Obama's approval plummets with this fellow and millions of others http://t.co/kUMAeXmTl6 #TCOT pic.twitter.com/76AV9sC0Lx
— Andrew Malcolm (@AHMalcolm) October 31, 2013
Thursday, October 31, 2013
Obama's Polls Plunge
From Andrew Malcolm:
Healthcare Mash
Funny thing is, I heard "Monster Mash" when I pulled into the college today, and then again on the way home.
This is good, via Instapundit.
This is good, via Instapundit.
President Defends #ObamaCare at Boston's Faneuil Hall
Defending the indefensible.
Nothin' but lies, it's so bad.
At AoSHQ, "Obama Doubles Down on His Big Lie":
Mitt's having none of it, "Mitt Romney blasts president on Obamacare rollout."
BONUS: "Obama Heckled During Healthcare Speech in Boston."
Nothin' but lies, it's so bad.
At AoSHQ, "Obama Doubles Down on His Big Lie":
The most breathless claim in his speech, I thought, was the lie that only those making $250,000 per year or more are being "asked to pay a little more."RELATED: At LAT, "Obama: GOP critics of Obamacare should follow Romney example."
This is a lie. Anyone making over $48,000 or so will get the doubled or tripled premiums (and often doubled deductibles to boot!) and no subsidies.
Jonah Goldberg wrote earlier of Obama's Big Lie.
I would say I'm shocked, but that would be a lie. I think I am too emotionally deadened to Obama's constant lies to even have a reaction. I'm just numb.
Mitt's having none of it, "Mitt Romney blasts president on Obamacare rollout."
BONUS: "Obama Heckled During Healthcare Speech in Boston."
'She Talks to Angels'
Foghat's "Fool for the City" came on yesterday just when I was pulling up at my apartment. For the life of me I can't recall hearing that song in decades --- and that's saying something, considering how much I play classic rock on the radio.
It's not necessarily one of my favorites, however. Just weird hearing it. Reminded me of high school.
Here's the drive-time lineup yesterday afternoon:
It's not necessarily one of my favorites, however. Just weird hearing it. Reminded me of high school.
Here's the drive-time lineup yesterday afternoon:
Fool for the City - Foghat 3:29 PMThe Black Crowes were on a bit earlier, at 2:00, when I was heading out for coffee after classes. I'll leave you with that, as is my preference:
White Room - Cream 3:24 PM
Sweet Emotion - Aerosmith 3:20 PM
Love Her Madly - The Doors 3:11 PM
867-5309 / Jenny - Tommy Tutone 3:07 PM
It's the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine) - R.E.M. 02:56 PM
Why Obama Made His 'Keep Your Plan' Lie
At IBD, "The Biggest Lie? 'Keep Your Plan'":
Deception: In the face of millions of cancellation notices, Democrats want to downplay the president's "keep your health plan" pledge as standard political hyperbole. It was, in fact, a calculated lie that got ObamaCare enacted.More at the link.
To understand why, let's freshen up on a little health care reform history.
Back in 1994, when Bill Clinton was pushing his own version of "comprehensive health reform," the insurance industry launched its infamous "Harry and Louise" ads to deliver a simple message: The Clinton plan would force families to give up their own health plans.
In one of these, the middle-class couple pours over a pile of documents at the kitchen table, while a narrator intones about how "things are changing, and not all for the better," and how "the government may force us to pick from a few plans designed by government bureaucrats."
"Louise" then complains that "having choices we don't like is no choice at all," and the ad concludes with the couple saying, "They choose, and we lose."
The campaign was devastating. Even though Democrats controlled both chambers of Congress, Clinton's bill never made it out of congressional committees.
So when President Obama decided to take another stab at health care, he was determined to avoid that pitfall. He endlessly promised in the most emphatic way possible that under his plan, Harry and Louise would have nothing to worry about.
"Let me be exactly clear about what health care reform means to you," the president said at a July 2009 rally in New Jersey. "First of all, if you've got health insurance, you like your doctors, you like your plan, you can keep your doctor, you can keep your plan. Nobody is talking about taking that away from you."
Later he said that "When I say 'If you have your plan and you like it,' ... what I'm saying is the government is not going to make you change plans under health reform."
He promised this after the law passed, and throughout the 2012 election campaign.
Of course, Obama knew it wasn't true when he said it. He just couldn't admit it if he wanted to convince enough Democrats to vote for the bill.
And now that millions of people are finding out that ObamaCare is, in fact, forcing them to pick from a few plans designed by government bureaucrats, Democrats and the liberal press are desperate to explain Obama's promises away.
Wednesday, October 30, 2013
Obama's Approval at All-Time Low in Latest NBC News Poll
He's a lying dick-hole
At NBC, "NBC/WSJ poll: Obama approval sinks to new low":
PREVIOUSLY: "Majority Says #ObamaCare Needs 'Major Overaul' or 'Should Be Eliminated'."
At NBC, "NBC/WSJ poll: Obama approval sinks to new low":
President Barack Obama’s approval rating has declined to an all-time low as public frustration with Washington and pessimism about the nation’s direction continue to grow, according to a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.More at the link.
Just 42 percent approve of the president’s job performance, which is down five points from earlier this month. By comparison, 51 percent disapprove of his job in office -- tied for his all-time high.
The NBC/WSJ pollsters argue that no single reason explains Obama’s lower poll standing. Rather, they attribute it to the accumulation of setbacks since the summer -- allegations of spying by the National Security Agency, the debate over Syria’s chemical weapons, the government shutdown and now intense scrutiny over the problems associated with the health care law’s federal website and its overall implementation.
PREVIOUSLY: "Majority Says #ObamaCare Needs 'Major Overaul' or 'Should Be Eliminated'."
Majority Says #ObamaCare Needs 'Major Overaul' or 'Should Be Eliminated'
Well, it's not all good news for Republicans. The biggest thing that sticks out for me is the "pox on both your houses" sentiment that comes through in some of the preference polling.
At NBC News, "Poll: Majority think health law needs overhaul or elimination." (The PDF survey is here.)
Sixty-three percent said that a "new person" should be elected to Congress, rather than "giving your representative a chance." Also, when thinking about "how you might vote for Congress next year," support for an independent candidate is at 30 percent, up from 25 percent in September. Again, Republicans have a lot to be worried about in these numbers, as they hold the House majority, but Democrats certainly can't rest easy, since they'll be defending Obama's clusterf-k on the campaign trail next year. For that reason alone --- as well as the national redistricting picture which is said to advantage Republicans --- I seriously doubt the Democrats have a chance of taking the House in 2014.
In any case, leftist assholes can stop with the stupid meme about how approval of ObamaCare just keeps going up:
At NBC News, "Poll: Majority think health law needs overhaul or elimination." (The PDF survey is here.)
Sixty-three percent said that a "new person" should be elected to Congress, rather than "giving your representative a chance." Also, when thinking about "how you might vote for Congress next year," support for an independent candidate is at 30 percent, up from 25 percent in September. Again, Republicans have a lot to be worried about in these numbers, as they hold the House majority, but Democrats certainly can't rest easy, since they'll be defending Obama's clusterf-k on the campaign trail next year. For that reason alone --- as well as the national redistricting picture which is said to advantage Republicans --- I seriously doubt the Democrats have a chance of taking the House in 2014.
In any case, leftist assholes can stop with the stupid meme about how approval of ObamaCare just keeps going up:
A majority of Americans – 52 percent – believe the health care law needs either a major overhaul or to be completely eliminated, a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll finds.More at Memeorandum.
Forty-four percent think it either needs minor modifications or that it’s working well as is.
The Obama administration maintains that the health insurance exchange website can be fixed, but acknowledges major problems.
“In these early weeks, access to Healthcare.gov has been a miserably frustrating experience for way too many Americans,” Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said Wednesday in testimony on Capitol Hill.
President Barack Obama addresses the issues facing healthcare.gov Wednesday during a speech at Boston's Faneuil Hall.
The number of respondents who said the law was a good or bad idea was relatively unchanged from earlier this month. But support for the law has slipped with one key group – women, who traditionally rank health care as a higher priority than men, and who are seen as an important plank in selling the law.
Americans called it a bad idea by a 47-37 percent margin – a shift from 43-38 percent earlier this month. But among women, a group President Barack Obama won by 11 points in 2012, just 38 percent think it’s a good idea, while 45 percent do not. That’s down from early October, when most women said the law was a good idea by a 41-39 percent margin.
Kathleen Sebelius Congressional Testimony on #ObamaCare Catastrophe
She's the face of criminal despotism.
And the hits can't keep coming fast enough, lol.
At the Hill, "Annoyed Obama demands fix":
More at Memeorandum.
There's going to be all hell breaking loose today on Capitol Hill. Republicans are fired up on this.
Also at WaPo, "Kathleen Sebelius acknowledges ‘frustrating’ problems with health-care Web site."
And the hits can't keep coming fast enough, lol.
At the Hill, "Annoyed Obama demands fix":
An agitated President Obama has expressed frustration to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius about the faulty ObamaCare enrollment website.She needs to be fired, the damned hack.
A visibly annoyed Obama behind closed doors has made clear to Sebelius that it’s her responsibility to fix what has become an unwanted second-term blunder, according to senior administration officials.
White House officials say the strong words from Obama don’t mean Sebelius is necessarily in the doghouse but that she’s responsible for fixing the problem.
In the words of one senior administration official, “She’s in a tough spot. She’s on the hook.”
More at Memeorandum.
There's going to be all hell breaking loose today on Capitol Hill. Republicans are fired up on this.
Also at WaPo, "Kathleen Sebelius acknowledges ‘frustrating’ problems with health-care Web site."
You can't keep your insurance because Democrats don't want you to control your own health-care spending
From Holman Jenkins, at WSJ, "The Outrage Arrives":
Democrats at least are consistent. Back in 1993, during the fight over HillaryCare, Mrs. Clinton explained Democratic reasoning to then-House GOP Leader Denny Hastert. If Americans are allowed too much discretion over how they spend their health-care dollars, Mrs. Clinton said, "We just think people will be too focused on saving money and they won't get the care for their children and themselves that they need . . .RTWT.
"The money has to go to the federal government because the federal government will spend that money better."
Not only was it deliberate ObamaCare policy to make sure plans millions of Americans like would no longer be available, forcing them to buy more coverage than they want or need. NBC reports that the White House—as Mr. Obama was promising Americans they could keep their current plans—was estimating at least seven million people would not be allowed to keep their current plans.
In drafting rules to put ObamaCare into effect, the Health and Human Services department under Kathleen Sebelius tightened the grandfathering eligibility to make sure even more people would be forced to switch to the excessively costly policies that Mr. Obama wants them to buy. Mr. Obama says he cares about your incentive to get preventive care or tests that you may not get if they don't appear to involve a free lunch.
But the truth is, he wants you to pay for coverage you'll never use (mental-health services, cancer wigs, fertility treatments, Viagra) so the money can be spent on somebody else.
Angry Seniors Losing Coverage, Doctors Over #ObamaCare
I was watching this the other night and tweeted.
And now Lonely Con has it, "Video: Seniors Losing Their Doctors."
More at Fire Andrea Mitchell, "Elderly New Yorkers losing doctors because of ObamaCARE."
My god. Elderly losing their doctors on @MegynKelly. #FoxNews
— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) October 29, 2013
And now Lonely Con has it, "Video: Seniors Losing Their Doctors."
More at Fire Andrea Mitchell, "Elderly New Yorkers losing doctors because of ObamaCARE."
The ObamaCare Awakening
At the Wall Street Journal, "Americans Are Losing Their Coverage by Political Design":
More at the link.
She didn't know she'd have to pay for it? Well, she does. And so do you. pic.twitter.com/dNBhSElb9e
— Heritage Foundation (@Heritage) October 23, 2013
For all of the Affordable Care Act's technical problems, at least one part is working on schedule. The law is systematically dismantling the individual insurance market, as its architects intended from the start.Yep. The Democrats are destroying the private market. That was the plan all along. Healthcare is the road to socialism, although Obama and his regressive allies couldn't sell the policy that way. They had to lie to the American people. The POS legislation would've never passed otherwise.
The millions of Americans who are receiving termination notices because their current coverage does not conform to Health and Human Services Department rules may not realize this is by design. Maybe they trusted President Obama's repeated falsehood that people who liked their health plans could keep them. But Americans should understand that this month's mass cancellation wave has been the President's political goal since 2008. Liberals believe they must destroy the market in order to save it.
***
Until this month, consumers who weren't insured through their jobs were allowed to buy insurance that provides the best value based on their own needs. One of every 10 private policies is sold through the individual market, covering about 7% of the U.S. population under age 65.
Some states have ruined this market through regulation and price controls, and in others costs can be high. But the individual market works well for millions of people, who can choose from many plans—from Cadillac coverage to cheaper protection against catastrophic illness.
The political problem for the White House is that these choices are a threat to ObamaCare. If too many people keep these policies instead of joining the government exchanges, ObamaCare could fail. HHS has thus reviewed the decisions of people in the individual market and found them wanting. HHS believes as a matter of political philosophy that everyone should have the same kind of insurance, and in the name of equity it wrote rules dictating the benefits that all plans must cover and how they must be financed.
In most cases these mandates are more comprehensive and thus more expensive than the status quo, but the ObamaCare refugees aren't merely facing higher costs. The plans they want and are willing to pay for have been intentionally outlawed. Ponder that one.
Liberals claim the new insurance should cost more because it's better, at least as defined by liberal paternalism. But the real reason they want policies to cost more is to drive as many people as possible out of this market and into the subsidized ObamaCare exchanges.
The exchanges need these customers to finance ObamaCare's balance sheet and stabilize its risk pools. On the exchanges, individuals earning more than $46,000 or a family of four above $94,000 don't qualify for subsidies and must buy overpriced insurance. If these middle-class ObamaCare losers can be forced into the exchanges, they become financiers of the new pay-as-you-go entitlement.
The political press corps is reporting this as a shocking discovery, and we suppose it is if you believed Mr. Obama's promises. NBC News even reports as a "scoop" that the White House knew all along that millions would lose their policies. But HHS's trail of purpose has been there for anyone willing to look.
The text of the Affordable Care Act said that none of its language "shall be construed to require that an individual terminate coverage" that existed as of March 23, 2010, or the date the law was enacted. But as early as June 2010 HHS published a regulation reinterpreting this "Preservation of Right to Maintain Existing Coverage" to obviate that promise.
Even minor policy changes, such as increasing a copay by as little as $5, means that a plan cannot be renewed without rewriting it to obey all of ObamaCare's regulations. In HHS's "regulatory impact analysis" published in the Federal Register, the department estimated that between 40% and 67% wouldn't qualify as a permitted plan, and this was the point—to prevent such policies "from being bought and sold as a commodity in commercial transactions." HHS knew that lightly regulated policies might be popular, especially compared to the restricted choices in the exchanges.
More at the link.
Umpires Have Been Doing a Terrific Job in #WorldSeries
From Dodgers catcher A.J. Ellis, at the Los Angeles Times:
The two most controversial and commented-on umpire calls of the season came in the first inning of Game 1 and on the final play of Game 3. In an unprecedented move, the five umpires not involved on the play converged to correct a call on a force play at second base. The crew decided to break tradition and make right a call they knew should be reversed. The obstruction call at the end of Game 3 was a perfect example of third base umpire, and one of my personal favorites, Jim Joyce showing instincts and knowledge of the rules simultaneously. The umpire who was overruled in Game 1, Dana DeMuth, instantly followed through on Joyce's obstruction notification and correctly ruled the runner safe at the plate. The play was ruled correctly and just so happened to be on the final play of a World Series game.RTWT.
Reviews of calls via instant replay will be expanded next year. Although technology will aid these judges in the calls they make, my hope is they still umpire with the courage and feel for the game they have shown.
Playmates Amanda Cerny and Raquel Pomplun Body Painted for Playboy Halloween Party
Looks like fun.
{VIDEO PULLED}
More at Egotastic!, "We Saw Amanda Cerny In Her Bikini; Now Let’s See Her on the Pages of Playboy," and "Raquel Pomplun Playmate of the Year Gloriousness."
{VIDEO PULLED}
More at Egotastic!, "We Saw Amanda Cerny In Her Bikini; Now Let’s See Her on the Pages of Playboy," and "Raquel Pomplun Playmate of the Year Gloriousness."
William Kristol Compares #ObamaCare to Communism
That's because it is communism.
A CNN video is here.
Plus, "Bill Kristol On Crossfire Debating ObamaCare."
A CNN video is here.
Plus, "Bill Kristol On Crossfire Debating ObamaCare."
White House Races to Quell #ObamaCare Uproar
Heh.
At the Wall Street Journal, "Administration Shakes Up Operations, Seeks to Improve Communications With Democratic Lawmakers, Amid Flawed Rollout":
More at the link.
IMAGE CREDIT: Heritage Foundation.
At the Wall Street Journal, "Administration Shakes Up Operations, Seeks to Improve Communications With Democratic Lawmakers, Amid Flawed Rollout":
The White House is racing to rebuild confidence in a new health-care system that has so far fallen short of President Barack Obama's promises, as the mounting uproar threatens to overwhelm his second-term agenda.He needs to swallow this flaming pile of crap. And he needs to like it, the dick.
Just two weeks ago, Mr. Obama seemed to prevail in a face-off with congressional Republicans over the federal shutdown and was seeking to shift the public focus to an immigration overhaul, one of his top priorities.
More at the link.
IMAGE CREDIT: Heritage Foundation.
Tuesday, October 29, 2013
White House Not Happy With NBC News
I'll bet.
Posted on this yesterday, "Obama Knew Millions Would Lose Their Health Insurance."
And now at PuffHo, "Obama Administration Refutes NBC News' Obamacare Report."
Leftists are wiggin'.
Posted on this yesterday, "Obama Knew Millions Would Lose Their Health Insurance."
And now at PuffHo, "Obama Administration Refutes NBC News' Obamacare Report."
Leftists are wiggin'.
White House Jackboots Threatening Insurance Executives Into Silence on #ObamaCare Criticism (VIDEO)
Seriously. Company execs say that if they speak out the jackboots are coming down.
It's like the 1930s.
At Weasel Zippers, "CNN Report: Obama Regime Trying to Silence Insurance Companies From Discussing Obamacare Problems…"
It's like the 1930s.
At Weasel Zippers, "CNN Report: Obama Regime Trying to Silence Insurance Companies From Discussing Obamacare Problems…"
Massive Outrage Over Democrats' #ObamaCare Lies
Look, wall-to-wall coverage, 24-7.
When the big national dailies are hammering your lies, you've got problems.
Here's WaPo, "Obama accused of breaking promise to consumers as health plans cancel policies:
More, "Administration official Marilyn Tavenner apologizes for HealthCare.gov problems."
When the big national dailies are hammering your lies, you've got problems.
Here's WaPo, "Obama accused of breaking promise to consumers as health plans cancel policies:
A new controversy over the president’s health-care law is threatening to overshadow the messy launch of its Web site:Continue reading.
Notices are going out to hundreds of thousands of Americans informing them that their health insurance polices are being canceled as of Dec. 31.
The notices appear to contradict President Obama’s promise that despite the changes resulting from the law, Americans can keep their health insurance if they like it. Republicans have seized on the cancellations as evidence that the law is flawed and the president has been less than forthright in describing its impact.
“The real problem is that people weren’t told the truth,” New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) said Tuesday on “CBS This Morning.” “You can remember, they were told that they would be able to keep their policies if they liked them. Now you hear hundreds of thousands of people across the country being told they couldn’t.”
Administration officials say the canceled insurance will be replaced by better policies. But the new line of attack comes as the administration continues to grapple with its problem-plagued Web site, HealthCare.gov.
On Tuesday, the administration official directly responsible for the rollout of the Web site apologized, promising at a congressional hearing to fix problems that have prevented many consumers from signing up for coverage under the health law. Marilyn Tavenner, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, also defended her agency’s management of the project and blamed some of the setbacks on the main contractor, Fairfax-based CGI Federal.
If the accusations of broken promises stick, they could ultimately be more damaging than the glitchy Web site. Although some people are signing up and benefiting from federal subsidies to buy private insurance, the number is unknown because the administration has not revealed enrollment figures.
Meanwhile, insurance companies have sent hundreds of thousands of termination notices in recent months to previously insured Americans, telling them that their health insurance plans are changing to meet the requirements of the health-care law. Under the Affordable Care Act, beginning Jan. 1 insurers must offer renewal policies that cover a core group of essential health benefits, such as maternity care and prescription drug coverage. Policies that don’t offers such benefits can’t be sold after this year.
As a result, many insurers are discontinuing policies that do not comply with these new standards. If insurers discontinue a policy, they are required to give the policyholder 90 days’ notice and offer the option of enrolling in an alternative policy.
While Republicans are insisting that the president misled the public about the effects of the law, others who are sympathetic to the administration said the seeming contradiction shows the difference between political talking points intended to sell a controversial law and the intricacies of the health policies that underlie it.
More, "Administration official Marilyn Tavenner apologizes for HealthCare.gov problems."
Bill O'Reilly's Talking Points Memo: 'Obama Is Disengaged'
The world is closing in on this president.
The final crush will come at election time.
Be sure to stay at the clip for Brit Hume's commentary as well. It's all good.
More from John Steele Gordon, at Commentary, "A President Who Only Cares About Politics."
The final crush will come at election time.
Be sure to stay at the clip for Brit Hume's commentary as well. It's all good.
More from John Steele Gordon, at Commentary, "A President Who Only Cares About Politics."
#ObamaCare Sucks Democrat Donkey Balls
From Scott Pelley's report on last night's CBS News This Evening:
More, "Policy cancellations, higher premiums add to frustration over Obamacare."
More, "Policy cancellations, higher premiums add to frustration over Obamacare."
Monday, October 28, 2013
Valerie Jarrett Blames Insurance Companies for Millions of Cancellations Under #ObamaCare
See Mary Katharine Ham, at Hot Air, "Valerie Jarrett: Obamacare doesn’t force you off your plan; your insurance company does, by complying with Obamacare!"
At at Twitchy, "Incredible: Valerie Jarrett parrots ridiculous line that ‘nothing in Obamacare forces people out of their health plans’."
At at Twitchy, "Incredible: Valerie Jarrett parrots ridiculous line that ‘nothing in Obamacare forces people out of their health plans’."
Teachable moment: Be very skeptical when anyone associated with this WH asserts anything as FACT. They lie breezily & without remorse.
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) October 29, 2013
Obama Knew Millions Would Lose Their Health Insurance
Things are getting so bad for the administration that White House lies are being piled on top of shameless concessions to reality.
The question is, as always, how big a hit Democrats will take? Normally I wouldn't be optimistic, but when the nightly newscasts start sounding like the regular coverage on Fox News, leftists should be worried.
At the Weekly Standard, "Obama Team Knew Many Would Not Be Able to Keep Their Health Care Plans."
And also at Lonely Con, "NBC News: Obama Admin Knew Millions Would Lose Their Health Insurance." (Via Memeorandum.)
The question is, as always, how big a hit Democrats will take? Normally I wouldn't be optimistic, but when the nightly newscasts start sounding like the regular coverage on Fox News, leftists should be worried.
At the Weekly Standard, "Obama Team Knew Many Would Not Be Able to Keep Their Health Care Plans."
And also at Lonely Con, "NBC News: Obama Admin Knew Millions Would Lose Their Health Insurance." (Via Memeorandum.)
Sunday, October 27, 2013
Lou Reed, 1942-2013
At the New York Times, "Lou Reed, Rock ’n’ Roll Pioneer, Dies at 71."
Rolling Stone posted the news earlier today, but the write up was really sloppy (at Memeorandum).
And from Bob Belvedere, "Lou Reed, Requiescat in pace – Sweet Jane (Live)."
Here's another version, recent and good quality:
And don't miss Matt Welch, at Reason, "How Lou Reed Inspired Anti-Communist Revolutionaries and the Rest of Us."
Rolling Stone posted the news earlier today, but the write up was really sloppy (at Memeorandum).
And from Bob Belvedere, "Lou Reed, Requiescat in pace – Sweet Jane (Live)."
Here's another version, recent and good quality:
And don't miss Matt Welch, at Reason, "How Lou Reed Inspired Anti-Communist Revolutionaries and the Rest of Us."
Obama's 'Entire Presidency' Riding on Healthcare.gov
Man, that Cornell Belcher dude's like a freakin' robot. And A.B. Stoddard nails it:
Ross Douthat claims Obama's entire presidency is riding on the need for young people to sign up to this monstrosity. It ain't happening.
“It’s a fundamental, structural issue. They needed a great start. You could have had glitches later. You needed to get people pouring into the system, because the sick are pouring into the exchanges; for the first time they can get covered when they couldn’t before. Now you need young, healthy people to balance out the risks and to actually keep it affordable. Without those whose consumers, it’s not affordable anyway.”
Ross Douthat claims Obama's entire presidency is riding on the need for young people to sign up to this monstrosity. It ain't happening.
Leftist Media Mounts Coordinated Attack on Obama's Claim to 'Greater, More Competent Government'
Look, criticism of the administration's disastrous rollout of the ObamaCare monstrosity has been amazingly bipartisan. We've seen leftist media coverage piling on this clusterf-k, and Senate Democrats up for reelection next year are begging the White House for a delay of the law's implementation.
You do have diehard progressives, however, like Martin Longman at the idiot Boom Tribune, who remain deep in denial on the failure of this legislation, convinced that it's just a matter of time before the website's up and running and consumers start saving money with government-run insurance. Right. That's at the same time Californians are giving that Obamanation the big FU. Hey, must be fun in La La Land.
Meanwhile, the big-guns of the Obama-media are highlighting how the failed website launch is highlighting Obama's longstanding and outrageously bogus claims that progressivism would bring about better, more competent government.
From Dan Balz, for example, at the Washington Post, "HealthCare.gov doesn’t help Obama’s argument for greater government":
And here comes the New York Times, "Health Site Woes Undermine Obama’s Vow on Government":
It's going to be a long, hard year for Democrats. Talk won't be about big new government initiatives, despite attempts by the White House to turn the page to immigration reform and who knows what else? Congressional Democrats are going to be playing the CYA reelection games, dodging ObamaCare right up to November 2014. And it's going to be an ugly bloodbath for the law's supporters.
Make the f-kers eat it.
Martin Longman too.
You do have diehard progressives, however, like Martin Longman at the idiot Boom Tribune, who remain deep in denial on the failure of this legislation, convinced that it's just a matter of time before the website's up and running and consumers start saving money with government-run insurance. Right. That's at the same time Californians are giving that Obamanation the big FU. Hey, must be fun in La La Land.
Meanwhile, the big-guns of the Obama-media are highlighting how the failed website launch is highlighting Obama's longstanding and outrageously bogus claims that progressivism would bring about better, more competent government.
From Dan Balz, for example, at the Washington Post, "HealthCare.gov doesn’t help Obama’s argument for greater government":
LOL! Martin Longman (@BooMan23) loves him some #ObamaCare #Fail! Yeah, dude, it's gonna "lower premiums." Bwahaha!!
— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) October 27, 2013
Hey tweeps, Martin Longman, a.k.a. @BooMan23, is an #ObamaCare troofer, lol! "It's a temporary glitch, man." Bwahaha! http://t.co/Enw1ieBJKy
— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) October 27, 2013
President Obama has faced a persistent challenge in office. The advocate of big, bold actions to address large and seemingly intractable problems, he has struggled to convince the public that government is equipped to carry out such transformational changes.More at the link.
The rollout of the Affordable Care Act has highlighted that challenge, and the administration’s response has no doubt set the president back. He and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius were slow to acknowledge the scope of the problems with HealthCare.gov, and overall the administration has hardly lived up to its pledge to be the most transparent in history.
Administration officials insist that the health-care law is sound, even if the Web site has proved a nightmare to navigate. But the questions raised by the botched rollout go beyond whether the Web site Obama touted so positively is merely plagued with technological glitches or is flawed in more fundamental ways. The whole episode points to the broader debate that the president has yet to win about the role of government.
When he was reelected last November, Obama and his advisers took the results as a mandate to continue or even accelerate the kinds of changes he had started during his first term. Democrats looked at the coalition that gave Obama a second term and saw the makings of a new progressive era after decades of conservative ascendancy.
But exit polls underscored the degree to which he had lost ground on the core debate about the government’s role. After four years of Obama as president, voters showed a smaller appetite for government to do things than they had when he was first elected.
On Election Day 2012, just 43 percent of those who voted said they wanted government to do more to solve problems, while 51 percent said government was doing too many things that were better left to the private sector or individuals. Four years earlier, in November 2008, the exit polls showed just the opposite: 51 percent said they wanted government to do more, while 43 percent said it should do less.
And here comes the New York Times, "Health Site Woes Undermine Obama’s Vow on Government":
WASHINGTON — The implicit promise of Barack Obama’s presidency, delivered during the 2008 campaign and again repeatedly since then, was that government would not face a debacle like the recent malfunction of the technology behind the president’s new health care marketplaces.Continue reading.
In his biggest and most important speeches, the president often talks with passion about a “smarter, more effective government.” He has called on Congress to embrace and pay for a “21st century government that’s open and competent.” And he has vowed to work to “rebuild people’s faith in the institution of government.”
But in the pursuit of that lofty goal, Mr. Obama faces determined opposition from conservatives who view government as the problem, not the solution. And to succeed, he must win over an increasingly skeptical public whose trust in government has eroded over decades. A survey last week by the Pew Research Center found that just 19 percent of Americans trust government to do what is right just about always or most of the time.
The breakdown of the federal HealthCare.gov Web site could emerge as a test of Mr. Obama’s philosophy, with potentially serious implications for an agenda that relies heavily on the belief in a can-do bureaucracy. Michael Dimock, the Pew center’s director, said that the longer the problems persist, the more they could bolster what he called the “almost American value that government is inefficient.”
“There is a lingering kind of effect,” he said. “It matters not only because the public may have an inherent skepticism. It puts the ball on the tee for your critics and the late-night comics.”
It's going to be a long, hard year for Democrats. Talk won't be about big new government initiatives, despite attempts by the White House to turn the page to immigration reform and who knows what else? Congressional Democrats are going to be playing the CYA reelection games, dodging ObamaCare right up to November 2014. And it's going to be an ugly bloodbath for the law's supporters.
Make the f-kers eat it.
Martin Longman too.
Lawsuits Could Unravel #ObamaCare
Awesome.
At LAT, "More legal trouble for Affordable Care Act":
More at that top link.
BONUS: At the comments:
At LAT, "More legal trouble for Affordable Care Act":
WASHINGTON— If computer glitches are not enough of a problem, President Obama's healthcare law also has a legal glitch that critics say could cause it to unravel in more than half the nation.This is excellent no matter what happens. Chances are good the ObamaCare monstrosity could wind back up at the Supreme Court --- and next time, perhaps John Roberts won't be in such a generous mood.
The Affordable Care Act proposes to make health insurance affordable to millions of low-income Americans by offering them tax credits to help cover the cost. To receive the credit, the law twice says they must buy insurance "through an exchange established by the state."
But 36 states have decided against opening exchanges for now. Although the law permits the federal government to open exchanges instead, it does not say tax credits may be given to those who buy insurance through a federally run exchange.
Apparently no one noticed this when the long and complicated bill worked its way through the House and Senate. Last year, however, the Internal Revenue Service tried to remedy it by putting out a regulation that redefined "exchange" to include a "federally facilitated exchange." This is "consistent with the language, purpose and structure … of the act as a whole," the Treasury Department said.
But critics of the law have seized on the glitch. They have filed four lawsuits that urge judges to rule the Obama administration must abide by the strict wording of the law, even if doing so dismantles it in nearly two-thirds of the states. And the Obama administration has no hope of repairing the glitch by legislation as long as the Republicans control the House.
This week, U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman in Washington, a President Clinton appointee, refused the administration's request to dismiss the suit. Instead, he said the challengers had put forward a substantial claim, and he promised to issue a written ruling.
"This is a problem," said Timothy Jost, a law professor at Washington and Lee University. "This case could have legs," although "it was never the intent of Congress to establish federal exchanges that can't do anything. They were supposed to have exactly the same powers."
Michael Carvin, the Washington lawyer leading the challenge, says the wording of the law is what counts. "This is a question of whether you believe in the rule of law. And the language here is as clear as it could possibly be," he said.
More at that top link.
BONUS: At the comments:
Do you really think Obama cares if what he does is legal? Let me clear this up for you, he does not give a damn! He wants what he wants, and if it means doing by means that are unconstitutional he will not hesitate to do so! He has so demonstrated over and over again! He sees himself as an entitled, king like entity! HOW DARE ANYONE QUESTION HIM OR ANY DIRECTIVE THAT COMES FROM HIM! In actuality he is a "despot"!!
Unhinged Democrat Wants Obama to 'Shoot Every Republican Dead...'
Man, they don't mask their intentions any more, do they?
At Director Blue, "PEACE, LOVE AND UNDERSTANDING: New York Times commenters urge Obama administration to kill Republican lawmakers."
At Director Blue, "PEACE, LOVE AND UNDERSTANDING: New York Times commenters urge Obama administration to kill Republican lawmakers."
Haim
At LAT, "It's home for Haim: The red-hot band is happy to hit L.A.'s memory lanes":
Plus, "Live review: Haim at the Fonda Theatre."
Their debut album entered the chart this month at No. 6. In England the record sold more copies than the latest by Justin Timberlake. Reviews have been nearly uniformly ecstatic, as has praise from fellow artists such as Katy Perry and Mumford & Sons.More at the link.
To the uninitiated, Haim's success might resemble the overnight variety.
But the L.A. group — built around a trio of sisters — played its first show in 2007. Before that, the siblings performed in a band with their parents, doing Beatles and Prince covers at school functions and church fairs.
"It was fun to do," said bassist Este Haim, 27, "and it seemed normal to us."
PHOTOS: Haim brings 'Days Are Gone' to the Fonda Theatre in Hollywood
As a pop sensation, though, Haim is anything but the norm. The band — which also includes singer-guitarist Danielle, 24, and guitarist-keyboardist Alana, 21 — has an appealingly ungroomed look and a lived-in sound that forgoes the super-polished dance beats of Top 40 radio.
Sitting backstage at L.A.'s Fonda Theatre on a recent afternoon, the women were dressed in dark vintage clothes, their long hair hanging loose over their shoulders — more Joni Mitchell than Miley Cyrus. They were discussing their not-so-distant days growing up in the San Fernando Valley, including Este's job at the Sherman Oaks Galleria.
"Alana would be at the mall with her friends, and she'd come by and I'd give them free French fries and soup," said the bassist, who worked at the Cheesecake Factory in the shopping center. "Then her friends started coming separately — they cut out the middleman."
"They didn't need me anymore," Alana agreed with a laugh. "Way harsh."
If the sisters seemed nostalgic, perhaps it was because they were home for the first time in months. Haim — the name rhymes with "lime" — has been on the road in the United States and Europe for the better part of 2013. (The group is rounded out by an unrelated drummer, Dash Hutton.) Last week the band's tour stopped in L.A. for a sold-out concert at the Fonda that served as a kind of hometown celebration of its hit debut, "Days Are Gone."
Plus, "Live review: Haim at the Fonda Theatre."
Saturday, October 26, 2013
Oops! Californians Sour on #ObamaCare — LOL!
Obama took California by nearly 60 percent in 2012, but his signature healthcare monstrosity's not going over too well --- especially as folks get a real look at the thing, not the theoretical "affordable care" that was promised.
At LAT:
At LAT:
Californians are discovering what Obamacare will cost them — and many don't like what they see http://t.co/4xHJBAUJKC
— Los Angeles Times (@latimes) October 27, 2013
NSA Spying on Angela Merkel Since 2002
Look, friends spy on friends, although even Merkel's cell phone was bugged.
She's obviously not pleased, and just reelected to a third term, she's got some political capital, and she aims to spend some of that against President Dronekiller.
At the New York Times, "Amid New Storm in U.S.-Europe Relationship, a Call for Talks on Spying":
And at London's Daily Mail, "German officials set to travel to the U.S. 'shortly' to discuss spying allegations and whether Angela Merkel's phone was monitored by the NSA," and "U.S. monitored German Chancellor Angela Merkel's phone since 2002."
She's obviously not pleased, and just reelected to a third term, she's got some political capital, and she aims to spend some of that against President Dronekiller.
At the New York Times, "Amid New Storm in U.S.-Europe Relationship, a Call for Talks on Spying":
BERLIN — While President Obama has tried to soften the blow, this week’s disclosures about the extent of America’s spying on its European allies have added to a series of issues that have sharply eroded confidence in the United States’ leadership at a particularly difficult moment.And at the Verge, "US has been monitoring German chancellor Angela Merkel's phone since 2002, report says."
The sharp words from Germany, France and others this week are part of a broader set of frustrations over issues like the Syrian civil war, the danger posed to the global economy by Washington’s fiscal fights and the broader perception that President Obama himself — for all his promises to rebuild relations with allies after the presidency of George W. Bush — is an unreliable partner.
This American administration is “misreading and miscalculating the effects” of its deeds in a Europe that is less ready than it once was to heed the United States, said Annette Heuser, executive director of the Bertelsmann Foundation, a research organization in Washington.
Early on Friday, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany and President François Hollande of France emerged from a meeting of European leaders to call for talks with the United States on new rules for their intelligence relationship. A statement from the European leaders said a “lack of trust” could undermine trans-Atlantic intelligence cooperation.
Earlier in the week the European Parliament had acted to suspend an agreement with the United States that allows it to track the finances of terrorist groups, citing suspicions that the United States authorities were tapping European citizens’ personal financial data.
The disclosures contained in the documents leaked by the former National Security Agency contractor Edward J. Snowden have crystallized a growing sense in Europe that post-Sept. 11 America has lost some of the values of privacy and accountability that have been the source of the world’s admiration for its version of democracy.
So fierce was the anger in Berlin over suspicions that American intelligence had tapped into Ms. Merkel’s cellphone that Elmar Brok of Germany, the chairman of the European Parliament’s foreign affairs committee and a pillar of trans-Atlantic exchanges since 1984, spoke Friday of America’s security establishment as a creepy “state within a state.”
Since Sept. 11, 2001, he said, “the balance between freedom and security has been lost.”
And at London's Daily Mail, "German officials set to travel to the U.S. 'shortly' to discuss spying allegations and whether Angela Merkel's phone was monitored by the NSA," and "U.S. monitored German Chancellor Angela Merkel's phone since 2002."
"I’m just amused at how quickly after the implementation of #ObamaCare the whole 'death panel' thing was transformed from a paranoid fantasy of that yokel, Sarah Palin, to an obviously good idea that all thinking people support..."
Friday, October 25, 2013
Katie Pavlich: #ObamaCare Website Could Top $1 Billion
She's one of the smartest commentators around.
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen Letter Demanding Delay of #ObamaCare Enrollment Deadline
That sound you're hearing is the crackup of the Obama-Democrat electoral coalition.
This is the beginning of the end of the 2014 Democrats.
And 2016 is just around the corner.
Make these f-kers eat it.
From the homepage of New Hampshire Senator Jeanne Shaheen, "AS WEBSITE GLITCHES LINGER, SHAHEEN URGES WHITE HOUSE TO EXTEND OPEN ENROLLMENT FOR HEALTH EXCHANGES."
And boy, in no time did the Senate Democrat 2014 reelection caucus sign up to the plan, "SHAHEEN LEADS COALITION OF SENATORS TO CALL FOR OPEN ENROLLMENT EXTENSION":
Make these f-kers eat it.
More at Big Government, "REPORT: SENATE DEMS UP FOR RE-ELECTION IN 2014 TO BACK DELAY OF OBAMACARE ENROLLMENT DEADLINE."
This is the beginning of the end of the 2014 Democrats.
And 2016 is just around the corner.
Make these f-kers eat it.
From the homepage of New Hampshire Senator Jeanne Shaheen, "AS WEBSITE GLITCHES LINGER, SHAHEEN URGES WHITE HOUSE TO EXTEND OPEN ENROLLMENT FOR HEALTH EXCHANGES."
And boy, in no time did the Senate Democrat 2014 reelection caucus sign up to the plan, "SHAHEEN LEADS COALITION OF SENATORS TO CALL FOR OPEN ENROLLMENT EXTENSION":
As technical glitches persist, Senators urge HHS Secretary to push back health insurance exchange enrollment deadlineContinue reading (via Memeorandum).
October 25, 2013
(Washington, DC) – As Americans continue to experience technical difficulties with federal and state health insurance enrollment, a coalition of U.S. Senators led by Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) is calling on Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to extend the open enrollment period to give Americans more time to obtain health insurance coverage.
“As long as these substantial technology glitches persist, we are losing valuable time to educate and enroll people in insurance plans,” read the letter signed by Shaheen along with U.S. Sens. Mark Begich (D-AK), Mark Pryor (D-AR), Mary Landrieu (D-LA), Kay Hagan (D-NC), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Mark Udall (D-CO), Tom Udall (D-NM), Michael Bennet (D-CO), and Martin Heinrich (D-NM). “Our constituents are frustrated, and we fear that the longer the website is not functional, opportunities for people to log on, learn about their insurance choices, and enroll will be lost.”
The letter sent today reiterates Shaheen’s earlier call to extend open enrollment if the technological glitches persist with healthcare.gov. An extended open enrollment deadline “will give consumers critical time in which to become familiar with the website and choose a plan that is best for them,” the Senators said.
Make these f-kers eat it.
More at Big Government, "REPORT: SENATE DEMS UP FOR RE-ELECTION IN 2014 TO BACK DELAY OF OBAMACARE ENROLLMENT DEADLINE."
Rats Jumping the Sinking #ObamaCare Ship
At Jammie Wearing Fools, "Politico: Democrats’ United Front Cracks":
Previously: "Democrats Run for #ObamaCare Cover."
Image Credit: Moira Fitzgerald.
The great Democratic unity of 2013 held for five-and-a-half days.Nobody was appreciative of what government can do for them. In fact, most people got along just fine. Now everyone realizes the government is trying to do way too much and want no part of it. So, Democrats, please run on a platform of more government and defending ObamaCare. That bloodbath of 2010 will seem tame by comparison come next November.
For weeks leading up to the shutdown — and over the 16 days it dragged on — President Barack Obama did the unthinkable: he held every Democrat in the House and Senate together. There weren’t any defectors. There wasn’t even anyone running to reporters to question his strategy. The man who’d disappointed them so many times was suddenly exciting them, with his newly apparent backbone and successful resistance to Republicans. They were rushing to do whatever they could to stand by him, next to him, with him.
Like any fad, that’s gone the way of trucker hats and the macarena.
The problems with the Obamacare website have transformed the president from a man who seemed to have gotten a sudden infusion of political capital to a man who’s been pushed back on his heels. He was firm, and he was setting the agenda. Now he’s back to trying to beating back the latest frame Republicans have forced on him, inadvertently providing evidence to support the doubts they’ve been trying to sow from the beginning. He spent last week against the backdrop of a shutdown that made people appreciate all the things government can do for them. Now he has a website which shows how little it can.
Previously: "Democrats Run for #ObamaCare Cover."
Image Credit: Moira Fitzgerald.
#ObamaCare Forcing Hundreds of Thousands Millions to Lose Health Insurance Coverage
From Ed Morrissey, at Hot Air, "CBS: ObamaCare forcing millions to lose their insurance."
Via Memeorandum.
Via Memeorandum.
Democrats Run for #ObamaCare Cover
From Kim Strassel, at WSJ, "After weeks of vowing they wouldn't cave on the president's signature legislation, some Democrats are doing just that":
Jeanne Shaheen doesn't sound like a Democrat who just won a government-shutdown "victory." Ms. Shaheen sounds like a Democrat who thinks she's going to lose her job.Continue reading (via Memeorandum).
The New Hampshire senator fundamentally altered the health-care fight on Tuesday with a letter to the White House demanding it both extend the ObamaCare enrollment deadline and waive tax penalties for those unable to enroll. Within nanoseconds, Arkansas Sen. Mark Pryor had endorsed her "common-sense idea." By Wednesday night, five Senate Democrats were on board, pushing for . . . what's that dirty GOP word? Oh, right. "Delay."
After 16 long days of vowing to Republicans that they would not cave in any way, shape or form on ObamaCare, Democrats spent their first post-shutdown week caving in every way, shape and form. With the GOP's antics now over, the only story now is the unrivaled disaster that is the president's health-care law.
Hundreds of thousands of health-insurance policies canceled. Companies dumping coverage and cutting employees' hours. Premiums skyrocketing. And a website that reprises the experience of a Commodore 64. As recently as May, Democratic consultants were advising members of Congress that their best ObamaCare strategy for 2014 was to "own" the law. Ms. Shaheen has now publicly advised the consultants where they can file that memo.
Russell Brand for the Proletarian Revolution
Via R.S. McCain, "Celebrities Are the New Proletariat":
Russell Brand has international fame and a net worth of $15 million, and also used to bang Katy Perry. Nevertheless, in his own mind, he is one of the downtrodden toilers struggling to overthrow the greedy oppressive parasitical regime of bourgeois capitalism...RTWT.
Thursday, October 24, 2013
Wretched Joan Walsh Whines About How Everybody Hates Joan Walsh
She's vile.
And sorry if I'm all out of sympathy for this #p2 POS.
Turns out she's come under heavy fire on the left for her objectively stupid defense of the administration's #ObamaCare rollout debacle. And amazingly, it's juice-box hero Ezra Klein who comes out as the voice of reason in all of this. Clue to Joan: It's not "just a glitch" and giving it "more time" won't solve a thing. Ezra's right. ObamaCare's blown, down deep inside, to the "back end" and beyond. Frankly, it sucks donkey balls, and so does Joan Walsh, the dumb [four-letter word here].
Here's the filthy whiny weasel at Salon, "How I became the poster girl for liberal agitprop" (via Memeorandum):
And sorry if I'm all out of sympathy for this #p2 POS.
Turns out she's come under heavy fire on the left for her objectively stupid defense of the administration's #ObamaCare rollout debacle. And amazingly, it's juice-box hero Ezra Klein who comes out as the voice of reason in all of this. Clue to Joan: It's not "just a glitch" and giving it "more time" won't solve a thing. Ezra's right. ObamaCare's blown, down deep inside, to the "back end" and beyond. Frankly, it sucks donkey balls, and so does Joan Walsh, the dumb [four-letter word here].
Here's the filthy whiny weasel at Salon, "How I became the poster girl for liberal agitprop" (via Memeorandum):
That women are treated badly on Twitter is not breaking news. But the depth and scale of the personal cruelty and wanton misogyny weirdly confirmed the point I was trying to make in the original piece: The “unhinged right” is well-organized and dangerous, and a lot of people, including liberals, don’t seem to be taking that in completely. The election of our first black president unleashed primitive reactionary forces. Open expressions of racism and misogyny are now a form of political protest, and if you complain, you’re the oppressor. Uppity black people and uppity women especially must be put in their place.Bitter partisanship has left this woman a hulking, steaming pile of radioactive filth. She just hates. No amount of Obama/Democrat failure will shake her from what is, for all intents and purposes, a psychotic obsession with the "evil" right. Shoot, the father of Trig-trutherism sounds positively subdued compared to the unhinged Salon hate-monger. See the Dish, "Epistemic Openness Watch":
The difference between my Twitter experience and that of my white, male liberal friends and critics reminded me once again how relatively insulated even many liberals are from the insanity. As a white person, I don’t always take it in fully myself. Every time I’m ready to blame President Obama for his political troubles, and yes, he deserves some blame, there’s a story like the one about Rep. Pete Sessions telling the president, to his face, “I can’t even stand to look at you.” (The White House is now saying this story is based on a misunderstanding. Stay tuned.) I can’t even stand to enumerate the ways in which this president has been insulted in ways unknown to white presidents, Sessions aside.
I know that good conscientious journalists, even some liberals, believe that when Democrats have such deadly enemies, they can’t afford to hand them weapons, and a badly designed ACA exchange website is a weapon. And I wish Bill Clinton had kept his pants up, too. But now Barack Obama, whose only known personal weakness involves Nicorette, is being treated even more viciously than Clinton. So you’ll excuse me if I argue that we ought to focus on the sickness that’s taken hold of the Republican Party, rather than the fact that our last two Democratic presidents haven’t been able to cure it.
I have faith in the judgment of Americans, and do not share the agitprop tendencies of Joan Walsh. What matters is the truth. What matters when things go wrong is transparency. What truly worries me is less the website’s failure than Obama’s defensive, secretive posture in response to it. Take the hit as hard as you can now. Explain the fail fully. And move relentlessly forward.
When You've Lost Jon Stewart ... You Know the #ObamaCare Rollout Was a Disaster ...
From Major Garrett, at National Journal, "The Biggest Joke of the Obama Presidency."
And watch Stewart hammer the administration at the link. (More here.)
And watch Stewart hammer the administration at the link. (More here.)
Sen. Joe Manchin Seeks Delay of #ObamaCare Individual Mandate
I posted on this yesterday, "Democratic Unease Grows on Health Law."
Now here's Manchin on O'Reilly's show last night:
Also at Politico, "Red state Democrats propose changes to Obamacare."
Now here's Manchin on O'Reilly's show last night:
Also at Politico, "Red state Democrats propose changes to Obamacare."
Nick Gillespie: Obama's Like 'Hitler in the Bunker'
He takes it back, since Van Jones objects to the Hitler reference, but it's apt. I used the bunker analogy the other day. Where has this man been? He's the chief executive. He's in charge of his administration. The buck stop with him. And he's been completely out of it.
An excellent clip:
More at RCP, "Sebelius: Obama Did Not Know About Obamacare Website Glitches."
An excellent clip:
More at RCP, "Sebelius: Obama Did Not Know About Obamacare Website Glitches."
Los Angeles Bans Use of Bullhooks on Circus Elephants
The effect is to ban Ringling Bros. Circus from Los Angeles, a very bad move. The policy won't protect the animals but will harm the local economy. It's stupid PC run amok.
NBC Los Angeles reports.
And here's the letter to the editor from Stephen Payne, who is vice president for corporate communications at Feld Entertainment, Ringling Bros.' parent company:
NBC Los Angeles reports.
And here's the letter to the editor from Stephen Payne, who is vice president for corporate communications at Feld Entertainment, Ringling Bros.' parent company:
Re "Of elephants and bullhooks," Editorial, Oct. 22More at LAist, "Los Angeles Just Basically Banned Circuses."
Every year since 1922, Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey has performed for circus fans in Los Angeles. Elephants have always been an integral part of Ringling Bros., providing an up-close way for our audiences to experience these amazing animals in a way they can nowhere else.
Unfortunately, The Times appears to have simply accepted the representations of animal rights groups about how our elephants are trained. The "guide," referred to by the outdated term "bullhook" in the editorial, is an animal husbandry tool for working with elephants approved by experts, including the American Veterinary Medical Assn.
Our elephants are comfortable with the training methods and tools used at Ringling Bros., and, more important, many of those trained behaviors are vital for optimal husbandry and veterinary care.
Our elephants define Ringling Bros. for the nearly 100,000 people who come to see them at Staples Center each year. The L.A. City Council should not deny people the right to make the decision to attend and also threaten local jobs by passing this unnecessary and unfair ban on circuses in the city.
Stephen Payne
Vienna, Va.
Wednesday, October 23, 2013
Bill O'Reilly Calls 'Em Like He Sees 'Em: Democrat Agenda Is 'Form of Communism'
This is Tuesday's talking points memo, and he nails it:
Democratic Unease Grows on Health Law
At the Wall Street Journal, "Lawmakers Cite Website Woes in Call for Delay in Penalties for the Uninsured":
And clearly, this so-called six-week delay for sign-up is a trial balloon launched in case the White House decides to delay the individual mandate --- which by now, obviously, is the least Demo-Rats could do to save some face from this utter political and policy debacle.
In any case, more at the click through.
Also at the Hill, "Manchin: Delay ObamaCare mandate."
And at AP, "Frustrated Dems lament damage from website bugs" (via Memeorandum.)
The hard line Democrats have drawn against delaying a core element of the federal health law has begun to crack, as problems with the new federal insurance website prompted calls for President Barack Obama to delay penalties on people who don't carry health coverage.Massive finger-pointing.
Democratic leaders in Congress and Mr. Obama have defended the minimum penalty of $95 in 2014 as crucial to inducing uninsured Americans to sign up for coverage, and the party held firm against Republican calls to delay or eliminate the coverage requirement that provoked this month's partial government shutdown.
Late Wednesday, the Obama administration said it would establish what amounts to a six-week extension in the time people have to obtain insurance coverage before incurring a penalty, responding to what some have called a lack of clarity in the law over the deadline.
Some Democrats say the flawed rollout of the law could mean bigger changes are needed. Sen. Mark Begich (D., Alaska), who is up for re-election in 2014, said Wednesday that individuals shouldn't be penalized if technical issues with the HealthCare.gov website aren't resolved.
The signs of growing Democratic unease came as the White House acknowledged for the first time Wednesday that the problems extend beyond sign-up logjams that kept thousands of people from being able to view insurance offerings online. Experts are working to "iron out the kinks" that have led insurers to receive flawed data, including duplicate enrollments and spouses reported as children, the White House said after a meeting among administration and insurance industry officials.
The debate over the botched launch will kick into higher gear Thursday at a House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing. In their prepared testimony, contractors responsible for the federal insurance portal pointed fingers at each other and the administration.
Cheryl Campbell, a senior vice president at CGI Group Inc.'s CGI Federal unit, the lead contractor for the HealthCare.gov website that launched Oct. 1, blamed the bottlenecks on a system designed by another contractor, UnitedHealth Group Inc.'s Optum unit, which verifies users' identities.
Optum group executive vice president Andrew Slavitt, in turn, said in his prepared testimony that a decision to disable anonymous shopping drove traffic to its system that was higher than "if consumers could 'window shop' anonymously." The administration has since reversed its decision to make people first register before shopping.
At least two more congressional hearings are scheduled next week, including one where Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is expected to be grilled.
The penalty for failure to carry insurance is at the heart of the Affordable Care Act. Insurers say individuals—particularly younger, healthier people—must be coaxed to buy insurance so that carriers aren't left with a risk pool of predominantly older and sicker people.
And clearly, this so-called six-week delay for sign-up is a trial balloon launched in case the White House decides to delay the individual mandate --- which by now, obviously, is the least Demo-Rats could do to save some face from this utter political and policy debacle.
In any case, more at the click through.
Also at the Hill, "Manchin: Delay ObamaCare mandate."
And at AP, "Frustrated Dems lament damage from website bugs" (via Memeorandum.)
Tuesday, October 22, 2013
'The Conservative Mind'
Reading it now.
Here's the Amazon link, The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Eliot.
I tweeted this to Robert Stacy McCain the other day, but he's been too busy with the Kimberlin psychos.
Here's the Amazon link, The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Eliot.
I tweeted this to Robert Stacy McCain the other day, but he's been too busy with the Kimberlin psychos.
.@RSMcCain Reading Russell Kirk, "The Conservative Mind." pic.twitter.com/Vm620Kq9DU
— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) October 16, 2013
Budget Discord Simmers on the Left
Democrats aren't serious about reducing the national debt, and they never will be.
At the Wall Street Journal, "Some Liberal Groups, Lawmakers Worry About Cuts to Social Security, Other Entitlements":
And frankly, President Obumbler's not serious about entitlement reform. We'll be over $20 trillion in debt when he leaves office, and perhaps much more.
At the Wall Street Journal, "Some Liberal Groups, Lawmakers Worry About Cuts to Social Security, Other Entitlements":
Cracks are showing in the Democratic coalition as the next round of budget talks gets under way, hurting the chances for progress toward a broad deal that changes the tax code and significantly narrows future deficits.Well, when has O ever worried about the base?
While Republicans are still smarting over nasty infighting they engaged in during the debt-ceiling fight and 16-day government shutdown, Democrats have stayed united. This helped them beat back Republican demands to undo or scale back President Barack Obama's 2010 health law as a condition for ending the showdown.
But with eyes now turning toward a newly formed budget committee, some liberal lawmakers and groups are worried that Democrats will negotiate cuts to Social Security benefits and other entitlement programs. The president's budget blueprint, which was released in April, proposed slowing the growth of Social Security spending by using a new measure of inflation—an idea that drew a rebuke from some lawmakers and liberal groups.
"The president is about to run into a major base problem if he tries to do this," said Rep. Keith Ellison (D., Minn.), co-chairman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, referring to using the new formula, the chained consumer-price index, to determine benefits. "My advice to him is: Don't do it."
And frankly, President Obumbler's not serious about entitlement reform. We'll be over $20 trillion in debt when he leaves office, and perhaps much more.
"#ObamaCare's Exchanges Are Still Broken...
...and Obama's Speech Shouldn't Give Anyone Confidence They'll Work Soon," says Peter Suderman, at Reason.
Monday, October 21, 2013
Karmel Allison, Pregnant Diabetic, Nearly Collapsed During President's Interminable Speech on #ObamaCare Debacle
It's bad enough that the woman nearly fainted, but she's pregnant and diabetic.
If you were watching live you recognized immediately how extremely dangerous this was (she almost lost consciousness at the end of Obama's pathetically long address). Frightening. The president personally subjected Ms. Allison to this, the cold-hearted bastard. He's literally despicable. He should be ashamed for using this woman as a throwaway propaganda ornament. A pregnant diabetic! Democrats will stop at nothing to ram the ObamaCare monstrosity down the throats of the American people. Nothing. For partisan optics they'd risk the life of a diabetic woman and her unborn child! Inhuman and depraved. But then again, these are far-left regressive fanatics. Nothing is beyond the pale for these ghouls.
Here's the dramatic screencap at London's Daily Mail.
More at the Washington Times, "Caution: Obamacare may cause fainting."
And at the San Diego Union-Tribune, "San Diego woman nearly collapses on stage with president."
If you were watching live you recognized immediately how extremely dangerous this was (she almost lost consciousness at the end of Obama's pathetically long address). Frightening. The president personally subjected Ms. Allison to this, the cold-hearted bastard. He's literally despicable. He should be ashamed for using this woman as a throwaway propaganda ornament. A pregnant diabetic! Democrats will stop at nothing to ram the ObamaCare monstrosity down the throats of the American people. Nothing. For partisan optics they'd risk the life of a diabetic woman and her unborn child! Inhuman and depraved. But then again, these are far-left regressive fanatics. Nothing is beyond the pale for these ghouls.
Here's the dramatic screencap at London's Daily Mail.
More at the Washington Times, "Caution: Obamacare may cause fainting."
And at the San Diego Union-Tribune, "San Diego woman nearly collapses on stage with president."
Corrupt Bastards Club
From Sarah Palin, at Big Government, "D.C.'S 'CORRUPT BASTARDS CLUB'":
RTWT.
It can be argued that Obamacare isn’t full socialized medicine… yet. Right now it is a sort of corporatism, which is the collusion of big government with big business. With Obamacare, the government has taken over an industry that comprises a sixth of our economy, radically changed the way it operates, and is mandating that we purchase the services of that industry. This is unprecedented. It’s radical.An awesome piece.
For those Obama voters who are now flummoxed by the rise in their health care premiums, let me explain why they went up. Obamacare has changed the very nature of insurance, which is a hedge against a future possibility. A 27-year-old marathon runner is much less likely to suffer a major illness than a 57-year-old obese chain smoker with a pickled liver. But Obamacare has ruled that there be no adjusted costs for pre-existing conditions, which means we threw out the actuarial data and everyone is now required to pay more to cover those who are more likely to be sick. But now average Americans – especially those healthy 20somethings who probably don’t even want to buy insurance – can’t afford to pay for Obamacare.
Obamacare in its current corporatist form isn’t meant to last. It’s meant to push us towards full socialized medicine with a single-payer system. How do I know this? Simple. Let’s compare Obamacare with the Canadian single-payer system.
With Obamacare we have crappier health care (fewer choices, fewer doctors, and an IPAB rationing panel of faceless bureaucrats, aka the ol' “death panel” that has been admitted to existing in Obamacare), but it is very expensive for the individual American. For instance, you’ll find that the so-called Bronze Plans are just as expensive as the Platinum Plans when you factor in the $5,000-$10,000 deductible in addition to the monthly payments you’ll shell out. And those Americans who aren’t being pushed onto the Obamacare exchanges are still seeing their insurance premiums skyrocket as the industry shifts onto consumers the cost of not factoring in various conditions.
Now let’s look at what Canadians have. I dare say our good neighbor to your north, and my east, has even worse health care coverage, but at least it’s “free” for the individual.
Americans, if you’re faced with a 300% increase (or even a 65% increase like my family) in your health care premiums for crappier coverage, doesn’t “free” socialized medicine all of a sudden sound appealing?
And that’s how Americans will be led down the primrose path to a single-payer system. People will be frustrated, worn out, and broke under this new government burden. Many will end up concluding they’ll settle for – then demand – full socialized medicine because they’ll see how the unworkable Obamacare will break our health care system (where, presently, no one is turned away from emergency rooms and we have many public and private safety nets for people in need), along with busting our personal bank accounts. The cry will go out, “Can’t you just put us all in a sort of Medicaid-like system? It’ll be much less confusing than these awful exchange websites and a lot less expensive!” As things stand, many who are getting slammed by Obamacare will inevitably settle for less out of necessity. And that’s the left’s declared plan: a single-payer system. They said it. I didn't.
RTWT.
Obama Lamely Rebuffs Criticism of Healthcare Debacle in Desperate Rose Garden Address (VIDEO)
It's embarrassing.
He's desperate.
Obama's obviously just emerged from a bunker on the White House grounds, because not a word he utters reflects the realities on the ground for the majority of Americans who're now convinced that the problems go way beyond a chintzy website with stolen code.
See Byron York, "At the White House: Obamacare success stories that aren't":
And again, listen to the clip. Obama's like a traveling vacuum cleaner salesman, desperate and hawking a shitty product. But he's not worth an ounce of your pity. He made his bed, the asshole.
Also, "Remarks by the President on the Affordable Care Act."
BONUS: See Andrew Kaczynski, "Flashback: Obama Told People They Could Keep Their Health Care Plan" (at Memeorandum).
He's desperate.
Obama's obviously just emerged from a bunker on the White House grounds, because not a word he utters reflects the realities on the ground for the majority of Americans who're now convinced that the problems go way beyond a chintzy website with stolen code.
See Byron York, "At the White House: Obamacare success stories that aren't":
In the days since the problems with the Obamacare website became too large to ignore, defenders of the administration cited the many people they said have already benefited from the new exchanges, as well as from the law as a whole. Presumably, the White House had many success stories to choose from in deciding who would stand behind the president at Monday's event. But some of the successes they chose don't seem to be successes at all.RTWT.
And again, listen to the clip. Obama's like a traveling vacuum cleaner salesman, desperate and hawking a shitty product. But he's not worth an ounce of your pity. He made his bed, the asshole.
Also, "Remarks by the President on the Affordable Care Act."
BONUS: See Andrew Kaczynski, "Flashback: Obama Told People They Could Keep Their Health Care Plan" (at Memeorandum).
LAUSD Segregates Hispanic Students by English Proficiency
Parents are mad about this, with good reason.
And you know Spanish-speaking kids will be warehoused away, deprived of better learning opportunities.
At the Los Angeles Times, "L.A. Unified's English learner action upsets parents, teachers":
LAUSD just sucks.
You're looking at modern day Jim Crow for Hispanic families. And the district is run by big Democrat-backed union thugs. But hey, "hope and change," don'tcha know?!!
And you know Spanish-speaking kids will be warehoused away, deprived of better learning opportunities.
At the Los Angeles Times, "L.A. Unified's English learner action upsets parents, teachers":
Luis Gaytan, the 5-year-old son of Mexican immigrants who speak Spanish at home, was so terrified by kindergarten that he would barely talk — prompting classmates to tease that he didn't have a tongue.Continue reading.
In the last two months, at Granada Elementary Community Charter, Luis has gained a growing command of the language in a class of students with a mixed range of English ability. His father, Jorge, is convinced that his son is learning English more quickly because he hears it every day from more-advanced classmates.
But Luis — and thousands of other Los Angeles Unified students — is being moved into new classes with those at a similar language level under an order that has sparked a storm of protest. In recent weeks, a group of southeast L.A. principals have mounted a rare challenge to district policy, teachers have flooded their union office with complaints, and parents have launched protest rallies and petition drives urging L.A. Unified to postpone the class reorganizations until next year.
"Kids with little or no English are going to be segregated and told they're not good enough for the mainstream," said Cindy Aranda-Lechuga, a Granada mother of a kindergartner who gathered 162 parent signatures seeking a postponement and spoke against the policy at an L.A. Board of Education meeting last week. "Kids learn from their peers, and they're not going to be able to do that anymore."
Marking the latest chapter in California's fierce language wars, the furor over class placements for those learning English raises the controversial question of which is more effective: separating students by fluency level or including them in diverse classes. Critics are also upset that the change is coming two months into the school year, after students have bonded with classmates and teachers have developed classroom lessons and routines. Opponents blame the district and local schools for the disruption.
LAUSD just sucks.
You're looking at modern day Jim Crow for Hispanic families. And the district is run by big Democrat-backed union thugs. But hey, "hope and change," don'tcha know?!!
Surfboards or Bodysurfers? Who Owns the Wedge?
Well, it's a public beach, technically. But bodysurfers want surfboards banned at the Newport Beach Wedge.
At the Los Angeles Times, "Surfers, bodysurfers battle over Newport Beach's iconic Wedge":
PREVIOUSLY: "Huge Waves at the Wedge in Newport Beach."
At the Los Angeles Times, "Surfers, bodysurfers battle over Newport Beach's iconic Wedge":
An old surfing battle is resurfacing in Newport Beach.More at the link.
A city panel, the Blackball Working Group, will take the first step toward a possible review of surfing regulations at a public meeting Monday night. This has set off murmurings among surfers over one particular place: the Wedge.
A storied spot at the end of the Balboa Peninsula, where the west harbor jetty extends from shore, the Wedge has set the stage for world-famous waves that have brought thrills to generations of surfers and spectators.
Here, on occasion, large swells send surf crashing into the jetty. These waves bounce back toward the ocean, where they may meet, in a wedge shape, another oncoming swell. This creates massive walls of water reaching 20 to 30 feet — a dream for surfers — that break close to the shore.
The question is: Who can lay claim to the Wedge?
For roughly two decades, bodysurfers have held claim to set times during summer months when only they can ride the break. They say they need the part-time ban because it is unsafe for them to try to compete with other surfers.
On a popular morning at the Wedge, people might be spotted on surfboards, bodyboards and skim boards or even clinging to a plastic fast-food tray. But current regulations require that they get out of the water by 10 a.m.
For a bodysurfer to ride among them would be like asking a bicyclist to assume position in a lane on a highway, they say.
Bodysurfers shirk any flotation device, wearing only wetsuits and flippers. This makes them slower and the last to catch waves. Those with boards pose a threat because they may collide with bodysurfers or lose their boards, which may then go flying.
The City Council recognized these safety concerns in 1985, allowing bodysurfers some piece of mind by banning boards when the blackball flag, a yellow flag with a black dot, was displayed from June 15 through Sept. 10.
In 1993, the council extended the ban to May 1 through Oct. 31. At that time, a hardened group of bodysurfers called the Wedge Crew, or Wedge Preservation Society, collected 80 signatures calling for a full ban on boards. A counter group called Save the Wedge collected 700 names in opposition.
Now a new petition is circulating. Nearly 1,500 people this week signed an online petition that calls for an end to time restraints at the Wedge, according to Times Community News.
"I figured I might as well put something together so that people could have a way to voice their own opinions," said Aaron Peluso, who created the petition and owns a skimboard company. "I've been hoping it would have happened a decade ago."
PREVIOUSLY: "Huge Waves at the Wedge in Newport Beach."
We’re Not Retreating – We’re Advancing in a Different Direction
From Star Parker, at Right Wing News:
Yeah, it's a long haul, especially when you've got to battle the leftists media the whole way. Here's CNN's new poll out today, for example, "GOP, Boehner take shutdown hit in new CNN poll" (via Memeorandum).
A number of years ago I was between flights on a business trip and was sitting in an airport restaurant having lunch. It was right after the 2008 presidential election and I knew that the election of America’s first black president, a man of the hard left, would make my job bringing a conservative message to black communities much more challenging and difficult.Continue reading.
As I ate my sandwich I glanced at the wall and saw a sign with a quote from General Douglas MacArthur. It said, “We are not retreating – we are advancing in another direction.”
I was immediately energized by this quote from the old general. It was exactly what I needed at the moment. It totally captured my state of mind. Perhaps my mission needed a change in tactics but certainly there was no change in commitment and objectives.
There is no smooth sailing in any tough mission. Setbacks are always part of the game. But if you are committed and right, setbacks are opportunities to re-group and improve.
Those who think that the current deal to temporarily fund the government and open the door to yet even more government borrowing amounts to some kind of defeat for Tea Party Republicans need to think again.
The Tea Party is in for the long haul. One skirmish may be lost but the war continues.
A recent Gallup poll shows 18 percent of Americans satisfied with the way the country is being governed. For a little perspective, this stood at 26 percent in mid- 1973 in the midst of the Watergate scandal that wound up in the resignation of the president of the United States.
Early in 2009, shortly after President Obama was elected, 56 percent expressed satisfaction with our government. It’s just been downhill since then...
Yeah, it's a long haul, especially when you've got to battle the leftists media the whole way. Here's CNN's new poll out today, for example, "GOP, Boehner take shutdown hit in new CNN poll" (via Memeorandum).
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