Breaking: Hillary Clinton concedes, will release e-mails related to her yoga routines

Shredder
Hillary Clinton said today she has deleted more than 30,000 “personal” emails from her days as Secretary of State and won’t allow access to the private server she used to send them. “The server will remain private,” she declared. (NYPost.com, 3/10/2015)

This is now.

In 2007, Mrs. Clinton, then a senator from New York and candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, accused the George W. Bush administration of using “secret White House email accounts” along with secret wiretaps and military tribunals. “You know, our Constitution is being shredded,” she said at the time. (New York Times, 3/11/2015)

That was then.


AKA
Attorney General Eric Holder has used three different email aliases during his six years in the top job at the Justice Department, officials say. (Foxnews.com, 3/11/2015)

RedStateVT can confirm that among the aliases used by Holder were the following: SexyAG@AOL.com, thefunkmeister@yahoo.com and BlackPowerMan@gmail.com


Cooled Off
It is a cool, businesslike approach, similar to the way Mr. Obama deals with members of Congress, donors and activists at home. But historians and some of the president’s former foreign policy advisers say the distance the president keeps from foreign leaders leaves him without the durable relationships that previous presidents forged to help smooth disagreements and secure reluctant cooperation. (New York Times, 3/10/2015)

Liberals love the idea of Obama as a too-cool-for-school hipster. The politics is beneath him. He is playing a different game than everyone else, etc. 

The truth is that he is a loner who does not connect with people. He does not like others and generally they do not like him. 


Not Viable
The two most viable alternatives to Clinton spoke at the IAFF gathering Monday: Biden, who projects sincerity, blue-collar appeal and solid competence; and Warren, who, with her passion and righteous indignation, could ignite a populist movement. But the senator from Massachusetts doesn’t want to run, and the vice president would like to but sees no way to upend the Clinton juggernaut. (Dana Milbank, Washington Post, 3/10/2015)

Biden projects "sincerity" and "competence?"

OK, it is official. Nothing Milbank says can ever be taken seriously again. 


Say It Again
The Obama administration said Tuesday that 11.7 million Americans now have private health insurance through federal and state marketplaces, with 86 percent of them receiving financial assistance from the federal government to help pay premiums. (New York Times, 3/11/2015)

Eighty-six percent of Americans getting health insurance through the exchanges are getting subsidies! To Liberals, this is success. To others, this is further evidence of the nanny state gone awry.

Coming Soon from Democrats: The Republican War on Children!

Bernie Sanders: Keystone XL 'makes no sense to me' (Washington Examiner, 11/18/2014)

RedStateVT: Bernie Sanders 'makes no sense to us' (RedStateVT, 11/18/2014)


Currently
In the current Democratic-controlled Senate, Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, has long refused to bring a Keystone bill to a vote for fear that it could hurt the re-election chances of environmental-minded Democrats who might have voted against a project that is popular with many voters. (New York Times, 11/18/2014)

So to fellow bloggers who write endlessly of Republican obstructionism we forward the passage above. Turns out Harry Reid's Senate (which never passed a budget either, by the way) may have doing some obstruction of their own! Also nice to hear that the Keystone pipeline is "popular with many voters." We are guessing that said voters like jobs and low gas prices. 


Starkly
President Obama is poised to ignore stark warnings that executive action on immigration would amount to “violating our laws” and would be “very difficult to defend legally.”

Those warnings came not from Republican lawmakers but from Mr. Obama himself.

For years, he has waved aside the demands of Latino activists and Democratic allies who begged him to act on his own, and he insisted publicly that a decision to shield millions of immigrants from deportation without an act of Congress would amount to nothing less than the dictates of a king, not a president. (New York Times, 11/18/2014)

For any of you cynics out there, remember: Republicans flip flop, Democrats evolve.


Mutually
But since the Affordable Care Act was enacted in 2010, the relationship between the Obama administration and insurers has evolved into a powerful, mutually beneficial partnership that has been a boon to the nation’s largest private health plans and led to a profitable surge in their Medicaid enrollment. (New York Times, 11/17/2014)

During the Obamacare debate, Charles Krauthammer once famously said: "I care not a whit about the insurance companies." We agree. They sold their souls to Obama for short term profits but given the opportunity Obama will sell them out in a heartbeat.


Surely
As headlines go, “ Obama Moves Close to Calling Russian Action in Ukraine an Invasion,” from a weekend story in the New York Times , must surely rank among the year’s most revealing. The Obama presidency has long been at odds with the obvious. Once this was called hope.

Now it is generally recognized as farce. (Bret Stephens, Wall Street Journal, 11/17/2014)

Bret Stephens picks up on RedStateVT's recent point!


Extensively
Mr. Gruber wrote a 2011 cartoon book called “Health Care Reform” that aimed to explain the federal law. A note about the author says Mr. Gruber “consulted extensively with the Obama administration and Congress during the development” of the law. (Wall Street Journal, 11/17/2014)

Of all the egregious sins that Gruber has perpetrated, surely this is the worst: he wrote a cartoon book on Obamacare. 


And Then This
Here comes the tea party of the left. (Dana Milbank, Washington Post, 11/17/2014)

Honest column from Milbank. Yes, the Dems have a tea party too.

Payback Time

On Last Night's "Hannity"
"This man is a raging narcissist."
Former Democrat pollster Pat Caddell speaking about Barack Obama. 


Possibilities
First, it raised the possibility that the justices, who narrowly spared the law in 2012, will in June come out with a new ruling that would dismantle the law on different grounds. But even if the justices make no such ruling, the very act of taking up the challenge to the law will itself undermine the law. The justices announced their decision just a week before the open-enrollment period for 2015 begins — and the looming possibility that the high court will strike down the law will probably deter those who are considering signing up for its coverage. (Dana Milbank, Washington Post, 11/10/2014)

So WaPo's Milbank believes that 2015 Obamacare enrollment will be depressed because potential enrollees will not sign up because the Supreme Court is going to rule on a challenge to the law. How does Milbank come up with nonsense like this?


Regrets
Obamacare architect Jonathan Gruber said Tuesday that he regrets saying that aspects of Obamacare needed to be concealed from the public due to the “stupidity of the American voter.” (Dailycaller.com, 11/11/2014)

Guess who is likely to end up on RedStateVT's "Worst of 2014" List? If you guessed Jonathan Gruber, you might be right!

Disregard The Cost

RedStateVT's Thought for the Day
Liberals shout at Conservatives to get out of private bedrooms on issues like homosexuality and birth control. Making it somewhat ironic - actually making it enormously ironic - that Liberals in California (and now elsewhere) have come up with the bizarre rules for consensual sex on college campuses. 


Historical
Before his 2008 presidential campaign, Mr. Obama had little history of managing anything larger than a Senate office. To his critics, the breakdowns in various agencies are the natural result of that inexperience, a conclusion that really began taking hold with the botched rollout of his own health care program last year. (New York Times, 10/22/2014)

Six years in, the New York Times finally admits what many of us have said all along: Obama was not qualified to be president.


The Best Thing You Will Read Today on the Minimum Wage
Entry-level fast-food jobs have never been intended to support an entire family. So-called quick-service restaurants provide opportunities to lots of young people with few skills and limited experience. (Wall Street Journal, 10/21/2014)

Second best is this from Chris Christie (quoted in the New York Times): “I don’t think there is a mother or father sitting around a kitchen table tonight in America who are saying, ‘You know, honey, if my son or daughter could just make a higher minimum wage, all our dreams would be realized.’ ”


Remains of the Day
There are 149 prisoners remaining at Guantánamo. As a result of Mr. Zahrani’s change in status, 80 are now recommended for transfer if security conditions can be met, the majority of whom are from Yemen; 59 are recommended for continued indefinite detention without trial as wartime prisoners; and 10 have either been charged or convicted before the military commissions system.

Ten low-level prisoners were transferred in late 2013. But the process appears to be faltering again; it has transferred just one low-level prisoner in 2014. (New York Times, 10/21/2014)

There is something the New York Times is neglecting to mention in this article on prisoner transfers from Gitmo. What could it be? Oh, now we remember... Obama's release of five high risk Taliban prisoners! Probably an honest omission.


Excess
Tom Steyer, the billionaire hedge fund founder who has pledged to spend $50 million of his own money to defeat Republican candidates in Senate and governor’s races this campaign cycle, exceeded that mark in September.

Mr. Steyer’s “super PAC,” NextGen Climate Action Committee, reported on Monday night that it received $15 million from him last month, putting his total contributions to the committee since June 2013 at $55 million.

That makes Mr. Steyer the largest super PAC donor, putting him ahead of the casino magnate Sheldon G. Adelson, who gave $49.8 million to super PACs during the 2012 campaign. (New York Times, 10/20/2014)

Liberal hedge fund fossil fuel 1%er gives millions to Dems. Elizabeth Warren silent. Speaking of Liz:

Sen. Elizabeth Warren says she isn’t running for president. At this rate, however, she may have to. (Eugene Robinson, Washington Post, 10/20/2014)

Run Liz, Run! As we have said many times, it is only on a national stage where the moonbat ideas and multiple hypocrisies of Warren and Vermont's Colonel Bernie Sanders can really get the attention they deserve.


Unseen
Obama is President Pariah in these final weeks of the 2014 midterms. Vulnerable Democratic candidates don’t want to be seen with him. Three Democratic senators have run ads distancing themselves from him, and Alison Lundergan Grimes, the Democratic Senate candidate in Kentucky, has refused — absurdly — to say whether she voted for Obama. Obama’s support is 40 percent nationally and lower in the Republican states where many of this year’s competitive races are taking place. (Washington Post, 10/20/2014)

Tough column by Charles Krauthammer on Obama. Oh wait. It's not Krauthammer, it's Liberal Dana Milbank!


At Least
Democrats accuse the opposition of mindless obstructionism, deliberately sabotaging government, or at least tearing down belief in it, out of ideological fervor and political ambition. (New York Times, 10/22/2014)

Mindless obstructionism, ignoring, of course, Harry Reid's refusal to bring ANYTHING up for a Senate vote. Now that is some kind of obstructionism!


Instinctual
Although we believe that the president has many progressive instincts, he has shown an inclination to seek consensus rather than to fight. (Katrina vanden Heuvel, Washington Post, 10/21/2014)

Kat is disturbed that Obama sometimes seeks consensus. Funny, when Republicans are in charge all Liberals can talk about is the need for consensus. 

Fight to Win

Blessed
Complacency is a kind explanation for Washington's latest plan to make it harder for the National Security Agency to prevent the next attack. A bill recently introduced by Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy, with the blessing of President Obama, went so far beyond earlier proposals that a judge writing on behalf of the entire federal judiciary last week objected that the bill is unworkable and unconstitutional and would make terrorism likelier. (L. Gordon Crovitz, Wall Street Journal, 8/10/2014)

Thanks to the efforts of Vermont's senior statesman Patrick Leahy, America's ability to fight terrorism is now weaker. And so this:

...no one should be surprised if intelligence fails to stop the next attack. In an area where accountability has been scarce, the names on the to-blame list would begin with Barack Obama and Patrick Leahy.


Sheared
The question is whether she (Hillary Clinton) can belittle Barack Obama as much as she must in order to win, but not so much that it plays as an act of sheer betrayal. (Frank Bruni, New York Times, 8/11/2014)

A Liberal commentary that we (gulp) agree with....


Disavowed
There are a few possible answers to that one. One is that the views she expressed in the interview are sincere and long-held and she was always a closet neoconservative; Commentary magazine is delivered to her mailbox in an unmarked brown envelope. Another is that Mrs. Clinton can read a poll: Americans now disapprove of the president's handling of foreign policy by a 57% to 37% margin, and she belatedly needs to disavow the consequences of the policies she once advocated. A third is that she believes in whatever she says, at least at the time she's saying it. She is a Clinton, after all. (Bret Stephens, Wall Street Journal, 8/11/2014)

So what is Hillary thinking now that she has begun distancing herself from Obama?  There is certainly a part of us that thinks she is or was a 'strong defense' Democrat. She voted for the Iraq War and agreed with Bush that Sadaam Hussein had WMDs. One can conclude that the Howard Dean faction of the Dem party pulled her to the left forcing her to disavow earlier positions. Which, of course, does not speak well of her on issues of fortitude and consistency.


Stuffed
As the criticism became public, Obama was doggedly sticking with his plans to go on vacation — a decision that, if not in the category of stupid stuff, could fit under the heading of “tone deafness.” (Dana Milbank, Washington Post, 8/11/2014)

It is Liberals who are now attacking the Vacationer-in-Chief.


Urged
The Obama Administration was so preoccupied with a grand political solution in Baghdad that for weeks it refused to arm the Kurds for fear of offending Mr. Maliki, even as it was urging Mr. Maliki to resign. How's that for consistent logic? (Wall Street Journal, 8/11/2014)

Possible Obama responses? 

I never urged Maliki to resign.

It is all Bush's fault.

Fore!


Stunned
After nearly four decades in elected office in Hawaii, Gov. Neil Abercrombie was dealt a stunning defeat in his bid for re-election over the weekend, becoming the first incumbent governor in the state’s history to lose in his party’s primary....The race will almost certainly mark the end of Mr. Abercrombie’s long political career. At age 76, he collected only about 31 percent of the vote, compared with 66 percent for Mr. Ige....Mr. Abercrombie enjoyed strong support from the Democratic establishment, including President Obama, as well as huge fund-raising advantages. (New York Times, 8/9/2014)

A firmly entrenched Democrat backed by Obama IN HIS HOME STATE secures only 31% of the vote!

November could be fun!

Spear in Hand

Shock and Awe
Coulter, “Outnumbered” and the puckish sections of the Free Beacon all function in similar ways. The provocations they put out into the world are not untethered from real thinking and emotions. But they exist primarily to evoke shock and then to deny that those provocations were in earnest. It is an awfully clever sort of trap, one that lures critics into spending time and emotional energy refuting seemingly outrageous propositions before it’s revealed that the only people really engaging in the exchange were the critics themselves. (Alyssa Rosenberg, Washington Post, 6/26/2014)

Although her by-line does not say so, we assume that Rosenberg is a board-certified psychologist given her pronouncements on the ulterior motivations of Ann Coulter and other conservative thinkers. Per Dr. Rosenberg, Coulter and others just want to be provocative and drive up their click counts. Well, after - what is it eight? ten? New York Times best sellers - we doubt Coulter is overly focused on how many people read her weekly column.

And then there is: "...to deny that those provocations were in earnest." One of the truly wonderful things about the lithesome Coulter is that she never backs down from anything she writes or says. Ever. RedStateVT does not call her the toughest conservative out there for no reason. 

The provocations that Dr. Rosenberg attributes to Coulter fall well within the mainstream of conservative thinking. A few examples:

• Abortion is the taking of a life.
• If we don't get control of our borders we will all be speaking Spanish in ten years. 
• Ted Kennedy was a drunk who murdered a woman.
• Bill Clinton is a sex pervert.
• Barack Obama is an incompetent buffoon. 

Again, well within the mainstream and hardly controversial positions. Finally, Coulter just happens to be hysterically funny, all while she is carving up Liberals. In political commentary, only Rachel Maddow comes close. Although, of course, people are laughing at Maddow, not with her. 


Optional
The Obama administration has developed three options for further actions, according to government officials: banning any interactions with some of Russia’s largest banks; cutting off technology transfers to Russian energy and defense firms; and shutting down business with Russian defense companies. (New York Times, 6/25/2014)

A fourth option still under consideration: Obama calls Putin up and expresses his profound disappointment. 


Warmly
About 10,000 years ago, temperatures warmed sharply, by eight to 10 degrees Fahrenheit. By that time, the European ice sheets had melted, but the much thicker North American sheets took much longer. While the climate had warmed to today’s levels, allowing mixed oak woodland to grow and humans to recolonize Britain, the sea level remained some 130 feet lower for another 3,000 years.

When it did rise, it would have been traumatic for the population, wiping out whatever settlement there was, and eventually the forest of Borth. The displaced humans of the time, Dr. Bates said, were prehistoric refugees from climate change. (New York Times, 6/24/2014)

Man-made climate change is settled science. Man-made climate change is settled science. Man-made climate change.....


Over Par
On June 14, Sunni rebels threatened Baghdad after seizing much of Iraq — and President Obama fearlessly played a round at the Sunnylands Golf Course in Rancho Mirage, Calif.

The next day, the militants posted pictures of their mass execution of Shiite members of Iraq’s security forces — and Obama boldly teed off again, at Oracle founder Larry Ellison’s Rancho Mirage estate.

These split-screen scenes were reminiscent of the weekend in March when Russia was about to annex Crimea. Obama played golf both Saturday and Sunday at Key Largo, Fla.’s Ocean Reef resort with former NBA star Alonzo Mourning and former NFL player Ahmad Rashad. (Dana Milbank, Washington Post, 6/24/2014)

When Liberals revolt!


Already Against the Next War
If you like the unfolding disaster in Obama-abandoned Iraq, you are going to love Obama-abandoned Afghanistan.

Just two weeks before Iraq descended into chaos, President Obama stepped into the Rose Garden to announce his plan to withdraw all U.S. forces from Afghanistan by the end of 2016. “It’s time to turn the page on more than a decade in which so much of our foreign policy was focused on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq,” Obama declared. “Americans have learned that it’s harder to end wars than begin them — but this is how wars end in the 21st century.”

If Iraq is how wars end in the 21st century, we’re in big trouble. (Marc A. Thiessen, Washington Post, 6/23/2014)

Obama has squandered the blood and treasure of America. He deserves his eventual fate as the president who lost both Iraq and Afghanistan, who re-energized the Islamic jihad and who put American lives at risk.

Turn Like a Wheel Inside a Wheel

Write Off
Ukraine has already been written off. But Eastern Europe need not worry. Obama understands containment. He recently dispatched 150 American ground troops to Poland and each of the Baltic states. You read correctly: 150. Each. (Charles Krauthammer, Washington Post, 5/1/2014)

If Obama reads Krauthammer's devastating piece on his foreign policy failures and if he had any humility, he would resign the presidency. 

Obama has no humility and he will not resign. Whether it is Syria, or the broader Middle East, or the Ukraine, he thinks he is winning. Obama's solution to these issues is to "pivot" to Malaysia.


Feelings
The effects of human-induced climate change are being felt in every corner of the United States, scientists reported Tuesday, with water growing scarcer in dry regions, torrential rains increasing in wet regions, heat waves becoming more likely and more severe, wildfires growing worse, and forests dying under assault from heat-loving insects.

Such sweeping changes have been caused by an average warming of less than 2 degrees Fahrenheit over most land areas of the country in the past century, the scientists found. If greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane continue to escalate at a rapid pace, they said, the warming could conceivably exceed 10 degrees by the end of this century. (New York Times, 5/7/2014)

George Will had a wonderful piece a month or so ago. He related how a hundred or more German scientists, supported by the Nazis, denounced Albert Einstein's work. Will quotes Einstein as saying "if I were wrong, they would only need one." And so it is with climate change, or whatever Liberals are calling it now. The gist of the Liberal argument is that XX% of scientists agree. Of course, no mention is made of the conflicts of interests, e.g. the funding received by these scientists, their political affiliation, etc. 

Oh, and then there is this:

According to the RSS satellite data, whose value for April 2014 is just in, the global warming trend in the 17 years 9 months since August 1996 is zero. The 212 months without global warming represents more than half the 423-month satellite data record, which began in January 1979. No one now in high school has lived through global warming. (Climatedepot.com, 5/4/2014)


Projectile
Premiums were soaring, they declared, when they have actually come in below projections. (Paul Krugman, New York Times, 5/5/2014)

Krugman declares victory for Obamacare. And shame on those Republicans who do not acknowledge it! 

Note his deceit, however. "Premiums have come in below projections." Not, premiums are lower because of Obamacare and everyone is paying less for healthcare. If Krugman was honest he would say that premiums are higher, but not as high as was feared. 


Non-Qualified
As I’ve argued before, Benghazi doesn’t qualify as a scandal because the Republican allegations, even if true, don’t amount to much. (Dana Milbank, Washington Post, 5/5/2014)

Well, the Republican allegation is that the Obama administration sought - immediately before the 2012 presidential election - to deflect attention away from their claim of success in dealing with Al Qaeda by blaming an Al Qaeda attack (that cost the lives of four Americans including an ambassador) on an internet video and "not a foreign policy failure." In doing so, Republicans allege that the Obama administration misled the American people...again immediately before the presidential election.

Dana Milbank believes that this does not "amount to much." 

What price, we wonder, does someone like Milbank place on his journalistic integrity?

Regret and Abide

Stoned
“It is impractical to negotiate with a stone wall,” was how the judge referred to the unions’ reticence to make concessions on the pension issue. (NYT, 12/4/2013)

Will unions learn from the Detroit bankruptcy? Better yet will Democrats who have ruled the city for decades learn? (Answer below.)

No.


Imposition
The notice published on Monday includes proposals on several other issues. Certain health plans sponsored by labor unions would be exempted from new fees imposed on insurance companies and on many self-insured group health plans.

Labor unions have been lobbying for such an exemption, saying the fees could be “highly disruptive” to Taft-Hartley plans administered jointly by labor and management representatives in construction, entertainment and other industries. (NYT, 12/3/2013)

Why do Republicans hate Obamacare? Yes, it's the enlargement of the entitlement state, it's the top-down government control, it's the lies told to sell it. It's all those things. But it is also something else. It's the crass corruption that surrounds the entire endeavor, such as giving waivers to political supporters.


Tone Deaf
In the White House briefing room, too, there was a change in tone. The death watch for Obamacare had been suspended and the conversation turned to other possible problems: Will HealthCare.gov be ready for a surge in enrollments later this month? Why hasn’t the administration started a campaign to direct more people to the site? (Dana Milbank, Washington Post, 12/2/2013)

Milbank - who is like a yo-yo on Obama, up one day, down the next - declares the problem solved. Now the only issue will be managing the wonderfulness that is Obamacare. (Oh, and never mind that 40% of the system isn't even built.)


Talk Around Town
'Private sector velocity and effectiveness." "An Amazon-like shopping experience." Suddenly Team Obama is talking up capitalist enterprise as the model for how Healthcare.gov ought to work. After five years of assailing "millionaires and billionaires" and extolling the virtues of "collective action," this is progress. (Bret Stephens, WSJ, 12/2/2013)

Good one from Stephens, but be forewarned: Team Obama will think nothing about bashing the capitalist model five minutes from now if it is convenient for them to do so. 

Ghostly Galleon

Lhota’s Years Working for the Dolans (New York Times headline, 10/29/2013)

Next up from the Times: de Blasio's Years Working for the Sandinistas

(Just kidding!)


Today's Funny Brought to You by Healthcare.gov 
However, insurers said they saw the problems as more significant, affecting 25 percent to 30 percent of enrollments. In some cases, they said, the government lists a dependent as the head of a household, with the result that a 10-year-old child is shown as having three or four dependents and is identified as the policyholder for a family. (NYT, 10/29/2013)

Which reminds us again that Saturday Night Live - that bastion of coastal Liberalism - is having a field day with Obamacare. 

Meanwhile over on MSNBC yesterday they were focused on ..... Dick Cheney. Yes, Dick Cheney. Some Liberal writer has written a book about Cheney and MSNBC convened a panel of Liberals to discuss. The majority of the time was spent snickering about the former Vice-President, a frail old man with severe health problems. They even managed to say "Darth Vader." This is the level of professionalism of MSNBC. 


Take Aways
Take away 620 jobs with an average salary of $100,000 at a company that pays $1.15 million a year in local taxes and it’s going to hurt.

Windham County needs help weathering that as the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant shuts down by the end of next year, several local leaders said Monday at a meeting with two legislative committees. (Burlington Free Press, 10/28/2013)

Vermont Progressives, politicians and the media, have just woken up to the economic realities of closing Vermont Yankee. 

OK geniuses, what's the plan?


Contrarians
House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer conceded to reporters today that Democrats knew people would not be able to keep their current health care plans under Obamacare and expressed qualified contrition for President Obama’s repeated vows to the contrary.

“We knew that there would be some policies that would not qualify and therefore people would be required to get more extensive coverage,” Hoyer said in response to a question from National Review.

Asked by another reporter how repeated statements by Obama to the contrary weren’t “misleading,” Hoyer said “I don’t think the message was wrong. I think the message was accurate. It was not precise enough…[it] should have been caveated with – ‘assuming you have a policy that in fact does do what the bill is designed to do.’” (Nationalreview.com, 10/29/2013)

Everybody satisfied with that explanation?

Anybody satisfied with that explanation?


Highlights from the Suddenly Engaged Liberal Media
President Obama repeatedly assured Americans that after the Affordable Care Act became law, people who liked their health insurance would be able to keep it. But millions of Americans are getting or are about to get cancellation letters for their health insurance under Obamacare, say experts, and the Obama administration has known that for at least three years. (NBCnews.com, 10/29/2013)

...the Republicans understated the number of issues on which the president has claimed to be in the dark. A compilation by the Republican National Committee titled “The Bystander President” cited the NSA spying on Merkel, the Obamacare rollout and an investigation of the IRS’s targeting of political groups (the White House counsel knew of the inquiry but said she didn’t inform Obama). The RNC also mentioned the failure of clean-energy company Solyndra, which had received government funding (Carney had said Obama read about it in “news accounts”), and the attempts to go after reporters’ phone and e-mail records (which the president also found out about from reading the news, Carney said).

The RNC didn’t mention that Obama had allegedly known nothing about an FBI investigation of an affair involving David Petraeus that led him to resign as CIA director. Neither did it mention two other claims that conservatives often question: Obama’s ignorance of a guns-on-the-border sting operation called “Fast and Furious” that went awry, and his unawareness of requests for additional diplomatic security in Libya before a U.S. outpost in Benghazi was attacked. (Dana Milbank, Washington Post, 10/28/2013)

Something went wrong. People could not sign up. Why? Not sure. Who’s at fault? Apparently no one. An act of God. Something that could never have been foreseen. Another president might have had someone in the White House calling every day — no, twice a day — to make sure the program was going to work. But no, it was a shock to everyone, and when the White House rolled out its gigantic cake — maestro, some music please — no one jumped out.

Pathetic. (Richard Cohen, Washington Post, 10/28/2013)

Occasionally journalism happens.

Empire Building

Titular
Republicans insist the buck stops with the secretary. But although Ms. Sebelius runs the Department of Health and Human Services, the agency directly responsible for the health care law, there are questions about how deeply she was involved in the development of the troubled Web site.

“Kathleen has the title, but she doesn’t have the responsibility or in many respects the kind of wide authority and access to the president that she really needs to make a difference,” said one person close to Ms. Sebelius and the White House, who asked to remain anonymous to discuss internal decision-making. “Everybody thinks that she’s the driving force, but unfortunately she’s not.” (NYT, 10/23/2013)

The alibis and finger pointing over Obamacare will only grow. Here we learn that HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius (geez, is that a cabinet level position?) may NOT be to blame. What with that limited authority and all....


Thrills and Chills
“Of course, we want to know when it’s going to be over,” Pelosi told POLITICO, referring to the sign-up problems. “But that is not to diminish the thrill that we have about the Affordable Care Act, and member after member emphasized the fact that good things were happening.” (POLITICO.com, 10/23/2013)

Such thrills which include people finding out that their health insurance premiums are doubling. That thrill, Nance?


Noisy
Because of all the noise and disinformation, President Obama and the Democrats don’t just own Obamacare as a political issue. They own health care. Anytime something bad happens — premiums rise, or employers change plans or pare coverage — Obamacare will be blamed, even if the new law had nothing to do with the change.

“It’s one of the most frustrating things,” says Brad Woodhouse, the former Democratic National Committee official who runs Americans United for Change. “If anybody has a problem with health care, Republicans say it has to be a problem with Obamacare.”

Does Woodhouse believe Democrats now own health care? “In some ways we probably do, which is unfair,” he said. “Nobody said Obamacare was a panacea for everything.” (Dana Milbank, Washington Post, 10/22/2013)

Milbank goes back in the RedStateVT doghouse (that was quick!) after this column which talks about how darn unjust it is that Dems will be blamed for any and all problems with the health care system going forward. Hold on a second there, Bucky! First, Dems wanted to own the health care issue. It was their way of demonstrating the compassion they had for their fellow Americans, in contrast to the callous disregard of their political opponents. Second, you can bet that if things had gone swimmingly, they would have claimed credit for everything.  (Life expectancy increase! Dems credit Obamacare...and themselves!)


Uproarious
Mr. Obama assured the German leader that the U.S. isn't monitoring her communications and won't in the future, a White House spokesman said. He wouldn't say whether it had occurred in the past.

The uproar in Berlin is the latest sign that the National Security Agency scandal has the potential to continue to inflict damage on Washington's relationships with overseas partners. Earlier this week, Mr. Obama called French President François Hollande, who expressed his "deep disapproval" over reports that the NSA was collecting data on tens of millions of French phone calls and messages. Reports of U.S. spying on Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff as well as Mexico's Enrique Peña Nieto during his successful presidential campaign have already strained the U.S. relationship with Latin America. (WSJ, 10/23/2013)

Reset button time!

Wait, wasn't Obama the one who was going to undo decades of American bad behavior and get the rest of the world to love us? How's that working out for him?

And then there is this:

Bluntly, Mr. Obama's partners are concluding that they cannot do business with him. They don't trust him. Whether it's the Saudis, the Syrian rebels, the French, the Iraqis, the unpivoted Asians or the congressional Republicans, they've all had their fill of coming up on the short end with so mercurial a U.S. president. And when that happens, the world's important business doesn't get done. It sits in a dangerous and volatile vacuum. (Daniel Henninger, WSJ, 10/23/2013)

Point Blank

We Did a Little Digging
In 2012, the percentage of people without health insurance decreased to 15.4 percent from 15.7 percent in 2011. The number of uninsured people in 2012 was not statistically different from 2011, at 48.0 million.

Both the percentage and number of people with health insurance increased in 2012 to 84.6 percent and 263.2 million, up from 84.3 percent and 260.2 million in 2011.

The percentage of people covered by private health insurance in 2012 was not statistically different from 2011, at 63.9 percent. This is the second consecutive year that the percentage of people covered by private health insurance was not statistically different from the previous year’s estimate. The number of people covered by private health insurance increased in 2012 to 198.8 million, up from 197.3 million in 2011.

The percentage and number of people covered by government health insurance increased to 32.6 percent and 101.5 million in 2012 from 32.2 percent and 99.5 million in 2011.

The percentage and number of people covered by employment-based health insurance in 2012 were not statistically different from 2011, at 54.9 percent and 170.9 million.

The percentage and number of people covered by Medicaid in 2012 were not statistically different from 2011, at 16.4 percent and 50.9 million. 

The percentage and number of people covered by Medicare increased in 2012 to 15.7 percent and 48.9 million, from 15.2 percent and 46.9 million in 2011.  (Statistics come from the U.S. Census Bureau)

Liberals are fond of quoting the statistic of 48 million people without health insurance as the raison d'etre for Obamacare. Well, let's look at it another way: 265 million Americans representing some 85% of the population DO have health insurance! (And - truth be told - many of the 48 million CHOOSE not to have insurance.) However - bringing a sledge hammer to the problem - Liberals have decided to blow up the entire health care system in order to solve a problem affecting a minority. It is as though they wanted to change the definition of marriage because .01% of the population representing gay couples decided they wanted to get married. Oh wait, that happened!


Glitched
Nevertheless, disarray has distinguished the project. In the last 10 months alone, government documents show, officials modified hardware and software requirements for the exchange seven times. It went live on Oct. 1 before the government and contractors had fully tested the complete system. Delays by the government in issuing specifications for the system reduced the time available for testing. (NYT, 10/21/2013)

This from one of Obama's major media supporters. Occasionally journalism happens.


Surged
Over the weekend, the administration announced a “tech surge” that would bring in “the best and the brightest from both inside and outside government” to fix the Web site. (NYT, 10/22/2013)

Which raises the inevitable question: why weren't the "best and brightest" working on the website from the start?

You know the answer. It was (somehow) because of the Republicans!


Cancellation Policy
Insurance companies are also already sending out notices to millions of consumers cancelling individual policies because they are non-compliant with ObamaCare's new mandates. Kaiser Health News, usually a cheerleader for the law, reports that "Florida Blue, for example, is terminating about 300,000 policies, about 80 percent of its individual policies in the state." Kaiser Permanente in California has sent notices to 160,000 people, Highmark in Pittsburgh is dropping about 20% of its individual market customers, and Independence Blue Cross of Philadelphia is dropping about 45%.

Remember when Mr. Obama said you could keep your policy if you liked it? (WSJ, 10/21/2013)

Liar, liar. Pants. On. Fire. 


Exceedingly
"The point is the essence of the law, the health insurance that's available to people, is working just fine. In some cases, actually, it's exceeding expectations." (President Barack Obama)

"Keep in mind the insurance doesn't start until Jan. 1." (President Barack Obama, same day)

Kudos to James Taranto (WSJ, 10/21/2013) for highlighting this Obama gem.


Seriously
Obama’s pitch sounded a bit desperate and perhaps it should. The product he rolled out three weeks ago was seriously defective. (Dana Milbank, Washington Post, 10/21/2013)

Highlighting a Liberal columnist (there have been a few) who at least is telling the truth. Others have tried to feed America the sham line that the problem with Obamacare is that it is working TOO well.


Declined
Several donors declined to speak for attribution because they did not want to anger the president. One called Mr. Obama’s White House holiday events “cuckoo clock parties,” because “he comes down, gives a speech, poses for some photos and pops back inside.” (NYT, 10/22/2013)

Interesting article contrasting the styles of Bll and Hill Clinton and 'Too Cool for School' Obama. The Legitimate Media has already begun the inevitable pivot to the next President Clinton.


Collapsed
Experts have long pondered the cause of the crisis that led to the Late Bronze Age collapse of civilization, and now believe that by studying grains of fossilized pollen they have uncovered the cause.

In a study published Monday in Tel Aviv: Journal of the Institute of Archaeology of Tel Aviv University, researchers say it was drought that led to the collapse in the ancient southern Levant.

Theories have included patterns of warfare, plagues and earthquakes. But while climate change has long been considered a prime factor, only recently have advances in science given researchers the chance to pinpoint the cause and make the case. (NYT, 10/23/2013)

Amazing....3000 years ago civilization in a portion of what is now the Middle East suffered catastrophically due to climate change. Must have been all those SUVs...or camels.


Issued
Lawyers and advocates take issue with the Vermont Department of Mental Health’s proposed rules for emergency involuntary procedures, saying they would violate the law and the civil rights of psychiatric patients. (VTdigger.org, 10/21/2013)

And as to the civil rights of mentally healthy citizens to be safe from the mentally ill?

Worthy of Trust

Crudely
U.S. crude-oil production grew by more than one million barrels a day last year, the largest increase in the world and the largest in U.S. history.
...
Most of this new production is coming from dense shale-rock formations, such as the Bakken Shale in North Dakota and the Eagle Ford Shale in Texas. In recent years, the oil industry has developed techniques to hydraulically fracture, or frack, these shales, freeing up previously trapped oils. (WSJ, 6/12/2013)

This exciting new technology which has the potential to free America from its dependence on Middle East oil is banned in Vermont, thanks to the efforts of the state's governor, Bill McKibben....


Vividly
Perhaps the most vivid example of this came Tuesday afternoon, when New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg rolled out his $19.5 billion plan to “prepare for the impacts of a changing climate,” with proposals ranging from coastal levees to the protection of hospitals. Last year, Bloomberg cited climate change as his main reason for endorsing President Obama’s reelection, praising Obama’s “major steps to reduce our carbon consumption.” But speaking Tuesday from a Brooklyn greenhouse damaged last fall by Hurricane Sandy, Bloomberg addressed the inevitability that rising temperatures and sea levels would bring even worse.

“By mid-century, up to a quarter of all New York City’s land area, where 800,000 residents live today, will be in the flood plain,” he said, and “40 miles of our waterfront could see flooding on a regular basis just during normal high tides.” We no longer have the luxury of ideological debate, he said. “The bottom line is we can’t run the risk.” (Mayor Michael Bloomberg quoted in Dana Milbank, Washington Post, 6/11/2013)

Maybe Mayor Bloomberg, a native of Massachusetts, doesn't realize it, but NYC ain't high ground. Lower Manhattan was created by bringing in fill, lots and lots of fill. We think the idea of flood protection for the city makes sense, but don't build in the flood plains and then complain that global warming is the culprit....when it floods.


Red Zone
The Obama administration has concluded that Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime has used chemical weapons against the opposition seeking to overthrow him, U.S. officials said Thursday, crossing what President Barack Obama has called a ‘red line’ that would trigger greater American involvement in the crisis.

The officials said earlier intelligence assessments that indicated Assad likely used such weapons had now been corroborated. However, the officials said the administration has not determined how it will respond. (Washington Post, 6/13/2013)

The "red line" now having been crossed, Assad can expect a strong response from the Obama administration. Likely to take the form of a sternly worded letter to be personally delivered by SOS Kerry. That'll show 'em.

Polite Society

Prize Package
In an institution where seniority has long been prized, Representative John D. Dingell Jr. of Michigan is about to set a new standard with 57 years, 5 months and 26 days of House service — a remarkable tenure that spans more than a quarter of the existence of Congress. (NYT, 6/5/2013)

Some think Dingell's tenure is a wonderful thing. (What a dedicated public servant!) We are suspicious of lifetime politicians. They need to - as the expression goes - get a real job at some point. Dingell gets partial redemption from RedStateVT for the following quote about Obama:

“He’s a good president, but he’s probably got the smallest Rolodex of anybody who’s ever hit this town,” Mr. Dingell concluded, somewhat wistfully.


Bug Spray
As an old political hand once told me, "There's never just one cockroach." The IRS scandal wasn't the work of a few isolated employees. It was fostered by a culture that many powerful people in Washington helped create—and it will take time and hard-nosed action to eradicate it. (Steven Law, WSJ, 6/5/2013)

Good point.


Hoarsey
It’s beginning to feel like the late ’90s all over again. Then, congressional Republicans howled themselves hoarse about Clinton administration scandals. But the indicators kept pointing to a booming economy, and support for President Bill Clinton climbed steeply through 1998 as House Republicans marched toward impeaching him. (Dana Milbank, Washington Post, 6/4/2013)

So according to Milbank, Republicans should ignore the Obama Scandals(tm) because the economy is rebounding. 

Sounds logical. 

If you are a Liberal.

(And about that booming Obama economy....)


Your Coulter of the Day
It is obviously in the interest of the left to show us liberal groups also harassed by the IRS, so it's striking that they haven't been able to produce one yet. (Ann Coulter, 6/6/2013)

Least Among You

As If
After the Russian warning, Mr. Obama said: “It’s not as if the F.B.I. did nothing. They not only investigated the older brother; they interviewed the older brother. They concluded that there were no signs that he was engaging in extremist activity.” (NYT, 4/30/2013)

Apparently posting jihadist videos on your Facebook page does NOT qualify as "extremist activity."


Bite of the Apple
About two-thirds of Apple’s cash — about $102 billion — sits overseas in lower-tax jurisdictions. If it returned some of that cash to the United States to reward its investors, it could have significant tax consequences for the company. (NYT, 4/30/2013)

Liberals would argue either that Apple should return their cash hoard to the U.S. and pay higher taxes in order to be patriotic or that Apple should be taxed more heavily because they evade U.S. taxes by moving their money offshore. Conservatives would argue that the U.S. should lower taxes so that Apple would keep money in this country. Which makes more sense to you?


Notional
“It’s not sustainable,” Mr. Obama said at a White House news conference. “The notion that we’re going to keep 100 individuals in no man’s land in perpetuity,” he added, makes no sense. “All of us should reflect on why exactly are we doing this? Why are we doing this?” (NYT, 4/30/2013)

Well boss, you da president.

As the article also points out, Obama could order a case-by-case review of the gentle souls in Gitmo and seek individual releases. He has not done so.

Also, when he does not get his way on other issues, Obama resorts to Executive Order. Apparently it is easier for him to simply demagogue.


Train Kept a Rollin'
President Obama said Tuesday that his health care law was “working fine,” and he played down concerns that the law could disrupt coverage or lead to higher premiums for people who already had health insurance.
...
At a hearing two weeks ago, Senator Max Baucus, Democrat of Montana and chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said that many of his constituents were confused about the new law, and that “education and outreach” efforts by the administration were inadequate. “I just see a huge train wreck coming down,” Mr. Baucus said. (NYT, 4/30/2013)

Who should we believe, the Democrat President or the Democrat Senator? 

(And what do we read into the fact that Baucus is not running for re-election?)


If Ever
One hundred days into his second term, Obama has already lost control of the agenda, if he ever had control in the first place. He ricocheted through his news conference, as he has through his presidency recently, between issues and crises not of his choice. (Dana Milbank, Washington Post, 4/30/2013)

Coulter is too hard on the president. Oh, it's Liberal Milbank?


Controlling
Today Vermonters are not celebrating the 6 percent rise in the gas tax. Governor Shumlin and his Democrat controlled legislature have increased a tax on those least able to afford higher taxes, the low income hard working families of Vermont. (VTGOP, 5/1/2013)

The VTGOP gets on board with RedStateVT in condemning the Shumlin tax hike on working families in Vermont.