D.C. Insurance Commissioner Given Walking Papers After Questioning Obamacare Fix

It seems as though a "national conversation" will not be part of the solution to fixing the insurance coverage messes that have followed the launch of health exchanges. The insurance commissioner of Washington, D.C., tried and is now looking for a new job. Courtesy of The Washington Post:

A day after he questioned President Obama's decision to unwind a major tenet of the health-care law and said the nation's capital might not go along, D.C. insurance commissioner William P. White was fired.

White was called into a meeting Friday afternoon with one of Mayor Vincent C. Gray's (D) top deputies and told that the mayor "wants to go in a different direction," White told The Washington Post on Saturday.

White said the mayoral deputy never said that he was being asked to leave because of his Thursday statement on health care. But he said the timing was hard to ignore. Roughly 24 hours later, White said, he was "basically being told, 'Thanks, but no thanks.'?"

On Thursday, after the president announced that he was going to try to get insurance companies to delay cancellations for a year of policies that were not in compliance with the Affordable Care Act's coverage requirements, White was one of the people who worried it would make a bad situation even worse. He issued a statement agreeing with the National Association of Insurance Commissioners that the change "threatens to undermine the new market, and may lead to higher premiums and market disruptions in 2014 and beyond."

The statement has been removed from the department's web site. Sources tell The Washington Post leaders were upset that the statement had not been vetted by the mayor's office before posting.

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Comments

[Bardas Phocas]

If you see something, say something.

Don't speak unless spoken too!

[AlmightyJB]

OT: "Victims of climate change" demand aid

http://www.dispatch.com/conten.....d-aid.html

[Gozer the Gozerian]

Alas, Ronald Coase is no longer with us...

[Heroic Mulatto]

They can go fuck themselves. When the 3rd World recompense the developed nations for their polluting the water by filling it up with animal shit through their "organic" agriculture, and human shit through their refusal to invest in infrastructure like sewers and water treatment plants, and the spread of diseases like polio because some batshit insane imams in Pakistan believe vaccinations are a Zionist plot to destroy Islam, and the cost of our acceptance of refugees from their constant genocidal wars, etc.
Then, maybe I'll consider listening to their attempts to extort money from us for about 3 seconds before punching them in their fucking mouths.

[Lady Bertrum]

Seriously, tell us how you really feel.

Do you have a newsletter I could subscribe to? Or a blog, perhaps?

[Agammamon]

You're just upset that, if reparations do come down, you'll have to pay them to yourself.

[Sy]

""We are in a piece of land which is smaller than Denmark, with a population of 160 million, trying to cope with this extreme weather, trying to cope with the effect of emissions for which we are not responsible."

Maybe stop fucking yourselves into poverty and start investing in some 20th-century infrastructure. There's a start.

[Rich]

"Because we have so many mouths to feed, our subsistence farmers must produce many children to help."

[GILMORE]

"Calling the climate crisis "madness," the Philippine representative vowed to fast for the duration of the talks"

Well, that's one way to get a 'conversation' going.

Of course, nothing's less 'crazy' than saying, "I plan to starve myself until people agree with my insane worldview"

[prolefeed]

Now, even as the possible consequences of climate change have surged ? from typhoons that have raked the Philippines and India this year

I recall how, prior to the advent of the internal combustion engine, tropical countries never had hurricanes. And coconut palms, which evolved to have their very large seeds be dispersed during such events, first appeared in the early 1900s.

/sarc

[Mike M.]

And this is what all of this bullcrap is really all about: a justification for wealth redistribution on an unprecedented scale.

[Gozer the Gozerian]

What isn't?

[CatoTheElder]

Exactly: The AGW hypothesis is just a ruse, an ostensible justification, to perform one huge cashectomy on the US followed by periodic bleedings ... well, that, and to impose a new world order to assure that climate justice happens in the way the ruling class desires.

[Live Free or Diet]

How long ago did we start industrializing?
20,000 years of sea level rise

[Francisco d Anconia]

My cat died due to climate change. I demand compensation!

[Gozer the Gozerian]

Wasn't that compensation enough?

/dog person

[DK]

You should know that your pets were living together.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Evidence

[Francisco d Anconia]

You put it in the pussy. What's the problem?

[BakedPenguin]

Bill Murray was a prophet.

[AlmightyJB]

That cat is such a whore.

[Snark Plissken]

I think it was your own fault, FdA, it was like meowschwitz in there.

[Francisco d Anconia]

Are you proud of that?

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Yes, all of it you fox-eared asshole!

[Francisco d Anconia]

In northern Somalia, Nimcaan Farah Abdi's 10 acres of corn, tomatoes and other vegetables were ruined as violent storms swept the Horn of Africa.

The.
Horror.

[wareagle]

amazing but crop losses have never happened before. Ever. Anywhere. Until this 10 acre man-made disaster.

[Death Rock and Skull]

Ten acres? Whopping. A devastating loss for the entire continent.

[Suthenboy]

"Victims of climate change demand aid
But determining compensation would be daunting task"

No, it would not be. I can do it in less than a second while sitting right here.

[AlmightyJB]

$5 each less a $10 upfront processing fee. Send your $10 to me and I will quickly compensate you.

[johnl]

Bangladesh is almost 3X the size of Denmark, unless you count Greenland. And being smaller than Greenland is no big deal.

[BakedPenguin]

...William P. White was fired.

Nothing to do now but cook meth.

[The Late P Brooks]

Sentence first, trial afterward.

[Bardas Phocas]

I have to say, when predicting the Obama Purges, I did not think 'DC Insurance Commissioner'(if that is a real job) - a mid-level city functionary - would be where it begins.

I assumed it would be the kulaks first.

[Gozer the Gozerian]

Nacht der langen Messer instead?

[DJF]

Wreckers and Counterrevolutionaries first, Kulaks second.

[CatoTheElder]

DC Insurance Commissioner is a pretty strange place to start, but the purges always start with non-conforming party functionaries.

[Mike M.]

The bitter clingers of Chambersburg, PA boot their anti-gun mayor's ass out of office.

[MJGreen]

Enemies of democracy!

[AlmightyJB]

OT: Social "Services"

http://news.yahoo.com/child-fo.....54138.html

[Gozer the Gozerian]

"How do I get out of this chickenshit outfit?"

[General Butt Naked]

Why the chicken?

Why?

[Bobarian]

To get to the other side?

[Agammamon]

It was a libertarian chicken. When asked why it was crossing the road it kept asking the officers 'Am I being detained?' so they gave it a lethal anal probing.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Now that Batkid's cancer is in remission, I await the gritty reboot where Batkid spends the next 13 years training in martial arts in the Himalayas, only to return as an adult to fight Captain Carcinogen and throw him off the clocktower.

[AlmightyJB]

That was cute.

[Death Rock and Skull]

Tooth decay. He's still out there.

[CatoTheElder]

If you take the King's farthing, you must do the King's bidding.

And, make no mistake: D.C. is a vassal state of the US, and Barack is King of the the US. His will be done!

[CatoTheElder]

Dramatic portrayal: So it be written; so it be done.

[BakedPenguin]

Related, somewhat.

[Suthenboy]

"White was one of the people who worried it would make a bad situation even worse."

Obama is issuing edicts. Of course bad situations are going to get worse. There is nothing he hasnt fucked up so far, why expect any different?

Jesus, it is getting pathetic watching the guy bumblefuck his way through the presidency.

[CatoTheElder]

When a great nation's edicts are authored by a fool, or a community organizer, a bad situation will become even worse.

Question: Is an illegal contract enforceable in a court if just because the monarch says he won't enforce prohibitions against entering into such contracts?

How can a court make a ruling on such a contract?

It seems to me that by offering such insurance contracts that insurance companies are opening themselves up for limitless liability. I.e., if a low-cap policyholder gets laid up in ICU for a month and racks up a $500000 in bills, wouldn't the insurance company be on the hook despite the low-cap limits on the policy? It was an illegal contract after all, and the law generally favors consumers in such instances.

[Agammamon]

I think his reasoning was that his administration simply would not go after any IC that offered the newly illegal programs, not that it was again legal to offer them - though for these guys the difference between the concepts seems murky.

Then he could blame the IC's, for not taking the risk that they would be prosecuted sometime in the future anyway, when they still didn't offer the plans.

[CatoTheElder]

I understand the One has proclaimed that He will tolerate the sins of insurers for a season, and postpone this aspect of the Fundamental Transformation of His New Covenant. So the principalities and powers of His Department of Justice will not avenge for the insurers' sins against the One during this season, which extends unto the 2014 elections.

My question is how can the courts decide a dispute brought by an insured against an insurer? It seems likely that most courts will side with the insureds, and this could make the insurance companies liable for the whole ObamaCare minimum coverage package even though they were underwritten for a far less comprehensive scope of insurance coverage.

[Ivoted4KODOS]

Ask BofA about promises not to prosecute. After being forced to buy Country Wide (by Treasury) when they tried to back out, they were later sued by Cuomo for (among other things) paying out bonuses (in the contracts) of country wide personnel. (And Im not defending BofA for lots of other shit, just this particular instance where I'm sure they were promised they wouldn't be punished for CW's screwed up situation)

[Fist of Etiquette]

...leaders were upset that the statement had not been vetted by the mayor's office before posting.

Yeah, that's what got him fired. He didn't run his heresy past the priests first, not the heresy itself.

[The Late P Brooks]

On Thursday, after the president announced that he was going to try to get insurance companies to delay cancellations for a year of policies that were not in compliance with the Affordable Care Act's coverage requirements, White was one of the people who worried it would make a bad situation even worse. He issued a statement agreeing with the National Association of Insurance Commissioners that the change "threatens to undermine the new market, and may lead to higher premiums and market disruptions in 2014 and beyond."

One does not contradict Royal Edict.

The Ascended One snaps his fingers, and reality complies.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Nancy Pelosi: Democrats 'stand tall' in defense of Obamacare

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said Democrats are not losing confidence in President Barack Obama's ability to make the Affordable Care Act work and don't fear Obamacare's effect on their chances in next year's elections.

Appearing Sunday on NBC's Meet the Press, Pelosi said, "I don't think you can tell what will happen next year" when voters cast ballots in the mid-term elections, but "I will tell you this: Democrats stand tall in support of the Affordable Care Act."

She said implementation of the health care overhaul "is an issue that has to be dealt with, but it doesn't mean, 'oh, this is a political issue so we're going to run away from it.'"

She said jobs will be the major issue in the 2014 campaign, not Obamacare.

Alluding to the nervousness some congressional Democrats are expressing about the debut of Obamacare, Pelosi said "What I love about health care professionals is that they're calm. And we must remain calm when we talk about the health of our country."

She added, "You can't be knocked for a loop just because somebody is playing politics."

She's in the lifeboat of her safe district telling the doomed souls on the Titanic to shut up and rearrange the deck chairs.

[Suthenboy]

I wish wish wish that half of her district would get cancellation letters and throw her ass out. Listening to her talk about...well anything at all, is stunning. Everything out of her mouth is in direct contradiction to reality or some bizarro newspeak.

[Rich]

Everything out of her mouth is in direct contradiction to reality or some bizarro newspeak.

I'm not certain she's aware of other people when she's talking. She makes essentially no attempt to address a question with her emotional platitudes. She just spews crap while apparently breathing through her eyes. As she says, "It's neither here nor there".

[Suthenboy]

I keep thinking of her saying "That did not happen!" with regards to Shitweasel promising on camera 27 times in front of millions of people that we could keep our insurance if we liked it.

[Francisco d Anconia]

1984 wasn't wrong, it just took a little longer than Orwell predicted.

[Live Free or Diet]

He didn't try to time the market. All he did was transpose the 4 and the 8 in 1948, when he wrote it.

[Agammamon]

She said jobs will be the major issue in the 2014 campaign, not Obamacare.

So, the Dems are going to campaign on their *other* weak point? 'Cause *jobs* hasn't been something this administration could point to with pride.

[Acosmist]

She may be stupid! Just maybe!

It's like Bush saying Iraq won't be the major issue, it'll be NCLB.

[The Late P Brooks]

"What I love about health care professionals is that they're calm. And we must remain calm when we talk about the health of our country."

I saw that. It's a lot easier to be calm when it's not *your* blood and guts spread all over the operating table.

[Sevo]

'This won't hurt a bit!'

[Nooge.]

Surgeons aren't known for remaining calm, either.

[Agammamon]

Is this some sort of Reason bacchanal Sunday? What's up with the plethora of articles? I think we've gotten more posts before noon than they usually put out all Sunday.

[The Late P Brooks]

Posts created or saved.

[Irish]

The New York Times has the funniest comments section on the internet.

From an article on female hunters:

This article clearly articulates that wanton cruelty is prevalent in all genders. Hunting is not a sport, re -in a sport both sides nave to agree to participate,not a sport,--both sides have to be similarly equipped, not a sport. Nature culls out the weakest, hunters slaughter the largest and most healthy, contrary to nature. In addition there is no need for non-human animal protein in the western developed nations, The basic reality is most people do not think actively about this, just follow tradition and culture in consuming the bodies of non - human animals.

What we as a society have decided is that the taste in our mouths is more important to us the than pain & suffering of non-human animals who experience pain the same as we humans as they have the same central nervous that transmits pain.

Where are the prominent leaders we once had as examples of truly humane living such as Schweitzer and Gandhi. The majority of citizens would choose a humane lifestyle if educated to the factual reality of our actions and attitudes.

There is not a sentence in this comment that isn't moronic.

[Irish]

Maybe they can shoot each other if they really want to get in touch with their primitive selves. Obviously they have NO compassion or empathy with other creatures. Of course to feel that all other life forms are made for human use is really primitive.

Nature would be a peaceful Eden utterly free from pain were it not for human beings.

[Live Free or Diet]

Lions live off oranges when we're not looking, don'cha'know.

[VG Zaytsev]

I once had a college educated vegetarian tell me that lions ate meat because the didn't know it was wrong to kill animals.

[Heroic Mulatto]

In addition there is no need for non-human animal protein in the western developed nations,

So "civilized" people are cannibals?

Good to know.

[Suthenboy]

Ah you beat me to it.

[Heroic Mulatto]

I like how he or she sanctimoniously declares that "meat-eating" is only fit for brown-skinned savages when the largest group of vegetarians are the close to a billion Hindus, many of whom live in bone-crushing urban poverty.

[Irish]

Where are the prominent leaders we once had as examples of truly humane living such as Schweitzer and Gandhi.

[Black people are] only a degree removed from the animal.

Kaffirs (meaning black people) are as a rule uncivilized ? the convicts even more so. They are troublesome, very dirty and live almost like animals.

If we had the atom bomb we would have used it against the British.

- The 'Civilized' Gandhi

[Suthenboy]

To be fair, that person is batshit crazy. Maybe it is impolite of us to make fun of them. Heh Heh.

NYT comments....you are shooting fish in a barrel there Irish.

I once saw one there advocating for re-earthing all of the stuff we have mined out of it. Thats right, reburying all of our shit so gaia can heal. Just think about that for a minute.

[Irish]

NYT comments don't get nearly enough press for how bad they are. I think it's because the people who comment there tend to be well educated morons. They've gone through school and are therefore articulate, but they aren't capable of following a train of thought or expressing a logical argument.

They're basically upmarket Youtube comments.

[Suthenboy]

Well educated morons. Hmmm. The term 'learned ignorance' comes to mind.

[Eduard van Haalen]

"upmarket Youtube comments."

What do you have against Youtube and its passionate, engaged discussions of music?

[GILMORE]

"Irish|11.17.13 @ 2:37PM|#

NYT comments don't get nearly enough press for how bad they are. I think it's because the people who comment there tend to be well educated morons. ...

They're basically upmarket Youtube comments."

SLOW CLAP

This is probably the most succinct and accurate characterization I have ever read re: why precisely the nature of the NYT comment-boards are so unbelievably, incomprehensibly, stupid beyond all conception.

They're idiots who *think* they represent the intellectual elite. And inside their bubble, they receive nothing but affirmation of this belief. This gives them near superhuman ability to plumb the depths of retarded.

[Live Free or Diet]

the largest group of vegetarians are the close to a billion Hindus, many of whom live in bone-crushing urban poverty.

And have some of the highest cancer rates in the world.

[Suthenboy]

" In addition there is no need for non-human animal protein in the western developed nations,.."

Is that an recommendation for cannibalism?

[Agammamon]

Is . . . is this advocating *cannibalism*?

Other than that - its not sport? OK, so what. Neither is golf and you don't hear (sober) people arguing about it.

Culling out the weak? Depends on what you mean by weak. Weak is simply not being able to avoid predators. Millennia ago that meant fast running and physical strength. For today's animals that means the ability to suss out a hunter's likely position and avoid/remain concealed. They're *still* culling the weak, its just the definition of weak has changed.

[Irish]

The idea that 'nature' kills the weak is also a total misunderstanding of evolution. Survival of the fittest has nothing to do with strength, it has to do with ability to survive in a given environment.

If the Earth were hit by a massive asteroid tomorrow, the big and strong animals would mostly die and the ones that would survive would be insects and various little animals.

There's a reason all those strong dinosaurs died and our ancestor's didn't.

[Agammamon]

That was my point - 'weak' is simply vulnerability to something in your environment. Before humans with ranged weapons came along weak was slow. Now weak is being *visible*.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Of course there is always the bow-hunter telling us how they're the real hunters:

Becca Florida

Alcohol and GUNZ........next, that woman will be shooting someone in the face, and waitng 38 hrs. to report it. Sorry, could not quite make it to the end of this, but do like a wild turkey on the table once in awhile, during BOW season.

No one has ever shot an arrow irresponsibly?

[Suthenboy]

Actually that happens fairly often. Many people do not understand that a bow is equally as dangerous as a gun and thus do not treat them with the same respect.

If you pull back only an inch, an arrow can penetrate a persons chest wall at close range.

[BakedPenguin]

My cousin used to bow hunt deer. Deer are often larger than humans, and it seldom took him more than one arrow to bring them down.

Also, he thought it was more humane. If he could get a through-and-through, they would often bleed out without realizing they had been badly hurt - they would just stand there, eating grass or whatever, and then fall over when they'd bled out.

[Francisco d Anconia]

But its tough to claim you didn't know it was loaded.

[Christophe]

bow-and-arrow = Hipster Hunters?

[Francisco d Anconia]

weak' is simply vulnerability to something in your environment. Before humans with ranged weapons came along weak was slow. Now weak is being *visible*.

Now, weak will likely mean those unable to "reason" themselves out of harms way.

Perhaps the next apocalypse will kill off the progressive?

[MJGreen]

The golf ball did not consent to be hit up and down the course. Do you have no empathy for dimpled spheres of rubber and plastic?

[Agammamon]

Nah, I've got no empathy for the pain & suffering of non-human balls who don't experience pain the same as we humans as they don't have the same central nervous that transmits pain.

[Slammer]

Lots of question begging going on in there. Also a lot of "We".

[Suthenboy]

And I will add...that girl is a hottie. If I werent already married.......

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

LOL:

Ellie MaldonadoNYC
I think the same moral consideration applies to hunting as it does to shopping for meat at the supermarket or butcher -- i.e., whether it's necessary to kill another living being to sustain my health -- and my answer is, No. So whether I hunt or buy meat, I would be causing gratuitous harm, which violates a very basic tenet of moral consideration.

I also think women like Sarah Palin, who need to behave like men in order to feel strong and independent, are weaklings, the opposite of feminists.

As to hunting being less cruel than farming, has anyone considered how the death of one animal affects other members of his/her group? The death of one member of the group may be a significant loss to others. Hunting may also allow more food for animals who survive, which causes compensatory rebound, an increase their rate of reproduction... Gee, then hunters can claim they need to control the population, when in reality, hunting becomes a vicious cycle of killing, a boom in animal populations, and then killing again, and again.

[Irish]

I also think women like Sarah Palin, who need to behave like men in order to feel strong and independent, are weaklings, the opposite of feminists.

So...feminism means sticking to gender roles? That seems to be the opposite of what they've been claiming the last 40 years.

[Christophe]

True feminists can only be progressives.
Anything else is obviously doubleplusungood.

[MJGreen]

So... the optimal number of animals is whatever exists at this very moment? Fewer animals are bad, but so is encouraging more.

This lady is aware that the animals are going to die at some point, right? A shot through the neck, eaten by a predator, brought down by disease; is there much of a difference?

[Suthenboy]

Ellie, my dear, you havent got a ghost of a clue about what you are speaking. Not. A. Clue.

The less people know about something, the stronger their opinions on the subject are.

[Suthenboy]

"...a clue about what you are speaking."

Apparently I dont either.

*holds up vodka* How many is this?

[Irish]

As to hunting being less cruel than farming, has anyone considered how the death of one animal affects other members of his/her group?

What about all of the little animals run over by threshers and tractors during farming? Do they not count because you don't kill them directly?

Nobody's hands are free from the blood of other animals, not even vegetarians, he concluded. Millions of animals are killed every year, Davis says, to prepare land for growing crops, "like corn, soybean, wheat and barley, the staples of a vegan diet."

For that matter, what about insects killed by pesticides? Do they not count because they aren't furry?

[Suthenboy]

Only cute furry critters with sad doe eyes count.

[Heroic Mulatto]

But when Davis began setting up a course on animal ethics for the animal science department at Oregon State University four years ago, he reached a rather surprising conclusion.

Nobody's hands are free from the blood of other animals, not even vegetarians, he concluded. Millions of animals are killed every year, Davis says, to prepare land for growing crops, "like corn, soybean, wheat and barley, the staples of a vegan diet."

Something "discovered" already 2,500 years ago by Mahavira. Davis is the newest convert to Jainism, I take it?

[CatoTheElder]

Only an innumerate fool would say that millions of animals are killed every year by farming. There's something like 3 billion acres of farmland in the world. On each acre it is inevitable that many thousands of animals are killed. I have no data on the latter, but the number of animals killed by farming must run into the hundreds of trillions. I know I kill thousands of insects in my little garden plot, which is a tiny fraction of an acre, and I have no idea how many worms, nematodes, and other subterranean animals I kill.

[CatoTheElder]

Oh, and when I see insects in my garden or an ant pile in my yard, I kill them without any mercy or trace of compassion.

[Francisco d Anconia]

You heartless bastard. How could you kill adorable, snuggly buggies and wormies.

[Agammamon]

Yet across the gulf of space, minds that are to our minds as ours are to those of the beasts that perish, intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic, regarded this earth with envious eyes, and slowly and surely drew their plans against us.

[Live Free or Diet]

Do they not count because you don't kill them directly?

These people have a shocking lack of understanding life itself: For something to live, something else dies.
This is true even of herbivores. Bacteria feed off the cellulose, cattle feed off the bacteria.

[Ayn Random Variation]

"In addition there is no need for non-human animal protein in the western developed nations"

Lefties are always telling people what they need or don't needs. It's an uncontrollable tic with them.

[General Butt Naked]

Another gem...

I lived in suburban NY for most of my life. A thoroughly insulating environment as far as our connection to and responsibility for the wild animals we exist with.

For the last 13 years, I've been in a beautiful rural setting in NC. I have developed a keen awareness of the lives of the local wild animal population. These animals are struggling with their environment as it is being eroded, curtailed and destroyed by indescriminate clearcut logging...

Umm no. Look lady, the animals' natural habitat is being eaten up and destroyed by fuckheads from new york slumming it in the rural south.

We see something similar in eastern PA. People move in to rural areas because they're sick of the sprawl, crime, taxes, regulations, etc of NY and then proceed to turn their energies into turning rural PA into NY. Stay in your urban hell, assholes. You fucking made it, now live in it, poopstain.

[Nooge.]

What we as a society have decided is that the taste in our mouths is more important to us blah blah blah

People like to eat food that taste good.

Truly, a more provocative statement does not exist.

The author sounds like he'd be happy on a diet of food pills circa Santa Claus Conquers the Martians.

Also, do weenies like the author object to vat-grown meat?

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

So it begins: Drone malfunctions, injures two sailors when it crashes into Navy ship

The Navy says an aerial target drone malfunctioned and struck a guided missile cruiser during training off Southern California, causing two minor injuries.

Lt. Lenaya (luh-NEY-yah) Rotklein of the U.S. Third Fleet said the accident on the USS Chancellorsville happened Saturday afternoon while the ship was testing its combat weapons system off Point Mugu.

She said two sailors were treated for minor burns after the ship was struck. She said the ship was heading back to Naval Base San Diego so that officials can assess the damage.

The Navy was investigating the cause of the drone malfunction.

[Virginian]

So there was a bit of a friendly fire incident onboard the USS Chancellorsville? I bet the sailors were named Thomas and Jackson.

[Francisco d Anconia]

No different than a manned plane crash.

[Nooge.]

Skynet!

[Irish]

When the Obama Magic Died.

Forgive the personal reference, but from the very beginning of Mr. Obama's astonishing rise, I felt that I was witnessing something old and familiar. My advantage owed nothing to any mastery of American political history. I was guided by my immersion in the political history of the Arab world and of a life studying Third World societies.

In 2008, seeing the Obama crowds in Portland, Denver and St. Louis spurred memories of the spectacles that had attended the rise and fall of Arab political pretenders. I had lived through the era of the Egyptian leader Gamal Abdul Nasser. He had emerged from a military cabal to become a demigod, immune to judgment. His followers clung to him even as he led the Arabs to a catastrophic military defeat in the Six Day War of 1967. He issued a kind of apology for his performance. But his reign was never about policies and performance. It was about political magic.

Absolutely spot on.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

The Left has an amazing capacity for delusion.

Take a read of this Nation editorial: The Impending Progressive Electoral Wave

They honest to God think that the deep blue enclaves like New York, Boston, and Seattle voting for progressive politicians means the entire country will follow.

[Suthenboy]

The opposite is likely to occur.

My grandmother told me that after the progressives had their last run people were so sick of their shit that you could be lynched for publicly proclaiming yourself a progressive.

[Redmanfms]

My grandmother told me that after the progressives had their last run people were so sick of their shit that you could be lynched for publicly proclaiming yourself a progressive.

Which is precisely why they co-opted the term "liberal" and ran on that for decades, until effectively wearing that out with "the People."

I expect a branding change in the next 10 years.

[Irish]

That's awesome. Given that a soft left state like Colorado completely rebelled and is kicking out the people who voted for a gun control bill, I don't know how these progs can delude themselves to believe that there's some progressive wave coming. Most Democrats aren't even really progressives and will swing against the Democrats due to their move too far to the left.

[Irish]

Good article. Amazing how many Tea Party comments there are on this article. Progressives have finally found their voice. I think 2014 will be an interesting year. There will be a big reduction of R's in the House. The D's may take it over. Moreover, the D's will much more activist Progressives. That will pull Obama to the left for his last two years. Progressives are tired of Obama supporting GOP policies. The Financial markets are not regulated yet. Workers are not protected, and jobs are not being created. No policy is in place to bring manufacturing jobs back from overseas. The control of the uber-rich over our government, our courts, and our police must be turned back. I think 2014 will see the start of that.

This was posted yesterday. This person thinks the Democrats will take over the House in a year. It was considered almost impossible for them to retake the House even before the Obamacare rollout, and their chances have dropped even more since then. Dems in red states are desperately fleeing the law in order to shield themselves.

The Dems are more likely to lose the Senate than they are to retake the House.

Look at this map.

The Dems have a lot of retiring senators in swing or red states. They also have several incumbents they could lose. I don't see a single Senator the Republicans are going to lose in 2014. They could take the Senate.

[Suthenboy]

Your lips to Zod's ear.

I am going to do everything I can to help Mary Fuckin' Landrieu retire.

[Francisco d Anconia]

Their salty tears will give me sustenance.

[Ayn Random Variation]

These are the types of people I'm surrounded by. Obama is doing pretty much whatever he wants for 5 years, but somehow nothing is his fault or responsibility.

[Irish]

No, plenty of things are his fault. It's just that the only time things are his fault is when he does things that Republicans would also do.

[Restoras]

I think we should encourage this mindset...can you imagine the butthurt and the sweet, salty tears that will produce??? We could preserve the Kochs in vats of tears for 1,000 years...

[Mickey Rat]

Well, Christie's sycophants think the same thing of him.

[Troy muy grande boner]

A day after he questioned President Obama's decision to unwind a major tenet of the health-care law and said the nation's capital might not go along, D.C. insurance commissioner William P. White was fired.

It must be cool to be able to unilaterally change/ignore a law written and passed by congress with a stroke of his pen.

What is it called when a president does that?

[Heroic Mulatto]

What is it called when a president does that?

Treason.

[0x90]

Isn't it treasonous to accuse Him of treason?

[Francisco d Anconia]

It's treasonous to even think it.

[0x90]

Crimestop FTW.

[Suthenboy]

In my opinion the democratic republic built upon a constitution has ceased to exist. The rule of law has ceased to exist.

The current government is illegitimate.

The only way to kill this political class, short of hanging, is to put in term limits; end the professional politician. We might have a chance to return to sanity then.

[Bam!]

"The only way to kill this political class, short of hanging, is to put in term limits; end the professional politician."

Then they move into lobbying.

[Francisco d Anconia]

I put it to you, that if you limited politicians to a single term (with intervening votes of confidence to keep them loyal to constituents), lobbyists would disappear.

I don't need your dollars if I can't be reelected.

[0x90]

There are about a million ways around that. When the people yield their power, and allow it to be accreted into a central pool, the root of the problem is created. It matters little whose face you put on that, or for how long -- the only solution which treats the disease, rather than its symptom, is for them to stop giving it up, in the first place.

[Francisco d Anconia]

Forgive me, I don't quite follow that.

What power would the people be yielding?

[0x90]

What I mean is: what is the nature of power? A man who must work 20 hours a day just to feed himself is a man over whom rulership holds no profit. This changes as he becomes more productive. The question is what portion of his excess production -- the control over which I refer to as power -- he can be convinced to yield to those who would rule him.

[Restoras]

He is right about this, or rather, I agree. The electorate has allowed more power, and more importantly wealth, be concentrated in the hands of a few. Those in power legislate and regulate to keep themselves in power. Unfortunately, centers of power rarely if ever give up what they have acquired without a nasty fight.

[Francisco d Anconia]

Unfortunately, centers of power rarely if ever give up what they have acquired without a nasty fight.

As I said to Cato below, you can take it from them, Constitutionally, without them ever getting a say in the matter.

Course it's never been done.

[Restoras]

Yes, and though it may be possible I envision the powers in power doing everything they can to stop it. Not too mention the media will go batshit crazy.

[Francisco d Anconia]

I envision the powers in power doing everything they can to stop it. Not too mention the media will go batshit crazy.

Christ...it would be fucking priceless!

[Restoras]

It really would. I would do a lot to lift the veil on the ugliness that these people represent.

[Restoras]

They move into lobbying anyway - isn't that what that dickhead Daschle did?

[Restoras]

And, if term limits are instituted then there will be a lot more politicians trying to sell there wares on K Street, and would thus dilute the value of them, maybe...

[Francisco d Anconia]

But here's the beauty...

They would have no wares. One and done. They go home to live with the laws they wrote, never to have any political power again.

Damn, I'm givin' myself wood!

[0x90]

How many senators have not previously held other offices? How many go on to hold other offices after leaving the senate? Do bureaucrats not wield political power? Who actually authors the 2700 pages?

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

[Francisco d Anconia]

I'd let em run for another office. i.e. House, then Senate then President if they so choose. Most of the damage is done raising money for reelections. It would have to line up perfectly to go from House directly to Senate. Your party "Teammate" may already be holding the position, the seat may not come up for election for 4 years...

And I doubt, and I may be wrong, that many would choose to be a Congressman's buttboy after holding the hammer himself.

[Restoras]

0x90, I am not sure what you can do to reign in the influence of lobbyists and lobbying organizations - but I haven't given it a lot of thought either as I'd rather see a shit-ton more turnover in Congress first.

[0x90]

I think it comes down to how you see things. Imagine that people, in general, had a strange moral notion that it was good and proper to pay a monthly bill demanded by 3M or some other large corporation, irrespective of the value they derived from its existence. In such a case, I would expect this corporation to be utterly dysfunctional, and would say that we should predict it would remain so, until people had awoken to the situation, and begun refusing to pay the bill. Beforehand, I believe you could make as many rules as you liked regarding its corporate governance, and they'd all come to nothing, because the motivation of the organization as a whole would be out of whack.

Now when it comes to term limits specifically, they move things further in what I have always seen as a bad direction, providing even more opportunity for people to be confused as to who they should blame. Consider King George: most people know of him, but in what terms -- as the tyrant against whom the colonies revolted. Now consider the judges section on your ballot; how many of the names even ring a bell? Extend that to the rest of the ballot, and you'll end up electing a president Kardashian -- literally.

Furthermore, re-election provides about the only motivation toward good behavior that I am able to identify, and that includes the aspect of staying on the lobbyist gravy train. Let's just stipulate that term limits end that, and what do you have? What is the motivation to do right?

[Francisco d Anconia]

What is the motivation to do right?

That's why I insist on intervening votes of confidence throughout a Critter's term. You can vote the sumbitch out without anyone running against him.

Here's how I'd do it:

I'd extend the terms, as there is some validity to getting your feet under you. 8 years as Senator, 4 or even 6 years as a Rep. Every even year you automatically come up for a vote of confidence (probably during the primary). If 2/3 of the total number of cast votes vote thumbs down, out you go, IMMEDIATELY. That way you are only running against your record. No money required.

Motivation to do right, without requiring money to run against an opponent.

[Restoras]

I suppose you could require them to move back to their home districts and not engage in any lobbying for a period of time, say the amount of time they served in Congress. Think of it as a non-compete clause as a condition of their employment by the electorate.

[Francisco d Anconia]

But who would they be lobbying to? They could spend billions getting someone elected, but unless they need to get reelected, there is no reason for any congressman to honor the bought favors. What's the lobby gonna do? Complain that their bribe wasn't honored?

It's the careerist aspect of congressmen that give lobbies power.

[Restoras]

I had not remotely thought of it that way. I suppose that former Critters would still have connections on the Hill and might therefore be "valuable" as a lobbyist, but if the lobby has that many more people competing to be a lobbyist it might dilute the value of lobbyists themselves?

[CatoTheElder]

1) Discontinue pension benefits of any kind to politician except for ordinary social security benefits for which the politician must pay both the employer and employee "contributions".
2) Impose a 99% income tax on any government pension greater than three times the national average income. Limit all future government pensions for bureaucrats accordingly.
3) Impose a 101% income tax on any income derived by a retired politician from lobbying, government contracts, and services to any entity with government contracts in excess of three times national average income.

Dream on. Politicians are not going to vote against the interests of politicians.

[Francisco d Anconia]

You could do it without them ever voting.

The Congress, whenever two thirds of both Houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose Amendments to this Constitution, or, on the Application of the Legislatures of two thirds of the several States, shall call a Convention for proposing Amendments, which, in either Case, shall be valid to all Intents and Purposes, as part of this Constitution, when ratified by the Legislatures of three fourths of the several States, or by Conventions in three fourths thereof, as the one or the other Mode of Ratification may be proposed by the Congress; Provided that no Amendment which may be made prior to the Year One thousand eight hundred and eight shall in any Manner affect the first and fourth Clauses in the Ninth Section of the first Article; and that no State, without its Consent, shall be deprived of its equal Suffrage

I'd donate $10K to charity just to see it happen in my lifetime. Can you imagine the butthurt?

[Rhywun]

put in term limits; end the professional politician

I stand behind this message.

[CatoTheElder]

"What is it called when a president does that?"

Constitutional dictatorship.
Constitutional tyranny.
Constitutional monarchy.

Whatever you call it, it's constitutional because the Nazgul said so.

[Restoras]

Arbitrary exercise of power - one of the reasons cited for telling the Brits to piss off.

Does he have legal recourse?

[Specail Sauce]

I believe we are nearing the point where the President pivots to the arguement that the underlying structure of our government is so broken that even his genius has been unable to accomplish needed reforms. All the failure has been a result of fundamentally corrupted and broken systems, which he has heroically tried to repair, but to no avail. We all must conclude that our antiquated version of government is not up to the task of supporting our nations needs in the 21st century.

[CatoTheElder]

The problem is not entirely that fault of the system. We are also unworthy of Obama, and we have failed Him also.

[The Late P Brooks]

People have been using the phrase, "over-promised and under-delivered" in reference to the Dreamboat-in-Chief a lot, lately. I think his broken promises and outright bullshit might be reaching the point where some significant portion of his less devout personality cultists can no longer ignore them.

But I could be wrong. And that still doesn't mean they won't reflexively vote for the Democrat, because icky conservatives are icky.

[The Late P Brooks]

The Financial markets are not regulated yet.

Wait, what?

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

So Today was all about how Austin, TX is a "Sane blue dot" in "Crazy Red Texas".

Stupid Europeans.

[Restoras]

Is this where everyone is hanging out today? Any peep from Shriek or Tony - or have they not received talking points yet?