Sunday Cartoons

At Flopping Aces, "Sunday Funnies."




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

More at Legal Insurrection, "Branco Cartoon – Healthscare.gov."

CARTOON CREDIT: William Warren.

'Dem Party is F****d'

From Ron Fournier, at National Journal, "Obama Takes Friendly Fire" (via Clarice Feldman, "The Silence of the Left").

'Pretty Woman'

I love this song, but this video is a trip. Halfway through it zooms on some woman apparently in the audience and she makes not a move. Indeed, her eyes are cold as ice, almost as if death rays are about to spout forth, lol.

It's all good, in any case. No one could sing Pretty Woman like Roy Orbison.

Lovely Sunday #Rule5

Well, it's been a couple of weeks since my last roundup.

So let's get rockin'!

At the Other McCain, "Rule 5 Sunday: Maximum Acceleration."

And from Soylent Refuge, "Morning Coffee Creamer," and "Marianne."



More at Pirate's Cove, "Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup," and "If All You See……is an evil rising ocean that can only be stopped by the paternal hand of Government, you might just be a Warmist."

And from Bob Belvedere, "Rule 5 Saturday: Sophie Mei."

Also Daley Gator, "DaleyGator DaleyBabes Saturday Beauty."

More at Knuckledraggin', "Your Good Morning Girl," and "And who doesn’t miss the micro mini skirt?"

And In a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World has the "Friday Pinups."

At EBL, "Shocking Study: People tend to focus on a woman's breasts..."

Now from Wine, Women, and Politics as well, "Weekend Sweeties."

At Animal Magnetism, "Solo Ginger Saturday."

From Blackmailers Don't Shoot, "Pretty Girls on a Thursday, Halloween Hotties Edition."

Proof Positive, "Bye Week for San Francisco 49er's," and "The Best of the Web* Linkaround."

See also, the Hostages, "Big Boob Friday."

Plus, from Drunken Stepfather, "Steplinks of the Day."

And at a View From the Beach, "Rule 5 Saturday - Covert Coyote - Piper Perabo."

Good Stuff's has "Amanda Kerr."

First Street Journal has, "Rule 5 Blogging: Wooden Shoes Edition."

At Odie's, "Coffee ? ~OR~ Rule 5 Woodsterman Style."

And at Randy’s Roundtable, "Thursday Nite Tart - Kathy Eusse."

Postal Dogs, "Bree Olson."

And at Egotastic!, "Happy 18th Birthday Kendall Jenner (You Have Arrived)," and "Adriana Lima’s Sexy Lingerie and Other Fine Things to Ogle."

Still more at Subject to Change, "Humpday."

Plus, at 90 Miles From Tyranny, "Girls With Guns," and "Morning Mistress."

Drop your links in the comments of I've missed your Rule 5.

Until then...

Maybe Ted Cruz Won That Shutdown Fight After All

He totally won the shutdown fight.

And House Republicans did themselves right by standing firm as long as they could. Remember, Republicans fully funded the budget except for ObamaCare. The White House knew the system was screwed all along. It should have taken the deal and punted healthcare past the 2014 elections. Now everything's FUBAR with no rescue in sight.

Lonely Con has it, with a pithy response on Twitter:

@lonelycon @instapundit The #shutdown gave @BarackObama a chance to put some distance between himself and #Obamacare. He didn't take it.

— Lem (@Lemang01) November 3, 2013

Whoa — Associated Press Gets Real on #ObamaCare!

Man, how times change!

What's amazing to me with the ObamaCare debacle is how the normally boot-licking Democrat press has been consistently tearing into the administration. Associated Press was savaged during the Bush years as a hopeless shill for the anti-American left. But these days you'd think AP was an in-house organ at Fox News.

See, "Health policy cancellations are new blow for administration" (via Laura Ingraham).

The AP on Obamacare: Ins. cancellations are new blow for administration: http://t.co/pRQ2RuczDa #changehascometoAmerica

— Laura Ingraham (@IngrahamAngle) October 30, 2013

And at the AP homepage, "STICKER SHOCK OFTEN FOLLOWS INSURANCE CANCELLATION" (via Lonely Con), and "OBAMA'S HEALTH LAW FINALLY GETS REAL FOR AMERICA":

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Now is when Americans start figuring out that President Barack Obama's health care law goes beyond political talk, and really does affect them and people they know.

With a cranky federal website complicating access to new coverage and some consumers being notified their existing plans are going away, the potential for winners and losers is creating anxiety and confusion....

The Obama administration insists nobody will lose coverage as a result of cancellation notices going out to millions of people. At least 3.5 million Americans have been issued cancellations, but the exact number is unclear. Associated Press checks find that data is unavailable in a half the states.

Mainly they are people who buy directly from an insurer, instead of having workplace coverage. Officials say these consumers aren't getting "canceled" but "transitioned" or "migrated" to better plans because their current coverage doesn't meet minimum standards. They won't have to go uninsured, and some could save a lot if they qualify for the law's tax credits.

Speaking in Boston's historic Faneuil Hall this past week, Obama said the problem is limited to fewer than 5 percent of Americans "who've got cut-rate plans that don't offer real financial protection in the event of a serious illness or an accident."

But in a nation of more than 300 million, 5 percent is a big number - about 15 million people. Among them are Ian and Sara Hodge of Lancaster, Pa., in their early 60s and paying $1,041 a month for a policy.

After insurer Highmark, Inc., sent the Hodges a cancellation notice, the cheapest rate they say they've been able to find is $1,400 for a comparable plan. Ian is worried they may not qualify for tax credits, and doesn't trust that the federal website is secure enough to enter personal financial information in order to find out.

"We feel like we're being punished for doing the right thing," he said.

Their policy may not have met the government's standards, "but it certainly met our minimum standards," Hodge added.

"The main thing that upsets us is the president ... said over and over and over again: If you like your health plan, you will be able to keep your health plan, guaranteed."

There's a chance the number of people getting unwanted terminations may grow. In 2015, the law's requirement that larger companies provide health insurance will take effect. It's expected that a small share of firms will drop coverage, deciding that it's cheaper to pay fines imposed under the law.

The piece notes that some people have seen improved coverage under the law, but attitudes are overall negative and more change --- adverse change --- is coming down the pipeline, especially once the employer mandate kicks in after 2015:

Up to now, the changes for employer plans have been incremental. They tend to expand benefits, not take things away.

For example, young adults can stay on a parent's coverage until they turn 26. Employers cover women's birth control as a preventive service, free of charge. Screening tests such as colonoscopies are also free.

But cost control provisions, mainly a tax on expensive insurance plans that starts in 2018, are converging with the long-standing push by employers to tame health costs. Some companies have raised deductibles and copayments for employees, saying they need to scale back to avoid tangling with the coming tax. Others are giving employees a fixed amount of money to shop in private health insurance markets that resemble those created by the law.

Expect cutbacks to be blamed on the law. Sorting out whether that's warranted may be difficult.

"What the Affordable Care Act did was give companies a very convenient excuse to say `Oh, gosh, we really have to get serious about insurance costs,'" said Paul Keckley, an independent health benefits consultant. "I think there's a bit of a bob and weave. The ACA was a convenient excuse for doing what (corporate) human resources departments have been calculating to do for years."

New York Times Propaganda: Obama 'Misspoke' About Keeping Your Plan

This is really a bit much.

The editors at the New York Times richly deserve the mockery now pummeling them.

Here's the editorial, "Insurance Policies Not Worth Keeping":

Congressional Republicans have stoked consumer fears and confusion with charges that the health care reform law is causing insurers to cancel existing policies and will force many people to pay substantially higher premiums next year for coverage they don’t want. That, they say, violates President Obama’s pledge that if you like the insurance you have, you can keep it.

Mr. Obama clearly misspoke when he said that. By law, insurers cannot continue to sell policies that don’t provide the minimum benefits and consumer protections required as of next year. So they’ve sent cancellation notices to hundreds of thousands of people who hold these substandard policies.

Once again, the editors, as cutout ideological leftists, just don't get it: People liked their plans, or they wouldn't have purchased them. They like the affordability and flexibility, and especially the power to choose their doctors and hospitals. Listen to Natalie Willis, who was featured in the blockbuster CBS report a couple of weeks back, now making appearances on Fox News:



Ms. Willis says "I did a lot of research before I picked the plan that I had in the first place, and if I had wanted more coverage I would have just gotten another plan. So I really like the plan ... you know, I don't want more. That's why I didn't have more in the first place."

In other words, she bought the insurance policy that was right for her.

But now under ObamaCare she can't have what she researched, purchased, and liked. She's got to have much more coverage, and so far she's been unable to purchase a new plan because the healthcare website she's using in California is kinky, confusing, and difficuly to use.

Democrats can't spin this epic consumer dissatisfaction away. It's despicable for the New York Times to blame Republicans for stoking "consumer fears." Republicans didn't go searching for disgruntled Americans. The mainstream media outlets have been bursting at the seams with story after story of unhappy customers. Nearly a month ago, the San Jose Mercury News published the devastating piece detailing the "winners and losers" in California's shift to ObamaCare. It's been an avalanche of bad news for the left since then. Just last week, the the Los Angeles Times came out with the devastating piece outlining massive frustration with skyrocketing premiums in the state.

So the left, once again, is back to lying. And by now it's gotten so transparent it'd be funny if the stakes weren't so high.

Here's more at Twitchy, "Boot-licking fail: You won’t believe NYT’s excuse for Obama’s ‘you can keep your plan’ lie."

NYT on broken Obama promises: "Mr. Obama clearly misspoke" Nope; he clearly lied. Deliberately, repeatedly, to the people who voted for him.
— David Gaw (@davidgaw) November 3, 2013

Almost universal mockery of the NYT's apology. This propaganda effort really isn't going well—wherever it's tried.
— Charles C. W. Cooke (@charlescwcooke) November 3, 2013

The NYT has gone too far claiming Obama "misspoke" re keeping your insurance plans. The NYT LIED, exactly like Obama did. <toilet flush>
— Jane Sherry Gardner (@JaneESGardner) November 3, 2013

just when i was about to re-subscribe, the nyt gives me another reason to save my money.
— Dana Perino (@DanaPerino) November 3, 2013

More at Viking Pundit, "The New York Times beclowns itself again." And Patterico, "The New York Times is beyond parody" (via Memeorandum).

Added: The Other McCain has more, "Obama and the New York Times Decide Which Health Plans Are Worth Keeping."

Pissed-Off 'ObamaCare Losers' Could Pack Political Punch

Oh boy, people are gonna be fired up next November.

At Politico, "Obamacare losers could pack political punch":

Meet the new Soccer Mom: Obamacare losers.

Millions of married, older, white, college-educated, GOP-leaning Americans have quickly seen their political profile rise after their health insurance companies sent them cancellation letters with the launch of the giant new health care law.

It’s not a huge segment of the population — estimates show between 10 million to 19 million people bought health insurance from what Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius dubbed the “Wild West” individual marketplace.

But the ones who are making the most anti-Obamacare noise are part of this group (think of the self-employed, small business owners, freelance writers, musicians and taxi cab drivers) that share one politically pertinent common denominator. Their complaints — amplified in recent weeks by Republicans and reporters — demonstrate one of the first tangible stumbles of the Affordable Care Act.

“It’s not theoretical anymore,” said Virginia-based health industry consultant Robert Laszewski. “You can spin in the White House press room, but these are people who will be sitting down with their friends and families at Thanksgiving sharing stories about their cancellation letters. That’s going to be the only thing that counts.”

Horror stories already abound of people who can’t get insurance through their employer and are now finding that their old plans don’t measure up to Obamacare’s standards. There may indeed be better policies around the corner, giving people more protections when they actually do get sick and requiring guaranteed coverage for things like prescription drugs, emergency hospital visits, maternity and mental health and not being black listed due to a preexisting condition.

Still, it’s the shock of the change — especially after President Barack Obama repeatedly promised that anyone could keep the plan that they had — that is very real and threatens to resonate through the 2014 midterm campaign...

More at the link. (Via Memeorandum.)

RELATED: "Obama Lied — White House Aides Debated President's Pledge to Americans: 'You Can Keep Your Plan'."

GOP Gives Health Law Stumbling Room

Republicans need to let this play out for awhile.

The law's not working and Democrat lies are finally getting the sunshine they so richly deserve.

At the Wall Street Journal, "Republicans Give Health Law Room to Stumble: New Tack Is a Departure From More Confrontational Approach Still Favored by Some in Party":

WASHINGTON—Many House Republicans are replacing their push to delay or defund the 2010 federal health law with a new strategy: Hang back and see if problems with the rollout continue or get worse.

It is an abrupt reversal of the activist approach of just weeks ago, when Republicans demanded changes to the law in exchange for funding the government or raising the nation's borrowing limit. Now, they say putting the spotlight on technical flaws of the law's health-insurance exchange may be more effective than a direct attack.

"It's its own worst enemy, and to some degree it is collapsing under its own weight," said Rep. Michael Burgess (R., Texas), who sits on the committee that pressed Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius on Wednesday to explain what is going wrong.

Give 'em enough rope.

More at the link.

@USMC_Nightmare LMAO! LEFTISM = Utopian Delusion sold with lies and imposed with force. pic.twitter.com/EwIsf58Ese
— Daniel (@dwb5192723) November 2, 2013

KMET Mighty Met Mighty Weekend on The Sound 100.3 FM

If you're an L.A. native, and a baby-boomer, then this weekend's rollback to the 1970s KMET radio at The Sound L.A. is right up your alley.

I'm listening right now.

Only 1 hour away from the start of our #KMET Mighty Met Weekend! Ace and Gonzer start us off at 3PM!

— 100.3 The Sound (@TheSoundLA) November 1, 2013

@ChrstinaForshay Might be some Springsteen in the forecast!

— 100.3 The Sound (@TheSoundLA) November 1, 2013

.@1RickLewis, former #KMET DJ, rocking #LA today at @TheSoundLA. Great stuff.

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) November 2, 2013

The Ballad of John and Yoko - The Beatles 2:36 PM

Lunatic Fringe - Red Rider 2:31 PM

Peace of Mind - Boston 2:26 PM

Take Me To The Pilot - Elton John 2:22 PM

King of Pain - The Police 2:10 PM

Spirit In the Night - Bruce Springsteen 2:05 PM

Lovin', Touchin' Squeezin' - Journey 2:00 PM

Who Are You - WHO 1:54 PM

Dancin' Fool - Frank Zappa 1:50 PM

In the Mood - Robert Plant 1:36 PM

DON'T FEAR THE REAPER - B.O.C. 1:31 PM

Bungle In the Jungle - Jethro Tull 1:27 PM

Unchained -  Van Halen 1:23 PM

Midnight Rambler - The Rolling Stones 1:08 PM

Rhiannon - Fleetwood Mac 1:04 PM

Back In Black - AC/DC 1 PM

Jim Ladd's on tonight at 5:00pm. I used to love that guy!

Obama Lied — White House Aides Debated President's Pledge to Americans: 'You Can Keep Your Plan'

The president lied to the American people. It wasn't a "talking point." It wasn't a "political lie" to get something passed. It wasn't "posturing." Obama made bald-faced lies, multiple times, telling citizens they could keep their healthcare plans if they liked them. And that they could keep their doctors. He lied. Again and again. "Period." You can keep your plan. "Period."

What part of "period" don't leftists understand? Leftists like this far-left Obama-shill Bill Scher at Bloggingheads, via Althouse, "'Bill Scher does not accept that it was a lie to say "if you like your healthcare plan, you can keep it'."

The president's a disgusting pig and socialist scumbag liar. The Wall Street Journal documents it, mercilessly, "Aides Debated Obama Health-Care Coverage Promise: Behind the Scenes, White House Officials Worried About Insurance Pledge":

As President Barack Obama pushed for a new federal health law in 2009, he made a simple pledge: If you like your insurance plan, you can keep your plan. But behind the scenes, White House officials discussed whether that was a promise they could keep.

When the question arose, Mr. Obama’s advisers decided that the assertion was fair, interviews with more than a dozen people involved in crafting and explaining the president’s health-care plan show.

But at times, there was second-guessing. At one point, aides discussed whether Mr. Obama might use more in-depth discussions, such as media interviews, to explain the nuances of the succinct line in his stump speeches, a former aide said. Officials worried, though, that delving into details such as the small number of people who might lose insurance could be confusing and would clutter the president’s message.

“You try to talk about health care in broad, intelligible points that cut through, and you inevitably lose some accuracy when you do that,” the former official said.

The former official added that in the midst of a hard-fought political debate “if you like your plan, you can probably keep it” isn’t a salable point.

The breadth of Mr. Obama’s statement proved to be a miscalculation. Mr. Obama repeated the claim, with only occasional caveats, through this week, when a flurry of cancellation notices from insurers to customers around the country prompted him to recalibrate. The resulting furor has energized Republican opposition to the plan, which only a few weeks ago had fallen flat as a result of the party’s failed attempt to link it to government spending and debt deadlines.

“With 20/20 hindsight, maybe this should have been parsed more carefully,” said Jim Margolis, a media adviser to Mr. Obama’s campaigns in 2008 and 2012, said of Mr. Obama’s broad promise. But, he added, “The president’s statement seems fair.”

At the time the law was being written, Mr. Obama was trying to make the case for the health-care overhaul in understandable terms, and in an environment in which Republicans were casting it as a “big government” takeover of the health system. Mr. Obama’s aides were focused on telling people that disruption would be minimal and benefits from the law substantial.

Aides said that because insurers could continue offering plans, even those deemed to be substandard, if they were in existence at the time the law passed, Mr. Obama’s statement that “you can keep your plan” was solid.

“We thought we could fulfill the promise with this grandfathering clause,” said Ezekiel Emanuel, vice provost at the University of Pennsylvania and a former White House health-care adviser.

The health law aims to eliminate certain low-premium policies that the administration said provide skimpy coverage and could leave people with high out-of-pocket costs. While it allows insurers to continue covering longtime customers with policies that were in existence as of March 2010, many insurers are canceling such plans because they would die out, anyway, in the absence of new customers.

About 5% of the U.S. population, or about 15.4 million people, are covered under individual health plans, and many of them—as many as 10 million—are expected to have their health plans terminated by their insurers by year-end, industry experts have said. These customers account for many of those now receiving cancellation notices; Mr. Obama says they will be able to buy better coverage on the new federal insurance exchange.

One former senior administration official said that as the law was being crafted by the White House and lawmakers, some White House policy advisers objected to the breadth of Mr. Obama’s “keep your plan” promise. They were overruled by political aides, the former official said. The White House said it was unaware of the objections.

Mr. Obama began offering broad assurances as he campaigned for president in 2008, before the Affordable Care Act was written or many of the details decided. In a presidential debate with Republican nominee John McCain, Mr. Obama said that “if you’ve got health care already…you can keep your plan.”

Before then, Hillary Clinton was making similar promises about her proposed health-care overhaul. As she campaigned for president in 2007, Mrs. Clinton said, “Here’s how my plan works: If you already have private insurance, and you’re happy with it, nothing changes. You keep that insurance.”

Mr. Obama adopted similar language during the campaign and continued to use it in the White House as he pitched Congress and the American people on his health-care legislation.

Jon Favreau, who served as Mr. Obama’s top speech writer, said that as they tried to promote the overhaul plan and explain it to the public, the aim was to make it as simple as possible “while still being true.”

“Simplification and ease of explanation were a premium, and that was true throughout the process,” he said.

Richard Kirsch, the former national campaign manager of Health Care for America Now, which pushed for the 2010 health law, said the words were reassuring—and true—for the vast majority of the people, and so his group never raised concerns about that claim. Adding an asterisk to note that people who had “shoddy insurance” might need to change plans was not practical, he said.

“The actual, accurate statement is if you have good insurance, and you like it, you can keep it,” said Mr. Kirsch, now a senior fellow at the Roosevelt Institute, a liberal policy organization.

The fact that insurers are cancelling policies covering some people has become central to the Republican argument against the Affordable Care Act, adding to the administration’s problems as it struggles to fix a malfunctioning website.

Reince Priebus, chairman of the Republican National Committee, seized upon Mr. Obama’s words, writing in an email Friday to supporters, “Here’s the truth: Barack Obama knowingly and repeatedly lied to Americans.”

Like the idiot Bill Scher at Bloggingheads, leftists just keep piling on lie after lie to further deceive the public about their dishonest healthcare program. Here's top Obama-Democrat Robert Axelrod at the article:

David Axelrod, a senior White House adviser during the health-care fight, said there was no intention to mislead.

“The great misfortune here is that the website debacle occurred at the same time as this issue arising,” he said. “Because, if the website hadn’t gone down, then lots of these people would be going online and figuring out, ‘Hey I’m getting a better insurance policy, and I’ll have to pay less money for it.’ But they can’t, because the website is down.

“It’s a perfect storm that has created an opportunity for those who oppose the plan.”

That's bullshit. People are not finding cheaper policies on the website. They're finding inferior cookie-cutter policies with higher premiums and higher deductibles. This fact is why the new Democrat meme is that Americans were being sold "shoddy plans" on the individual market. But the policies weren't "shoddy." These were healthcare policies that millions of Americans researched, compared, evaluated and then purchased --- because they liked them.

These are plans like the one purchased by Kathleen Crowley, a woman booted from her health policy due to ObamaCare, covered in James Taranto's column yesterday, "President Obama's #ObamaCare Lie":

My health-care policy was cancelled, and the Obama administration's explanation that policies are being cancelled because they were "substandard" and issued by "bad apple" insurers is absolutely not true. I had a very comprehensive policy, with a large and solid national health insurer, and the reasons my policy was not "ACA compliant" is because I now have to pay for maternity coverage, general pediatric coverage and pediatric dental coverage, as prescribed by ObamaCare. I'm 55 years old, have no children and don't plan to have children. Clearly, I am beyond childbearing age, and without children. Why would I have to purchase pediatric dental insurance? Or general pediatric care?

ObamaCare is forcing people to purchase a product that they don't want and can't ever use. I do not need maternity or pediatric services but have to purchase them. The new policy that would have been "comparable" to my current policy is more expensive with higher deductibles.

The president's comment of "shop around" is so smug. I sat on hold with an insurer while "shopping around" yesterday for over 20 minutes and finally gave up because I had work to do. I'll now have to factor quite a bit of time into my day to "shop around" since this president's dictates have resulted in my loss of health insurance I liked very much, and the market is now flooded with other people "shopping around."

What the insurance debacle reveals is the ultimate failure of progressivism. Leftists pride themselves on superior knowledge and noble intentions. But when that knowledge and those intentions are tested in the real consumer marketplace they come up wanting, badly. It's one big fail after another, and don't forget that the country was warned about this from day one: "It won't work." We were warned, over and over, from congressional Republicans, from free-market think tanks, down to the thousands of tea party patriots protesting throughout 2009.

And things are not going to get better. The administration's not keeping its promises to have the website fully functioning by November 1st. Just this week Secretary Sebelius further soiled herself as a national laughingstock with her claims during congressional testimony that Healthcare.gov "didn't crash." Yet at the very second she uttered those words, House Republicans couldn't logon to the system and the error message was played on the overhead during the hearings, "the system is down at the moment."



It's all lies.

From Obama to Axelrod to Sebelius to this idiot Bloggingheads ghoul Bill Scher. It's all lies.

The country has been sold a bill of healthcare goods. And our healthcare system is being systematically dismantled and destroyed. This is no accident. It's like the generals in Vietnam who claimed that "we had to destroy the village in order to save it." Democrats had to destroy American healthcare in order to fundamentally transform it. And they knew that they were f-king the average Joe up the ass. So they lied. The president lied. Congressional Democrats lied. Stephanie Cutter lied. Leftist media shills lied. We've been lied to.

It's time to stop with the lies.

Tell Congress and the president to stop lying. Tell them that they're going pay for their lies. They will pay for it with their political hide, and if criminal negligence is found, they'll pay in a court of law and hopefully with time in a penitentiary. These are monumental lies that bring disgrace to representative government. There's going to be a reckoning. The 2014 elections are one year from now. Each national election is billed as the most important in American history. The 2012 presidential election filled the bill, and conservatives lost. They can't make that mistake again if they hope to salvage whatever decency and free will is left in this country. People need to rise up and say this is f-king enough.

President Obama's #ObamaCare Lie

The president's a f-king liar.

Everyone knows it --- or at least now they do, after the health care debacle is no longer a theoretical possibility, but an abomination now really, truly destroying the American marketplace.

James Taranto has the latest on this cluster-k, "When Fraud Is Legal" (at Memeorandum):

Under socialism, there's no such thing as consumer protection.

d

Halloween Skate Jam

The 2013 Burnside skatepark Halloween jam in Portland, Oregon.

Can #ObamaCare Fiasco Save the GOP?

From Jonathan Tobin, at Commentary:

With each passing day since the president’s signature health care legislation was launched it’s now obvious that the administration has lost control of the story. At first it was just a matter of a dysfunctional website. Then it became one in which the incompetence of the Department of Heath and Human Services was compounded by the arrogance of Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and the denials of the White House. But once it became apparent that President Obama had been lying for the last three years when he repeatedly promised that Americans would be able to keep their insurance if they liked it rather than being forced onto the ObamaCare exchanges, a tipping point was reached. That more details are leaking out every day that reinforces the negative impression of ObamaCare is adding to the administration’s problems.

So it’s little surprise that the New York Times led its front page with a story about how Democrats are “feeling anxious” about the future tied to the ObamaCare boondoggle. While some in the party are claiming, as Senator Chuck Schumer did, that the anger at the Tea Party over the shutdown will be more of a “long-term” liability for the GOP, most Democrats know better. The ObamaCare disaster not only changed the political narrative that worked so well for them. It goes straight to the heart of an underlying liberal weakness: the belief that big government is not only incompetent but also a threat to the wellbeing and the pocketbooks of ordinary Americans.

Well, the rollout debacle's not going to "save" the GOP. It's debatable whether Republicans needing saving. ObamaCare's just the tip of the iceberg of Democrat policy failures. It's just this time Democrats and the Democrat-enabling media can't fool the public with their Orwellian totalitarianism. Republicans need to play their cards right. I expect they'll hold the house next November, but they can't get cocky and they need to offer a popular alternative to the law. Still, it's been a staggering turnaround of fortunes this last few weeks, and it's got the leftists tied up in knots as reality bites down hard.

More at that top link.

'Websites for Dummies'

Boy, that would've been delectable.

At the Blaze, "Tennessee State Senator Presents Kathleen Sebelius With Really Embarrassing 'Gift' – and She Doesn't Look Very Happy About It..."

And at Twitchy, "Ouch! Tenn. state senator presents Kathleen Sebelius with book that might come in handy [pic]."

Senate Democrats Supported #ObamaCare Regs That Destroyed Individual Insurance Market

Oh boy.

And this was on CNN no less.

At Legal Insurrection, "Senate Dems killed (Obamacare) grandfather (fix)":

They own all of our Obamacare problems, completely.

CNN reports, Senate Democrats supported rule that led to insurance cancellations:

Senate Democrats voted unanimously three years ago to support the Obamacare rule that is largely responsible for some of the health insurance cancellation letters that are going out.

In September 2010, Senate Republicans brought a resolution to the floor to block implementation of the grandfather rule, warning that it would result in canceled policies and violate President Barack Obama’s promise that people could keep their insurance if they liked it.

“The District of Columbia is an island surrounded by reality. Only in the District of Columbia could you get away with telling the people if you like what you have you can keep it, and then pass regulations six months later that do just the opposite and figure that people are going to ignore it. But common sense is eventually going to prevail in this town and common sense is going to have to prevail on this piece of legislation as well,” Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley said at the time.

“The administration’s own regulations prove this is not the case. Under the grandfathering regulation, according to the White House’s own economic impact analysis, as many as 69 percent of businesses will lose their grandfathered status by 2013 and be forced to buy government-approved plans,” the Iowa Republican said.

On a party line vote, Democrats killed the resolution, which could come back to haunt vulnerable Democrats up for re-election this year.

Bwahaha!! Hilarious New Yorker Covers Slams #ObamaCare Rollout Debacle

Love the Motorola DynaTAC cell phone (Zack Morris).

At Twitchy, "‘Obama sporting Zack Morris’ cellphone’: New Yorker ‘reboot’ cover nails O-care launch [pic]." And a NewsBusters, "New Yorker Mag Cover Slams Obama and Sebelius."

Also, from Reliapundit, "IF YOU'VE LOST THE NEW YORKER MAGAZINE, THEN..."

Deadly Rampage Creates Chaos at #LAX

At LAT, "Chaos follows LAX shooting."



More at NYT, "Security Agent Is Killed at Los Angeles Airport."

Over 93 Millions Americans Could Lose Employer-Based Health Coverage as #ObamaCare Non-Compliant

At National Review, "Roy: Experts Knew Obama’s Promise ‘Was a Lie’":

Avik Roy sat down with Megyn Kelly to share his latest piece over at Forbes that found that more than half of employer-based health-care plans will be deemed illegal next year because they will no longer be Obamacare compliant. This signals the latest blow to President Obama’s controversial promise that people could keep their health-care plans, which Roy said experts knew wasn’t true to begin with.

“Everyone in the health-policy community left, right, or center knew this was a lie,” he said on Fox News on Thursday night. Unfortunately, at the time, critics of the law could only offer theoretical arguments, not real-world examples.

“The difference now is that people are getting cancellation notices — journalists can go and interview the people getting the cancellation notices,” he said.

Make the F-kers Eat It: Supreme Court Called #ObamaCare Mandate a Tax; GOP Should Make Democrats Own It

From Randy Barnett and Josh Blackman, at USA Today, "Dems may have to admit Obamacare tax increase" (via Instapundit):

Remember, in 2009, the president emphatically denied to George Stephanopoulos that the Affordable Care Act imposed a tax increase. Yet, after the Supreme Court decision, going into the 2012 election, the White House again seemed to deny that the mandate was a tax, notwithstanding the administration’s argument to the Court.

Now, as the price for delaying the implementation of the court-created tax penalty, Republicans should demand truth in labeling. The Democrats in Congress must now admit they have imposed a tax on young and healthy Americans to get them to take the bad deal that is Obamacare. And any suspension of this tax must be scored by the Congressional Budget Office so the public knows the size of the tax increase that will be imposed on the American people when the delay ends and the tax kicks in. No longer will congressional supporters of the ACA be able to evade political responsibility.

On the other hand, if the Democrats insist that the penalty is not a tax, then they will be admitting that it is unconstitutional under the Supreme Court’s decision. If Congress contradicts what the administration told the Supreme Court, a new challenge can be brought under the precedent of NFIB v. Sebelius. The president, and those who supported this law, should now be forced to bear the political consequences of their legislative and litigation legerdemain. If Obamacare can only legally live by the tax, then its supporters in Congress must politically die by the tax.

RTWT.