Jerome Doolittle at Bad Attitudes finds some good news of a sort in his piece, …and Privatization Scores Again!

The money quote: “Despite aggressive collection tactics, the contractors have brought in only $49 million in revenue, little more than half of what it has cost the IRS to implement the program.”

Paul Krugman wrote about this practice a while back and correctly identified it as tax farming, one of the many practices that led to the French Revolution.

I’ve been on the planet more than six decades, and I’m still waiting to see a successful privatization of government services. I’ve seen dozens of attempts all over the country, and they all end up more expensive than when the service was provided by public employees. The government ends up spending more money for less service than they had before privatization. It’s like tax cuts, no matter how often the concept is proven to be a failure, Republicans just have to try it again.

People who don’t live here don’t understand why I would fly a modified storm warning flag whenever the lege is in session – I know the path of destruction they can visit on the state while supposedly doing “The People’s Business”.

The Republicans control everything, but that doesn’t mean they will get anything done.

From the Miami Herald‘s Naked Politics blog

Health care:

Republican Lt. Gov. Jeff Kottamp passed out a talking point or too yesterday to Democrats on the House floor yesterday during yesterday’s contentious debate over the House healthcare plan vs. the Senate/Gov. Charlie Crist’s plan. Some Republicans groused that Kottkamp didn’t even stop to talk to them.

[Read more →]

Feline Hierarchy

Wait your turn.

[Editor: this accidentally shows the structure of feral society. On the top level are Molly eating from the bowl as befits her status as senior alpha, and she shares the level with The Lone Ranger, the local alpha. On the next level in the center is Tonto, TLR’s sister. On the right is Tip who is an adult female, and on the left are Ms Gruntled and Baldy, juvenile females. Waiting for a chance to eat is the Gray-nosed Cat, the senior tom.]

Friday Ark

Send some positive vibes to LabKat, JS, and Coby. Coby is undergoing surgery for a problem, and the procedure is complicated by his other medical conditions.