† The Prognosis For Quality, Affordable Healthcare Is Not Good (second item): Timothy Hill, a deputy director at the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, tells The Wall Street Journal that starting in 2010, seniors will be paying monthly premiums of $39, up from $32, for Medicare Advantage plans, because insurers are canceling many plans that carry no premiums in response to new federal requirements:

Medicare Advantage, unlike traditional Medicare, is subsidized by the federal government and offered by insurance companies.

Insurance companies had signaled there would be an increase in premiums, citing the government's decision to cut payments to Medicare Advantage by 4.5%. …

[T]he number of Medicare Advantage plans will drop by more than 40%, to 73,337 next year, according to an Avalere analysis of Medicare data. "Consumers should be aware that the markets are changing," said Avalere President Dan Mendelson. "Some will see their plans go away and some will see their premiums increase dramatically."

If you like your insurance you will either get to keep your insurance by paying more for it - or you may lose your the insurance if the plan you like is cancelled.

† Is This Any Way To Run A Transition?: Almost nine months into the Obama administration, more than half of the 33 highest-level Treasury Department posts are still vacant, reports The Washington Times:

"It's a major concern," said Norm Ornstein, a congressional analyst with the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative Washington think tank. "If we have an international economic crisis ... you don't want to have a thin bench."

The Senate has confirmed 11 of Treasury's highest-level appointees, while five officials appointed during the administration of President George W. Bush have been asked to stay on. But eight nominees are awaiting confirmation hearings before the Senate, and Treasury still must select or formally nominate candidates to nine more top-level positions.

Only the Justice Department has a lower rate of confirmation than the Treasury Department among Cabinet agencies. …

Federal agencies typically take months or longer to fill posts at the start of a presidential administration. President Obama's overall confirmation rate for Cabinet-level agencies - including Treasury - is comparable to that of Mr. Bush during his first year in office.

So Obama is doing no better than President George Bush – which should come as a shock to The New Yorker’s Hendrik Hertzberg, who predicted his transition would run “smoothly, calmly, and on time” just days after the future Nobel Laureate took office. Bet he wishes he had predicted the Nobel Peace Prize instead.  

† Obama Is Just About Every U.S. President All Rolled Into One!: In this Human Events commentary about the White House declaring war on FOX News, President Barack Hussein Obama is compared to Richard Nixon:

The last time such a war raged between the White House and a media outlet, Richard Nixon was President, and his V.P, Spiro Agnew, was doing all he could to blackball the New York Times over their unflattering coverage of the Vietnam War. This time, the war is between a President whose skin is at least as thin as was Nixon’s, but whose motives are far more self-serving.

† Garbage In, Garbage Out: Part II: New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof takes on the teachers’ unions:

Good schools constitute a far more potent weapon against poverty than welfare, food stamps or housing subsidies. Yet, cowed by teachers’ unions, Democrats have too often resisted reform and stood by as generations of disadvantaged children have been cemented into an underclass by third-rate schools. …

It’s difficult to improve failing schools when you can’t create alternatives such as charter schools and can’t remove inept or abusive teachers. In New York City, for example, unions ordinarily prevent teachers from being dismissed for incompetence - so the schools must pay failed teachers their full salaries to sit year after year doing nothing in centers called “rubber rooms.” …

In New York City, with its 80,000 teachers, arbiters have removed only two for incompetence alone in the last couple of years. We tolerate failed teachers - and failed arbiters - as long as it’s not our own kids who suffer.

After citing examples of untouchable teachers who refuse to perform any of their duties (like correcting papers), pass out drunk in front of their class, and berating a student for being too incompetent to successfully commit suicide, here’s Kristof’s solution (emphasis, The Stiletto):

There are no silver bullets, but researchers are gaining a better sense of what works in education for disadvantaged children: intensive preschool, charter schools with long hours, fewer certification requirements that limit entry to the teaching profession, higher compensation to attract and retain good teachers, objective measurement to see who is effective, more flexibility in removing those who are ineffective.

Um, is it really a good idea to set the bar lower, seeing that with the current certification requirements there are incompetent, lazy, substance-abusing and child-molesting teachers in classrooms nationwide?

† Hate Crime or Home-Grown Terrorism? Either Way, CAIR Doesn’t Care: On the heels of the FBI cutting off communication with the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) because of its ties to Hamas, Republican members of the Congressional Anti-Terrorism Caucus are accusing CAIR of attempting to plant “spies” within key national-security committees to shape legislative policy, reports The Hill:

Reps. Sue Myrick (R-N.C.), John Shadegg (R-Ariz.), Paul Broun (R-Ga.) and Trent Franks (R-Ariz.), citing the book “Muslim Mafia: Inside the Secret Underworld that's Conspiring to Islamize America,” called for the House sergeant at arms to investigate whether CAIR had been successful in placing interns on key panels. The lawmakers are specifically focused on the House Homeland Security Committee, Intelligence Committee and Judiciary Committee. …

While the Republicans said they did not know of specific legislation that CAIR had affected, Franks said he wouldn’t be surprised if it was trying to amend the Patriot Act.

“One of the target policies that they might be concerned about is the Patriot Act itself - those things that give us the greatest tools to be able to surveil those conversations outside of this country … and I think organizations like CAIR would like to diminish that.” …

Citing the book, Myrick requested that the Justice Department share with all lawmakers and their chiefs of staff an executive summary of the findings that led the department to name CAIR as …an “un-indicted co-conspirator” in the Holy Land Foundation case in Dallas, which concluded with the sentencing of the two founders of the foundation to life in prison for funneling $12 million to Hamas, which the U.S. has labeled a terrorist organization.

“We need to know that information so that we can discern whether we want to take interns associated with that group into our office,” said Myrick.

“Muslim Mafia” also claims that internal CAIR documents show that the group spent $160,000 on an unsuccessful campaign to get nationally syndicated radio host Michael Savage kicked off the air. Savage is still broadcasting, but his show lost $1 million in advertising.

† Updates To Previous Posts (fifth item, Not Giving Credit Where Credit’s Due): Afghan immigrant Najibullah Zazi, accused of plotting to use homemade backpack bombs to possibly target NYC’s mass transit system, had contacts with Osama bin Laden confidant Mustafa Abu al-Yazid, reports The Associated Press:

Intelligence officials declined to discuss the nature of the contact or whether al-Yazid contacted Zazi to offer simple encouragement or help with the bombing plot prosecutors say Zazi was pursuing.

Al-Yazid's contact with Zazi indicates that al-Qaida leadership took an intense interest in what U.S. officials have called one of the most serious terrorism threats crafted on U.S. soil since the 9/11 attacks. …

U.S. intelligence officials and prosecutors have said that Zazi was recruited and trained by al-Qaida. They say he and others traveled last year to Pakistan to receive the training.

† Updates To Previous Posts (last item, Employers Hiring Forged Documented Aliens Are Lawbreakers In Other Ways, Too): Sholom Rubashkin, former Vice President of Agriprocessors, Inc. is either Dr. Jekyll or Mr. Hyde, depending on whether you believe his attorney, Guy Cook, or Assistant U.S. Attorney C.J. Williams, reports The Associated Press:

The conflicting portraits emerged Wednesday during opening statements in the man's federal trial on financial fraud charges.

"The defendant was expanding the plant beyond the pace he was able to," Williams said. "Evidence will show you that he was in charge of the day-to-day operation of the Agriprocessors plant on the ground there in Postville for years."

Defense attorney Guy Cook said Rubashkin was "a kid from Brooklyn" with no business experience when he took over the plant's operations from his father and a former plant manager who died shortly before his arrival in the late 1990s.

† Updates To Previous Posts (eighth item, Madoff’s Victims: Gullible Or Greedy?): Two NY investors filed a lawsuit in federal court in Manhattan alleging that the Securities and Exchange Commission was negligent for failing to detect Bernard Madoff's decades-long fraud and failed in its duty to protect investors, reports The Wall Street Journal:

The investors, Phyllis Molchatsky, a retired office worker, and Steven Schneider, a doctor, invested with Mr. Madoff years ago. After the fraud was discovered in December 2008, Ms. Molchatsky lost $1.7 million from her retirement savings while Dr. Schneider lost $750,000, according to the lawsuit. …

The doctrine of sovereign immunity limits the kind of cases in which a U.S. citizen can sue the government for damages. In an attempt to get around those limits, the lawsuit cites a report by the SEC's inspector general, who found the agency's staff didn't follow up on tips and didn't verify basic data on trades that Mr. Madoff purportedly made. …

The lawsuit accuses the SEC of failing to follow its own procedures and says the agency "cannot evade accountability with a shield of immunity that is designed to be reserved for policy decisions."

† Updates To Previous Posts (seventh item, “Clunkers” Is Another Edsel): Just about every retail sector showed nascent signs of recovery in September, except one, reports The Washington Post:

Over the summer, consumer spending was boosted by the government's popular "Cash for Clunkers" program, which gave buyers up to $4,500 toward the purchase of new, fuel-efficient cars. But that incentive ended in August, and vehicle sales plunged 11.8 percent in September, according to data released Wednesday from the U.S. Commerce Department. That dragged total retail sales down 1.5 percent, the biggest monthly drop so far this year.

But shoppers remained resilient. Retail sales excluding autos and auto parts rose 0.5 percent in September compared with the previous month.

Honestly, who didn’t see that coming? Oh yeah, the Obama administration.

† Updates To Previous Posts (fourth item, GA Judge And Family Accused Of Slavery): Two of the latest case of indentured servitude discovered here in the US involve a housekeeper in CA and hair stylists in NJ.

Salvadoran immigrant Vilma Serralta, 71, alleges that during the four years she worked for Sakhawat and Roomy Khan, she worked six 14-hour days a week earning between $3 and $4 an hour, without any breaks, overtime pay or vacation time. Serralta settled the lawsuit she filed against the Khans when they abruptly fired her for an undisclosed amount, reports The Recorder:

The lawsuit … against the well-heeled Khans (Sakhawat Khan was president of Agate Semiconductor Inc.) grabbed the attention of the Bay Area when it was filed last year. Since then, the Khans have been through a rotating cast of lawyers, and suspect evidence has emerged. …

The evidence in question was a document that put limits on Serralta's job responsibilities and schedule, including specific rest periods. It was produced March 13, eight months after the defense first responded to discovery…

An expert for Legal Aid concluded he was "virtually certain" it hadn't been signed by Serralta and was the result of a "cut and paste" operation. …

[Judge Claudia Wilken] … promised to give the jury a "strongly worded instruction about the inference of culpability that must be drawn from fabrication of evidence."

The adverse jury instruction prompted the Khans to settle the case just days before the trial date.

Meanwhile on the East Coast, Akouavi Afolabi, a native of the West African nation of Togo was convicted of human trafficking and visa fraud, charges that her ex-husband and son had already pleaded guilty to, reports The Associated Press:

Prosecutors say [Afolabi] helped bring at least 20 girls between the ages of 10 and 19 from West Africa and forced them to work at salons in northern New Jersey.

Afolabi's lawyer said in closing arguments what was really on trial was cultural differences that failed to translate. He said the girls saw his client as a benevolent mother figure who offered them an escape from poverty and the chance to live in America.

As these two cases show, human bondage in the U.S. typically involves such “cultural differences” – an example of multiculturalism that has made its way to our shores – along with genital mutilation and honor killings - that is intolerable and contradictory to American mores and laws.