October 22, 2013

Obama's "There’s no sugarcoating it" was — we now know —  a sugarcoating.

WaPo reports:
Days before the launch of President Obama’s online health ­insurance marketplace, government officials and contractors tested a key part of the Web site to see whether it could handle tens of thousands of consumers at the same time. It crashed after a simulation in which just a few hundred people tried to log on simultaneously.

Despite the failed test, federal health officials plowed ahead.
What else have they plowed ahead even though they knew it wouldn't work?

Let's remember this particular delusion: that a machine already in motion is easier to fix than one that you keep on the ground until you know it works (or at least until you don't know that it doesn't work!).

Yesterday, Obama said: "There’s no sugarcoating it: The Web site is too slow; people have been getting stuck during the application process."

He was sugarcoating when he said that. "There’s no sugarcoating it" was — we now see — manifestly a lie in the form of the classic lie: "I am not a liar."

108 comments:

Bob Boyd said...

Time for a shift to a new crisis. I wonder what it will be this time.

MartyH said...

Here's the thing-I was assured that building a website was easy. Nothing to it. If they can't do the easy thing, what's going to happen when we come to the hard stuff-like making sure the young invincibles enroll?

pm317 said...

Jon Stewart... buuuuuut the useful idiot on this blog got enrolled.. annnnd saved money! Yay!!

Hurray for the top of the line, Harvard educated politicians run FIRST WORLD government!

This country made the Internet and now it has come to this.

Hagar said...

The excerpts from President Obama's speech yesterday made me think of Baghdad Bob of 2003 fame.

I saw something about Edward Snowden offering to fix the Obamacare website for him in return for a pardon.
Was that from The Onion?

MayBee said...

It is so distressing to see Obama, who believes in big government, to just lie to our faces. Does he think lies are a necessary component of big government?

Anonymous said...

" Let's remember this particular delusion: that a machine already in motion is either to fix than one that you keep on the grounded until you know it works (or at least until you don't know that it doesn't work!)."

Playing Devil's Advocate:

1: This is a classic poor leadership problem: people report up the line what they think their bosses want to hear, NOT the truth.

So, you've seen this test, what do you do? Hope that it's not a realistic test, and say nothing? Or tell your supervisors what they don't want to hear, and get punished?

2: The PR from "we couldn't launch it on time, because we're totally incompetent" (and the mere fact that they couldn't do that test until less than a week before roll-out marks them as total incompetents) is much worse, from a "spinner" perspective, than the PR from "we've launched, but we have a few glitches." The Administration, and the US left in general, is obsessed with appearances, not reality. So they went for the PR.

3: The level of failure involved in "crash at < 1% of required load" is not something you're going to fix quickly, even if the system isn't up.

How would the Shutdown have gone differently if two weeks into October, the ObamaCare website still wasn't even up?

4: Nothing tests like the real world. Yes, everything is screwing up from beginning to end. But they're better off finding out that, for example, the data they're sending he insurance companies is crap, while they're still only sending out hundreds of applications, rather when they're processing a thousand a day.

Conclusion: Blame Obama, not the people below. A fish rots from the head down, and that's what this administration has done.

Levi Starks said...

Please stop criticizing the president.
I just makes you look like a racist.

pm317 said...

hmmmmmm..let us think for a minute, why this did not happen when eBay happened or Amazon happened.. hmmm.. wonder why.

Hagar said...

Barack Obama seems to take a rather Jacksonian view of the Federal Government and does not believe that any unusual level of skills or abilities are required for any position of employment therein - especially with his very own self as President and Head of Government.

I think Kathleen Sebelius' job is quite safe. For one, at this point it might be difficult to find anyone willing to replace her, but also I think Obama's vew is that her job is just to sit there as a placeholder and take it on the chin while the worker bees do the job.
It is a version of "Power to the People!" kind of thing in his mind, I think.

Looking at his entire cabinet lineup, it is difficult to come to any other conclusion.

madAsHell said...

The lead contractor is Canadian.

No offense intended, and I think the Canucks can understand my concern. How will Obama audit their tax returns??

Michael K said...

" Does he think lies are a necessary component of big government?"

Yes and he's right. Next question ?

Anonymous said...

'Let me be clear...'

But it's good to know liberal ideas don't necessarily share in these failures. They're back in the tautological lockbox.

Clearly, like the website, there were unfortunate restraints placed on the implementation of these ideas.

Wait, is that some Tea Party guy saying something racist? Some Republican congressman caught with a hooker?

No, it's definitely not the ideas.

Anonymous said...

And the irony is I would support a return to deeper and less progressive liberalism, and hopefully not just in a trolling way either.

But there may be other things going on right now in the Republic.

MayBee said...

Michael K- I want to hear him say it

MikeDC said...

"We now Know"

Ha hah hah :D

Whenever I read that, I instantly translate it as "we always knew (but didn't wish to say so up to this point)".

MayBee said...

If they are going to blame procurement rules for the programming problems, I hope someone points out to them their own love of regulations.

Michael K said...

Hey ! I found the web site where Inga enrolled. Right here.

Lnelson said...

What Michael K said, LOL, what else can be added?

Kylos said...

Ann, there are a few typos.

Either should be easier and grounded should be ground.

RecChief said...

why the surprise. I have seen this verbal tic, like "let me be perfectly clear" and then he never is, for the last 6 years. Also, where is the fierce moral imperative for a military intervention in Syria?

Finally, I expect another "pivot" to jobs soon.

james conrad said...

Forget about the website not working, it's the easy part of this problem.
Basically, the foundation of Obamacare is:
Trying to sell health care at inflated prices to young healthy people who do not want to buy it, can't afford it and oh yeah, sign up on a website that does not work.
GOOD LUCK WITH THAT!

Rusty said...

Levi Starks said...
Please stop criticizing the president.
I just makes you look like a racist.


So lying incompetence is a race now?

God. I wish they'd just stick to one meme.

rhhardin said...

Iowahawk

Obamaflakes - no sugarcoating! Also, those aren't raisins.

Hagar said...

There are no American troops in Anbar Province!

Larry J said...

I was a professional programmer for many years. For the last 11 years, I've been more of a systems analyst helping develop requirements.

The first thing you have to do when creating a new system is understand the requirements. This is the beginning of their problems. First, the requirements have to be derived from a dogs-breakfast piece of legislation that's over 2,000 pages long plus the supporting regulations (still being developed) that are reportedly many times longer than the legislation. It has been known for decades that the leading cause of program development failure is poor requirements development.

Second, the website requires integration across many different government systems, many of which were not designed to be integrated. Developing the appropriate interfaces and interconnections is doable but difficult, especially since those systems are also changing due to regulatory and legislative changes.

Ross Perot's old company, EDS, did a couple commercials years ago that only aired once, on the Super Bowl. You can find them online. The first one is a classic about herding cats. The second one is about building an airliner while it's in flight carrying passengers. You might want to go view them. They're very well made.

Trying to develop a complex, interconnected system based on convoluted and changing regulations is quite difficult. That's the herding cats part. Trying to fix this mess while it's still running is the airliner part. It's very difficult and simply throwing bodies at the problem (like Obama proposed yesterday) is a failed approach known for a long time (see: "The Mythical Man-Month" by Frederick Brooks, Jr. 1975).

rhhardin said...

I'm a professional programmer and just wing the requirements.

Left Bank of the Charles said...

Best practices would have advised first doing a beta test where people could pretend to sign up for Obamacare without actually enrolling, then rolling out live for a few states rather than all the states at once.

But, in effect, the people using the website in the knowledge of the adverse publicity are now quasi-beta testers.

I also think, in relation to the post yesterday, that putting together a meticulous QA process should have been in the President's wheelhouse as the former President of the Harvard Law Review.

But it's not going to kill Obamacare that you may have to try three or four times to sign up.

What makes people think they are entitled to a website that works flawlessly?

n.n said...

He's still watching the video.

traditionalguy said...

Sugar coating the war on the American People is all Obama has ever bothered to do. He only has to keep life looking normal a little while longer.

Meanwhile he has been quite successful in positioning our dollar to crash and cease its role as the world's reserve currency.

And he has been successful in sugar coating his preparation of Police State run by his appointed women dedicated to arrest rioters under martial law until re-education of the many and the disappearance of the rest of the old leader relics has been finished off.

Anonymous said...

`Larry J

Failure was the only possible outcome once CMS decided it could be its own System Integrator (SI).

Of course, none of the Feds could say NO, to changing technical requirements imposed from their political betters.

the SI writes the specs. The 50 subcontractors including the maligned CGI, just code to the specs.

If the specs are late, not frozen and the interfaces between the piece parts not well understood and defined early, it had to fail.

Larry J said...

traditionalguy said...

Sugar coating the war on the American People is all Obama has ever bothered to do.


Michelle disapproves of sugar coating. Too many empty calories. Instead, she's pushing for Splenda coating.

Henry said...

From the article: “No one is madder about the Web site than I am, which means it’s going to get fixed,” he added.

That's anger management for you.

Please please please please please please let this become a punchline in a Dilbert strip. Scott Adams could use it verbatim, coming right out of the pointy-haired boss's mouth. I don't think the president would claim it back.

Or perhaps an XKCD strip, though Randall Munroe is more of an absurdist than Adams. Look for something like this:

“No one is madder about gravity than I am, which means it’s going to get fixed.”

Henry said...

Scott Adams, Nostradamus.

George M. Spencer said...

And we all know what is underneath a sugarcoating.

Usually something that is equally not good for you.

Larry J said...

Henry said...
Scott Adams, Nostradamus.


Scott Adams is a spooky dude. Back when I worked for MCI ('93-95), whenever some management fad de jour came down from on high, it'd be the subject of a spot-on accurate Dilbert comic within days.

Larry J said...

St. George said...
And we all know what is underneath a sugarcoating.

Usually something that is equally not good for you.


Yeah, and all the sugar-coating in the world isn't going to make this shit sandwich taste sweet.

Q: What do you get when you add a drop of wine to a barrel of sewage?
A: Sewage.

Q: What do you get when you add a drop of sewage to a barrel of wind?
A: Sewage.

rcommal said...

A software tester has been documenting a number of issues with the website on his blog (which documents all sorts of software issues and has been in existence for years): http://blog.isthereaproblemhere.com/ .

From Inwood said...

Cruz: ‘Nigerian Email Scammers’ Running Obamacare Website

http://nationalreview.com/corner/361879/cruz-jokes-nigerian-e-mail-scammers-must-have-created-obamacare-site-andrew-johnson#!

From Inwood said...

How long will it take folks at MSNBC to realize Cruz is making a funny?

Scott M said...

Also, where is the fierce moral imperative for a military intervention in Syria?

Finally, I expect another "pivot" to jobs soon.


Why...a cynical person would think that they were pushing for military action in Syria because they knew how bad this rollout was going to be and thought Libya II would be just the thing to keep it off the television screens.

As far as the lead contractor being Canadian, and, again, a cynical person might maintain, that there's a reason they used a Canadian company (who is heavily involved with PRISM of Snowden fame). Guess what the NSA's not supposed to do to American citizens inside the USA? Guess what the NSA is chartered to do to international communications?

Again...if you were cynical.

Anonymous said...

The level of vitriol is strange, it indicates to me that you folks realize that you have lost, continue to lose and will most likely lose BIG in 2014 and 2016. As someone upstream said, that Healthcare.Gov is not working properly now doesn't mean it won't soon enough and issues with it as a form of healthcare is less than optimal.

I never liked the concept of Obamneycare. I'd much rather have single payer and get private health insurance out of the picture altogether. Just think of what Democrats can accomplish with a Democratic House, Senate and Presidency. That would be a prize and Democrats' eyes are on it. Teapublicans, because of their extremism are losing in the polls and things are
looking up for Democrats winning back at least 17 seats, probably more in the House. Think about that.

Sooooo, I encourage head TeaPublican Cruz to keep up the good work.

Scott M said...

"Did you ever think you would see the President of the United States, in a national speech from the rose garden, do his best to imitate the Shamwow guy?"

Yes, right after it became clear that the government was going to make it illegal for you not to buy something.

Rocketeer said...

The level of denial and self-delusion is stranger...er. But at least it's entertaining to the rational!

George M. Spencer said...

Inga--

Here's the problem with your theory about continued Democratic party electoral victories...

"The reality is that Washington has now committed itself to a policy of permanent debt increase and QE infinity that can only possibly end in one way: a currency crisis. While the dollar's status as reserve currency, and America's position as both the world's largest economy and its largest debtor, will create a difficult and unpredictable path towards that destination, the ultimate arrival can't be doubted.'

Peter Schiff column today.

End of the day the dollar will no longer be the world's reserve currency but will be replaced by some hitherto unimaginable marketbasket of currencies, precious metals, and Beanie Babies.

It's going to be a doozy.

Anonymous said...

"Congressional Republicans wake up to post shutdown headaches", a MUCH bigger headache for you than Healthcare.Gov is for us. Our glitches will get fixed, your bigger glitch, Cruz is only getting started. He will be sure to continue his schtick, moving up to 2014, keeping it all fresh in our minds, which is a good thing.....for Democrats.

Larry J said...

Inga said...
The level of vitriol is strange, it indicates to me that you folks realize that you have lost, continue to lose and will most likely lose BIG in 2014 and 2016. As someone upstream said, that Healthcare.Gov is not working properly now doesn't mean it won't soon enough and issues with it as a form of healthcare is less than optimal.


The lack of a grasp on reality is strong with this one. Bad law and bad regulation lead to bad requirements which lead to bad software. While the Mythbusters proved that it actually is possible to shine a piece of shit, it isn't worth the effort.

PB said...

It's a good thing these people aren't trying to launch people into space anymore.

Anonymous said...

Yes Cruz is very shiny. :)

You folks seem to like his scent, but hey that's all good, for us Democrats anyway.

Rusty said...

Just stop it Inga. Quit digging. It isn't the Republicans fault that your demi god is an utter incompetent.

grackle said...

Well … at least Romney lost. We have THAT to be grateful for. Think about what might have happened if Romney had won. We probably wouldn't be having all this fun watching the Obamacare website fail. Or watching Putin totally humiliate the POTUS.

Think of the fun still to come:

It's now certain that the Iranians will nuke up, creating a nuclear arms race in the Middle East.

Assad in Syria will be more entrenched and not worried at all about regime change.

Obamacare will not work – at which point the Dems will trot out a plan to "save" the US healthcare system they destroyed with the adoption of a single-payer system of American healthcare.

More Americans will be on food stamps.

Fewer Americans will be paying income tax.

More American will be unemployed. The Europeans have learned to live with high unemployment and Obama has followed their fun-loving lead.

All this because some VERY smart folks knew that Obama would be much more fun than Romney

Michael K said...

"Inga said...
The level of vitriol is strange, it indicates to me that you folks realize that you have lost, continue to lose and will most likely lose BIG in 2014 and 2016. As someone upstream said, that Healthcare.Gov is not working properly now doesn't mean it won't soon enough and issues with it as a form of healthcare is less than optimal."

Hey, Inga's back ! The line at the welfare office must be shorter today.

chickelit said...

Inga actually typed: Just think of what Democrats can accomplish with a Democratic House, Senate and Presidency.

The woman is frightfully naive of political history.

damikesc said...

Cruz is the smartest guy in DC. If somebody can't figure out what he is doing, then they are likely rubes.

Lnelson said...

Inga said:
You folks seem to like his scent, but hey that's all good, for us Democrats anyway.

Inga,
Once again I admire your passion in the causes you believe in.
A little skepticism on the future total success of a social policy would enhance your credibility.
Otherwise, in just sounds religious.
Larry

Anonymous said...

Michael K, that's pretty nasty of you. So things degenerate to such levels once again. BTW, I was not eligable for any subsidy with my premium. Not that it's any of your business.

Anonymous said...

Lt. Inga Drebin

Anonymous said...

Soooooo, things are looking up for a Public Option. With a Democratic Senate, House and Presidency, it COULD happen.

Rocketeer said...

Don't stop believin', Inga.

test said...

Inga said...
Teapublicans, because of their extremism


Inga said...
Michael K, that's pretty nasty of you


It's bizarre she can't make the connection.

Michael K said...

"Connie Hedegaard holds an MA in Literature and History and was a journalist before she inhaled too much CO2 and went mad.So she really understands the science then.Says it all really.
Another watermelon - green outside - red on the inside."

Inga, I'm just happy that you sound so happy about Obamacare.

Here I thought you were on Medicare. Good for you !

Michael K said...

Whoops, I pasted the wrong clip. Sorry, Inga. I had been quoting another expert on climate change. Not you.

damikesc said...

Ings, there is a better chance if a Republican Congress than a Democratic one. People saw what Dems did with power and won't do that again.

Also, Dems aren't exactly polling well and Obama is still dropping

SteveR said...

Just think of what Democrats can accomplish with a Democratic House Senate and Presidency.

Well how did 2009 and 2010 work out?

Drago said...

Inga: "I was not eligable for any subsidy with my premium. Not that it's any of your business."

LOL

Inga offers up another inadvertant "funny".

Hey Inga, what you pay in premiums is now everyones business.

Everyone's.

Per obamacare rules.

LOL

No self-awareness at all.

Michael K said...

No fair teasing Inga. People have a right to their religious beliefs.

Anonymous said...

Cruz is your very own tin plated God. Bow down! Kiss his feet of clay! Didn't y'all used to just love Rubio? What happened?

Fickle?

Scott M said...

I never liked the concept of Obamneycare. I'd much rather have single payer and get private health insurance out of the picture altogether. Just think of what Democrats can accomplish with a Democratic House, Senate and Presidency.

I'm late to the game today. Has someone already pointed out the obvious to Inga?

Joe said...

I wouldn't be surprised if the Obamacareweb isn't even salting their passwords. Even if they get this thing limping again, it's only a matter of time before someone steals all the account information and hijacks several of the links.

The future isn't skynet, it's skynet crashing and burning.

Mark Nielsen said...


I think you can see some lingering doubts about the fate of this whole thing in Inga's mind by the way she uses "Obamneycare", trying to see that someone other than her hero shares in the blame. Not going to work, though. This mess is his.

Lydia said...

Inga's just following the Democratic tactic du jour, which is to put the spotlight back onto the Republican's shutdown misconceived caper, so of course she won't stick to the message of Althouse's post, which is that our president is a lying incompetent.

The Dems are afraid the GOP might just get its act together, you see. Like they may take advantage of the five opportunities the “Obamacare “meltdown” has given them that Jennifer Rubin points out today in the Washington Post, namely:

--They might "shift tactics" and start pushing hard for delaying the individual mandate;

--They might "offer something" and come up with some limited, concrete items as an alternative to Obamacare;

--They might "go broader" and use this disastrous start of Obamacare to "make the case that this is illustrative, not the entire problem, with the expanded federal government President Obama champions";

--They might "reunify" and pivot away from their radical shutdown rhetoric, and "readjust [it to] make the case that the government is doing too much and doing it poorly";

and, I think, most importantly,

--They might use this opportunity to "relate to lower- and middle-class Americans. Republican leaders and their hardline critics have failed to connect their aspirations and their philosophy to the lives of ordinary Americans. Obamacare is a conversation opener. Republicans can empathize with the frustration of Americans, not only about Obamacare but also about many aspects of government overreach and the country’s direction. The GOP is against layers of regulations not because (as the president claims) it doesn’t care about the health and well-being of fellow citizens. It opposes them because they hurt small business, tie up expansion and innovation that could benefit all Americans and thereby depress hiring. It is time for both sides of the GOP intraparty battle to begin to talk to the voters (not at them and not only to other Republicans) in terms that they understand and experience in their daily lives."

Michael said...

LYDIA: I think the best strategy is to employ jujitsu, to have Republicans do anything but allow for an extension of the individual mandate. Instead, offer up legislation that requires government employees, congress and the president to be subject to the law and to rescind any waivers that have been granted. No waivers. Period. Stick this horrible monstrosity on the Dems and watch as 2014 becomes a very good year politically for the right.

Lnelson said...

Inga, who is very happy and satisfied with her new healthcare plan of just yesterday, wants to jump to single payer already? Whoa!

There is a joke rooted in the reality of human incentives:
We do 3 kinds of jobs here. Good, fast and cheap. You may only pick 2.

The trouble with partisans selling the latest healthcare cure is that they usually imply that we may pick all 3, defying all logic.

Michael said...

Larry: Inga is happy with her new health insurance because it is pretend health insurance. The very policy sold by the president.

Anonymous said...

Obama caved to the right when he put a Public Option off the table. There would be NOTHING stopping Democrats now after 2014. No reason to worry about Republicans anymore.

Anonymous said...

Y'all will simply be along for the ride, kicking and screaming. Maybe that's when you can have your revolution! Woo Hoo!

Big sale on bullets at Walmart!

SteveR said...

Obama caved to the right when he put a Public Option off the table. There would be NOTHING stopping Democrats now after 2014. No reason to worry about Republicans anymore.

Obama caved to the right?

wildswan said...

Those, like Inga, who think that the problems of the Obamacare website will go way soon are entitled to also think that people will forget a rocky start. But I can't believe what I am seeing and it doesn't look at all like something that will work soon. Furthermore, I simply cannot understand how Obama wasn't getting updates on how the whole process was going. Obviously honest updates would have meant that there would have been a tech surge in late May - which was the time for testing to start and at which time the site was not ready for testing. It says nothing for Obama that he seems to have been surprised by all the mess in October - he should have known last May. And therefore he should have fired Sebelius on October 2 for not telling him what was happening. But when Obama leaves Sebelius in charge because he doesn't want to "point fingers" then he leaves the failed leader in charge. So why think that things are going to work now? If Sebelius could make the project work, she would have done so already. No, I have to think that no one in charge for the last three years really understood how these things work. (Like the Czar's generals marching the Russia Army into defeat at the Masurian Lakes. They just didn't understand railroads and telegraphs and staff plans; they only knew giving orders.) So, to me it seems, there will be continued problems down the line in every phase and aspect of Obamacare. Obama's flunkies only know how to lift the phone and say: "This is the White House, ta da" or "George Bush did it" or "the Republicans are no good." They don't know how to say: "The testing has to have started by May or we have to postpone." Or anything like that.

And these continued problems won't lead to a nationwide call to get even more people into the mess through single payer. Forget that.

Michael said...

Inga: I see you have adopted the contempt for half the country that our president shares. how progressive of you.

Anonymous said...

Why thank you Michael! OUR half is larger than your half, don't forget it.

MayBee said...

Did Obama ever put the public option on the table?

Inga, are you not insured by your employer?

Anonymous said...

MayBee, no, I am not.

Anonymous said...

"Soooooo, things are looking up for a Public Option. With a Democratic Senate, House and Presidency, it COULD happen."

I wonder how that conversation goes?

Hey guys, remember what happened the last time we had the Congress and the Presidency? Obamacare!

Since that worked out so great, let's just push on ahead and elect the Democrats again, and this time, we'll get Single Payer!

I mean, if you can't trust them to get us Obamacare, well, second times the charm, right?

Right?

Michael said...

Inga: I am an old liberal and am appalled at what liberalism has become. I am embarrassed for the left. Closed minds. Spying. Assaults on the first amendment. Vulgar propagandists. Racist in the most vile and offensive ways possible. Apologists for tyranny. Happy, proud, to be in contempt of half the country. Fascist in the truest definition.

Rusty said...

Inga said...
Y'all will simply be along for the ride, kicking and screaming.


Why.
How wonderfully fascist.

I bet you're top of the list when the office of "block warden" comes up.

Anonymous said...

"Inga: I see you have adopted the contempt for half the country that our president shares. how progressive of you."

Michael, remember, they want to arrest us for sedition and treason.

As Glenn Reynolds says, this is why I own guns.

Rocketeer said...

OUR half is larger than your half, don't forget it.

As evidenced by the 30 state governments controlled by the _________ Party??? But either way, I find it refreshing that you're so comfortable, in your own Melian Dialogue, in the role of Athenian.

Michael K said...

"Did she really find the site "very easy to use"? We suppose this is subjective, and maybe she has preternatural patience or is some kind of computer savant. But National Review's Sterling Beard managed to track her down, and she "said it actually took her three days to enroll." The ad would be deceptive if it weren't so unbelievable to begin with.

There's another problem here: Lielasus is purportedly getting a free lunch: better coverage with lower premiums, deductibles and copayments than someone with her risk profile would be able to negotiate absent price controls. But people can get a free lunch only if other people pick up the tab. The technical term for those other people is "suckers." In the case of ObamaCare the suckers are young and healthy people who normally would be cheaper to insure. "

Inga, was that you ?

Larry J said...

There's a type of magical thinking out there that's simply incomprehensible. There are people who can look at every US government operated health care program (on reservations, the VA, military, Medicare and Medicaid) and not see what a mess those programs are. They can see the screwup of Obamacare's implementation and not realize that if the signup is this screwed up, what will the implementation be like? And in the face of failure after failure, they can believe that all things would be better if the government had total control over all health care in a national single payer program.

Magical thinking is fine if you're talking about 5 year olds. In adults, is a disgrace.

Anonymous said...

Be proud of your fellow conservatives Michael. Racism, homophobia, sexism, voter supression, obstructionism to the point of default and more. Stand tall!

Anonymous said...

Ohhhhh, how could I forget? Extortionism.

chickelit said...

For an encore, Inga will soon be calling for Shooting an Elephant.

I'm Full of Soup said...

It's interesting that the hispanic Cruz who it is provable excelled at Harvard Law School is not idolized by the media while the black Obama apparently did not excel except for being elected to the mostly ceremonial position of president to the Harvard Law Review.

Michael said...

El Pollo: Excellent, really great. I would not expect our illiterate liberal commenters to understand the source or the irony. Outstanding.

Anonymous said...

Oh! And there's a new John Doe probe regarding illegal electioneering on Walker's watch. Ooops, not again!

Hagar said...

"Treating Anas al-Liby’s hepatitis could gouge U.S. taxpayers."

He is on Obamacare?

Rusty said...

The Real Inga shows up.

"Stand Up!
A step to left
A step to the right
and you will be shot!
March."

Michael K said...

" Blogger Michael said...

Inga: I am an old liberal and am appalled at what liberalism has become. I am embarrassed for the left."

I usually look at Washington Monthly, Mother Jones and HuffPo to see what they are concerned about. It is pretty interesting. Of course, I am not allowed to comment.

NRO comments is overrun with lefty trolls but the left wing sites ban anyone with an opposing view, even if expressed politely. Back in 2008, I did a study on health care reform. The lefties at Wash Monthly went to look and were enraged that I didn't support single payer. After that,my comments were banned.

I'll bet a dollar Inga never read the posts on my site about the French system, which I think is a model for reform here.

They just aren't interested in anything but their magical thinking.

Lnelson said...

Inga said:
OUR half is larger than your half, don't forget it.

Inga,
That attitude is the exact reason for the first 10 amendments to the Constitution, don't forget it.
(AKA the tyranny of the majority)
Larry

Lnelson said...

Inga said:
OUR half is larger than your half, don't forget it.

Inga,
That attitude is the exact reason for the first 10 amendments to the Constitution, don't forget it.
(AKA the tyranny of the majority)
Larry

Hagar said...

If al_liby got on Obamacare, waterboard him until he tells how he did it, and let everyone know!

chickelit said...

Thanks, Michael!

Scott M said...

Has anyone ever seen Inga and Garage in the same room together? Just sayin'...

B said...

Larry Nelson said...Inga said:OUR half is larger than your half, don't forget it....

Its a lie anyway on multiple levels. The democrats do not make up half of the country nor did Obama voters constitute half. And most especially leftists, whose progressive nonsense Inga is espousing, do not make up half of the country.

I also find it fascinating that she can call out republicans for 'voter suppression' in the same thread she touts single payer health care. The first conflict is between the conservative idea that every illegal vote compromises the system and the progressive viewpoint that so many voters are too incompetent to have valid ID to preserve the validity of the vote. And yet Inga thinks that a single payer system that would REQUIRE national IDs is consistent logic.

Drago said...

B: "And yet Inga thinks that a single payer system that would REQUIRE national IDs is consistent logic."

B, you have no idea how wrong you are.

Leftists care not a whit for consistency, logic, principles, etc.

What they care about is power.

If something advances their power, it doesn't matter if they were arguing against it yesterday or this morning.

It doesn't matter that every single thing the left said about ACA was an obvious lie.

It doesn't matter the policies enacted by the leftists have 90 million potentially working Americans out of the labor pool.

Or that we are spending 85 Billion a month deflating our currency.

Or that the left has created several generations of kids in public schools who can't even read.

What matters to them is that they have increased their levers of power over each of us.

We may well have already reached the tipping point that Inga is cheering about.

Of course, takers will always outnumber makers.

What's really new here is how successful the Inga's of the US have been in demonizing the makers and creating heroes of the takers.

Up next: amnesty for 30 to 50 million illegals.

All of whom will immediately quality for "free" health care and about 17,000 other social programs.

All that's left now for the left is to get the tax rate back up to an effective 60% for the middle class and then, like their lefty brethren in other countries, confiscate a large portion of the middle and upper middle class savings plans.

Rich folks capital will havel already fled.

At that point, and with Quantitative Easing Infinity, we'll be Greece.

At tha

Crimso said...

I guess we now know who America's Politico was.

Michael Ryan said...

But the good news is that they have top men working on this now. Top men.

Skeptical Voter said...

Hell he makes Nixon look like a veritable truth teller. Da Bamstuh never met a lie he didn't like.

Ann Althouse said...

Sorry about the two typos. Thanks, Kylos.