Grim Toll Rises in Philippines

At WSJ, "Grim Toll Rises Amid Ruin and Chaos: Death Toll Above 1,700 Is Likely Much Higher":

People covered their faces with towels and scarves against the stench of death Monday, clogging the typhoon-ravaged roads of the hardest hit part of the Philippines in a traffic jam of desperation.

Headed into one center of devastation were Filipinos frantic to find loved ones, or help, or both; fleeing in the other direction were battered and fearful survivors of the howling winds and raging waves of supertyphoon Haiyan.

As the death toll surged and food and water became scarce three days after the storm, tens of thousands of refugees struggled to find their way to aid. With the return of cellphone signals and as rescuers cut their way toward isolated communities on Monday, the depth of the loss of lives became clearer. The government put the death count at 1,744—and it was expected to rise much further. Thousands remained missing.

On the streets of Tacloban, capital of the shattered province of Leyte, stiffened animal carcasses and human bodies were a common sight, some out in the open, others partly covered by tarps or sheet metal.

The road to Tacloban's airport was jammed with people trying to get out as limited commercial service restarted. At the same time, the road into town was also snarled by motorbikes and cars—even as humanitarian workers warned that both food and water were rapidly running out.

Continue reading.

Oops! #ObamaCare TV Ads Kinda Forget to Mention Individual Mandate Penalty

Yeah, the California advertisement below is all about the utopian healthcare heavens parting, or something. It's pretty disgusting.

At the New York Times, amazingly, "Talk of Penalty Is Missing in Ads for Health Care":

New York’s health exchange slogan is “Today’s the Day.” Minnesota has enlisted Paul Bunyan. Oregon held a music contest, and California stresses the “peace of mind” that will come with insurance.

The state and federal health insurance exchanges are using all manner of humor and happy talk to sell the Affordable Care Act’s products. But the one part of the new system that they are not quick to trumpet is the financial penalty that Americans will face if they fail to buy insurance.

On state exchange websites, mention of the penalty is typically tucked away under “frequently asked questions,” if it appears at all. Television and print ads usually skip the issue, and operators of exchange telephone banks are instructed to discuss it only if asked. The federal website, now infamous for its glitches, mentions the penalty but also calls it a fee, or an Individual Shared Responsibility Payment.

The euphemisms and avoidance of any discussion of the penalty are no accident, both supporters and critics of the law say. While the mandate for all Americans to buy health insurance — with a penalty if they do not — was the linchpin of the Supreme Court decision upholding the law, and is considered the key to its success, poll after poll has found that it is also the least popular part of the program.

State exchange operators say that they are not trying to hide the penalty, but that their market research has taught them that, at least in the initial phase, consumers will be more receptive to soothing messages and appeals to their sense of collective responsibility than to threats of punishment.

“We feel that the carrot is better than the stick,” said Larry Hicks, a spokesman for Covered California. “This is a new endeavor. We want people to come in and test our wares.”

But there is also the dirty little secret of the penalty: It is a bit of a chimera, because the federal government cannot use its usual tools like fines, liens or criminal prosecutions to punish people who do not pay it. The penalty is supposed to be reported and paid with the income tax returns of those who do not buy insurance, but the government has not said how it will collect from those who owe it but do not pay it, though the law allows it to deduct from any income tax refunds.

“It might be that they want to be positive,” said Michael Cannon, director of health policy studies at the conservative Cato Institute. “But it’s also the case that an informed customer is not their best customer.”

And for many healthy middle-class people, a side-by-side comparison might suggest that it would be more cost-effective to pay the penalty than to buy insurance.

Cost effectiveness? Heaven forfend we can't have that!

Continue reading.

If Only We'd Have Gotten the Public Option...

The left's response to the catastrophic ObamaCare rollout has been to (1) deny there's a problem, because once the website's working everything will be rosy, or something, or (2) to demonize those criticizing the president as greedy, racist capitalist scumbags raping the disadvantaged out of healthcare, or thereabouts.

There might be a couple other versions I'm leaving out, but so far that's about it. Folks on the left just aren't getting it. And they're not taking it too well. ObamaCare's not working and is not likely to ever work, because just wanting to provide universal health coverage doesn't necessarily translate into the political and technological competence to make it happen.

So here's one of today's example, at NewsBusters, "NYT Prints Op-Ed 'Daring to Complain About Obamacare'; Leftist Wrath Ensues." Following the links takes us to Lori Gottlieb's op-ed at the New York Times, "Daring to Complain About Obamacare." By now Ms. Gottlieb's story is all too familiar. Millions of people have been losing their insurance, and it's become an enormous political problem for the Democrats. At this point it's almost a certainty that a major policy change will be adopted, perhaps delaying full implementation of the law until 2015. Actually, at this point I say let it go into effect, so Democrats can eat that f-ker at the polls next November.

Either way, it's going to be ugly. But the Newsbusters piece trolled the comments at NYT, and doing likewise I noticed this comment below from an anti-captialist Obama supported who was down for a "robust" public option in 2009. (The public option was the socialist left's preferred socialist option, pushed, during the congressional debate in 2009, by people like Jane Hamsher at Firedoglake.)

You gotta love the attacks on "private insurance companies":

Do not blame President Obama for the fact private insurance companies are using the ACA as an excuse to change your policies and increase your premiums.

Blame 3 Senators (Nelson, D-NE; Lieberman, I-CT; and Landrieu, D-LA). President Obama wanted a public option in the bill, but those 3 Senators announced they would not vote for cloture if the bill contained public option. Without a vote for cloture, Harry Reid had to bring a bill to the floor without a public option. They sided with big insurance (who were afraid of government competition) and against the people.

If there were a public option, people could choose it instead of paying what private insurance companies charge. Consider education, people can send their children to free public schools or pay tuition to send their children to private schools. In the case of the ACA, there is no choice. Everybody must purchase private insurance. This is great for the bottom line of private insurance companies; but not so great for the people.

Ironically, my former Senator, Cornhusker Kickback Ben Nelson, lives in a state that requires that all power generation be public (there are no private electric companies in Nebraska). We have some of the lowest electric rates in the country because power is socialized in Nebraska (the people own the means of electricity generation).

Give me public insurance (e.g., Medicaid and Medicare) any day. The ACA doesn't even give the public the option of buying public insurance.

And no surprise, but Martin Longman jumped on the socialist bandwagon, attacking Ms. Gottlieb as a liar, "Another ObamaCare Liar."

She's not lying. Nor are the millions of others who've been kicked to the curb by this law. But leftists are not dealing with reality here. They're operating through the utopian socialist healthcare ideology that got us to this spot in the first place. It's time to unravel it. And that will come after the Republicans win back control in Washington and repeal the left's ObamaCare monstrosity.

More from JustOneMinute, "We'll Score This as 'Not A Like'," and Legal Insurrection, "Tax The American Prospect to pay this lady’s increased health care bill."

U.S. Marines Arrive in the Philippines to Help Disaster Relief

At the Marine Corps Times, "More Marines, aircraft head to devastated Philippines."

And the Washington Post, "Typhoon survivors in Philippines plead for food, medicine as US Marines fly in help."



Also at USA Today, "Relief effort intensifies after Philippines tragedy."

'If you like your teeth you can keep them. Period...'

Seen on Twitter.



More, at Twitchy, "Brit Hume retweets promise made in new ‘Obamacare dental plan’ [pic]."

France Saves the West From Very Bad Nuclear Deal with Iran

At the Wall Street Journal, "Vive La France on Iran":

We never thought we'd say this, but thank heaven for French foreign-policy exceptionalism. At least for the time being, François Hollande's Socialist government has saved the West from a deal that would all but guarantee that Iran becomes a nuclear power.

While the negotiating details still aren't fully known, the French made clear Saturday that they objected to a nuclear agreement that British Prime Minister David Cameron and President Barack Obama were all too eager to sign. These two leaders remind no one, least of all the Iranians, of Tony Blair, Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan or George W. Bush. That left the French to protect against a historic security blunder, with Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius declaring in an interview with French radio that while France still hopes for an agreement with Tehran, it won't accept a "sucker's deal."

And that's exactly what seems to have been on the table as part of a "first-step agreement" good for six months as the parties negotiated a final deal. Tehran would be allowed to continue enriching uranium, continue manufacturing centrifuges, and continue building a plutonium reactor near the city of Arak. Iran would also get immediate sanctions relief and the unfreezing of as much as $50 billion in oil revenues—no small deliverance for a regime whose annual oil revenues barely topped $95 billion in 2011.

In return the West would get Iranian promises.

RTWT.

PREVIOUSLY: "Critics Ask Why France Scuttled Iran Nuclear Deal."

George W. Bush Veterans Day Message

Just awesome, "A Veterans Day Message From President George W. Bush."



Via Twitchy, of which the hatred highlighted there is just too much for the day, "Pathetic: Veterans Day brings out the Bush Derangement Syndrome."

Oh My! Sarah Palin Stuffs Matt Lauer's #ObamaCare 'Apology' Meme

This is too good!

Matt Lauer doubles-back with the "Obama apologized" line, but Palin's having none of it. She rightly debunks the story that everything will be fine once the healthcare.gov website is fixed. The problems go way beyond the website. And the look on Lauer's mug is gold.

Via Doug Powers, at Michelle's blog, "Matt Lauer pushes Dem O-care talking points; Sarah Palin doesn’t take the bait."

What Palin does is bring the grassroots message of decency and values right into America's living rooms. I'm sure it's a shock to the system for the left's regressive ghouls. They'll dash for their channel-changers faster than a cockroach scurries for the baseboards at the flip of the light-switch.



She also plugs her new book, Good Tidings and Great Joy: Protecting the Heart of Christmas.

What a great American.

Added: Also at the Other McCain, "Go, @SarahPalinUSA, Go! Whacks Lauer, ObamaCare on ‘Today’ Show (VIDEO)."

#ObamaCare Marriage Penalty Pushes Brooklyn Couple to Consider Divorce

At Breitbart, "Married Couple Considers Divorce to Save Money on Obamacare."

And at the Atlantic, of all places, "The Hidden Marriage Penalty in Obamacare":

The first time I heard Nona Willis Aronowitz talk about getting divorced to save money on health insurance I thought she couldn't really be serious. We were at Monte's, an old Italian place in South Brooklyn, having dinner with a group of New York women writers in late July.

"Don't do it!" I urged her, certain, having watched my friends over the years, that no matter how casually she or her husband might treat the piece of paper that says they are married, getting unhitched would inevitably change their relationship as profoundly as getting hitched in the first place.

But with the arrival of the Affordable Care Act's insurance exchanges, the question for Nona and her husband Aaron Cassara moved from the realm of casual conversation to a real financial conundrum. Aged 29 and 32, respectively, they were facing tough times for their professions, a wildly expensive city, and the scary prospect that both of them could shortly be uninsured. Right now Nona only has a COBRA plan—"which I can barely afford"—that ends January 1, she tells me. Her last staff job ended when the media outlet she was working for laid off its whole editorial team; she's been a full-time freelancer since. Aaron, a filmmaker who works part-time and also freelances, has been uninsured since her layoff, because it would be too expensive to have him on COBRA too.

Any married couple that earns more than 400 percent of the federal poverty level—that is $62,040—for a family of two earns too much for subsidies under Obamacare. "If you're over 400 percent of poverty, you're never eligible for premium" support, explains Gary Claxton, director of the Health Care Marketplace Project at the Kaiser Family Foundation.

But if that same couple lived together unmarried, they could earn up to $45,960 each—$91,920 total—and still be eligible for subsidies through the exchanges in New York state, where insurance is comparatively expensive and the state exchange was set up in such a way as to not provide lower rates for younger people. (Subsidy eligibility is calculated using a complicated formula involving income in relation to the poverty line, family size, and the price of plans offered through a state's marketplace.)

Nona and Aaron's 2012 income was higher than the 400 percent mark, but not by much. In New York City, that still doesn't take you very far for two people. If their most recent months of income are in the same range, they will get no help at all with buying insurance through the exchanges if and when they apply, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation and eHealth subsidy calculators. Premiums for the two for silver-level plans came in at $9,248 for the year.

But if they applied as unmarried individuals with something like their 2012 income, one of them would get at least $3,964 in subsidies toward the purchase of a plan, or possibly even be eligible for Medicaid, thanks to their uneven individual earnings that year. And if they fall below the 400 percent threshold, which Nona says they might this year, they could get substantial subsidies as a couple that are still worth less than what they'd be eligible for as individuals. These gaps are the marriage penalty.

Continue reading.

Look, progressives are doing all they can to destroy the institution of marriage. The ObamaCare marriage penalty is just one more weapon in the left's arsenal against moral decency, tradition, and basic self-sufficiency.

Obama's Second Term FUBAR as Approval, Personal Favorability Hit the Crapper

At the Wall Street Journal, "Health-Law Rollout Weighs on Obama's Ratings, Agenda: Approval, Personal Favorability Polling Sags, Creating New Complications for Second Term" (via Cracker Squire):

President Barack Obama, bogged down by problems with his signature health-care program, is seeing both his approval and personal-favorability ratings with Americans sag, creating new complications for his second-term agenda.

During past turbulence in Washington, Americans' approval of the job Mr. Obama is doing dipped. But in those stretches, Mr. Obama was buoyed by voters' general admiration for him as a person and by their trust in his credibility.

That has changed recently, particularly as thousands of Americans lose their insurance coverage under the health law's rollout, despite the president's pledge that anyone who liked their current plan could keep it.

The president has apologized to Americans about the insurance-cancellation notices, and he is taking other steps to shore up his political standing. But if his reservoir of personal goodwill continues to diminish, it could hamper him at a time when his administration is trying to repair the insurance website on which much of the Affordable Care Act rests.

An Obama administration official said the recent standoff over the government shutdown and raising the nation's borrowing limit was bound to take a toll on the president's popularity. "I think the president took on the least amount of water after that fight than any of the other actors involved," the official said.

Going forward, Mr. Obama wants to enlist the public as allies in the push to pass an immigration overhaul, expand access to early-childhood education and raise the minimum wage. All these goals already are drawing resistance from congressional Republicans, and if the public sours on him, the job is that much more difficult.

"His credibility is hurt, because he said things that aren't quite true," said Lou D'Allesandro, deputy Democratic leader in the New Hampshire Senate, referring to the vow that Americans could keep their health plans. "Unless a couple of dramatic things happen, he could be a lame duck by January."

A survey released last week by the Pew Research Center found the president's approval rating at 41%, down 10 points since May. Pew's pollsters compared Mr. Obama's fortunes to the slide that former President George W. Bush saw. At a comparable point in Mr. Bush's second term—after Hurricane Katrina had hit—Mr. Bush's job approval stood at 36%.

By contrast, second-term support for Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan held steady in Pew polling, with 58% and 62% of the public, respectively, approving of their job performance at a similar point in their presidencies.

Chris Lehane, a former Clinton White House official, said that Mr. Obama's "political success depends on maintaining trust" and that the White House must work to keep intact this "most precious leadership asset."

"Second-term presidents have hit those moments when they lost the trust of a critical mass of the public…which effectively made them lame ducks," Mr. Lehane said. He said he doesn't believe Mr. Obama has reached that point.

Mr. Obama also is facing an increasingly uneasy Democratic contingent in Congress, with some lawmakers worried the rollout of the health law might damage their election prospects. Last week, Mr. Obama met with Democratic senators facing re-election in 2014, some of whom aired their complaints about the implementation of the health law. Later, Mr. Obama flew to Louisiana on Air Force One with one such senator, Louisiana's Mary Landrieu. After the plane landed, the president and Ms. Landrieu went separate ways: Mr. Obama to a port in New Orleans, Ms. Landrieu to an event in the western part of the state. Her office said she had a previous commitment.

Mr. Obama has little influence with the Republicans he needs to make policy gains, and his sliding poll numbers figure to only weaken his hold.

But it is difficult for Mr. Obama to work in bipartisan fashion because of GOP animosity toward him, some policy activists said.

Critics Ask Why France Scuttled Iran Nuclear Deal

Maybe Hollande's just not quite ready to throw Israel under the bus?

At LAT, "France's role in scuttling Iran nuclear deal prompts speculation":

WASHINGTON — France's role in the unraveling of an international deal to curb Iran's nuclear program brought angry reactions Sunday from Tehran, glowing praise from Iran's detractors and a whirl of speculation about what the French motive might be.

A marathon round of international talks in Geneva fell short of a widely anticipated deal early Sunday after French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius objected, saying the terms of a preliminary accord were too easy on Tehran. Many nations fear Iran has been secretly seeking a nuclear weapons capability, despite its claims to want nuclear power only for energy and medical purposes.

Fabius broke an informal rule of the six-nation diplomatic group that has been negotiating with the Iranians by going public with his criticism of the preliminary deal, which was aimed at opening the way for comprehensive negotiations over the nuclear program.

"One wants a deal … but not a sucker's deal," Fabius said.

When the negotiations ground to a temporary halt, Iran was quick to point a finger.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani told the National Assembly that Tehran would not be intimidated by any country's "sanctions, threats, contempt and discrimination," according to Iran's student news service. "For us there are red lines that cannot be crossed."

The semiofficial Fars news agency criticized the "destructive roles of France and Israel" for the failure of negotiators to reach an interim deal and ran a caricature of France as a frog firing a gun. "By shooting he feels he is important," the commentary said.

In contrast, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) tweeted that France "had the courage to prevent a bad nuclear agreement with Iran. Vive la France!"

The halt in talks set off a debate on whether France's intervention was motivated by commercial or geopolitical interests in the Middle East.

Good for France. Sheesh, doesn't anyone understand that Iran's up to no good?

More at that top link.

Radical Left Rejects Rational Ideas That Make the World Go 'Round

From the letters to the editor, at the New York Times, "Role of Humanities, in School and Life":

The humanities professors who spoke out on the causes of declined student enrollment did not mention a major factor that’s reshaped humanities education since 1970, when the decline began: postmodernism.

In the 1990s, when I was an English major at the University of Michigan, postmodernists dominated humanities study, and in their zeal to critique “Western culture,” they pointedly spurned old Enlightenment notions of “the classics,” “science,” “reason” and even “knowledge” itself — categories that they quarantined in dubious scare quotes as if they were hazardous materials. I fled my passion, literature, for a practical and rational-minded career in medicine.

While the professors justifiably cite inadequate funding and marketplace demand for scientists and engineers as causes of the marginalization of the humanities, they also ought to look inward at their profession’s rejection of the rational ideals that make the educated world go round.

AUSTIN RATNER
Brooklyn, Oct. 31, 2013

The writer is the author of two novels and a physiology textbook.

Yes. Indeed. That might be worth pointing out, that the radical left has destroyed decency and rationalism in American life. It can't be said enough, so don't stop saying it. Shout it from the rooftops: THE RADICAL LEFT IS DESTROYING ALL THAT'S GOOD IN THE UNITED STATES!!

PREVIOUSLY: "Ethnic Studies Programs Crash and Burn at Cal State University."

Obama 'Deeply Saddened' by Typhoon Haiyan Devastation

At London's Daily Mail, "Obama 'deeply saddened' by Typhoon Haiyan devastation as US marines go to Philippines to assist in relief efforts after thousands killed."



IMAGE CREDIT: iOWNTHEWORLD.

Robbie Williams: 'Mack the Knife'

Via Ghost of a Flea.

Oh the shark babe has such teeth, dear
And he shows them pearly white
Just a jack knife has ol’ MacHeath, babe
And he keeps it out of sight

You know when that shark bites with his teeth, dear
Scarlet billows start to spread
Fancy gloves though wears ol’ MacHeath, babe
So there's never, never a trace of red

On the sidewalk, Oh Sunday morning don’t you know
Lies a body just oozing life
And Someone's sneaking around the corner
Could that be our boy Mack the knife?

From a tug boat down by the river don’t you know
Lays a cement bag just dropping on down
That’s cement's there, it’s there for the weight, dear
I’ll get you ten ol’ Macky is back in town

Did you hear bout Louie Miller? He disappeared, babe
After drawing out all his hard earned cash
And know MacHeath spends, he spends just like a, like a sailor
Could it be, could it be, could it be, our boy did something rash?

[2x]
Jenny Diver Oh Sukey Tawdry
Look out Miss Polly Peachum and Oh Lucy Brown
Yeah the line forms on the right, babe
Now that Macky is back in town

Camus and Sartre Friendship Troubled by Ideological Feud

At Der Spiegel, "Philosophical Differences: The Falling-Out of Camus and Sartre":

Albert Camus and Jean-Paul Sartre, two of the most important minds of the 20th century, were closely entwined throughout their careers. On the centenary of Camus' birth, SPIEGEL looks back at their famous friendship and the ideological feud that ultimately unraveled it.

What is a famous man? Albert Camus wrote in his diary in 1946 that it was "someone whose first name doesn't matter." That certainly applies to Camus, who would have celebrated his 100th birthday on Nov. 7, and it can also be said of his great adversary Jean-Paul Sartre, who was eight years older than him, yet outlived him by 20 years.

Camus and Sartre were the intellectual stars of Paris during the postwar years: the existentialists, the Mandarins and the literary vanguard. They became iconic figures of the ideological conflicts of the second half of the 20th century. Their rivalry shaped intellectual debates in France and around the world.

Camus and Sartre's falling-out in the summer of 1952, which was played out in full view of the public, was a signal, a political watershed. The rupture, in the midst of the Cold War, split the camps. For decades, people would say: Sartre or Camus? Should we hope for a better world in the distant future at the price of accepting state terror? The revolutionary mass politics espoused by Sartre in the name of Marxism would seem to contain this tradeoff. Or should we refuse to sacrifice people for an ideal, as Camus' humanist principles required?

Camus and Sartre basically stood in each other's way right from the beginning. They were both storytellers, playwrights and essayists, literature and theater critics, philosophers and editors in chief. They had the same publisher. They both were awarded the Nobel Prize for literature. Camus felt overwhelming gratitude when he accepted his award in 1957. Sartre loftily declined the designation in 1964 - making sure to underscore that he was not insulted "because Camus had received it before me," as he said at the time.

The Company of Women

And there was another -- at first glance unremarkable -- commonality. Both preferred the company of women to that of men. "Why women?" Camus wondered in his diary in 1951. His answer: "I cannot stand the company of men. They flatter or they judge. I can stand neither of the two." Back in 1940, Sartre used nearly the same choice of words in his diary when noting that he "gets horribly bored in the company of men," yet "it's very rare for the company of women not to entertain me."

They were long seen as friends and allies. But Camus could not hide that he felt a growing sense of distance from the clique of Parisian intellectuals surrounding Sartre and his companion, Simone de Beauvoir. No matter how much he debated with the others, and spent long nights drinking, dancing and seducing, he remained the wistful loner.

Sartre was envious of the idolized and good-looking French Algerian, the "street urchin from Algiers," as he later called him. Sartre saw himself as a child of the French bourgeoisie -- and he strove to break its bonds as demonstratively as possible. By contrast, Camus was proud of his humble origins and never denied his roots.

The two ambitious men met personally for the first time in the midst of the war, in occupied Paris during the summer of 1943. Camus introduced himself on the occasion of the premiere of Sartre's play "The Flies." At the time, a small group of artists and philosophers met regularly in private homes and in the cafés of Saint-Germain-des-Prés in the heart of Paris. But rivalries soon surfaced, long before the public was privy to any intellectual competition. The conflict, no surprise, often had to do with women.

Sartre once asked himself if he didn't seek out women's company "to free myself from the burden of my ugliness." In early 1944, he wrote a letter to his lifelong companion de Beauvoir, informing her of his victory over ladies' man Camus. It had to do with a certain Tania, whose sister put in a good word for him: "What are you thinking, running after Camus? What do you want from him?" he'd had the sister tell her. He, Sartre, was so much better, she'd said, and such a nice man.

Continue reading.

Video c/o The Libertarian.

Time-Lapse Video of Navy Aircraft Carrier Gerald Ford

The video's from WSJ, and at Wikipedia, "USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78)":

PCU [Pre-commissioning Unit] Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78) is to be the lead ship of its class of United States Navy supercarriers. As announced by the U.S. Navy on 16 January 2007, the ship is named after the 38th President of the United States Gerald R. Ford, whose World War II naval service included combat duty aboard the light aircraft carrier Monterey in the Pacific Theater.

The keel of Gerald R. Ford was laid down on 13 November 2009.[2] Construction began on 11 August 2005, when Northrop Grumman held a ceremonial steel cut for a 15-ton plate that will form part of a side shell unit of the carrier. It was christened on 9 November 2013. The schedule calls for the ship to join the U.S. Navy’s fleet in 2016. Gerald R. Ford will enter the fleet replacing the inactive USS Enterprise (CVN-65), which ended its 51 years of active service in December 2012.

More at that top link.

RELATED: Marty Erdossy, Captain, US Navy (Retired), at Forbes, "Why Does the United States Only Have Eleven Aircraft Carriers?"

Looting Hits Phillippines Amid Widespread Damage from Supertyphoon Haiyan

At the Wall Street Journal, "Looting on Storm-Hit Island Prompts Calls for Martial Law."

Also, "Philippines Left Reeling in Wake of Storm":

ORMOC CITY, Philippines—Supertyphoon Haiyan left a central region of the Philippines in tatters, as authorities struggled to verify the number of dead and looting began in one of the hardest-hit cities.

In the coastal city of Tacloban, people ransacked shops, while food and medical stations were swamped by those in need. Rescue workers dug through rubble and mud in search of survivors.

President Benigno Aquino III said the city would be placed under a state of emergency to allow the central government to speed up relief and reconstruction efforts.

The typhoon, known locally as Yolanda, hit the Philippines on Friday, with fierce winds and heavy rains shredding homes, uprooting trees and flinging cars and boats.

The storm weakened as it made landfall in northeastern Vietnam early Monday, causing widespread power outages and triggering heavy rains that authorities feared may cause floods and landslides. Haiyan was expected to move inland toward the border with China.

Mr. Aquino said late Sunday the government was trying to verify the number of dead. The official toll stood at 229 but was expected to climb substantially.

The Philippine National Red Cross said the death toll could run into the thousands, adding that it was difficult to calculate the figure because the storm left bodies scattered over wide areas.

Continue reading.

Greenpeace Rainbow Warrior, Floating Hub for Radical Activism, Docks in San Francisco

At the San Francisco Chronicle, "Greenpeace's 'hippie ship' stops by S.F.'s waterfront."

Actually, these people, in Russia, have erred badly in challenging the power of the state.

At the Los Angeles Times, "Activist sits in Russian jail; family waits, worries":

The irony is cruel for Lara Litvinov. Nearly half a century ago, she and her brother, Dima Litvinov — children in a family with a long history of civil disobedience — were living in exile with their parents in Siberia. When the family emigrated from the country in 1974, they believed they had left Russian oppression behind.

Now, Dima sits in a Russian jail along with the nearly 30 other Greenpeace activists for protesting oil drilling operations in the Arctic. He has become the third generation in his family to be imprisoned in Russia.

"I didn't expect this in my life again," said his father, Pavel Litvinov, 73, who was banished to Siberia for protesting the Soviet Union's 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia. "When I took Dima and Dima, 51, has been a Greenpeace activist for nearly 25 years. "He wanted to make a difference in the world," Lara said in an interview at her home in Torrance. "Money was never important to him. He was just interested in doing what is right."

In September, Dima and other Greenpeace activists attempted to stage a demonstration against what is said to be the world's first ice-resistant oil platform. Russian authorities acted swiftly, arresting them — and two journalists — as charges are investigated.

The family is trying to stay optimistic, but Lara is scared. She has seen photographs of her brother in handcuffs and in a courtroom, standing inside a metal cage. She hears he's being kept in a 12- by 24-foot cell for 23 hours a day with only an hour outside. It's cold, and it's dark.

"There is so much that is unknown, and the Russian government is so unpredictable," she said. out of Russia, I thought I had taken them away from that country so that this could never happen."

Charged first with piracy and then with hooliganism, Dima faces the possibility of years in prison with a substantial fine...

Continue reading.

Sunday Cartoons

At Flopping Aces, "Sunday Funnies."



Also at Randy's Roundtable, "Friday Nite Funnies," and Reaganite Republican, "Reaganite's SUNDAY FUNNIES."

And at American Perspectives, "Just Who Exactly Wrote Obamacare Anyway." And 90 Miles From Tyranny, "April Fools Day Came Early This Year..."

CARTOON CREDIT: William Warren.

#ObamaCare in California: 65% Say People Won't Be Able to Afford Insurance

Look, Obama took California by nearly 60 percent of the vote in 2012. If the law's not going over well here in blue state heaven, Democrats are sucking donkey balls. Big freakin' balls!

The Un-Affordable Care Act.

At the Los Angeles Times, "Californians have their doubts about healthcare law":

Cutting across partisan and racial lines, Californians as a whole were skeptical that the Affordable Care Act would live up to its name.

Sixty-five percent of respondents said people wouldn't be able to afford the health insurance they'll be required to have under the law's individual mandate. Forty percent think the program will have a negative effect on what they pay for coverage, compared with 21% who expect a positive outcome.

According to the survey, 46% of registered voters expect the Affordable Care Act to be a drag on the overall economy and 34% see an economic boost. Nearly 60% think the law's new requirements will raise healthcare costs and keep businesses from hiring more workers.

The poll was taken just as the national healthcare rollout was coming under intense criticism in Congress, even from some Democrats. Obama has apologized for the malfunctioning healthcare.gov enrollment website and for millions of Americans receiving cancellation notices because their current coverage doesn't meet all the requirements of the healthcare law.

Those consumers have directed much of their anger at Obama's repeated pledge that Americans could keep their existing insurance if they liked it.

California is running its own insurance exchange, as are 13 other states, and its online enrollment hasn't experienced nearly as many problems as the federal marketplace for 36 states. But the sticker shock from higher premiums and concerns about losing access to preferred doctors and hospitals have taken a toll.

"California has had a pretty good rollout on its exchange compared to the national one, but people here are still feeling the negative repercussions of higher costs and lost policies," said David Kanevsky of American Viewpoint, the Republican firm that helped conduct the poll for the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences and The Times.

The poll was conducted jointly by American Viewpoint and Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research, a Democratic polling firm in Washington. They surveyed 1,503 registered state voters by telephone Oct. 30-Nov. 5. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.1 percentage points, and larger for subgroups.

For Obama and his signature law, much depends on Californians embracing the changes. California wants to enroll more than 2 million people by the end of next year in subsidized health insurance or an expansion of Medi-Cal, the state's Medicaid program for the poor.

Poll respondents said they were upbeat about the law's potential to help many of the state's 7 million uninsured. Sixty-five percent expect there will be fewer people without coverage and 67% think patients will get more access to checkups and other preventive care.

"Fundamentally, Californians are viewing the Affordable Care Act as a mixed bag," said Drew Lieberman of Greenberg Quinlan Rosner. "They harbor real concerns about the potential negative impact on costs and the economy."

Diana Sackett, 61, a software engineer in Pleasanton, has many of those worries even though she strongly supports the president's healthcare plan. She has battled cancer in the past and knows the value of quality health coverage. "In an advanced country like ours, everyone should be able to get the healthcare they need," Sackett said.

But she isn't optimistic that the healthcare law will stem the rising costs of medical care and fears it may even get worse with an influx of newly insured patients.

"I'm concerned it won't really address the cost problems," said Sackett, who pays for health insurance through her employer. "I think healthcare is still going to be pretty expensive."

According to the poll, the changes are being implemented at a time when voters are generally satisfied with their own healthcare. Ninety percent of respondents said they were happy with the quality of their medical care and access to their doctors.

The state's health insurance exchange, Covered California, also faces deep skepticism among its core audience.

Even uninsured Californians, who stand to benefit the most from the changes, were split. Forty-eight percent favored the law while 45% were against.

Individuals who now purchase their own policies were more negative. Forty-nine percent were opposed to the law and 44% said they were in favor.

It's not good.

Forty-percent expect the law to have a negative effect on their health insurance payments, and just 21 percent expect a positive result.

Forty-six percent of registered voters expect the law to pull down economic growth, with only 34 percent expecting an economic boost. And less than half of uninsured Californians favor ObamaCare, a number likely to go down the longer the administration's botched rollout continues.

Another day and more bad news for the Democrats. And I'll tell you, I'm all torn up over this. It's just horrible --- HORRIBLE!!!

IMAGE CREDIT: Heritage Foundation.

BONUS: At the San Jose Mercury News, "Obamacare's winners and losers in Bay Area."

Casting the 2013 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show

The show's coming up one month from today!

Secretary of State John Kerry Has 'Doubts' Lee Harvey Oswald Acted Alone in Assassination of President John F. Kennedy

How bloody stupid.

This reminds of 22 years ago and the wild conspiracies of Oliver Stone's "JFK."

I swear leftists are the freakin' worst conspiracy theorists. And John Kerry's a flaming ghoul.

At CNN, "Kerry doubts Warren Commission report." (Via Memeorandum.)

He's clamming up now, the asshole, "Kerry won't talk about Kennedy conspiracy" (at Memeorandum).

And for a reminder, Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. There is no conspiracy except in the minds of radical leftists. See Gerald Posner's book, Case Closed: Lee Harvey Oswald and the Assassination of JFK.

Fresno State Moves to #16 in AP's Top 25 College Football Rankings

And they're doing even better in USA Today's poll of coaches.

At the Fresno Bee, "Fresno State up to No. 14 in USA Today Coaches poll":

.@lamblock Turns out I've been sending my kid to school w/ a gang symbol t-shirt! #FresnoState #Bulldogs pic.twitter.com/jKzkOZTQIc
— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) November 10, 2013

Fresno State moved to No. 14 in the new USA Today Coaches Top 25 football poll Sunday, a leap of three spots in one of the components that determine berths in the big-money postseason games of the BCS.

Louisville of the American Athletic Conference remained one spot ahead of the Bulldogs, with the full BCS standings due out later Sunday.

Northern Illinois, another would-be BCS buster along with the Bulldogs, fell one spot among the coaches to No. 21 while on a bye week.

Fresno State is guaranteed a berth in one of the BCS games if it remains ranked at least No. 16, is the highest from a non-automatic-qualifying conference, and ahead of a champion from an AQ conference such as the AAC.

Last week's BCS standings had the Bulldogs 16th with a .3675 average, ahead of key BCS rivals in No. 18 Northern Illinois (.3169), No. 20 Louisville (.2510) and No. 21 Central Florida (.2151).

The Bulldogs are No. 16 in the latest Associated Press Top 25, a day after they improved to 9-0 with a 48-10 victory at Wyoming.

I watched last night's game at Wyoming. It was a 48-10 blowout. See, "Fresno State football: Bulldogs skip field goal, go for glory," and "Fresno State Postgame Wrap: No. 17 Bulldogs 48, Wyoming 10."

And at the tweet above, I'm thinking perhaps my 6th-grader should retire his Fresno State Bulldogs t-shirt he's been wearing to school this semester. We don't have a big gang presence in Irvine, but sheesh, you never can be too careful these days. See, "Fresno State's Fearsome Bulldog Mascot Is Street Gang Symbol."

Chris Christie: Time Magazine's Savior for the 2016 GOP

Here's Moe Lane on Time's fat-shaming cover story, "Time Magazine attempts to fat-shame Chris Christie*."

*Hey. This is the Left’s own sensitivity rulebook. One that they expect us to follow even though they happily abandon it the second that they can go after a conservative. You have to make them live up to their own rules, which they don’t want to do and will avoid whenever possible.

I get the magazine in hard copy, and I'm more perplexed by this meme of Christie as the GOP's 2016 savior:

New Jersey voters never got to hear Chris Christie's most important speech this year, because it took place behind closed doors at a Westin hotel in Boston, where the governor laid out his not so veiled pitch for the party's 2016 nomination. "I'm in this business to win," he told the crowd of Republican leaders, according to an audio recording smuggled out of the room. "I don't know why you're in it."

It was pure Christie, combat bundled in cliche. Ever since he ousted Democratic incumbent Jon Corzine in 2009, he has run the Garden State with combustible passion, blunt talk and the kind of bipartisan dealmaking that no one seems to do anymore. He doesn't claim to be an ideas man or a visionary. He's a workhorse with a temper and a tongue, the guy who loves his mother and gets it done.

All year long, Christie has presented this character he has created as the savior for the Grand Old Party. At the Boston meeting in August, he said ideologues had begun to edge out the winners in Ronald Reagan's Big Tent. (He meant you, Tea Party, Ted Cruz, Sarah Palin.) They acted like college professors, just spouting ideas. "College professors are fine, I guess," he joked, before driving it home. "If we don't win, we don't govern. And if we don't govern, all we do is shout into the wind."

Christie then went out and won, and he won big. In a blue state, he got 61% of the vote for governor on Nov. 5. "If we can do this in Trenton, New Jersey," Christie thundered, "maybe the folks in Washington, D.C., should tune in their TVs right now, see how it's done."

It's awful early to be anointing the GOP frontrunner, and I cringe at the thought of yet another doomed Republican presidential campaign in 2016. The GOP will be crushed if they keep nominating these mealy-mouthed moderates. Damn. I checked with Dan Riehl on Twitter the other night, after I finished reading the cover story. Christie's not very conservative at all:

@AmPowerBlog his rhetoric is that of a progressive. Not libertarian on social issues, not very conservative on fiscal issues. what's 2 like?

— DanRiehl (@DanRiehl) November 10, 2013

The country's ready for conservative leadership in the Ronald Reagan mold. Obviously, Chris Christie's not it. Although, sadly, the JournoList media will be all too happy to foist him off on a hoodwinked electorate. Grassroots conservatives will have their job cut out keeping that from happening.

Happy 238th Birthday to the U.S. Marine Corps

At the Daily Caller, "Happy 238th Birthday Marines: A message From the Commandant of the Marine Corps":

For 238 years, The United States Marine Corps has proudly served our great Nation with unfailing valor – bolstered by the enduring fortitude of our fellow Marines, our families, and our friends. This is why each year on November 10th, Marines from all generations gather together, in groups large and small, to celebrate the birthday of our Corps and to reflect on the proud legacy and warrior ethos we share. This is what unites us as Marines. From our first battle at New Providence to today in Afghanistan, Marines have always shown that they were made of tougher stuff – that when the enemy’s fire poured in from all angles, and the situation was grim, Marines unequivocally knew that their fellow Marines would stay behind their guns, fight courageously, and drive the enemy from the battlefield. We have always known hardship, fatigue, and pain…but we have never known what it is to lose a battle!

Continue reading.

The Best Blogs Now and Some Smokin' Holly Eriksson

Ima try'n get some Rule 5 posted today. My mom visited yesterday and I'm grading semester writing projects, so my weekend blogging's been thrown off. Hopefully I can get the full babe-blogging roundup posted in a little bit.

Meanwhile, Gator Doug rounds up some of the hottest blogs happening right now, "The 25 Best Blogs Now."

That's a roundup of culture warriors, and I'm honored to be included at the list.

I'll have more of my brand blogging throughout the day and beyond.

Meanwhile, Holly Eriksson's here to help celebrate, at Egotastic!, "Holly Eriksson Topless Calendar Sneak Peek Will Fill Your Days With Smiles."



Photo via Twitter.

Name and Shame: 100 Leftist Celebrities Who've Made Millions and Billions Off the Free-Enterprise System

This is great.

Because you know leftists don't really believe their own ideological bullshit.

At Independent Journal Review, "Wall of Shame: Net Worths of 100 Left-Wing Millionaire and Billionaire Celebs":

These 100 left-wing supporters of wealth redistribution made millions and even billions off the free enterprise system. Many supported the Celebrity President himself Barack Obama, who has ironically gotten quite wealthy preaching against ‘evil’ rich people. This is just a taste of left-wing hypocrisy.

See photos of the Hypocrite 100 at the link (via Instapundit).

At Least 10,00 Feared Dead in Philippines Typhoon

At LAT, "Typhoon may have killed nearly 10,000 in Philippines."

At at WSJ, "Thousands Feared Dead in the Philippines in Wake of Typhoon: Red Cross and Authorities Fear Toll Could Rise to the Thousands":

MANILA—The Philippine National Red Cross said Sunday that the death toll from supertyphoon Haiyan could run into the thousands, adding that it is difficult to perform the grim calculations because the massive storm left bodies scattered over wide areas.

Photographs and video taken Sunday in Tacloban—a city especially hard hit—showed dead people being pulled from rubble and mud, cars and boats tossed into piles and homes shredded.

"This is a monumental disaster. As of now, there's no time to count the bodies. The dead bodies are not in one place like what happened in Ormoc," Richard Gordon, chairman of the Philippine Red Cross, told The Wall Street Journal.

Mr. Gordon, a former senator, was referring to the 1991 flash floods caused by a typhoon in Ormoc City on the island of Leyte which claimed more than 5,000 lives—the most on record caused by a storm in the Philippines.

Health Assistant Secretary Eric Tayag, who was with a medical team deployed to set up three mobile hospitals in Tacloban, said the government is considering digging a mass grave to bury the dead there.

The National Disaster and Risk Reduction Management Council said the typhoon has affected more than 4.5 million people in the 36 provinces in the central Philippines and in the southern part of the main island of Luzon. It said more than 477,000 people were displaced by Haiyan and 400,000 of them are in evacuation centers.

Haiyan, locally known as Yolanda, pounded three dozen provinces in the central Philippines and the southern section of the main island of Luzon with gale-force winds that stirred five-yard-high storm surges that flooded coastal towns.

More Business Graduates Opt for Tech Over Wall Street

This is interesting.

At the Wall Street Journal, "Elite Grads in Business Flock to Tech: Harvard and Other Elite Schools Look Elsewhere as Finance Loses Its Lustre":

Elite business-school graduates are increasingly heading to work in technology over finance as the lingering aftereffects of the financial crisis—along with Wall Street's long hours and scaled-back pay—sends newly minted M.B.A.s elsewhere.

At Harvard Business School, 18% of job-seeking students landed tech-sector spots this year, up from 12% in 2012. A similar shift is under way at the business schools at Yale University and Cornell University, where the share of graduates going into tech more than doubled over the past two years.

Meanwhile, just 27% of Harvard Business School graduates took jobs in finance this year, down from 35% last year. That figure dropped to 16% from 27% at the MIT Sloan School of Management.

And at Stanford Graduate School of Business, historically a haven for digitally minded graduates, tech companies overtook financial services for the first time this year, with 32% of the class accepting tech jobs and just 26% heading into finance. Two years ago, those figures were 13% and 36%, respectively.

I thought I'd go into business and finance if I didn't get accepted to grad school in political science. Everything's all turned around nowadays. I don't consider myself a tech geek Who knows what I'd do now?

More at that top link.

Philippine Leader Fears 'Substantially' Higher Death Toll

At the Wall Street Journal, "Typhoon Death Toll to Rise 'Substantially': Philippine President: Haiyan Is the Strongest Tropical Cyclone to Strike the Philippines Since 1991":

MANILA—Philippine President Benigno Aquino III said Saturday that the death toll from supertyphoon Haiyan will be "substantially more" than officials have so far confirmed, a grim prediction as eyewitnesses reported bodies being pulled from rubble in one town where cars and trees had been tossed about.

Speaking at a televised news conference, the president declined to answer questions seeking an estimate of the number of people who had been killed.

The confirmed count is four, but one city—Tacloban, which has 220,000 residents—was hit especially hard, and one government official said at least 100 were dead. The Philippine National Red Cross said Saturday it received reports suggesting around 1,000 people died in Tacloban and about 200 in neighboring Samar province.

"It is only an estimate from the field, not validated," said Philippine Red Cross Secretary General Gwen Pang.

A Hong Kong-based cameraman and storm chaser who has been filming typhoons for nine years reported seeing dead bodies and looting in Tacloban.

Enlarge Image

Tacloban city, in Leyte province, central Philippines Saturday. Associated Press

"There are people pulling bodies out of the rubble, basically," said James Reynolds from Cebu on Saturday.

Mr. Reynolds said he saw people looting drugstores and electronics stores.

"It's a lawless situation," he said. "It's only going to get worse because people are going to get hungrier or thirstier, and there's not enough aid getting in."

Supertyphoon Haiyan, which had the strength of a Category 5 hurricane, is headed to Vietnam, where it is expected to make landfall in the morning.

A mother and her son walked under damaged electric cables after super Typhoon Haiyan battered Tacloban city. Reuters

The typhoon hit the eastern seaboard of the Philippines on Friday, with its heavy rain and winds uprooting trees, shredding homes, and causing five-yard high storm surges that flooded coastal towns.

"The last time I saw something of this scale was in the aftermath of the Indian Ocean Tsunami," said Sebastian Rhodes Stampa, head of the United Nations Disaster Assessment Coordination team.

"This is destruction on a massive scale. There are cars thrown like tumble weeds, and the streets are strewn with debris ," he said, adding that relief efforts will be challenging because roads between the airport and the central city were "completely blocked." The U.N. team arrived in Tacloban on Saturday.

Continue reading.

Obama Now Faces Disasters of His Own Making

At some point you just can't keep blaming everyone else.

From Dan Balz, at the Washington Post, "For Obama, and Democrats, it’s crunch time":

President Obama likes to say he will never again be running for office, but every Democrat knows he will be on the ballot figuratively in 2014, and 2016, as well. Right now they are rightly nervous about that prospect.

A month ago, political Washington was transfixed by the errors committed by congressional Republicans. Those missteps led to a partial shutdown of the government, which in turn has brought approval of the GOP to record lows in many public opinion surveys.

Nothing about that has changed. But today, it’s Obama in the spotlight. A president famous for his unflappability, he is now struggling to square assurances that he is on top of the problems confronting his administration with assertions that he was unaware of the problems as they were developing.

The president’s apology for misleading people about whether they could keep their health insurance under the terms of the Affordable Care Act, which came during an interview with NBC’s Chuck Todd, was a remarkable step, underscoring just how concerned he and his advisers are about the damage caused by the chaotic rollout of the new law.

Obama long has been among the most self-confident of politicians and has not often been willing to acknowledge error in such a straightforward way. Where he has acknowledged shortcomings or disappointments, he has rarely included the kind of contrition he expressed to the people who took him at his word and have since seen their health-care policies canceled.

His mea culpa was all the more notable because it came only a few days after he had attempted to put a retrospective asterisk on those original assurances, enunciated as he sought to sell his controversial health-care plan to a skeptical public....

Obama is dismissive of the crisis-an-hour mentality that often grips the political chattering class. He has endured low moments throughout his political career and has found a way to ride them out. He is famously patient. But he is now in a hole of his own making...

Continue reading.

Balz argues that the president's biggest test is credibility, and it's hardly guaranteed that he'll be able to keep it, what, with all the gargantuan lies that just now biting him in the ass.

IMAGE CREDIT: The Looking Spoon, "When Obama says 'sorry' for Obamacare it's not the kind of sorry you think it is..."

Email to Bret Baier Puts #ObamaCare Disaster Into Perspective

At Jammie Wearing Fools.

And Zoey Connor.

L.A. Times Front-Page: 'No Quick Fix for Health Law' — #MyHealthPlanDied

I've got it screen capped, but the Times changed the headline at the website.

It reads, "White House seeks quick fix to health policy cancellations."

Hey, the subtle politics of media framing. And I'm not sure why, though. I mean, if the bad news is making it to the front-page of the paper, it's not much help to downplay the poor prognosis online.

At least the editors aren't burying the bad ObamaCare news altogether, like the disgusting Obama-shills at the New York Times. See NewsBusters, "NYT Puts Michael Shear's Pathetic Coverage of Obama's 'You Can Keep Your Plan' Excuse-Making on Page A14."

Megan McArdle on #ObamaCare

I read this astonishing piece by McArdle on Thursday, "Obamacare Shouldn't Have Been Managed Like a Campaign."

RTWT. (And "read the whole thing" certainly isn't an urgent enough exhortation to read that piece, but you definitely should read it all.)

I don't read McArdle very much; she's never been on my blogroll. But I was blown away at how good a writer she is. The article's a real piece of explanatory reporting. So good, in fact, that it earned the "flaming skull" at AoSHQ.

More from Robert Stacy McCain, "The Shocking (But Actually Predictable) Stupidity of ObamaCare Bureaucrats":

Ace of Spades gave the “Flaming Skull” alert to a quote from a Washington Post article about the ObamaCare botch that had been included in a summary by Megan McArdle at Bloomberg.

On Twitter last night, Ace seemed genuinely astonished by this. But really, who had any illusions that a bunch of liberal bureaucrats were competent to be trusted with the implementation of such a thing?

And more from McArdle, "Obamacare Is Running Out of Bullets," and "The Rise of the Obamacare Scams."

Nazi Art Cache

An outstanding commentary, from Christopher Knight, at the Los Angeles Times, "Lift the veil from the Nazi art cache."

The Secret Diary of Abu Zubaydah

At the Independent UK, "The secret diary of al-Qa’ida’s No 3 - Abu Zubaydah, from student to hardline jihadi and CIA torture":

The private diaries of Abu Zubaydah, formerly thought to be the third in command of al-Qa’ida and one of the most prominent remaining detainees in Guantanamo Bay, have been released by the US government.

They offer a remarkable and personal picture of how al-Qa’ida grew from its origins in the mujahedin struggle against the Soviet occupiers of Afghanistan into the organisation that carried out the 2001 attacks against the US.

They track Zubaydah’s journey from a student to a hardened jihadi.

The diaries, obtained by a freedom of information request by Al Jazeera, cover more than a decade. They start in 1990 when Zubaydah – a Saudi-born Palestinian – was a 19-year-old student in computer sciences in Mysore, India, a few months before he travelled to join the Afghan civil war that followed the Soviet departure. They end days before his capture in Faisalabad, Pakistan, in March 2002.

At the time, he was regarded by the CIA as the third-ranking figure in al-Qa’ida, behind only Osama Bin Laden and the group’s current leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri.

Zubaydah was held to be one of the planners of the 9/11 attacks and of virtually every other major attack perpetrated by al-Qa’ida before that, including the 1998 US embassy bombings in East Africa.

He was taken to a CIA  “ghost site” in Thailand and waterboarded 83 times in a bid to extract information about future terrorist operations.

He was among the first al-Qa’ida detainees subjected to the “enhanced interrogation techniques” that had just been approved by George W Bush’s Justice Department.

Later the Bush administration revised its view of Zubaydah’s importance as it became clear he was more of a bureaucrat within al-Qa’ida than a frontline operative. Even so, he was mentioned no less than 52 times in the final report of the 9/11 Commission on the 2001 attacks, published in 2004.

The secret and highly personal dairies, with their  numerous mentions of bin Laden and other al-Qa’ida figures, suggest a meticulous record keeper. Their contents, which are being revealed for the first time, provided the basis for holding many of the prisoners at Guantanamo, of whom 160 remain.

According to Al Jazeera America, the documents – a copy of the government’s English translation of the diaries – were obtained from a former US intelligence official who worked with the CIA and FBI on al-Qa’ida issues.

There are six volumes of the 1990-2002 diaries, excerpts from the first of which were published by Al Jazeera.

Zubaydah is believed to have compiled more diaries while being held by the CIA, in which he is said to describe in detail his torture. Since 2006 he has been held at Guantanamo Bay, although he has not been charged with any crime.

The loss of his diaries, now formally the property of the Pentagon, appears to have affected him deeply. In March 2007, he told a review tribunal that the CIA’s refusal to honour what he claimed was a promise to return them had caused him to have 40 seizures. That mental anguish, Zubaydah said, “is bigger than what the CIA (did to) me”...

Screw the f-ker.

Continue reading.

#ObamaCare, Sluggish Economy Boost GOP Chances in 2014

From Lawrence Kudlow, at IBD:

There's no question the catastrophic debut of ObamaCare — including the website breakdown and the millions of pink-slip cancellations — will be a great card for Republicans to play on the way to the 2014 midterm elections. No question.

The president lied about his lies about keeping your health plans and doctors. And when he did finally apologize, he didn't really say he was sorry.

It's also possible that we'll see 10 million more insurance cancellations, leading to much higher premiums, bigger deductibles, and more cutoffs between patients and their doctors. And employer-based cancellations will compound this disaster, with the whole process stretching across most of next year. It will be a killer for the Obama Democrats.

But while my conservative-pundit colleagues are out thrashing ObamaCare, I want to raise a critical point: Don't forget economic growth.

The Pew Research Center's Andrew Kohut recently wrote a Wall Street Journal op-ed titled "The GOP Is in Better Shape Than You Think." It provides an unbelievable statistic: Independents favor the GOP on handling the economy by 46% to 30%. Unbelievable.

Overall, according to Pew Research, a plurality of all voters gives the GOP a 44% to 37% edge on the economy.
So I want to make a pitch that Republicans not lose sight of the importance of economic growth in the months leading up to next year's midterms. And that suggests the importance of a program of pro-growth tax reform and simplification.

More at that top link.

PREVIOUSLY: "Independents Favor #GOP on the Economy by Whopping 46%-30% Margin."

Candice Swanepoel Displays Bedazzled Bra Worth $8 Million

On Good Morning America.

They fitted the bra specifically to Ms. Swanepoel's body. She's the only one who can wear it.

Democrats Who Voted for #ObamaCare Debacle Now Scrambling for Cover

At the Wall Street Journal, "The ObamaCare Dozen":

The torrents of Affordable Care Act monsoon season aren't letting up, so Democrats are scrambling to help the victims: namely, their own careers. The Senators up for re-election in competitive states in 2014 are starting to panic, though they still aren't offering solutions for anything other than their own growing political jeopardy.

Fifteen Senate Democrats plus Colorado's Michael Bennet who chairs the Senatorial Campaign Committee sat down at the White House Wednesday, and they want all and sundry to know that they let President Obama have it. Alaska's Mark Begich put out a statement saying he chewed out the big cheese for "absolutely unacceptable" mismanagement and "an understandable crisis in confidence." He must have drafted it in advance.

Oregon's Jeff Merkley chimed in to report that even after the two-hour encounter session that was not on the public schedule, he was still "very frustrated" and "I remain deeply convinced that this is a 'show-me' moment." Asked by Politico if Democrats were losing credibility, an anonymous attendee said, "You got to have it, to lose it."


Mr. Obama held their hands and told them not to worry. But that's also what he, Bill Clinton and other horse whisperers said in 2010. The "moderates" who made the Nancy Pelosi majority went on to be wiped out in the largest turnover of House seats since 1938.

Mr. Obama then comforted the party regulars that all would be well once the exchanges launched. That day arrived, sort of, since the website doesn't work. He's now urging Democrats to keep calm because the public will love it once the subsidies start to roll out. Yet insurance is being cancelled, premiums are surging and patients like Edie Sundby can't keep their doctors.

Meanwhile, the Salesman in Chief has been exposed for his fraudulent promises. Before October Mr. Obama's rhetoric seemed desperate like Shelly Levene in "Glengarry Glen Ross," repeating discredited assurances that few believed. Now it seems somewhat sinister as he tries to falsify his history of false claims.

All of which has the ObamaCare Dozen—the Democrats who each cast the decisive 60th vote and are running for re-election in 2014—fleeing for political cover. We offer a list of the dozen nearby, and they're right to worry that voters might punish ObamaCare's implementation as they did its passage. But so far the 12 are trying to pull off nothing more than confidence tricks...

Continue reading.

Democrats are screwed. I can't wait until next November. We're talking wipeout!

Combined 52 Million Americans Could Lose Insurance When #ObamaCare Hits Grandfathered Employer-Based Plans

This was the plan all along.

At McClatchy, "Analysis: Tens of millions could be forced out of health insurance they had":

WASHINGTON — Even as President Barack Obama sold a new health care law in part by assuring Americans they would be able to keep their insurance plans, his administration knew that tens of millions of people actually could lose those their policies.

“If you like your private health insurance plan, you can keep your plan. Period,” Obama said as he pitched the plan, the unqualified promise he made repeatedly.

Yet advisers did say in 2010 that there were large caveats and that anyone whose insurance plan changed would lose the promised protection of being able to keep existing plans. And a report in 2010 said that as many as 69 percent of certain employer-based insurance plans would lose that protection, meaning as many as 41 million people could lose their plans even if they wanted to keep them and would be forced into other plans. Another 11 million who bought their own insurance also could lose their plans. Combined, as many as 52 million Americans could lose or have lost old insurance plans.

Some or much of that loss of favored insurance is driven by normal year-to-year changes such as employers changing plans to save money. And many people could end up with better plans. But it is not what the president pledged.

Caught in the firestorm of his broken promise, Obama on Thursday apologized.

“I am sorry that they are finding themselves in this situation based on assurances they got from me,” he told NBC News Thursday evening. “We’ve got to work hard to make sure that they know we hear them and we are going to do everything we can to deal with folks who find themselves in a tough position as a consequence of this.”

The shifting narrative started as Obama worked to sell the entire health care overhaul to a skeptical nation and Congress. To win support from those who already had insurance, he made the promise that no one who liked their plan would lose it. The key was that millions of plans would be “grandfathered” in the new law, thus protected from any new requirements.

Yet as insurance companies started notifying hundreds of thousands this fall that their current policies were being canceled in preparation for new ones, it became clear that many were not guaranteed to keep their plans.

The White House and Congress have focused on cancelations of plans in the individual market, where people buy their own policies.

Obama insisted anew Thursday that the problem is limited to people who buy their own insurance. “We’re talking about 5 percent of the population who are in what’s called the individual market. They’re out there buying health insurance on their own,” he told NBC.

But a closer examination finds that the number of people who have plans changing, or have already changed, could be between 34 million to 52 million. That’s because many employer-provided insurance plans also could change, not just individually purchased insurance plans

Administration officials decline to say how many employer-sponsored plans could change. But those numbers could be between 23 million to 41 million, based on a McClatchy analysis of estimates offered by the Department of Health and Human Services in June 2010.

Obama aides did acknowledge around the time the law was enacted in 2010 that some people could lose their coverage if their plans changed after the law was passed. Those people would in turn receive what the administration described as superior coverage. But in the years since the law’s passage, HHS officials have downplayed that consequence of the hard-fought law.

“If health plans significantly raise co-payments or deductibles or significantly reduce (them) . . . they’ll lose their grandfather status and their customers will get the same full set of consumer protections as new plans,” Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said at a June 15, 2010, news conference.

Yeah, "HHS officials have downplayed" the consequences --- of reaming tens of millions of Americans!

More from Pejman Yousefzadeh, "Obamacare: The Trainwreck Continues" (via Memeorandum).

Obama Lifted Sanctions on Iran to Grease Nuclear Deal That Devastates Israel's National Security

The news is buzzing today with talk of an "historic" diplomatic deal on Iran's nuclear weapons program. The Wall Street Journal has that, "Kerry, European Ministers in Geneva as Iran Talks Continue: French, German and British Foreign Ministers Also in Attendance":

GENEVA—Iran and world powers raced to try to seal an initial deal Friday to curb Iran's nuclear program in exchange for some easing of sanctions, with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and several European foreign ministers arriving in Geneva to push the talks forward.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu slammed the possible deal. Asked about Mr. Netanyahu's concerns, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said "any critique of the deal is premature."

President Barack Obama called Mr. Netanyahu later Friday to underscore what the White House described as the president's "strong commitment to preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon."

Western and Iranian officials said Friday that while there had been significant advances, a deal wasn't nailed down yet.

"I want to emphasize there are still some very important issues on the table that are unresolved. It is important for those to be properly, thoroughly addressed," Mr. Kerry said upon his arrival in Geneva.

Yeah, "some very important issues" are left, like how Israel's getting reamed up the ass by Obama's terror-enabling foreign policy.

Blazing Cat Fur has that, "Netanyahu slams Obama's Iran deal..."



Plus, Eli Lake reports that this "breakthrough" has been in the works for awhile. Turn's out Obama's been selling out Israel's security for some time, with the lifting of Iran sanctions going back to earlier this year. See, "Exclusive: Obama’s Secret Iran Détente":

The Obama administration began softening sanctions on Iran after the election of Iran’s new president in June, months before the current round of nuclear talks in Geneva or the historic phone call between the two leaders in September.

While those negotiations now appear on the verge of a breakthrough the key condition for Iran—relief from crippling sanctions—began quietly and modestly five months ago.
A review of Treasury Department notices reveals that the U.S. government has all but stopped the financial blacklisting of entities and people that help Iran evade international sanctions since the election of its president, Hassan Rouhani, in June.

On Wednesday Obama said in an interview with NBC News the negotiations in Geneva “are not about easing sanctions.” “The negotiations taking place are about how Iran begins to meet its international obligations and provide assurances not just to us but to the entire world,” the president said.

But it has also long been Obama’s strategy to squeeze Iran’s economy until Iran would be willing to trade relief from sanctions for abandoning key elements of its nuclear program.

Listen to Netanyahu at the clip.

The terror-coddling Obama White House threw the Israelis under the bus --- and then rammed a nuclear-tipped intermediate range missile up the Jewish state's butt.

Also at Pamela's, "NETANYAHU TO KERRY ON IRAN DEAL: 'THIS IS A BAD DEAL, A VERY, VERY, BAD DEAL'." And, "KERRY THREATENS ISRAEL WITH 'THIRD INTIFADA'."

Yeah, he would. The Democrats want Israel eradicated.

Fresno State's Fearsome Bulldog Mascot Is Street Gang Symbol

As an alumnus, I can attest to the enormous popularity of Fresno State's athletics program, especially its football team. With the exception of minor league baseball, there are no professional sports teams for hundreds of miles. Fresno State is the epicenter for popular athletic culture. And with such an aggressive mascot, it's no surprise that the bulldog has become a fearsome gang insignia.

At the New York Times, "Fresno State Loves Its Bulldogs, but So Does a Gang":

Fresno and the surrounding region have long been overrun by Bulldogs. And where the violent pack goes, trouble follows.

The Fresno State Bulldogs college football team is exceedingly popular here in the country’s fruit and vegetable epicenter, where more than a million acres of cropland stretch to the horizon. “From Sacramento to L.A., there is nothing except agriculture and Fresno State football,” said Kenny Wiggins, a former Fresno State lineman who plays in the N.F.L. for the San Diego Chargers. “We were the only show in town; everyone, and I mean everyone, goes to the games.”

The team’s logo is a cartoon bulldog, a muscled beast with sharp teeth, a spiked collar and floppy ears. But the bulldog is no longer just a college sports mascot. It has been appropriated by members of a savage street gang who call themselves the Bulldogs.

The gang started in a prison and quickly earned a reputation as unusually vicious, even in the bloody world of California gangs. At their height, in 2006, the Bulldogs were responsible for 70 percent of the city’s shootings, the police said. Three of four inmates in the county jail are Bulldogs.

“They grew and grew and grew until there were Bulldogs everywhere you looked,” Jerry Dyer, Fresno’s police chief, said.

The mascot now plays a double role as football icon and gang symbol. Confusing the two can have fatal consequences. In 2011, Stephen Maciel, a father of four who the police said had no gang affiliation, was shot and killed by a Bulldogs gang member in a liquor store parking lot. Maciel was wearing a red Fresno State shirt.

The gang’s embrace of the bulldog logo has put university administrators in an excruciatingly awkward position amid a gang crisis that has claimed hundreds of lives. The situation has vexed them, even as sales of Fresno State apparel and merchandise increased tenfold since the gang took hold in the city. The university has considered dropping the logo, and has approached law enforcement officials for guidance.

The issue is trickier than ever this season, with the football team 8-0 and ranked in the top 20 nationally. An adage here says the city’s cultural season starts with the first kickoff. And it is true: the Bulldogs are ascendant. Discussion of recent games is heard up and down the radio dial. Billboards feature the top players, including quarterback Derek Carr, a contender for the Heisman Trophy.

The police, meanwhile, have made cracking down on the Bulldogs gang a top priority, with some success. But the Bulldogs are still dangerous enough to have cost the lives of Maciel and others.

“If you love sports, you want to be all geared up in the team’s colors,” said Maciel’s widow, Marisol Aguirre. “But I don’t wear any of it anymore, and I don’t let my kids wear it. It’s too dangerous.”

Continue reading.

The slideshow is here, "Identifying With the Bulldogs."

RELATED: At the  Washington Post, "Wyoming hopes veteran defensive coordinator can help slow No. 17 Fresno State, Derek Carr."

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford in Video Murder Rant

At USA Today, "Enraged Toronto mayor vows 'murder' in new video."

And at BCF, "Rob Ford sounds like he’s doing a Hulk Hogan impression because…"

New York Times Buries Obama's 'Apology'

Why am I not surprised?

At Twitchy, "‘Your intrepid press, everyone’: NYT lapdogs dutifully bury Obama’s sorry-ass ‘sorry’."

The New York Times article about Obama's apology today is on page A14.
— Matt Welch (@mleewelch) November 8, 2013

Headline is interesting, too: "Apologizing, Obama Yields To Criticism of Health Law." http://t.co/hBWdwCRB61
— Matt Welch (@mleewelch) November 8, 2013