MICKEY KAUS: Who you gonna believe, clever bloggers obsessed with exit polls or your own eyes? “Bloggers on the left–and some on the right–are trying really hard to deny the obvious: that the Obamacare rollout debacle hurt gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe down the stretch in a way that should (and will) terrify Democrats.”
Archive for 2013
November 9, 2013
SCHADENFREUDE ALERT: Colorado Woman Who Championed Obamacare Loses Insurance Plan.
JAMES TARANTO: Sorry, Charlie: Obama probably can’t undo the damage of the ObamaCare swindle.
There is ample evidence that the plans to be sold on the vaporware exchanges will frequently, perhaps usually, be poorer values than the canceled ones. And the 5% figure is very much a lowball estimate. Among others, it excludes people who’ll lose employer-provided insurance or see it downgraded as a result of ObamaCare’s mandates and incentives, as well as those affected by Medicare cuts.
But for the sake of argument, let’s accept the 5% figure as the number of Americans Obama now acknowledges having victimized with his “If you like your plan, you can keep it” swindle. The U.S. population is just over 317 million (that includes children, but so does the population affected by the ObamaCare cancellations). Five percent of 317 million is just under 16 million people.
Imagine if Bernie Madoff had swindled 16 million people.
No, that doesn’t quite do it justice. Imagine if Bernie Madoff had swindled 16 million people, many of whom never agreed, or had any desire, to do business with him in the first place.
Read the whole thing.
MEGAN MCARDLE: ObamaCare Is Running Out Of Bullets.
It reminds me of a late-Soviet joke: A man stands in line all day for bread, only to have the baker come out and say there is none. He loses it, and begins ranting about the government. Eventually, a man in a trench coat puts a hand on his shoulder.
“Be careful, comrade. You know, in the old days, it would have been …” and he mimes a gun pointed at the head.
The man walks home, dejected. When he walks in the door, his wife takes one look at his face and drops the plate she is holding.
“What’s wrong, Ivan? Were they out of bread?”
“It’s worse than that. They’re out of bullets.”
The administration has run out of political bullets. Unless the Affordable Care Act starts working, and delivering big benefits to more people than are losing their insurance, it can’t do much to improve those sagging poll numbers.
I notice the appearance of more and more old Soviet jokes.
TRAIN WRECK UPDATE: McClatchy: Tens of millions could be forced out of health insurance they had.
Even as President Barack Obama sold a new health care law in part by assuring Americans they would be able to keep their insurance plans, his administration knew that tens of millions of people actually could lose those their policies.
“If you like your private health insurance plan, you can keep your plan. Period,” Obama said as he pitched the plan, the unqualified promise he made repeatedly.
Yet advisers did say in 2010 that there were large caveats and that anyone whose insurance plan changed would lose the promised protection of being able to keep existing plans. And a report in 2010 said that as many as 69 percent of certain employer-based insurance plans would lose that protection, meaning as many as 41 million people could lose their plans even if they wanted to keep them and would be forced into other plans. Another 11 million who bought their own insurance also could lose their plans. Combined, as many as 52 million Americans could lose or have lost old insurance plans.
Hey, that’s just a small minority.
FOR CHARLIE CRIST, THIS COUNTS AS A NEW IDEA: Charlie Crist Endorses High-Speed Rail in Fla. Bid for Governor.
ED DRISCOLL: In Soviet America, Contract Walks Away From You! “Welcome to Utopia, Dylan!”
November 8, 2013
BENGHAZI WHISTLEBLOWER’S BOOK MEMORYHOLED BY SIMON & SCHUSTER. Dollars to donuts, Hillary’s behind this.
“DEAR LIBERTARIANS, YOU WERE RIGHT.”
UPDATE: Jim Bennett emails: “To which the answer is ‘Yeah, we get that a lot.'”
THE JUSTICE SYSTEM IN ACTION: You Didn’t Pay Child Support? We’ll Make it Harder for You to Work.
IT TAKES A VILLAGE: 21 Shameful Ways We Are Forcing Children To Be Sissies.
TEN COLD-WAR WEAPONS that terrified U.S. military intelligence.
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Plus, gifts under $50.
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IS THERE A “JENNY MCCARTHY BODY COUNT” SITE SOMEWHERE? Deadly Diseases Like Measles And Mumps Make Frightening Comeback.
STILL: Power Plants and Other Vital Systems Are Totally Exposed on the Internet.
What do the controls for two hydroelectric plants in New York, a generator at a Los Angeles foundry, and an automated feed system at a Pennsylvania pig farm all have in common? What about a Los Angeles pharmacy’s prescription system and the surveillance cameras at a casino in Czechoslovakia?
They’re all exposed on the internet, without so much as a password to block intruders from accessing them.
Despite all of the warnings in recent years about poorly configured systems exposing sensitive data and controls to the internet, researchers continue to find machines with gaping doors left open and a welcome mat laid out for hackers.
This was pathetic a decade ago; now it’s unforgivable.
WHY INDIA’S MARS MISSION is about more than prestige.
NEWS YOU CAN USE: An Ex-Cop’s Guide To Not Getting Arrested.
FASTER, PLEASE: New Limb Regeneration Insight Surprises Scientists.
STILL NOT SUPERSONIC: The World’s Fastest Civilian Plane.
THEY’RE BUYING WHAT? Richest Americans Are Going ‘Conservative’ with Car Purchases.