IT’S BACK: The public option is alive and well, but hidden.

[T]he public option is alive and well, residing in Section 1334, pages 97-100, of the new health care law. That section gives the U.S. Office of Personnel Management — which presently manages the federal civil service — new responsibilities: establishing and running two entirely new government health insurance programs to compete directly with private insurance companies in every state with coverage for people outside of government.

Quoting the new law, former OPM director Donald Devine notes that it makes the OPM boss a health care czar, with power to set “‘profit margin premiums and other such terms and conditions of coverage as are in the interest of enrollees in such plans.’ That’s open-ended. You can do anything.” Dan Blair, another former OPM director, calls the new program “nothing but a placeholder for the public option.” Indeed, the OPM head is also given the authority to “appoint as many employees” as needed to run the program, and to spend “such sums as may be necessary” to establish and administer it.

And it’s not going away until every single one of the congresscreatures* who voted for this Obamanation goes away.

*I can’t bring myself to call them “congresscritters” any more – it’s an insult to dumb animals.

SURPRISE, SURPRISE: States' tax collections falter, widening budget gaps.

CONFRONTATIONAL? WHO, ME? CONFRONTATIONAL? New Jersey Governor Chris Christie defines “confrontational” for inquiring reporter.

It’s about time.

Linked from Hot Air.

MORE GOOD NEWS ABOUT OBAMACARE: No, you can't keep your health plan.

More here.

AMERICA IS NOW A CAMPUS, and Obama is our Dean.

Instapundit disagrees. I might go along with Glenn Reynolds [Instapundit] if the Dean in question was a Dean of Engineering.

ISLAM? WHAT ISLAM? Mark Steyn has a few choice comments.


Mallard Fillmore concurs.

PREPARE FOR THE WRATH of the angry voter.

It should be interesting after the polls close tonight.

IS IT UNFAIR TO SAY that the Obama administration consists of a bunch of anti-American ignoramuses? I can only echo John Hinderaker’s comment: “unfreakingbelievable.”

LOS ANGELES CITY COUNCILMAN blasts Arizona law for the same provisions currently in the California penal code. “Kerry Picket at the Washington Times interviewed Los Angeles City Councilman Ed Reyes, who said that he would need his passport to travel in Arizona ....”

Follow the link to the Washington Times interview for details. This comment sums it up pretty well:

In the interest of consistency, the City of Los Angeles should, in addition to boycotting Arizona, also boycott Californina as well.

Let’s forget the border fence with Mexico; put one up between the U.S. and California instead.

AT THE WASHINGTON POST they are all in favor of diversity. Except, of course, opinion.

The Capehart post is here.

LAWYERS LINING UP for class-action suits over oil spill. And if you don’t think that money is coming out of your pocket, you must be a liberal.

A SUPER-DIVIDED TUESDAY. The Washington Post’s E.J. Dionne strikes (out) again.

Yessiree. The Democrats are ideologically diverse (ranging from far left to extreme left) while the the Republicans are “opting for ideological purity” as “more-conservative-than-thou.”

The lens that Dionne and those of his ilk see through is so narrow that anything to the right of his focus is on the fringe. As a friend once said about another liberal: “He’s so far out on the left that the middle of the bird looks right wing.”

HOW LONG UNTIL ICELAND IS SUED for not controlling its volcanoes?

A THOROUGHLY DISGUSTING PERFORMANCE: “A clearly frustrated President Obama on Friday said that the system for preventing accidents like the April 20 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico ‘failed badly,’ while calling the ‘blame game’ among oil executives at Senate hearings this week ‘a ridiculous spectacle’."

This by the man who started the “blame game” himself.

Mr. Obama, until the leak is completely and thoroughly plugged up, if you don’t have something constructive to say, please shut up.

The first order of business is to plug the damn leak. The second order of business is to clean up the mess. The third order of business is to find out what happened – and how it happened.

The last order of business is to assign blame, and Mr. President, as an engineer with 30+ years of experience, I can assure that there will be plenty of blame to pass around, and some of it will be on your watch.

I can say with absolute certainty that when the final report is written, it will be shown that the explosion and subsequent events will prove to have been caused by a number of mistakes, errors of judgement, communication lapses, mechanical failures and unanticipated problems, some serious, most not so serious, that had they occured in a different sequence would not have resulted in a catastrophic failure.

There will be a valuable lesson to be learned from the Deepwater Horizon explosion: leave the ’blamestorming’ for last. That the lesson will be learned is unlikely.