Unless of course you are talking about Wales. Then you can use the sheep jokes.

"Foolproof" is the #1 design objective, because fools have a higher rate of being the most important user segment." This is hilarious, and now my new sig line!!!

Well if you and I refuse to stand up for our rights who will?

We cannot blame the government.

We cannot blame conspiracy theories.

We FAILED in our oversight of the government, by electing these damned bastards to the posts.

It is us who should get off our collective lazy asses and correct the problem and vote out the incumbents.

We NEED TO QUIT WHINING, and get on with the job.

From the comments above, none of the posers have had to swing a framing hammer for 8 hours a day for six days at a time.

Not using it because your arm might get tired? Talk about lazy.

Though I do like the idea of having the mouse clicker on the thumb and forefinger as suggested by one of the other posters.

You know its funny,

Us New York drivers try to do the same thing with Connecticut drivers as well. We would help out more, but we have to deal with New Jersey drivers on the other side.

Personally I think that all CT drivers are required to have a lobotomy when they are issued their licenses.

So far though for bad driving the Greeks win hands down.

Now a question is, why not distribute the database rather than centralize it.

One copy of your records remains at your local doctors.

A second record, should you choose to have it placed on a sim card (printed onto something the size of a credit card).

Have it encrypted obviously, with the only people able to access it is yourself (read only),your doctor (read&modify) and the hospitals (read & modify).

This way less chance for the gov't to screw it up, and far less intrusive. They can set the standards on how the card and formatting of the actual notes. But don't let them anywhere near the IT setup.

Someone mentioned that they are required by law to keep all records for Seven years. That actually sounds like a good time-frame to set this up. This way when you start a new patient record, you will most likely have both an electronic and paper record. The problem being is transcribing the older records, as that is very private information and not something you want part-timer data entry people having access to if at all possible.

Funding is the major problem, maybe a deal can be made with the insurance companies that if you agree to switch to an electronic form for billings and anything else (with no access to the actual records) they can either reduce the malpractice costs for that practice, and arrange for a matching grant from the gov't.

Don't get me wrong, with the massive deficit I agree there needs to be some drastic cutting. In fact it will be painful. But raising taxes is not the way to get out of a recession.

I would consider the following to be necessities (in order).

Education Services - This is absolute, and I am talking about actual classroom expenses and not the administrative bloating that occurs.

Police
Fire
Medical.
Sanitation

Anything else is luxury.

Tax rates are unacceptable though. We already have the highest sales taxes in the nation (I think or close to it) highest property taxes. We don't have that much left to give.

There was a reason for the Boston Tea Party, and there is no reason to repeat it. But sometimes I wish politicians would keep that bit of history in the back of their minds while doing the budget.

Actually Paterson has lost any marbles he has had left.

One, raising taxes during a recession actually prolongs the recession, mainly because there is less available money to be used as capital. He says this is not a tax hike, but it really is.

  Second the rate hikes he is talking about are insane. Beer and wine alone have an over 100% increase against the base rate they are taxed at now. (keeping in mind this is his proposal, before the legislators tack on their spending requests.)The iPod tax may make the business model less appealing to consumers, which may in turn lead to less offerings (unlikely but possible).

Physician Registration is jumping from $600 Biannual fee to $800. Or a $400 per year increase. It may not seem like much, but physicians are already having a tough time making ends meet in this state. This is also state where there is a dearth of physicians already. (Try getting an appointment). Why would they want to migrate to NY if fees keep increasing.

The governor states that many of these fees have remained flat for years, and as such they can be raised. He does not seem to accept the possibility that these fees have remained the same because they might be at the highest the market can bear already. Now with the market declining, where can the cash come from?

Rich are leaving the city. Who to tax then? The small shop owners! (Otherwise known as the lower-upper middle class). Up until the point they start leaving for greener pastures as well. But once they start leaving, not many employers left.

Forgive me if I seem a bit skeptical about the entire plan,and it's not just because there is no provision for politicians to tighten THEIR belts, no mention of politicians taking a pay cut or "voluntary" redundancy. No mention of a reduction in pork projects, and contrary to belief, road maintenance is not a pork project; but they are reducing that. As well as targeting Health services, fire services, police services.

But then again I live in NY. Maybe its time to leave.