Speeding Up The Confusion

Despite all the verbiage packed into the ObamaCare bill, Democrats forgot to repeal the law of unintended consequences:

When the federal government began providing billions of dollars in incentives to push hospitals and physicians to use electronic medical and billing records, the goal was not only to improve efficiency and patient safety, but also to reduce health care costs.

But, in reality, the move to electronic health records may be contributing to billions of dollars in higher costs for Medicare, private insurers and patients by making it easier for hospitals and physicians to bill more for their services, whether or not they provide additional care.

Ooops!

So what is going on? Well, on the one hand...

Some experts blame a substantial share of the higher payments on the increasingly widespread use of electronic health record systems. Some of these programs can automatically generate detailed patient histories, or allow doctors to cut and paste the same examination findings for multiple patients — a practice called cloning — with the click of a button or the swipe of a finger on an iPad, making it appear that the physicians conducted more thorough exams than, perhaps, they did.

Critics say the abuses are widespread. “It’s like doping and bicycling,” said Dr. Donald W. Simborg, who was the chairman of federal panels examining the potential for fraud with electronic systems. “Everybody knows it’s going on.”

When Methodist Medical Center of Illinois in Peoria rolled out an electronic records system in 2006, Dr. Alan Gravett, a former emergency room physician, quickly expressed alarm.

He said the new system prompted doctors to click a box that indicated a thorough review of patients’ symptoms had taken place, even though the exams were rarely performed, while another function let doctors pull exam findings “from thin air” and include them in patients’ records.

But on the other hand...

Many hospitals and doctors say that the new systems allow them to better document the care they provide, justifying the higher payments they are receiving. Many doctors and hospitals were actually underbilling before they began keeping electronic records, said Dr. David J. Brailer, an early federal proponent of digitizing records and an official in the George W. Bush administration. But Dr. Brailer, who invests in health care companies, acknowledged that the use of electronic records “makes it faster and easier to be fraudulent.”

I will guess that Medicare does not cast the same keen eye on doctor's bills as the evil private insurers.

 

Comments

[Captain Hate]

Nobody's mentioned the possibility of the records getting hacked; gee nobody would do that::eyeroll::. I knew that the purported benefits of electronic medical records were a pie in the sky crock when so many imbeciles in academia were shilling for them.

[matt]

tap, tap....anybody home?

[maryrose]

Unexpectedly but nothing new for Obummy's administration we now have a snafu in the billing part of Obambicare Everything with Obama'a fingerprints on it turns to dust. He's the opposite of Rumpelstilskin.

[GMax]

Well just like the stories they told us about Benghazi, the stories about Obamacare bending the cost curve appear to be mass delusion or deliberate fiction or maybe both.

[bgates]

The underlying problem here is not just Obamacare, it's third-party payer. My mechanic has computerized records, and in theory could probably pull these kinds of tricks, but I know what's being done on my own car, I can see what's been billed, and I'm responsible for paying so I scrutinize it.

Would charging for nonexistent medical exams work quite so well if the check to cover them was written by the person on whom they were supposedly performed?

[Old Lurker]

Believe nothing.

Or play it safe, believe the opposite. At least you will be wrong less often than not.

[bgates]

Also, it feels strange to accuse Obama of inviting widespread medical fraud a few days after my first stab at an Obama impression included the line about doctors, amputations, and boat payments - a reference to the time Obama accused the medical profession of widespread fraud, to howls of derision from myself.

[Gonzo]

Doesn't the electronic billing pre-date the Obamacare?

I would think that would be a trend (the electronic billing) that would have happened anyway as providers try to maximize reimbursements.

From the collections/ revenue side , it would be a no brainer(imho).

Of course, that doesn't de-legitimise the fraud issue. Just saying it seems inevitable that the technology would advance regardless.

[GMax]

Yes indeed if you want to truly control health care costs, go to a catastrophic insurance system couple with a Health Savings Account and make it tax free if funds build up after a period of time to an amount in excess of the threshold for the catastrophic insurance to kick in. Now there is a real financial incentive on a health care consumers part to scrutinize and question every item on the bill. Behavior would change over night for most, the dimbulbs might require a month or so to catch on.

[Old Lurker]

True that, GMax.

[glasater]

I've always suspected TM was an insurance man ;-)

[GMax]

Roger Kimball points to President Dukakis:

http://pjmedia.com/rogerkimball/2012/09/22/president-dukakis/?singlepage=true

[Captain Hate]

Gonzo, I believe everything you say is true and I didn't mean to imply otherwise. My comment was that government was at the very least somewhat hasty to implement it before the implications were thought out.

[matt]

When Obama stated there was $60 Billion/year in medicare fraud, that should have been the tipoff. This sounds tailor made for Russian computer fraudsters or jihadi hackers to tunnel into aside from the usual fraudsters and crooks.

Unless there is someone going over every line item like my wife does, then it's an invitation to collapse.

It sounded like a great idea when Nancy and Harry and Barry were chooming it up on the White House hookah, but since no one even read the damned bill in the first place, what the heck else did they expect.

[rse]

Health care is like ed-the emphasis was on its use as a transformational political tool. That it can crash everything that currently works was just never part of those systems design classes.

We can design the future is a statement that makes it clear the person expressing it is ineligible to even try.

[Danube of Thought]

Unless Romney wins this law will haunt every American for the next century. And over time they'll come to like it because there will be no memory of something much better--and it's free stuff.

The Brits loved their wretched, squalid NHS--it's free stuff, and it's all they've ever known.

[Danube of Thought]

Tied at 47 at Gallup.

[Jim Eagle]

OT: Pat Dollard has a post up on Obama's murdered gay lover's Mom speaking out with Video:)

So lets see if we can now categorize this guy a little more accurately:

1. Kenyan Born
2. Muslim disguised as a Black Liberation Theologian
3. Marxist-Leninist
4. Cocaine addict
5. Gay or Bi-Sexual
6. Anti-Ameican
7. Chicago Thug
8. Law Instructor
9. Asbestos Remediation Specialist
10. President of the United States

Yep. Probably win in November by a landslide.

[Joan]

It's interesting...just a few days ago I read an article online that stated with the advent of electronic patient records, health care has improved immensely because doctors have total access to a patient's health care records. Everything was positive about doctors carrying their little electronic devices around with them. Call me simple but I never thought that their little brains would be whirling with thoughts of how they could cut and paste and bill more instead of how big my tumor had grown. :)Silly me.

We lived in London over 12 years and never used National Health Care one time. We always used private doctors. The few times I was in a NHS hospital to visit friends, the places creeped me out. They never seemed clean, and I hated the wards. Also, people were assigned to doctors, instead of choosing like I could. Didn't like the thought of that...now our insurance companies herd us into systems like that. Oh, well. Progress.

[Jim Eagle]

Joan,

That's why you see and meet so many Yanks on Wimpole and Harley Streets in London:)

Where did you live when there?

[GMax]

Joan

You mean FORWARD!

[Janet]

Got back awhile ago from working the GOP booth at an Arlington event (Clarendon Day). I took Jess & we walked through the crowd handing out Romney/Ryan stickers.

The tenor was good. Lots of lawn signs handed out. Like Clarice pointed out...I don't see anyone switching TO Obama.

[hit and run]

On the plane. Destination, Dulles.

Too bad it's only an hour layover in DC.

So far so good though - no one in the middle seat next to me.

[daddy]

"What is it Wally?"

"It's Abstract Art, Beaver."

"Gee Wally, it's awful ugly!

"It's supposed to be ugly, Beaver."

"Why's it supposed to be ugly, Wally?"

"Gee, I don't know Beav, go ask Eddy. He came up with the idea."

"Hey Eddie, Why'd you tell Wally to make ugly Art?"

"Listen squirt, abstract art is supposed to be ugly. Don't you know anything? It's some French idea that you make ugly stuff and nobody understands it, but then people feel too foolish to say they don't understand it so they say it's art."

"So it's s'posed to be ugly?"

"Yeah, you little shi...Oh Hello Mrs Cleaver. My, you're looking wonderful today Mrs Cleaver."

"Why thank you Eddie. Would you boys like to come down to the kitchen for some sandwiches?"

"No thank you Mrs Cleaver, Wallace and I have to be going to do charity work down at the High School. Bye."

"Beaver, you look confused. What is it?"

"Gee Mom, Eddie say's Wally's art is s'posed to be ugly. I don't understand."

"Well Beaver, I don't understand it either. Maybe we should ask your father during dinner."

"...And Eddie said it was supposed to be ugly?"

"Yeah Dad. Eddie said that if it was abstract enough and ugly enough, one day Wally's art would be on display in the Louv, the Lerv...in some fancy place in Paris."

"Well you just listen to me Beaver and don't pay any attention to what Eddie Haskell said. There is not one chance in a million that Wally's ugly abstract art is ever going to be displayed in the Louvre.

"Honestly June, kids these days."

[narciso]

OT, In the sort of successor to Dibdin's Aurelio Zen series, which frankly I found the BBC series more interesting, I have this offering from the Irish writer Conor Fitzgerald, disregard the first review, it concerns an organized crime investigation that extends itself to Germany and back again, and the dialogue between the persnickety German investigator, to which there is a method to his madness, and the protagonist, an American born police spector, is interesting;

http://www.amazon.com/The-Namesake-Commissario-Blume-Novel/dp/1608198456/ref=pd_sim_b_3

[matt]

Now that song is stuck in my head. Thanks, daddy!

The new blog is finally up. LUN

[narciso]

Very good, although disquieting piece, Matt, although not that surprising, in light of the administration's chief strategist;

http://michellemalkin.com/2012/09/22/joe-biden-troop-surge-afghanistan/

[narciso]

Really could Anthony Weiner, really be that much worse, in the LUN

[narciso]

Ok, Wake Forest beating Army, 49/37 time to panic?

[sbw]

Help me. Does Eddie Haskell have the Obama look or does Obama have the Eddie Haskell look.

Shyster eyes. Shyster mouth. Shyster head-tilt.

[Frau Steingehirn]

maryrose @ 1:33- we should be so lucky to end up with *straw*--everything he touches turns to carp. It's right out of "Obama's Grim Scary Tales."

[Jim Eagle]

narciso,

I don't believe in coincidences but this is weird. I ordered the kindle edition to my iPad of "The Namesake" a few hours ago.

Will be reading it tonight. Unbelievable.

[Jim Eagle]

As I understand it the movie "Runaway Slave"will finally open in Newport, KY (Cincinnati Metro area) on the 28th of September.

Will it make the 7% for RR more like 9%? I doubt it but stranger things have happened with movie openings.

[Mark Folkestad]

Great lead-up to the linked story punchline, Daddy!

[Janet]

From Hillbuzz - The Top Ten Heroes Responsible for Defeating Barack Obama

This wouldn't be everyone's list, but there is a lot of truth to it. I might even include Trump. Some of the edgier out-there people are who get the ball rolling.
The clean toga crowd never get the ball rolling....

[Charlie (Colorado)]

When did Obama take office?

http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2012/09/22/an-explanation/

[Janet]

Wonderful, Charlie.

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

We've got eight Harriers destroyed and a lost war in Afghanistan, Iran on the verge of a nuke, the rest of the ME in flames or in the hands of jihaists, our ambassador in Libya assassinated and apparently a rescue mission ambushed in the desert along with a resurgent Russia mucking things up.

Barry's foreign policy is not only eerily similar to Jimmy Carter's but seems to me a bigger disaster. The only thing missing is some hostages.

[daddy]

Interesting.

When Chris Matthews sites Unemployment numbers, suddenly they were 10% under Bush's watch. Obviously false highballing.

When Letterman sites the National Debt it's 10 Trillion, false lowballing by 6 Trillion.

Both, I am certain, legitimate slips of the tongue that coincidentally work to President Obama's advantage. Weird and unexplainable.

[Sandy Daze]

Thanks, Daddy !

[daddy]

"Help me. Does Eddie Haskell have the Obama look or does Obama have the Eddie Haskell look."

SBW,

Well there's this:

Let me do a little more research.

[Old Lurker]

"The only thing missing is some hostages."

Because this time they just killed them.

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

--Because this time they just killed them.

Posted by: Old Lurker | September 22, 2012 at 05:44 PM--

That's what I was thinking too OL, but hey, we've still got a month of jihadi encouraging apologies and feckless dithering before the election.

[Jim Eagle]

Ryan gets an overflowed crowd at UCF in Orlando.

Wonder if bgates was there.

Talked about hot Florida issues, NASA, Religious freedom and SS/Medicare. All the local news channels are featuring him and his "overflowing" crowds.

[Jane - Mock the Media!]

It looks great Matt. I love reading the stuff you write.

[Extraneus]

"Honestly June, kids these days."

Great, daddy.

Am I the only one wondering what this seriously talented guy will do after retiring from his present career?

Are you offering stock for sale, daddy?

[Jane - Mock the Media!]

I was selling raffle tickets today for Rotary when a woman came up to me and stated ranting about Obama. I was a little taken aback. A few minutes into the rant she told me she recognized me from TV. I was more taken aback. She was willing to do anything to make sure Mitt wins, but had absolutely no idea that people could volunteer to help. I couldn't get any more aback at that point.

On Twitter some idiot keeps tweeting me to stop watching Fox news so I can realize how great Obama is.

[Extraneus]

I'm interested in Jane's stock, too, btw. Is there any doubt that she'll flourish once she gets her own show?

Jane, if you'd like to discuss a deal on advertising rights, I think you know my contact info.

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

Realizing how well loved the Kathy Griffin harpy is here at JOM, thought I'd share this lovely shot of her on a fine fall Saturday..........
sorry, took a few seconds to get over the dry heaves but I'm back now.

[Jane - Mock the Media!]

LOL Ex, find me a radio station and you can have all the advertising rights. I'm watching this week's show and Dick's actions make me want to quit!

[Jim Eagle]

Iggy,

Is she the one on the right?

[Janet]

It's time to take Obama & Hillary & Progressivism & paint them as the giant LOSERS that they are. Those 2 groveling on Pakistani TV should be shown & then just add this question...Who wants to follow these 2 losers? Apologize for free speech? Never!

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

Sorry for that 6:23.
Yom Kippur is near so here is my act of atonement;

[Rick Ballard]

I'm feeling useless. I haven't talked anyone off a ledge in days.

Has everyone jumped?

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

--Iggy,

Is she the one on the right?

Posted by: Jack is Back | September 22, 2012 at 06:25 PM--

No, Jack. He's merely a young man who deserves our deepest sympathies and possibly some electro-shock therapy.

[daddy]

Nice post Matt,

It is disturbing that if we want to know what the heck is going on around the planet involving our forces and the MidEast, the 2 place's we can't go to find that information is to our Press or to our Administration.

We have to go to Blogs like yours, to Michael Yon, to the UK Newspapers, perhaps to Al Jazirah. But as for trying to get any honest answers from our Administration or our Domestic Press, forget about it.

Another point. Recalling from personal observation how strongly Al Jazirah ran with the DNC Voice Vote fiasco, I wonder what their coverage will be now if they start broadcasting, in a similar manner, the White House's slow retraction that it was all about the Video.

Seems to me that with the $70,000 Pakistan Ad, and with the continual recitation for a week of that lame video story, that the White House has effectively painted themselves into a corner and can't honestly broadcast that it wasn't the video, due to the risk of making themselves look like flip-flopping hypocrites to the Arab street via Al Jazirah.

My guess then is that there will be very little further acknowledgement of any retraction of their bogus story. I think they will continue to damn the Videotape on the one hand and essentially not make any unequivocal comments of their reversal of position that would be suitable for Al Jazirah soundbites. Instead they will have Jay Carney blather on indistinctly and just wait for the PressCorps to ignore their lie and move on to other topics.

[Janet]

Dems are whining, groveling, victim LOSERS.

Two encounters at the Arlington event today...
1. a guy got his kids some GOP balloons. 2 red balloons with elephants on them & a bit later the wife came up & took the balloons away from the kids & gave them back.
She angrily fussed at the husband who looked clueless & they walked on.

2. a guy stops me to get a Romney/Ryan bumper sticker & the wife turns & curses at me (f'n something...I couldn't make it out). The husband just rolled his eyes & apologized.

Dem. men are beaten down by their women. It seems like it's the women that are so rabid.

[Extraneus]

Would Romney even need to embellish that Obama and Hillary commercial?

In the ad, Obama is seen talking about America’s tradition of religious tolerance and Clinton is seen saying that the U.S. government had nothing to do with the video that contains vulgar depiction of the Prophet Muhammad.

“We absolutely reject its content and message,” Clinton says in the advertisement.

A caption on the ad reads: “Paid Content” and it ends with the seal of the American Embassy in Islamabad,

If most Americans saw that, they'd be hurling.

[Extraneus]

Dem. men are beaten down by their women. It seems like it's the women that are so rabid.

Isn't that the real reason for the sharkfest on Sarah Palin? Does anyone really think it was Dem men in charge of that?

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

--Dem. men are beaten down by their women.--

They don't know how to keep their rights up. :) Take that however you want.

--It seems like it's the women that are so rabid.--<'i>

You're just seeing the alternative to the "patriarchal" society they're always bitchin and moanin about; a matriarchal one full of rabid crones and passive pussies.

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

Dang it.

[centralcal]

Iggy - is that Kathy's son? grandson? I mean why else would he be seen in public with her right? Has to be some sort of filial devotion.

[OldTimer]

Obama only interested in about in half of the country...

http://riehlworldview.com/?p=22725

Pagar, thanks for the 2016 movie link. I was able to watch the whole thing, but now the user has shut down the video.

[JM Hanes]

Ignatz:

"Barry's foreign policy is not only eerily similar to Jimmy Carter's but seems to me a bigger disaster. The only thing missing is some hostages."

As of 22:56 UTC, he had 314,432,830 of 'em.

[centralcal]

Amen, JMH, Amen!

"Let my people go!"

[Jim Eagle]

DC crowd: Coming up on the 14th of October for an internment in Arlington NC on the 15th. Great guy and one hell'ava engineer. Was a young Airborne in WW2 but it ended before he could see any action. Staying with daughter in Darnestown but have to leave back to Florida on Tuesday morning. Don't know how much time I'll have to meet up.

[centralcal]

Well, I am totally bummed. Made cocktails a little early. Was going to settle in and watch 2016 on YouTube - figuring it would end just about the time I would have to prepare dinner.

Alack and alas, I clicked on the link, and the video was removed. Shoot!

[Jim Ryan]

Bravo, Daddy! Fine work!

[Melinda Romanoff]

Fox is supposed to be airing 2016, tomorrow night 8 PM Central. I'll go look for the link. I don't have a Slingbox, otherwise I 'd say "Log on in!".

Back in a bit.

[OldTimer]

Snopes says the Fox 2016 airing is false. DRAT! It's a well done documentary, but I personally think D'Souza relied too much on Barry's autobiography, considering Ayer's ghostwriting and embellishing seems so plausible.

Still, the average person, unaware of much of his unusual and dysfunctional past life and the damage he's inflicted upon the country, will have a healthy serving of meat to chew on and digest.

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

--Iggy - is that Kathy's son?--

Boyfriend. I guess if she holds his hand he leaves the white cane to home.

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

--As of 22:56 UTC, he had 314,432,830 of 'em.

Posted by: JM Hanes | September 22, 2012 at 06:59 PM --

And once again we look to RR to free them.

[boatbuilder]

Great stuff, Daddy.

My late Mom, who was in many ways way ahead of her time (and would be the first to tell you) always referred to Slick Willie as "Eddie Haskell."

I don't think Obama has Eddie's appeal. He's just a jerk.

[mockmook]

Let's see if I can do this:

"Breathe (2 AM)" has been a song I long admired. I think it perfectly encapsulates the torture (and catharsis) of a songwriter writing meaningful, gut wrenching songs.

But, I never sought out the singer. She is wonderful (no one hit wonder), as this set shows (click on the picture to go to YouTube videos):

[narciso]

I had her confused with this other Gemma, who is s in a revisionist take on Hansel and Gretel, that will be released next year, in the LUN

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

I can't abide that kind of music mm but she sure is cute (a compliment she would no doubt highly value...not). :)

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

I might add she has perhaps the most unfortunate website handle on planet earth;

annanalick.com

Take your time with the permutations.

[mockmook]

BTW, she is Anna Nalick. Let me know if the YouTube link doesn't work for you guys.

[NK]

Dear all, greetings from the south of France. Taking a well earned vaca to a place where the weather is fantastic and the food better. After a day at the coast -- yes Ig there were a number of topless sunbathers, and they were worthy subjects, my wife claimed to have missed seeing them-- off to Provence tomorrow to hike some hills and taste some wine. If there ar any interesting developments I'll comment, i'm afraid my travelogues won' t be nearly as interesting or informative as Daddy's.

[Melinda Romanoff]

Thanks for clearing that up for me, OT.

[Thomas Collins]

Sounds like tough travelloging work for you, NK, but someone has to do it. Remember to keep track of time zones so your posted photos of the sunbathers don't coincide with cc's work hours! :-))

[Frau Kotz-mich-mal]

Don't miss Hair on fire (HOF) time:
IBM article for the Monday Special puts it in a timeline: Huma Mahmood Abedin is mentioned but thankfully no photos of her and Hillary! together.
LUN
It's gag me with a ladle time.

[narciso]

Well it's curious, because as even Maraniss has discovered, every account by Obama, actually has a much more 'nuanced' real life version. Hussein Onyongo, for instance, was much more appreciative
of the West, than we were given to believe, Klein,
revealed that Remnick's 'many innocent trees' that were sacrificed to build 'the Bridge'. The role of Frank Davis, who's influence is very much present
in Obama's thinking, along with De Unger, who helped conceptualize those impressions.

[Clarice]

You think Messina is telling Obamaites to ignore the polls just because....?

[Sara]

I had her confused with this other Gemma

GEMMA IS SLEEPING

(My daughter's 9 mo. old puppy.)

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

Concur completely with TC. The last thing we want is to get cc in trouble when you post your scenic French Alps shots, NK.

[Barry Dauphin]

Weren't we told that the PC revolution would lead to the paperless office? How has that prediction turned out?

[narciso]

As I pointed out, earlier, Frau, Abedin and Pandith, likely had a grand old time, fooling
Hillary into believing she was actually celebrating Eid Al Fitr, specially in light of what had happened the previous day.

[NK]

I don't know how to post photos and in the case of cote d'azur sunbathers it would be irrelevant. My wife adheres to a look but don't make a complete idiot out of yourself philosophy, so photos are not gonna happen.

[glasater]

A college classmate of mine (now doing music stuff in Nashville) was married to Kathy Griffith years ago so I sent that picture of her to a mutual friend to pass along.

Love Matt's new blog format because it loads so much more quickly.

[Charlie (Colorado)]

When Letterman sites the National Debt it's 10 Trillion, false lowballing by 6 Trillion.

Letterman was asking about at the *beginning* of Obama's term. He may have been throwing O a lifesaver, but the number was essentially right.

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

Remember when Barry said it should only take him three years to whip us back into shape and if he didn't he'd be a one term pres? Well he doesn't.
Now he says everybody knows it takes more than one term to do it.
Didn't look far but I didn't see a single pro Barry comment and this at Yahoo.

[Jane - Mock the Media!]

I just had a call from the republican party to get me to donate money. The women kept talking about how dire things are the how they need to plan their budget. SHe then asked me if she could put me down for $500.00. I told her I would give as I always have, online in an amount I could afford. She said she understood,she would put me down for $250.00.

I said, "no" I would donate when I could and what I could. So she said she would send me an envelope for $100 and hoped I would give more.

I told her again, I would give what I could on line. So she said - I'll send you an email for a $50 pledge.

I told her not to send me anything and she said she would put me down for $25.00. I said, "I don't like your tactics, as I said I will donate what I can."

And she said:

"Fine! We are going to lose this election."

My response: "You shouldn't have this job and I hope this call is recorded."

She is the kind of person who could get a person to change who they vote for.

SOmeone tell Reince.

[Captain Hate]

Kathy Griffith

Griffin! That shit's way too close as is. Makes me want to go to Wales and start hauling people out and screaming WTF.

[Sara]

On polls and the media:

Overall it's much simpler to just stop watching the media. They don't know any more than you. They just read the same sources you could read and then retell the story on camera. Read it for yourself. That's what a citizen would do.

[Clarice]

Jane, political solicitors always give you a song and dance about needing a pledge right now. I always tell them I don't respond to ANY telephone solicitations and never contribute over the phone. Then I hang up.

[Clarice]

Sara, thanks. That's an excellent article.

[sbw]

Heh. I had a survey call me at the office yesterday to ask if my business had been affected by political opinions.

I laughed, wished John Zogby my best, and told the caller that our policy is not to respond to surveys.

Before she hung up, I told her that we are a newspaper. We write editorials every day. Of course over time readers have responded to them.

[Phone Girl]

"She is the kind of person who could get a person to change who they vote for.

SOmeone tell Reince."

OK, I'll put you down for $10.

[narciso]

Is it possible, to make a greater category error, I suppose yes, but I wouldn't want to try;

http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2012/09/20/the-radical-right-wing-roots-of-occupy-wall-street/