LA Times Says Obamacare is Unfair to Young Middle Class

Looks like the urban, youngish, middle-class folks who were singing Obama's praises have found out that they are the rubes.

Lot of that going around now. If you're under 40 and you voted for Obama because of Obamacare, thinking it was going to help you out in some way...you're in for a little surprise. Here's how the Animal White House is explaining the fact that they lied to you:

President Otter. Trick or treat, indeed. Happy Halloween.

SEC East Race Explained

This is from ESPN.

Eastern Division

• Even though it lost on Saturday to South Carolina, No. 9 Missouri (7-1, 3-1) still controls its destiny in the SEC East. If the Tigers win their remaining games, they're the SEC East champions. Their strong start is serving them well since they built a two-game cushion over the a few others, but now that lead is down to one with three teams being only a game back in the loss column. Missouri has Tennessee, Kentucky, Ole Miss and Texas A&M remaining on the schedule.

• South Carolina (6-2, 4-2) is in the mix for the title after beating Missouri on Saturday but would need to win out and for Missouri to lose one more time. South Carolina has only two conference games left: home games against Mississippi State and Florida. If it's only a two-way tie at the top at the end of the year, South Carolina's head-to-head win last week would be the tiebreaker.

• Georgia (4-3, 3-2) has a head-to-head win over South Carolina, but that only becomes a factor if Georgia wins out and finds itself in a three-way tie with South Carolina and Missouri at 6-2. That would mean Georgia would have to close out the season with conference wins over Florida, Auburn and Kentucky, with the Auburn game being on the road. If that happened and Missouri, South Carolina and Georgia were tied atop the division, the tiebreaker would go to the team with the best divisional record, since all three would be 1-1 against each other. Currently, Georgia is 2-2 in SEC East play, Missouri is 3-1 in the division and South Carolina is 3-2.

• Florida (4-3, 3-2) has a loss to Missouri but has games against Georgia and South Carolina coming up, as well as a game against Vanderbilt sandwiched in between. The Gators need to win out and have Missouri lose twice, since Missouri holds a head-to-head tiebreaker over the Gators. That scenario also works for Georgia if Georgia wins out, because it has a loss to Missouri but has beaten South Carolina.

Everyone got that?

Bird Dog Open Thread

It's been a long day, and I feel horrible. I think I'm getting sick, but I don't have time to be sick.

In any event, here's an open thread. Happy hunting.

Why Accountability is Important

Warning. This is a long post. I've put most of it below the jump.

As a private practice lawyer with a litigation practice, I have a staff. It's not large, but I have a paralegal and a legal assistant. They follow my directions and take care of things that don't necessarily need a lawyer to handle. They help with filing documents, scheduling hearings, and coming up with first drafts of documents for my review.

However, if a deadline is missed or a document isn't filed correctly, that's my fault. I'm the one who signs the pleadings, and I'm the one who is in charge. The buck stops with me. As a hypothetical: even if the mistake is that my legal assistant forgot to call the court reporter for the deposition, I would take the responsibility when I talk to either the client or opposing counsel. I don't say: My assistant forgot to arrange for the court reporter. Instead, I tell the client: I didn't arrange for the court reporter; that's my fault.

No one likes a leader who blames their subordinates for mistakes. It looks weasel-y, and I think that my staff works well to know that I have their back. Now, even though I take responsibility to the client or the opposing counsel, I'm still going to have a serious conversation with my assistant. I'm going to let him/her know that they screwed up, and they should have called the court reporter. However, I handle that privately; in house.

That's how accountability works in my office. It works well for me. Clients and opposing counsel know that I am ultimately responsible for what goes on. It ensures that when I delegate, I make sure that things are getting done. My staff knows that I'll go to bat for them outside the office, but they also know that I am there to make sure they are doing things correctly.

Now, that's contrasted with what I see going on in the government. In the parade of problems that we see with government, the one common denominator is a lack of accountability. Let's go through some specific examples:

Monday Morning News and Open Thread - Ford TriMotor

Happy Monday.

Sorry for the fact that my blog didn't have any posts for the last couple days. I was dealing with my sister's wedding, and I left Kathleen Sebelius in charge of my website here. Can't trust her to run anything, amirite?

In local news around Columbia, my Gamecocks won a 2OT thriller over previously undefeated Missouri, which has now made the SEC East race a bit of a mess. College football is best when there's chaos, though. Could the Sugar Bowl be a possibility? Gene Sapakoff seems to think so...

Also, on a more somber note Columbia attorney Steve Morrison passed away over the weekend. I didn't know him personally, but he was a tireless advocate for better public education.

Finally, if you were outside this weekend around Columbia, you might have noticed a old looking airplane. You probably heard it before you saw it, with that classic low hum of a raidal engine. It was a Ford TriMotor, which was a treat for the aviation minded community here in the midlands. It headed out of town this morning, so if you didn't see it buzzing around Columbia, you'll have to just enjoy this photo.

The 1926 Ford TriMotor

 Enjoy your day.

July 2013 SC Bar Results

Results will be posted on Friday, if that's important to you. An early congrats to the new members of the SC Bar. Time to go get some actual experience.

Welcome to the show.

Feds Ask Blue Cross Blue Shield To Suppress Enrollee Numbers

Hey, it's just the biggest domestic legislation in the last thirty years that affects one-sixth of our economy. It's not like the public has a right to know this kind of stuff, right?

I guess we wouldn't want the public to get hard information that shows the government in an unfavorable light. Just shut up, pay your taxes, and don't ask questions.

Most Transparent Administration Ever.

What the Hell Is Wrong With People?

I have a two year old son. He's pretty much the most important thing I have going on right now. Most of my time at home centers around him. I'm not saying that I'm Dad of The Year, but I'm doing OK. However, I just don't understand how people can have children and live like animals.

The story in The State throws in the splashy stuff about the loaded guns, which is certainly an issue, but what I just don't understand is how people can live in such horrible conditions.

The deputy found a 12-gauge shotgun and .22-caliber rifle, loaded and with the safety mechanisms off within reach of the children, ages 2 and 4, in the master bedroom, the report states. The deputy found more dirty clothes, rotting food and soiled linens on the children's beds. The deputy confiscated the weapons, the report states.

Read more here: http://www.thestate.com/2013/10/22/3052587/dss-loaded-weapons-filthy-conditions.html#storylink=cpy

The loaded weapons are obviously an accident waiting to happen. If you've read my blog at all, you know I'm a gun guy, so I don't have problems with having guns in a house, but you've got to be smart about it. You can't just have loaded weapons around with kids in the house. Especially at that age. They're old enough to get into things, but not old enough to know how dangerous things are. There's no excuse. It's monumentally stupid to the point of being criminally negligent.

However, what really gets me is the rotting food in the children's bed. What the hell is wrong with these people? That's not just an accidental thing. You've got to really be neglectful to allow food to rot. And in your child's bed? Are you kidding me? Heck, animals don't even live in conditions that bad. I apologize to the animals I offended with my earlier comparison.

I see stuff like this, and I realize how far our problems go. In my last post, I was discussing what books we should be reading to be good citizens. These people need to be reading fundamentals on how to clean up after your children before we start in on The Federalist Papers.

I just don't get it. What do you do with people like this?

What Books Should You Be Reading?

Happy Monday, y'all.

I was looking at my bookshelves this weekend and trying to decide how to best organize them. My house doesn't really have a great amount of bookshelves relative to the amount of books I've accumulated, so space is at a premium.

I'm pretty heavy into non-fiction, while Mrs. Permanent Press enjoys novels. You can pretty much go through our bookshelves with that in mind and figure out which books belong to whom. On Sunday, she and I were discussing which books that should be read in order to be a well-informed citizen to participate in our little constitutional republic as a reasonably informed person. We tried to come up with a top 5 list.

Obviously, there's the Constitution. That's kind of a gimme, like naming The Beatles in a list of top five bands. Barry from High-Fidelity wouldn't like it.

After some thought, here's what I came up with:

Top 5 Books You Should Read to be an Informed American

1. Democracy in America
2. The Federalist Papers
3. Capitalism and Freedom
4.  The Guns of August
5. American Rifle

Democracy in America made the list as it is an outsider's view of America shortly after the revolution. The Federalist Papers made the list because they are probably the best "companion" to the Constitution that you could have. On economic matters, I wanted to include a work from Milton Friedman, hence Capitalism and Freedom. I liked it, but your mileage may vary. The Guns of August is in the list as a cautionary tale of how countries plunge into war. I thought about including a book on the Civil War and/or WWII, but I wanted to stick with my limit of five. Finally, I put American Rifle in on the list because the development of the rifle through our history had a profound impact on our country. Again, your mileage may vary.

Anyway, it's impossible to come up with a perfect list if you're held to only five books, but it's fun to try. Anybody think they can come up with a better list?

Pumpkin Carving With a Desert Eagle

Have you carved your pumpkin yet? If not, here's a fun way to get that perfect jack-o-lantern.

 Happy Halloween.

Life of a Gamecock Fan

South Carolina lost to Tennessee today. Here's how I feel about college football for awhile now:

I ain't even mad. Such is the life of a Gamecock fan.

Do You Even Know A Tea Partier?

A Yale professor learned something about people who identify with the tea party: Tea Partiers are more scientifically literate than non Tea Partiers.

 Here's my favorite part though:

“I’ve got to confess, though, I found this result surprising. As I pushed the button to run the analysis on my computer, I fully expected I’d be shown a modest negative correlation between identifying with the Tea Party and science comprehension,” Kahan wrote. “But then again, I don’t know a single person who identifies with the tea party,” he continued.

So, this Yale professor has a negative preconception of a group of people, but he's never gotten to know anyone in that group. Guess who sounds kind of stupid to me?

Over at Brad's place, he's got a post/comment in which he compares them to "backwoodsmen who came to Jackson's inaugural and trashed the White House".

Much like the Yale professor, I don't think Brad actually knows any people who identify with the Tea Party. If he did, he would know that they're actually pretty polite and courteous people, and he probably wouldn't call them nihilists and arsonists.

It annoys me that my being in favor of smaller, more limited government and more personal liberty somehow brands me as a nihilistic, anarchist/arsonist.

Friday Open Thread

Good morning.

I may or may not have a post later. We'll see.

Whiskey Reminder

The Great American Whiskey Fair is tonight!

This is your two-minute warning. Make sure you hydrate.

Every Lawyer Ever

Passed along to me from another lawyer.

Pretty funny.

Politics Palate Cleanser: Game of Thrones

Ok, new rule here. Every time I do a political post (like the one directly below this one) I'm going to post a palate cleanser-type post because, let's face it....all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.

Today's palate cleanser will only be really appreciated by those of you who have watched Game of Thrones at least a little. Accordingly, if you don't even know what Game of Thrones is, then please exit the blog here.

Still with me? Good. You're going to like this.

You have now been cleansed of politics. Go and sin no more, my child.

John Boehner and Lane Kiffin

This whole debacle over the government shutdown and the debt ceiling has been an unmitigated disaster for Republicans. They started out with the primary objective of repealing the Affordable Care Act. When that didn't happen, they moved to defunding it. When that didn't happen, they moved to trying to delay it. When that didn't happen, they tried to go with the strategy of getting rid of Congressional staffer subsidies. Guess what. That didn't work either.

In short, nothing was achieved. The Republicans lost every single time on every single issue, and it was fairly predictable. Nothing was accomplished. So what's the way forward for the Republicans? I don't know. But I do know this:

Southern California fired their coach this year because they went 7-6 last year and were 3-2 this year. When football teams have a really bad few seasons, they fire the coach. That's not to say it's totally the coach's fault that the team is doing badly. It wasn't Lane Kiffin who threw three interceptions, but you can't fire the whole team when they're playing poorly. Accordingly, you make a change of leadership and start fresh with someone else running the team. That's all you can do. That's what Southern Cal did. And although they'll continue to struggle this season, they're taking steps to address the problems they have.

The former coach of Southern California's football team.

That's what needs to happen with the Republicans in the United States House of Representatives. It isn't necessarily John Boehner's fault that this strategy didn't work, but you can't get rid of the entire GOP House. They're going to be there. However, the Speaker is like the coach. He needs to be fired or resign. I don't have any idea who should lead the GOP in the House (and I don't really care) but I know that the current leadership isn't getting the job done on any level. The players don't trust the coach.

I would like to see Boehner, Cantor, and the rest of the House leadership simply resign their posts.

The current GOP leadership that needs to be fired.

Going forward may be tough, but a different strategy and different leadership needs to be put in place. Maybe the House GOP is too conservative for Boehner, but maybe that's the problem. When you have players on a team who aren't "buying in" to what the Coach is trying to do, you're not going to have a good team, and you're not going to win games. Right now, a large part of the team isn't buying in to the leadership. And the problem is, you can't fire the team. You have to change leadership.

This is one of those good for the party, good for the country type deals. Getting rid of the current House GOP leadership will also have the benefit of clearing the board of all the old animus that has built up between Boehner and all the Democratic leadership.

Deal for the Palmetto Compress Warehouse?

Maybe.

It looks like the City of Columbia is pretty close to a deal on selling the old warehouse.

I was against the City buying the real estate, and I still am. However, if the deal goes through, it's a good outcome.

Doesn't mean I'm wrong, though. Just because something works out doesn't mean that the process was correct.

This Day in Aviation History - Chuck Yeager Breaks the Sound Barrier

On this day in 1947, Chuck Yeager became the first man to break the sound barrier. However, because the project was secret, this achievement was not released to the general public until 1948.

Chuck Yeager in the late 1940s

In the years leading up to Yeager's flight, many had speculated that supersonic flight was impossible to achieve without tearing the aircraft apart. Men had died trying to reach "Mach 1". When Yeager went up  that day, he was doing something that many people considered to be extremely dangerous. Here's the scene from The Right Stuff, dramatizing the moment.

He broke the sound barrier, and he did it with broken ribs that he concealed from the Army, because he didn't want to get grounded by the doctors. Pretty amazing if you ask me.

Sunday Open Thread - Smoked Wings

After enjoying the complete destruction of Arkansas yesterday, I thought I would fire up the Weber Smoky Mountain Cooker today and enjoy some spicy-rubbed, applewood smoked, BBQ glazed wings.

If you've got the time (2 hours on the smoker) this is the absolute best way to cook wings. The rub gives it a spicy base (I'm heavy with the cayenne), the smoke gives it a little flavor, and the BBQ glaze gives it a little sweetness.

I love the wings at Publick House, but mine are better. Don't worry, Publick House, I still love you!

Overall, a pretty good weekend.