All This And More!

Step Off
Brian Williams, acknowledging that the scrutiny and criticism he was attracting was becoming a distraction for his network, said on Saturday that he was stepping aside as anchor of NBC’s “Nightly News” for the next several days. (New York Times, 2/8/2015)

The Liberal News Oligarchy is in disarray! First Al Sharpton is forced to resign from MSNBC when it is learned that he purposefully ginned up racial conflict in a number of stories, then Brian Williams takes a leave of absence from NBC. 

What?

Al Sharpton hasn't resigned? He is still on the air?


200 Experts Agree
With advice from more than 200 policy experts, Hillary Rodham Clinton is trying to answer what has emerged as a central question of her early presidential campaign strategy: how to address the anger about income inequality without overly vilifying the wealthy. (New York Times, 2/8/2015)

Having tried and failed badly at the "you didn't build it" meme owned by 1%er Lizzie Warren, Hillary searches for a new catch phrase to capture her economic vision. May we suggest the following:

Be Like Bill!

Instead of vilifying the rich, Hillary should embrace wealth, using her husband as the poster child for economic opportunity in America. The backstory goes like this: 

My husband grew up as a backwoods hillbilly. Through hard work and determination he became the governor of Arkansas where his position afforded him sexual access to many local women. He parlayed his roguish charm into a successful run for the highest office in the land which afforded him sexual access to even more women. After leaving office we were "dead broke." He (and I) became fabulously wealthy attracting hundreds of millions of dollars (lots from foreign donors) to our "foundation." (By the way, the foundation thing is the way to go if you can pull it off!) 

Be Like Bill!


Good One!
National Review’s Eliana Johnson quotes a wonderfully pithy response from Louisiana’s Gov. Bobby Jindal: “The Medieval Christian threat is under control, Mr. President. Please deal with the Radical Islamic threat today.” (James Taranto, Wall Street Journal, 2/9/2015)

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?

The Fever Swamps

Refusniks
Obamacare is such a disaster that the people who wrote it refuse to live under it themselves. That's right, Congress won a waiver from Obamacare. 

Responding to the people's will, House Republicans first voted to fund all of government -- except Obamacare. Obama refused to negotiate and Senate Democrats refused to pass it. 

Then the Republicans voted to fully fund the government, but merely delay the implementation of Obamacare for one year. Obama refused to negotiate and Senate Democrats refused to pass it. 

Finally, the Republicans voted to fully fund the government, but added a requirement that everyone live under Obamacare. No more special waivers for Congress and their staff, and no waivers for big business without the same waivers for individuals. 

Obama refused to negotiate and Senate Democrats refused to pass it. So as you can see, Republicans are the big holdup here. (AnnCoulter.com, 10/9/2013)

The official response issued jointly by the Obama administration and the office of Senator Harry Reid is as follows:

"Ted Cruz...hostage-takers...anarchists...Ted Cruz...Ted Cruz...blackmail...Ted Cruz."


Crash Test
The administration claims the Obamacare online exchanges crashed because the Web site got more than 8 million hits in the first week. Please. You know how many people visit Amazon.com every week? More than 70 million. The difference is: 1.) Amazon seldom crashes, and 2.) on Amazon, people actually buy something. (Marc A. Thiessen, Washington Post, 10/14/2013)

And yet somehow Kathleen Sebelius continues to have a job.

(Killer point by Thiessen.)


Tipped Off
But ObamaCare is the tipping point, the tea party believes. Unless the law is defunded, the land of limited government, individual liberty and personal responsibility will be gone forever, and the new America, dominated by dependent minorities who assert their "rights" without accepting their responsibilities, will have no place for people like them.

For the tea party, ObamaCare is much more than a policy dispute; it is an existential struggle. (William A. Galston, WSJ, 10/15/2013)

You may love the tea party, you may hate it, but you need to understand it.


What's for Lunch?
ObamaCare promised a free lunch: universal (or near-universal) coverage at lower cost without any diminution of quality or choice. It's a perpetual-motion machine. But even the Supreme Court can't strike down the laws of physics. If a large number of people benefit from ObamaCare--itself a big if--somebody has to pay. Much of the burden was supposed to fall on young, healthy people, who frequently do not have medical insurance. To compensate for price controls on premiums for patients with pre-existing conditions, their premiums would be jacked up. Somehow higher prices are supposed to induce them to get insured. (James Taranto, WSJ, 10/15/2013)

And you were cynical about today's youth!

(Killer point by Taranto.)


Threat Level
In response, Republicans threatened to default on America’s debts to force agreement on the Budget Control Act, which cut nearly $1 trillion in spending over 10 years with no tax increases. (Katrina vanden Heuvel, Washington Post, 10/15/2013)

Trying to find the logic in a vanden Heuvel column is like...well, don't bother. The whole point of Republican spending cuts is to cut spending. It is not to cut spending and then raise more revenue so that spending cuts could be reversed. As RedStateVT has said a thousand times, the Liberal answer is ALWAYS taxes, more taxes.

Central Plank

Trashy
President Obama is a gifted politician, but sometimes he tries to exceed even what his spinning can accomplish. Witness this week's spectacle of the President denouncing his own antiterror policies.

Mr. Obama renewed his vow to shut down Guanatanamo during his Tuesday press conference, and to transfer or release the 166 military combatants still held there, details to follow. Then he trashed the larger antiterror program that he continues to execute using the rhetoric of a rookie ACLU lawyer: "The idea that we would still maintain forever a group of individuals who have not been tried, that is contrary to who we are," he said. "It is contrary to our interests and it needs to stop." Note the passive voice. (WSJ, 5/1/2013)

We actually disagree with the Journal's contention that Obama is a "gifted politician." The Journal's Taranto, we believe, has it right (see below). 

Obama has been called out in the past on his use of straw men to advance whatever argument he is trying to make. Sometimes he is his own straw man!

On another note, we did some channel surfing last night. There was lots of coverage of the new suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing as expected. Until we got to CNN which decided instead to highlight Guantanamo! Christiane Amanpour had her large violin out for the gentle souls in Gitmo who are on a principled hunger strike against their detention. She attempted to bully Rudy Guiliani by guffawing and talking over him. 

You don't bully Guiliani.

Mr. Mayor laid out the case in simple and stark terms. Some released prisoners have returned to the battlefield and killed Americans. Indefinite detention may be unfortunate, but the solution lies not with America, but with the larger Muslim world. It was a bravura performance. Amanpour was left whimpering. 


Adversarial
Every time we write a column making note of Obama's deficiencies of political skill, our small gaggle of fanboy adversaries on Twitter honk away at the "obstructionist Republicans" they believe are to blame for all that is wrong. Of course one man's obstructionist is another's valiant defender of the republic, but to insist on the former designation begs the question anyway. The Republicans in 1995 were no less "obstructionist" than today's, but Clinton was able to master the problem. (James Taranto, WSJ, 5/1/2013)

A fellow blogger constantly chides us about "Republican obstructionists." (By the way, these are the same as "obstructionist Republicans.")  Our response usually includes some combination of the following:

- We don't recall Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi being noted for their willingness to advance George Bush's agenda.
- Obama has demonstrated time and again that he has little interest in working with the other side; indeed his expectation is that the other side should agree with him.

The larger issue, of course, is that Obama is now into his fifth year as president and continues to beat the same drum: blame Republicans and tax the rich. This is what his presidency has become. (Forget the "transformational presidency.") It's official. Obama fatigue has set in.  


Anticipation
"Obamacare is extremely problematic, it is expensive, it is a $500 billion [higher] cost than we originally anticipated, it's cutting into Medicare benefits and it's having companies lay off their employees because they are worried about the cost of it. That is extremely problematic, it needs an enormous fix." (South Carolina congressional candidate Elizabeth Colbert Busch quoted by Kimberley A. Strassel, WSJ, 5/1/2013)

Never mind not campaigning with Obama, Democrat candidates are now campaigning against Obamacare.  

The Essence

Fossilized
Officials said Mr. Obama will present the proposal as part of his “all-of-the-above energy strategy,” which includes an increase in oil and gas development; support for nonpolluting sources like wind, solar and geothermal energy; loan guarantees for new nuclear plants; and research into long-term alternatives to fossil fuels. (NYT, 3/15/2013)

Twelve paragraphs about Obama's latest green energy investment proposal. Not a single mention - not one - of the myriad of failures from his previous schemes. It is as though Solyndra, Ener1 and others never happened. Oh, and he wants another $2 billion....


Signals
In the national debate that has followed the killings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, much of the focus has been on regulating firearms. But many law enforcement and mental health experts believe that developing comprehensive approaches to prevention is equally important. In many cases, they note, the perpetrators of such violence are troubled young people who have signaled their distress to others and who might have been stopped had they received appropriate help. (NYT, 3/14/2013)

At last an article on an outstanding ongoing approach to gun violence. In short, in Los Angeles, they seek to identify the potentially mentally ill perpetrators BEFORE they kill. 


Victim Alert!
Ms. Brady, for instance, earns about $1,800 a month in take-home pay. But she paid for her undergraduate and graduate education in part with loans, which cost her about $400 a month. She also is trying to pay down her credit card debt, which requires about $500 a month. After food, rent and living expenses, there is little left over. (NYT, 3/14/2013)

The New York Times finds new victims in young people who just cannot seem to save for their retirement. Included here is Ms. Brady who - despite a B.A. and an M.A. - managed to rack up credit card debt requiring payments totaling $6000 per year. Cry us a river.


Retention
It would repeal his health insurance exchanges and expansion of Medicaid, but retain cuts to Medicare that the Republican presidential ticket, Mitt Romney and Representative Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin, spent months denouncing. (NYT, 3/14/2013)

A snarky, dishonest dig at Paul Ryan and his budget. The Times points out - correctly - that Romney/Ryan hammered Obama on cuts to Medicare (which redirected those dollars to Obamacare). At the time, Obama and the Legitimate Media cried foul and accused R/R of lying. So now - anxious to accuse Ryan of hypocrisy - the Times unwittingly admits that R/R were right in the first place!


Effective
Employers are bracing for a little-noticed fee in the federal health-care law that will charge them $63 for each person they insure next year, one of the clearest cost increases companies face when the law takes full effect. (WSJ, 3/14/2013)

The drip-drip-drip of Obamacare taxes.....


Zeal
George W. Bush was excoriated for waterboarding exactly three terrorists, all of whom are now enjoying an extensive retirement on a sunny Caribbean island (though strolls beyond Gitmo’s gates are prohibited). Whereas President Obama, with thousands of kills to his name, evokes little protest from yesterday’s touch-not-a-hair-on-their-head zealots. Of whom, of course, Sen. Obama was a leading propagandist.

Such hypocrisy is the homage Democrats pay to Republicans when the former take office, confront national security reality, feel the weight of their duty to protect the nation — and end up doing almost everything they had denounced their predecessors for doing. The beauty of such hypocrisy, however, is that the rotation of power creates a natural bipartisan consensus on the proper conduct of this war. (Charles Krauthammer, Washington Post, 3/14/2013)

Krauthammer echoes a recent point by RedStateVT on what happens when Liberals are confronted with national security issues. 


Assumed
The underlying assumption behind coverage like this is that the Catholic Church is a primitive institution in need of being brought up to date. Sometime in the past 50 years or so, it was revealed that men and women are more or less interchangeable, that sexual liberty is a blessing, that homosexuality is normal and celibacy is deviant, and even, as per Kramer, that women ought to wear pants. By now all right-thinking people agree on all these points. Those old men in Rome not only doubt them but act is if they actually think they know better! What is the matter with them? (James Taranto, WSJ, 3/14/2013)

Taranto follows up on RedstateVT's point about how Liberals know exactly what needs to be done to fix the Catholic Church. Namely, the Church should be more like....Liberals. (By the way, this is the same advice that Liberals give to the Republican Party.)