Sebelius Resigns

At WSJ, "Kathleen Sebelius to Resign Health Post: Move Comes After Health Sign-ups Hit 7.5 Million."

And from Susan Page, at USA Today, "First Take: Sebelius exits, battered and blamed":

WASHINGTON -- In the end, Kathleen Sebelius was able to resign as secretary of Health and Human Services during a high point, when the administration had just announced that 7.5 million Americans had signed up for insurance through the Affordable Care Act exchanges.

But that moment came only after six months of battering and blame over the botched roll-out of the healthcare.gov website. The enduring image of her five-year tenure as head of the huge agency is likely to be as the silver-haired woman sitting alone at a congressional hearing table, peering over reading glasses as she faced what often seemed to be an inquisition.

Even when President Obama held a victory rally of sorts last week in the Rose Garden, announcing that sign-ups had edged over the original goal of seven million, Sebelius was assigned a front-row seat but wasn't called to join in the camera shot or thanked by name in the president's remarks.

Fairly or not, some in the administration hold her responsible for an IT debacle that has dented Obama's legacy, raised questions about his competence and put Democratic candidates in peril in November. A USA TODAY/Pew Research Center Poll released Thursday showed the danger ahead: A majority of Americans now say the Affordable Care Act will be "very important" in their decision who to support in the midterm congressional elections. Those motivated voters disapprove of Obamacare by 2-1.

More.

Here's that poll, "Poll: Health law's campaign clout bad news for Democrats."

And at Twitchy, "‘What took so long?’ Kathleen Sebelius resigning as head of HHS."

#BREAKING: @AP reporting that #HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to resign #fnpolitics #breakingnews #foxnews pic.twitter.com/SLFcJtRc1Q

— Bret Baier (@BretBaier) April 10, 2014

Health And Human Services Secretary Resigning After Troubled Obamacare Rollout http://t.co/8Cwok5WqVD pic.twitter.com/wFIyaHBbJd

— BuzzFeed News (@BuzzFeedNews) April 10, 2014

Ayaan Hirsi Ali: Here's What I Would Have Said at Brandeis

She's got an op-ed up at WSJ, "We need to make our universities temples not of dogmatic orthodoxy, but of truly critical thinking":

On Tuesday, after protests by students, faculty and outside groups, Brandeis University revoked its invitation to Ayaan Hirsi Ali to receive an honorary degree at its commencement ceremonies in May. The protesters accused Ms. Hirsi Ali, an advocate for the rights of women and girls, of being "Islamophobic." Here is an abridged version of the remarks she planned to deliver.

One year ago, the city and suburbs of Boston were still in mourning. Families who only weeks earlier had children and siblings to hug were left with only photographs and memories. Still others were hovering over bedsides, watching as young men, women, and children endured painful surgeries and permanent disfiguration. All because two brothers, radicalized by jihadist websites, decided to place homemade bombs in backpacks near the finish line of one of the most prominent events in American sports, the Boston Marathon.

All of you in the Class of 2014 will never forget that day and the days that followed. You will never forget when you heard the news, where you were, or what you were doing. And when you return here, 10, 15 or 25 years from now, you will be reminded of it. The bombs exploded just 10 miles from this campus.

I read an article recently that said many adults don't remember much from before the age of 8. That means some of your earliest childhood memories may well be of that September morning simply known as "9/11."

You deserve better memories than 9/11 and the Boston Marathon bombing. And you are not the only ones. In Syria, at least 120,000 people have been killed, not simply in battle, but in wholesale massacres, in a civil war that is increasingly waged across a sectarian divide. Violence is escalating in Iraq, in Lebanon, in Libya, in Egypt. And far more than was the case when you were born, organized violence in the world today is disproportionately concentrated in the Muslim world.

Another striking feature of the countries I have just named, and of the Middle East generally, is that violence against women is also increasing. In Saudi Arabia, there has been a noticeable rise in the practice of female genital mutilation. In Egypt, 99% of women report being sexually harassed and up to 80 sexual assaults occur in a single day.

Especially troubling is the way the status of women as second-class citizens is being cemented in legislation. In Iraq, a law is being proposed that lowers to 9 the legal age at which a girl can be forced into marriage. That same law would give a husband the right to deny his wife permission to leave the house.

Sadly, the list could go on. I hope I speak for many when I say that this is not the world that my generation meant to bequeath yours. When you were born, the West was jubilant, having defeated Soviet communism. An international coalition had forced Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait. The next mission for American armed forces would be famine relief in my homeland of Somalia. There was no Department of Homeland Security, and few Americans talked about terrorism.

Two decades ago, not even the bleakest pessimist would have anticipated all that has gone wrong in the part of world where I grew up. After so many victories for feminism in the West, no one would have predicted that women's basic human rights would actually be reduced in so many countries as the 20th century gave way to the 21st.

Today, however, I am going to predict a better future, because I believe that the pendulum has swung almost as far as it possibly can in the wrong direction...

Keep reading.

And ICYMI, from Neo-Neocon, at Leg Insurrection, "Brandeis failure: Supporting women’s rights matters most when it’s politically difficult."

PREVIOUSLY: "Ayaan Hirsi Ali: Banished at #Brandeis."

With Eye on Midterms, Obama Pushes Women's Equity

From Alexis Simendinger, at RealClearPolitics.

It's a scam. The so-called pay gap disappears when you break it down using the ceteris paribus assumption.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali: Banished at #Brandeis

At WSJ, "The university yanks an honorary degree for Ayaan Hirsi Ali" (via Google):

Ms. Hirsi Ali is a well known controversialist and lives under death threats because she does not conceal her convictions, especially about the ties between violence and fundamentalist Islamism. If Ms. Hirsi Ali's critics support the practices she has either experienced or dedicated her life to erasing, such as forced marriage, female genital mutilation, honor killings, or Shariah Law, then they should say so.

Brandeis, a school founded after World War II to defend non-sectarian religious liberty, might also ask if its "core values" now include intolerance and the illiberal suppression of ideas. Our answer would be yes.

RTWT.

More from John Podhoretz, at Commentary, "The Shame of Brandeis."

And William Kristol is especially pissed off, at the Weekly Standard, "A Note to Supporters of Brandeis," and "Ayaan Hirsi Ali Speaks."

A must read, via Memeorandum.

PREVIOUSLY: "Brandeis University Withdraws Honorary Degree for Ayaan Hirsi Ali."

Leftist Grievance Industry and Anti-Authority Culture Damaging the Country

A great talking points memo from Bill O'Reilly's Monday show, "The grievance industry takes on momentum":



I covered both O'Reilly's main examples here, the Dartmouth occupation and the Isla Vista Riot --- both of which are fundamentally derived from the Democrat Party's grievance agenda of perpetual inequality demonization.

BONUS: The Other McCain on Dartmouth, "‘Diversity’ Debacle at Dartmouth: ‘Transformative Justice,’ Really?"

New York Police Officer Dies From Fire Injuries

At NYT, "Police Policy on Fires Is Questioned Amid Grief at Death of a New York Officer":

From the outside, there were few signs of a serious high-rise fire. No smoke pouring from windows, no commotion outside the Brooklyn apartment building on Sunday as two New York City police officers rushed inside, grabbing an elevator for the 13th floor.

But as the officers rode up, flames were already churning in the narrow, confined hallway. And when the elevator doors slid open, smoke fell upon them like an avalanche.

The officers radioed for help. Then they collapsed in the choking blackness.

On Wednesday, one of the officers, Dennis Guerra, died of severe smoke inhalation. His partner that day, Officer Rosa Rodriguez, was in critical condition, clinging to life.

For the Police Department, it was a sudden and stunning blow: the first death of an officer from fire in the line of duty in nearly three decades, and the first time one had been killed on the job in more than two years.

A 16-year-old charged with starting the blaze told detectives that he lit a mattress in the hallway because he was “bored,” the police said. He now faces charges that could include murder as the police force presses for the stiffest possible punishment.

I'm sure some great philosopher somewhere said "boredom kills."

It sure did in New York.

Oh, the suspect, Marcell Dockery, 16 years-old, is black. Folks at the NYPD want that f-cker to do some hard time in prison on a murder conviction. But hey, best not mention the racial dimension of the killing or anything. Might rile some tender leftist politically-correct sensitivities.

More at that top link.

Technology's Man Problem? Not So Fast

From Charlotte Allen, at LAT, "Technology's feminist problem."

Tax Day is Coming

My wife and I are having our taxes done this afternoon, so this is appropriate.

From Reason.tv:

Got Feminism?

It's all lulz.

At Twitchy, "‘Deny at your peril, patriarchy!’ Don’t miss this gut-busting mockery of ridiculous feminist signs [pics]."

They are? RT @trutherbot: pic.twitter.com/bkZ1H8q3Iz

— Heather (@hboulware) April 9, 2014

House Oversight Committee Recommends Contempt Charges Against Former IRS Operative Lois Lerner

I love this.

But what took so long? The lady's a criminal thug.

From Katie Pavlich, at Town Hall, "BREAKING: House Ways and Means Committee Votes to Refer Lois Lerner For Criminal Charges."

Also at the Brenner Brief, "House Oversight files Lois Lerner contempt resolution."

And back to Katie Pavlich, "BREAKING: Emails Show Lois Lerner Fed True the Vote Tax Information to Democrat Elijah Cummings" (via Memeorandum).

Still more, at Politico, "GOP says IRS’ Lois Lerner targeted Crossroads."

FLASHBACK: Dear Leader promising to get to the bottom of it all last May. This IRS conduct "is inexcusable." Okay, sure brother.

Correcting DeMint's Historical Confusion

Well, lefties are having a field day with this, "Jim DeMint Asserts The Federal Government Played No Role In Freeing the Slaves." (More at Google.)

But I think Peter Wehner makes some very useful comments, at Commentary:

So why call attention to these matters? In part, I think, because it’s important for conservatives to undo some of the confusion that DeMint created. But there’s another, somewhat deeper point to be made about the danger of approaching history and politics through an overly ideological lens. In this case Senator DeMint, a fierce critic of the federal government, has reinterpreted history in order to make it fit into his particular narrative. He seems so eager to refuse to give credit to the federal government for anything that he insists it didn’t play a role in the abolition of slavery. And that’s where he made perhaps his biggest error.

I worry, too, that some on the right invoke the Constitution without really understanding it and its history. For example, many conservatives who profess reverence for the Constitution are vocal and reflexive critics of compromise per se – despite the fact that the Constitution was itself a product of an enormous set of compromises.

But RTWT.

The federal government wasn't particularly large back in the 19th century in any case. Much of conservative reaction to the expansion of government is particularly critical of the post-1930s period in particular, for example, Barry Goldwater, in "Conscience of a Conservative." But I'm neoconservative, and while I can't stand the big government state socialism of the Obama administration and the regressive left, I'm not such a "small g" conservative to reject the many useful roles government plays in our lives. It's a complicated matter, but I think Wehner makes some interesting points. And shame on DeMint for botching basic facts about our founding and black liberation from slavery.

Twitter Redesign Looks a Lot Like Facebook

Well, they gotta cash in somehow, and Zuckerberg sure proved it can be done.

At the Verge.

Twitter’s redesign looks a lot like Facebook http://t.co/f1ary94hVC pic.twitter.com/elzlfzTxwh
— The Verge (@verge) April 9, 2014

Brooklyn Decker on 'CBS This Morning'

I would just prefer to see her in a bikini, lol.

Scapegoating the Koch brothers

I'm surprised the editors at LAT even published this letter, much less at the top of the letters section. From yesterday's paper, "Letters: Scapegoating the Koch brothers":

Re "In campaigns, Democrats target Kochs," April 4.

So the mudslinging begins.

Billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch are no more guilty of buying influence or pushing a partisan agenda than are George Soros, big labor, the Hollywood elites or any number of others who wish to advance the Democratic Party's agenda.

In any case, why are the Democrats so worried about the Koch brothers? Is their collective memory so short that they've forgotten that President Obama raised and spent more than $1 billion in the 2012 election, and that he has twice eschewed public financing because of the restrictions it would impose on his own fundraising efforts?

W. Adrian Sauvageot
Tustin

More.

Is the Neo-Isolationist Moment Already Over?

From the always awesome Walter Russell Mead:

As the domestic political debate over these crises heats up, we are seeing a classic American pattern in action. America’s success abroad breeds stupidity and hubris in U.S. foreign policy. This hubris and stupidity leads to bad choices and magical thinking. We begin to believe, for example, that the world can become safer and more democratic even as we scale back our involvement. These bad choices and bad ideas then lead to huge global challenges. Those challenges ultimately spark smarter, more purposeful American engagement, usually after we’ve tried a few unsuccessful gambits first. That engagement finally leads to American success, which leads back again to American stupidity and hubris. And so on.

RTWT.

#Medicare Boondoggle: Small Chunk of Doctors Reap Windfall Share of Payments

At WSJ, "Small Slice of Doctors Account for Big Chunk of Medicare Costs: Top 1% of Medical Providers Accounted for 14% of Billing, Federal Data Show":

A tiny sliver of doctors and other medical providers accounted for an outsize portion of Medicare's 2012 costs, according to an analysis of federal data that lays out details of physicians' billings.

The top 1% of 825,000 individual medical providers accounted for 14% of the $77 billion in billing recorded in the data.

The long-awaited data reveal for the first time how individual medical providers treat America's seniors—and, in some cases, may enrich themselves in the process. Still, there are gaps in the records released by the U.S. about physicians' practice patterns, and doctors' groups said the release of such data leaves innocent physicians open to unfair criticism.

Medicare paid 344 physicians and other health providers more than $3 million each in 2012. Collectively, the 1,000 highest-paid Medicare doctors received $3.05 billion in payments.

One-third of those top-earning providers are ophthalmologists, and one in 10 are radiation oncologists. Both specialties were singled out in a late 2013 report by the inspector general for the Department of Health and Human Services urging greater scrutiny of doctors who consistently receive large Medicare payments.

More.

The Los Angeles Times has this as well, with mind-boggling payment numbers, "Release of Medicare doctor payments shows some huge payouts":

Ending decades of secrecy, Medicare is showing what the giant healthcare program for seniors pays individual doctors, and the figures reveal that more than a dozen physicians received in excess of $10 million each in 2012.

The Obama administration is releasing a detailed account Wednesday of $77 billion in government payouts to more than 880,000 healthcare providers nationwide that year. The release of payment records involving doctors has been legally blocked since 1979, but recent court rulings removed those obstacles. No personal information on patients is disclosed.

The two highest-paid doctors listed in the Medicare data are already under government review because of suspected improper billing. They include an ophthalmologist in the retiree haven of West Palm Beach, Fla., who topped the list by taking in more than $26 million to treat fewer than 900 patients. That is 61 times the average Medicare payout of $430,000 for an ophthalmologist.

A Florida cardiologist received $23 million in Medicare payments in 2012, nearly 80 times the average amount for that specialty. One California doctor was in the top 10 nationwide: a Newport Beach oncologist who was paid $11 million that year.

The overwhelming majority of doctors billed the government very modest amounts. Overall, 2% of healthcare providers accounted for 23% of the Medicare fees, the federal data show.

Medicare officials said disclosing physician payment data marks an unprecedented opportunity to make the nation's healthcare system more transparent for consumers and accountable to taxpayers. Many consumer advocates and employers applauded the move.

Yes, and officials warn against drawing untoward conclusions. Right, we wouldn't want to do that. F-king morons.

More at Memeoandum.

Julia Louis-Dreyfus Rocks Nude Cover of Rolling Stone

I can dig it.

Get a load of that Declaration of Independence tattoo, lol.

At Rolling Stone, "Julia Louis-Dreyfus Is Naked on the New Cover of Rolling Stone."



Added: I should have caught that, but "John Hancock didn't sign the Constitution." Probably paying too much attention to Julia's derriere, heh.

Brandeis University Withdraws Honorary Degree for Ayaan Hirsi Ali

A woman with perhaps the world's most compelling story of escape from radical Islam, now feeling the brunt of the leftist correct thought-enforcers.

From Ed Morrissey, at Hot Air, "Brandeis withdraws honorary degree offer to Ayaan Hirsi Ali":

Brandeis University originally invited Ayaan Hirsi Ali to receive an honorary degree at its spring commencement, and created a storm of controversy on its campus. It has now withdrawn that offer, and may have created a storm of controversy outside of its campus as well. The former Dutch parliamentarian has long spoken out against the excesses of Islam, from her own painful personal experience to the radicalism that fuels terrorism and war. Apparently, Brandeis just figured this out, which raises a number of questions...

Keep reading.

Also at Protein Wisdom, "The totalitarian Left has embraced Islamism, let no one dissent." (via Memeorandum).

Arthur Smith, Composer of 'Dueling Banjos', Dies at 93

"Deliverance" came out in 1972 and I was too young to see it at the time. It's been awhile now, but I watched is sometime back on cable. I can see why it got an "R" rating.

At NYT, "Arthur Smith Dies at 93; Wrote ‘Dueling Banjos’":

Arthur Smith, a country musician known for the hit “Guitar Boogie” and for “Feuding Banjos,” a bluegrass tune that became “Dueling Banjos” in the film “Deliverance,” died on Thursday at his home in Charlotte, N.C. He was 93.

His death was confirmed by his son Clay.

A nimble guitarist and banjo-player, Mr. Smith was a virtuoso with an approachable manner. Inspired by Broadway show tunes, the gospel tradition and jazz artists like Django Reinhardt as well as by country music, he became popular playing on Southern radio stations as a teenager.

“Guitar Boogie,” an instrumental with a deft solo released in the late 1940s, was his first major hit, recorded when he was 24 and serving in the Navy. The song, a precursor to the rock ’n’ roll of the coming decades, has been covered by musicians like Les Paul, Chuck Berry and Alvino Rey.

Mr. Smith recorded the call-and-response banjo song “Feuding Banjos” with Don Reno in 1955. Another version of it appeared as a deceptively amiable musical duel in “Deliverance,” the 1972 film starring John Voight and Burt Reynolds.

Mr. Smith was not credited as the writer and filed suit against Warner Brothers after a version of the song reached No. 2 on the Billboard pop chart in 1973. The studio offered a $15,000 settlement, Clay Smith said in an interview, but Mr. Smith wanted to go to trial. The judge ruled in his favor.

“He recouped all past royalties and all future royalties, and the credit was changed” to show he had written the song, Clay Smith said. He added that the song has since been used in many commercials advertising, among other things, the Mini Cooper and Mobil and Mitsubishi products.

Arthur Smith was born on April 1, 1921, in Clinton, S.C. His father, a mill worker, taught music and played in a band. Arthur grew up in Kershaw, S.C., and was playing cornet with his father’s band by the time he was 11. By 14 he had a radio show in Kershaw, and by 15 he had made his first record, for RCA Victor.

More.

#Ukraine Moves to Assert Control in East

At WSJ, "Ukraine Moves to Assert Control: Russia Warns That Use of Force Could Plunge Country into Civil War":

Ukrainian police took back a government building from pro-Russian separatists in one volatile eastern city Tuesday, but armed men dug in behind reinforced barricades in other cities, warning against an assault even as some disarray began to show.

Russia warned Ukraine's new government that the use of force to dislodge demonstrators who had taken over buildings in eastern Ukraine, where many ethnic Russians live, could plunge the country into civil war.

As the secessionists appealed to Russian President Vladimir Putin, Moscow said they should be allowed to participate in talks next week with Russia, Ukraine, the U.S. and the European Union aimed at calming the crisis.

Ukrainian officials and others have accused Russia of instigating the protests, which began Sunday in the industrial cities of Donetsk, Kharkiv and Luhansk. They have suggested that Russia is trying to orchestrate a takeover similar to its incursion into and annexation of Crimea last month.

Secretary of State John Kerry amplified the criticism, telling members of a Senate committee that Russian special forces and intelligence agents have been key catalysts behind the unrest, calling the maneuvers as "ham-handed as they are transparent."

"Quite simply, what we see from Russia is an illegal and illegitimate effort to destabilize a sovereign state and create a contrived crisis with paid operatives across an international boundary," Mr. Kerry said in Washington.

Ukraine's Interior Ministry said more forces were being sent to eastern regions to subdue the separatists and guard against further unrest.

Interior Minister Arsen Avakov described an "antiterrorist" operation in Kharkiv early Tuesday that resulted in the arrest of around 70 separatists who had control of the regional administration building.

According to his account: roughly 200 pro-Russian agitators had barricaded themselves inside overnight and threw stun grenades and fired pellet guns at police and national guard officers surrounding the building.

The protesters then set fire to a wing of the building and smashed windows. After the fire was contained, special forces stormed the building, made the arrests and seized a cache of weapons.

"The night in Kharkiv was endlessly long," Mr. Avakov said. "The boorish, brutal, ordered and generously paid pro-Russian aggression of the 'protesters' was off the charts."

In Luhansk, armed men who have occupied the security-service building since Sunday were holding 60 people and have mined the building, the security service said.

In a video apparently made inside the building and posted online, a man in a balaclava demands a referendum on the region's status as three men holding automatic weapons stand behind him.

The man says the people inside are all locals and include veterans of the Soviet war in Afghanistan, border guards and "representatives of peaceful professions." He also warned against any attempt to storm the building.

Keep reading.