Wham! #ObamaCare Creates 'Two-Tier' Health System as Insurers Restrict Choices to Cut Costs

And you know what, this isn't a bug. It's a feature.

All is proceeding just as the Democrats planned.

At the Washington Post, "Insurers restricting choice of doctors and hospitals to keep costs down":

As Americans have begun shopping for health plans on the insurance exchanges, they are discovering that insurers are restricting their choice of doctors and hospitals in order to keep costs low, and that many of the plans exclude top-rated hospitals.

The Obama administration made it a priority to keep down the cost of insurance on the exchanges, the online marketplaces that are central to the Affordable Care Act. But one way that insurers have been able to offer lower rates is by creating networks that are far smaller than what most Americans are accustomed to.

The decisions have provoked a backlash. In one closely watched case, Seattle Children’s Hospital has filed suit against Washington’s insurance commissioner after a number of insurers kept it out of their provider networks. “It is unprecedented in our market to have major insurance plans exclude Seattle Children’s,” said Sandy Melzer, senior vice president.

The result, some argue, is a two-tier system of health care: Many of the people who buy health plans on the exchanges have fewer hospitals and doctors to choose from than those with coverage through their employers.

A number of the nation’s top hospitals — including the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles and children’s hospitals in Seattle, Houston and St. Louis — are cut out of most plans sold on the exchange.

In most cases, the decision was about the cost of care.

Continue reading.

.@MSNBC Race-Baiter Michael Eric Dyson Attacks Matt Lewis for 'White Privilege'

The funny thing is Dyson really believes he's being treated like a "boy" rather than being called out, rightly, for his idiot race-baiting. Behold the intellectual and moral bankruptcy of the radical left.

At NewsBusters, "WATCH: Conservative Writer Takes on Race-Obsessed MSNBC Contributor Michael Eric Dyson."

New Emails Show White House Knew #ObamaCare Could Crash on Launch

At Politico, "White House email chain shows launch fears":

Top White House and health officials feared that HealthCare.gov wouldn’t work correctly and would set off a wave of bad publicity, according to emails shortly before the disastrous rollout of the Obamacare enrollment website.

The emails, released Wednesday evening by House Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa, included a picture of an error message that has become emblematic of the launch debacle. They were dated Sept. 25 — less than a week before the enrollment portal opened and immediately created a crisis for the White House.

“When Todd Park and Marilyn [Tavenner] was here yesterday one of the things Todd conveyed was this fear the WH has about hc.gov being unavailable,” Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Deputy Chief Information Officer Henry Chao wrote to a few dozen staff and contractors. He was referring to White House Chief Technology Officer Todd Park and CMS Administrator Marilyn Tavenner.

“Todd does have a good point and I think we should have a more comprehensive answer as to how we will ensure high availability,” Chao continued.

Later on in the email chain, Chae wrote to two colleagues: “… can you think about a better way to convey to the public when the site is not available? I am picturing in my mind all the major print and online publications taking screenshots of what is below and just ramping up the hyperbole about hc.gov not functional.” Attached is picture of an error message which says, “The System is down at the moment.”

Also at Fox News, "Email shows White House had 'fear' ObamaCare site wouldn't work before launch."

Some Afternoon Alice Goodwin #Rule5

I might be able to get a little blogging in tonight, so might was well start it out with a bang.

At Egotastic!, "Alice Goodwin Return to Barely There Lingerie Glory."

Oh My! Obama Dive-Bombs to 37 Percent Approval in Latest CBS News Poll

Yeah, because it's just a matter of time before the ObamaCare kinks are worked out, or something.

At CBS, "Obama approval sink to new lows":

President Obama's job approval rating has plunged to the lowest of his presidency, according to a new CBS News poll released Wednesday, and Americans' approval of the Affordable Care Act has dropped it's lowest since CBS News started polling on the law.

Thirty-seven percent now approve of the job Mr. Obama is doing as president, down from 46 percent in October -- a nine point drop in just a month. Mr. Obama's disapproval rating is 57 percent -- the highest level for this president in CBS News Polls.

Obamacare issues erasing Democrats' political advantage from gov't shutdown
A rocky beginning to the opening of the new health insurance exchanges has also taken its toll on how Americans perceive the Affordable Care Act. Now, approval of the law has dropped to 31 percent - the lowest number yet recorded in CBS News Polls, and a drop of 12 points since last month. Sixty-one percent disapprove (a high for this poll), including 46 percent who say they disapprove strongly.

Republicans are nearly unanimous in their disapproval of the law, and now more than two-thirds of independents agree. Almost six in ten Democrats continue to support the law, but their support has dropped 16 points from last month - from 74 percent in October to 58 percent today. Support has dropped 11 points among independents and five points among Republicans.

Via Memeorandum.

Greta Van Susteren Exposes Murderous Black Thug 'Knockout Game'

It's long past time for black leaders to speak out and denounce this vicious "game" that's popular with America's black thug youth.

At Greta Van Susteren's blog, "VIDEO: “Knockout Game” hits another victim in D.C."

From last night's show, "What did you think of my OFF THE RECORD commentary tonight?"

Also, "WATCH THIS VIDEO: WHERE IS THE MEDIA?? THIS SHOULD BE SPARKING OUTRAGE COAST TO COAST! WHY ISN’T EVERY NEWS OUTLET COVERING THIS? (CBS LOCAL IS!) THIS IS NOT A GAME AND IT IS NOT FUNNY – THIS IS MURDER."

When someone dies from this cruel KNOCK OUT game (and it is not funny nor a game), it is MURDER. If the victim does not die, it is assault with intent to kill. It is mean. It is cruel. It also is terrible for the many good people in a community trying to live their lives and raise their families. They are scared.

Unhinged Leftists Freak Over Big-Game Hunter Melissa Bachman — Again!

The hunt was completely legal --- and ethical.

From Katie Pavlich, at Townhall, "Ignorant Anti-Hunters Freak Out Over Woman Who Legally Killed a Lion."

Just read it all at the link.



Yeah, by now this is pretty routine, the damned leftist ghouls.

Remember previously, "Big-Game Hunter Melissa Bachman Cut From National Geographic's 'Ultimate Survivor Alaska' After Environmental Fascists Mount Boycott at Change.org."

Repeal of 1988 Medicare Catastrophic Coverage Act Portends Danger for #ObamaCare

Look, when front-page coverage at the New York Times raises the specter of ObamaCare repeal, you know things are hitting rock-bottom on the left.

See, "Lesson Is Seen in Failure of Law on Medicare in 1989":

WASHINGTON — Angry Americans voice outrage at being asked to pay more for health coverage. Lawmakers and the White House say the public just doesn’t appreciate the benefits of the new health law. Opponents clamor for repeal before the program fully kicks in.

The year was 1989, and the law was the Medicare Catastrophic Coverage Act, which was supposed to protect older Americans from bankruptcy due to medical bills. Instead it became a catastrophe for Democratic and Republican lawmakers, who learned the hard way that many older Americans did not want to be helped in that particular way.

Seventeen months after President Ronald Reagan signed the measure with Rose Garden fanfare, a series of miscalculations and missteps in passing the law became painfully evident, and it was unceremoniously stricken from the books by lawmakers who could not see its demise come quickly enough.

The tortured history of the catastrophic-care law is a cautionary tale in the context of the struggle over the new health law, the Affordable Care Act. It illustrates the political and policy hazards of presenting sweeping health system changes to consumers who might not be prepared for them. And it provides a rare example of lawmakers who were willing to jettison a big piece of social policy legislation when the political risks became too grave.

“It has often been said that if you get an entitlement on the books, you can never get rid of it,” said Bill Archer, who pushed to repeal the 1988 law as a senior Republican, from Texas, on the House Ways and Means Committee. “That is an example of a time we did get rid of it.”

Backers of the Affordable Care Act say comparisons to the catastrophic-care debacle are flawed. They say that the new law fills a major health insurance void and that despite its current problems it will never meet the same fate as that undertaking in 1988.

“It is enormously different,” said Ron Pollack, the executive director of Families USA, a liberal consumer advocacy group, who supported both the new health law and the catastrophic-care program. “You had a benefit totally paid for by 40 percent of the Medicare beneficiaries, who overwhelmingly thought there was not a benefit there for them. It is understandable they were upset.”

Others involved with the passage and repeal of the Medicare Catastrophic Coverage Act see clear parallels with the current situation, in which a very vocal segment that views itself as harmed by the new law has joined with highly organized political operations to rally opposition to it.

“When I saw this massive thing, I said, ‘Boy, if this is anything like catastrophic, they are going to be in trouble,’ ” said Brian J. Donnelly, who led the 1989 repeal effort as a Massachusetts Democrat on the Ways and Means Committee. “It is a very good analogy.”

Continue reading.

And flashback to 1989, at NYT, "Retreat in Congress; The Catastrophic-Care Debacle - A special report.; How the New Medicare Law Fell on Hard Times in a Hurry":

Rarely has a Government program that promised so much to so many fallen apart so fast.

Yeah, well.

I guess people actually got a chance to see what was in it --- and they weren't happy.

PREVIOUSLY: "#ObamaCare's on Life Support."

@MSNBC's Disgusting Martin Bashir Apologizes to Sarah Palin

At Freedom Eden, "Martin Bashir Apology to Sarah Palin (Video)."

Also at Legal Insurrection, "Martin Bashir apologizes for disgusting attack on Sarah Palin."



And ICYMI, the background's at BCF, "Martin Bashir Suggests Someone Should Defecate in Palin's Mouth and Urinate in Her Eyes."

Philippines Survivors Begin Odyssey for Families

At the Wall Street Journal, "Typhoon Haiyan Survivors Begin Odyssey to Find Their Families":

CEBU CITY, Philippines—Just after nightfall, three men jostled with hundreds of other people for spots aboard a rust-stained ferry leaving this port for an island where they hoped to find loved ones alive—or prepare to bury them.

Typhoon Haiyan ripped across the Philippines a week earlier, focusing much of its wrath on Samar Island. A few hundred of those on the Cebu dock found their way aboard the Samar-bound 34-year-old ferry, the Blessed Stars.

The Blessed Stars' passengers—and thousands of others boarding ferries on the docks during a tropical downpour—were part of a mass migration of people from the Philippines and beyond who are converging on their devastated home islands.

As the engine kicked in and fumes mixed with the salty breeze, stars began to emerge. Passengers lighted cigarettes and, as the 15-hour journey began, told of the people they were traveling to find.

One was Angel Cillo, who boarded with his wife to find out whether his family in his hometown was alive, including his 75-year-old mother. He last spoke to them by phone just before the typhoon hit, and his brother had sounded nonchalant. Calls now always produced one response: "The person you are trying to call is out of the coverage area."

Another, Rayanaldo Casas, knew his 22-year-old son, an apprentice on a cement ship, died when the storm surge hit off the Samar coast.

His body was in a mass grave, Mr. Casas said. He wanted to return the remains to his home on another island.

"I will bring him home, but I don't know how," he said.

Passenger Eduard Amanigos, a worker in Kuwait, lost touch with his wife, son and daughter when the typhoon hit their home along the eastern Samar coast. The last thing his wife said before the phone went dead: "The water has risen to the ceiling in just five minutes."

He said he later saw her alive on television, but he didn't know much about her situation.

Continue reading.

What Castro Knew About Lee Harvey Oswald

From Mary Anastasia O'Grady, at WSJ, "The official narrative skips tantalizing signs of a Cuban connection":

In November 1963, Cuban intelligence officer Florentino Aspillaga was posted in a little hut near a Cuban beach where he operated listening equipment trained on Miami and CIA headquarters in Virginia. On the morning of Nov. 22, Mr. Aspillaga—who would defect to the U.S. in 1987—said that he was ordered "to stop all your CIA work, all your CIA work." He was instructed to "put all of my equipment to listen to any small detail from Texas. They told me Texas."

Did Castro know that Lee Harvey Oswald was about to assassinate President Kennedy? Brian Latell, a veteran CIA Cuba analyst who spent 15 hours interviewing Mr. Aspillaga for his newly revised "Castro's Secrets," (Palgrave MacMillan), makes a strong case that he did.

Mr. Latell takes readers through a half-century of Cuban espionage by interviewing a dozen high-ranking Cuban defectors and numerous former CIA officers. He calls Mr. Aspillaga "the most knowledgeable Cuban defector ever to change sides." He also pored over thousands of pages of declassified CIA documents and gained access to the unpublished memoir of Thomas Mann, the U.S. ambassador to Mexico in 1963, who had reason to suspect an Oswald-Cuba connection.

Mr. Latell set out to tell the story of Cuba's "intelligence machine," which outmaneuvered the U.S. for many years. In the process he uncovers startling details that suggest that Cuba fueled Oswald's maniacal desire to prove himself worthy of Castro's revolution during the American's visit to Mexico City in the fall of 1963. Mr. Latell also presents strong evidence that the Johnson administration and higher-ups in the FBI and the CIA ensured those details were kept from the Warren Commission.

The Kennedy administration was desperate to eliminate Castro. The 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion had failed and by August 1963, according to Edward Jay Epstein —a renowned expert on the killing of the president and author of the recently released book "The JFK Assassination Diary"— Richard Helms, though not yet CIA director, was "receiving almost daily phone calls from [Attorney General Robert Kennedy ] demanding to know what actions he was [taking] to remove Castro from power." The agency recruited Rolando Cubela, a revolutionary insider, to do the job.

But Cubela was a double agent. And on Sept. 7, just after Cubela agreed to help the Americans, Castro gave an interview to an AP reporter in which he put the U.S. on notice that "aiding terrorist plans to eliminate Cuban leaders" would mean that "they themselves will not be safe."

Castro didn't need to look far for a willing partner to back up those words. It is "known with near certainty," writes Mr. Latell, that Cuba had "opened a dossier" on Oswald in 1959, while he was stationed at the Marine Corps Air Station El Toro, in Southern California. Oswald was enamored of the Cuban Revolution, and he had made contact with the Cuban consulate in Los Angeles.

On Sept. 27, 1963, Oswald checked into the Hotel Comercio in Mexico City for a five-night stay. He tried to get a visa from the Cuban embassy to travel to Havana. He had a fling with an embassy employee and probably spent time with others who were intelligence agents. When his visa was not forthcoming, witnesses said he went on a rant at the embassy, slammed the door and stormed off.

According to Mr. Latell, during his Mexico City stay Oswald twice visited the Soviet consulate where he met with "an officer of the notorious Department 13, responsible for assassination and sabotage operations." The KGB was training Cuban intelligence at the time, and "it seems certain that [Oswald's] intelligence file in Havana was thickening."

Castro's claim about Oswald—in a speech 30 hours after Kennedy was shot—that "we never in our life heard of him" was a lie. Indeed, in a 1964 conversation with Jack Childs —an American communist who had secretly been working for the FBI—Castro let it slip that he knew of Oswald's outburst while at the embassy in Mexico City and said that the ex-Marine had threatened to kill the U.S. president.

Continue reading.

Ouch! Obama's Approval Tanks in New Poll at Washington Post!

Oh boy, Dems are going to have another rough day tomorrow.

At WaPo, "Obama’s ratings tumble after health care flaws":

The flawed rollout of the Affordable Care Act has pushed President Obama to the lowest point of his presidency, with dwindling faith in his competence and in many of the personal attributes that have buoyed him in the past, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

Opposition to the new health-care law also hit a record high in the survey, with 57 percent saying they oppose the president’s most significant domestic initiative. Forty-six percent say they are strongly against it. Just a month ago, as the enrollment period was beginning, the public was almost evenly divided in its assessments of the law.

Disapproval of Obama’s handling of the health-care law’s rollout stands at 63 percent, with a majority saying they strongly disapprove. Last month, 53 percent disapproved.

The findings are the first since Obama’s news conference last week in which he repeatedly acknowledged his and the administration’s mistakes in handling the legislation. He also sought to assuage the anger among millions of Americans whose individual policies were canceled because they did not meet the new requirements.

The provision of the legislation that requires all individuals to obtain health insurance or pay a fine long has been controversial, and the survey highlights that anew. By almost 2 to 1, Americans oppose the individual mandate, with more than half saying they strongly oppose it. In contrast, almost six in 10 support the provision that requires companies with more than 50 employees to provide health insurance or face a financial penalty.

Because of the problems with HealthCare.Gov, the federal Web site designed to allow people to sign up for insurance, seven in 10 Americans say the administration should delay the individual mandate.

The public views the uproar over canceled policies, which has roiled the administration over the past month, as more than the normal start-up problems of a large enterprise. A majority say the trouble is a sign of mismanagement by those in charge of implementing the law.

Because of the cancellations, Obama has come under sharp criticism for having said repeatedly that people who liked their policies could keep them. The Post-ABC survey asked people whether they thought that he told the public what he believed to be true or that he intentionally misled. By 52 percent to 44 percent, Americans say they think he told people what he thought was correct at the time.

With all the controversy surrounding the implementation of the law, Americans are evenly divided on whether the Affordable Care Act can be fixed.

Responses to that question differ dramatically depending on party identification, with Democrats overwhelmingly confident that the legislation can be made to work and Republicans overwhelmingly pessimistic about its viability. A majority of independents say it cannot be made to work.

The health-care law has become a political burden for elected officials who support it. Almost four in 10 Americans say they are more likely to oppose a politician who backs the legislation, while just over a fifth say they would be more likely to support such a politician. That’s the biggest gap recorded in Post-ABC polling during the entire debate over the law.

Not good at all.

Continue reading.

More people have a negative view of Obama "personally" than they do of his positively, which is unlike any time during in in the past for this presidency.

More:

For the first time in Obama’s presidency, a bare majority of Americans, 52 percent, say they have an unfavorable impression of him, with 46 percent saying they view him favorably. Those ratings have declined from a net positive of 23 points at the time of his inauguration in January.

Like I said: It's gonna be a rough day for the Dems tomorrow. And boy do they deserve it.

IMAGE CREDIT: The Looking Spoon.

Doris Lessing, 1919-2013

From LAT's obituary, "Doris Lessing dies at 94; British novelist of the 'female experience'":

Lessing resisted being called a feminist, in fact frankly condemned the man-hating excesses of the early women's movement.

"I think they missed a great many opportunities," she said in a 2007 interview with The Times. "Just to oversimplify, they went political. From the moment they went political, inevitably they were going to fragment and bitch-bite and call each other names. They did some unspeakably bad things, like rubbish women who were bringing up children," she said.

"If I say the 1960s motto was 'women good, men bad,' I think I've summed it up," she said. "But things have changed. I think I have noticed that what young women are doing is looking for a husband, just as if there hadn't been any so-called feminist revolution.... Not saying they want to get married, necessarily. I also know a lot of women who don't want children, which I think is marvelous. What a liberation that is, in that nobody even blames them for it!"

RTWT.

And from Instapundit, "DORIS LESSING HAS DIED":

Let me again call attention to this column of hers on political correctness and communism, and this piece on why feminism should stop attacking men, which was linked back in the very earliest days of InstaPundit.

Click through and follow the links.

She was a fascinating woman. I had no idea --- and I'm supposed to be well-read, lol.

#ObamaCare's on Life Support

From Josh Kraushaar, at National Journal, "Why Obamacare Is On Life Support":

There's nothing that Democrats want more than to change the subject from Obamacare, despite DNC Chairman Debbie Wasserman Schultz's protestations otherwise. Congressional Democrats don't want to be dealing with a drip-drip of news about premiums going up, patients losing their doctors, and a broken health care website as they face angry voters in 2014. Hillary Clinton doesn't want this issue lingering past the midterms. She hitched her presidential prospects to President Obama's wagon and she's not about to let someone else's crisis damage her presidential ambitions yet again, Even Vice President Joe Biden, who called the health care law a "big f---ing deal," didn't mention it once at a fundraiser last week for North Carolina Sen. Kay Hagan.

Unless the HealthCare.gov website miraculously gets fixed by next month, there's a growing likelihood that over time, enough Democrats may join Republicans to decide to start over and scrap the whole complex health care enterprise. That became clear when even Obama, to stop the political bleeding, offered an administrative fix that threatened the viability of the entire individual exchange market to forestall a House Democratic mutiny the next day. It was as clear sign as any that the president is pessimistic about the odds that the federal exchange website will be ready by the end of the month, as promised.

More than anything, politics is about self-preservation, and the last two weeks provided numerous examples of how public opinion has turned so hard against the law that even its most ardent supporters are running for the hills. It's not just red-state Democrats, like Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu, distancing themselves from the law. It's blue-state senators like Oregon's Jeff Merkley and New Hampshire's Jeanne Shaheen -- and top blue-state recruits like Michigan's Gary Peters and Iowa's Bruce Braley, who voted for GOP legislation Friday that the White House said would "gut" the law. Nearly every House Democrat in a competitive district joined with Republicans to threaten the law. Without a quick fix, those ranks will grow.

This tsunami of blowback, which built in just the last month, is unsustainable for Democrats over the long haul. The president isn't just losing his skeptics from the chaotic Obamacare rollout but his allies who stood to gain from the law's benefits -- namely Hispanics, whose approval of the president has dropped more than any demographic subgroup since the problems began. The simplest solution -- if only to stop the bleeding -- is to get the website fixed. (When former DNC Chairman Howard Dean's proposal is to hire tens of thousands of young phone operators to sign people up for insurance -- straight out of a Jerry Lewis telethon -- as he suggested on "Morning Joe," it's clear the website problems are really bad.).

Continue reading (via Memeorandum).

An excellent analysis, Kraushaar suggests we're about this far from enough Democrat defection to favor repeal in the Congress. If not now, should Democrats lose the Senate in 2014, kiss the ACA goodbye.

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford Knocks Over Councilwoman

Via BCF, "Tim Hudak would support action to deal with Mayor Ford."



PREVIOUSLY: "Toronto Mayor Rob Ford Says He Won't Go Down Without a Fight."

From BFD to MIA: Vice President Joe Biden Missing from #ObamaCare Debacle

He's been pretty scarce lately.

Neil Munro has it, at the Daily Caller, "Joe Biden hides from Obamacare crisis."



The video's from Biden's comments two weeks ago, but it looks like he stuck his head out today, "Biden: 'God Willing' Obamacare Website Gets Fixed."

FLASHBACK: At Freedom Eden, "Biden: 'This is a Big F---ing Deal' (Video)."

Gallup: 55 Percent of Independents Say It's Not Federal Gov't's Responsibility for Health Coverage

Here's the report at Gallup, "Majority in U.S. Say Healthcare Not Gov't Responsibility."

Read it at the link (via Memeorandum).

What's particularly striking is the robust majority of independents against the federal government's role of provider of healthcare. We're hearing all this talk about the death of the "liberal" agenda (what I've called the death of radical progressivism under Obama), and this is just one more indicator of the harsh hit the left is taking amid this massive Democrat healthcare clusterf-k.

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford Says He Won't Go Down Without a Fight

At Canada's National Post, "Rob Ford vows not to go down without a fight after vote strips him of key powers."

But see Christie Blatchford, "Rob Ford’s downfall leaves sobering questions about Toronto police probe":

By this point in the shlock opera that is the Rob Ford story, it’s a given that the Toronto mayor is, to borrow from Wayne Campbell and Garth Algar on Wayne’s World, not worthy.

He is not worthy of defending. He is not worthy of the benefit of the doubt. He’s not worthy of another chance.

What Mr. Ford is is hard bloody work, and after months of duplicity, he has managed to squander the public trust. And with each new low he attains — the bar is now well below the ground — he exhausts even the residue of goodwill that remained for him even after the last of the trust had gone.

So don’t cry for him.

Continue reading.

More at BCF, "Is OCAP Trying To Setup Rob Ford?" And, "Rob Ford’s prominence in police investigation into two other men puzzling, experts say."

Philippines Typhoon Boosts Leftist 'Climate Justice' Meme

A big climate change "inequities" piece on the front-page of the New York Times yesterday. I almost started laughing.

Pirate's Cove has it, "NY Times: Say, That Climate Change Thing Sure Creates Inequities, Eh?"

Russia Plane Crash: 50 Dead as Boeing 737 Crashes on Landing in Kazan

At LAT, "Russian plane crashes in gusty weather, killing 50":

MOSCOW — A Boeing 737 being operated by a regional airline crashed in gusty weather Sunday evening while attempting to land at the airport in Kazan in central Russia, killing all 50 people on board, authorities said.

The Tatarstan Airlines flight from Moscow was carrying 44 passengers and six crew members when it crashed into the airport tarmac, caught fire and broke apart, according to Sergei Izvolsky, a spokesman for Rosaviatsia, a federal air transportation agency.

The cause was not immediately known. Vladimir Markin, spokesman for the national Investigative Committee, told the Interfax news agency that authorities would look at several possibilities, "including pilot error, technical fault and unfavorable weather conditions."

Russian television carried dramatic footage that showed flames engulfing the plane as it sat on the tarmac in the dark, firetrucks drenching it with water cannons. The crash occurred at 7:25 p.m.

Among those killed, according to the federal Emergency Situations Ministry, was Irek Minnikhanov, 24, the son of the president of Russia's Tatarstan republic, Rustam Minnikhanov. Also reported killed was Alexander Antonov, the regional head of the Federal Security Service, the main successor agency to the Soviet KGB.

Kazan is the capital of Tatarstan.