The Seattle Times reports that Walgreens and Bartell Drugs chains are no longer accepting new Medicaid patients for prescriptions.  Walgreens says “the state Medicaid program is reimbursing Walgreens below its cost to break even on nearly 95 percent of brand-name medications dispensed to Medicaid patents.”

The report continues: “Washington was reimbursing pharmacies 86 percent of a drug's average wholesale price until July, when it began paying them just 84 percent.”

Why even lower since?: “Then in September came another blow. The adjusted wholesale price is calculated by a private company, which was accused in a Massachusetts lawsuit of fraudulently inflating its figures. The company did not admit wrongdoing but agreed in a court settlement to ratchet its figures down by about 4 percent.”

Thanks to our honorary New Englander team for keeping Maggie's flowing with stuff while we are without power up here at Maggie's HQ in Yankeeland (photo).

As of this afternoon, I see utility trucks from Quebec, Ohio, and Maryland buzzing around. I also hear rumors of a union slowdown during contract negotiations...no way to confirm that, of course.

Dad-daughter exchange from early a few mornings ago:

Dad, where's the yellow flashlight?

Honey, if I could find a dang flashlight I could find the yellow flashlight.

The VetVoice Foundation’s poll of Iraq and Afghanistan vets’ attitudes toward Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell says that:

[B]y six points Iraq and Afghanistan veterans under age 35 lean toward favoring allowing gay and lesbian people to serve openly (41% favor to 35% oppose) while veterans over age 35 lean toward opposing by five points (31% favor, 36% oppose).  This recent bipartisan survey, conducted among service members in the United States, in many ways runs counter to the idea being asserted by many, that service members and the military cannot handle this change and are unwilling to do so.

That may or may not be so.  The poll itself, however, has some problems.

1. Its service composition is off. The poll has the following service who say they served in Iraq or Afghanistan, 50% Army, 12% Marines, 18% Navy, 22% Air Force.  According to Stars and Stripes in March 2008, for example, when most who’d served had been in Iraq, 73% were in the Army, 18% in the Marines, 3% in the Navy, and 6% in the Air Force.

2. The poll does not distinguish those in combat units (although many in non-combat units often were subject to hostile fire).  One of the key considerations regarding Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell is how it may affect combat effectiveness.

3. The methodology of the poll is clouded. Proper polling standards require full disclosure of the methodology.  This poll doesn’t. This is all it says:

* Methods:  Lake Research Partners and American Viewpoint designed and administered this survey, which was conducted by phone using professional interviewers.  The survey reached a total of 510 veterans of Operation Iraqi Freedom (Iraq) and/or Operation Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan).   The survey was conducted February 8-23, 2010.  Telephone numbers for the sample were generated randomly from a military sample and a radius sample drawn from military bases in the United States.  The margin of error for the total sample is +/- 4.4 percentage points.

The respondents’ answer to whether they served and to where is self-reporting and unverified.  How the sample was chosen is not detailed nor its representative validity presented. And, as seen in point 1 above, the service composition is off, and from point 2 above a critical question not asked.

4. The sponsoring organization is partisan.  Although claiming the pollsters themselves “designed and administered” it, it is frequent that sponsoring organizations influence the design.  VetsVoice Chairman is John Soltz, and only one vet Board Member is listed, J. Ashwin Madia.

On John Soltz (who supported disgraced Democrat congressman Eric Massa):

Mass was endorsed by the tough guy Veterans Political Action Committee (PAC) VoteVets. VoteVets is led by tough guys like Jon Soltz, a veteran of four months of duty in a division extended for fifteen months in Iraq. So far since 2006, VoteVets (click here for the This Ain’t Hell breakdown) has lied about Body Armor issues in a multi-million dollar campaign commercial used against Senator George Allen, had another veteran lie about his service in a Missouri Senate campaign commercial for Claire McCaskill.  Still following? VoteVets used a veteran who lied about being a veteran in Denver. A veteran who is not a veteran. There are lies and then there are VoteVets’ Richard Strandlof who is now facing jail time for claiming to be a wounded warrior.

For the past week,  Massa has further disgraced VoteVets in a gay scandal.

This is the legacy of VoteVets. You can’t blame them. When you are so desperate to prove your argument, even though you are absent factual truth or first hand testimony, you tend to get that guy on camera quick. So when you meet a fellow defeatist, pro-victimizing veteran, you grab them with both arms. Sometimes vetting these liberal “war heroes” would a good idea. But if Jon Soltz and VoteVets vetted everyone in their group claiming to have served in a combat zone, hell even Jon Soltz wouldn’t be a member of VoteVets.

On J. Ashwin Madia (who served as a Marine JAG in Iraq, defeated as a Democrat for Congress in 2008: “The district was ranked as one of the top ten most likely to switch parties in 2008. However, after a challenging campaign, the district remained in the Republican column.”):

I have experience advocating on behalf of unemployed people, immigrants, disabled children, battered women, and the LGBT community. In fact, I was one of the first marines to successfully defend a gay marine from “don’t ask, don’t tell.”

Although influenced by Obama, I prefer to wait for the Department of Defense to complete and issue its study of Don't Ask/Don't Tell, in progress.

P.S.: I just received an Excel worksheet from the Defense Department's Press Operations Center breaking down by service and various demographics all those deployed from September 2001-January 2010.  I'd be happy to email a copy to the pollsters or journalists.

Some interesting background on St. Patrick's Day here

Writing On The Wall Dept: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are back

An analysis of what happens if ObamaCare passes

Here's a study that estimates nearly a third of all doctors might quit their practice of OCare passes

If you think "Cap-and-Trade" is dead, you'd better read this

Join the crowd: Blockbuster may file for bankruptcy

Great news: British kids are even dumber than American kids

Like other fans of golf, I've been following the Tiger Woods story and ogling the hot babes feeling sorry for the poor chap, but, like the guy who screamed "Shut up and sing!" at Barbra Streisand when she launched into some anti-Bush tirade at one of her concerts, I think Tiger should have gotten back to golf a lot sooner than this.  Of late, the general consensus has been that the upcoming Masters would be the best venue in which to return, but here's a guy who thinks he should come back sooner, and here's one who thinks later.

Erick Erickson, founder of RedState, moves on to CNN.  Congrats, Erick!

A nifty little links site called Linkiest gave us their 'site of the day' honor last Thursday, so we'll return the favor.  An interesting, eclectic daily set of links.

Fans of 'Avatar' might want to check out TigerHawk's intriguing feathers quandary, and my intense analysis of what many are deeming "the most critical cinematic question of our time." (at least, they are in my mind)

And if you're wondering why the power is out at Maggie's HQ, the answer should be obvious

Now, Medicare popularity did improve after it passed.  On the other hand, it wasn't passed despite terrible polling, with a controversial process, by a political party that was tanking in popularity thanks to a grinding recession.

Nor was Medicare partisan.

Summary of Party Affiliation on Medicare Vote 1965

SENATE

YEA NAY NOT VOTING

Democrats 57 7 4

Republicans 13 17 2

HOUSE

YEA NAY NOT VOTING

Democrats 237 48 8

Republicans 70 68 2

Source: http://www.ssa.gov/history/law.html

The old strategy rested on a global network of formal military and political alliances, mostly though not exclusively with fellow democracies. The idea, Averell Harriman explained in 1947, was to create "a balance of power preponderantly in favor of the free countries." Under Bill Clinton, and the two Bushes, relations with Europe and Japan, and later India, were deepened and strengthened.

What has Obama replaced it with:

Israelis shouldn't feel that they have been singled out. In Britain, people are talking about the end of the "special relationship" with America and worrying that Obama has no great regard for the British, despite their ongoing sacrifices in Afghanistan. In France, President Nicolas Sarkozy has openly criticized Obama for months (and is finally being rewarded with a private dinner, presumably to mend fences). In Eastern and Central Europe, there has been fear since the administration canceled long-planned missile defense installations in Poland and the Czech Republic that the United States may no longer be a reliable guarantor of security.

Meanwhile:

Who has attracted attention in the Obama administration? The answer, so far, seems to be not America's allies but its competitors, and in some cases its adversaries. If there were a way to measure administration exertion in foreign policy, the meter would show the greatest concentration of energy, beyond the war in Afghanistan, has been devoted to four endeavors: the failed first-year attempt to improve relations with Iran; the ongoing attempt to improve relations with Russia; the stalled effort to improve cooperation with China; and the effort -- fruitless so far -- to prove to the Arab states that the United States is willing to pressure Israel to further the peace process. Add to these the efforts to improve relations with Syria, engage Burma and everything with Af-Pak, and not much has been left for the concerns of our allies.

Obama's Wiley Coyote foreign policy is taking the US and its allies over the cliff with him.

Here in San Diego, it's 80-degrees and sunny.  So, walking on the beach I happened upon a what I consider a Leprechaun's pot-o-gold, at the other end of the rainbow from Bird Dog.

But, there’s a difference between taking a position that is defensible at the time and later recognizing publicly that one was wrong, as experience may dictate.

Yesterday afternoon, I looked forward to one of Hugh Hewitt’s informed, civil discussions on his radio show with former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney about RomneyCare.  After the first question, isn’t it proof that ObamaCare will be harmful or something like that, to which Romney replied that it didn’t contain some of the extra bads of ObamaCare or something like that, their phone connection was lost.

Personally, I tend to like Romney.  It’s true that the Mass. legislature went a bit to his Left in the final bill and since.  But, what else is to be expected when dealing with a Democrat legislature or one that has many Democrats or if trying to be bipartisan with Democrats? Further, the fact remains that the original bill went in the wrong direction, though not quite as far as ObamaCare.

The consequences, then, of RomneyCare are particularly applicable to ObamaCare.  If part way to ObamaCare has yielded such results as in Massachusetts, then ObamaCare (which Romney has opposed) will be even more harmful.

Grace Marie-Turner of the Galen Institute gives us some details in a Wall Street Journal op-ed today.  It is behind the WSJ subscription wall, but here it is (via the Galen Institute website) below the fold:

Mary Pickford, Lillian Gish, Gloria Swanson, Marlene Dietrich, Norma Shearer, Ruth Chatterton, Jean Harlow, Katharine Hepburn, Carole Lombard, Bette Davis, Greta Garbo, Barbara Stanwyck, Vivien Leigh, Greer Garson, Hedy Lamarr, Rita Hayworth, Gene Tierney, Olivia de Havilland, Ingrid Bergman, Joan Crawford, Ginger Rogers, Loretta Young, Deborah Kerr, Judy Garland, Anne Baxter, Lauren Bacall, Susan Hayward, Ava Gardner, Marilyn Monroe, Grace Kelly, Lana Turner, Elizabeth Taylor, Kim Novak, Audrey Hepburn, Dorothy Dandridge, Shirley MacLaine, Natalie Wood, Rita Moreno, Janet Leigh, Brigitte Bardot, Sophia Loren, Ann Margret, Julie Andrews, Raquel Welch, Tuesday Weld, Jane Fonda, Julie Christie, Faye Dunaway, Catherine Deneuve, Jacqueline Bisset, Candice Bergen, Isabella Rossellini, Diane Keaton, Goldie Hawn, Meryl Streep, Susan Sarandon, Jessica Lange, Michelle Pfeiffer, Sigourney Weaver, Kathleen Turner, Holly Hunter, Jodie Foster, Angela Bassett, Demi Moore, Sharon Stone, Meg Ryan, Julia Roberts, Salma Hayek, Sandra Bullock, Julianne Moore, Diane Lane, Nicole Kidman, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Angelina Jolie, Charlize Theron, Reese Witherspoon, Halle Berry

Men of film:

Douglas Fairbanks Sr., Rudolph Valentino, Charlie Chaplin, James Cagney, Spencer Tracy, Fredric March, Errol Flynn, Fred Astaire, Clark Gable, Laurence Olivier, Gary Cooper, Humphrey Bogart, James Stewart, Tyrone Power, Cary Grant, Henry Fonda, Robert Mitchum, John Wayne, Kirk Douglas, Gene Kelly, Burt Lancaster, William Holden, Marlon Brando, James Dean, Rock Hudson, Montgomery Clift, Anthony Quinn, Gregory Peck, Richard Burton, Jack Lemmon, Sean Connery, Sidney Poitier, Charlton Heston, Steve McQueen, Peter O'Toole, Paul Newman, Clint Eastwood, Robert Redford, Dustin Hoffman, Roy Scheider, Warren Beatty, Dennis Hopper, Al Pacino, Jack Nicholson, Robert De Niro, Gene Hackman, Jon Voight, Harrison Ford, Kevin Kline, Kevin Costner, Michael Douglas, Christopher Walken, Mel Gibson, Sean Penn, John Travolta, Antonio Banderas, Tim Robbins, Samuel L. Jackson, Tom Hanks, Denzel Washington, Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, Russell Crowe, Kevin Spacey, Will Smith, Jamie Foxx, Leonardo DiCaprio, Johnny Depp, Matt Damon, George Clooney

“Middle East policy has become an issue in this race, and that is because the U.S. Senate plays a vitally important role in national security decisions. President Obama said the relationship between the U.S. and Israel is ‘unshakable.’ Now his administration says our alliance is at risk over the construction of homes in Jerusalem,” said Fiorina. “Like most Americans, I believe Jerusalem is the capital of Israel. It’s clear that the threat to peace comes from those committed to Israel’s destruction, not those building new houses and schools in Jerusalem.”

Last week, the Israeli government announced plans to construct a new settlement in East Jerusalem in an area that is not part of the settlement construction moratorium. Vice President Biden and other members of the Obama Administration derided the move. As a result, the United States’ relationship with Israel has been weakened, and many experts agree the action has damaged progress toward peace in the region.

“The Obama Administration has failed even to restart peace talks between the two sides, despite the unprecedented concessions of the current Israeli government. We should not allow a zoning decision to undermine our relationship with Israel,” continued Fiorina. “It’s time to tone down the hysterical rhetoric of the Vice President and the Secretary of State and instead put the onus on the Palestinians to return to the negotiating table without any preconditions and without further delay. And today, I am calling on Barbara Boxer to add her voice to those in the Senate who have challenged the Administration on this matter.”

Regardless of the latest Rasmussen poll, if Campbell and DeVore are not capable of reaching a conclusion and quickly speaking out on an important issue, how will either get ahead of or respond in a timely manner to Barbara Boxer during a campaign?

I suspect that it is a genetic defect specific to married women which causes them to object to the heavenly fragrance of the finest legal and illegal cigars.

Before you marry the gal, she will have no problem with the habit. After you marry them, all you hear about is how the smoke gets in the draperies and upholstery and the insanely-expensive "window treatments."

I have a friend who installed an old 12" brass ship ventilator next to his desk in his library containing a powerful fan, exiting out the wall. A custom design with a baffle to keep snopw from blowing in, and very cool.

In order to preserve an otherwise acceptable marriage, many hedonistic fellows have thought long and hard about how to smoke indoors, and to avoid the humiliating and less-than-relaxing experience of having your smoke out in the rain and blow and snow like a naughty child who has been banned from home and hearth. As a commenter on a relevant site says:

I smoke cigars and can only indulge once in a blue moon and that is basically because I have to go outside to smoke them, I can only smoke during seasons when it's not too hot or too cold, there's nothing to do while smoking, etc. I'd like to have a room where I can smoke a cigar while sitting in a leather chair and watching some TV or a movie or listening to some music. Also I'd like a place where I can play poker with my friends and not have to force them out of the house to smoke cigarettes.

Well, OK. I guess every married guy is pussy-whipped to some extent (and often enough for good reason - many males seem not to domesticate well).

The cheapest solution is to create a negative pressure in your home smoking areas with a cheap window fan like this.

A more expensive solution is a powerful ceiling vent, like a kitchen fan.

The so-called "air purifiers" are a joke, in my view - and especially if you are the sort who likes to have some windows open in your house.  Unlike Al Gore, you cannot purify the planet.

If you have a basement man cave, something like this makes sense.

If readers have any useful ideas short of evicting the spouse or of provoking one's own eviction, please share them.

As the races for governor heat up in thirty-six states, the question of how to fix troubled state-sponsored pension plans may be one of the most challenging that candidates will have to face. State pension plans are underfunded by $3.2 trillion when misguided accounting practices are corrected according to research by Joshua D. Rauh, an associate professor of finance at the Kellogg School of Management, and Robert Novy-Marx at the University of Chicago, published in the Journal of Economic Perspectives. Furthermore, because pension funds are highly exposed to market risks, there is only a 5 percent chance that they will perform well enough to meet the needs of retirees in fifteen years.

Re: Freedom Of Information Act requests and denials during Obama's administration:

Not just fewer, but over ten percent fewer requests.  Putting those numbers together, the Bush administration had a denial rate of 9.6%.  The Obama administration has a denial rate of 15.9%.   Which President promised more transparency?  And why is the press 10% less interested in the inner workings of government now than it was in 2008?

But, he needn't fear the effect of high winds.  Al Gore's blowhardiness will save him in the future.  Al Gore blames global warming.

I wonder when he's going to blame global warming for my burnt toast this morning.