Philippines Survivors Begin Odyssey for Families

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Continue reading.

What Castro Knew About Lee Harvey Oswald

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Continue reading.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Not good at all.

Continue reading.

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

More:

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

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

IMAGE CREDIT: The Looking Spoon.

Doris Lessing, 1919-2013

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

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

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

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

RTWT.

And from Instapundit, "DORIS LESSING HAS DIED":

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

Click through and follow the links.

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

#ObamaCare's on Life Support

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

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

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

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

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

Continue reading (via Memeorandum).

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

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford Knocks Over Councilwoman

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



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

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

He's been pretty scarce lately.

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



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

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

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

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

Read it at the link (via Memeorandum).

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

So don’t cry for him.

Continue reading.

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

Philippines Typhoon Boosts Leftist 'Climate Justice' Meme

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Kazan is the capital of Tatarstan.

IDF Humanitarian Delegation to the Philippines

This is awesome:

Youth Pastor Daniel Diaz Shot to Death by Lone Gunman in Pomona

It's a pretty rough neighborhood out that way.

At LAT, "Pastor's slaying is latest in a year of violence for Pomona":

Eddie Reyes was just a 12-year-old in the school lunch line when Daniel Diaz shook his hand, introduced himself and asked Reyes about God.

Twenty years after the pair first met, Diaz was still reaching out to young people. His ability to connect with youths took the longtime friends to the corner of Park and Mayfair avenues in Pomona on Nov. 11, where police say Diaz was shot to death by a lone gunman on foot.

Diaz's killing — just hours after about 200 people gathered for an anti-violence rally at Ganesha High School in Pomona — was the latest in what police and community leaders are calling the worst year of violence in the city's recent history.

"I'm just kind of in disbelief," said Connie Jimenez, whose son Carlos was killed in a still-unsolved homicide in May 2011. "It's a cycle."

Diaz was shot about 12:45 a.m. Monday. He was a passenger in Reyes' car while the pair dropped off three boys who are a part of Diaz's youth ministry at New Beginnings Community Church in Baldwin Park. The group was celebrating Reyes' 32nd birthday and one of the boys' recent graduation from a youth program. Diaz had turned 33 a week earlier.

According to police, someone ran up to the passenger-side door and unloaded four shots into Diaz. No one else in the vehicle was hit, and police have no explanation for the killing. Friends and family say Diaz had no enemies.

"The individual that was out there that night was some lost young soul," Reyes said. Diaz's "entire purpose was to inspire them to not go in that direction."

Over the last two years, Pomona has seen a sharp increase in homicides, reversing years of decline in a city once known for its crime rate and gang wars. There have been at least 24 homicides in Pomona this year, according to the Times Homicide Report.

"There's no way to overlook the fact that we've had a significant increase in gun violence and homicides," said Pomona police Lt. Eddie Vazquez. "All of our other crimes, assaults, thefts, burglaries are all down … but homicides are up."

A majority of the victims of this year's violence have been documented gang members, Vazquez said.

Continue reading.

More at the Times Homicide Report.

USC Interim Coach Ed Orgeron Makes Loud Statement with Trojans' Dramatic 20-17 Win Over Stanford

It was something else.

Funny video too, of Lee Corso's prediction of a USC victory.

At LAT, "Ed Orgeron makes loud statement to stay as USC football coach":

The deep green Coliseum field turned cardinal and gold, swarmed by thousands of fans, enveloped in thousands of screams, a heart of Trojans nation beating together in dizzy disbelief.

In the middle stood one sweating man who was somehow bigger than all of it, his giant white-sleeved arms raised above his giant smile, his massive shoulders carrying this bear of a victory.

He was rocked, he was hugged, he was loved like no man has been loved here since the early days of Pete Carroll.

He is Coach Ed Orgeron, and he orchestrated and inspired USC's stunning 20-17 last-second victory over fifth-ranked Stanford on Saturday night in such a way that every question about his brief but dazzling tenure was answered but one.

Will he be allowed to keep his job?

After Andre Heidari kicked a 47-yard field goal with 19 seconds remaining to give the Trojans their biggest victory in several years, one more startling question dominated the postgame celebration.

If the Trojans win their final two games, against Colorado and UCLA, then win their bowl game, how can they let Coach O go?

As the pressure lifts from a USC team that has joyfully won five of six games since Orgeron replaced Lane Kiffin this fall, the pressure mounts on Athletic Director Pat Haden to remove Orgeron's interim tag and allow this crazy Trojans rebirth to continue.

Actually, if you listen to one of Saturday's defensive heroes, freshman Su'a Cravens, the pressure begins now.

“Coach O needs to be here next year … we want Coach O next year,” Cravens said after his fourth-quarter interception set up the game-winning drive. “Forget the hiring, forget all that. We got Coach O and that's all we need.”

Continue reading.

Also, "Andre Heidari's foot doesn't fail USC in 20-17 upset of No.5 Stanford."

Sunday #Rule5

Here's the long-awaited Rule 5 roundup I've been meaning to get posted (my last roundup is here).

I've been busy with semester grading, plus I'm going to be speaking on campus next week on the left's attacks on the Koch brothers' group, ALEC. So, I'm sadly behind on the lovely babe blogging.

Here's last week's entry at the Other McCain, to get things rolling, "Rule 5 Sunday: Double-Stuf Veterans Day Weekend Edition." (And click over there for updates.)

Now, over at Pirate's Cove, "Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup," and "If All You See……is a wonderful wooden bench made to overlook a changing climate which changes because someone cut down a tree to make the evil bench, you might just be a Warmist."

And at Camp of the Saints, "Rule 5 News: 09 November 2013 A.D."

From Wirecutter, "Your (Belated) Good Morning Girl."

Also Daley Gator, "DaleyGator DaleyBabes: Stephanie Fantauzzi."

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

EBL has, "Retro Halloween Advertisement Rule 5."

Now from Wine, Women, and Politics as well, "The Weekend Sweetie Pics."

From Blackmailers Don't Shoot, "Pretty Girls on a Thursday, Rima Fakih Edition."

And from the Regular Right Guy, "Shocker! Miley Cyrus Smokes Dope!!!"

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

And at a View From the Beach, "Shockingly, Brazilian Model Admits to Horrible Taste in Men, Music."

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

And at Randy’s Roundtable, "Thursday Nite Tart - Nell McAndrew."

Postal Dogs, "Rule 5 Sunday: Ella, pt. 2."

Subject to Change, "Melons."

At Proof Positive, "SF 49er's Vs. New Orleans Saints," and "Best of the Web* Linkaround."

More at Reaganite Republican, "B-League Beauty Pageants: 'Miss Bikini Universe 2013'!"

Also at Odie's, "Shampoo ~OR~ Rule 5 Woodsterman Style."

First Street Journal has, "Rule 5 Blogging: Basic Combat Training at Fort Jackson."

At COED, "Happy Birthday to Gemma Atkinson! [PHOTOS]" (via Linkiest).

Good Stuff's has "Elly Tran Ha."

See also, the Hostages, "Big Boob Friday," and "Big Boob Eva Wants to Know if You’re In."

Plus, special guest star, Blazing Cat Fur, "Attention Agriculturists : German Farm Girls Calendar 2014 Is Here."

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

Until then...

Diamond-Studded Nancy Pelosi Lies Her Way Through 'Meet the Press' Interview on #ObamaCare

A bloody, bald-face liar who spews incoherent untruths without a hint of self-awareness or remorse.

She's absolutely infuriating, but the complete and utter meltdown of the Democrat Party is the gift that keeps on giving.

At Twitchy, "Bless her lying heart! Nancy Pelosi ‘stands tall’ for Obamacare lies; Throws Dems under the bus?"

@NancyPelosi on @MeetthePress in her huge diamond earrings talking about "affordable' health care.

— Dana French (@DanaBordeaux) November 17, 2013

More here, "Side-splitting ‘hoop-dee-do!’ Nancy Pelosi’s most idiotic Obamacare defense yet?"

And at Free Beacon, "Pelosi Gets Grilled Over False Obamacare Promises on ‘Meet the Press’."



More from Doug Powers, at Michelle's, "Nancy Pelosi tries to insist ‘if you like your plan you can keep it’ wasn’t untrue, fails miserably." And at Conservative Intelligence Briefing, "Pelosi’s painful, embarrassing re-write of her own promise on health care."

Yes, painful.

But the congressional painkiller elections are less than one year away. It's going to be a Democrat bloodbath.

#ObamaCare's Launch Debacle Could Haunt for Years to Come

From John Judis, at the New Republic, "If You Believe in Government, You Should Be Furious About Obamacare's Incompetent Rollout":

Since the country’s founding, Americans have always had an abiding distrust of the federal government. In the country’s first fifty years, that probably had a progressive effect by accelerating Westward economic expansion, but after the Civil War, business and banking leaders exploited this sentiment to block attempts to protect workers and consumers; later, the appeal to state’s rights was used to oppose civil rights laws.

It has taken panics, depressions, wars and social upheaval to get Congress to adopt social and economic reforms. At all other times, the publics’ distrust of government, as reinforced by business, has carried the day. Bill Clinton discovered that out in his first term when he tried to pass a national healthcare program. Obama succeeded in passing a health care bill in 2010 in the wake of the Great Recession. But if Obamacare doesn’t work as promised, then its failure will have reinforced for a generation the argument against any government initiatives. Reform will be dead – whether it’s to fix immigration, healthcare, or the growing gap between rich and poor.

There are already clear warning signs. In the Gallup surveys of public trust in government, Americans’ confidence in the federal government already hit an all-time low in September. Indications are that it has continued to fall.  This lack of confidence initially reflected disillusionment with Congress over the Republican shutdown, but the Obamacare’s current problems will deepen the public’s distrust of government. In 1828, perhaps, such distrust a rising farm economy that needed the kind of easy credit that a national bank was unwilling to provide. But in 2013, it will doom the country to inaction.

The Obama administration still has a chance to turn this situation around, but it doesn’t have long. George W. Bush eventually got the Federal Emergency Management Agency on the ground in the New Orleans after Katrina, but the damage to Bush’s political reputation lingered on. If there are still stories of snafus with the Affordable Care Act six months from now, the Democrats are going to suffer the consequences in November 2014. And the country could suffer for years to come.

I don't read Judis very often, but what's interesting about this is that he's sympathetic to big government while simultaneously sounding its obituary. It's a theme across the spectrum at this point, and after reading a number of pessimistic analyses, I don't hold out much hope that the fixes are going to work. Republicans can and should help reduce the pain of ObamaCare, but in the end, it's going to take GOP congressional majorities with the Republican in the White House to fix this mess once and for all.

Hat Tip: Instapundit.

Bwahaha!! White House Optimistic it Will Bounce Back From Healthcare 'Glitches'

This is hilarious!

At the Los Angeles Times, "Despite President Obama's sharp drop in the polls, staffers believe a fix to the failed online insurance marketplace will bring healing":

WASHINGTON — He's vented, attacked, apologized and adjusted. Now, President Obama has one move left in his attempt to salvage the rollout of his healthcare law: hope the website works soon.

The White House, knowing a functional website is needed to calm its panicky allies, has now entered the wait-and-see period of its triage after the turmoil that has followed the Oct. 1 rollout. With the latest fix to the law unveiled, a bruising House vote behind them and experts working feverishly on the broken website, administration officials believe they may have weathered the worst.

Although Obama's standing in polls and support within his party have dropped sharply, much like the downward trajectory of George W. Bush's second term, White House officials believe he can still recover.

That optimistic assessment depends almost entirely on the administration's ability to reboot healthcare.gov, the once-hyped online insurance marketplace now undergoing extensive repair. At stake are the future of the president's signature domestic achievement, his political standing and reelection prospects for vulnerable Democrats in Congress.

If the administration meets its goal of a mostly glitch-free site by the end of November, the last two months may be remembered as just another near-death experience for a healthcare overhaul that has had many. Even though many insurance executives and congressional Democrats are angry at Obama for his handling of the healthcare law, both groups have strong incentives to help the Affordable Care Act succeed.

But if the White House fails, the recent setbacks could become the beginning of years of trouble for Democrats in office, as well as those seeking to get there, officials concede.

Administration officials privately acknowledge that no argument defending Obamacare will connect with Americans until they begin to see the effects of the law at work. No work-around or temporary fix will reach enough people to build a critical mass of support. The website has to function, admit edgy aides who sometimes spit the word "website" with the contempt familiar to anyone who has ever called a tech help desk.

Obama revealed his own frustrations Thursday, saying at a White House news conference that he has an obligation to show Americans that the law has made health insurance more affordable and accessible — "if we can just get the darn website working and smooth this thing out."

Officials said Friday they were making progress on the site's many glitches and bugs. It now takes less than one second, on average, to load a page, down from eight seconds in the weeks after the launch, said Jeffrey Zients, a former top administration official who was brought back to oversee the repairs. The site can "comfortably" handle 20,000 to 25,000 consumers at the same time and more capacity is being added, he said.

Still, problems persist in the system that sends consumer information to insurers, and as experts have ticked off 200 software problems, more continue to pop up. Zients said the officials expect to make the Nov. 30 goal, but added: "Not all consumers going on the website will have a seamless experience."

While the tech team works, the president must convince his allies as well as his potential adversaries that, as he said Thursday, he's a clutch player who knows how to recover from a fumble.

That group includes insurance executives who were called to the White House on Friday to discuss Obama's answer to the millions of policy cancellation notices sent to surprised consumers. After announcing Thursday that he would allow insurers to rescind those cancellations and extend the policies for another year, the president sought to persuade the executives to take him up on the offer.

The group also includes Democrats on Capitol Hill, many of whom have gone from disgruntled to distrustful of the White House. On Friday, 39 House Democrats voted for the GOP alternative to Obama's extension fix.

That sizable number of largely swing-district lawmakers was only the most visible sign of broader dissatisfaction that makes Obama's current holding pattern a challenge. Even those who stuck with the White House on Friday's vote have expressed frustration. In the wake of Obama's announcement, lawmakers were left to figure out whether their state officials and insurers would go along with the plan. Skepticism was high.

"The message from the White House is, 'OK, you can be mad, it's frustrating. But be on the program,'" said one advisor to a House Democrat, who asked for anonymity while characterizing internal discussions. "But what program is that? The program where every five minutes there's a different plan?"

IMAGE CREDIT: The People's Cube.

Another One! Las-Vegas Review Journal Calls for Full-Blown #ObamaCare Repeal!

Here's the earlier editorial, "Whoa! Chicago Tribune Calls for Full-Blown #ObamaCare Repeal!"

And now from the LVRJ, "Obamacare Woes Beg for Repeal":

Congressional Democrats can’t run away from this mess fast enough, as evidenced by the number of partisans proposing or supporting legislation to let individuals keep their current plans — which led to the president’s Hail Mary on Thursday. At this point, however, it’s impossible to fix that broken promise. The insurance industry, which has spent all year entirely remodeling plans to become Obamacare compliant, can’t turn it all back around in just 45 days and is furious with being scapegoated into trying to do so. An industry insider told BuzzFeed.com, “This doesn’t change anything other than force insurers to be the political flak jackets for the administration.”

Said Karen Ignagni, president of America’s Health Insurance Plans: “Changing the rules after health plans have already met the requirements of the law could destabilize the market and result in higher premiums for consumers.”

As the guys in those Guinness commercials would say, “Brilliant!” Obamacare policy premiums in many cases were already going to cost significantly more money; this “fix” could cause even bigger increases. The law is so deeply flawed, with so many components in direct conflict with one another, that tweaking just one part will accelerate its collapse.

The Obamacare debacle is just getting started — and it only gets worse from here. Repeal and replace.

Billionaire Socialist George Soros to Spend Millions on 2014 Democrat 'Big Data' Effort

Obviously, panic on the left is reaching defcon levels.

At the New York Times, "Groups Mobilize to Aid Democrats in ’14 Data Arms Race":

Liberal and Democratic-leaning groups, facing difficult midterm elections next year without the technological muscle of the Obama campaign behind them, are preparing a major effort to improve their data infrastructure.

George Soros, the retired hedge fund billionaire and longtime patron of liberal causes, will invest $2.5 million in the effort, officials involved with the plan said. His participation is a signal that some of the wealthy donors who arrived late to the Democrats’ “super PAC” efforts in 2012 are committing early for the next round.

The initiative opens a new front in the “big data” arms race between the left and the right, as the Republican Party and conservative outside groups pour money into political technology after a presidential campaign in which they were badly outmatched.

President Obama’s campaign spent tens of millions of dollars building a program to identify likely supporters and to motivate them with ads, social media efforts and get-out-the-vote messages. But the data experts and engineers who built Mr. Obama’s tech programs have largely moved into the private sector. And the president’s political organization faces an uncertain future: Reborn after Election Day as a tax-exempt advocacy group, it has struggled to translate Mr. Obama’s millions of supporters into an effective tool for advancing his agenda on issues like guns and immigration.

More important, some Democrats said, is that they are unsure how big a role Mr. Obama’s organization can — or will — play in 2014. Those involved with the new effort say they are not waiting to find out. The initiative, as yet unnamed, will be based at Catalist, a for-profit cooperative founded in 2006 by Harold Ickes, a former aide to Hillary Rodham Clinton, and others.

Details of the effort were presented this week at a Washington conference of the Democracy Alliance, a coalition of some of the country’s biggest liberal givers, which works to steer money and to coordinate political work among advocacy groups. Mr. Soros and other alliance donors were early investors in Catalist, and many of the groups funded by the alliance now buy data from it.

On Thursday, boldfaced names of the Democratic donor world mingled at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel with rising Democratic stars like Wendy Davis, a contender for the Texas governor’s race, and Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, who has been urged by some supporters to consider a presidential bid. Ms. Warren gave a speech touching on Republican efforts to filibuster Mr. Obama’s judicial nominees and the drive to bring intellectual diversity to the federal bench, attendees said, and was warmly received.

“She’s been a darling here since the first time she came,” said Rob McKay, the alliance’s chairman.

The conference will also feature the installation of Gara LaMarche, a veteran of liberal philanthropy, as the alliance’s new president. In an interview, Mr. LaMarche said the alliance hoped to expand its donor base and double its giving over the next several years, in part for a major new effort to expand the liberal political infrastructure at the state level, where conservatives and Republicans have won a series of political and policy victories.

“There is a lot of feeling in this room that the states are where the focus should be,” Mr. LaMarche said.

Improving Catalist was part of that drive, alliance officials said. The group serves as a kind of data hub for dozens of labor unions, liberal advocacy groups and super PACs, maintaining a shared national voter file that is continually updated with commercial and consumer data. Catalist was also involved in the governor’s election this month in Virginia and in the victorious mayoral campaign of Bill de Blasio in New York City.

But the company is also jockeying with other Democratic-oriented data ventures, including some with roots in the Obama campaign, in a rapidly expanding sector that consumes an ever-larger chunk of campaign spending.

Here's the piece on the Democracy Alliance at Discover the Networks, "A New Alliance of Democrats Spreads Funding: But Some in Party Bristle at Secrecy and Liberal Tilt."

Democracy Alliance is a front-group for the most radical organizations in the United States, groups that have been working for decades to destroy the basic fabric of American freedom, to leverage in the far-left socialist state. More on where that funding goes, "The Democracy Alliance's Grant Recipients."

And more on Catalyst at CNN, "George Soros reinvests in progressive-cause data company."