Break out the checkbooks

Posted on January 30, 2013 by novahockey

The FEC has updated the campaign contribution limits for the 2014 cycle.

FEC Increases Contribution Limits for 2014
By Kyle Trygstad Posted at 10:19 p.m. on Jan. 29

The Federal Election Commission increased the limits on contributions that individuals can give to candidates for federal office and national party committees in the 2014 election cycle.

Individual donors can now contribute up to $2,600 to a candidate in both the primary and general elections — $5,200 total — and $32,400 per calendar year to national party committees. The total amount of federal contributions that an individual can give during a two-year cycle also increased to $123,200, including $48,600 to candidates and $74,600 to parties and political action committees.

Those and other contribution limit figures are indexed for inflation as directed in the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002, better known as McCain-Feingold, and generally increase with every election cycle.

The individual donation to candidates has gone up about $100 per election — from $2,100 in the 2006 cycle to $2,300 in 2008, $2,400 in 2010 and $2,500 in 2012. Individual donation limits to national party committees was $30,800 per calendar year in 2012 and $26,700 in 2006.

This cycle, the limit on national party contributions to Senate candidates went up to $45,400. They were limited to $43,100 in 2012 and $37,300 in 2006.

Filed under: First Amendment | Tagged: | 8 Comments »

Reason’s “Worst” Op-Eds of 2012 01/04/2013

Posted on January 4, 2013 by novahockey

Reason recently published a list of the Top 5 Worst Op-Eds of 2012. I’m pleased that I actually recall all off them.

5. Eric Posner, “The World Doesn’t Love the First Amendment,” Slate.com (Sept. 25). Free speech is too dangerous.
4. L.Z. Granderson, “Don’t Be Nosy about Fast and Furious,” CNN.com (June 27) Some things are better unknown
3. David Brooks, “The Follower Problem,” The New York Times (June 11) Don’t you know your place? Genuflect before your betters and STFU.
2. Maureen Dowd, “The Loin King,” The New York Times (Nov. 3) Honestly, I really don’t know what Down is talking about.
1. Tom Friedman, “Obama’s Nightmare,” The New York Times (Nov. 13). America needs fall to on the grenade in Syria, like it did in Iraq.

I actually found the Slate article to be the worst of the bunch. Or maybe Brooks. That one really chapped my ass too. Hmmm, let’s go with Brooks.

Filed under: Morning Report | 7 Comments »

Hometown in the NYT

Posted on December 20, 2012 by novahockey

A new mixed-used town center that I frequent was featured in the NYT. Thought I’d pass along so those who are interested can get a sense of life inside (or in this case barely outside) the beltway. My home is about 10 minutes from here. With the new HOT (High Occupancy Toll) lanes on the beltway, it’s about 3 mins and 30 cents. Or free if the whole entire family is in the car. If the development continues, it will be accessible by bicycle. Too much traffic for that now.

The story neglects the best part of the movie theater: the full service bar.

We considered the town homes that are for sale, but decided to stick with our home.

Filed under: 2013 and beyond, fun stuff, Homebuilding, Open Thread | Tagged: | Leave a comment »

I Saw NoVA Lobby Santa Claus

Posted on December 14, 2012 by novahockey

Being a good lobbyist means working your connections. And as it is happens, I’ve got a meet and great with Santa Claus at the White House tonight.

One of the fun parts of living in the DC area is the National Christmas tree and other decorations. There’s a Santa’s workshop on the Ellipse. We’re taking the little guy to visit this evening after work. My understanding is there’s a mailbox with a to Santa. There’s other fun things, such as the fact that each state has an ornament.

So, if any ATiMers have any Christmas wishes (or any other type — Festivus and the airing of grievances, perhaps), post them here, I’ll pull them together and make sure that Santa gets the ATiM list.

White House tree

Updated with pic —
Santa

Filed under: Uncategorized | 13 Comments »

How to Petition for the Redress of Grievances

Posted on November 19, 2012 by novahockey

The Post ran a Style-section article on lobbying.

I thought I’d pass this along. The key point is the importance of understanding the Hill’s culture and developing relationships. That’s tough for someone like me, as I’m such an introvert that it doesn’t come naturally. Not shy (necessarily) but the ability work a room full of strangers is draining. Others I know just feed off that. I’m much better at going into an office and talking policy and proposed solutions. But even that’s tough, until I realized, that “oh crap, I know this stuff better than anybody here. And I don’t know shit!”

But it’s relationships and trust that make this work or not, and if I can’t do that I wonder if this is the best fit for me. But the strategy, and the rules and knowing what’s happening is a lot of fun.

K street

Filed under: lobbying | 4 Comments »

Warfare and Technology

Posted on September 21, 2012 by novahockey

I just assumed our technology was superior than the Taliban’s.  And it is.  But that doesn’t necessarily mean better.

A key realization: the enemy uses cheap night vision gear in the form of cameras that have night functions.  When our IR lasers, our IR strobes, our IR illumination or our IR spotlights are radiating, they can easily be seen using cheap digital cameras.  I recently told this to some Norwegian soldiers, who were as surprised as our soldiers to learn it.  I learned this from the enemy, not from our guys.  The Taliban even use smart phone cameras to watch for invisible lasers.  The enemy in Afghanistan has been caught using cameras for night vision.  It is just a stroke of common sense: I have been doing it for eight years since I noticed an IR laser one night in Iraq.

 

Whole thing here.

Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: | 1 Comment »

Run Silent, Run Deep

Posted on September 10, 2012 by novahockey

The NYT’s is reporting that the drug cartels are building submarines.

This is the new challenge faced by the United States and Latin American countries as narcotics organizations bankroll machine shops operating under cover of South America’s triple-canopy jungles to build diesel-powered submarines that would be the envy of all but a few nations.

This reminds me a bit of Medicare fraud. It’s a game of whack-a-mole. Here, however, it seems like we’re wasting resources. If you can not stop the demand isn’t it better to spend the time and resources on treating the fallout from a health perspective. Instead, we’ve got the Coast Guard chasing more and more capable and advanced semi-submersible crafts and submarines loaded with drugs.

In the movie, Run Silent Run Deep, an American Commander, portrayed by Clark Gable, puts his crew at risk because he is blinded by the need to avenge a lost sub. Here we seem incapable of considering other options, even when those conducting the anti-sub/trafficking operations all but admit defeat.

From the Times:

Even so, three-quarters of potential drug shipments identified by the task force are not interdicted, simply because there are not enough ships and aircraft available for the missions. “My staff watches multi-ton loads go by,” Admiral Michel said.

Filed under: War on Drugs | 8 Comments »

Bundled Payments are Hard

Posted on August 10, 2012 by novahockey

One of the big issues in breaking down siloed care is how to “bundle” a payment. Providers balk unless you “risk adjust”: basically account for variations among patients. Without a risk-adjusted payment, a few high-cost patients are going to wipe out any savings. So, what to risk adjust? That’s the big question. In it’s simplest form, you either pay more to help adjust for provider risk or limit those involved in the demonstration. Exclude “risky” patients from bundling. I think that defeats the whole point.

Quoting from a behind the paywall trade pub:

Bundling is still experimental — and an accurate method is difficult to determine in the abstract — CMS may want to consider a combination of pre-payment risk adjustment that could be reconciled after the fact in order to account for high-cost patients, says Paul Van de Water of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. This would give doctors more security in participating in bundling, Van de Water said, as risk adjustment is never going to completely account for outliers.

Other options include flagging particular codes, such as for diabetes, so you know who is “riskier.” But that’s still pretty crude and it’s tough to get an accurate picture just on claims data.

Still others want “the medical, social, and personal patient factors that are beyond a provider’s control, such as poor nutrition, tobacco and alcohol use, and non-compliance with treatment recommendations ….
and geography, right down to neighborhoods people live in, also needs to be taken into account. This account for underserved areas. And they’re talking block-by-block.

This is hopelessly complex. But bundled payments are a big part of the “savings” in the ACA.

Filed under: aca | 7 Comments »

Wrong Door Raid: Cops Kill Dog, Search House Anyway

Posted on August 10, 2012 by novahockey

What do you do if you have a search warrant with the wrong address? Why kill the family pet, handcuff the kids next to the fluffy corpse and search the house anyway!

Even after learning that they were in the wrong house, the complaint states, the drug busters stayed in the Francos’ home and kept searching it.

But wait, there’s more! Why not double-down by by denying a diabetic child her medicine?

But its fine, after an hour search they turned up a .22 pistol.

More here

Filed under: doj | 6 Comments »

Drones because we can?

Posted on July 13, 2012 by novahockey

Esquire on the interrogate vs. Drone issue.

This kind of picks up on the video that Kevin posted. Technology and it’s use. Here, it seems to be driving our decisions. This makes that case that we’re not targeting people with drones to avoid interrogating them, but that the technology is allowing us to target people we previously never would have bothered with.

“It’s not at all clear that we’d be sending our people into Yemen to capture the people we’re targeting. But it’s not at all clear that we’d be targeting them if the technology wasn’t so advanced. What’s happening is that we’re using the technology to target people we never would have bothered to capture.”

Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: , | Leave a comment »

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