[emphasis added]

Why let Sam Brownback (r) have all that fun in Kansas when we could do the same in Missouri? Oh, wait…

The Girl Who Lived

29 Sunday Jun 2014

Posted by Michael Bersin in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

By @BGinKC

One year ago today, I became an anomaly of sorts…the first patient to survive neurologically intact the repair of a giant, wide-necked vertebral aneurysm because I was fortunate enough to have a neuro-interventionist who reads the journals and knew about a new device called a “pipeline” that had recently been granted FDA approval for use in repairing aneurysms like mine in the carotid artery, but not for intra-cranial use. (Because of the successful use in my case, a journal article is soon appearing and that will soon change, hopefully.)

I had gone in on Wednesday for what was presumed to be a routine angio to take pictures and make sure the previous aneurysm that had been coiled wasn’t leaking and had resolved. The good news was, it had. The bad news was, I had a new, more dangerous and dissecting aneurysm in my other vertebral artery, and it was in a place where the vessel could not be sacrificed like the previous one had been.

On Wednesday, I was admitted to the hospital and on Thursday I went in for surgery. That is when my doctor discovered just exactly what he was dealing with, and he got his mentor from medical school on the phone, and for 45 minutes, the physician who trained him – and who was in Canada teaching a seminar on using the Pipeline device to approximately 150 neuro-interventionist physicians – interrupted the prepared remarks and demonstration to look at the pictures he was taking and sending with his iPhone of a real-life potential off-label use. There was about five thousand years of medical experience looking at the images. They were all slack-jawed; few of them had even seen an aneurysm like the one they were looking at and  none of them had successfully repaired one in a vertebral artery that could not be sacrificed because it was below a critical branching off, unlike the previous one that was above a branching off and was therefore sacrificed without consequence.

When I woke up in recovery, I knew something was wrong, because the Doctor was there. Cognitively, I seemed okay…all my digits moved and nothing felt weak…I tried to speak and the words in my brain were the same ones that came out of my mouth, so what the hell was wrong? Why was the DOCTOR in the room? He forgot for a moment that I’m a medical professional, too, and not just any medical professional, but licensed in the one area that has to take more math and science to get into the training program than doctors have to take to get into medical school. I got impatient and said “Dr. Holloway, I speak Medicalese, just tell me what you’re trying to tell me in our language.”

He took a deep breath and gave me the news that the timebomb in my head had a lit fuse and he had not been able to put it out that day, instead he wanted to do something experimental. It would require the hospital attorney and the company that makes the device to sign off on it, then they would have to get the rep from the company that makes the device and the professor who trained him in KC, and there was a very small window in which to get them here – they were in Canada when he called them on Thursday and headed to Japan on Monday.  I stayed in the hospital and they kept my BP artificially low Thursday night and Friday, while all the cats were herded (since I have that evil socialized single-payer healthcare that the right-wing is so freaked-out about, there was no insurance company bean-counter standing in the way) and since I had a lowered BP and a previous stroke, I was considered a “fall risk” and watched like a hawk Thursday night and Friday, and I was put back on Plavix, at a high dosage, to minimize my risk of having another stroke during the procedure.

Saturday, the phlebotomist (a young man I had hired and trained six years earlier at another hospital in the system) woke me up to do A.M/pre-op labs at about 3:30. When he left, Tom got in bed with me, and we were still spooning when they came to get me for surgery about 9:00. I was in a half-awake state and heard the transporter say “Aw, I hate to disturb that. That’s so sweet.” I squeezed Tom’s hand to wake him and said ‘Sweetie, they’re here for me, I’ll see you after it’s over…I’ve got a good feeling…We’ve got this.”

I had a good feeling about the surgery itself, but I had another feeling that I was almost afraid to give voice to, and indeed, the Versed took effect before I got it out, but I did ask if the doctor we were waiting on and the company rep were in the building. “Not quite, they’re on the road, but they’ll be here in about 20 minutes.” I started to say “I hope they don’t crash…” but I did before the words were out.

But they did. They were in a crash on I-70 that totaled the company rep’s new Acura SUV, and they were whisked to the hospital, siren and lights and the whole nine yards, by a state trooper, because the patient was already unconscious.

The surgery that was estimated beforehand would take three hours took seven, and Tom was a wreck by the time they came and told him it was over and they were taking me to Neuro-ICU where he could wait with them for me to wake up. They were really concerned that I would experience some lasting aftereffects of the surgery, primarily because it had taken so long, and when I started to stir the nurse was quite insistent that I tell her my name. I went her one better – I told her my name, date of birth and medical record number. She laughed and told Tom “She’s fine.”

I walked out of the hospital on the following Monday morning, two days later.

Now, if you want to see me get pissed off and channel Julia Sugarbaker…say it’s a miracle I’m here. It’s not a miracle. Prayer didn’t fix me. Medical science, research that is funded with tax dollars and a competent surgeon — Dr. William Holloway — fixed me. Don’t give a supreme being whose design flaw had to be fixed the credit. Give it to science, give it to research, but most of all, give it to Dr. Holloway, because it was in his hands that the science and the research paid off and I am here to preach the secular gospel.

Campaign Finance: there’s a definite advantage in not being a right wingnut

28 Saturday Jun 2014

Posted by Michael Bersin in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

2016, campaign finance, Chris Koster, governor, missouri, Missouri Ethics Commission

For those who care about things like a functioning government and society there’s only one real choice in the 2016 gubernatorial race who isn’t beholden to or afraid of teabaggers.

The past two days, at the Missouri Ethics Commission:

C031159 06/27/2014 MISSOURIANS FOR KOSTER Skilled Healthcare, LLC 27442 Portola Parkway Suite 200 Foothill Ranch CA 92610 6/25/2014 $10,000.00

C031159 06/27/2014 MISSOURIANS FOR KOSTER Burns & McDonnell PO Box 419173 Kansas City MO 64141 6/25/2014 $10,000.00

C031159 06/27/2014 MISSOURIANS FOR KOSTER Missouri Health Care Association PAC 236 Metro Drive Jefferson City MO 65109 6/25/2014 $10,000.00

C031159 06/28/2014 MISSOURIANS FOR KOSTER Bill Foster 426 S. Jefferson Avenue #300 Springfield MO 65806 Foster Hospitality Group Owner 6/26/2014 $10,000.00

[emphasis added]

People who understand that we need to function at a level greater than the ponies, cotton candy, and unicorns promised in some amorphous libertarian paradise understand that choice.  

Campaign Finance: as if yard signs were actually a cash crop for actual farmers…

28 Saturday Jun 2014

Posted by Michael Bersin in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

agriculture, campaign finance, Constitutional amendment, missouri, Missouri Ethics Commission

Or 4 x 8 signs.

Yesterday, at the Missouri Ethics Commission, for the folks promoting the “right to farm” amendment to the Missouri Constitution:

C101457 06/27/2014 MISSOURI FARMERS CARE Missouri Farm Bureaus Fund to Protect Farming and Ranching P.O. Box 658 Jefferson City MO 65102 6/26/2014 $20,000.00

C101457 06/27/2014 MISSOURI FARMERS CARE Missouri Pork PAC 6235 West Cunningham Drive Columbia MO 65202 6/27/2014 $10,000.00

C101457 06/27/2014 MISSOURI FARMERS CARE Missouri Pork PAC 6235 West Cunningham Drive Columbia MO 65202 6/27/2014 $15,000.00

C101457 06/27/2014 MISSOURI FARMERS CARE FCS Financial 1934 E. Miller St. Jefferson City MO 65101 6/27/2014 $10,000.00

C101457 06/27/2014 MISSOURI FARMERS CARE Missouri Corn Growers Association 3118 Emerald Lane Jefferson City MO 65109 6/27/2014 $40,000.00

[emphasis added]

Previously:

Campaign Finance: Food fight! (May 28, 2014)

Campaign Finance: Because, across Missouri, family farms are being supplanted by… (June 24, 2014)  

Campaign Finance: bedfellows

28 Saturday Jun 2014

Posted by Michael Bersin in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

campaign finance, missouri, Missouri Ethics Commission, taxes, transportation

Today, at the Missouri Ethics Commission, it’s rolling in, fast and furious, for the folks promoting a regressive tax on the ballot:

C131133 06/27/2014 MISSOURIANS FOR SAFE TRANSPORTATION & NEW JOBS INC International Union of Operating Engineers 1125 Seventeenth Street Northwest Washington DC 20036 6/27/2014 $100,000.00

[emphasis added]

C131133 06/27/2014 MISSOURIANS FOR SAFE TRANSPORTATION & NEW JOBS INC APAC – Kansas, Inc. PO Box 23910 Overland Park KS 66283 6/27/2014 $50,000.00

C131133 06/27/2014 MISSOURIANS FOR SAFE TRANSPORTATION & NEW JOBS INC APAC – Kansas, Inc. PO Box 23910 Overland Park KS 66283 6/27/2014 $25,000.00

C131133 06/27/2014 MISSOURIANS FOR SAFE TRANSPORTATION & NEW JOBS INC Herzog Contracting Corp. PO Box 1089 St Joseph MO 64502 6/27/2014 $50,000.00

[emphasis added]

On any other issue would they be strange? Just asking.

Previously:

Campaign Finance: “Your majesty, the special interests are regressive…” (June 27, 2014)

Campaign Finance: Prepare yourself for the ads… (June 24, 2014)

Campaign Finance: the dough keeps rolling in (June 22, 2014)

Campaign Finance: escalation (June 17, 2014)

Campaign Finance: What’s an increase in regressive taxes among friends anyway? (June 10, 2014)

Nix the sales tax: A question of fairness – and progessive identity (June 9, 2014)

Gov. Jay Nixon: “…This tax hike is neither a fair nor fiscally responsible solution…” (June 2, 2014)

Campaign Finance: some transportation infrastructure is local

27 Friday Jun 2014

Posted by Michael Bersin in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

campaign finance, Kansas City, missouri, Public Transportation

Public transportation in our cities isn’t necessarily a bad thing, eh?

Today, at the Missouri Ethics Commission:

C131012 06/27/2014 CONNECT KC Herzog Contracting Corporation 600 S Riverside Rd Saint Joseph MO 64507 6/26/2014 $25,000.00

C131012 06/27/2014 CONNECT KC Burns & McDonnell 9400 Ward Pkwy Kansas City MO 64114 6/25/2014 $25,000.00

[emphasis added]

There will be an issue on the August 5th ballot in Kansas City to establish a Transportation Development District. And then:

[….]

If the Transportation Development District (TDD) is approved on August 5, there will be a second vote to authorize the city’s taxation on November 4.

The TDD on August 5 will detail the city’s maximum taxing authority. It creates an equitable system so that those who benefit most from the increase in property values and economic development support the system with a special assessment. [….]

In addition, there will be a 1 cent sales tax levied within the areas defined as the TDD. The sales tax is paid by all those who shop within the TDD.

[….]

Rep. Vicky Hartzler (r): Captain Obvious is not a real person

27 Friday Jun 2014

Posted by Michael Bersin in Uncategorized

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

4th Congressional District, Attorney General, Chris Koster, gay marriage, missouri, Twitter, Vicky Hartzler

From Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster (D):

June 26, 2014

AG Koster issues statement on St. Louis same-sex marriages

Jefferson City, Mo. – Attorney General Chris Koster today issued the following statement related to the St. Louis Recorder of Deeds issuing marriage licenses to several same-sex couples:

“While I personally support the goal of marriage equality, my duty as Attorney General is to defend the laws of the state of Missouri. While many people in Missouri have changed their minds regarding marriage equality, Missourians have yet to change their constitution.

“Cases currently pending in Jefferson City and Kansas City regarding the constitutionality of Missouri’s ban against same-sex marriage will be decided in the coming months. Regardless of my personal support for marriage equality, such vital questions cannot be decided by local county officials acting in contravention of state law.

“Therefore, I have asked the St. Louis Circuit Court to prevent the St. Louis City Recorder of Deeds from issuing such marriage licenses until this matter can be resolved by our state’s judiciary. This question will likely be fully answered by our Missouri courts within the next 12-18 months.”

[emphasis added]

Some people didn’t read the whole thing.

Representative Vicky Hartzler (r) is besides herself with joy, via Twitter:

Rep. Vicky Hartzler ‏@RepHartzler

I applaud MO AG Chris Koster for standing up for the people of MO & our Constitution re: marriage. Politicians can’t circumvent laws. 8:38 AM – 27 Jun 2014

Uh, those individuals will probably have standing to take this to court and hasten the demise of your artifact of bigotry infesting the Missouri Constitution.

I’m still here — Thanks Dr. Holloway!

27 Friday Jun 2014

Posted by Michael Bersin in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

By @BGinKC

One year ago today I was being wheeled into surgery to repair a second aneurysm that was discovered before it ruptured, and given the size of it, it would have been instantly fatal, just like my Dad’s second one was.

But the doctor discovered that it was far more complex than he had anticipated, and he just took pictures and got his med school professor/mentor on the phone, who was teaching a seminar on using a pipeline device to repair carotid aneurysms. There were approximately 150 doctors looking at the 1.4 cm wide-neck aneurysm that had formed in my other vertebral artery.

They were all slack-jawed, There was over 5000 years of medical experience in that room, looking at what had gone wrong with the blood supply to my brain, and few of them had even seen an aneurysm like mine; none of them had repaired one…not successfully, anyway.

I woke up in recovery to the news that the timebomb in my head had a lit fuse and he had not been able to put it out that day, instead he wanted to do something experimental. It would require the hospital attorney and the company that makes the device to sign off on it, and getting the company rep and the professor who trained him in KC. I stayed in the hospital and they kept my BP artificially low Thursday night and Friday, while all the cats were herded (since I have that evil socialized single-payer healthcare that the right-wing is so freaked-out about, there was no insurance company bean-counter standing in the way).

Saturday I had surgery. It took seven hours instead of three, and Tom was a wreck, but when I woke up in neuro ICU the nurse wanted to know if I knew my name — I told her my name and my medical record number. She laughed, looked at Tom and said “She’s fine.”

I walked out of the hospital on the following Monday morning, two days later, and walked the dog later that week.

Now, if you want to see a pissed off, articulate redhead…say it’s a miracle I’m here. It’s not a miracle. Prayer didn’t fix me. Medical science and a competent surgeon — Dr. William Holloway — fixed me. Don’t give a supreme being whose design flaw had to be fixed the credit, give it to him.

Campaign Finance: “Your majesty, the special interests are regressive…”

27 Friday Jun 2014

Posted by Michael Bersin in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

campaign finance, missouri, Missouri Ethics Commission, taxes, transportation

Count de Monet: It is said that the people are revolting.

King Louis XVI: You said it! They stink on ice!

The folks promoting a regressive tax on the ballot continue raising the cash – at the Missouri Ethics Commission:

C131133 06/26/2014 MISSOURIANS FOR SAFE TRANSPORTATION & NEW JOBS INC The Monarch Cement Company PO Box 1000 Humboldt KS 66748 6/25/2014 $10,000.00

C131133 06/26/2014 MISSOURIANS FOR SAFE TRANSPORTATION & NEW JOBS INC Central Plains Cement LLC 2200 North Courtney Road Sugar Creek MO 64050 6/25/2014 $25,000.00

C131133 06/26/2014 MISSOURIANS FOR SAFE TRANSPORTATION & NEW JOBS INC Ash Grove Cement Company PO Box 25900 Overland Park KS 66225 6/25/2014 $10,000.00

C131133 06/26/2014 MISSOURIANS FOR SAFE TRANSPORTATION & NEW JOBS INC Continental Cement Co LLC 10107 Highway 79 Hannibal MO 63401 6/25/2014 $20,000.00

C131133 06/26/2014 MISSOURIANS FOR SAFE TRANSPORTATION & NEW JOBS INC Pace Construction Company 1620 Woodson Road St Louis MO 63114 6/25/2014 $17,500.00

C131133 06/26/2014 MISSOURIANS FOR SAFE TRANSPORTATION & NEW JOBS INC Massman Construction Co PO Box 8458 Kansas City MO 64114 6/25/2014 $50,000.00

It’s a seemingly endless supply.

Previously:

Campaign Finance: Prepare yourself for the ads… (June 24, 2014)

Campaign Finance: the dough keeps rolling in (June 22, 2014)

Campaign Finance: escalation (June 17, 2014)

Campaign Finance: What’s an increase in regressive taxes among friends anyway? (June 10, 2014)

Nix the sales tax: A question of fairness – and progessive identity (June 9, 2014)

Gov. Jay Nixon: “…This tax hike is neither a fair nor fiscally responsible solution…” (June 2, 2014)

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