OUCH!

GOVERNMENT FRAUD, WASTE, AND ABUSE: Head of scandal-plagued FMCS to resign.

When one reads about fraud, waste, and abuse, the word 'government' should be taken for granted. Linked from Instapundit.

LIES, DAMN LIES AND OBAMACARE:

I’m no constitutional expert but it sure looks to me as if at least two branches of the Federal Government – branches that are supposed to provide checks and balances to keep each other from overstepping their bounds – committed fraud by perverting the truth and subverting the constitution to get Americans to give up some of their rights.

Let me tell you something, folks. We’ve seen this sort of leadership behavior before. We’ve seen it at companies like Enron, WorldCom, Tyco, and Adelphia. If you’ve ever wondered what makes powerful executives commit fraud, the answer is simple. They think they’re above the truth and the law. They think they know better. And they think they can exert their will over others without being held to account.

When that happens, it’s called absolute power, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. That’s what I think we’re seeing here. The organization of our federal government into three unique and autonomous branches was supposed to keep this sort of thing from happening. It didn’t. It failed.

Read it all.

NEWTOWN: Adam Lanza's civil rights were fully protected; his victims, not so much.

MORE: the failure of politically correct 'solutions'.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: The Obamacare Ten-Step Self-Help Program.

One correction: "What was once bothersome is now just boring ...." should read "What was once bothersome is now really pissing me off ...."

NO SURPRISE as Millennials abandon Obama: "The abysmal and pathetic launch of healthcare.gov is simply the cherry on top of a shit sundae Obama’s been whipping up for the kids."

Read the rest.

CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER: The US-Iran nuclear agreement is ‘the worst deal since Munich’.

As an astute observer at another weblog noted: “Obama sent back the bust of Winston Churchill. Do you think the Brits have a bust of Neville Chamberlain they could lend to the White House?”

FAMILY OF ARMED ROBBERY SUSPECT annoyed that bystander shot him. They should be happy - he survived.

THE FATAL CONCEIT OF OBAMACARE: not knowing what you don't know.

The only wonders are that there are still those who maintain that this socialist monstrosity can still work and that so many Americans have been willing to give up their precious personal freedom and turn their lives over to arrogant, pretentious, and deeply confused bureaucrats and politicians in Washington.

Read it all.

COMMON SENSE ON COMMON CORE: "[T]he core requirements of higher education ... tend to be either non-serious or so diffuse that they are neither 'common' nor a 'core'. Why should the watery 'guidelines' for Common Core be much different than the higher ed slop?"

Read it all.

IF YOU LIKE YOUR CANCER, you can keep your cancer ... but not your health insurance, doctor, or hospital.

INSTAPUNDIT: Big government self-derails.

Opponents of big government should take a cue from environmentalists, and seize every available opportunity — and there will be many — for legal monkey-wrenching.

Republicans, please take note.

JACK DUNPHY: Something strange is happening in D.C. If he's right, it'll soon be time to break out the popcorn again.

BEWARE OBAMACARE: When you enter the Healthcare.gov web site you have no reasonable expectation of privacy.

I wouldn't touch ObamaCare with a 12-foot pole, no matter what the potential subsidies. As a matter of fact, I'm getting very worried about Medicare as well.

REDISTRIBUTION is something Democrats believe in. Private property is private only if the government owns it.

Something I noticed long ago in our National Parks.

HEH: "The Obama administration has privately encouraged health-care advocacy groups to limit promotion of HealthCare.gov next week to reduce an influx of traffic when the site becomes fully operational."

Nothing like telling Americans that 'fully operational' means one customer at a time. Go get in line....

UPDATE: Don't enroll, please.

VERONIQUE DE RUGY: Debunking the myth that ObamaCare has already cut healthcare costs. One simple chart:

THE UNTOLD STORY of what happens when 'Dirty Jobs' meets 'angry acronyms':

The hidden cost of compliance is so hidden — I don’t know how big it is, but the people I talk to over and over, every single industry — from big, heavily regulated industries like mining to all forms of construction — it’s crushing.

I did a special called ‘Safety Third,’ because the whole ‘safety first’ mentality was creating a kind of counterintuitive — it was fostering complacency, at least on my crew. And so all of the mandatory things, all of the compulsory meetings, everything we had to do wound up making us less safe. And so that became a thing.

Read it all.

OBAMA DONORS want him to 'basically nullify Congress'. Wait, hasn't he already done that?

ALMOST 80 MILLION with employer health care plans could have coverage canceled.

Could? Will.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON examines the fundamental axioms of the Progressive 'reality world'.

AL GORE GOES VEGAN. Probably to increase his greenhouse gas (methane) emissions.

BULLET TRAIN hits brick wall. Only pieces remain.

EXPECTED: Confusion surrounds Iran nuke deal. Let's hope Congress can pressure him enough to toughen the sanctions.

YOU MIGHT LOSE YOUR DOCTOR, but don't blame ObamaCare. Blame the insurer for complying with ObamaCare's regulations instead.

I'LL DO WITHOUT INSURANCE before I'll do without cigarettes: "ObamaCare may have backfired in its goal of making smoking so expensive that users quit, public health experts say, as sky-high insurance premiums force smokers to drop coverage altogether."

Another collision between the real world and the 'reality world'.

BREAKING NEWS: Turkey to be pardoned today. No, not the President, the Presidential turkey.

OLD PROMISE: Healthcare.gov will be fully operational by November 30th. New Promise: Healthcare.gov will, er, work better than it did by December 1!

TECH TOPICS: Athlete’s Cap Sends Out Alerts About Head Injuries. I can see it all now: tort lawyers on the sidelines while the referee checks his wireless tablet after every play....

SMART. REALLY, REALLY SMART: First we force insurers to cancel our health insurance policies, then we pay them to un-cancel them. In terms of brains, the Obama administration is five beers short of a six-pack.

At least five beers....

BOEING SOLICITS BIDS for 777X production site: Alabama, California, Missouri, South Carolina, Texas and Utah are among the interested states. The Seattle machinists union must be getting a bit nervous about now.

US-AFGHAN SECURITY PACT in jeopardy as Karzai makes new demands. The U.S. should take him at his word and start immediately withdrawing troops and funds from Afghanistan.

COLORADO OBAMACARE ENROLLMENT ‘barely half the state’s worst-case projection’.

Much more here.

KEEP YOUR PLAN.

DOWN GO THE TEMPERATURES, and away go the bureaucrats to the Caribbean.

Being a control freak member of the ruling class is sooo demanding....

OBAMA CALLS CONGRESS the ‘biggest impediment’ to his agenda. Right now it's the only impediment to his agenda.

THE FLIM-FLAM MAN EXPOSED: All you need to know is in the video.

AS ISSUES LOOM IN D.C., Obama heads west to raise cash.

Well, fundraising is all he's good at....

IEEE ROUNDUP: Is the Smart Grid Secure, Safe, and Private?

Safe? Yes, if you believe it's safe to hold a cell phone to your ear several hours a day. Secure and Private? Assurances to the contrary, not so much.

OBAMACARE and liberal cruelty:

So we have the Obamacare Democratic Party that earned the respect and loyalty of [those who] ... want the government to help them and everyone with everything -- jobs, school, health care, food, arts, science, what you are allowed to drive and wear and eat and do, even what light bulb to buy. They think government is capable of doing these things. Worse, they think government can be trusted to do a capable and a fair job. And they are willing to pay for it with their freedom.

They want the government to take over more and more of our lives, in order to take care of more and more able-bodied adults. They want the government to have the power to throw people off the bridge, because it will be for the greater good.

Read it all.

LOOK! MORE SQUIRRELS: What comes next as Obamacare ruins Obama's presidency?

GOOD NEWS: 'Do-nothing' Congress on track for one of least productive years ever. With luck, next year will be better even less productive.

OOPSIE! Ad Pushing For Boeing Jet Uses Airbus Plane In Picture. An "embarrassing, cringe-worthy error."

OBAMACARE is forcing people into Medicaid. But it's not a death panel. Oh, no. Never.

NEWT GINGRICH: The Death of the Senate.

HEH: US got Iran talks strategy from Disney School of Diplomacy.

OLD NEWS: Obama Administration Delays Next Year’s Enrollment Period Until After the 2014 Midterms.

Just a reminder that it was done illegally, by administratio fiat.

OBSESSIVE/COMPULSIVE? Don't read this.

Linked from Instapundit.

MOTHER JONES: What if rich people got more votes? Well, for one, we might have a wealthier society.

NEW WORDS I'VE FOUND ONLINE:

fustercluck
underbusing

Creativity.

YES. NEXT QUESTION: Did HHS’ Healthcare.gov Project Chief Lie to Congress About Healthcare.gov’s ‘Anonymous Shopper’ Function?

THAT HIGH? Only 4 in 10 think Obama is a competent manager.

UPDATE: Yesterday I posted this:

SPEAKER JOHN BOEHNER attempts to sign up for ObamaCare. He fails, even on his gold-plated website.

TODAY FOX NEWS reports that he has succeeded in signing up: Boehner seeing his premiums double, deductibles triple under ObamaCare.

ADD A NEW WORD TO YOUR VOCABULARY:

From my email.

FIVE WAYS to judge if ObamaCare is really working. Talking Points Memo presents the optimistic case. Here are my thoughts.

Who signs up for insurance?

It's well understood that a significant number of the so-called 'young and healthy' must sign up in order for ObamaCare to succeed. TPM is optimistic, but the California signups and the Administration's refusal to provide demographic data from the Healthcare.gov experience suggests that TPM's optimism is indeed optimistic.

How affordable is that insurance?

The continuing anecdotal evidence suggests that 'sticker shock' is at least as bad as predicted.

Do people get to keep their doctor, as Obama promised?

Anecdotal evidence again suggests not, as do the much more restrictive insurance networks. In my own case, our family practicioner is moving to a concierge practice in January.

How competitive are the marketplaces?

Anecdotal, but in Prince William County, the answer is not competitive. The last time I was able to check the exchange, there were only about three insurance companies and perhaps 10-12 offerings. Only one was a PPO; the rest were HMO's.

Will more states expand Medicaid?

TPM is optomistic, citing Medicaid's initial rollout in the 60's, but I doubt ObamaCare has 10 years to overcome those initial doubts.

Conclusion: ObamaCare isn't working; it will collapse and eventually be repealed.

COMPLETELY LEGAL ... and we've eliminated the middleman.

STACK 'N PACK: The Left's big plan for how we should live.

Yes, how dare those 'little people' use our precious fossil fuel to move away from our control?

UPDATE: More via Instapundit.

END AROUND: HHS program to let users circumvent HealthCare.gov. It has the added benefit of diffusing the sticker shock (but of course that was never even considered by the Obama administration).

AFTERMATH of the Duke lacrosse rape case. Crickets ... the Group of 88 and their enablers sail blithely on.

I blogged about it earlier here.

IF IT DOESN'T COLLAPSE FIRST: Yes, ObamaCare can be repealed.

Or more likely, after it collapses on the rest of us.

SPEAKER JOHN BOEHNER attempts to sign up for ObamaCare. He fails, even on his gold-plated website.

ENROLL AMERICA: This Conversation Never Happened.

Lawsuits. Better, where are the tar and feathers?

PC PATROL TURNS ON ONE OF ITS OWN: ‘Progressives’ merciless as left-winger dares to use forbidden language. Here's what the Washington Post's Richard Cohen wrote to incur the PC wrath:

People with conventional views must repress a gag reflex when considering the mayor-elect of New York — a white man married to a black woman and with two biracial children. (Should I mention that Bill de Blasio’s wife, Chirlane McCray, used to be lesbian?) This family represents the cultural changes that have enveloped parts — but not all — of America. To cultural conservatives, this doesn’t look like their country at all.

After being attacked by the PC Patrol, Cohen wrote:

I don’t understand it. What I was doing was expressing not my own views, but those of extreme right-wing Republican tea party people. I don’t have a problem with interracial marriage or same-sex marriage [my emphasis added].

Actually I would be stunned to find that Cohen had met any Tea Party member outside his own own fevered imagination.

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO SIX SIGMA? Federal bureaucrats get it right on four out of five payments and we're supposed to cheer?

As a minor note, 80% is only a skosh better than one-sigma.

JUST A REMINDER: ObamaCare's fraud and lies. Lawsuits are needed, and the Republican political action committees should be all over the airwaves doing battlefield preparation for the 2014 mid-terms.

PRESIDENT: ObamaCare doesn't work, so we'll rebrand it and sell it as the 'Affordable Care' act. Unfortunately for him, feces don't sell well, even when they're called roses.

MEGAN MCARDLE: Obamacare's Creative, Or Illegal, Rule-Making. Old news, but it reminds me of the never-asked question: Why isn't the federal government getting sued over these obviously illegal actions? [Obvious answer: the government is too damn powerful. -Ed.]

Linked from PowerLine.

REMEMBER THESE beautiful red trees? Now they're beautiful dead (well, at least dormant) trees.

Pictures will resume next spring when the cycle begins anew.

OH MY GOD: Now sports are being threatened by global warming. Please say it isn't so....

NO APP FOR THAT: Expensive new wrinkle in LA schools’ iPad fiasco. The software company involved, Pearson, is apparently the same company that makes the gradebook software (that doesn't work consistently) that my wife uses at her school.

NO PAIN, NO GAIN: How much pain do you want to suffer? Of course it's not pain if you enjoy the result.

ANOTHER RUBE SELF-IDENTIFIES: Hey, we tried to tell you, but you voted for Obama anyway.

MIKE ROWE: You don't have to go to college. "But you do need to learn something and work hard."

GYNECOLOGISTS run afoul of panel when patient is male.

Umm ... Okaay, then, would it be 'within the rules' to treat gay men? And 'outside the rules' to treat lesbian women? Is gynecology gender-specific? Or sex-specific?

And who treats pregnant men?

EPIC FAIL: Parents reveal insane Common Core worksheets. I would hate to be a hiring manager in another ten years....

YOU NEED TO GO TO UNIVERSITY FOR THAT? Elon University is offering a self-pleasure course to teach students how to masturbate. Is it a lab course? Coed?

IF YOU OPPOSE OBAMACARE, you must be racist.

The Affordable Care Act can be construed as a transfer of benefits from Medicare, which serves an overwhelmingly white population of the elderly -- 77 percent of recipients are white -- to ObamaCare, which will serve a population that is 54.7 percent minority.

Hmm. Ignoring the fact that a 54.7% majority isn't a minority, isn't ObamaCare supposed to be serving (I use that term advisedly) all Americans?

Read the rest for a complete takedown of this idiocy.

CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET OFFICE: Ending U.S. Human Spaceflight Program Would Save Billions.

It would also end the near-term commercialization of space, which is likely the real goal.

THE IDEOLOGY OF DIVERSITY:

As a wholly owned subsidiary of “multiculturalism,” these seem to me a few of the tenets at its core:

(a) outcomes must be equal among racial and ethnic groups, except when they accrue to the advantage of a racial or ethnic “minority” (including women);

(b) disparate outcomes among racial and ethnic groups represent some form of institutional bias to be rectified by government action;

(c) all cultures are equal, except for that of the United States, which is eternally guilty of racism under (a) and (b) above;

(d) the expression of views disagreeing with (a) through (c) must be suppressed or, if it cannot be suppressed, must be stigmatized as “racist.”

From PowerLine.

TO ACHIEVE THE HOLY GRAIL OF SOCIALIZED MEDICINE: Why Did Obama Lie About Health Care?

VANCOUVER: No more doorknobs allowed.

The change might seem curious at first glance, but Tim Stanton, professor and director of the University of British Columbia, said that Vancouver’s interest in regulating doorknobs likely comes from something called “universal design.”

This is the concept that society should be as open and accessible to as many people as possible.

So, when it comes to doorknobs — which could be difficult for some people who have disabilities to operate — putting this theory into practice would mean coming up with something like a lever that is more usable to a greater portion of society.

Vancouver's cats will be very happy.

And a reminder to petty bureaucrats everywhere: you can't do just one thing.

COMEDY, THEN AND NOW: Then was better.

IT WAS A LIE and we all knew it. But it was for your own good that we lied.

And we'll push back the employer mandate enrollment until it's too late for you to do anything about it.

BUT IT WASN'T SUPPOSED TO APPLY TO US: Democratic Hill staffers complain about ObamaCare.

Tough. You bought it, you paid for it, you own it. Now live with it.

UPDATE (& bump): Gold-plated Hell.

"IF YOU LIKE YOUR HEALTH CARE PLAN, you can can't keep it. Period."

BREAKING NEWS: The Tea Party dates back to 1963.

MORE: "I had no idea Lee Harvey Oswald was a Tea Party Republican."

ARRIVING UNION STATION: India sends technology team to fix HealthCare.gov.

From my email.

NOT A GOOD SIGN:

DELUSION OF LOGIC: the 'reality world' writ large.

WAS THE OBAMACARE 2015 ENROLLMENT PUSHBACK a ploy to hide higher premiums? Of course. Just as disabling the 'anonymous shopper' feature in the current Healthcare.gov web site is designed to hide sticker shock.

THREE GUESSES; the first two don't count: What kind of person disses the Batkid?

DUKE LACROSSE LIAR now has a new title: convicted murderer. Have any of Duke University's Group of 88 commented on the conviction of their cause célèbre?

PRESIDENT OBAMA sees ‘silver linings’ in economic clouds. "He also sees unicorns in the Rose Garden, elves in the Oval Office, and Faeries under his bed."

OBAMA DEMANDS Americans give up liberty to prop up ObamaCare.

But of course the rules only apply to little people....

AUTUMN LEAVES VII: Here's the last photo in this year's 'Autumn Leaves' series until the first snow (which may be soon if the weather forecasts are even remotely correct).

Even the trees in the back have begun to surrender to the inevitable, with only a few 'bitter clingers' still hanging on. Last week's photo is here.

Down the street, the 'bitter clingers' are having better success, but are finally succumbing to winter. Here they are today:

Only last week they were still mostly green but by midweek the change was well underway.

Winter is enroute. Today's high (48 degrees) has already passed and the winds are already picking up speed as the cold front moves in.

AT LEAST Jimmy Carter was a micromanager. Obama lacks even that dubious distinction.

RHETORIC DOESN’T KILL PRESIDENTS. Leftists who don’t like people with differing opinions do.

OREGON HAS ZERO OBAMACARE ENROLLEES ... but they've got a really neat video.

NEW YORK TIMES: We were for it (the filibuster) before we were against it.

FIFTY YEARS AGO TODAY John F. Kennedy was assassinated. I was nineteen at the time, in my second semester of college after a six-month 'work phase' that took me to Europe and the Far East (Okinawa). I was going to lunch at the school cafeteria when the campus suddenly quietened and everyone knew that something bad had just happened. Kennedy's death was announced just moments after I arrived at the cafeteria.

Here are some thoughts on the assassination and the assassin from Kennedy historian Edward J. Epstein.

More context here.

MEMS [MICRO-ELECTRO-MECHANICAL SYSTEMS] MAKERS want to put even more sensors in smartphones for total situational awareness.

The $64 question is "Whose situational awareness?"

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: The Politicization of Everything.

What, then, is the Obama legacy? An insidious politicization of almost everything. Obamism has become a holistic concept of “fundamentally transforming America” that, like all ideologies, cannot be assessed solely by concrete laws and policies, but rather through a change in the mentality and spirit of Americans and those who govern them. Obama early on emphasized in messianic fashion that his hope-and-change agenda was not to be adjudicated by traditional metrics, but involved a cosmic transformation of hearts and minds: “I am absolutely certain that generations from now, we will be able to look back and tell our children that this was the moment when we began to provide care for the sick and good jobs to the jobless; this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal.”

[snip]

What energizes this effort at holistic transformation is real anger at the perceived unfairness of the current democratic capitalist state—what Michelle Obama once referred to when she characterized America as “just downright mean.” Most of us unfortunately are unaware of these tensions in our otherwise “uninvolved, uninformed” lives. Indeed, in the words of former Energy Secretary Steven Chu, we are mere adolescents “just like your teenage kids” who “aren’t acting in a way that they should act.” The government defines “should”; the people do not.

The antidote has been for Obama administration technocrats to reexamine the way Americans go to the doctor, borrow money, pay their taxes, secure their borders, protect their country, explore space, and contemplate the weather. In each case, it turns out that someone wealthier and more privileged than the majority has done something wrong. The remedy is to provide more power and money to an all-knowing government elite who alone has the wisdom and morality to make things fairer by making them more equal.

Linked from Instapundit. Read it all.

OBAMACARE METAPHOR? Jumbo jet to take off from short runway.

Unlike ObamaCare, this takeoff will ... go smoothly because the jumbo jet doesn’t have square tires, a computer system routed through HealthCare.gov, Kathleen Sebelius in the pilot’s seat and the president of the airline continuing to promise “if you like your longer runway, you can keep it.”

No problems.

POOR BABIES: Wait, Obamacare is hurting students at my Ivy League school.

In their 'reality world' actions don't have consequences. Too bad they don't actually, you know, live in their 'reality world'.

DID YOU KNOW that eating or even talking about a peanut butter and jelly sandwich could be considered racist?

Do you think -- as I'm beginning to -- that sending your child to public schools might be considered child abuse?

TAKE TWO ASPIRIN and call me in three years.

NEWT GINGRICH: “Poised for a Breakout”–- from Obamaism.

TECHNOLOGY: Natural Gas Sets Off a Distributed-Energy Boom.

Interestingly, Instapundit has linked to the same article.

OBAMACARE’S NEXT HIT: Doctor pay. We already have a doctor shortage; many already refuse to accept or limit Medicare/Medicaid patients, and others are leaving for concierge practices (mine included) or just leaving medicine altogether. And this clown thinks the solution to our health care problem is to cut their pay.

It's hard to believe even a committed Leftist can possibly be this stupid.

PROGRESS: ObamaCare website taking slightly longer to crash for users than it did before.

TOILET TECHNOLOGY [slide show]: More than everything you wanted to know.

CHANNING TATUM from '22 Jump Street' spoofs Jean-Claude Van Damme's epic split in Volvo commercial.

HATE GOOGLE? Microsoft has some ‘Scroogled’ goodies for you!

Microsoft's Bing is no better; every week or so I have to 'remind' it not to remember my searches.

GOING TO MARS: Billionaire Dennis Tito plans manned mission with possible 2017 launch.

In response to the 'why bother?'comment: Because it's there.

GREGORY KANE: Oprah Winfrey is delusional about racism, white and black.

Contra Winfrey, racism will die only when liberalism is consigned to the ash heap of history.

REJECTIONS HAVE CONSEQUENCES: Alabama officials wooing Boeing aircraft plant.

FIGHTING BACK: Even the insurance companies are making fun of ObamaCare.

FAT PILOTS no longer welcome in the cockpit. Truth be told, the problem is one of excessive automation and lack of pilot training in emergency procedures. However obesity and sleep apnea is a much more compelling politically correct narrative.

HEH: ObamaCare scandal spreads to liberal activist groups who peddled it.

Those who live by the sword lie die by the sword lie.

OBAMA POSES AS LINCOLN, evokes Gettysburg while Obamacare crashes. And yet he couldn't find a few hours in his schedule to attend the 150th anniversary of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address on Nov. 19th.

Hypocrite.

ALEC BALDWIN OUT AT MSNBC? In an odd way, I hope not. Keeping the deranged bigots in one place makes them easier to track.

AT LEAST ONE DOG has successfully signed up for ObamaCare.

ON THE IMPORTANCE of 'four score and seven'.

UH OH! WATCH KATHLEEN SEBELIUS as ObamaCare website crashes in front of her. I'm reminded of Augustine's 27th Law: "Rank does not intimidate hardware. Neither does lack of rank."

And a reminder for U.S. taxpayers: "It costs a lot to build bad products (Augustine's 12th Law)."

GOOD FOR HER: Palin kills Matt Lauer interview over Martin Bashir slur. It's long past time to slap the bigots around.

MICHELLE MALKIN: "[Arnie] Duncan’s a bigot, a bully, an elitist and a foot-in-mouth fool all rolled into one...." So, Michelle, tell us what you really think.

IT BEGINS: White House edging away from “keep your doctor” promise.

Channeling Nancy Pelosi: We know you really don't like your health care plan.

And I'm sure NSA will be happy to transfer your medical records....

WHO KNEW? Bicycle lanes are racist.

ARE REPUBLICANS sabotaging ObamaCare by frightening younger consumers? Well, of course -- Republicans are telling the truth and encouraging them to make rational choices.

TWELVE OF THIRTEEN ain't bad.

A VERY SPECIAL holiday message from Barack Obama. I sincerely doubt that I'll drink that much....

HEH: Terrified Obama Trapped Inside Healthcare.gov Website.

NO. Go away. Now.

EMPTY HANGARS ARE COMING TO SEATTLE: Seattle Socialist-Elect Already Advocating A Worker Takeover Of Boeing.

Start buttering the popcorn ... it's always amusing to watch as wannabe socialists discover that being entitled to everything always results in being entitled to nothing.

TWO DILEMMAS Republicans must confront if they hope to win in 2014 and 2016.

OBAMACARE SUCCESS STORY … can’t afford ObamaCare.

IT MUST BE YOUR FAULT: Note the resemblance to Obama.

OBAMA.GOV: a fine logo and typeface.

BECAUSE THERE WERE ONLY TEN COMMANDMENTS: There Are 12 Reasons Why Obama Is One of the Best Presidents Evah.

Giving PhD's a bad name....

DEPRESSING BUT TRUE: The World of the Coliseum.

THREE LESSONS from ObamaCare’s failed rollout. The most important lesson: "the government has an oversupply of control freaks and incompetents."

OBAMA OFFICIAL: Healthcare.gov Launched 60 to 70% Unfinished. For those who are shocked, shocked!, this is old news. Those of us who are knowledgeable in these things were warning early in October that the Healthcare.gov web portal was only a tiny part of the problem.

The chickens have come home and are roosting nicely.

REMEMBER these trees? (The photo was taken Saturday, Nov 16th.) Well, here they are today, only 4 days later.

Only four days....

SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX) gives Lincoln's Gettysburg address:



Compare with President Obama's version, in which he couldn't bring himself to say the two little words 'under God'. Watch both and then ask yourself which man is sincere.

More here.

Personal Note: I don't even profess to be Christian, but I can understand -- and respect -- those who are.

OBAMACARE: Covering what comes next. If you think it's bad now, just wait.

HEY, ARNIE: It not just white suburbam moms who hate your Common Core curriculum.

FROM HOPE & CHANGE to 'nope & change it back'.

OBAMA'S RATINGS: tumble after health-care fail.

Yes. Yes, they do.

HAH! I laugh, but it isn't really funny.

THAT 'HOPEY-CHANGEY' STUFF isn't working out so well: Morose Obama asks his base for psychological intervention.

GALLUP POLL: Majority of Americans say it’s not government’s job to provide health coverage. People are waking up to realize that they are the 'other people' they want the government to take care of....

HEH: the Gore effect on global warming.

NOT TO WORRY: Obama will sign an executive order preventing you from getting sick in January. And in February. And....

BUT, BUT ... it wasn't supposed to be this way: Students suffer ObamaCare sticker shock as premiums soar and plans get cut. Tough luck, twits. You bought it, now live with it.

THE BEST NANNY STATE ORDER EVER: Hotel built entirely of ice required to have fire alarms.

ARNE DUNCAN: ‘White suburban moms’ upset that Common Core shows their kids aren’t ‘brilliant’.

Clearly the failure of Common Core is their fault for not having 'brilliant' kids.

OLD NEWS: “Incompetence, deception and lack of accountability doomed the Obamacare rollout." New News: "The nagging durability of the White House’s incompetence, deception and lack of accountability.”

SO MANY DISASTERS, so little time....

PELOSI: I’ve never met anyone who liked their insurance plan.

I've never met anyone who liked ObamaCare. And I get out more.

LAUGHTER IS THE BEST MEDICINE for the ObamaCare blues. Annoying commercial, but it's worth the wait.

WHY HOMEOWNERS ASSOCIATIONS SHOULD BE BANNED: Desert Storm veteran fined $5,000, told to move trees at Florida home.

WORST WEEK IN WASHINGTON: "President Obama, for riding without a seatbelt on an analogy train to nowhere...."

RICH PEOPLE LOVE DIVERSITY, until they have kids. Absolutely. Every neighborhood should have its 'fair share' of criminals, thugs, drug dealers, pedophiles, pimps and prostitutes.

“NO WONDER the Democratic National Committee voted to remove the Almighty from their party in 2012. They only have room for one God.”

ROBERT STACY MCCAIN: the politics of the vagina.

Democrats want women to be “independent” from men — i.e., unmarried — so that they will then be dependent on government. And if these allegedly “independent” women are “giddy, sex-starved and desperate,” they’ll eventually need a scapegoat to blame for their miserable loneliness: Blame the oppressive patriarchy! Blame “corporate America”! Blame Republicans!

And now you know why Obamacare disfavors married couples....

ON OBAMACARE. Gov. Christie's advice to Obama on the healthcare rollout: "own up to it and apologize for it." Obama's response: I'm sorry my minions did exactly what I told them to do....

CALIFORNIA STRENGTHENS GUN CONTROL; crime spikes. But of course there's no correlation ... unless crime drops.

THE RACE CARD ISN'T WORKING, so let's play the 'I know nothing' card.

WHY SHOULD IT BE 'EITHER'? Obama Either Knew that Healthcare.gov Wouldn’t Work or He Is Keeping Incompetent Liars On His Payroll.

THOMAS SOWELL: A cautionary note for Tea Party conservatives.

I'm still of the 'throw all the bastards out' persuasion, but Sowell is a conservative leader whose advice is worth taking seriously.

WHAT WILL AMERICA LOOK LIKE AFTER OBAMA?

Sadly, more like a banana republic than the constitutional republic envisioned by the Framers in 1787. The country will be virtually bankrupt -- our national debt already exceeds our Gross Domestic Product -- and the populace will be at the ruling class' mercy. America's status as a world superpower will be just a memory.

Read it all.

THE PURPOSE of increasing the minimum wage is to keep the nonproductive voting Democrat. That's not the direct argument, but it's the gist.

BACK TO THE SUPREMES? ObamaCare law has an origination problem. It's a convoluted argument, but I'll take anything that will kill ObamaCare for good.

INSTAPUNDIT: Decolonization came too soon. And it's too late to recolonize....

OBAMACARE: the gift that keeps on giving (Democrats fits). Republicans should just shout "Timber!" and stand back.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: The Moral Decline of Oprah.

“There’s a level of disrespect for the office that occurs. And that occurs in some cases and maybe even many cases because he’s African American. There’s no question about that and it’s the kind of thing nobody ever says but everybody’s thinking it.”

If 'nobody ever says' how does Oprah know what 'everybody's thinking'? This is the most infuriating aspect of liberalism -- the utter certainty that whatever they believe must necessarily be so.

Their 'reality' is that of Alice's Wonderland.

POWERLINE: Is Obama "too stupid to make any contribution to saving his own skin?" The evidence suggests that not only is he 'too stupid to save his own skin', that his advisers are as well.

THE BRIGHT SIDE: "The collapse of Obamacare, of which we have seen only the beginning, is a rare teaching opportunity."

It assumes, of course, that liberals are capable of learning. The evidence in favor of that is slim indeed.

REALLY? Bigger Government Doesn’t Mean Better Governing.

OBAMACARE: the Vasa of our times.

ERIC HOLDER appeals Congressional holding of contempt. Perhaps the judiciary can prevent Congress from holding him in contempt, but it cannot prevent me from doing so.

"YOU REALLY OUGHT TO GO HOME." U.S. F-22 stealth fighter pilot taunted Iranian F-4 Phantom combat planes over the Persian Gulf.

A FEATURE, NOT A BUG (at least for the progressive left): Michelle Bachmann says she lost her health insurance under ObamaCare.

NARCISSISTIC PERSONALITY DISORDER is not harmless behavior.

After 4-1/2 years, I think most Americans have come to realize that fact....

DANA MILBANK: Game over for Obama? Dana Milbank! the Washington Post's lead Obama cheerleader? That Dana Milbank?

SUCH A DEAL I'VE GOT FOR YOU: Obama to allow you to keep your health plan, but also require insurance companies to say ObamaCare could be a better deal.

BALDWIN SORRY — AGAIN: MSNBC suspends actor's show after anti-gay slurs.

'Baldwin Sorry' -- once -- is the only headline the media need ever report with respect to Alec Baldwin. Then ignore him forevermore.

MSNBC ON SARAH PALIN.

IN MEDICINE AND LIFE: the dark side of human equality.

POWERLINE'S week in pictures. My favorite:

The Will Rogers classic is a close second, though.

BLINDSIDED BY THE OBVIOUS: Figuring out insurance under ObamaCare. This is just the beginning; the avalanche will be next year.

ED DRISCOLL: When ObamaCare Mugs a Liberal. Something's wrong; ObamaCare is supposed to only screw Republicans.

MAY? MAY? Obama's health law fix may raise costs.

AUTUMN LEAVES VI: Winter is fast approaching; the trees in the front yard are almost completely bare. The back is not (yet), but only because the tree density tends to protect the leaves from the winds. Another week, though,....

Last week's picture is here, and you can continue scrolling back through October 12, when I took the first photo.

One odd thing about this autumn is that the trees are not all turning at the same time. Here are two more from the neighborhood. They always turn a magnificent red and they're only just beginning to turn; last week they were both completely green.

Next week? We'll see.

IF OBAMA would wear it, it might keep the confusing signals from leaking out.

POWERLINE on Democrat Party intelligence:

I have long been struck by this difference between Democrats and Republicans: Republican elites are deeply embarrassed by stupid Republicans, of whom there are, undeniably, a few. They go to great lengths to disassociate themselves from Republicans who are dumb, or are perceived as such, and consider low-information Republicans to be a serious blight on the party. Democrats, on the other hand, are completely shameless. Have you ever heard any Democrat express embarrassment at any other Democrat, no matter how stupid, and try to disassociate himself from the ignorant elements of his party? No. There are a number of Democrats in Congress, not to mention the rank and file, who are complete morons. Sheila Jackson Lee has lots of company. But do smarter Democrats care? Do they shiver with embarrassment when a member of their party worries that Guam may tip over, or thinks Obama is going to fill up her gas tank, or doesn’t know the difference between Mars and the Moon? Not at all! This difference between the parties strikes me as profound, but its full elucidation will have to await another day.

These people are so stupid they don't know they're stupid. Click on the video if you're up to the painful experience of listening to a jackass donkey bray.

INSTAPUNDIT: "No, it’s because he’s a fuck-up. You’re not helping black people out by blurring the distinction."

I TOLD YOU SO!

Mallard Fillmore cartoons are here.

MARK STEYN to President Obama for ObamaCare: "Well, thanks a lot, genius."

NEWT GINGRICH: Obama on Obamacare in 4 Quotes.

NO WORRIES: "I'll just direct that the toothpaste be put back in the tube...."

RANDOM THOUGHTS from the retirement lane. Despite my repeated demands to remove me from their 'wellness' mailing list, Anthem Blue Cross sent me yet another mailer with reminders about 'staying healthy'.

I am sick to death of the 'I'm from (wherever) and I'm here to help you' crowd. As far as I'm concerned, a first offense merits tar & feathers; the second should be a shooting offense.

On the bright side, they keep me well-supplied with paper for the wood stove.

OBAMA ON the next big problem for ObamaCare:

President Obama has gone from declaring "the product is good" to warning the media in advance about yet "another mistake" that his health care team made while implementing Obamacare.

"Even if we get the hardware and software working exactly the way its supposed to, with relatively minor glitches, what we're also discovering is that insurance is complicated to buy," Obama told reporters Thursday.

"Another mistake that we made, I think, was underestimating the difficulties of people purchasing insurance online and shopping for a lot of options with a lot of costs and a lot of different benefits and plans and somehow expecting that that would be very smooth," he said. "And then they've also got to try to apply for tax credits on the website."

Does the phrase 'shovel ready' come to mind?

TOURÉ ON MSNBC: Let’s face it, red-state Senate Democrats criticize ObamaCare because we live in a gerrymandered world. Yeah, let's never mind that Senators are elected statewide.

From Instapundit's twitter feed, this comment: "Just knowing that someone exists who thinks Senate seats are gerrymandered confirms that public education is a rotting corpse." 'Matt or Matt' is wrong in one detail; Touré's alma mater (assuming he graduated) Emory University is a high-dollar private school.

RANDOM THOUGHT from the retirement lane: for liberals -- the light at the end of the tunnel is never going to be the dawning of the Age of Aquarius.

FRANK J. FLEMING: Why you must trust your government. If you don't,

... the very fabric of our society — the evidenceless faith that our government has even the most basic proficiency — starts to unravel. People will start wondering things like, “Hey, maybe politicians were wrong, and math doesn’t only apply to my household budget but also to the government’s budget.”

What happens next, when we no longer trust our government and the direction it’s taking us? Riots. The collapse of society. People saying, “Maybe those Tea Party people had a point.”

Horrible thoughts. Unthinkable thoughts.

BOEING UNION REJECTS CONTRACT, raising questions about 777X production in Seattle. The Boeing machinists union 'mighta oughta rethunk' that decision; Lockheed Martin's planned consolidation/layoffs just might free up some competitive production capacity for Boeing to take advantage of.

FROM A FOX NEWS OPINION POLL: New guidelines recommend cholesterol-lowering drugs as a preventive. How much faith do you put in studies that ask you to treat a potential condition?

16% A lot. It makes sense to try to stave off illness.

20% A little. A reminder of good health practices can’t hurt.

29% I’m not sure. I prefer to consult with my doctor.

35% None.

I'm with the majority on this one. Anyone who uncritically takes advice from any government/non-government organization is either a fool or a Democrat (and likely both).

Here's just one example.

OK, YOU'RE A RUNNER. Get over it. The same is true for bicycling, which I gave up years ago because I didn't want to be identified with the 'look at me' crowd.

THIS YEAR JUST A TRAIN WRECK; next year a catastrophe.

FROM MY EMAIL: some thoughts on Obama's health care 'fix':

Can't stand to watch him [Obama] and only read a small part about the 'fix' to ObamaCare.

Watching the President on television improves Fox News anchor Shepard Smith's stature incredibly.

And let me see if I get this correct. Obama is simply going to say he won't enforce the removal of the 'substandard' plans for a year. They will still be illegal and the insurance companies (and enrollees) will just have to trust the administration not to change its mind (or decide to 'encourage' some additional compliance under threat of procecution)?

"Trust me" is not a phrase I'd ever use with this administration.

"Insurers can extend current plans that otherwise would be canceled into 2014," Obama said. "This fix won't solve every problem for every person, but it's going to help a lot of people." How can this be? I thought the cancellations were only affecting a small number of people with substandard plans.

Pivot! A 'tiny minority' suddenly becomes 'a lot of people'. The President spins so rapidly it's a wonder he doesn't fall over from dizziness.

NOT EXACTLY the sharpest tool in the shed.

WHY THE PRESIDENT will euthanize HealthCare.gov in 2014. And the Republicans will euthanize ObamaCare in 2015.

PRIVACY NEWS: NSA Intercepts Links to Google, Yahoo Data Centers.

The fact of the matter is that there is no privacy any more.

HEALTH CARE ENROLLMENTS fail to meet low expectations. So lower the bar; that's what Democrats always do, but usually no one notices.

DEBBIE WASSERMAN-SCHULTZ: I meant what I said — we’re running on ObamaCare next year.

By mid-2014 'on' will have morphed into 'away from'.

NEWT GINGRICH: The Obama machine breaks down. Friday, ? pm on CSPAN. Be there.

RISK FACTOR: And you thought only ObamaCare had IT 'glitches'....

LEAVIN' ... ON A JET PLANE: 2013 is going to be a banner year for expatriation.

BRO'S AND HO'S: Obamacare’s bread and circuses. Maybe I'm old-fashioned (or just old) but if I were a member of the generation targeted by these marketing bozos, I'd be deeply insulted.

UNBELIEVABLE: California lawmakers want porn stars to wear safety goggles. Safety goggles?

EZRA KLEIN: the handwriting on the wall.

A FIRST RESPONSE from the health insurance industry: "This is a new insanity."

But in Obama's wonderworld, to propose an action is to perform it.

UPDATE: A second and third response. It's not looking good for our boy-President.

EZEKIEL EMANUEL blames Fox News (!) for ObamaCare’s flop. I gave up watching before he had a chance to blame Fox. Emanuel has to be the most arrogant asshole I've ever had the misfortune to watch.

IF YOU DON'T LIKE MY PLAN, I can tweak it. Fine. Tweak it out of existence.

DEMOCRAT: What is about that constitution thingy, anyway?

JUST BECAUSE YOU’RE FRIGHTENED doesn’t mean somebody is trying to scare you.

MCDONALDS AND THE MINIMUM WAGE:

CNET blogger Amanda Kooser seems to disapprove of [McDonalds move to] self-service checkouts.

Kooser calls the move “another blow against human interaction.” It doesn’t take much to imagine Occupy protesters lamenting a successful corporation destroying good entry-level jobs.

No, the Occupy protesters will lament a successful corporation destroying their jobs....

RANDOM THOUGHTS from the retirement lane on 'progressive linguistics'. Has anyone noticed that in today's speech the president did not use the term 'ObamaCare', using instead the acronym ACA (for Affordable Care Act)?

If you can't change the subject, change the way you speak about the subject.

THIS SHOULD GET INTERESTING: When ObamaCare hits the professoriate.

CAN HE DO THAT? Obama to announce that americans who lost health coverage because of ObamaCare can renew old plans. Of course; he's 'Emperor' Obama.

INSTAPUNDIT: "Obama is the perfect embodiment of America’s ruling class, a class that doesn’t really much like the nation it rules."

MIKE ROWE: the worst advice in the history of the world.

OBAMACARE SUPPORTERS shocked to discover tooth fairy isn’t real. The real meltdown will be when they learn that a unicorn is merely a jackass wearing a dunce cap.

And the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow was put there by a capitalist....

LINGUISTIC ALERT: Obama’s lies are merely ‘incorrect promises’. According to the New York Times.

BRIT HUME: "This is as bad a political disaster as I have ever seen."

OBAMACARE: What's 26,000 minus 7 million?

SNICKER: Even Piers Morgan is more popular than ObamaCare.

VOTER TURNOUT nearly doubles in Texas under new ID law: "And turnout among Hispanics increased four-fold."

When the probability of fraud is lowered, the real voters come out?

OBAMACARE: Answering the important questions. If only politicians were this honest.

ARE CONSERVATIVES SNOBS? Snobs? No. Suburban? Yes. And that, probably, explains this post.

THE HILL: Obama is boxed in on healthcare reform.

Instapundit adds: "The GOP should add a package including interstate insurance sales and Health Savings Accounts and assorted other improvements, and dare Dems to vote against it — or Obama to veto. He drove the car into the ditch; they’ll just be pulling it out."

WEDDINGS AND CELEBRATIONS: Girl from the Obamacare Website and Baghdad Bob.

Heh.

TEXAS FIRM makes the world's first 3-D printed metal gun.

From Austin, Texas, no less -- the single most liberal enclave in the state.

IF THERE WERE NO MEN, there would be no need for abortion on demand.

SOME MEMBERS OF CONGRESS are sharing in the pain of canceled insurance policies in the wake of Obamacare going into effect. Most aren't.

AMERICAN THINKER: Why Republicans Lose in Urban Areas. It's the messaging, stupid.

HOUSE DEMOCRATS TO OBAMA: Fix ObamaCare or else (we bolt).

Heh. And in other news, Obama's approval index fell to one point shy of his all-time low (-26).

SOYUZ: the long ride home [video]. Long, but worth the trip.

THE FACT CHECKER: U.S. debt and the 'foreign master'. I would take issue with the assignment of blame to Sarah Palin since, as Kessler himself readily admits, the trope is well-used on both sides of the political aisle.

That said, however, the key point is that "the rising debt itself is the biggest risk to the long-term health of the U.S. economy."

BYRON YORK: Obama IT chief really, really doesn't want to testify about ObamaCare.

JIMMY CARTER calls President Obama incompetent. Carter should know....

TECH FOCUS: A History of the Magnetic Compass.

DO INTROVERTS make good Presidents? Yes. Liars don't.

REP. TREY GOWDY (R-SC) Benghazi isn't going away. Despite the media's assistance.

WELL, THAT'S AWKWARD: A white supremacist who made headlines worldwide for plotting to take over a town in North Dakota received the results of a DNA test -- and the results say he's 14% black.

WASHINGTON POST: Navy tests drone’s ability to integrate with aircraft carrier environment.

The drone also completed arrested landings and catapult landings, and participated in flight deck handling drills.

Hmm. I've made arrested landings and catapult launches from a Navy carrier, but never a catapult landing. What did I miss?

Where are those legions of editor-type fact-checker people that the media claim to have to ensure accuracy?

HERE WE GO AGAIN: Report on climate change depicts a planet in peril.

IF YOU LIKE more competition between insurers, you can't have it. I recall a week or two ago, when I browsed HealthCare.gov, there was only one PPO available in my county. I tried to check again before posting, but ... guess what? ... HealthCare.gov is down.

NEW YORK TIMES: Talk of Penalty Is Missing in Ads for Health Care. My only surprise is that the NYT is mentioning it.

HERE WE GO AGAIN: Democrats prepare minimum wage hike bill.

Same old, same old. And the 'feel-gooders' will probably win again while the poor will take it in the shorts ... again.

DO TELL: ObamaCare is junk insurance.

CLINTON TO OBAMA: Keep ObamaCare promise, let Americans 'keep what they got'.

Wow. The Democrats are tripping all over themselves running away from ObamaCare.

REPUBLICANS ON THE OFFENSE: "This Is What Betrayal Looks Like".

DEBBIE WASSERMAN-SCHULTZ: I think Democrats will run on ObamaCare next year. Oh, I hope so. I certainly do hope so.

Take note of the latest Democrat talking point linguistic change: 'cancellation notices' are now 'transition notices'.

POWERLINE'S Steven Hayward on 'progressive linguistics'.

Follow his link (here) for other linguistic changes the 'you didn't build that' brigade is trying to launch.

And don't forget the comments for a quick laugh.

HOW BAD IS IT? Hope is the only remaining option. Follow the link provided in Instapundit's post.

OBAMACARE: Bending the approval curve down.

Data from Rasmussen's Obama Approval Index.

OBAMACARE: "like peeling an onion of fail!"