Obama Lays Bare Liberal Impotence

[shiny!]

Re: how liberals are reading events

What has happened with the website is an embarrassment to the entire nation, but it's no surprise. And its not just that the Obama administration screwed up, its their reluctance to take responsibility. Heads should roll. I rank almost all politicians pretty low but Obama is really in seriously over his head. Sadly, he may be looked on favorably compared to what we get in the future considering the way people base their vote today.

Truman had a placard on his desk that said "The buck stops here." The current president doesn't take responsibility for anything that goes wrong on his watch. There is no accountability at any level of his administration, only denials, excuses, prevarications...

It's bad enough that the website is such a shambles after so much money was spent on it. But he could have saved face for himself and the country if he would have said "This is unacceptable and it is going to be fixed. I take full responsibility for this."

[LorenS]

Re: single payer

The media outlets are only preaching to their choirs.

I'm not sure I believe this. People keep saying FOX news is some kind of right wing news outlet. They're not very good, but I don't see a huge right wing slant in their reporting. For example, if a gun story comes up they're just as alarmist and ignorant as NBC or CBS, it could be a .22LR squirrel rifle, but it it has a scope it's a "sniper" rifle, if it has a magazine it's an "assault rifle". A "right winger" would know better.

Now, talk radio, that's a different story. There is plenty of "right wing" talk radio although I think you'd be surprised at how narrow/small their audiences are, because most of the right wing folks I know don't actually listen to it. Maybe 5% of people who ID themselves as conservatives actually listen while most folks, even self identified conservatives watch some television. Hence, the left wingers on TV are not preaching to the choir, they're also getting the conservatives pissed off. And I can tell you as an engineer, nothing irritates me more than seeing some TV idiot butchering the facts on a technology story.

[Polish_Silver]

Re: single payer

Fox news will report "anti-government" stories that MSNBC won't touch. It's the O'Reilly like shows that give it the reputation it has.

[LazyBoy]

Re: single payer

Now, talk radio, that's a different story. There is plenty of "right wing" talk radio although I think you'd be surprised at how narrow/small their audiences are, because most of the right wing folks I know don't actually listen to it. Maybe 5% of people who ID themselves as conservatives actually listen while most folks, even self identified conservatives watch some television. Hence, the left wingers on TV are not preaching to the choir, they're also getting the conservatives pissed off. And I can tell you as an engineer, nothing irritates me more than seeing some TV idiot butchering the facts on a technology story.

My impression is that there are more talk people listening to 'right wing talk radio' than you think.

But my real point was that nobody's getting converted. If, as you say, 'left wingers on TV' are reaching conservatives, they're just 'pissing them off'. Almost everyone on both sides assumes the other side is lying or wrong and doubles down on their set beliefs. They've already picked their team. Go Red! Go Blue!

That's why most liberals/democrats have a hard time criticizing Obama. He's Team Blue.

[flintlock]

Re: how liberals are reading events

Obama is ultimately responsible, but part of this is due to the trend in politics where if you admit the slightest fault, they tear you apart like Pit Bulls in a kindergarten. Sometimes I wonder what would happen if we ever got a President who shoots straight and appears human at times.

[Polish_Silver]

Re: single payer

My impression is that there are more talk people listening to 'right wing talk radio' than you think.

But my real point was that nobody's getting converted. If, as you say, 'left wingers on TV' are reaching conservatives, they're just 'pissing them off'. Almost everyone on both sides assumes the other side is lying or wrong and doubles down on their set beliefs. They've already picked their team. Go Red! Go Blue!

That's why most liberals/democrats have a hard time criticizing Obama. He's Team Blue.

I agree with that. My father spent hours listening to Limbah almost nothing else. Apalling for someone of his intelligence and reading background.

[Woodsman]

Re: how liberals are reading events

Sometimes I wonder what would happen if we ever got a President who shoots straight and appears human at times.

You don't need to wonder.

[vt]

Re: Obama Lays Bare Liberal Impotence

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Governm...lment-deadline

So they vote against Republicans wanting to delay, then as they hold a finger to wind to see rising public anger, they support what the Republicans tried to point out in the first place.

Hypocrisy and politics go together.

And CBS points out that there is no truth in packaging with Obamacare's lack of the real cost of these policies.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505269_162-57608843/healthcare.gov-pricing-feature-can-be-off-the-mark/

[Forrest]

Re: Obama Lays Bare Liberal Impotence

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Governm...lment-deadline

So they vote against Republicans wanting to delay, then as they hold a finger to wind to see rising public anger, they support what the Republicans tried to point out in the first place.

Hypocrisy and politics go together.

And CBS points out that there is no truth in packaging with Obamacare's lack of the real cost of these policies.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505269_162-57608843/healthcare.gov-pricing-feature-can-be-off-the-mark/

Until we get a few politicians who are talking facts and real-word solutions, backed by the mainstream media, nothing will change. That is not likely to happen until there is a systemic failure of the entire system...government AND banking.

So, maybe in mid-2015? Just in time for elections?

Of course, I doubt the media will change even if the system does...they are too used to believing their own lies.

And then you will still have the people who don't want anything much to change...sitting on their couches, and not bothering to vote, or care...until it is much to late for voting...or caring.

[vt]

Re: single payer

Quote of the Day

"Washington is a city of Southern efficiency and Northern charm," said the late President John F. Kennedy.

[Forrest]

Re: single payer

Quote of the Day

"Washington is a city of Southern efficiency and Northern charm," said the late President John F. Kennedy.

Nothing like damning a city with faint praise. Makes D.C. sound like a bunch of lazy debt slaves run by taskmasters without a whip.

[vt]

Re: single payer

http://dailycaller.com/2013/10/25/mi...acare-website/

"Toni Townes-Whitley, Princeton class of ’85, is senior vice president at CGI Federal, which earned the no bid contract"

More crony capitalism/socialism. At least we see the connection of the corruption.

And a priceless quote about how crony tech companies operate vs. real tech companies

"I was in Silicon Valley earlier this week, and the site was a topic of occasional conversation. First, the $357M fee is outrageous, but that isn't what bothered me the most. A software engineer, who asked not to be named for fear of being fired, was quoted in the article as saying, "and sometimes we had to work until 10PM." Holy crap - welcome to the real world of tech - if you're lucky you'll get pizza at 10PM, and in some cases work through the next business day."

More crony corruption:

http://www.snopes.com/politics/busin...6lPrMJJJc0R.99

We can find examples in the GOP in the past. Politics is a dirty game. Watch Kevin Spacey in House of Cards.

Economics is the study of supply and demand for scarce resources. Political Science is the study of how these scarce resources are split up among the groups of a population.

This is why we need a new majority party to act in the interests of the nation as a whole.

[lektrode]

Re: single payer

Nothing like damning a city with faint praise. Makes D.C. sound like a bunch of lazy debt slaves run by taskmasters without a whip.

well... i'm sure JFK - being a new englander/ole school yankee - would also have used the quaint ole saying of:

'if the shoe fits, they ought to wear it'

http://dailycaller.com/2013/10/25/mi...acare-website/

"Toni Townes-Whitley, Princeton class of ’85, is senior vice president at CGI Federal, which earned the no bid contract"....

"..SURPRISE.." ???

uhhh.... NO = completely predictable

same birds, same feathers, just different roost, but with SAME RESULTS

[Woodsman]

Re: Obama Lays Bare Liberal Impotence

From Yves Smith's "naked capitalism:"

The ObamaCare Rollout, Organizational Dysfunction, and Public Relations in the Administration

By Lambert Strether of Corrente.

I think this article from WaPo gives some clues to the particular form of stupidity that pervades this administration. Going back way before the pre-launch test above:

Inside CMS, meanwhile, some staffers were aware by late 2012 that the work of building the federal exchange was lagging, according to a former HHS official — a much earlier timeline than has been previously disclosed. Some employees in the main office involved with building the exchange repeatedly warned at meetings late last year and in January that so many things were behind schedule that there would be no time for adequate “end to end” testing of how the moving parts worked together, the former HHS official said.

“People were just like, well . . . it’s a dynamic we can’t change,” the former official said. “There wasn’t a way to push back or challenge it up the line. You had the policy people, largely at the White House, pushing the deadlines and tinkering with the policy, rather than the people who had to run the critical operating path design and program the system.” …
White House officials say they were focused on whether there would be enough insurance plans for sale in the new marketplaces and on whether enough people would enroll. They say they didn’t have a clue how troubled the Web site’s operation was.

Only during the weekend after HealthCare.gov’s Oct. 1 opening did the president’s aides begin to grasp the gravity of the problems, the White House official said. Obama soon began getting nightly updates on the performance of the Web site, which has still been unavailable to Americans for hours at a stretch over the past week.

But that was still to come. A month earlier, on Sept. 5, White House officials visited CMS for a final demonstration of HealthCare.gov. Some staff members worried that it would fail right in front of the president’s aides. A few secretly rooted for it to fail so that perhaps the White House would wait to open the exchange until it was ready.

Yet on that day, using a simplified demonstration application, the Web site appeared to work just fine.

I think I heard that somewhere...

With the sort of political pressure you'd expect was put on the SESes and GS-15s running the program, you were guaranteed to get all sorts of changes large and small, inside and outside the scope of development that were politically motivated and fear driven. You'll get them even if the contractor jumps up and down and screams and demands a signature saying "we told you it will break." But of equal certainty is the likelihood that there were calmer and more thoughtful folks who rang the bell and cautioned a better approach. But who listens to them?

[jr429]

Re: Obama Lays Bare Liberal Impotence

But to your point, there are some things the government does not do well at all. IT projects seem high on that list. The only bright side is that it gets us closer to single payer.

Government run single-payer will be equally as bad.