The Health Care Games continue Catching Fire

  So the Thanksgiving document dump includes finding ways to use the IRS to penalize conservatives and Republicans from differing from Dear Leader's version of The Law. ("I'll look into the abuse," he claimed. And then he made it worse.)
  An anonymous Democrat on the Left Coast worries that Dear Leader's fanaticism is leading him to envision himself as a Dicktator.
  Small businesses have been told not to use the online sign up procedure until next November, even as Obama admonishes everyone to check out the massive failure that is the health care website. 
  It'd be nice if they'd get their stories straight. This headline: "White House fears website collapse." which directly contradicts what they've been saying about it being operational in a couple days.   
   "There's no magic button" to get the website working well, considering the stolen HTML code and all, Sebelius weasled in a more articulate moment than her "whatever" snicker at the health care hearings.
   Why doesn't she borrow that magic red button Hillary handed to the Russians?
   They think by pummeling relatives at the Thanksgiving dinner table, Obamacare aka the Unaffordable Care Act will become more successful.
  So the Obama True Believers console themselves, trying to figure it's all going to work out, even while they themselves get screwed. It's ok Obama lied to the True Believers because he couldn't have gotten that mess passed without a few lies, which is no big deal in their universe. 
  But now they're shocked that they have to pay for those lies! So the Leftist national response to getting screwed over health care prices? Find ways to decrease income so others will have to pay the bill.
  Because nothing says success like screwing others more than you got screwed!
  Rather than just enjoy a family holiday, then, Obama encouraged his OFA followers to talk up Obamacare at the dinner.
  In fact, OFA suggests you sign a pledge to make your relatives sign up; they also offer a helpful cheat sheet printout of questions to ask and answers, because, you know, you couldn't think of any of those answers yourself, right?
  You might burn yourself on the turkey and then you'd need health care, eh? You're probably racist because you like white meat but you'll still need those emergency services? Eh.
  If you're really thoughtful, you can deal with your racist Republican relatives by getting in their faces, going extreme or arguing until everyone wants to go home anyway.
  One has to wonder how it feels to always cheat, lie and bully to get what you want, ala the Chicago politics way.
  All of this recalls that a peek into any heart can be scary.
  At last the poll numbers are reflecting what we've all been seeing for a long long time.
  Congratulations, Ohio, you're stepping into the real world.
  Yet one wonders what's wrong with the 34% who approve of the debacle that is the Obama presidency.
  Like the movie "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire", DC has exhibited a remarkable insensitivity to the real needs of Americans. They party on, playing their games, putting their plastic faces merrily in front of the cameras and continue to abuse those "less privileged" than the elite class that lives in and around DC.
  But we in the Heartland continue to survive, love our families and enjoy this day, thanking our God for all He has given us.
 Happy Thanksgiving, America. May we enjoy our liberty for hundreds more years.
 

The Utica Shale produced 550 new millionaires in one county. Happy Thanksgiving

The Utica Shale has produced 550 new millionaires in Carroll Country. Harrison County has about 80 new millionaires too according, to Chris Penrose, an associate professor and extension educator for Morgan County with OSU Extension. Using 2010 census data, which finds that there were 11,126 households in the Carroll County that means that about one in 20 household now contains a millionaire. I wonder if they watch Beverly Hillbillies reruns on their 60 inch flat screens.
The creation of individual wealth is something everyone should see as a positive good and the Utica promises much more to come in the very near future. It could be that Carroll County does not have more oil and gas than Belmont,  Columbiana, Harrison, Jefferson and Monroe Counties. It is the most drilled county with 339 well permitted because Chesapeake Energy, the largest player in the Utica, acquired leases there but other counties may be just as productive. Gulfport Energy's Irons 1-4H well in Belmont County is now yielding an astounding 30 million cubic feet of dry methane natural gas daily, according to company records.
Instead of boring friends and relatives with discussions about the need to buy health insurance, without mentioning the depressing Obamacare disaster, as Obama suggests thrill them with true stories of new found plenty. That's why this country has Thanksgiving.

Obama hits new low in Ohio poll

Obama has hit a new low in Ohio in the latest Quinnipiac University poll with only 35% of Ohioans approving of the job he is doing while 61% disapprove. This is the lowest number Obama has hit in any state or national poll conducted by Quinnipiac. His previous low was 36% in Colorado. If Obama does better than anything it's Obamacare. Support for Obamacare in the Buckeye State is 34% while 59% of voters do not approve of the president's signature legislation.
Most Ohioans (57% to 39%) do not think Obama is trustworthy and honest.
If anyone does well in the poll it's Hillary. She understandably beats  Governor John Kasich 49% to 38% but also beats Chris Christie 42% to 41%. The rest of the Republicans do worse.

• 50 - 37 percent over former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush;
• 48 - 39 percent over U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida;
• 50 - 40 percent over U.S. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky;
• 49 - 41 percent over U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin.
• 50 - 35 percent over U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas.

Much of the strength Hillary shows is due to simple name recognition. None of the Republicans have been players on the national scene while the shopworn former first lady has been around for two decades. It remains to be seen how well she will do when voters are reminded of Hillary Care or the details of the Benghazi scandal become public.

Republicans pull ahead in generic congressional poll

Click to enlarge Remember back a month or so when the media and the Democrats announced that Tea Party had irreparably damaged the Republican brand? Look now at the recent Real Clear Politics average of the generic congressional vote. The healthy Democratic lead has disappeared and the Republicans hold a slight edge. When the shutdown ended the Republicans began to recover in the polls. In other words they could control their destiny. Presently the Democrats cannot. They are inextricably tied to Obamacare with all its faults. There is no OFF button or to get closer to Max Baucus' train wreck analogy, no air brakes. " It was on that grade that he lost his air brakes, see what a jump he made"

Obamacare gets a bad rap

Brilliant. Absolutely.

Peele does Obama

  Geez, even Key & Peele are "doing" Obama jokes.

CNN poll finds Obama untrustworthy and incompetent

People think Barack Obama is a likeable guy however for all his likeability a clear majority does not admire him. They do not trust him nor do they think he can run government. Remind you of someone you once worked with? There is someone like this on every job. The guy is the life of the party and really a scream but you can't trust him any farther than you can throw him. Don't give him anything important to do because he can screw up a Chinese fire drill. At least that's what this CNN poll found.

Applies to Barack Obama	Yes	No
Is honest and trustworthy	46%	53%
Can manage the government effectively	40%	60%
Is likeable	71%	29%
Is a person you admire	44%	56%

Congratulation Congresswoman Kathy McMorris Rodgers

Congratulation Congresswoman Kathy McMorris Rodgers! The congress lady from Spokane just gave birth to her third child, daughter Brynn Catherine. McMorris Rodgers is the only member of congress to give birth three times while serving.

The knockout "game" is "foolishness"

  By now, most people have heard of the "knockout game," which is anything but a game. People are hurt or die, usually white or Asian people. The stories have been too numerous for the MSM to completely ignore, but even now are reluctant to speak honestly about this problem.
 Anyone who accuses these thugs of heartless, abominable behavior is afraid of accused of being racist.
  Bad behavior isn't unique to one race; in fact, equal butt kicking for all could cure many of our nation's ills. You misbehave, you suffer the consequences...appropriate consequences. If parents would start that policy early enough, behavior could be changed.
  Instead, "society" expects the schools and teachers, who are often cowed by the petty tyrants who run the schools, to fill in the gap created by laissez faire parents.
  There's no doubt that young Black males face significant barriers to success in their lives; one of the most significant barriers is evident in this posting at The Root entitled "Mixed Emotions about the Knockout Game." Where the "mixed emotions" come in isn't really stated and is, quite frankly, mystifying.

I’m sad because, to a certain degree, we’ve failed our youth. We no longer have the “It takes a village” mentality. If we see a neighbor’s teenage daughter twerking, cursing and carrying on in the street, we walk right by, thinking, “Glad that’s not my child.” We’ve failed because we don’t fight for more free after-school programs that would provide our young people with a creative outlet and safe haven where they can be teens. Instead, they’ve resorted to creating violent games out of boredom.

What it all boils down to, for me, at least, is that we’re all somewhat responsible for the knockout game. Yes, these teens should know better than to take part in such foolishness. At the same time, though, I fear for my young black and brown brothers and sisters who, much like victims of stop and frisk, might be wrongfully accused of playing this game simply because they fit a particular description.

  Well, yes, we have failed our youth.
  We've failed them because we don't speak of God; we don't hold them accountable for their bad behavior. We accept poor work in school and blame it on environmental or institutional racism.
  We've failed them because we depend on "free after-school programs" to provide a "creative outlet and safe haven" for young men, the greater percentage of whom have no father figures, little family structure and few expectations other than the lowest society can set for just about anyone.
  There are plenty of bored, poverty stricken young people who do not behave like this, both during the Great Depression and now. How insulting to act as if the government could fix a problem that's created by a lack of good parenting and a family structure.
  Boredom? No, the problem's not really boredom.
  It's moral vacuity.
  It's a poverty of spirit, of responsibility and concern for creating human beings that respect life. In a community where so many Black babies are aborted every single day and so many young people have child after child without the bond of marriage, who would young people respect other human life?
  When responsible educated adults of any race refer to killing people merely as "foolishness," giving them chance after chance, what do those responsible educated adults think is going to happen?
  We can continue to be horrified at this behavior or we can call it out for what it is.
  And we can expect adults of all races to to teach values to our children.
  If we really cared about them, that's what we'd do.
  We wouldn't be whining for yet another government program and acting like some vague bodiless "village" out there is remiss in not providing enough free stuff.

Tea Partiers responsible for JFK assassination?? Uh, no.

  So we learn from "academics" (those really, really smart people who know so much more than you about your life) that Tea Partiers have their roots in the assassination of JFK.
  In the 99%  Leftist WaPo, we read that any political disagreements with the Saintly Democrats can lead to very dangerous situations and are subsequently the cause of Obama's troubles as well as JFK's assassination:

It was fueled then, as now, by billionaires opposed to federal oversight, rabid media, Bible-thumping preachers and extremist lawmakers who had moved far from their political peers. In 1963, that strident minority hijacked the civic dialogue and brewed the boiling, toxic environment waiting for Kennedy the day he died.

  Warner Todd Huston has an historical response to that libelous supposition.

 

  So remember. 

  Never disagree with a Tea Partier, er. I mean.

  Leftist.

Obamacare becomes the ACA, illustrated

Heh.

The Unaffordable Care Act (UCA) debacle continues

  It's beyond my small world to understand why Democrats are moving from calling the health care mess  Obamacare to the ACA, or the "Affordable Care Act."
  Leftists think they have temporarily solved their problem by moving the employer mandate imposition to after the 2014 elections; I have to wonder (no, I BELIEVE) that this will only make that election even more of a high stakes game.
  Could they have driven a more ideological stake into the heart of that election? Think of the opportunity! 
  "Gonna vote for a Democrat? Vote for higher health care rates. Vote to destroy the health care system. Vote to ruin the economy."
  Oh, yeah. Gonna happen. They figure they at least have a chance, then, to win a few seats. I sorta don't think so.
  But now we learn that the pejorative "Obamacare" name which Obama himself embraced is being phased out to embrace the more current "Affordable Care Act" name. From Politico:

Calling it the Affordable Care Act has advantages for Democrats seeking to defend health care reform while still criticizing the bungled White House rollout. The phrase polls better than Obamacare — and people have responded more positively to the law’s benefits when they haven’t been told they come from Obamacare.

  Yet moving to the ridiculously and ironically named "Affordable Care Act" is also political suicide.
  It's anything but affordable and every time media and the White House reference it only rubs salt in the wound created by the huge bills the Unaffordable Care Act imposes, not to mention the limited health care benefits.
  Couple that with the terrible economy and the economic devastation the UCA was designed to accelerate and the Leftists have a  real problem.
  So join with me in referencing this ridiculous bill as the "UCA."
  It's almost as bad for Democrats as the term "Obamacare."

The other side of the filibuster rule

During his inaugural address President Rand Paul stressed the limits of government and called on the country and specifically the Congress to ask what worked and what did not. The President was extremely upbeat if not conciliatory. He stressed the need to undo many well intentioned laws that failed to fulfill their promised benefits. Immediately after the ceremony, as many were planning a gala evening, Speaker Jeb Hensarling and Senator Majority Leader Mike Lee met along with their respective staffs to compile a list of past legislation to repeal. Although the Republicans had been wildly successful in the 2014 mid terms, capturing the Senate and padding their majority in the House by another 35 seats to which they added another 18 in 2016, a series of missteps and the deaths of 2 senators had left them with only 58 seats. "Not to worry," beamed Senator Lee, "Thanks to Harry Reid we have 7 votes to spare."
First on the legislative agenda was the formal repeal of Obamacare. It had ceased to function, or more accurately never had functioned, but a combination of "fixes" by executive fiat forced on Obama to head off a bipartisan repeal had left the insurance market pretty much in the control the states' insurance commissions. A congressional coup de gras would win easily in both houses. Hensarling had bitterly opposed the Dodd-Frank law with it unconstitutional Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that was designed to function with a minimum of congressional oversight and immune to budget cuts. It was at the top of his hit list but he would combine it with legislation that would also repeal the Sarbanes Oxley Act which he considered to be an outright over reaction to the Eron scandal.
Mitch Daniels, the former governor of Indiana and the President of Purdue University had publicly argued for the repeal of the Title 9 legislation that promised parity of spending on athletic programs based on gender regardless of a sport's contribution to revenue. He was also vehement in his opposition the Department of Education mandates but since the Department of Education was already on the President's hit list along with the Departments of Energy, Labor, and HUD it was decided that repeal of Title 9 would suffice until after further study.
Third term Congressman Justin Amash, a firebrand libertarian had collected over 100 co-sponsors on legislation that stated that only an Article III judge could levy a fine on any person, organization, or corporation and all defendants entered the court under the presumption of innocence. This would essentially gut most regulatory enforcement. Both leaders considered this measure to be almost revolutionary but both agreed it should come to the floor of both houses and if it did get 51 votes in the Senate and did not work it could always be undone.
There were other matters on the agenda too. Since the President intended to seek legislation that would peg the dollar to the price of gold the Federal Reserve could remain in existence to do its data collection and statistical analysis until it could be moved into the Department of Commerce. On the matter of tort reform the leaders decided to let the Judiciary Committees of both houses draft legislation that would limit damages to actual provable damages and establish a personal injury schedule of payments similar to most states' workmen compensation payouts. Class action lawsuits would also be eliminated. Agreement was reached on a flat tax with a mortgage exemption that would grandfather in existing mortgages but future exemptions would not be forthcoming. A tentative 15% corporate tax with no tax on foreign earnings, if they were taxed by the host country, and 100% expensing was agreed to and referred to the proper committees. The president had promised to make adjustments in spending if the proposed tax reform did not produce sufficient revenue. The Speaker had a full evening planned but said before closing the meeting that he felt every American who paid taxes during the upcoming year should be given one share of common stock in both Amtrak and the US Postal Service. When someone managed to buy over 50% of the outstanding stock they would control the entity since neither institution fit well in government. "Just eliminate the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals and you'll make my day," joked the Speaker. "Done" laughed senator Lee "And a hat tip to the man who made it all possible, Senator Harry Reid."

Enrollment season for Obamacare postponed until after elections

When will the American public tire of having its health insurance needs subordinated to the political needs of Obama and the Democratic Party? This short report from Reuters states that the open enrollment for 2015 will be pushed back one month until after the mid term elections to November 15.
The Obama administration will push back the open enrollment season for Obamacare health insurance in 2015 by a month to give insurance companies more time to determine their rates, the White House said on Friday.
I doubt if this is going to curtail congressional losses but this transparent attempt to politicize what is supposed to be a program run for the benefit of the voters not the political class invites cynicism and should make generations of voters chary of trusting Washington with anything important.

It may be a long train wreck

It should be coming apparent to Democrats that Max Baucus' analogy of a train wreck to describe Obamacare is a rather sanguine if not down right giddily optimistic metaphor for its eventual denouement. Maybe if one thinks in terms of a years long ride down a steep grade sans air brakes with screaming children and cursing adults until old 97 does eventually jump the tracks it is accurate. The point is Obamacare with all its damage is apt to be around long after many of its most ardent proponents have been sent to the home for washed up ideologues. Maybe a China Syndrome like melt down is a better comparison. What is certain is there is no OFF button. As Obamacare is implemented the bodies will pile up and by 2016 there may be very few safe Democratic seats.
The Democratic Party has bet the family farm on Obamacare. It is the culmination of a dream that has sustained it for three quarters of a century. Somewhere along the line Happy Days Are Here Again with Kate Smith at the old upright was replaced with To Dream the Impossible Dream. The trouble is, one man's dream is another man's nightmare. Pragmatism doesn't have a chance until we see Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi on the rooftop waiting for the last helicopter out of Saigon.
What I'm suggesting is that the ongoing drama is apt to be around for years depending on the number of casualties the Democrats are willing to take. There are a few-Lanny Davis is one-Democratic insiders who think that there is an opportunity for a bipartisan solution to the mess, meaning of course, the Democrats would get half a dream, and some McCain like RINO would provide the foundering party with a graceful exit. I don't see hard line Democrats capitulating and I doubt is anything short of unconditional repeal will please the Republican base.
The Republicans have a very good chance of picking up 3 vacated senate seats currently held be Democrats Baucus, Johnson, and Rockefeller. If they can pick up just 3 of the remaining 18 seats the Democrats must defend they will control the Senate. Pryor, Landrieu, Begich, and Hagan are extremely vulnerable and more opportunities will probably become evident soon as Obama drags the ticket down. It could be that if the Republicans win the Senate, they and the chastened Democrats could possibly vote to kill Obamacare but it would take 66 votes to override an Obama veto. So possibly the train wreck stretches into the 2016 election. By this time millions more will have lost their insurance, many will be going uncovered and many will be paying exorbitant premiums for high deductible policies. It will be very hard for the Democratic candidate to promise more of the same. No Republican is going to get nominated with anything less than a promise of unconditional repeal. It could be only then, just prior to the presidential election that Democrats relent and join Republicans in repealing Obamacare with a solemn promise to the voters never to tinker with health care again.

Another Illegal Obamacare Fix Coming?

We have to break the law to save it. That appears to be the position Obama is taking as he circles the drain in his self inflicted death spiral which promises to be the mother of all swirlies. Why should congressional Democrats have bothered to read the Obamacare law since they knew the president felt no obligation to follow it? Obama's latest planned assault on democratic government and the rule of law is his apparent intention to pay tax subsidies on insurance policies not purchased on the health care exchanges. The language of the law is quite clear and any granting of subsidies to policies not purchased on the exchanges is clearly illegal.
One can only assume that this impetuous lawlessness on behalf of the professor of constitutional law is calculated to buy time as any court challenge would nullify it. Not only is action illegal it is downright sneaky. Suppose a person purchases a policy directly from an insurance company on the president's assurance that he or she will receive a tax subsidy black letter law notwithstanding and the courts order the law to be enforced. The person who acted in good faith will be denied the promised subsidy but what is one to expect from the president who promised that if you like you insurance you can keep it?

At least 6 veterans died waiting for care

One would think an administration that knows the health needs of the voter better than the voters themselves could know the obvious need of those who have already given so much to the country. The profligate waste of resources squandered on conventions and parody video productions to pamper an already overly pampered bureaucracy juxtapose the denial of common medical procedures for veterans is shameful, immoral, and criminal. At least six men are dead because this administration obdurately refuses to honor the debt owed to those who put aside their personal wants and wishes, who said good-bye to parents, wives and children, and served their country. In a outstanding bit of reporting CNN, reveals that cancers are allowed to metastasize for want of routine tests such as a colonoscopy or an endoscopy.

The problem has been especially dire at the Williams Jennings Bryan Dorn Veterans Medical Center in Columbia, South Carolina. There, veterans waiting months for simple gastrointestinal procedures -- such as a colonoscopy or endoscopy -- have been dying because their cancers aren't caught in time.
The VA has confirmed six deaths at Dorn tied to delays. But sources close to the investigation say the number of veterans dead or dying of cancer because they had to wait too long for diagnosis or treatment at this facility could be more than 20.
"It's very sad, because people died," said Dr. Stephen Lloyd, a private physician specializing in colonoscopies in Columbia.
Lloyd and other physicians across South Carolina's capital city are being affected by the delays at Dorn as veterans seek treatment or diagnoses outside the VA hospital.
Lloyd is one of the few doctors in the area willing to speak on the record about the situation at Dorn.
"(Veterans) paid the ultimate price," he said. "People that had appointments had their appointments canceled and rescheduled much later. ... In some cases, that made an impact where they went into a later stage (of illness) and therefore lost the battle to live."

CNN goes on to report that money appropriated for Dorn was diverted elsewhere by the VA. Dorn currently has a waiting list of 3,800. The Charlie Norwood VA Medical Center in Augusta, Georgia, the VA said three veterans died as a result of delayed care. Internal documents at that facility showed a waiting list of 4,500 patients.
Someone needs to go to jail.

Woman finds she can't afford affordable health care

This story of false hope and disappointment could well serve as a metaphor for Obamacare writ large. Imagine the embarrassment to Jessica Sanford who was so excited that she could at last afford health insurance for herself and her son  thanks to Obamacare. She was so excited in fact that she wrote a letter to Obama. Obama was so excited to find one person who actually liked his goddam health care plan that he read her letter at his Rose Garden speech promoting Obamacare. Everyone was just so happy. Everyone was just so proud. Now everyone knows why we teach our children fairy tales. We teach our children fairy tales to instill in them a bit of healthy cynicism that they apparently don't learn in journalism school.
The president said Sanford's story was proof, despite the technical problems with the healthcare.gov website, that the Affordable Care Act was working. Sorry Mr. President, one of the technical problems with Washington's HealthplanFinder is it miscalculates the tax subsidies. In the end Sanford could not afford the policy but Obama was still able to come to the aid of a fainting woman after he read her letter so the event was not a complete loss.


As bad as all of this sounds it gets worse. Now, not only are Sanford and son not uninsured she must now pay a $95 penalty thanks to her good friend Barack Obama.

Healthcare.gov-If you build it, they will come?

We all remember the story about Bush the elder's supposed amazement at seeing a bar code scanner used in a department store. The story was gleefully repeated as prima facie evidence that the president had no insight into the lives of ordinary Americans. Becoming isolated from the general public is always a risk for career politicians and how Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi deluded themselves and the American public into thinking they were cutting edge ought to be a subject for historical inquiry. Indeed, they were allied with the new tech savvy president whose sole bona fides as such consisted of his ability to use a goddam telephone. Admittedly, the BlackBerry still had some sex appeal in 2009 but being able to text message is a rather low standard for computer literacy.
Why did, not once, during the raging debate on Obamacare did one person ask why the nation employed hundreds of thousands if not millions of insurance agents? Was it because career politicians such as Reid and Pelosi had never had to shop for their own insurance? They, like most Americans, belonged to a group plan that was selected for them by people who knew what they were doing and they assumed, wrongly, that insurance just sold itself. They built, or more accurately, are attempting to build an online health exchange using the Field of Dreams model. If you build it they will come.
Having had to select and purchase my own health insurance, I can tell you that the process is every bit as mind numbing as filling out a long form tax return. There were visits to the insurance agency, in my case an independent agent. There were conversations about deductibles, co-pays, maximums, and a plethora of arcane minutia. There was, in my case a physical, before all health risks except smoking were deemed irrelevant since everyone would be paying a premium that assumed they were sickly. It was not easy and it was not enjoyable but unlike the young who are essential to the success of Obamacare I had to do it and they do not.
The authors of Obamacare and the imbeciles who voted for it chose to ignore insurance actuarial data that did not fit their model. There is a very low probably that a young healthy person needs their damn policy. Rather than face that fact they included the individual mandate but set the penalty at a politically acceptable level too low the ensure compliance. To help the chronically stupid the Obama HHS hired navigators to guide people through the selection process. Does anyone really think the guy who was shaking down land lords at the behest of squatters last month actually learned the insurance business to the point he can give a would be insurance purchaser any advice that cannot be gleaned from a Google search? In essence Obamacare co-opted the entire insurance industry except the marketing divisions. The assumption that insurance would sell itself is the prime flaw in Obamacare and it will be its undoing.
 

Maria Bartiromo will go to Fox

Maria Bartiromo is jumping ship. The original "money honey" is leaving CNBC and joining the Fox Business Channel. It has been reported that Bartiromo has been job hunting as she and CNBC could not reach a contract agreement. Nothing succeed like success and Fox's profits have financed raids on it competition. Fox Business head, Neil Cavuto came from CNBC as did correspondent Charlie Gasparino. Lou Dobbs was recruited from CNN. I would not be surprised to see Larry Kudlow and Rick Santelli to eventually go to Fox.

A primary challenge for Justin Amash

I didn't think they had the stones. The establishment GOP is going after Congressman Justin Amash big time. The second term congressman from Grand Rapids is just too libertarian, won't listen to Speaker Boehner, won't vote for Paul Ryan's budget because it won't balance in this decade, and would not vote to reopen the government after the shutdown. Something else Amash does not do, he doesn't take money from K Street lobbyists and that is his chief sin. Seven deep pocketed GOP donors are backing businessman Bill Huizenga. Huizenga has raised $294,764, with PACs contributing $122,108. Amash has received only $5,000 from PACs but he is not without friends.
"We have heard that the K Street establishment wants to knock him off — and we intend to defend him punch-for-punch," Dean Clancy of FreedomWorks declared. Club for Growth has backed Amash in the past is not going away either. Nor are the Rand Paul supporters who view Amash as the lower house incarnation of Rand himself. For all its money K Street has yet to prove it can turn out highly motivated primary voters. I'll put my money on Amash.

Duncan Identifies Mainstream Opposition to Common Core

“It’s fascinating to me that some of the pushback is coming from, sort of, white suburban moms who — all of a sudden — their child isn’t as brilliant as they thought they were and their school isn’t quite as good as they thought they were, and that’s pretty scary,” Duncan proclaimed. “You’ve bet your house and where you live and everything on, ‘My child’s going to be prepared.’ That can be a punch in the gut.”
But those are Bill Clinton's soccer moms! I don't think Duncan is sufficiently schooled in the Chicago-Alinsky tactic to isolate and ridicule opponents and I don't think citing a particular demographic is intentionally interjecting race into the controversy surrounding Common Core as some on the right have suggested. What surprises me is that Duncan candidly admits that Common Core is anathema to mainstream voters which certainly makes its continuation more problematic.
Up until now critics of Common Core have been identified as fanatical right wing home schooling Christians and lesser developed homo sapiens who frequent gun shows and Hooters but Duncan put a new face on the opposition. Thank you, Secretary Duncan.

SNL Lampoons Obama

Remember when Obama was supposedly too cool for comics to ridicule? Obama jokes just weren't funny. Those days are gone. Obama and his Obamacare are the butt of every joke. Witness this lampoon from Saturday Night Live.
 

Perrysburg, Woods County sustain storm damage

Perrysburg has sustained some wind damage and much of it lost electrical power. No injuries are reported. We noticed several hits to this blog inquiring about storm damage. This all we have at this time.
13abc.com Toledo (OH) News, Weather and Sports

That's no way to treat an Obamacare pimp

While we are on the subject of schadenfreude nothing quite hits home like seeing Obamacare supporters caught up in their own hypocrisy. Did it not occur to the authors of the intolerable act, whomever they may be, that they may inadvertently snare a few members of the liberal media. To date I count 4; Dylan Ratigan, Kirsten Powers, David Frum, and Lori Gottlieb.
Ratigan is no longer a journalist. He left MSNBC to start a high tech hydroponic farming venture that would employ military veterans. He was far too smart for the MSNBC crowd. He got there by way of CNBC, the business channel, where he had both created and hosted shows. Prior to his stint a CNBC he was the Global Managing Editor for Corporate Finance at Bloomberg News Service. In other words he is more knowledgeable is business affairs than Jay Carney and Barack Obama combined and probably 40 smarter than anyone at HHS that determined his policy was substandard. He responded with a barrage of tweets and made a compelling argument as best one can on Twitter for high deductible insurance for someone in his situation.

I bought a catastrophic health policy for $170/mo when I left MSNBC. Obamacare cancelled the policy. New rate $600/mo. Thnx Mr. President!
— Dylan Ratigan (@DylanRatigan) November 8, 2013

Lori Gottlieb writes for the New York Times mostly about herself, her biological clock, her boyfriends who were never good enough, and her decision to pass on her self obsession through artificial insemination. What surprised Gottlieb was none of her friends were sympathetic to her plight. They thought she owed it to the government. Naturally none of them who thought she was being selfish had had their insurance cancelled. “The nation has been better off,” wrote one friend. “Over 33 million people who did not have insurance are now going to get it.”
She picked these friends; not you or I.
Kirsten Powers who writes for The Daily Beast and part times at Fox News was an ardent supporter of Obamacare up until her insurance was cancelled. Poor Kirsten is very upset. Yes, she believes in collective sacrifice for the greater good but it's as if someone deliberately sold her the wrong lottery ticket. It just wasn't supposed to work out like this. Newsbusters put together this video showing the before and after Ms Powers.

David Frum is a nominal Republican and a former Bush speech writer. Nevertheless he has been breathless in his awe of Obama and has written in support of Obamacare. In this clip-he appears toward the end-he hijacks Wolf Blitzer's Situation Room to spell in exact dollars the price he is commanded to pay to help the uninsured.

Schadenfreude gives me pleasant dreams. I'm not sure about Ratigan's support but the other three were down with the idea of "personal responsibility" meaning some would be visited with an unfair implicit tax. Unfortunately the above jackasses are not the typical victims of Obamacare. They can afford it; many cannot. Assuming that Powers, Frum, and Gottlieb are independent contractors they are treated quite differently than say, an editor at the NYT who makes the same money. With luck the salaried editor will not lose his health coverage. He will continue to get a tax free benefit. Depending on the cost of the insurance it will most probably be more than $10,000 per year. The independent contractor must purchase overpriced coverage with after-tax dollars.
Yes, as Senator Harkin pointed out, being forced to insure for maternity coverage after one has passed child bearing years is like paying property tax to support public education after one's children are grown. Correct, it is an implicit tax. It is visited on only a small segment of the population without regard of the individual's income or ability to pay. It is an economic atrocity. Don't worry about catastrophic illnesses driving people into bankruptcy the high deductibles are enough to drive many into short term financial ruin. Are these people better able to pay the exorbitant premiums and absorb high deductibles  than members of congress who demanded and got a $10,000 stipend supposedly to avoid a brain drain on Capitol Hill? What brains?
In the past most tax and regulatory policy has been too weak, too remote, or too diffuse to radically impact the lives of most everyday people. The modern welfare state attracted adherents who could endure all sort of suffering at the theoretical level. In the past few weeks Powers and friends have found that the beast bites. They will never feel quite the same about it again.

It's just so schadenfreudelicious

  Perhaps you remember the Aesop Fable about the person who picks up a nearly frozen snake out of mercy and nurses it back to health only to be bitten when it recovers. "Why," the person/farmer/woman cries, "did you bite me when I was kind to you?" to which the snake replies calmly, "You knew I was a snake when you put me in your pocket."

  Barack Obama is a community organizer, not a community builder; the function of such an individual is to organize what he sees as the "powerless" against the "powerful" and "advantaged." 
  The problem for America is that Obama perceives all individuals who are successful non-Leftists as advantaged. Wikipedia:

Community organizing is a process where people who live in proximity to each other come together into an organization that acts in their shared self-interest. Unlike those who promote more-consensual community building, community organizers generally assume that social change necessarily involves conflict and social struggle in order to generate collective power for the powerless.

  Obama's goal has never been to unite people, regardless what he may have said in various speeches. Our foolishness (not me, of course) has been in ever believing that Obama cares about most of the people in this country.
  What Barack Obama really cares about is himself.
  It's just remarkable that he is so blatantly and despicably obvious about hating the average middle class working person.
  It's been fascinating to watch as his work as a community organizer for Leftists all falls apart as even they turn against him.
  It's always been Obama's method to divide rather than unite people, but he's failed miserably at convincing anyone of his political acumen this last week. He's been cranking out the Kool-Aid bubbles as big and fast as he can, but only flailed as he airily bumbled his lies with more lies.
  Do Leftists not realize that half the country knew what a fraud Obamacare is from the beginning? That it would ruin health care in this country? 
  Thousands of people flooded Washington when this mess began years ago, demanding that Democrats stop what they were doing instead of selfishly wielding their power as a few hundred politicians over the hundreds of millions of people who live in this country.
  How happy they were. 
  How satisfied.
  How anointed.
  How righteous.
  Nancy Pelosi et al made a point to walk triumphantly through the crowd of protesters, laughing at them, acting the overbearing bullies they are.
  Burned indelibly in our memories is this iconic photograph:

  

  Note the carefully matched purple pumps, the laughing head thrown back in exultation, the flush of success on the tight face, the gloat of the "BFD" just passed. 

  These people chose to walk through the protesters rather than taking the tunnel that would have avoided the crowds.

  Yet CNN's Jake Tapper could not find a Democrat to discuss Obamacare enrollment numbers. 

  Well, well, well.

  Did we expect it to go down in flames so soon? 

  Not really. Leftists do a pretty good job holding things together as an organized bloc so it's a surprise that it happened so quickly and utterly .

  Even their Leftist friends in the state insurance regulatory bodies now reject the "fix" Obama proposed.

  Of course Leftists knew you couldn't keep your doctor or your policy. Of course they knew.

  They just think that all Americans are stupid, stupid enough to go along with the lies, and they could skunk away without any consequences.

  I was in a doctor's office the other day; I'm still seething from a conversation I had with a trainee who is an obvious Leftist. 

  The meme has already changed from "We didn't know you'd lose your doctor" to "Americans should have to pay maternity and pediatric care for others because it's just like paying your property taxes to put kids through school."

  Meh. Don't think that one's going to work either. It's just too stupid.

  With their usual hubris, the Obama administration did not consult with any insurance personnel before  decreeing his miraculous "fix" that would, of course, pit one group (insurance companies) against another (purchasers) and actually make things worse. 

  One hopes we survive without too much permanent damage from this presidency.

  Allow me this one moment of schadenfreude, expressed so well by Jonah Goldberg over at NRO in his perspicacious piece called "Obamacare Schadenfreudarama":

If you can’t take some joy, some modicum of relief and mirth, in the unprecedentedly spectacular beclowning of the president, his administration, its enablers, and, to no small degree, liberalism itself, then you need to ask yourself why you’re following politics in the first place. Because, frankly, this has been one of the most enjoyable political moments of my lifetime. I wake up in the morning and rush to find my just-delivered newspaper with a joyful expectation of worsening news so intense, I feel like Morgan Freeman should be narrating my trek to the front lawn. Indeed, not since Dan Rather handcuffed himself to a fraudulent typewriter, hurled it into the abyss, and saw his career plummet like Ted Kennedy was behind the wheel have I enjoyed a story more.

  I predicted this day was coming, writing that now that Obama had won a second term, we'd be able to watch Leftists' own arrogance take them over that cliff Paul Ryan owns.
  Who knows how this will end. Will it be the end of liberalism's current popularity in this country, as Dr. Krauthammer suggests? Will Republicans find an eloquent leader that can unite the country? Will citizens finally understand that this country's ominous debt has fateful implications for our way of life?
  We do not know.
  But watching the squirming as Leftists have gotten exactly what they wanted (and deserve) is, well, schadenfreudelicious.
  And so we come full circle to another Aesop Fable, one about a tortoise and an eagle, the moral of which is to consider carefully what you're asking for.
  Because of those nasty unintended consequences.

DC Insurance Commissioner Sacked After Opposing Obama's "Insurance Fix"

I suppose the new Democratic marching orders are; "Ask not what your party can do for you but what you can do for your party." What you can do for your party means to do what Obama wants regardless of your principles or the obligations of your office. William P. White, the DC insurance commissioner, was fired less than 24 hours after he questioned the wisdom of Obama;s "insurance fix". White released a statement that said in part, “The action today undercuts the purpose of the exchanges, including the District’s DC Health Link, by creating exceptions that make it more difficult for them to operate."
Friday DC Mayor Vincent Gray stated he wanted to go in a different direction meaning, of course, he wanted to follow Obama down the road to nowhere.

Thousands on Medicare lose doctors. Obama; Change is hard.

We uploaded this video on July 1, 2012. Obama was able to get reelected because the lap dog media did not take serious the $750 billion Obamacare cuts from Medicare. Finally, after the damage has begun Reuters reports that United Health Group has cut thousands of doctors form it networks leaving many Medicare patients without a doctor.

UnitedHealth Group dropped thousands of doctors from its networks in recent weeks, leaving many elderly patients unsure whether they need to switch plans to continue seeing their doctors, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.

There was some public debate about Medicare Advantage before the passage of Obamacare. What is remarkable was a legislative carve out for AARP's Medicare Plus program. AARP supported Obamacare and was rewarded and everyone else can go to hell. When politicians scramble and deny knowing that their votes are killing a program very popular with the elderly ask yourself how a tiny blog in Northern Ohio could see this coming but they could not. If you know someone pesonally who has lost his or her doctor due to cuts in Medicare refer them to the video below in which Obama explains that change is hard.

Two Newspapers Call for Repeal of Obamacare

I think many of us would follow politics just as passionately even if we couldn't vote. It's real life drama and while heroes may be in short supply there is never a shortage of villains. There is suspense and melodrama, symbolism and subtlety. Subtlety, in my opinion, is the chamber music of drama. It's the art of saying something outrageous that appears to be innocuous. Never a master of subtlety, Bill Clinton rose to the occasion with the subtle words "I personally believe, even if it takes a change in the law, the president should honor the commitment the federal government made to those people and let them keep what they've got." Under his breath he probably added that's for South Carolina you son-of-a-bitch.
To the guy lounging on the couch munching his Fritos the statement was innocuous enough and even ho hum but for congressional Democrats it was reminiscent of the Corleones accepting delivery of a dead fish wrapped in Luca Brasi's bulletproof vest. It was not innocuous. It was terrifying. It was as visceral as a gall bladder attack. It hurt. Bill was bidding farewell and leading Hillary to the lifeboat and they would be left to sink with Obama and Obamacare. The panic has ebbed a bit since the initial shock as Pelosi, ever the provost marshall, probably warned not too subtly that deserters are sometimes shot. But as panic has given way to fear, loathing, and resignation in congress, Clinton's words have been a cue to editorial writers that the time has come to finally take a hard look at Obamacare even if it is 3 years after passage.
Two papers of note took a hard look at Obamacare and found it lacking.

The Americans manhandled by this exercise in government arrogance now find themselves divided into warring tribes: Those with chronic ailments who have found new plans on Obamacare exchanges and are pleased. Those who don’t want or can’t afford the replacement policies Obamacare offers them. Those whose new policies block them from using the health providers who have treated them for many years. The estimated 23 million to 41 million people whose employer-sponsored plans are the next to be imperiled. And on and on.
Most of these tribespeople only wish their big problem was a slipshod Obamacare website. On Thursday, their plight grew more frightful. With even Democratic members of Congress storming the White House over the cancellations, Obama declared — by what legal authority is unclear — that he would overrule the law he signed in 2010 and allow insurers to extend those canceled policies for a year.

The Chicago Tribune, Obama's hometown newspaper, concluded its Stop Digging and Start Over editorial;

“Many of the Americans who heard their president say Thursday that ‘we fumbled the rollout of this health care law’ would have been pleased to hear him add: So we’re admitting it. This law is a bust. We’re starting over.”

Just to be sure Harry Reid got the message the Las Vegas Review-Journal stated in its Obamacare woes beg for repeal editorial;

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.

Replace and repeal! One would think Ted Cruz and Mike Lee or Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann had authored this piece.
In any event be grateful to Bill Clinton regardless of his motives. He started this drama.

O'Keefe's second video investigating Obamacare navigators

Presenting episode two of James O'Keefe's investigation of the Obamacare navigators. In this video another group of navigators counsels applicants to lie about their income in order to obtain health insurance subsidies.

Democratic leadership refuses to apologize for misleading public

Click to enlarge Democratic House leadership has nothing to apologize for. "I don't think there's anything for us to apologize for," said Rep. Jim Clyburn. Fair enough. They didn't say " If you like you health insurance you can keep it"? Nancy Pelosi's web page still says "Keep your doctor, and your current plan, if you like them" but Pelosi says ""Did I ever tell my constituents that if they liked their plan they could keep it? I would have if I'd ever met anybody who liked his or her plan. But that was not my experience."

106,185 Enroll in Obamacare. What a joke!

The Obamacare numbers came in a bit low. Well maybe more than a bit low. Actually they were terrible. The figures released today of 106,185 who have selected a plan but may not have yet paid a premium represents about one fifth of the number HHS had forecast for the first month. The figure is the total of the 36 states served by healthcare.gov as well as the states that run their own websites. Of that number only 26,794 signed up through healthcare.gov while 79,391 signed up on state exchanges.
The enrollment in private plans amounts to 1.5 percent of a forecast 7 million people who were expected to sign up by the time enrollment ends on March 31. In context it means it achieved 1.5% of its goal using up 23.6% of it allotted time. In contrast about 5 million have lost their insurance plan or about 50 times the number who have enrolled. Making 50 voters angry for each voter pleased is not a formula for political success.

The face of Obamacare-its only attractive feature

No the face of Obamacare did not sign up for Obamacare. She asked to have her picture removed from healthcare.gov's website because the unpopularity of the non functioning website exposed her to ridicule and cyber bullying. Evidently what she perceives as cyber bullying consists of photoshopped images of her and snarky twitter comments as she has maintained he anonymity. The lady known only as Adriana ( Miss Glitch to Obamacare cynics) is a Columbian national who has applied for US citizenship. She lives in Maryland with her American born husband and son and claims to be neutral on Obamacare.

Suddenly Ted Cruz looks brilliant

  Ho ho ho. Here we go.
  Our nation's First Black President obeyed the floodgates to criticism of the nation's Second Black President.
  Now DiFi has thrown in her support.
  And Democrats have given Obama 72 hours to fix the Stink Bomb.
  They're in full revolt, their dreams of Single Payer health care slipping from their greedy fingers.
  Does anyone really think Obama will repeal it?
  If he tries to delay any part of the law, the whole thing could go down, considering that the finances were based on lots and lots of young healthy people signing up immediately to support all us old geezers.
  Next year the business mandate goes into effect, after the 2014 elections. Another stinker just before the number two arrives.
  The rumor is that Obama will propose throwing yet more money at the people whose policies have been canceled.
  And where will that money originate? 
  Now, keeping in mind that Cruz et al tried their dangdest to stop it, what will Democrats do? 
  It was the Horror of the World that Cruz et al wanted to stop Obamacare and get our finances in order a few weeks ago but here the Democrats are proposing, um, the same thing.
  And after joking last night that Obama ought to go smoke the Toronto Mayor's crack pipe, Carville is on Kelly File tonight claiming that people lose their policies all the time.
   Meh. Who cares about 5% of the country anyway? Democrats? Anyone?
  Hey, where's that old bottle of Scotch. 
(One hopes the Republicans will push for repeal, not delay.)

Obamacare's "Hosurance"

  First we had "Brosurance," touting the joys of kegging around the hood with your bros.
  And, yes, this is your government at work.
  Which is Obamacare, of course.
  Remember this ad?
 
  Now we have something new; observers are calling it "Hosurance" because, well, I think you'll figure it out.

 

  Yeah, I know. This is hard to take. 
  Let me just repeat what the government is touting under the tag "Susie & Nate, Hot to Trot":

Let's get Physical
OMG, he's hot?
Let's hope he's as easy to get as this birth control. My health insurance covers the pill, which means all I have to worry about is getting him between the covers. I got insurance. thanks, obamacare?

   One can almost see Obama & Michelle snickering around the catered dinner table as they discussed the latest clever advertisement for Obama's signature legislation, aka the Stink Bomb. 
 Interesting that they're embracing the term "Obamacare" now, even though Hillary Clinton's husband has been sent out to establish that SHE isn't responsible in the least for the Stink Bomb that is Obamacare. Guess the Clintons are worried about her 2016 chances.
  And, really, is this Stink Bomb (if it didn't smell so incredibly bad? and hurt so many people) just sort of schadenfreuden-ish, in a way? 
  If those 14 or 15 Democrats weren't up for re-election, does anyone wonder if ANY Democrat would care what a mess this has become?
  Apparently the Kay Hagans of the Democrat Party don't remember that the coalition built to pass Obamacare Leftists of Blue Dogs, moderates and Leftists is now missing the Blue Dogs (a drop from 54 to 14 in 2010) and soon will be missing the moderates, leaving only old Yellow Dogs like Nancy Pelosi.
  Isn't it just great how the Obama administration appeals to our highest instincts, as usual?

Senator Kay Hagan Tanks in Latest Poll

RNC Chair Reince Priebus has promised that the GOP "will tattoo it to their foreheads," referring to Democrats who voted for Obamacare. We haven't seen anything quite like that since Hester lettered at Salem but the voters seem to know who is to blame even before the campaigns have begun.
Exit polls from the Virginia governors race report that only 46% of the public supports ObamaCare, while 53% were opposed, 41% strongly opposed. Cuccinelli pulled 89% of those opposed. Looking directly south, to North Carolina the latest PPP poll released today probably hit Democrats like a diuretic.
Rothenberg still rates Senator Kay Hagan's seat as "tilt Democrat" but that will soon change. If Kay Hagan does better than anybody it's Barack Obama. Her approval / disapproval numbers are upside down, 44% to 49% while Obama's numbers are 43% to 53%. Worse yet, the poll sample was 45% Democrat, 33% Republican, and 21% independent.
Hagan can console herself with the fact that she still has a razor thin lead over 3 of the 4 Republicans who are dueling for the chance to send her into the free agency pool. She beats Heather Grant 43% to 40%, Mark Harris 43% to 41%, and Thom Tillis 44% to 42%. She loses to Rand Paul backed Greg Bannon 44% to 43%. Notice she does not get close to 50% against any candidate which is an ominous sign of weakness for an incumbent.
In a national poll by Qunnipiac University, the webmaster-in-chief reached an all time low. Only 39% approve of the job he is doing compared to 54% who disapprove. Among women he's lost that loving feeling notwithstanding the free birth control pills. Only 40% like the job he is doing while 51% don't like his work. His signature legislation, Obamacare, loses 55% to 39.

James O' Keefe Investigates Obamacare Navigators

He's back again. The scourge of Planned Parenthood and ACORN, James O'keefe, defender of truth, justice, and the American way, has begun investigating Obamacare navigators. This is his first video and O'Keefe promises there will be many more to come. Government paid workers supposedly trained to uphold the law advise clients on how to lie on government forms, evade legal requirements, and ignore proper procedures to access free Medicaid or larger subsidies. Enroll America, a 501 (c) (3), seems to have a cozy relationship with with the DNC which of course is illegal but one doubts if Lois Lerner's successor at the IRS will fret too much about this. If anyone doubts that Obamacare, if it survives the rollout, will not be politicized into money grubbing bag man for the left think again.

Oh please let Todd work

One suspects that something other than modesty is to blame for Obama's Chief Technology Officer Todd Park's reluctance to testify before Congressman Darrell Issa's committee and explain the well known glitches in the healthcare.gov website that have made the Webmaster-in-Chief the laughing stock of both the political and tech worlds. Congressman Issa invited the industrious Mr. Park to give his committee a heads up on what the hell is wrong with the damn thing but Park declined the offer citing the onerous demands of his position. Congressman Issa then served Park with a subpoena. One would think this was a paternity suit. Everyone is willing to accept responsibility but not the blame.
Park is smart enough to know that this time Issa has made him an offer he can't refuse but that hasn't deterred his lackeys from fighting a rear guard action. The have set up a website, Lettoddwork.org, to collect petitions that will presumably persuade Rep. Issa to withdraw the subpoena. Good luck with that. As of 2:02 Central Standard time they have collected 614 signatures which is 100 time better than healthcare.gov did on its first day.

"Now, instead of continuing to fix Healthcare.gov (a mess he did not make), Mr. Park has to spend his hours preparing for his testimony," his underlings wrote.
Even the White House has weighed in, calling the subpoena "highly disruptive". Enough already! HHS has squandered between $200 and $600 million dollars, depending on whose numbers one uses and the idea that they would have to account for dime of it is disruptive? Who better to speak to the problem? Obama? He cleverly says he doesn't write code and evidently doesn't read law either. I wonder if the people who have had their policies cancelled and cannot find a new policy on the exchange because it doesn't work find that "highly disruptive". Maybe I'll build a website for them.

On killing the contraceptive mandate

Lost amid the Obamacare debacles that seem to blot all other news was the decision coming from the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. In a 2 to 1 decision the court shot down the contraceptive mandate. After the shooting it was bludgeoned to death by Justice Janice Rogers Brown. This lady was having none of the "war on women" propaganda which was essentially the gist of the government's case.

The contraceptive mandate demands that owners like the Gilardis meaningfully approve and endorse the inclusion of contraceptive coverage in their companies’ employer-provided plans, over whatever objections they may have. Such an endorsement—procured exclusively by regulatory ukase— is a “compelled affirmation of a repugnant belief.” That standing alone, is a cognizable burden on free exercise. And the burden becomes substantial because the government commands compliance by giving the Gilardis a Hobson’s choice. They can either abide by the sacred tenets of their faith, pay a penalty of over $14 million, and cripple the companies they have spent a lifetime building, or they become complicit in a grave moral wrong. If that is not “substantial pressure on an adherent to modify his behavior and to violate his beliefs,” we fail to see how the standard could be met.

Obama frequently use the "freedom to worship" phrase instead of the textually correct "freedom of religion" and one assumes he means that this freedom be limited to attending to church as long as one leaves one's convictions there and not inconvenience the government when it is about the serious business of granting an entitlement at someone else's expense. But the daughter of an Alabama sharecropper argued that extending a personal right to an entitlement to have one’s employer pay for such services, even when they clearly violate the religious beliefs of the individuals involved, “trammels the right of free exercise.”
Well done and well written and thank you, Justice Brown.

This is what betrayal looks like

Congressman Todd Young cites letters from his constituents to illustrate how badly Obamacare is working in the 9th congressional district of Indiana in the GOP weekly radio address.

Dumb Debbie Wasserman Schultz says Democrats will run on Obamacare

DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz says the insurance cancellations won't matter in 2014. She refers to them as transition letters as in transitioning from bad to worse. Watching Schultz caused me to wonder what if the Congress had to go to the public exchanges as do most people in the private sector. No congressman could buy into such a plan. Unless the congressman was willing to give up residency in his home state he would have to go back to his district for treatment. Of course giving up residency would also meaning giving up the office.
The exchange policies are a throwback to the HMO's of the 1990's. They offer a very limited number of providers and in most states the academic hospitals may appear, if at all, only in the gold plans. To keep cost as low as possible insurance companies have pared their networks. Patients have a very limited choice of doctors and hospitals. To quote from Edie Sundby, the stage 4 cancer victim who lost her insurance because of Obamacare;

You would think it would be simple to find a health-exchange plan that allows me, living in San Diego, to continue to see my primary oncologist at Stanford University and my primary care doctors at the University of California, San Diego. Not so. UCSD has agreed to accept only one Covered California plan—a very restrictive Anthem EPO Plan. EPO stands for exclusive provider organization, which means the plan has a small network of doctors and facilities and no out-of-network coverage (as in a preferred-provider organization plan) except for emergencies. Stanford accepts an Anthem PPO plan but it is not available for purchase in San Diego (only Anthem HMO and EPO plans are available in San Diego).
So if I go with a health-exchange plan, I must choose between Stanford and UCSD. Stanford has kept me alive—but UCSD has provided emergency and local treatment support during wretched periods of this disease, and it is where my primary-care doctors are.

Another example would be anyone living in Concord, New Hampshire, the capital city. The local hospital is not in the network of any insurance company selling on the healthcare.gov exchange. Not only is the public limited to selecting among overpriced plans but there are geographical impairment to health insurance that did not exist in the free market. Yes, Debbie, please urge all Democrats to bet their futures on Obamacare.

Obama's stink bomb

  It's pretty obvious at this point that Obama knew what a mess the Obamacare website was but refused to change the Oct. 1 launch date simply out of political stubbornness.
  How smart is that.
  Mr. Brilliant decided to moon the nation by launching the most malfunctioning website in the universe that wouldn't even pass a web 1.0 high school programmers' project just out of spite because he wanted to "win" an argument.
  A truly canny politician would have said, "Hey, I'm a compromiser and I want to work for the American people with the other side so I'm going to agree to move the launch date of the web site." 
  The media would have gushed and blabbered what a statesman he is, how mean the Republicans are and how lucky Americans are to have such a great negotiator. 
  Rumors might have spread about the truth that the website wasn't ready to launch but they would just have been rumors spread by those mean Republicans.
  Instead we have an intractable problem that has embarrassed this administration not just nationally but internationally as the world wonders what and who determines makes decisions in this White House.
  Consequently even the MSM is acknowledging the inferiority of Obama's position by playing far tinier violins than usual, while some claim Obama "does not believe he lied" even though he "apologized" to people for losing their health coverage, or that they misunderstood what he was saying. Or something.
  Leftists have been scrambling to place blame elsewhere, claiming it was really the Heritage Foundation's plan, or Massachusetts' plan or the Republican plan. Or maybe if the Republicans hadn't fought them on the mess they passed so we could see what's in it then the mess would have turned out better than it did.
  Or maybe it's Americans' fault for not supporting Mr. Brilliant's ideas or train of thought.
  Here's a deliciously self pitying, blame shifting rationalization of a column over at Vanity Fair, where a sympathetic writer says "Behind Obama’s lie, our own immaturity: We can't handle the truth."
  In addition to the implication that we are to blame for the panderer-in-chief's lie, we learn that if only we as a nation would understand that really good health care requires all of us who work and/or have some sort of income stream not generated from their neighbors to pay for Sandra Fluke's contraceptives, we'd be "mature" enough to handle the unfortunate "reality" of the Obama government's plan to take over 1/6 of our economy:

With high premiums, higher deductibles and poor benefit options, these plans often could barely be considered insurance — and weren’t available to those with preexisting conditions. That these Americans would not be able to keep their plans was not a bug of Obamacare; it was the point.

But, of course, this means that some Americans would not only lose their plans and access to their doctor, but in the case of particularly healthy individuals, reform could yield higher premiums. Beyond that, reforming such a huge chunk of the U.S. economy necessarily leads to often unanticipated changes for millions of Americans.

Acknowledging that reality would have been the honest thing to do. So would asking healthier and wealthier Americans to sacrifice for the greater good of ensuring every American have health-care coverage.

But doing so would have opened Obama and his democratic allies up to the charge that Obamacare would lead to widespread dislocations — and made the path to reform that much politically harder to traverse.

Indeed, this is precisely the argument that was made by Republicans who regularly — and untruthfully — charged Obama with seeking a government takeover of health care, among other ills.

  Oh, so that requirement that all insurance policies cover maternity, Cialis and birth control ISN"T a government takeover of health care, in case you were thinking it was. Republicans who charged that were "untruthful."
  Obama's solution to at least 5 million people losing their insurance is to throw yet more money at the problem, subsidizing even more people to quiet the panic people feel and get past the coming elections.
  I was in a doctor's office the other day, talking to the people taking my information about the new requirements. I said I shouldn't have to pay for others to have maternity benefits; each person is an individual and to require everyone to pay for others' birth control should not be my obligation.
  Immediately one of the workers parroted the Harkin line that has been put forth this week as justification for so-called insurance"inequities," saying, "Paying others' maternity benefits is just like paying property taxes. It should be just like supporting children in the local school district. We all need to do it."
  Of course, I argued. It was amusing how quickly an awkward silence ensued.  
  A few years ago I would have done nothing of the kind.
  This stink bomb is just beginning to smell up the place.
  It's about time we start pointing it out. In public.

Woman's password given to 3 others by healthcare.gov

Both Senator Dianne Feinstein and Congressman Mike Rogers have expressed concern about the lack of security on healthcare.gov but to no avail. The Obama administration has obdurately refused to address concerns relative to the safety of confidential user information entered by prospective insurance customers. Now, in what is probably the beginning of countless data breaches, a St. Louis woman's password has been give to three different people. Hellava job, Kate.

 

Dylan Ratigan has health insurance cancelled

I bought a catastrophic health policy for $170/mo when I left MSNBC. Obamacare cancelled the policy. New rate $600/mo. Thnx Mr. President!
— Dylan Ratigan (@DylanRatigan) November 8, 2013

Former MSNBC host Dylan Ratigan has had his insurance cancelled thanks to Obamacare. Now self employed, Ratigan left MSNBC to become a hydroponics greenhouse farmer. It seems that Ratigan was being exploited by what Obama terms a “substandard” insurance policy. The whole individual insurance market in which Ratigan shopped was a scam according to Jay Carney.
“And that market has been like the Wild West. It has been under-regulated, it is the place where Americans have most keenly felt the challenges posed by the insurance system in this country.”
Poor Dylan Ratigan. What would he know about money and insurance? The former Global Managing Editor for Corporate Finance at Bloomberg L.P., Ratigan has developed and launched more than half a dozen broadcast and new media properties. They include CNBC’s Fast Money and Closing Bell, as well as DylanRatigan.com.
Naturally Obama and Sebilius  are far more informed than anyone with Ratigan's background.
 

Only Dems up for re-election "care" about the peasants' woes

  Like the example of the frog stupidly sitting in increasingly hot water, we've become inured to bizarre behavior in the five years (and before) of the Obama administration.
  Why would we want to throw trillions of dollars at "stimulus" programs that did nothing but grease the palms of Obama bundlers?
  Why would we want to throw money at banks, at phony solar companies, at fairly new cars so people will buy even newer ones?
  Who would think that grifter Al Sharpton would be a confidential presidential advisor?
  Now here we are at the brink of the destruction of our health care system.
  Republicans did not sign the law; they fought hard for years to prevent this law from taking effect.
  Suddenly certain Democrats whose numbers are up are getting nervous, joining those whacky Republicans to protest the details of what's happening in the country. Nervous enough to question the bill they couldn't bother to read when they passed it.
  A woman wrote of her gall bladder cancer in the WSJ last week: a White House official mocked her, claiming she was ignorant of why her insurance was canceled.
  Now that's real sympathy.
  Even loyal OFA supporters have had their insurance canceled to be replaced only by enormously more expensive plans that cover less of the necessary and more of the unnecessary.
  We descend further into the bizarre.
  Tom Harkin today said this:

HARKIN: Now, I must say there was a story the other day in the paper about somebody who said, “Now I got — I have to take this policy that covers maternity care. My wife and I are not having more children. Why should I have to have a policy that covers maternity care?” I got to thinking about that. I thought, you know what? Maybe because my wife and I do not have any more children and they are grown up, maybe I should not have to pay property taxes to pay for my local schools. Huh? Why should I worry about it? Maybe only people who have kids going to the public school should pay for it. We are better than that in this country. We are talking about being part of our society. It is to our benefit, my wife and I, to support our local schools because that is our next generation, we want them well taught. Same with health care. It is a values system.

  You can watch it here, if you so desire. Just remember that the Leftist groups are saying this weenie "destroys" the argument that we all should pay for everyone else's maternity care, as if most of America hadn't already had health insurance when Democrats decided to ruin it.
  It's not like we're not already paying for half the world's maternity care so no, Mr. Harkin, that IS who we are and we are better than that.
  We just don't want to pay for Sandra Fluke's contraception, Joe Blow's Viagra and Shawty Lo's 13 baby mamas. Oh, wait. We already are since Shawty Lo was arrested for failure to pay child support.
  What's so galling about this bunch of crooks is that only now when their voters are angry and some Democrats may not be reelected have they gone to the White House to demand that something be done. 
  These despicable creatures suddenly feel highly motivated to demand that something has to be done, dammit, for all those peasants out there who are coming after them with the proverbial pitchforks to which the Puppet President previously referred years ago.
  Even more despicable are the vile and wretched pampered elite Democrats who can't be bothered to worry about flyover country because they're too busy being chauffeured around from one dinner date with lobbyists to another. 
  Where are they?
  1 + 1 still equals two.
  The only Democrats who appear to be concerned are the ones up for re-election.
  Did I mention they're contemptible? reprehensible slimy worms who deserve to go back to living underground?
   Apparently it hasn't occurred to these bimbos that if we decide to pay for cute little Sandra's personal contraception there won't be any funding  left for people who are actually sick?   
  Unlike the Fed, hospitals are limited in resources.
  Yeah. Gotta feeling the Tea Party's gonna grow from here on out.
  How do we explain to our children that we've also mortgaged the nation's future, dooming it to have to make some hard decisions later?