ED DRISCOLL: Barack to the Future: Mark Steyn on America Alone in 2006. “The fall of 2006, which at the time seemed like the nadir, the perigee of the Bush administration, now seems increasingly like the Good Old Days. So let’s flash back to that era, to see where the War on Terror stood, and how the left ran America off the rails in the years since.”
Archive for 2013
November 8, 2013
SPENGLER: New York Is Fine: De Blasio’s Broken.
MAYBE WE SHOULD HAVE ANOTHER SHUTDOWN: More jobs created than expected — 204,000 vs. 120,000. On the other hand, unemployment actually went up, from 7.2 to 7.3 percent. And the broader U6 unemployment rate, which includes discouraged workers, went up from 13.6 to 13.8 This is weird; watch for the revisions.
WASHINGTON POST: The Lowest Low Of The Obama Presidency. Oh, I dunno, there’s a lot of competition. But it’s nice to see the Post notice that there are lows at all . . . .
More: “Here’s Obama’s problem(s). The 5 percent feel misled. (Obama did apologize to them for the first time in the interview with Todd.) HealthCare.gov doesn’t work right — and won’t until at least the end of the month. Senate Democrats up for re-election in 2014 are getting nervous and already working to distance themselves from the law and him. His job approval and personal popularity numbers are at – or near — their lowest ebb in years. He lacks any major second-term accomplishment and is watching while his biggest first term accomplishment struggles to get off the ground.”
The “only five percent of the population are affected” talking point has two problems. First, it’s not really true, as these problems ramify out and the employer mandate — now deferred on questionable legal authority — kicks in. Second, “only” five percent? We’re talking about ENDA for gays and they’re a smaller percentage than that. I don’t hear anyone saying gay rights are no big deal because only a few percent of Americans are gay.
UPDATE: Former MSNBC Host’s Health Plan Cancelled, New Plan Costs 3.5 Times More.
WAGES OF SOCIALISM: France Gets Credit Downgrade.
JAMES TARANTO: Strange Bedfellows: The Politics Of A Moral Panic.
But again, the military defines “assault” as including any unwanted touching of “private body parts.” That goes too far even for Gloria Steinem, at least when applied to a commander in chief of whom she approves: “He is accused of having made a gross, dumb and reckless pass at a supporter [Kathleen Willey] during a low point in her life,” Steinem wrote in a 1998 New York Times op-ed. “She pushed him away, she said, and it never happened again. In other words, President Clinton took ‘no’ for an answer.”
In exaggerating the problem of military sexual assault, the Pentagon is responding to its civilian masters in both the executive branch and Congress. A moral panic is under way, and military officers–who are trained to follow orders and whose ultimate commanders are civilians–are not equipped to resist it. The result is that weak or completely bogus cases go to courts-martial, either producing unjust verdicts or reducing conviction rates–and in the latter case giving further ammunition to politicians anxious to push the military to “do more” about “sexual assault.” . . .
As long as politicians (and journalists) persist in exaggerating the prevalence of sexual assault in the military, the Pentagon will follow suit, and prosecutions on false or dubious charges will continue to proliferate. A decent resolution to this problem will remain impossible until the moral panic passes. One can only hope the effectiveness and morale of the U.S. military doesn’t suffer too much in the interim.
For some, of course, hurting the military’s position is not a bug, but a feature.
ROGER SIMON: How can we possibly trust Obama on Iran?
Related: Under Obama, Iran Keeps Nukes While Americans Lose Health Insurance. Ouch.
JAMES PETHOKOUKIS: America’s Not-So-Great Recovery, in 1 chart. Well, make that 2 charts. The second chart doesn’t make it better. . . .
TRAIN WRECK UPDATE: Only one signup for North Carolina health exchange, and that person hasn’t paid. Plus:
The emails suggest the “payment re-direct option” on government servers isn’t working.
Blue Cross Blue Shield found the entire system is so filled with glitches that the company decided not to upload data because it was afraid false information might enter its computer system.
And the emails reveal a scammer was using the insurer’s name to try to obtain personal information.
Remember when Obama was going to bring back competence in Washington, unlike that dumb cowboy Bush? Because the problem was that Republicans just didn’t believe in government!
DRUG-WAR CASUALTY: 22-Year-Old Jailed for Pot Possession Dies While Guards Ignore His Pleas for Help. Then they tried to cover it up. More here.
JOEL KOTKIN: The Green Gentry’s Class Warfare.
Historically, progressives were seen as partisans for the people, eager to help the working and middle classes achieve upward mobility even at expense of the ultrarich. But in California, and much of the country, progressivism has morphed into a political movement that, more often than not, effectively squelches the aspirations of the majority, in large part to serve the interests of the wealthiest.
Primarily, this modern-day program of class warfare is carried out under the banner of green politics. The environmental movement has always been primarily dominated by the wealthy, and overwhelmingly white, donors and activists. But in the past, early progressives focused on such useful things as public parks and open space that enhance the lives of the middle and working classes. Today, green politics seem to be focused primarily on making life worse for these same people.
In this sense, today’s green progressives, notes historian Fred Siegel, are most akin to late 19th century Tory radicals such as William Wordsworth, William Morris and John Ruskin, who objected to the ecological devastation of modern capitalism, and sought to preserve the glories of the British countryside. In the process, they also opposed the “leveling” effects of a market economy that sometimes allowed the less-educated, less well-bred to supplant the old aristocracies with their supposedly more enlightened tastes.
Indeed.
NEWS YOU CAN USE: “If you rely on Slate for your legal news, you’re not well informed.”
RON FOURNIER: I’m Sorry, Too, Mr. President: Obama apologizes for breaking promise on health care reform.
I’m sorry you campaigned for reelection on the famous false promise: “If you like your health care plan, you’ll be able to keep your health care plan. Period.”
I’m sorry your aides debated whether to tell the full truth (that people could keep their insurance only if it hadn’t changed and if it met your standards) and decided instead to institutionalize the lie.
I’m sorry that when Americans recognized the deception you tried to reinvent history: “What we said was you can keep it if it hasn’t changed since the law passed.” No, no, no, no, no—that’s not what you guys said.
I’m sorry you didn’t trust Americans with the truth. . . . Work hard, Mr. President, and tell your administration to do the same. Tell them, please, to stop blaming Republicans, insurance companies, and the media—to stop making excuses and shading the truth. You must lead by example (the NBC interview was full of excuses) and create a system of universal health care that is worthy of your promise.
“Ultimately,” you told NBC, “the buck stops with me.” You’re right, sir. Please don’t make us sorry about that.
Ignore the obligatory — and unfair — Republican-bashing. That’s window-dressing, a spoonful of sugar to make the medicine go down. This is the Beltway establishment telling Obama he blew it, big time.
IN PRAISE OF THE LOW-OVERHEAD RED-STATE LIFE: ‘Young People in Omaha Are Able to Take Bigger Risks.’
November 7, 2013
OBAMACARE FALLOUT: In Wake of Narrow Cuccinelli Loss, Democrats Panic. “Democratic alarm over the fortunes of the Affordable Care Act is becoming more and more visible every day. The last sign of panic is that Hill Democrats have acquiesced to the conservative narrative about Tuesday’s Virginia governor’s race. In the fight between GOP candidate Ken Cuccinelli and Democratic victor Terry McAuliffe, nearly everyone expected Cuccinelli to lose big, given his socially conservative stances and lack of money and establishment support. Instead, the race turned out to be incredibly close: thanks to a last-minute, eight-point swing, he only lost by two points. Cuccinelli himself, as well as many on the right, interpreted the narrow margin as a rebuke of Obamacare. . . . A Democratic party confident in Obamacare would brush off what the right is saying about Cuccinelli with a narrative of its own: polls often narrow near the end of the race; Virginia is an historically red state; McAuliffe was an uninspiring and otherwise problematic candidate. Instead, they’re worried that they’ll be the next victims of anger over Obamacare.”
THE REAL BATTLE LINE IN THE GENDER WARS? Men Against Men.
Here’s a clue — as with racial diversity, the big guys at the top who talk a good game never give up their jobs to advance gender balance.
OBAMA TO DONORS: “We are remaking the courts.”
ED DRISCOLL: Won’t Be Myzled Again.
OBAMA ISSUES HALF-HEARTED APOLOGY FOR OBAMACARE INSURANCE CANCELLATIONS. I think it was intended as some sort of modified limited hangout, but I don’t think it’s going to play that way.
THE COUNTRY’S IN THE VERY BEST OF HANDS: FBI: Help us find our missing sniper rifle, M16.
WHITNEY CAUDILL: The Best Careers Are Not Planned.
KEEP SMILING: Is there any reason to think dolphins and humans have a special relationship? Sure, but it might not be a friendly one. “Of the 29 well-studied dolphins just mentioned, 13 of them exhibited ‘misdirected sexual behaviour towards humans, buoys, and/or vessels’, which means the dolphins (mostly males) occasionally sported an erection and attempted to mount swimmers. It’s not always possible to interpret what ‘sexual’ behaviour might mean in this context, but by all accounts it was dangerous for the humans. Women often seem to be the victims of these aggressive encounters. Some jealous dolphins reportedly chased male humans out of the water so that they could keep their human female prizes all to themselves. A number of these dolphins made a habit of abducting people — dragging them out to sea, preventing them from returning to shore, even pinning them to the seabed. Two-thirds of the 29 dolphins directed overtly aggressive behaviour at humans, resulting in ruptured spleens, broken ribs, people being knocked unconscious, and worse.”