Dude, These People Just Can't Be Pleased!

This is going to be a very interesting year for the Tea Bagggers and the GOP. (Click here for story)

Dude, I Forgot About Band Of Gypsies!

Thanks to my fellow East Dallas resident Lance Lopez for reminding me about that little gig Jimi Hendix played 41 years ago. This is off a DVD I have, the whole version of Power of Soul........

Dude, My New Years Resolution!

When I was in the Marcia Ball Band years ago her long time bass player Don Bennett and I were watching a well know Rock/Blues guitar player at headlining the Tampa Bay Blues Festival. It was Walter Trout. As we stood off to the side of the stage we giggled at how he worked the crowd. Walter was playing loud and through a Mesa Boogie amp. He did all the tricks and somewhere in that whole thing he actually played some Blues.

Now I'm not knocking Walter. He really is a great player and smart. Smart? Yes, because he knows what the people want. They really don't care for the song, they want the thrill. It's like Kramer once said on an episode of Seinfeld, "You're not selling the steak Jerry, you're selling the sizzle." Dude, how true that is.

That night I looked at Don and made this proclamation, "When I'm 45 that's going to be me. I'll be up there playing as loud as I can and all the Blues purists will curse my name. Nobody will care how well I can sing or how much of what I play is actually Blues. I'll give them the sizzle, I'll be selling out, but I'll be making money too."

So this year I'm concentrating on getting a band back together. I'm going to sing more, no matter how bad it is and I'm going to play loud. Playing for the song and the singer is something I've been doing the last 20 years. It has gotten me some nice comments but for the most part, nobody really cares.

Pat Boyack - Mach II starts today.........

Dude, Like Beth I Says, Eat your Black Eyed Peas!

Black eyed peas are not peas at all, they are beans........and I hate them. I only eat BEPs once a year and today is the day. My wife makes a decent version though....so I got that going for me.

Dude, Some New HealthCare Laws Are Now In PLace!!

Starting today some very important Heathcare Laws are taking affect.

• Minimum Medical Loss Ratio for Insurers
  Requires health plans to report the proportion of premium dollars spent on clinical services, quality, and other costs and provide rebates to consumers if the share of the premium spent on clinical services and quality is less than 85% for plans in the large group market and 80% for plans in the individual and small group markets.

  Implementation: Requirement to report medical loss ratio effective for 2010; requirement to provide rebates effective beginningJanuary 1, 2011 
• Closing the Medicare Drug Coverage Gap
  Requires pharmaceutical manufacturers to provide a 50% discount on brand-name prescriptions filled in the Medicare Part D coverage gap beginning in 2011 and begins phasing-in federal subsidies for generic prescriptions filled in the Medicare Part D coverage gap.

  Implementation: January 1, 2011
• Medicare Payments for Primary Care
  Provides a 10% Medicare bonus payment for primary care services; also, provides a 10% Medicare bonus payment to general surgeons practicing in health professional shortage areas.

  Implementation: January 1, 2011 through December 31, 2015
• Medicare Prevention Benefits
  Eliminates cost-sharing for Medicare-covered preventive services that are recommended (rated A or B) by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force and waives the Medicare deductible for colorectal cancer screening tests; authorizes Medicare coverage for a personalized prevention plan, including a comprehensive health risk assessment.

  Implementation: January 1, 2011
• Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation
  Creates the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation to test new payment and delivery system models that reduce costs while maintaining or improving quality.

  Implementation: Center established by January 1, 2011
• Medicare Premiums for Higher-Income Beneficiaries
  Freezes the income threshold for income-related Medicare Part B premiums for 2011 through 2019 at 2010 levels resulting in more people paying income-related premiums, and reduces the Medicare Part D premium subsidy for those with incomes above $85,000/individual and $170,000/couple.

  Implementation: January 1, 2011
• Medicare Advantage Payment Changes
  Restructures payments to private Medicare Advantage plans by phasing-in payments set at increasingly smaller percentages of Medicare fee-for-service rates; freezes 2011 payments at 2010 levels; and prohibits Medicare Advantage plans from imposing higher cost-sharing requirements for some Medicare covered benefits than is required under the traditional fee-for-service program.

  Implementation: January 1, 2011
• Medicaid Health Homes
  Creates a new Medicaid state option to permit certain Medicaid enrollees to designate a provider as a health home and provides states taking up the option with 90% federal matching payments for two years for health home-related services.

  Implementation: January 1, 2011
• Chronic Disease Prevention in Medicaid
  Provides 3-year grants to states to develop programs to provide Medicaid enrollees with incentives to participate in comprehensive health lifestyle programs and meet certain health behavior targets.

  Implementation: January 1, 2011
• CLASS Program
  Establishes a national, voluntary insurance program for purchasing community living assistance services and supports (CLASS program).

  Implementation: January 1, 2011

  
  
• National Quality Strategy

  Requires the Secretary of the federal Department of Health and Human Services to develop and update annually a national quality improvement strategy that includes priorities to improve the delivery of health care services, patient health outcomes, and population health.

  Implementation: Initial strategy due to Congress by January 1, 2011
• Changes to Tax-Free Savings Accounts
  Excludes the costs for over-the-counter drugs not prescribed by a doctor from being reimbursed through a Health Reimbursement Account or health Flexible Spending Account and from being reimbursed on a tax-free basis through a Health Savings Account or Archer Medical Savings Account. Increases the tax on distributions from a health savings account or an Archer MSA that are not used for qualified medical expenses to 20% of the amount used.

  Implementation: January 1, 2011

• Grants to Establish Wellness Programs

  Provides grants for up to five years to small employers that establish wellness programs.

  Implementation: Funding authorized beginning in fiscal year 2011
• Teaching Health Centers
  Establishes Teaching Health Centers and provides payments for primary care residency programs in community-based ambulatory patient care centers.

  Implementation: Funding appropriated for five years beginning in fiscal year 2011
• Medical Malpractice Grants
  Authorizes $50 million for five-year demonstration grants to states to develop, implement, and evaluate alternatives to current tort litigations.

  Implementation: Authorizes funding beginning fiscal year 2011Funding for Health Insurance Exchanges

Dude, Here Is One For 'Ol Pumkin Head

Oh buddy, its coming........

Dude, Happy New Year!

So here we are, 2011. I commented to Mrs. Dude last night how when I was a kid I never imagined what 2011 would be like (or any time after 2000). In the 1950's they envisioned world peace, people flying in individual jet packs and colonies on the moon and possibly Mars! Oh the hope, the possibilities.

But instead we are basically doing the same crap. Driving around in cars that get anywhere from 12 to 25 miles to the gallon. Conservatives are calling Liberals communists. Some dips@#t on Facebook even equated Stevie Ray Vaughan to Hitler (he offered to post a pic of his "song writing award" to show his cred to do so). We still can't cure the common cold and in some places diseases that where thought to have been wiped out are making a come back.

Plus, the more I think about it, we are really going back to a simpler time which pundits like Glen Beck, the King of the "Idiot," is striving for. Soon gold will be the only form of currency if a Republican congressman gets his way and that means the rich will be the only ones who have it. They want to take away a woman's right to chose. They want to dismantle Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare and unemployment insurance. One prominent Tea Bagger even says that the only people who should be able to vote are landowners.

There is a swell to take us back to a simpler time and I have heard from Conservatives that Liberalism is a mental illness. Well if that's the case then Conservatism is a form of mental retardation. Do we really want to go back to a time when the mortality rate was high and the only Americans who got medical treatment had the finances to do so? Or a time when the loss of a job meant a family torn apart and left homeless? A time when just being handicapped or old was a death sentence? I could go on and if you have a clue, you can dig what I am saying.

2011 will be and interesting year. We will see government shutdowns, grandstanding by politicians that will play with the lives of the American public and maybe some violence. We are heading to a breaking point. A year from now will we be saying "Happy 2012" or "Happy 1910?"