Day: September 3, 2009

The ACC Virus Continued

The last post told how big insurance (let’s call it “BIG-I”) created Insurance Services Office (ISO) as their industry shill. ISO became the “handlers” if you will of various puppet commissioners. Among other things, ISO finessed rate increases and designed trap door policies (“coverage parts”). (Gruesome, I know, but it’s their word not mine). Frankly ISO did whatever Salvatore “BIG-I” said do. Of course ISO was BIG-I cause it was owned and controlled – as a non-profit if you can believe it – by BIG-I. Thing was nobody really seemed to notice or care.

Well remember how that Georgia cracker almost capsized BIG-I, went hog wild and damn near destroyed the Sherman exemption all by hisself? That was a real tipping point in BIG-I history, back in ’44, but thanks to a secret industry formula, lobbyists + cash = act of Congress (L+$=AOC), BIG-I was sitting upright again. McCarran-to-the-rescue in ’45. We’d just finished whupping a boatload of Kraut butt and everybody’s pretty happy. Momma got a toaster, baby’s got a biscuit, and daddy . . . a shy-knee-new Dynaflow.

Another 40 years pass, and this time it’s ISO who almost wrecks the ship. See in those 40 years insurance went from something you might consider taking out if you just wanted, to full blown Jersey style marketing: we got an offer of coverage you can’t refuse. And we couldn’t refuse, but not cause of Bruno. Forty years of running wild, untouched by fed regulation or anti-trust, BIG-I had by now hijacked so many legislatures you couldn’t buy a house, go to the hospital, get surgery, drive a car, get a loan or anything else unless you first bought insurance. (Wonder why it never got reclassified as a special purpose contract or public interest contract, you know, something making it subject to some regulatory terms; it sure ain’t my idea of a negotiated, voluntary contract).

By ’88, ISO had racked and sacked a bushel basket of commissioners but in those days, BIG-I hadn’t yet figured out how to trash state AG’s and get people to buy into it. But some of these AG’s were getting pretty darn uppidy about ISO’s “commissioner handling.” AG’s in those days couldn’t be trashed by paid shills like Robert Hartwig cause BIG-I hadn’t perfected media pimping. BTW, speaking of Hartwig, here’s one of our own judges, third from left, at a 2004 tort reform confab, an invited guest of Hartwig and BIG-I. Continue reading “The ACC Virus Continued”

Jim Brown on the Bad Week for Louisiana Taxpayers

Thursday, September 3, 2009
Baton Rouge, Louisiana

BAD WEEK FOR LOUISIANA TAXPAYERS

Louisiana taxpayers just can’t get a break. It’s bad enough that the economy continues to languish, unemployment rates are on the rise in the Bayou State, and home foreclosures are increasing. Even the movie business in the hottest month of the year is way off. One would think that in the midst of the economic turmoil, state agencies would lay low, and not add to the financial turmoil. But it was not to be. Louisiana officials continue to dole out state funds and leave federal dollars on the table for other states to gobble up. And with next year’s budget deficit predicted to be well over one billion dollars, the choices could rapidly come down to a major ax falling on spending or a call for tax increases.

Tax amnesty kicks off this new month with an archaic, inefficient and unfair concept of letting delinquent tax cheats pay up years of back taxes with no penalty. What kind of message is it that one can just refuse to pay your state taxes, set the money aside and earn interest, and then wait for the tax holiday that seems to crop up every few years? Isn’t it the law that one pays taxes or it is a crime if you do not? The tax cheats get off the hook with no penalty, and the law abiding taxpayer thus carries an even larger burden to make up for the guy who violates the law. Continue reading “Jim Brown on the Bad Week for Louisiana Taxpayers”

Editilla tells his story on the Ladder

I had not thought of it this way until now, that each day after the 29th marks a particular movement through this history until 7 days hence when I escaped New Orleans.

So, I hope to post “memories” or a “memory” from each day. There were no good days, no art, no music, birds, safe laughter. But some days there were happenings which did not rise to the level of trauma. This day is a nightmare.

Please forgive me for this truly gruesome tale.

Editilla told part of this story here on two occasions but on the Ladder last night he vividly describes what New Orleans was like after it’s descent into anarchy. I know how he feels about Katrina being only the start though I thank God it wasn’t nearly as bad on the Mississippi coast.

She (Editilla’s dog Flora) has to go outside, and frankly so should I, but the dog just won’t do it in the building for obvious memories of Hell House Training. It is around 9 pm and I know she’s got to go.

We don’t want to go out because of the total darkness, where it was not the procedure to shine your flashlight as that would announce your presence to whoever might be ahead.

You had to be Very Quiet at night. It is hard for me to describe such an awareness of the quickness of death. I had already seen 3 people killed all by gunfire……….. Continue reading “Editilla tells his story on the Ladder”