Bad user interface design? The sign is a directional lane indicator. The light is the direction you are driving if you want to get on the road that the sign is indicating. We understand these kinds of instructions, but they seem counter-intuitive when taken out of context. o

Several of you have written or commented asking me my thoughts about Governor Sarah Palin’s sudden resignation. I’ve been keeping a links notepad, hoping to find time to publish it. As you might imagine, we’re a little pre-occupied over here and a lot tired as well.

My thoughts, which should surprise no one: Palin was a horrible pick for McCain. The only thing that saved McCain’s career was that he didn’t resign from the Senate. Ultimately, the need for McCain to pander to the extreme views of the GOP core contributed to his disastrous VP pick and as time passed in the campaign, it was obvious that McCain’s decision-making abilities were called into question by independent voters.

Palin, kept her Alaska job as a fallback, but rather than finish the job she was elected for, decided to quit. Palin wasn’t (and isn’t) fit for national office, screamingly obvious in even the softest of interviews during the 2008 election as well as in the interviews following her surprise resignation.

The very core of the conservative base, the most fringy, the most extreme absolutely love Palin and apparently can look past things like coherent sentence construction and ability to function off-script. I’m glad she resigned. Nothing would please me more than seeing her vie for the White House in 2012. I thnk Palin is taking Obama’s Audacity of Hope to heart. I just wonder if conservatives can look past her bailing on her government job.

* * *

We begin the link cavalcade with the piece in Vanity Fair that may have caused the resignation. It’s not pretty.

This piece from Slate points out her incoherence and how her frustrations are weirdly inverted. Choice bit:

“Once you understand that Palin’s only actual message is the importance of loving and understanding Palin, it becomes easier to understand why she quit.”

Conservatives spinning it on Fox News:

“From a messaging standpoint Palin is perfect. She is also the only one who can reasonably argue that she hasn’t been part of either the Republican or Democratic web of Washington politics. No bailouts, big spending, or Buenos Aires lust romps.”

Pitch perfect? If no ability to form a sentence that says anything remotely resembling clear, lucid, coherent thought is perfection then I want what Fox News is smoking. Quitting mid-term is good? Quitting is a family value? Not governing = good?

People who live in real political life like Virginia gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell aren’t too sure about Palin’s motives:

“But McDonnell also predicted the contest would not be affected by any high-profile endorsements on either side and professed confusion about Palin’s abrupt decision to leave office with 18 months left in her term.”

“‘I don’t know how this recent announcement — which I still don’t fully understand; I only know what I’ve read in the media — how that fully plays out and whether she’s going to prefer a private life or whether she still wants to stay actively involved,’ McDonnell said.”

Watch this video:

from this story at LATimes.com.

This cutting gem from a blog at the Washington Post:

“Sarah Palin should live up to her self-proclaimed Christian ‘family values’ and do what she says is the moral thing to do: put her family first and help those who cannot help themselves.”

This column from the Chicago Tribune about Palin’s staying power and compares Palin & Harriet Meiers (the failed Supreme Court nominee before Alito was nominated). This column plays the babe card.

Disputing the “millions of dollars spent” line from her resignation:
Is this piece:

“A large part of the Palin administration’s $1.9 million cost breakdown is $560,800 for state personnel board work on ethics complaints. But the board itself recently gave a much smaller figure — $300,000 — for hiring outside investigators for the complaints, nearly all of which have been dismissed. Perez said the difference is the larger number represents contracts for services not yet billed.

“Around two-thirds of the $300,000 that has been spent was in addressing the ‘Troopergate’ issue last fall. Palin herself initiated the personnel board investigation on ‘Troopergate,’ saying that the state Legislature’s investigation of the matter was politicized and she was seeking the appropriate venue to deal with it. The Palin administration cost breakdown also includes what’s calculated as more than $100,000 worth of per-hour state lawyer time related to the Legislature’s investigation of the ‘Troopergate’ affair. The Legislature’s report found Palin abused her power, while the personnel board’s investigator disagreed.”

A long way from non-elite hockey mom to the conservative elite in Washington DC.

I think I agree most with this straightforward piece from boston.com:

“Palin was unprepared for the national spotlight, and quickly looked unqualified.”

Conservatives can whine all they want that Palin has been “mistreated” in the media. It’s not mistreatment if you can’t explain yourself or answer simple questions about your statements. The problem is that when you deal with a narcissist, they see themselves as above everybody else; narcissists only care what you think about them. As it’s clearly been seen, the media has a love/hate thing going with Palin. She likely puts butts in the seats, but when she opens her mouth, nothing of substance ever comes out. Palin is the perfect illustration of what’s wrong with the GOP. All PR and image, no ideas. By all means, nominate her for president. If she can’t handle being a governor of a lesser state, there’s no way she can handle being commander-in-chief.

Finally this bit of snark from Maureen Dowd. Rawr.

How long until we hear about her Fox News talk show? o

I wasn’t sure these would grow where we planted them as we were rushing against a storm, but I think planting them right before they got drenched helped them thrive.

I think I want an all purple garden next year. The pollinators have to get on down inside to do their work, but what a great trip that is, surrounded in delicious purple funk. I’m not sure, but if you listen next to these plants, there is a continuous loop of Prince playing. It’s tight. o

With a newborn comes increased coffee consumption. Since it’s summer, this is the iced variant. It’s really good if you let the raw sugar dissolve in the brewing cup before you pour it over ice. The skim milk patterns are really awesome and when you’re working on no sleep or maybe 1.78 hours of sleep, the patterns can help you drift. o

These are the blooms that will die and produce the demon pods seen here.

Such beautiful horror. o

The ever comical dog preening in the morning sun. She’s a diva. o

There has been some criticism of US Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius’ remarks regarding the notion of a private insurance monopoly in the U.S.:

“We want to make this work. We understand the status quo is unacceptable. We understand we have to do something this year. And we also understand that an insurance monopoly with only private companies doesn’t hold down costs.”

See her on NewsHour:

Before I share links of examples of monopolistic behaviors amongst healthcare companies and the lawsuits that are a result of these monopolies, I want to add that the market has had decades to increase competition and differentiate on quality of care, services offered, cost and any number of features. That the private industry cannot and will not cover everybody is a market failure to provide a basic human right: access to healthcare for every citizen.

I found this 109 page PDF on the Healthcare for America Now website. Of note:

“If they chose to, private insurers could use their market power to drive hard bargains and lower costs, but instead they have passed along these costs through higher premiums to enrollees and employers.”

and:

This page shows U.S. Insurance Market Concentration by State using 2007 data. (Here’s a more legible PDF)

The most populous states have better insurance “options”, but one still has to qualify to be insured and the premiums in New York and California are about what most people in the U.S. pay on their mortgage.

Links about lawsuits & settlements
From 2006 NYTimes: Doctors’ Group Sues Two Insurers, Charging Unfair Coercion

From 2006 medicalnewstoday.com: Lawsuit Claims Several Health Care Systems Conspired To Fix Pay For Nurses

From 2007 NYTimes: Hospital Sues Insurer, Charging Conspiracy

From early 2009 Reuters: UnitedHealth settles payment suits for $350 million

From 2006 FierceHealthcare.com: HealthOne fights UnitedHealth suit (This is awesome! UnitedHealth claimed that HCA was using anti-competitive practices! HCA fought back.)

From today’s Wall Street Journal: Big Health Firms Underpay Claims

In all of these links, the behavior of the insurance companies are anti-competitive and indicative of what happens when monopolies exist.

The longer I research and write about healthcare reform, the harder I’m leaning toward scrapping the health insurance industry and advocating a single payer system. The stories and behaviors of private companies are horrifying. I can be a realist sometimes. We are not in a climate where single payer is going to happen. However, I believe we are in a climate where a public option is a must. No real change is going to happen unless there is an option for everybody to be covered. Private industry will not do it. It’s time for the government to step in. o

Since we’re talking healthcare I thought I’d share a few more links from around the web today. Jason over at kottke.org posted an update to a previous kottke.org post linking to articles on issues around healthcare costs in the U.S. healthcare system. The first linked article is from the New Yorker and profiles McAllen, Texas, the most expensive city for healthcare in the U.S. The primary point to the New Yorker article is the view that McAllen’s expensive healthcare is due to “overutilization”, the practice of over-testing, over-treating and defensive medicine. One of the critques of the New Yorker piece is that it didn’t address the poverty and unhealthy populace. The author of the original responds here. It’s all really good stuff and should help those who have commented on blurbomat™ the past few days in our conversation on healthcare reform.

The kottke.org updates also include a link to this 2008 video of Dr. Peter Orszag’s lecture to the Illinois College of Business. Dr. Orszag is the Director of the Office of Management and Budget for the White House.

NPR’s Talk of the Nation’s Science Friday talked about healthcare reform and cost control last Friday, mentioning McAllen among other things. Listen here.

It’s clear that the solutions ahead will involve every area of the existing healthcare environment. Cost cuts, salary, tort reform, tuition help (including a living expense grant/help), patient education and more. With all of the powerful lobbies involved, it’s going to take a vocal populace to move forward. o

Saw this over at TPM:

Why the Critics of a Public Option for Health Care Are Wrong | Robert Reich’s Blog

Reich makes several great points. o