Cody talks Challenge!!

OK here's the Codytalks challenge for today:

Go here.

or here's the link.

http://www.whatsuphutch.com/View-all-Community-Blogs/view/252/.html

Now I am asking you to do one of 2 things.

Either...

1. Take 5 mins and send that link to everyone you know that lives in Reno County area and encourage them to forward it with a message on how cool "Third Thursdays"is gonna be and how if they went they would have a blast, see some cool art, hear some groovy local music, and get to see some cool shops in the process. It's completely free unless you decide to buy something.

or

2. Use the comment section to tell me why you didn't send that email.



*** This is not a big deal where I am all wound up about whether or not you actually do this, it would be very cool if you did. I am just excited about this event. I love that the Merchant's got together and made this happen without going to City Council meetings and making the city turn them down for funds because the city is in a budget crunch right now. This post and this little challenge is just me trying to find every way possible to support it.

I will send the email, will you?

Ok let's lighten it up a little!!!

If you have any Hutchinson Ks connection, you will be interested to know we have a Best Burger Contest going on, click here to vote. (Click on "Our Survey" towards upper right hand corner to vote.)


And here's a video of my wife causing her and my daughter to go flying off a inner tube in the middle of Table Rock Lake... Sorry hun!

Cody's Health care plan.

I started typing a comment to kinda sum up how I felt about the comments on this post (which were all incredible by the way) and it got so stupid long... I just made it a post. Here it is:

See Nate,

I told you this (for me anyway..) has been very educational.

He is where I am sitting opinion wise.

Current system is broke, no doubt in my mind.

I still don't have faith in Government controlled health care working because we are so far down the road into this system we have now... I am just not sure it could work. Now, I would really love it if no one took my last sentence to read as "Government health care is stupid and Obama hates babies" not what I said, I just can't see how the transition could happen. Even after reading the plan on Obama's website, I think the for profit health care people will make it impossible. Please don't take that sentence to read "I love people that over charge for health care and little bity pills" I don't but they are big and powerful and have the ability to screw things up.

What I do see working is improvements. On 3 different fronts.

1. We need to upgrade the system to the point of making it WAY more affordable. Obama deals with that in his plan a lot and I like that. The stickler that someone has to enforce is actually making the price go down once the efficiency is increased. That would be alot easier if the whole thing was non-profit, I give you that. I just don't see in our nation how you are ever gonna take this colossal beast that is for profit health care and just change it that much. Anyway lot's of ways to work to get it to be cheaper, Obama details alot of those in the plan and I am behind them all. The details are there in his plan, I like details but I don't want to retype them so go read Obama's plan. Dillons and Wal-Mart are now offering $4.00 subscriptions, with or with out a card. Period, it's $4! I know some medicines aren't incl;uded.... But it's proof there are ways to simplify and lower the cost of the system.

2. Pay for those who CAN'T pay for themselves. CAN'T physically/mentally work and pay for themselves. There needs to be mass oversight on this. The expense upfront of overseeing this will be big, but it will be nothing compared to the expense if we let it get taken advantage of. My plan for this is to find the best plan for these people and pay a private insurance companies premiums for it. Point number 2 deals with the elderly, disabled and children, that's it, they can be "point 2 people". We just pay for them, if they can't pay for it themselves, mass oversight of the program as well as mass oversight of the premiums the insurance companies are charging the government. Should be turned out to lowest adequate bidder, not as a cross country plan... On a case by case basis it is bid out. Point 2 kids need to become Point 3 people as soon as they turn 18.

3. Pay for those who can't afford it Right NOW as well. Point 3 deals with the working poor/lower middle class whose employer doesn't provide health care. These plans should not be the best plan possible. They should be able to handle small medical bills. They can pay some of a co-pay. These should be moderately catastrophic plans. Take care of them for something big but they get a cut that needs a few stitches... They gotta take some of the bill, they have jobs, or they could have jobs, cause they aren't Point 2 people. Here's the kicker... this is a blue light special, limited time only offer. You can get on the program fast and immediately, but it will all be coordinated with a Job Corps, Welfare Assistance, Financial Education Programs and any other educational/ financial programs.It will have a goal date that you must be off.

It shouldn't be set up so when you walk into the office to get Point number 3 health care, they hand you a brochure about the possibility of you going to Job Corps classes and Welfare Assistance Classes and the other... You have a case manager who sees to it that you go to those things because they are all under one roof, or you aren't eligible for the system. And a plan, a no kidding plan with a finish line that gets you off the system.

Oversight, overisght, oversight..... that's the key. Will it get distorted? Yes. Can the distortion be controlled? Yes and... it has to be. Spend the money upfront to oversee. Spend the money upfront to realize folks don't/won't go to 15 different places to get all the help they need. Our current system of helping folks in need is so complicated that all they end up taking the time to do is deal with the one place where they actually get the money. (Please know that I realize that is a stereotype and that there are some people out there doing everything right to better their situation.)

I think the whole system of aiding those that are in need, for whatever reason, is broke and if we just hand out health care.... It will not fix that system, it will be fought by the for profit Health Care people so hard, that the speedbumps it incurs may be insurmountable and it just won't work. And we aren't helping people to help themselves. Please don't take that last sentence and spin it into "Screw 'em, they are on their own", not what I said but we gotta help them to get to a situation where they can help themselves if they are capable.

I kinda made this up on the fly, so feel free to tear holes, but I want to summarize.

My 3 points, really 4.

1. Make the system more affordable, both Obama and McCain (I went and checked McCain's so I wouldn't leave him out, Obamas plan is more detailed though) give details, you just gotta oversee it.

2. Starting tomorrow pay for everything for those who can't, period. If they are never gonna be able to pay a medical bill becuase of physical/mentally reasons. Pay for their premiums. and the bill afterwards. This needs to be overseen bigtime. Oversight in the beginning will lead to huge savings in waste in the future.

3. Pay for those who can't afford it RIGHT NOW as well. They need to be on catastrophic plans. They can pay the $20 co-pay when the kid needs stitches. There has to be a plan to get the #3 group off the plan as well. The plan to get them off the plan, depends on my number 4 below and Oversight, Oversight, Oversight.

4. This is actually the big kicker now that I have reread this novel. All of the systems to help those who need help need to be moved under one roof. It needs to become one system to Aid people and not 40 programs that half of the folks that could use them don't get exposed to.

If a woman walks into the new "Department of Help" cause her husband beat her up threw her out and she has no-where to go with the kids. She needs to be able to, in that building, get Health Insurance immediately, just BAM! No shit...here's your card for you and all your kids, while we get the rest of this figured out. That card for right now would cover everything and then gradually see will be moved to a point 3 person. On the spot, immediately receive a vision card so her kids never miss a meal, the card has gigantic limitations and each month the refill of it has to be reapproved starting at the 6 month mark. She will meet with a job counselor, right there, in that building. She will literally be immediately taken to a semi-permanent apartment that she can stay in as long as she meets the criteria. Her kids will receive a physical the next day and be delivered to a school. She will be picked up bright and early to be taken to look for a job. In the evenings, the same Case manager will pick her up, provide a sitter for the kids and take her to her financial responsibility classes. No kidding, pick her up and take her. If she doesn't go, the benefits go away and we just take care of the kids. People want help, we just have to make sure they get the kind they need and all of it. This all sounds expense, but I htink if we did this for a year, it would be cheaper than her being on vision card with her kids for the next 10 years.

OK here's the deal, this plan may have so many holes that it would just sink. I just started typing. So... please feel free to tear it up and down, but don't be an ass. I just admitted it may suck, I just want folks to talk about it.

I do believe right now that it would work, I don't think the fact that we have 47 million with out health care is a seperate issue from the fact that we have XX million homeless and XX million on food stamps and XX million orphaned kids without homes and XX Million unemployed.

I also no this, it's corny as shit but the Give a man a fish... parable is gigantic, I have been there and I promise you the lessons people helped me learn were way better than the charity. I know sometimes you gotta have the charity but... we also gotta teach them to fish.

My two dorks on the first day of school!

Taken just before they got out of the car to go into school.
Having a 6th grader and a 3rd grader can make a guy feel old.
Cody Heitschmidt
www.codytalks.com
www.whatsuphutch.com
Sent from my BlackBerry

Health Care Discussion.

Ok I truly think Michael Moore has done somethings that are more dispicable than almost anyone else.
I am gonna put all my thoughts about the guy aside cause I really want to have an unbiased discussion with the people here I respect.

He thinks we should have Government mandated, controlled and funded health care. He equates it to police and fire services. That comparison kinda seemed crazy to me right off the bat but I wanna be open minded.

He and Oprah just posed the question to us all "Do you think the child of a gas station attendant and the child of an investment banker deserve the same health care." I think its an loaded question but let's throw it out there.

This is one I have an opinion on... But, I think it might be wrong. I wanna learn!!
Cody Heitschmidt
www.codytalks.com
www.whatsuphutch.com
Sent from my BlackBerry

Joel Stein is the problem.

This is not a knock on the Hutch News... They are looking for content and this moron and his employer obviously allowed them to syndicate it. But this article in my opinion should be framed in the Smithsonian as the leading cause of "I am right and you are wrong", biased crap that keeps us from actually getting anything done.

Joel Stein and writers like him cause more problems with articles like this than any politician ever caused. If you want to know more about Joel Stein here's his wikipedia page. Basically he is a want to be comedian whose has made a big name for himself ridiculing everything. He got real controversial with his "Warriors and Wusses" article where he in fact said that all American Fighting men and women should be held to blame for things because they signed up to be tools of American Imperialism. On second thought... This is knock on the Hutch News, why the hell are you syndicating this guy?

Anyway this specific article... this guy is a jerk and here's my argument specific to this article.

My argument is... He is right. Oil is Oil no matter where it comes from. He is right, Foreign Oil independence will not solve any environmental problems instantly or on it's on accord. He is right, it would be nice if foreign countries had to deal with all negative aesthetics that came will drilling and pumping for oil. He is right that both McCain and Obama are saying these things to get more votes.

He is a jackass because... His whole professional existence does nothing but create divides and unwarranted divisions among people. He is leading people (and I guarantee they are following because this is a news source publishing the column) to believe that foreign oil independence as a goal is a bad idea. He is a jackass because this article will influence people into being against the idea of being independent of foreign oil. He is a jackass because the article that really made him (in)famous was a huge diatribe against American Imperialism and he refuses to see or admit or just write about the fact that the instant we are energy independent... That thing that he calls "American Imperialism" would shrink in gigantic ways. He is a jackass because... The bottom of his website says... "I am the guy who loves porn and hates America", it all kinda starts to seem more real and less of a joke after reading his stuff. He is a shock jock with a pen instead of a microphone, he is Rush Limbaugh with even more of an agenda, he basically is a comedian whose writings are being printed in news sources and that is the problem. Heck... I think some of his stuff is funny... Not the "Warriors and Wusses" and definitely not this Crap today... But some of his stuff is funny.

What possible argument can be made to not look for a way to not rely on the Middle East or any other foreign country for our complete existence. I know there is negatives... I said he was right about a lot of the points in his article. But this is the best possible immediate solution to get MORE of our troops home from all over the World. The people in the World who are the maddest at us are the maddest at us because of our involvement in places that we are involved in because of oil. People in this country that deprioritize issues like the environment, economy, whatever issue you think is important, deprioritize those issues because they are more concerned about the war or energy. All of the issues, environment, energy, economy, national pride, foreign affairs, all of them would make steps forward if we were Energy Independent.

The Environment would be better because we would have control of all of the drilling, production practices that are involved in producing oil for us. The environment would also benefit because we would just have more time and money to dedicate to it.

The Economy would benefit because we would be keeping $700 billion here. We would also produce jobs that would help our economy. A better economy leads to more time and money and ability to prioritize efforts towards renewable energy. Oh and also just a better economy.

National Pride... Whether or not you think this is a issue, I think it is. I am not talking about blind-patriot flag waving pride, I am that guy, but don't think everyone needs to be. I do think we would be way better off if as a whole across the nation we had more national pride. Energy Independence would lead to an increase. Please don't come back with ridiculous arguments that it wouldn't be perfect. I never said it would, in fact I am assuring you it will never be perfect, we should have a plan to make it better, not perfect.

Foreign Affairs... If we didn't have gigantic oil interests in the middle east we could offer to help them with things with the truest of intentions and not offer to help with good intentions but always having oil laying on the table. We could also drastically decrease our Armed Forces presence abroad, at least in the places that they are set to protect our oil interests. Less troops abroad is good if/when it is possible.

Energy Independence is a good thing... Period. The jury is still out on the best way to do it, but if we get it done, there is no doubt it will improve our situation. As far Mr. Stein's statement that offshore drilling won't produce oil until we are all driving electric cars... That's as naive as it comes. It is going to be decades until we are ALL driving electric cars, decades. Hopefully more and more of us are every day, but we have citizens who will buy a used car in 10 years that still runs an internal combustion engine and they will drive it for 10 years and they will need petroleum products, again hopefully not very many but some will be. We have to start taking steps forward with the best possible scenario and stop looking for the perfect scenario.

The "I am right, you are wrong" mentality finds something wrong with every plan (unless it's Joel Stein's plan) and makes that wrong, the focus. We need as a country to find a good plan (not a perfect plan), back it and along the way take lot's of steps in different directions that keep making the plan better. Oh and we need to move Joel Stein to sit next to someone on Saturday Night Live or Mad TV. (He really isn't funny enough for SNL, Mad Tv would be a better fit.)

The part of it I don't like... the thing that I think perpetuates the "I am right and you are wrong" mentality in this country the most... Is putting crap like this in a news medium. The Los Angeles Times and The Hutch News and every other news source have to realize their influence, and they have to see that printing this guys column leads to a certain percentage of their readers taking it as fact, taking it as news. When that happens... They focus on the negative and fight the thought of energy independence...

Not to mention the whole "Warriors and Wusses" thing.

BTW, I think we should be pouring huge efforts into Wind Energy and backing the Picken's Plan as a part of gaining independence from Foreign Oil, and helping the environment and the economy and National Pride and foreign affairs. It's not JUST offshore drilling! But we need that as well. No Perfect answer!!

Parenting lessons learned.

I think you could ask anybody that knows and they would say I am a fairly strict parent. My wife and I have raised both our kids to have manners and respect for others at the forefront of every thought they have. I often times put off doing or letting them do normal kid things in the past because I didn't want them to think they could stretch the limits of right and wrong.

That being said..

In the last couple of months I have started to realize that we raised pretty good kids. I have also realized they are at an age were we can get a little ornery because they have a good foundation of manners and respect built in and they know there is a line that can't be crossed in anything we do. It has really made being their parent more fun and still relaxing because we can get a little ornery, but still know that they aren't disrespectful kids who don't care about the people around them.

Anyhow... I let my 8 year old shoot his slingshot of the balcony of a cabin we were staying in... I wouldn't have thought that was a good idea a year ago.





Have you seen this sweet video and the pics from the Hutchinson, Ks Emancipation Day Celebration.

Simplicity..

I have been thinking a lot lately about simplicity. I want my life to be more simple. Not easier... Maybe not even less busy... Just simpler. I am gonna do some serious contemplating over the next few days and so fairly in depth research and see if I can get myself to create or adopt a program to drastically simplify my life... Personal and Professional.

Any thoughts/suggestions would be incredible.

Thanks.
Cody Heitschmidt
www.codytalks.com
www.whatsuphutch.com
Sent from my BlackBerry

In Congress Right Now!!! You need to stop and pay attention. Several links in post!!!

If you are not paying attention to what is going on in congress right now... You should be. Big things are happening in the energy discussion.


Links:

Video

Ap article

The Democrats actually shut the lights off on the Republicans.

This guy called Nancy Pelosi's office (video)

C-span is covering it now (added)

Reno County Commission Race.

I am gonna come out here on codytalks and back a candidate. I am hoping everyone involved can keep this separate from the other projects I am involved in.

This is also a local election so some of you may or may not have any interest.

Here's what I think about Reno County Government:

1. I think it (any Government) needs to running fiscally like a Business. The constituents are shareholders and some fiscal planning and responsibility to those shareholders is essential. I think financial planning and accountability are the cornerstones of running a Government, especially on a local level. I really would like to have a County Government that has a focus of reducing taxes through increases in efficiency. Is it possible, I really don't know but it should be a goal.

2. I think any organization the size of the Reno County Government, needs full time leadership and someone that has the ability to make decisions that is completely dedicated in their work time to making the right decision for an organization this big. i.e. A County Administrator.

3. I think Government meetings (any meeting really) should be run in an efficient and concise manner. I fully support a time for citizen discussion and for adequate discussion among the commissioners, but, I have seen many a meeting run in a giant gaggle of discussion and all time wasted without any decisions made. Not good practice with part time commissioners drawing full time pay. Not good practice ever.

4. My #4 is completely subjective in that supporting Law Enforcement is deeply ingrained in my belief system. Not blindly supporting them, I have written before that if we have bad cops they should stand before the man. But our Government has to be supportive of a bunch of guys strapping on guns and going out to deal with bad guys so we don't have to. Again, I stand fast on this, not blind support but support.

Ok if you skipped all the reasons and just wanted to know who I was throwing my support behind it's Brad Dillon. I have only met Brad a couple of times. Honestly he called several years ago and need a very small website. That one meeting is all I have ever really dealt with him face to face. He is someone I have watched through his days on the City Council and I believe he meets the criteria I have above.

I think it would be fair to say that Brad runs things in a very business like manner and efficiency is a focus of his.

He favors a full time administrator and other than their own job security I can't come up with a good reason a county commissioner would be against that.

I have seen him run meetings... If you are on a board of anything and want to learn how to more efficiently run a meeting, watch Brad Dillon, no time wasted but everything is as fair as possible, very efficient.

As far as Law Enforcement support, I have no examples, just a gut and personal discussions with people that may or may not be in the know. Again... I don't want the commission to grant every wish Henderson has but they can't be caught in some damn power struggle with other elceted officials because they don't really know who is in charge. (County Administrator solves that?)

Anyhow, there you go, thats my opinion.

As always we highly encourage, hell we are pleading for your comments. Cut loose if you have any interest. Add your own criteria, call me an idiot, do what ever.

If this is all to deep for you, go here and watch this great video and just be entertained.