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Drugs, Bombs, Cops, Houses and Supers.

by Ken Mahal, NSC President
 Originally published on  August 11, 2005 - reprinted with permission

IF YOU HAVE MEDICARE BE CAREFUL OF WHAT YOU SIGN UP FOR.
   I don’t know about you folks but lately I have been hit with extra bills that Medicare does not pay for and therefore I am left hanging with an extra bill. Have you noticed that your doctor’s office has so much paper work for you to fill out and buried in it will likely be statements that says by signing you agree to pay for anything that Medicare does not pay for. As an example on an ambulance bill I found out belatedly that the emergency ambulance people did not fill out the form properly and Medicare refused the bill because their opinion was that alternative transportation was available. Well in this case my wife had just gotten home from an emergency hospital run in Scottsdale and within minutes of arriving at the hospital she went into a seizure. Three days later and the day after she got out of the hospital she had another set of circumstances that called for emergency help. Medicare refused the ambulance bill and I was left hanging with a very expensive bill. The Ambulance people did not put all of our information on the bill and Medicare refused to reconsider it. As for a doctors bill I have run into another instance where I unknowingly signed a paper that was another case of where my doctor insisted on an anesthesiologist and Medicare refused to pay for it and I was again stuck with the bill. Ten days ago I was in the doctor’s office and was ask to fill out some new paper work and here again there were a number of these statements that ask you to initial that you will agree to pay the bill if Medicare will not pay for it. I refused to agree to this one and don’t know what the doctors office is going to do about it if I do not hand in the filled out paper work. The next time I go to the doctor’s office I am sure I will be faced with that same paper work. In another instance I had some laboratory work done at Quest labs and have been billed for $32 so often I can’t stand seeing the bill come to the house. Again it seems to be a test that Medicare will not pay for. So maybe you folks who are in HMO’s have something going for you even if the doctors are not the ones you would like to have. Now on second thought our neighbor up and died without apparent reason and he was in an HMO so what does one do? Is this some kind of collusion with the Notch Baby issue where Congress is going to let us die so they won’t have to pay us what is rightfully due?

THE TWO A - BOMBS STOPPED WORLD WAR II, NO DOUBT ABOUT IT.
    Have you noticed this year on the anniversary of the A bomb drops there is rubbish by the Japanese and others that it was not necessary to drop those two bombs to stop the war. Well I can testify personally that those two A-bombs did and were needed to stop the war, no question about it. I happened to be in the Third Fleet at the time just a hundred miles off shore of Tokyo Bay when the bombs were dropped and days later we flew fighter cover for General McArthur and his staff as they flew into Tokyo to set up his headquarters. Before that in the fleet of 96 capital ships, which means heavy cruisers, battlewagons, aircraft carriers plus a bevy of destroyers, destroyer escorts, submarines and the like, we were on strike mode (4 hours on and 4 hours off ) for eleven months preparing for the invasion of Japan. What was sad is that a large number of the GI’s from Europe were being shipped to the Pacific for the invasion of Japan. The word we heard was that any invasion would see fifty thousand to a hundred thousand casualties and all I can say is that after what they did to us starting with Pearl Harbor they were due anything we could do to them to stop the war without us losing one more American. By the way to date I have not seen an apology by the Japanese for starting the war in the Pacific. Have you?

THE CLARK COUNTY COMMISSIONERS SCREWED US WITH A NEW QUARTER PERCENT SALES TAX TO GIVE TO THE COPS.
   I did testify against the proposed quarter percent sales tax at the CCC meeting Tuesday the 2nd knowing very well that the CCC, the sheriff and cops from the various municipalities had the deal wired. How stupid it is to keep adding more to the sales tax. At the rate they are going I wouldn’t be surprised to see our sales tax soar to 10 percent while the gaming tax will remain at 6-1/2 percent. What is so bad about the sales tax addition is the fact that the CCC is seeing a 14 percent increase in their own sales tax revenue so really had very little need for more revenue to hire new cops. When I made the presentation I watched the Clark County Commissioners and County Manager Thom Reilly watching me with that please go away look. How disgusting to see what we call government by the people for the people and of the people when you go to any of these meetings. There were a few people who came there because of my article in Vegas Voice paper so I do thank them for coming. I do predict that in three or four years we will have our first cop corruption case involving all of this money from the new tax and how sad it will be. I did shake hands with the sheriff who said he agreed with my points expressed at the meeting and said he will work with us. What got to me is when the sheriff testified that he wanted to see the cops back in the neighborhoods again and visiting with the people like in the early days. I think he said he has been here 27 years and we have been here 21 years and I do not even remember once that cops came through the neighborhood and even looked at us so you could say anything to them. As far as I can tell Sheriff Young was feeding us a lot of baloney. With more than $100,000,000 per year for about five entities do you for a minute believe there won’t be corruption in short order?

WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO ABOUT AFFORDABLE HOUSING? THE TEACHERS ARE CRYING, THE POLITICIANS ARE CRYING AND OF COURSE THE BUREAUCRATS ARE ALSO ON BOARD.  
   Just why are we required to provide so called affordable housing for teachers or anyone else? There is affordable housing springing up all over called condominiums that sell in the low $100s and if you cannot afford that just rent an apartment like millions do in the big cities all over the USA. After all if we are going to be a big city then start to live like they do in big cities, rent a place.

MR. ROGERS GOES OVER THE TOP AND WANTS THE NEXT SUPT. TO EARN $600,000 PER YEAR.  
   Give me a break Mr. R. why should we pay that much when if it is done right you can most likely find a dollar a year man. In fact as soon as Mr. Garcia announced he was leaving I called Mr. Rogers (TV3) personally as well as one of the school board members suggesting that he would be the right man to take that job and turn this mess around at the Clark County School district. Unfortunately he was then just in the process of signing up as a dollar a year man so as to speak at the University of Nevada. To bad he agreed to do that. In fact I still think he should resign from the University in six months when he has it working and go over to the Clark County School District as its new superintendent. Someone wrote in the RJ that if you do find some one that talented then you need to give that person the green light to make the drastic change from top to bottom which is needed.

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