No, he really said that.

Biden said he and Obama were under the impression the site was ready.

"Neither he or I are technology geeks and we assumed it was up and ready to run," he told HLN.

...

When asked why it will still take a month for the the glitches to be fixed, Biden didn't have an answer.

"I don't know the technical reasons," he said. "I don't know, I wish I could tell you. that's why I became a lawyer."

We assumed it would work.

Don't ask me, I'm just a lawyer.

Welcome to government-run healthcare, America. On the plus side, it's not just mind-numbingly frustrating and inoperable, it's also wildly expensive. So, there's that.

Posted by: JohnE. at 09:12 AM | Comments (332)
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Another day, another deluge of stories....

An LA Times reporter tries to debunk his own paper's story about an individual having to pay more for insurance and...fails.

One estimate says 129 million people aren't going to be able to keep the health care plan they have.

Heritage estimates 1.5 million people have already lost their policy.

This last group is something we talked about on the podcast last night (it should be up tomorrow morning with special guest Mary Katherine Ham). The question was will the failure of ObamaCare finally discredit big-government liberalism. Not surprisingly, I am less than optimistic about that notion and the people losing their policies by the end of the year are why.

This is a large and growing group of people who did nothing wrong. They are the responsible ones who paid exorbitant prices to get their policies without employer or government help. As Ace pointed out they are also the people who helped keep the cost of care (as opposed to coverage) down because they often had high deductible policies so they used medical services sparingly and shopped around. And now they are essentially the innocent victims of ObamaCare.

Yesterday Sebelius said the exchange site would be up and working by December 1. That means if you have coverage now that is being cancelled on January 1, you have to have new coverage in place by December 15th of this year (there's usually a 2-4 week delay between buying coverage and when it kicks in). That means millions of people are going to flood the system just to keep something near what they have. Imagine the panic if you have an ongoing medical condition and your policy is about to be cancelled and you simply can't buy a new one anywhere at the moment. And if you can buy a policy at some point, there's no guarantee that come January 1, your doctor will be able to keep you as a patient. So in the middle of dealing with an illness you have to not only find a new policy but also a doctor and hope you can get in to see them ASAP to get continuing care. That must be terrifying.

So how does this relate to the discrediting of progressivism and Democrats?

To date the GOP has kept ObamaCare at a distance and the blame should fall to the Democrats but faced with these innocent bystanders being hurt, the GOP is going to be under great pressure To Do Something! And quite frankly, it's not going to be an unreasonable demand.

Now I'm not sure there's anything that can be done at this point. You can't just wave a magic wand and undo all the cancellations or make everything work smoothly come January 1.

In that case we may see the GOP get blamed for not doing something to help or people just get fed up and say a pox on both their houses. Of course the GOP might find something they can do but then they "own" ObamaCare too and the rest of the failings that go along with it.

To discredit the progressive project you need a clear distinction between it and the alternative. I'm not sure the GOP (through no fault of its own) will be able to provide that if it has to get involved in "fixing" ObamaCare.

I've occasionally been tough on the GOP (no, it's true) but I don't know how they stand by and watch millions of hard working Americans get screwed like this and do nothing. And let's be honest, some of these people are going to die because of Obama's lies and quest for power. Can you really give the GOP grief if they try and protect these people? Even if it means a lousy political outcome for them and the country. It's a brutal situation to be in.

In someways having the GOP have just enough power (control of the House) to take some of the blame but not enough to actually do anything will prove to be the best thing that happened to Obama. In the long run, it will likely be terrible for the country.

Keep something in mind: This isn't an accident, it was their plan all along. more...

Posted by: DrewM at 08:25 AM | Comments (249)
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I can't even explain this. Wiserbud tried to explain it to me, and I didn't get it.

You just have to watch it.

Posted by: Ace at 07:38 AM | Comments (278)
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Posted by: Ace at 05:12 AM | Comments (315)
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• What Obamacare Teaches US About Immigration Reform
  
• What Slate Gets Wrong About Amazon
  
• Obamacare Is The Worst Case Scenario
  
• Megyn Kelly Hammers Frank Pallone
  
• Frank Pallone Didn't Do Too Well On Piers Morgan's Show Either
  
• Schumer Decides It's Okay To Overturn A Law
  
• Schadenboner: David Frum Is A Victim Of Obamacare
  
• Insurers, White House Unite Against Delaying Healthcare Deadline
  
• Brooklyn Cupcake Shop Listed As A Healthcare Enrollment Site
  
• Obamacare Website Crashed And Burned Just Before Launch
  
• Hopefully The Insurance Companies Learned Their Lesson And Turn On Obama
  
• Obama's Big Lie
  
• The Easiest Way To Destroy The Republican Party As It Exists
  
• The US Spied On The Pope
  
• Obamacare's Ugly Authoritarian Problem
  
• Daily Show Tries To Show Bigotry In The South With Hidden Camera Gay Couple And Fails Miserably
  
• Egypt Reinstalling Old Regime
  
• Has Anything Good Ever Come From Clowns?
  

Follow me on twitter.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 06:00 AM | Comments (314)
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Sorry guys.

Some Halloween songs for ya. more...

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 03:26 AM | Comments (308)
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How Bad Were the Developers of the ObamaCare Website?

Well CGI's last 'success' was the infamous Canadian gun registry:

Their most famous government project was for the Canadian Firearms Registry. The registry was estimated to cost in total $119 million, which would be offset by $117 million in fees. That's a net cost of $2 million. Instead, by 2004 the CBC (Canada's PBS) was reporting costs of some $2 billion - or a thousand times more expensive.

Yeah, yeah, I know, we've all had bathroom remodelers like that. But in this case the database had to register some 7 million long guns belonging to some two-and-a-half to three million Canadians. That works out to almost $300 per gun - or somewhat higher than the original estimate for processing a firearm registration of $4.60.

You know when each database entry costs more than the actual item being databased, you just might be fucking incompetent.

On Shredding Guns

There is a common assumption in Chicago that guns are the equivalent of free-roaming cobras, being lethal and unmanageable by any means except elimination. The more guns, in this view, the more murders and mayhem.

And No You Can't Keep Your Plan

Because unless your health insurance plan was embedded in amber on March 23, 2010, it will go away. And this was by design.

Posted by: Maetenloch at 06:03 PM | Comments (838)
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Job approval has been low for a while. But there is an old bit of poll wisdom that your personal approval rating sets your maximum possible job approval -- and sets the floor for it, too

Well, the floor is now lower.

And for the first time in the survey, even ObamaÂ’s personal ratings are upside-down, with 41 percent viewing him a favorable light and 45 percent viewing him negatively.

“Personally and politically, the public’s assessment is two thumbs down,” says Democratic pollster Peter D. Hart, who conducted this survey with Republican pollster Bill McInturff.

Are people finally seeing the light? Is the Titanic finally going down?

And open thread.

Oh, and I see Purp got into this poll, but he didn't highlight this finding. He highlighted another important one, but not this one.

Posted by: Ace at 04:50 PM | Comments (329)
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When speculative bullshit crashes on the hard rocks of data...

...n all, 41 percent of respondents say they have a less favorable opinion of the president since the 16 day government shutdown, compared to 21 percent who say they have a more favorable view since the shutdown...

Posted by: Purple Avenger at 04:20 PM | Comments (158)
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They're creating a DIY phone kit. Pick your parts and snap them together.

The design for Project Ara consists of what we call an endoskeleton (endo) and modules. The endo is the structural frame that holds all the modules in place. A module can be anything, from a new application processor to a new display or keyboard, an extra battery, a pulse oximeter--or something not yet thought of!..

Looks kinda cool.

Posted by: Purple Avenger at 03:21 PM | Comments (54)
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