Wretched Joan Walsh Whines About How Everybody Hates Joan Walsh

She's vile.

And sorry if I'm all out of sympathy for this #p2 POS.

Turns out she's come under heavy fire on the left for her objectively stupid defense of the administration's #ObamaCare rollout debacle. And amazingly, it's juice-box hero Ezra Klein who comes out as the voice of reason in all of this. Clue to Joan: It's not "just a glitch" and giving it "more time" won't solve a thing. Ezra's right. ObamaCare's blown, down deep inside, to the "back end" and beyond. Frankly, it sucks donkey balls, and so does Joan Walsh, the dumb [four-letter word here].

Here's the filthy whiny weasel at Salon, "How I became the poster girl for liberal agitprop" (via Memeorandum):

That women are treated badly on Twitter is not breaking news. But the depth and scale of the personal cruelty and wanton misogyny weirdly confirmed the point I was trying to make in the original piece: The “unhinged right” is well-organized and dangerous, and a lot of people, including liberals, don’t seem to be taking that in completely. The election of our first black president unleashed primitive reactionary forces. Open expressions of racism and misogyny are now a form of political protest, and if you complain, you’re the oppressor. Uppity black people and uppity women especially must be put in their place.

The difference between my Twitter experience and that of my white, male liberal friends and critics reminded me once again how relatively insulated even many liberals are from the insanity. As a white person, I don’t always take it in fully myself. Every time I’m ready to blame President Obama for his political troubles, and yes, he deserves some blame, there’s a story like the one about Rep. Pete Sessions telling the president, to his face, “I can’t even stand to look at you.” (The White House is now saying this story is based on a misunderstanding. Stay tuned.) I can’t even stand to enumerate the ways in which this president has been insulted in ways unknown to white presidents, Sessions aside.

I know that good conscientious journalists, even some liberals, believe that when Democrats have such deadly enemies, they can’t afford to hand them weapons, and a badly designed ACA exchange website is a weapon. And I wish Bill Clinton had kept his pants up, too. But now Barack Obama, whose only known personal weakness involves Nicorette, is being treated even more viciously than Clinton. So you’ll excuse me if I argue that we ought to focus on the sickness that’s taken hold of the Republican Party, rather than the fact that our last two Democratic presidents haven’t been able to cure it.

Bitter partisanship has left this woman a hulking, steaming pile of radioactive filth. She just hates. No amount of Obama/Democrat failure will shake her from what is, for all intents and purposes, a psychotic obsession with the "evil" right. Shoot, the father of Trig-trutherism sounds positively subdued compared to the unhinged Salon hate-monger. See the Dish, "Epistemic Openness Watch":

I have faith in the judgment of Americans, and do not share the agitprop tendencies of Joan Walsh. What matters is the truth. What matters when things go wrong is transparency. What truly worries me is less the website’s failure than Obama’s defensive, secretive posture in response to it. Take the hit as hard as you can now. Explain the fail fully. And move relentlessly forward.

When You've Lost Jon Stewart ... You Know the #ObamaCare Rollout Was a Disaster ...

From Major Garrett, at National Journal, "The Biggest Joke of the Obama Presidency."

And watch Stewart hammer the administration at the link. (More here.)

Stop Watching Us

From the Electronic Frontier Foundation, FWIW.

Sen. Joe Manchin Seeks Delay of #ObamaCare Individual Mandate

I posted on this yesterday, "Democratic Unease Grows on Health Law."

Now here's Manchin on O'Reilly's show last night:



Also at Politico, "Red state Democrats propose changes to Obamacare."

Nick Gillespie: Obama's Like 'Hitler in the Bunker'

He takes it back, since Van Jones objects to the Hitler reference, but it's apt. I used the bunker analogy the other day. Where has this man been? He's the chief executive. He's in charge of his administration. The buck stop with him. And he's been completely out of it.

An excellent clip:



More at RCP, "Sebelius: Obama Did Not Know About Obamacare Website Glitches."

#ObamaCare Is in Deeper Trouble Than Obama Admits

From Jennifer Rubin, at WaPo. (Via Louise Mensch on Twitter.)

Los Angeles Bans Use of Bullhooks on Circus Elephants

The effect is to ban Ringling Bros. Circus from Los Angeles, a very bad move. The policy won't protect the animals but will harm the local economy. It's stupid PC run amok.

NBC Los Angeles reports.

And here's the letter to the editor from Stephen Payne, who is vice president for corporate communications at Feld Entertainment, Ringling Bros.' parent company:

Re "Of elephants and bullhooks," Editorial, Oct. 22

Every year since 1922, Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey has performed for circus fans in Los Angeles. Elephants have always been an integral part of Ringling Bros., providing an up-close way for our audiences to experience these amazing animals in a way they can nowhere else.

Unfortunately, The Times appears to have simply accepted the representations of animal rights groups about how our elephants are trained. The "guide," referred to by the outdated term "bullhook" in the editorial, is an animal husbandry tool for working with elephants approved by experts, including the American Veterinary Medical Assn.

Our elephants are comfortable with the training methods and tools used at Ringling Bros., and, more important, many of those trained behaviors are vital for optimal husbandry and veterinary care.

Our elephants define Ringling Bros. for the nearly 100,000 people who come to see them at Staples Center each year. The L.A. City Council should not deny people the right to make the decision to attend and also threaten local jobs by passing this unnecessary and unfair ban on circuses in the city.

Stephen Payne
Vienna, Va.

More at LAist, "Los Angeles Just Basically Banned Circuses."

Network Anchors: Obamacare Rollout a ‘Debacle,’ ‘A Mess’ and ‘A Complete Disaster’

Via Free Beacon.

Bill O'Reilly Calls 'Em Like He Sees 'Em: Democrat Agenda Is 'Form of Communism'

This is Tuesday's talking points memo, and he nails it:

Democratic Unease Grows on Health Law

At the Wall Street Journal, "Lawmakers Cite Website Woes in Call for Delay in Penalties for the Uninsured":

The hard line Democrats have drawn against delaying a core element of the federal health law has begun to crack, as problems with the new federal insurance website prompted calls for President Barack Obama to delay penalties on people who don't carry health coverage.

Democratic leaders in Congress and Mr. Obama have defended the minimum penalty of $95 in 2014 as crucial to inducing uninsured Americans to sign up for coverage, and the party held firm against Republican calls to delay or eliminate the coverage requirement that provoked this month's partial government shutdown.

Late Wednesday, the Obama administration said it would establish what amounts to a six-week extension in the time people have to obtain insurance coverage before incurring a penalty, responding to what some have called a lack of clarity in the law over the deadline.

Some Democrats say the flawed rollout of the law could mean bigger changes are needed. Sen. Mark Begich (D., Alaska), who is up for re-election in 2014, said Wednesday that individuals shouldn't be penalized if technical issues with the HealthCare.gov website aren't resolved.

The signs of growing Democratic unease came as the White House acknowledged for the first time Wednesday that the problems extend beyond sign-up logjams that kept thousands of people from being able to view insurance offerings online. Experts are working to "iron out the kinks" that have led insurers to receive flawed data, including duplicate enrollments and spouses reported as children, the White House said after a meeting among administration and insurance industry officials.

The debate over the botched launch will kick into higher gear Thursday at a House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing. In their prepared testimony, contractors responsible for the federal insurance portal pointed fingers at each other and the administration.

Cheryl Campbell, a senior vice president at CGI Group Inc.'s CGI Federal unit, the lead contractor for the HealthCare.gov website that launched Oct. 1, blamed the bottlenecks on a system designed by another contractor, UnitedHealth Group Inc.'s Optum unit, which verifies users' identities.

Optum group executive vice president Andrew Slavitt, in turn, said in his prepared testimony that a decision to disable anonymous shopping drove traffic to its system that was higher than "if consumers could 'window shop' anonymously." The administration has since reversed its decision to make people first register before shopping.

At least two more congressional hearings are scheduled next week, including one where Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is expected to be grilled.

The penalty for failure to carry insurance is at the heart of the Affordable Care Act. Insurers say individuals—particularly younger, healthier people—must be coaxed to buy insurance so that carriers aren't left with a risk pool of predominantly older and sicker people.

Massive finger-pointing.

And clearly, this so-called six-week delay for sign-up is a trial balloon launched in case the White House decides to delay the individual mandate --- which by now, obviously, is the least Demo-Rats could do to save some face from this utter political and policy debacle.

In any case, more at the click through.

Also at the Hill, "Manchin: Delay ObamaCare mandate."

And at AP, "Frustrated Dems lament damage from website bugs" (via Memeorandum.)

'The Conservative Mind'

Reading it now.

Here's the Amazon link, The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Eliot.

I tweeted this to Robert Stacy McCain the other day, but he's been too busy with the Kimberlin psychos.

.@RSMcCain Reading Russell Kirk, "The Conservative Mind." pic.twitter.com/Vm620Kq9DU
— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) October 16, 2013

Budget Discord Simmers on the Left

Democrats aren't serious about reducing the national debt, and they never will be.

At the Wall Street Journal, "Some Liberal Groups, Lawmakers Worry About Cuts to Social Security, Other Entitlements":

Cracks are showing in the Democratic coalition as the next round of budget talks gets under way, hurting the chances for progress toward a broad deal that changes the tax code and significantly narrows future deficits.

While Republicans are still smarting over nasty infighting they engaged in during the debt-ceiling fight and 16-day government shutdown, Democrats have stayed united. This helped them beat back Republican demands to undo or scale back President Barack Obama's 2010 health law as a condition for ending the showdown.

But with eyes now turning toward a newly formed budget committee, some liberal lawmakers and groups are worried that Democrats will negotiate cuts to Social Security benefits and other entitlement programs. The president's budget blueprint, which was released in April, proposed slowing the growth of Social Security spending by using a new measure of inflation—an idea that drew a rebuke from some lawmakers and liberal groups.

"The president is about to run into a major base problem if he tries to do this," said Rep. Keith Ellison (D., Minn.), co-chairman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, referring to using the new formula, the chained consumer-price index, to determine benefits. "My advice to him is: Don't do it."

Well, when has O ever worried about the base?

And frankly, President Obumbler's not serious about entitlement reform. We'll be over $20 trillion in debt when he leaves office, and perhaps much more.

"#ObamaCare's Exchanges Are Still Broken...

...and Obama's Speech Shouldn't Give Anyone Confidence They'll Work Soon," says Peter Suderman, at Reason.

#ObamaCare Raising Premiums, Hurting Middle, Lower Class

It's just one nightmare headline after another.

At Free Beacon.

Karmel Allison, Pregnant Diabetic, Nearly Collapsed During President's Interminable Speech on #ObamaCare Debacle

It's bad enough that the woman nearly fainted, but she's pregnant and diabetic.

If you were watching live you recognized immediately how extremely dangerous this was (she almost lost consciousness at the end of Obama's pathetically long address). Frightening. The president personally subjected Ms. Allison to this, the cold-hearted bastard. He's literally despicable. He should be ashamed for using this woman as a throwaway propaganda ornament. A pregnant diabetic! Democrats will stop at nothing to ram the ObamaCare monstrosity down the throats of the American people. Nothing. For partisan optics they'd risk the life of a diabetic woman and her unborn child! Inhuman and depraved. But then again, these are far-left regressive fanatics. Nothing is beyond the pale for these ghouls.

Here's the dramatic screencap at London's Daily Mail.



More at the Washington Times, "Caution: Obamacare may cause fainting."

And at the San Diego Union-Tribune, "San Diego woman nearly collapses on stage with president."

Corrupt Bastards Club

From Sarah Palin, at Big Government, "D.C.'S 'CORRUPT BASTARDS CLUB'":

It can be argued that Obamacare isn’t full socialized medicine… yet. Right now it is a sort of corporatism, which is the collusion of big government with big business. With Obamacare, the government has taken over an industry that comprises a sixth of our economy, radically changed the way it operates, and is mandating that we purchase the services of that industry. This is unprecedented. It’s radical.

For those Obama voters who are now flummoxed by the rise in their health care premiums, let me explain why they went up. Obamacare has changed the very nature of insurance, which is a hedge against a future possibility. A 27-year-old marathon runner is much less likely to suffer a major illness than a 57-year-old obese chain smoker with a pickled liver. But Obamacare has ruled that there be no adjusted costs for pre-existing conditions, which means we threw out the actuarial data and everyone is now required to pay more to cover those who are more likely to be sick. But now average Americans – especially those healthy 20somethings who probably don’t even want to buy insurance – can’t afford to pay for Obamacare.

Obamacare in its current corporatist form isn’t meant to last. It’s meant to push us towards full socialized medicine with a single-payer system. How do I know this? Simple. Let’s compare Obamacare with the Canadian single-payer system.

With Obamacare we have crappier health care (fewer choices, fewer doctors, and an IPAB rationing panel of faceless bureaucrats, aka the ol' “death panel” that has been admitted to existing in Obamacare), but it is very expensive for the individual American. For instance, you’ll find that the so-called Bronze Plans are just as expensive as the Platinum Plans when you factor in the $5,000-$10,000 deductible in addition to the monthly payments you’ll shell out. And those Americans who aren’t being pushed onto the Obamacare exchanges are still seeing their insurance premiums skyrocket as the industry shifts onto consumers the cost of not factoring in various conditions.

Now let’s look at what Canadians have. I dare say our good neighbor to your north, and my east, has even worse health care coverage, but at least it’s “free” for the individual.

Americans, if you’re faced with a 300% increase (or even a 65% increase like my family) in your health care premiums for crappier coverage, doesn’t “free” socialized medicine all of a sudden sound appealing?

And that’s how Americans will be led down the primrose path to a single-payer system. People will be frustrated, worn out, and broke under this new government burden. Many will end up concluding they’ll settle for – then demand – full socialized medicine because they’ll see how the unworkable Obamacare will break our health care system (where, presently, no one is turned away from emergency rooms and we have many public and private safety nets for people in need), along with busting our personal bank accounts. The cry will go out, “Can’t you just put us all in a sort of Medicaid-like system? It’ll be much less confusing than these awful exchange websites and a lot less expensive!” As things stand, many who are getting slammed by Obamacare will inevitably settle for less out of necessity. And that’s the left’s declared plan: a single-payer system. They said it. I didn't.

An awesome piece.

RTWT.

Obama Lamely Rebuffs Criticism of Healthcare Debacle in Desperate Rose Garden Address (VIDEO)

It's embarrassing.

He's desperate.

Obama's obviously just emerged from a bunker on the White House grounds, because not a word he utters reflects the realities on the ground for the majority of Americans who're now convinced that the problems go way beyond a chintzy website with stolen code.

See Byron York, "At the White House: Obamacare success stories that aren't":

In the days since the problems with the Obamacare website became too large to ignore, defenders of the administration cited the many people they said have already benefited from the new exchanges, as well as from the law as a whole. Presumably, the White House had many success stories to choose from in deciding who would stand behind the president at Monday's event. But some of the successes they chose don't seem to be successes at all.

RTWT.

And again, listen to the clip. Obama's like a traveling vacuum cleaner salesman, desperate and hawking a shitty product. But he's not worth an ounce of your pity. He made his bed, the asshole.

Also, "Remarks by the President on the Affordable Care Act."

BONUS: See Andrew Kaczynski, "Flashback: Obama Told People They Could Keep Their Health Care Plan" (at Memeorandum).

LAUSD Segregates Hispanic Students by English Proficiency

Parents are mad about this, with good reason.

And you know Spanish-speaking kids will be warehoused away, deprived of better learning opportunities.

At the Los Angeles Times, "L.A. Unified's English learner action upsets parents, teachers":

Luis Gaytan, the 5-year-old son of Mexican immigrants who speak Spanish at home, was so terrified by kindergarten that he would barely talk — prompting classmates to tease that he didn't have a tongue.

In the last two months, at Granada Elementary Community Charter, Luis has gained a growing command of the language in a class of students with a mixed range of English ability. His father, Jorge, is convinced that his son is learning English more quickly because he hears it every day from more-advanced classmates.

But Luis — and thousands of other Los Angeles Unified students — is being moved into new classes with those at a similar language level under an order that has sparked a storm of protest. In recent weeks, a group of southeast L.A. principals have mounted a rare challenge to district policy, teachers have flooded their union office with complaints, and parents have launched protest rallies and petition drives urging L.A. Unified to postpone the class reorganizations until next year.

"Kids with little or no English are going to be segregated and told they're not good enough for the mainstream," said Cindy Aranda-Lechuga, a Granada mother of a kindergartner who gathered 162 parent signatures seeking a postponement and spoke against the policy at an L.A. Board of Education meeting last week. "Kids learn from their peers, and they're not going to be able to do that anymore."

Marking the latest chapter in California's fierce language wars, the furor over class placements for those learning English raises the controversial question of which is more effective: separating students by fluency level or including them in diverse classes. Critics are also upset that the change is coming two months into the school year, after students have bonded with classmates and teachers have developed classroom lessons and routines. Opponents blame the district and local schools for the disruption.

Continue reading.

LAUSD just sucks.

You're looking at modern day Jim Crow for Hispanic families. And the district is run by big Democrat-backed union thugs. But hey, "hope and change," don'tcha know?!!

Surfboards or Bodysurfers? Who Owns the Wedge?

Well, it's a public beach, technically. But bodysurfers want surfboards banned at the Newport Beach Wedge.

At the Los Angeles Times, "Surfers, bodysurfers battle over Newport Beach's iconic Wedge":

An old surfing battle is resurfacing in Newport Beach.

A city panel, the Blackball Working Group, will take the first step toward a possible review of surfing regulations at a public meeting Monday night. This has set off murmurings among surfers over one particular place: the Wedge.

A storied spot at the end of the Balboa Peninsula, where the west harbor jetty extends from shore, the Wedge has set the stage for world-famous waves that have brought thrills to generations of surfers and spectators.

Here, on occasion, large swells send surf crashing into the jetty. These waves bounce back toward the ocean, where they may meet, in a wedge shape, another oncoming swell. This creates massive walls of water reaching 20 to 30 feet — a dream for surfers — that break close to the shore.

The question is: Who can lay claim to the Wedge?

For roughly two decades, bodysurfers have held claim to set times during summer months when only they can ride the break. They say they need the part-time ban because it is unsafe for them to try to compete with other surfers.

On a popular morning at the Wedge, people might be spotted on surfboards, bodyboards and skim boards or even clinging to a plastic fast-food tray. But current regulations require that they get out of the water by 10 a.m.

For a bodysurfer to ride among them would be like asking a bicyclist to assume position in a lane on a highway, they say.

Bodysurfers shirk any flotation device, wearing only wetsuits and flippers. This makes them slower and the last to catch waves. Those with boards pose a threat because they may collide with bodysurfers or lose their boards, which may then go flying.

The City Council recognized these safety concerns in 1985, allowing bodysurfers some piece of mind by banning boards when the blackball flag, a yellow flag with a black dot, was displayed from June 15 through Sept. 10.

In 1993, the council extended the ban to May 1 through Oct. 31. At that time, a hardened group of bodysurfers called the Wedge Crew, or Wedge Preservation Society, collected 80 signatures calling for a full ban on boards. A counter group called Save the Wedge collected 700 names in opposition.

Now a new petition is circulating. Nearly 1,500 people this week signed an online petition that calls for an end to time restraints at the Wedge, according to Times Community News.

"I figured I might as well put something together so that people could have a way to voice their own opinions," said Aaron Peluso, who created the petition and owns a skimboard company. "I've been hoping it would have happened a decade ago."

More at the link.

PREVIOUSLY: "Huge Waves at the Wedge in Newport Beach."

We’re Not Retreating – We’re Advancing in a Different Direction

From Star Parker, at Right Wing News:

A number of years ago I was between flights on a business trip and was sitting in an airport restaurant having lunch. It was right after the 2008 presidential election and I knew that the election of America’s first black president, a man of the hard left, would make my job bringing a conservative message to black communities much more challenging and difficult.

As I ate my sandwich I glanced at the wall and saw a sign with a quote from General Douglas MacArthur. It said, “We are not retreating – we are advancing in another direction.”

I was immediately energized by this quote from the old general. It was exactly what I needed at the moment. It totally captured my state of mind. Perhaps my mission needed a change in tactics but certainly there was no change in commitment and objectives.

There is no smooth sailing in any tough mission. Setbacks are always part of the game. But if you are committed and right, setbacks are opportunities to re-group and improve.

Those who think that the current deal to temporarily fund the government and open the door to yet even more government borrowing amounts to some kind of defeat for Tea Party Republicans need to think again.

The Tea Party is in for the long haul. One skirmish may be lost but the war continues.

A recent Gallup poll shows 18 percent of Americans satisfied with the way the country is being governed. For a little perspective, this stood at 26 percent in mid- 1973 in the midst of the Watergate scandal that wound up in the resignation of the president of the United States.

Early in 2009, shortly after President Obama was elected, 56 percent expressed satisfaction with our government. It’s just been downhill since then...

Continue reading.

Yeah, it's a long haul, especially when you've got to battle the leftists media the whole way. Here's CNN's new poll out today, for example, "GOP, Boehner take shutdown hit in new CNN poll" (via Memeorandum).