Unbelievable story about enemas

  This is one of the most disgusting stories I have ever heard.
  This story is so disgusting let's put a break in here in case you don't want to read on. Spare yourself. Or read it and be really, really glad you don't live in New Mexico.

Post election analysis

  I was pulling for Cuccinelli to win in Virginia but resigned to the fact that the Obama/Clinton machine would roll over him like the rest of the United States.
  And, yes, the shady McAuliffe did win the gubernatorial race in Virginia.
  The bad news is that a win is a win, no matter how they got it, something Leftists have excelled at for decades. 
  That shouldn't be too happy about that dirty win over Cuccinelli who is accused, of course, of being "too radical" by wanting smaller federal government, a balanced budget and believing that the feds should keep their noses out of all our local business.
  Today the RINOs, moderates and WSJ editors are admonishing Republicans not to run conservatives since Christie won handily and Cuccinelli lost.
  The WSJ accuses Tea Partyers of stabbing Cuccinelli in the back by pushing the government shutdown.
  Apparently the WSJ hasn't figured out yet that the government shutdown was over flagrant spending and the Obamacare debacle to come.

•   Virginia is a part of the D.C. machine, so the shutdown most affected Virginia voters, who blamed it on Republicans.
• Democrat dirty tricks were everywhere, including robocalls asserted false claims about Cuccinelli and a fake "appearance" by a Cuccinelli look alike, speaking in his name.
•   It was pretty obvious that the national RINO Republicans ignored Virginia. This is the divide to come between those of us who want fiscal sanity and the RINOs in charge of the party.
•   McAuliffe and the Obama machine outspent Cuccinelli ($34 million to $14 millon). 70% of the money that poured in from around the nation came from outside Virginia, including from Bloomberg's  gun control group. Do not discount the impact of money in a campaign. We watched this happen in Ohio with SB5 which would have altered unions' relationship with bargainers. The unions started early with tv campaigning, yard signs and bumper stickers. They were everywhere 5 months before the election, yet we heard almost nothing from those who supported abolishing fair share fees. Neither Republicans or conservatives are good at this, preferring to wait until the month before the election when opinions are already formed.
•   The "libertarian" candidate who drew 6.6% of the vote away from Cuccinelli was funded by an Obama bundler. This tactic was attempted in Michigan; they got caught. Why did no one on the Cuccinelli side catch this? Was it because the Republican establishment simply did not concern itself with the race?
• With the "libertarian" candidate garnering 6.6% of the vote, Cuccinelli 45.4% and McAuliffe 48%, that's not exactly an overwhelming mandate the way the Left has been crowing in the past few weeks. That the race was even this close was remarkable. How about looking at it this way? McAuliffe, who is being investigated for a number of shady deals, couldn't get above 50%. How is this the blowout the MSM anticipated? Together opposing votes outweighed McAuliffe by 4 percentage points.

  This race was winnable by Republicans, the mainstream establishment of whom ignored Cuccinelli.
  I know one thing.
  When the voters in Virginia start wailing about gun rights, taxes and Obamacare, they will get no sympathy. Though many workers may be safe from the reaches of Obamacare because they are part of a union which will not ruin their health care until after the next election, many others will suffer the consequences of a McAuliffe reign.
  After all, McAuliffe didn't think Obamacare went far enough.

Impact of the Puppet Presidency, Pt. 2

  This morning we have in the WSJ the story of a cancer fighter....someone who has stage 4 gallbladder cancer since 2006.
  Her story is worth reading, since it will be one of many to come, at least in the "alternate" media. Perhaps even CNN will be interested in covering these stories, since lives are at stake.
  Here is an excerpt:

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.

Before the Affordable Care Act, health-insurance policies could not be sold across state lines; now policies sold on the Affordable Care Act exchanges may not be offered across county lines.

  But Obama didn't know the real world repercussions of cutting insurance plans in favor of government plans that force 70 year old men to pay for maternity benefits and children's vaccinations.
  It's fairness, after all.
  What's shocking is the cavalier unconcerned brush-off these people are getting.
  According to Jay Carney, it's only a few people. Only 15 million. Peh.
  And Obama has been quick to target, isolate and ridicule/demonize the plans of which he does not approve. They're "bad apples," just like anyone who doesn't agree with him. 
  Anyone who doesn't agree with Obama is "ideological," unlike the puppet president, whose strings are apparently being pulled by Valerie Jarrett and who knows who else.
  Though he claims to know nothing about the corruption plaguing his administration, ("I saw it on the news") he somehow has found time to go golfing more than any other president. Most successful people don't go golfing as much as Obama does.
  Many of us have been wondering for years whether this president is intentionally trying to destroy this country or he is incompetent. 
  Now it is appears he is both, since he doesn't not seem to know exactly what is happening and who is in charge.
  So Valerie Jarrett and who else is running this country?

NWOCC local candidate endorsements

NW Ohio Conservative Coalition

             10/31/13

ENDORSEMENT OF CANDIDATES FOR NOVEMBER 5 ELECTION 

The Northwest Ohio Conservative Coalition (NWOCC) is endorsing the following candidates for elected office:

TOLEDO
Mike Bell - Mayor, Toledo
Sandy Spang - City Council, Toledo
Bill Delaney - City Council, Toledo
Tina Henold - Toledo School Board

PERRYSBURG
Jim Matuszak - Perrysburg City Council
Sarah Weisenburger - Perrysburg City Council
Sue Larimer - Perrysburg School Board
Cal Smith - Perrysburg School Board

ROSSFORD
Robert Densic - Rossford City CouncilTiffany Densic - Rossford School Board

"We feel these candidates will help promote fiscal responsibility and conservative principles in local government", said Linda Bowyer, Chair of the NWOCC board.

Additionally from NWOCC:
  To our supporters, NWOCC offers the following recommendation when at the polls:
Many communities are electing numerous seats, and recommend you only cast votes for candidates you want.
   EXAMPLE - Toledo residents can vote for up to six City council candidates.  However, If you only like Spang and Delaney,  then vote ONLY for those two - do NOT vote for 4 more candidates just because you can vote for up to 6.
   Same with the TPS Board.  You can vote for up to 3 candidates,  However we recommend voting only for Tina Henold, and leave the other two blank.
    We encourage voters to be informed voters.  Do your homework on the candidates and make your own decision.
    Thanks for your continued support of the NW Ohio Conservative Coalition.  Visit our webpage at www.nwohiocc.com. A complete list of upcoming events is available at www.toledoteaparty.com.

Ideological president complains about ideology

  So Obama's been complaining about people who "operate ideologically."
  Well, that's rich. I suppose I don't have to list the reasons.
  Like when he interferes with police investigations and complains the cops acted stupidly.
  Or he takes a side in a trial, identifying himself racially with one race while disparaging the other.
  This was at an appearance for the crooked Terry McAuliffe, an appearance that is most probably illegal since McAuliffe is under investigation by the DOJ and DHS.
  One wonders how those investigations will turn out, considering the non-ideological puppet president's appearance in McAuliffe's interest.

The Impact of the Puppet Presidency

  We've been watching the absurdity of Obama's feckless policy for five years; now we see the fruition in the lives of every day Americans.
  You don't have to be a Tea Partyer to be angry about the mess he's created.
  It's obvious at this point that the Obamacare plan was designed to fail. The more people who lose their insurance policies, the more will--presumably--sign up for Obamacare.
  Except it's not really turning out that way.
  Many folks are going on to Medicaid.
  Young healthy people will stay on their parents' policies as long as they can--until 26, as inconceivable as that may seem. Those decisions will have repercussions. Will they live with their parents until then? The unemployment rate for the ideal youth market is over 17%. Many live by working several part time jobs, or not working at all.
  What impact will the lack of success for young people have on the housing market? With all those baby boomers entering retirement age, will they be unable to downsize their houses because fewer buyers will be on the market? 
  Obama's most faithful believers--the young and minorities--may still cling to their determination that he is an effective leader, even after a disastrous five years.
  And they are the most affected by Obama's policies. 
  It's apparent that not only is Obamacare designed to fail, it's spectacularly destructive of American policy and security.
  It's not just that the website coding is BAD; it's that the policies are horrendous. 
  One small article that went almost unnoticed this week was the revelation that numerous incorrect phone numbers were on the Obamacare website, directing users to call private businesses rather than the "navigators" who are "trained" to help them.
  So how did that happen?
  In addition to other problems--untrained and unsecured navigators, no promise of privacy, unworkable coding, onerous regulations that strangle the insurance market and bounce people off their plans, excessive cost and so forth--someone wrote the wrong phone numbers on the website.
  How is that a mistake? It had nothing to do with HTML, but rather the competence of the individuals supplying the information to the coders.
  Impossible!
  And yet Obama has no idea that any of this did not work.
  We've had videos of Obama showing us how to log onto government websites, yet he knows nothing about the nightmare website.
  Saw it on the news.
  Obama knew nothing about the NSA spying.
  Nothing about Fast and Furious.
  He knew nothing about the IRS intrusion into conservatives' political and personal lives.
  He knows nothing about the IRS harassment of businesses who support conservative causes.
  He knew nothing about Benghazi, in fact, was mysteriously absent the entire evening.
  Gensert at American Thinker enumerates the things Obama didn't know here:

Well...after the IRS targeting of political opponents, the NSA spying on everyone -- including the tapping of the German Chancellor's cell phone, the Fast and Furious dead, Solyndra and all the other crony capitalist backroom deals, the Pigford payouts, his $6 trillion addition to the national debt, the 13.6% U6 unemployment rate, the increase in food stamp and disability rolls, the Benghazi dead and the cover-up, the Syria embarrassment, the racial divisiveness, the doubling of the price of gasoline, and now, Healthcare.gov, people are starting to realize a thing or two about Mr. Hope and Change.

  But:

The shutdown of our government, while seemingly detrimental to Republicans in the short run, will be a blessing going forward.  The MSM did conservatives a favor by making sure every American knew that the Republicans shut down the government in an attempt to defund ObamaCare.  As the ACA touches the lives of every American and the anger builds, they will remember who tried to stop it.

The nail in the coffin of progressivism is ObamaCare.  After all, it is a law that penalizes almost everyone, while simultaneously ruining the nation's healthcare system.  So staggering will its failure be, and its failure is inevitable, Hillary Clinton may be forced to run in 2016 as a small-government conservative.

  Kudlow says it's the end of the entitlement dream.
  Henninger at the WSJ says yes, that's true.
  Ponnaru at NRO says conservatives need to take advantage of the moment, not just bewail the state of affairs but rather working at "persuading and electioneering."

Effective political movements create the conditions for their own success. Conservatism has not done enough of that, but when it has prospered it has never been moved by despair. The apocalyptic style of politics holds that the future of the country is at stake. That is true, which is why conservatives need to get to the work of persuading and electioneering — and drop the fantasy of a shortcut.

  I ran into an old soldier the other day, a prominent local businessman. We discussed the sad state of politics which concluded with his comment that a lot of hurt was going to happen for a lot of people before they figure out reality and what's right.
  That part is already happening; as Gensert says, it was Jimmy Carter who ushered in the Ronald Reagan.
   Maybe then, as he says, we can "stick a fork in Obama.
  And it's the impact of the Puppet Presidency that will reverberate for years to come. 
UPDATE: And right on cue, David Gregory chides Axelrod for not keeping Obama from lying making such a tactical error by lying  making a pledge he couldn't keep, as if Obama doesn't have a mind of his own.

eet the Press host David Gregory went after former Obama advisor David Axelrod Sunday morning, asking why he didn’t stop President Barack Obama from making the “if you like your health care you can keep it” pledge, as he was a crucial White House figure at the time.

“You were in the White House,” Gregory said. “You were advising the president on the kinds of things he should say. Why did not you, or somebody else, say, ‘Mr. President, don’t say no matter what you’re going to keep your health care.’ That’s why you’re there!”

  The editors at the New York Times, otoh, won't even admit Obama lied, but rather chides the public for ever even owning such tawdry insurance policies.
  One can almost even see the turned up noses and curled lips of the elite even now, as they conferred over the subject of the inadequacy of our insurance policies.
  Wonder if those editors have figured out they may not be exempt from insurance policy cancellations.

Dealing with Democratic grief

Now, while we have a few hours waiting for healthcare.gov to get back online, we may want to reflect on the stages of grief. I'm not large on grief counseling but as I understand it the first stage of grief is denial. As in "I could not have been so stupid to have ever considered voting for something as idiotic as the Affordable Care Act." The Great Healthcare Giver who signed the ACA and who is probably just perceptive enough to see the impending implosion of his dream legislation is beginning to sound like a My Pillow commercial. Years ago he saw the problem and decided to do something about it. People are distrustful because they have been lied to by big pillow companies. Just replace Obamacare for My Pillow and the insurance industry for big pillow manufactures and you have his speech.
As Congressmen and Senators, many from deep blue states, hear from voters whose health insurance policies have been cancelled denial will give way to anger. Some of the more grief stricken Democrats have already reached the anger stage. They are angry at the 36 states that told them to sell their own insurance and refused to set up exchanges. They are angry House Republicans who are not interested in any bipartisan effort to resuscitate the dying ACA. Soon they will be angry with Kathleen Sebilius who everyone knew in 2010 was tasked with an impossible task incompetence notwithstanding. It is everyone's fault but theirs. Angry voters have begun to remind them that they built this deathtrap and the Republicans don't own a bolt in it. They own it all. All the lost coverage, all the premium increases, all the broken promises and all the grief. These are the same people who applauded the Obama campaign when it blamed the death of a woman who lost her insurance on Mitt Romney. Even Democrats should be sharp enough to know that not everyone who loses coverage under Obamacare will be healthy and able to pay the exorbitant premiums created by Obamacare. Small consolation that one can keep the deadbeat kids on the policy until they are 25 when one doesn't have a policy. When dealing with grief and anger it should be remembered that public anger trumps congressional anger.
Bargaining is the third stage of grief. Usually the grief people mean that the grieving want to bargain with God. They will go to church every Sunday until their deaths if God will just restore things to their previous state. Of course Senators and Congressmen think they can deal with the Almighty on equal footing. "Hey God, have I got a deal for You. Suppose I give you the firstborn of all my constituents and three Freudian wishes and you make this Obamacare thing go away." When the Almighty is not receptive they will want to deal with mere mortals. They will soon want to delay everything until after the next election. Republicans should tell them that that ship has sailed. Ted Cruz and Mike Lee did their level best to save their careers but there are limits to what they can do for people who didn't want to help themselves.
Depression, the fourth stage of grief, is often so pervasive that every interaction with the world produces anguish. Every time one reads a Gallup poll he is sickened. The sight of Scot Rasmussen can bring tears. Thoughts of the 2014 elections can cause incontinence. Sean Hannity's voice can induce vomiting. It can be dreary.
Acceptance brings serenity. Some of the fast grievers have already reached acceptance. Senators Baucus, Harkin, Johnson, Levin, and Rockefeller have accepted the inevitable and will be spending more time with their families. Expect several congressional Democrats to follow suit. We'll hear things like, "I've promised the wife that we would spend a year touring the country in our new Winnebago" or "ever since college I really wanted to be a cocktail waitress." Be kind to them, they know the voters won't.

Kathleen Sebilius gets no respect

There's one in every crowd. Tennessee State Senator Brian Kelsey presented Kathleen Sebilius with a little gift while she was in Memphis for some go to hell Obamacare event. Notices the smiles of appreciation. The book is entitled Web Sites for Dummies.

93,000,000 May Lose Healthcare

“The Departments’ mid-range estimate is that 66 percent of small employer plans and 45 percent of large employer plans will relinquish their grandfather status by the end of 2013,”
Up until now all the attention has been focused on the 12 million in the individual market. Jay Carney dismisses this number as insignificant and Obama actually ridiculed the policy holders who had their plans cancelled with his "let them go shop" speech in Boston. According to the Congressional Budget Office, 156 million Americans—more than half the population—was covered by employer-sponsored insurance in 2013. Forbes computes that as many as 93 million Americans will lose the insurance plans that they liked and were promised they could keep. How will 93 million angry voters react in the 2014 mid term election? One can see why the the rollout of Obamacare was set to follow Obama's re-election but Congressional Democrats had better get used to the idea of martyrdom. It is my opinion that Obama and the Democrats intended to wreck the insurance industry. The loss of 93 million policy premiums may cripple some of the smaller firms but it's better that having a portfolio of chronically ill policy holders. Had not Republicans captured and held the House this would have probably played out like the worst of TARP and the GM bailouts with the government in control of the healthcare industry. As it is now there will be a steady stream of reports of cancelled insurance plans from now until election day. And it will get worse. If the younger, healthier population does not buy into this fraud, and it seems it is not, insurance rates will accelerate as the rates reflect the actuarial realities of a sickly insurance pool and just prior to election day policy holders will face sticker shock for the second time in two years.

6 people enrolled in Obamacare Oct. 1

  So you may be wondering why the CMS administrator Tavener being grilled by the House was smiling a sly Mona Lisa smile when asked how many people enrolled in Obamacare.
  Well, now we know.
  As of 10/2, 6 people--that is SIX PEOPLE--had enrolled in Obamacare.
  Total.
  Nationally.
  Delaware signed up 1 by October 16.
  Arkansas had signed up 7 and that revolutionarily progressive state of Wisconsin had signed up a whopping total of 50. That's FIFTY.
  This probably explains why Medicaid enrollments are soaring.
   I predicted we'd be watching a progressive crackup of arrogance and overreaching grabbing of personal liberties. So here we go.
  But wow.
  This new info is quite--uh--unbelievable.
  Except that we know what this president is capable of.
 

Oregon Ducks Obamacare

"I think we're in really good shape here in Oregon. Do we have some problems? Yes. Are we concerned? Of course. But I believe we'll come through this very well," says Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber.
What do you imagine really bad shape looks like? 
The news account actually says of the governor, "He acknowledged there are technical problems with the website." Technical problems you bet! Oregon has yet to enroll a single person in Obamacare which, I suppose, from from some points of view is laudable but that wasn't its stated goal. The website is more challenged than healthcare.gov as the governor is hoping to have CoverOregon up and running by December 1, leaving applicants a full 15 days to avoid violating the individual mandate. So far 22 people have filled out paper applications.
Meanwhile, The Associated Press reported Wednesday that about 150,000 Oregonians enrolled in individual health care plans will see their plans canceled by the end of the year because the plans don't measure up to Obamacare standards. As far as death panels are concerned Oregon is ahead of the curve. It is the only state in the union to have a two year waiting period on transplants for previously uninsured people but that bit of forward thinking and cost saving may be negated by Obamacare.
No train wreak here!

Tom Ridge and his and his lack of civility and statesmanship

Speaking at a gathering of the Log Cabin Republicans’ Spirit of Lincoln dinner former Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge demonstrated why more Americans identify with the Tea Party than RINO Republicans as pointed in the previous post.

“Sometimes we [Republicans] just come across as too damned self-righteous, and I’m sorry, that’s just not the 21st-century political party GOP that I think we need to govern America,” Ridge said.
“Many Americans are outraged by the moralistic attacks on the gay and lesbian community from some within our party,” Ridge continued, lambasting what he called “the narcissists and ideologues within our party” who promote an “offensive and exclusionary view,” as well as an “unacceptable rigidity and self-righteousness on social issues.”
As Ridge attacked the pro-life and pro-family community, he simultaneously lamented a “lack of civility and statesmanship” in the political arena.
Pro-life activists, Ridge said, “forget about separation of church and state” and participate in activities that are “consistent with what a church may propose but should not necessarily be at the epicenter of governing.”
“God-fearing” people, Ridge continued, could also support abortion and homosexuality. Those who opposed abortion and same-sex marriage, he said, “should be more concerned about their own relationship with God.”

A “lack of civility and statesmanship”? Where was Governor Ridge when a White House National Security Staffer called Sarah Palin's family "white Trash"? Where was Governor Ridge when Ann Romney's multiple sclerosis became a theme for late night comedy? Where was Governor Ridge when, as the chief executive of the Keystone state, he allowed Kermit Gosnell to perform mayhem on the unborn without one single inspection of his abortion mill? His dereliction of duty and disregard for his oath of office was so egregious that the grand jury that indicted Gosnell felt compelled to mention the governor's failure to uphold the law.

Pennsylvania is not a third-world country. There were several oversight agencies that stumbled upon and should have shut down Kermit Gosnell long ago. But none of them did, not even after Karnamaya Mongar’s death. In the end, Gosnell was only
caught by accident, when police raided his offices to seize evidence of his illegal prescription selling. Once law enforcement agents went in, they couldn't help noticing the disgusting conditions, the dazed patients, the discarded fetuses. That is why the complete regulatory collapse that occurred here is so inexcusable. It should have taken only one look.

The first line of defense was the Pennsylvania Department of Health. The department’s job is to audit hospitals and outpatient medical facilities, like Gosnell’s, to make sure that they follow the rules and provide safe care. The department had contact with the Women’s Medical Society dating back to 1979, when it first issued approval to open an abortion clinic. It did not conduct another site review until 1989, ten years later. Numerous violations were already apparent, but Gosnell got a pass when he promised to fix them. Site reviews in 1992 and 1993 also noted various violations, but again failed to ensure they were corrected. But at least the department had been doing something up to that point, however ineffectual. After 1993, even that pro forma effort came to an end. Not because of administrative ennui, although there had been plenty. Instead, the Pennsylvania Department of Health abruptly decided, for political reasons, to stop inspecting abortion clinics at all. The politics in question were not anti-abortion, but pro. With the change of administration from Governor Casey to Governor Ridge, officials concluded that inspections would be “putting a barrier up to women” seeking abortions. Better to leave clinics to do as they pleased, even though, as Gosnell proved, that meant both women and babies would pay.

The fact, that as governor, Ridge ran his state worse than a third world county, at least in the estimation of the grand, jury speaks to his concept "statesmanship". Countless innocent women and unborn children paid a very high price for his cheap hypocrisy.

Obama is upside down in latest NBC/WSJ poll

The government shutdown and the disastrous Obamacare rollout have driven Obama's numbers to a new low in the NBC/WSJ poll. Only 42% of respondents, approve of the job he is doing as opposed to 51% who disapprove. Not only does the public not much like the job he is doing it doesn't much like him either. For the first time in this poll, Obama’s personal ratings are upside-down, with 41 percent viewing him a favorable light and 45 percent viewing him negatively. The poll of 800 adults-not registered voters-was conducted from October 25 to October 28, meaning that the impact of millions of Americans losing their health insurance and Obama's frequent lies that they would not is not factored in to the results. His approval rating of 42% represents a 5 point slip since the last poll.
Yes, he came through the shutdown better than House Republican but not overwhelmingly so. Interestingly the Tea Party Republicans in Congress came through the battle better than the generic House RINO's and not much worse for wear than the exalted leader himself. If the last NBC/WSJ poll was a wake up call for the Tea Party this poll should be a wake up call for everyone else.


In a Rasmussen Poll of likely voters 42 % think the Obama’s views are closest to their own when it comes to the major issues facing the country. But just as many again, 42% say their views come closest to those of the average Tea Party member instead. Thirty-four percent (34%) now believe their personal views are closest to those of the average member of Congress when it comes to the major issues of the day. But slightly more (36%) say their views are closest to those of the average member of the Tea Party.

Chris Matthews suddenly hears about Benghazi

OMG did Obama lose Chris Matthews? I guess after 5 years that thrill up the leg thing feels like a urinary tract infection. In any Matthews went off the MSNBC reservation in a big way. After a year of ignoring the Benghazi raid Matthews suddenly went ballistic.

“My interest is on facts, and the questions I have about this are what was the State Department’s role in real-time, not beforehand, but at the time of the attack in defending the lives of their people, especially the U.S. ambassador, who was a friend, a friend of the Secretary of State’s, Hillary Clinton? What was their actions, what was the tick-tock? What did they do when they got the warning of the attack?”

Time’s Jay Newton-Small questioned whether, considering help was so far away, it could have arrived in time but Matthews was having none of that.

“I’m going to ask you something,”shrieked Matthew in his usually shrill voice. “If that was your brother or father in there, would you say that’s an acceptable response? ‘Oh, it’s probably over by now, it’s no good to send anybody.’ Or would you say, ‘I don’t care if it’s over or not, I’m going to collect the bodies if nothing else. I’m going to get there and show I cared.’ That’s what I’d do.

CBS; 2 million will lose insurance under Obamacare

The adoring media has long overlooked Obama's penchant for prevarication but very recently it seems to be having a come to Jesus moment. When CBS reports that it has confirmed that 2 million Americans have lost the health insurance owing to Obamacare notwithstanding presidential assurances to the contrary that is noteworthy. As we move to the 2014 mid terms congressmen from the bluest of blue district are reflecting upon the wisdom of voting on unread legislation. CBS's figure may be at the low end of the scale. One estimate predicts 16 million will be forced to find new insurance coverage. It would be bad enough if the loss of insurance was evenly distributed across the country but it is more apt to be concentrated in some states more than others. In those states voter outrage is apt to do mayhem to congressional careers.

It's Time to Neuter the NSA

I suspect Edward Snowden's biggest challenge these days is keeping a straight face. Slowly and reluctantly the Washington political class has put aside the personal attacks on him and in spite of themselves have directed their attention to the rat's nest of unchecked surveillance he uncovered. Early on, the Washington insiders suddenly seemed out of their depth as they woefully misjudged the public's reaction to the fact that were being spied upon. Many of these pols and pundits had formed their opinions and infatuations of the intelligence community during the cold war. They regarded the NSA as benevolent entity, that, like a spirited horse or playful puppy could get out of hand from time to time but with proper handling could be a positive force for national security, drug interdiction, and tax collection. Congressman Justin Amash and Rand Paul who were both young men when the Berlin Wall was demolished are not enthralled by the nation's ability to vacuum up huge quantities of data on its citizens and view the NSA in a less sanguine aura. They see it as the lap dog of the modern police state.
The latest revelations concerning the NSA's surveillance of American allies including the tapping of Chancellor Angela Merkel's personal cell phone elicited the same ho-hum, "boys will be boys" response not just from the Obama administration and its vassals in the media but from Washington conservatives whom I usually trust to be informed. "Everybody does it. We just do it better. I would be concerned if we were not doing it." There is a very finite limit to my patience and what little trust I still had of these pundits following the domestic spying revelations has turned to contempt for their thinking on this matter. After all, it took Rand Paul to point out that there might be something wrong with giving the intelligence community, in this instance the CIA, the discretion to assassinate American citizens using unmanned drones. We never heard any criticism of this police state tactic from the sagacious panelists who grace the Sunday talk shows.
Yes, in a hostile world spying is a necessary evil but listening to the confidential and personal calls of a head of state that is allied to this country borders on the prurient. The German Chancellor has every right to be livid as do the allied European heads of state whose populations have been subjected to the same collections of metadata that outraged American citizens.
As my partner rightly points out Obama seems to pride himself on being the least informed person on the planet Yes, the Presidents wakes up in a new world everyday boasts Jay Carney. He's almost oblivious to knowledge. I'll concede the point that the President knows very little but on this matter the German publication Bild states that even Obama's ignorance has its limits and he was informed in 2010 that the NSA had compromised Merkel's secure phone. From the Daily Mail;

‘Obama did not stop the action at that time but allowed it to continue,’ said an intelligence official familiar with the NSA operation against Merkel image on Sunday.
'Obama did not stop the action but rather furthered it,' said the Bild informant.
'The reason for the action?' said Bild. 'Obama wanted to know exactly who this woman was.'

Or maybe he wanted to know what kind of beer she and hubby drank with their brats.
Far from being a non story this events may present one of the biggest challenges for an already challenged administration. By denying any knowledge of the Merkel spying the White House inadvertently raised a troublesome question. Congress had not been privy to this information, and if the White House was not, just who was running the foreign surveillance program? Miffed at being left out of the loop and maybe wondering if the Obama White House was spying on her, Senator Dianne Feinstein may be about to let her sense of duty get in the way of her partisanship.

The White House has informed me that collection on our allies will not continue, which I support,' said Feinstein.
'But as far as I’m concerned, Congress needs to know exactly what our intelligence community is doing. To that end, the committee will initiate a major review into all intelligence collection programs.'

She continued;

'it is clear to me that certain surveillance activities have been in effect for more than a decade and that the Senate Intelligence Committee was not satisfactorily informed. Therefore our oversight needs to be strengthened and increased.'

Exactly how far DiFi is willing to go or how mean she can be when she feels slighted is of course unknown but what is known is that not every member of the Senate Intelligence Committee is a big NSA fan particularly Senators Ron Wyden and Mark Udall. Marco Rubio also sits on that committee and he may want to try to refurbish his once solid reputation for being an anti establishment reformer. Who knows? Even Indiana's silent Senator Dan Coats may want to establish some credibility with the folks back home. For the most part I'm pretty skeptical that the Washington establishment will find the courage to do what needs to be done but any restraint on the NSA would be a blessing for the country.

Obama "didn't know" Merkel's phone was tapped

  What did he know and when did he know it?
  Those are always the questions when a president's administration gets caught doing something illegal, untoward or politically uncomfortable.
  In this administration, one wonders when the public will get tired of hearing the excuse, "Obama didn't know__________."
  First we are to believe that Captain Courageous famously ordered Seal Team 6 in to kill bin Laden; indeed, it was upon this cornerstone that Obama claimed competence and a right to be re-elected. 
  How many times did we hear him and his acolytes boast at the DNC convention, " Blah blah blah and Osama bin Laden is dead!" as if he personally flew in the helicopter to descend, hero-like, onto bin Laden's compound and grabbed the notorious criminal.
  Later his best buddy Reggie Love was to inform the public that Obama and he had instead tucked themselves far away from the madding crowd to play cards because Captain Courageous was afraid to watch what was happening. (Thus the famous photo in which Hillary has her hand over her mouth and Obama looks pasted in, his tiny head above a golf jacket shrunk down below the men around him. 
  Now we are facing the debacle that is Obamacare and, once again, we are hearing the "Obama didn't know" meme.
  Obama was never told that the website wasn't tested; he didn't know it was going to bomb. After all, they only had 3 1/2 years to build the website and if they'd had FIVE years, it would've worked.
  Today the "Obama didn't know" item is that he had no idea the NSA was bugging Angela Merkel's phone; this information is released to the gullible American public in light of weeks and weeks of unrest and dissatisfaction with Obama's lack of confidence. 
  A Google search of "Obama didn't know" returns over 300 million.(Interestingly one of the very last items is an Africa Today article that dates back to 2004 with the headline "Kenyan born Obama all set for U.S. Senate) 
  Here are some of the most frequently searched headlines:

obama didn't know about bin laden raid
obama didn't know the mic was on
obama didn't know about petraeus
obama didn't know national debt

obama didn't know he lost debate
obama didn't know the microphone was on
obama didn't know his mic was on
obama didn't know how many states

    Now that 60 minutes has actually reported on Benghazi, maybe some truths about Obama's pernicious administrating will emerge.
  How do you deny that he is either incompetent or malicious?
  I have come to believe that he is both.
  It's becoming increasingly difficult for the Obamabots to deny.

AP to Obama spokesman: Nobody believes you

  Breitbart has video of an AP reporter actually questioning the most obnoxious Obama employee evah, Marie Harf.
  He confronts her, saying it's apparent YOU believe what you're saying but nobody in the world is buying the Obama shtick anymore.
  One look at the Drudge Report headlines the last few days affirms what the AP reporter has suddenly noticed.

Israel Warning on Iran bomb
Iran announces 34 new nuke sites
FT: USA is Superpower at Risk of Slippage
Confidence in Dollar Shaken
USA Considers No-Spy Deal with Allies
21 Nations Line Up Behind UN Effort to Stop NSA

  This is an autoplay video which won't embed but you can watch it here over at Breitbart.

CGI. What's in a name?

CGI Federal is one of those important sounding names. It conjures up images of well built young men in trench coats flashing their badges, while looking resolute and in control.

"We're federal agents from the CGI, ma'am. Nothing to be concerned about. We just need to ask you a few questions."
"The CGI! Oh my God! You mean the Clinton Global Initiative?" God! What have I done?"
"Not that CGI ma'am."
"Then it must be the Common Gateway Interface. Of course. The tinted windows on your SUV are a dead give-away. But I don't know anything about gateway drugs and I scrapped my Gateway 2000 computer in 1999 to dodge the Y 2K catastrophe."

Actually CGI Federal is the US offshoot of the Canadian registered CGI Group. The CGI Group has the unique distinction of being fired by not only the government of Canada but by the Province of Ontario. One supposes that when competent Kate Sebilius was browsing through the yellow pages to find someone to build an awesome new website for Obamacare she didn't exercise due diligences by checking them out on Angie's List, Consumer Reports, or the Better Business Bureau. Maybe she reasoned that since cgi is a standard method used to generate dynamic content on web pages and web applications the name said it all. Actually the origin of the name is French Canadian, Conseillers en Gestion et Informatique. Then again, maybe Kate is a Francophile and thought of Chanel, Dior, and Yves Saint Laurent and reasoned building an interactive website would be child's play for the same great people who gave the world the lobster dress. In any event, she screwed up.
Mark Steyn details CGI's failures in one of his always great posts at NRO. Their most famous, or rather infamous, government project was for the Canadian Firearms Registry. Liberal governments always know clever ways make costly programs sound cheap. In this case every long gun in Canada would be registered for the out of pocket expense of only $2 million dollars. Registration fees would generate $117 million and CGI would build the the registry for $119 million. The rosy projection was off by a factor of a thousand. Before the Harper government euthanized it, the program cost Canadian taxpayers $2 billion and the cost per registered firearm had grown from the estimated $4.60 to $300. Worse yet Canada’s auditor general reported that the database often omitted important information such as names, addresses, and types of firearm. CGI was hired by Ontario to build a database for diabetes. That's just one disease in one province. After spending $46 million Ontario scrapped the project.
The Daily Caller reports that the senior vice president of CGI Federal, Toni Townes is a Princeton classmate of Michelle Obama. That hardly proves anything untoward and it is reassuring that Michelle has classmates from Princeton who remember her unlike Barack who has no classmates who remember him from Columbia.CGI's history of incompetence perfectly qualifies it for a leadership role in the Obama administration.

Obamacare's “Interesting, academically, but not very useful.” website

“Interesting, academically, but not very useful.” Those are the words of John McAfee, founder of McAfee anti-virus software and the subject is the Obamacare website. McAfee contends that healthcare.gov is running a denial of service attack against itself. A typical denial of service attacked is perpetrated when thousands of "bots" are surreptitiously deployed on computers throughout the internet (even your own). At the appointed time they begin "pinging" the targeted server. The server must answer each "ping" with its internet address. As thousands of bots ping hundreds of times a minute the server can only reply to the pings, not allowing any other functions to occur. Eventually the server shuts down.

Now the HHS promises that healthcare.gov will be up and running by the end of November, two month into the rollout. That maybe too optimistic. It may never be ready. Don't think of this as like rebuilding an engine or framing a garage. It's more like working a Rubik's Cube. Each change to the software has the potential to create another glitch. Software tech Bruce Webster makes this observation;

The reason for that thinking is that on a small scale, this is what often happens with a program — it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work, and then you fix that one last bug, and boom! it works. (Ask any Computer Science undergrad, such as my daughter Crystal.) The problem with large, complex software is that each bug you fix usually just uncovers some number of new bugs that you weren’t encountering before. (This is also the problem with performance improvement on large systems: when you discover and fix the worst performance bottleneck, you merely uncover the next performance bottleneck.)
But wait! It gets worse! It is well- and long-known in software engineering circles that any change to a program’s source code runs a measurable and not-insignificant risk of introducing new bugs (or re-introducing old ones). This is why thorough regression testing — in effect, re-running all your existing test scripts again after each code change — is so important, particularly in the late stages of system development. Without rigorous regression testing (and source code change control, limiting who can make changes to code and when they are allowed into the system), you can in effect be chasing your tail for months without achieving a stable acceptable system.

He continues; Which is exactly why I see so many large IT projects that never stabilize — lots of work is done, lots of bugs are fixed, and yet it never gets any closer to being able to go live.
One doubts if Obama will let the damn thing drag out until the 2014 elections and any decision is going to be deemed too early, "give 'em a chance" or too late "told ya so". He may be setting his party up for repeat of 2010 only much worse. One thing is certain. The media has forgotten all about the shutdown and liberal Democrats have filled in for Tea Party Republicans, calling for a delay of the individual mandate. Don't they known it's the law of the land, passed by Congress and upheld by the Supreme Court?