Ruminations

Two Friends
A friend who works in the field reminds us that underage use of alcohol and illicit drugs in Vermont is the highest in the nation. Focusing in on this problem Governor Peter Shumlin and fellow Progressives acted decisively...to legalize marijuana. There are no issues for which Liberals cannot find the wrong solution.

Another friend, one with European socialist leanings, tells us of a recent meeting with his accountant. Through incredibly hard work and perseverance, this individual has spent the past half dozen years building an enormously successful consulting practice. Now, as his efforts have begun to yield monetary rewards, his accountant gives him the news that the government is standing ready to collect their (large) share of his payday. "It's enough to make me a Republican," he says. 


The Sealer
To the Israeli government, the preliminary deal with Iran that the Obama administration is trying to seal this week is a giveaway to a government that has spent two decades building a vast nuclear program. It enshrines the status quo — at a time when the Iranians are within reach of the technical capability to build a bomb — and rewards some unproven leaders with cash and sanctions relief.

President Obama and his top aides see the same draft deal in sharply different terms. (NYT, 11/18/2013)

What you need to know about Obama and Iran:

--Having seen Obama sell out America's ally Poland on missile defense, the Iranians know that he will sell out Israel as well.

--Whatever deal is struck, Iran will cheat and continue its nuclear weapon development program.


At Risk Behavior
The McKinsey report found that the effort was at risk because of issues including “significant dependency on external parties/contractors,” as well as “insufficient time and scope of end-to-end testing,” and “parallel stacking of all phases,” all predictions that have turned out to be accurate. Briefings on the report were held in the spring at the White House and at the headquarters of the Health and Human Services Department and for leaders at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, congressional investigators said. (NYT, 11/19/2013)

So the White House knew "in the spring" that the Obamacaid website was a mess. Now does that mean that Obama lied when he says that if he had known there were problems he would have never gone out and touted it?


Are You (Positively) Experienced?
... specialists plowing through an initial list of more than 600 software and hardware defects remain worried about whether they can meet the administration’s goal of enabling four in five users to enroll through the online federal exchange, HealthCare.gov, by Nov. 30. One person said a more realistic goal was that four out of five people “have a positive experience,” which could include being redirected to customer service agents. (NYT, 11/19/2013)

This is so unintentionally funny that you will roar!


On the Clock
Within 24 hours of Timothy F. Geithner’s announcement on Saturday that he would join Warburg Pincus, the private equity firm, a parade of naysayers emerged, almost like clockwork, to criticize the former Treasury secretary’s move as a prime example of the evil of the government’s revolving door. (Andrew Ross Sorkin, NYT, 11/18/2013)

Sorkin takes those to task for criticizing Geithner's move to the private sector - something which we have no objection to. However, he ignores RedStateVT's point that Geithner heads to the very industry that Democrats spent one year and $1 billion smearing in their attacks on Mitt Romney. 

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