David Freddoso found some more interesting figures in that Qunnipiac poll.

Note Freddoso's summary says "Reps in Congress," which I first thought meant "Representatives in Congress;" but it means Republicans in Congress. The actual question specified Congressional Republicans.

Freddoso writes:

The Democrats have been full of crowing triumphalism over the demographic explosion they’re expecting — and part of their hope involves taking the young vote for granted. What if they’re just wrong in assuming that any other Democrat is capable of exciting the young the way Obama did in two successive elections?

Even worse, what if this poll is just one more sign that the young are learning lasting lessons about big government that will affect their thinking for decades to come?

He also has a post on Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, get this, lying about the "better" insurance people get under Obamacare (costs more, higher deductibles and copays and fewer choices in doctors and hospitals).

One thing that you should be aware of is that word has gone out and Democrats will no longer speak of plans being "cancelled." They are now all using the euphemism "transitioned to better plans."

"Transitioned."

Oh don't mind those death panels. You'll just be "transitioned" to a more stable, less medically vulnerable state. more...

Posted by: Ace at 02:18 PM | Comments (233)
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Ah. I see. We're not even going to pretend there is a good policy reason to oppose the bill, eh?

We're going straight to "vote against it or we'll cut off your money."

House Democratic leaders are privately warning rank and file Dems that a vote for this bill – and other anti-Obamacare legislation – could alienate leading Democratic donors heading into 2014, a source familiar with internal discussions tells me. “Votes against the Affordable Care Act are going to turn off a lot of these top national progressive donors,” the source said in characterizing the arguments.

Dianne Feinstein Too?

Posted by: Ace at 01:14 PM | Comments (323)
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More here.

American voters disapprove 54 - 39 percent of the job President Barack Obama is doing, his lowest approval rating in any Quinnipiac University national poll since he became president, as even women disapprove 51 - 40 percent, according to a national poll released today.

...

This is the lowest reading he's had on a Quinnipiac poll. This is worse than the poor numbers he posted mid-2011.

For the first time today, American voters say 52 - 44 percent that Obama is not honest and trustworthy. His previous lowest marks on honesty were May 30, when 49 percent of voters said he was honest and 47 percent said he wasn't.

...

"President Obama's job approval rating has fallen to the level of former President George W. Bush at the same period of his Presidency," Malloy said.

American voters say 53 - 43 percent that the Obama Administration has not been competent running the government. By a similar 51 - 43 percent margin, voters say Obama is not paying enough attention to what his administration is doing.

Oof. The second number actually helps him, as the public is apparently willing to buy his eternal "I just heard about this" defense.

Only 19 percent of American voters say the quality of care they and their families receive will improve in the next year because of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), while 43 percent say it will get worse and 33 percent say ACA won't affect their health care.

That 43% is not bad for Obama -- it's not a majority. Imagine what happens when that does become a majority, when people stop thinking only other people will be screwed by Obamacare.

Voters oppose the ACA 55 - 39 percent, with men opposed 59 - 37 percent and women opposed 51 - 41 percent.

American voters are divided 46 - 47 percent on whether Obama "knowingly deceived" the public when he said people could keep their existing health insurance plans if they wished.

...

"President Obama's misstatement, 'If you like your health plan, you can keep it,' left a bad taste with a lot of people. Nearly half of the voters, 46 percent, think he knowingly deceived them," Malloy said.

Here's a Mediaite story with Dana Bash's report that Friday is many Democrats' deadline for fixing Obamacare, or else they'll vote for the Keep Your Plan bills.

It turns out those bills are being voted on Friday -- that's why they've said that's the deadline. They don't want to vote against the bills. Or at least they don't want to be on-record as being against the bills.

One thing that just occurred to me: If we pass these bills, the insurance companies will suffer huge losses, and then the government will cover their losses. Yes, that's part of Obamacare -- the federal treasury is on the hook for losses they suffer for some number of years.

I'm starting to wonder if we actually want to do this, to put ourselves, basically, in a position of being blamed for Obamacare's problems by attempting to fix it.

It cannot be fixed. One change here leads to another big problem there.

Does the GOP, as a party, want to take ownership of a problem not of their own making in this way?

Because know this: When this bill causes a huge death spiral effect, and then the government must pay hundreds of billions to cover insurance companies' losses, they'll be blamed by the media and the Democrats (but I repeat myself) as being Equal Partners in Obamacare.

Headline Gag: I changed it to "President Subeffective," based on Comically Evasive Mouthpiece Jay Carney's coinage of the word "subeffective" today:

Posted by: Ace at 12:12 PM | Comments (384)
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Well... some kind of brownish-colored jellyfish or something.

But I'm not sure it's right to just say it's a jellyfish, though I think it is. It's certainly not a creature most people have seen before. I haven't. I imagine it will just be a couple of days before Art Vandelay, Marine Biologist, informs us it's a jellyfish of a less-known sort, but it's still... weird. Update: This video is from last year and it has in fact been identified as a deepstaria reticulum, a kind of jellyfish. Thanks to Inspector Cussword and @rdbrewer4.

This is not some sort of weasel. Although, let me say, when I first saw it swimming away I though "Oh for God's sakes, that's just a bear, swimming underwater." And a bear is a kind of weasel.

But it's not that. It comes back and shows off, and it's all weird and stuff. At various times it looks like a limbless squid*, and then some kind of manta, and then a jellyfish.

If you want, you can play the theme to Sea Hunt while watching the silent video.

Or, you could play this as the audio.

more...

Posted by: Ace at 11:28 AM | Comments (186)
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That's not even possible. I'm a racist, uneducated conservative filled with hate who wants sick people to die and who can't stand the fact that the president is black, and even I know any fix would take a full month (at least) of research, hearings, etc.

Via @johnekdahl.

Posted by: Ace at 10:50 AM | Comments (337)
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And, it seems to me, an insult to Millennials.

I'm not a Millennial and I can't know their minds, but personally, I'd take it as an insult that Obama's Minions believe this is the way to "relate" to me.

Other ads similarly depict "Bros" as moronic idlers.

Oh, but there's a Brosurance ad for the ladies, too. This one portrays young women as daffy idiots having fantasy relationships with Movie Stars.

I don't know if he's right about these being taxpayer-funded ads -- but I don't know he's wrong, either. The left is claiming otherwise. They don't exactly have a lot of credibility with me. But I will note their objection to the claim, until I can get an unbiased take on it.

Oh, and these geniuses aren't done yet. It's not just that they conceive as Millennial women as choosing their politics and their health-care according to which Movie Stars they're in Fantasy Relationships with. They also seem to believe that young women are infantile and incompetent enough to need the help of government in securing $8 birth control pills from Wal*Mart.

Do Millennials really see themselves this way? My God, I hope not.

You know, I bust on Millennials a lot. So that is Enemy Action.

But I think these ads are worse. When I insult Millennials, I mean to insult them. I'm trying to blame and shame them for their vapid grasp of policy (and reality).

Again, that's an Enemy Action. And the insult, while insulting, is less hurtful, precisely because one knows it comes from an enemy's mouth.

But here are people trying to appeal to Millennials. They present themselves as "friends." They "get" you, Man.

And here is what they think appeals to you -- pictures of young people in Party Hardy poses and daffy young stupid things who think Ryan Gosling is like sooo dreamy and my God where would I get birth control pills if Obama didn't draw me a map?

Really?

If this actually is appealing to Millennials -- and they find this to be non-demeaning -- then every insult I've shot their way is true.

Posted by: Ace at 09:54 AM | Comments (478)
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Remember Tony Trenkle?

“[CMS Chief Information Officer]Tony [Trenkle] made a decision that he was going to move to the private sector and that is what our COO announced yesterday,” said a spokesman for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, who refused to comment whether Trenkle had been pushed out due to frustrations over the agency’s online woes.

Why was he pushed out? Initially he seemed to be a Scapegoat. But Administrations usually publicize Scapegoats -- after all, the whole point is to claim all the problems were due to the Scapegoat, and then ritually slaughter him to expiate one's sins.

But they handled Tony Trenkle's firing/resignation very quietly.

Why?

Sharyl Attkisson reported on a possible reason.

CBS News has learned that Trenkle, the Chief Information Officer for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), was originally supposed to sign off on security for the glitch-ridden website before its Oct. 1 launch, but didn't. Instead, the authorization on September 27 was given by Trenkle's boss, CMS administrator Marilyn Tavenner.

As CBS News reported Monday, security assessments fell behind and the website never had the required top-to-bottom tests.

Trenkle and two other CMS officials, including Chief Operating Officer Michelle Snyder, signed an unusual "risk acknowledgement" saying that the agency's mitigation plan for rigorous monitoring and ongoing tests did "not reduce the (security) risk to the ... system itself going into operation on October 1, 2013."

But his boss, Marilyn Tavenner, certified the site as "secure" anyway.

Well that's not quite right -- what she did was certify it as belonging to the nonsensical category of secure for the interim, meaning they're going to keep checking security and working on security issues... which means it wasn't secure. And federal protocols (and maybe laws, I don't know) demand that any government site be certified as secure, not certified as "We're working on that."

But Healthcare.gov was certified as "We're working on that" as far as security and the Administration launched anyway.

Now, why did Tavenner sign the certification, rather than the man actually required to sign it? Well the Administration dealt with this question by, get this, lying:

Wednesday, an HHS spokesman said that the reason Tavenner, not Trenkle, signed the security authorization is because HealthCare.gov is "a high-profile project and CMS felt it warranted having the administrator sign the authority to operate memo."

No that's not why, Ms. Tavenner. The reason is that that the man charged with certifying the site as secure flat-out refused to do so -- possibly fearing a perjury charge for signing a false document.

Tony Trenkle then left the Administration-- and no one will say if he was fired, or he chose to resign on his own, and why.

Allah became pretty interested in Mr. Trenkle.

Memo to Darrell Issa: Subpoena this man.

And now comes this memo, which stated that the security risks in Healthcare.gov were "limitless."

The author of that memo? Tony Trenkle, the man who was either fired or chose to resign due to the Administration's demand he certify a dangerously insecure site as secure.

Did Chao lie to the committee about not having seen the Sept. 3 memo before or was there a deliberate effort within CMS to withhold the extent of the site’s problems from supervisors like him so that they’d greenlight it for launch as scheduled? If the latter, who’s responsible? As it turns out, the memo was written by — ta da — Tony Trenkle, lead tech officer for Healthcare.gov who left last week under mysteriously vague circumstances. As CBS reported, Trenkle himself never signed off on security for the site in September; it was his boss, Marilyn Tavenner, who signed the authorization, supposedly because she thought that a project this big should carry the John Hancock of the head of CMS. Is that the truth, or did Trenkle refuse to sign because he knew the site’s security was a travesty and couldn’t in good conscience authorize launching it? The fact that he wrote such a dire memo about “limitless” risk suggests that he knew the extent of the problem — and yet, if you believe Chao, that information somehow never made its way to the project manager. Why? Why are there so many unorthodox procedures related to approval of the site’s security here? Did Tavenner, at least, see Trenkle’s memo before she authorized the launch or was it withheld from her too? If she did see it, why didn’t she tell Obama and Sebelius that security was too weak to justify rolling it out now?

Allah's done a great job as a blogger in seeing this Trenkle business as a major story early. Now it becomes an even bigger one. (Sharyl Attkisson, of course, is the reporter here; but for me, personally, Allah highlighted the find.)

As he said: Subpoena his man. Based on the flow of information to Issa and Attkisson, I'm going to speculate that this man is interested in talking.

Posted by: Ace at 08:56 AM | Comments (220)
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There is some other stuff (BUSY week on news) but for the most part its all about the PS4 launch.

After a long console cycyle of 2553 days, Sony releases the PS4. If you really only want a pure gaming machine, this is the console for you. The day 1 patch isn't "mandatory" but yeah, it's kinda mandatory to get most features to work. This is a run down of stuff. more...

Posted by: Gang of Gaming Morons! at 12:13 PM | Comments (66)
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On today's episode, National Review's Charles C. W. Cooke joins Ace, Gabe, Drew, John and me to discuss the ongoing Obamacare debacle, this week's NJ and VA gubernatorial elections and the joy of mocking the thin-skinned left.

[MP3 Download] | Subscribe: [RSS] | [iTunes]

Follow on Twitter:
AoSHQ Podcast (@AoSHQPodcast)
Ace (@AceofSpadesHQ)
Drew M. (@DrewMTips)
Gabriel Malor (@GabrielMalor)
John E. (@JohnEkdahl)
Andy (@TheH2 and @AndyM1911)

Open thread in the comments.

Posted by: andy at 06:44 AM | Comments (273)
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• We're Painting Israel Into A Corner, Don't Be Surprise If They Fight Back
  
• Asian Carp Invasion In The Great Lakes
  
• Strange Bedfellows, The Politics Of Moral Panic
  
• More Obamacare Website Problems Downstream
  
• How The Republican Donor Class Gave Us Terry McAuliffe
  
• ENDA: A Government Identity Crisis
  
• Illegals And Dems Storm A GOP Headquarters
  
• The Myth Of Poverty In America
  
• New York Is Fine, De Blasio Is Broken
  
• Thanks Jenny McCarthy
  
• First Whig Elected To Office In Over A Century
  
• The Ten Best Newspaper Corrections
  
• Goldberg: Trust Us
  

Follow me on twitter.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 05:35 AM | Comments (203)
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