Joe Manchin is a Democrat who serves, supposedly, West Virginia, so his personal political situation requires him to pretend to be somewhat more solicitous of actual public opinion than, say, Cokewhore Roberts.

This is not clearly an endorsement of Boehner's plan -- or his opening offer, anyway -- to delay all of ObamaCare for one year in exchange for a raising of the debt ceiling.

Because this report claims Manchin is speaking of a one-year delay in one of the many unpopular parts of ObamaCare, the Individual Mandate.

“There’s no way I could not vote for it,” Manchin said at a Bloomberg Government breakfast today. “It’s very reasonable and sensible.”
Enlarge image Senator Joe Manchin

...

Manchin, 66, said heÂ’d be willing to delay the individual mandate as part of the budget negotiations because the Obama administration in July gave businesses an extra year to provide their workers with health insurance.

“Don’t put the mandate on the American public right now,” Manchin said. “Give them at least a year. If you know you couldn’t bring the corporate sector, you gave them a year, don’t you think it’d be fair?”

Well that complicates Obama's messaging. He complicates it further by offering to "negotiate" for the Debt Ceiling Hike -- which contradicts Obama's position that there will be no negotiations about anything at all.

The president said today that “I will not negotiate on anything” regarding an increase in the borrowing authority.

“Congress needs to put an end to governing crisis-to-crisis,” Obama said at a Largo, Maryland community college.

This all occurs in the context of a disastrous, Not Ready for Primetime roll out of ObamaCare, in Primetime, unfortunately, and, as Allah notes, possible catastrophe on the horizon.

WhatÂ’s potentially not survivable [for Democrats' political position] is rolling out the exchanges now minus the individual mandate, which means lots of young adults will face no legal compulsion to buy in. If (as Bill Clinton noted two days ago) healthy uninsured people refuse to fork over their money, then insurers suddenly donÂ’t have a pool of revenue to cover all the people with preexisting conditions who are signing up, and then the whole scheme starts to collapse. ThereÂ’ll be no delays after that; if insurers start crumbling, weÂ’ll be in post-ObamaCare mode as a country.

Posted by: Ace at 09:58 AM | Comments (410)
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Via MSNBC. Ms. Roberts suggested that Hillary Clinton would be a more palatable candidate to the Tea Party than Obama, because she's White.

“Some of this Tea Party anger is racist. And that having a non-black person on the ticket will diffuse it to some degree,” Roberts said Wednesday on Morning Joe.

Yes, Ms. Roberts. That is precisely why some people (including myself) attempted to whip up conservative voters to cast a vote for Hillary over Obama in 2008 (in states with open voting, like, I think, Pennsylvania), and were largely dismissed. People were pretty much set on the idea that Hillary is the worst of all possible worlds.

Now, I think they were wrong about that. But obviously they were not racist, given that Limbaugh couldn't even really get his Operation Chaos off the ground. Even with Limbaugh pushing for trouble-making votes for Hillary, the stronger conservative-leaning voters still said, "Nah, no way, Hillary is the worst."

So, I may possibly be racist (let's pretend that maybe I opposed Obama because he was black, rather than the actual reason, that I thought he was a much better candidate), but the people who would several years later become the Tea Party were not.

This is, of course, all absurd. Is Cokie Roberts really paid for this level of analysis? This sort of any-random-DKos-Diarist-could-say-the-same thing Blogger Shit?

Is this really the best the self-presumed Prestige Media can manage?

Years ago South Park parodied the Comedy Stylings of Whoopie Goldberg by depicting her on stage and saying nothing but "Republicans Suck" every thirty seconds. The long gaps permitted the wild cheering from the audience.

But this parody is no longer parody. And it's not just no-talent comedians engaging in DKos level thoughtlessness, but highly paid "experts" in high-profile positions at the major networks.

If the media looks at 30 or 40% of the population -- or 49%, per today's NYT poll -- and can only explain their political opinions as either "irrational" or "racist," then this represents a devastating comment on the insularity and provincialism of the media.

Where is the "intellectual curiosity"? Do smart people typically dismiss the political ideology of 100 million people with a blithe, "Oh, they must all just be crazy?"

Of course not. If the media is reporting on, say, Iran, and the support of many of Iran's people for the country's quest for the Atomic Bomb, they will not simply say "Oh they must just be crazy." They will inquire into the beliefs of Iranians and say "Well, you must understand, the Atomic Bomb represents in the minds of Iranians the idea that they've 'made it' as a nation. So it's a symbol of national success, and of patriotism."

Caveat: They won't inquire into anything. That sounds too much like Doing Their Jobs to the media. But they would speculate about the mindset of Iranians, and offer up other possibilities than "Because Racism."

But when it comes to reportage on people living right beside them -- people who could be easily asked about their beliefs, and why they believe them -- they just shrug and say, "Obviously they're crazy. Duh."

Who's Bitterly Clinging now, New Class?

What's saddest of all about this is that Cokie Roberts once possessed a dynamic and probing curiosity, and was much more nuanced and wide-ranging in her thinking and her capacity to understand the mind of conservative voters.

LINDA WERTHEIMER, [NPR] HOST: So today is Poland. Why is he stopping in Poland. What does he hope to accomplish with that?

Cokie Roberts: Well, I think part of it was a desire to portray President Obama as something of a wimp, and say he's abandoned Eastern Europe. But look, you remember well the Reagan Democrats. Those ethnic white voters who had been Democrats for many years; turned out for Ronald Reagan, and have been fairly predictable Republicans since then. Now it's a smaller percentage of the population -- of the voting population -- than it used to be, but white voters are still much more Republican than any other group in the electorate. They went for McCain in 2008 by 55%. And I think that getting those ethnic voters excited is really what Romney has in mind here.

Oh. Nevermind. Forget all that stuff I said about "nuanced" and "wide-ranging curiosity."

By the way, do you know "Cokie" Roberts' real name?

"Cokie" is actually short for "Cokewhore."

Cokewhore Susan Roberts, it turns out. It's an old family name or something. Very classy. The family prides itself on its enormous beast-like nostrils. It's been a family trait since their great-grandfather Walter Hogsnout Roberts first set down roots in the Boston-DC corridor and began farming Liberal Braindead Conventional Opinion.

Posted by: Ace at 09:03 AM | Comments (366)
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Per the media, 49% of the country must be animated by racism.

What else could explain their willingness to deem a failure a failure?

Of course I'd ask who is it who's animated by racial considerations? Refusing to admit that a Black President is a failure, despite his being a failure, is plainly animated by racial condescension.

You know what this means, don't you? Obama Interview on Sunday Night Football.

Ed Morrissey looks at more questions and analyses these worrisome bonersome trends.

Over at the Guardian, of all places, a guy named Harry J. Enten revisits the mythology that has grown out of the 1996 government shutdown and finds that most of what we think we know about it is wrong.

This jibes with my basic belief about the behavior of LIVs. Per the Conventional Wisdom, LIVs suddenly became intensely interested in Inside Baseball Partisan Squabbling and, uncharacteristic for them, formed very firm opinions as to who was right and who was wrong.

My gut instinct would usually be that LIVs do not become incensed by the things partisans do, but instead are swayed by very macro considerations like the economy and whether the networks are satisfying them with Quality Programming.

That's what Enten suggests, minus the part about TJ Hooker.

But even if the polling today did look like 1995-96, I would argue that this looming shutdown will offer nowhere such a clear win for Obama and the Democrats as it did for Clinton....

You would have expected Congress to see a steep decline in 1995-1996 because of the budget shutdown, but that simply didn't happen....

Clinton's approval rating just after the shutdowns was, if anything, slightly lower than before it. In other words, he really didn't win much in terms of his standing. He didn't gain ground in his approval rating, and didn't lose less than Congress.

Clinton's major increase in presidential approval occurred in the months after the shutdown. Those ratings corresponded very well with a major increase, also, in congressional approval. That's not surprising, given that both approval ratings tend to move in unison with one another. Congressional and presidential approval in this case moved up – because the economy was improving.

His thesis isn't that Bill Clinton didn't "win" the political battle. He says immediately that Clinton did win it.

His point is that "winning" this particular battle barely touched the polls. Like most Inside Baseball squabbles, the LIVs largely did not care. What they cared about was the economy.

Posted by: Ace at 08:27 AM | Comments (184)
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• Obamacare May Work, Provided No One Responds To Its Incentives
  
• Cooke: Schools Are Not Parents
  
• House Republicans Planning Another Tactical Retreat On Obamacare, But They'll Get'em Next Time!
  
• The Obamacare Wars Are Just Starting
  
• Lindsey Graham Is Ripe For A Legitimate Primary Challenge
  
• Islamist Rebel Alliance In Syria Calls For An Islamist State
  
• Ted Cruz Is Making All The Right Enemies
  
• Hundreds Of US Security Clearances Falsified
  
• Obama Admits To Raising Taxes
  
• Insane New Drug Reaches American Shores
  
• Still Swallowing Chief Justice Roberts Bitter Obamacare Pill
  
• Dems Already Fund Raising Off Ted Cruz
  
• London's Former Deputy Mayor Accidently Posts Nude Picks (NSFW-ish)
  
• Cartoon: Republicans Got Your Back Ted
  
• With Friends Like These
  
• Detroit Spend Billions Extra On Pensions
  
• Baboon Sexually Harasses TV Reporter During Live Feed
  
• Hobos Are Getting Aggressive
  
• Woman Enters Half Marathon, Ends Up Winning Full Marathon By Accident
  
• Unfunny Comedian Punches Crappy Reporter
  
• Aging Attention Whore Not Dealing Well With Irrelevance
  

Follow me on twitter. more...

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 05:27 AM | Comments (328)
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Happy Thursday.

Today's starter course consists solely of this piece by Michael Walsh at The Corner. A taste:

Conservatives have finally realized that, as itÂ’s currently constituted, they have no home in the Republican party, which is the Washington Generals to the DemocratsÂ’ Harlem Globetrotters, the designated losers who nevertheless are rewarded handsomely for their sham opposition.

You'll enjoy the rest.

[ RSS]

[iTunes]

Posted by: andy at 02:36 AM | Comments (348)
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They pounce on Alec Baldwin, I'm told. Episode is called "Let's Go, Let's Gov."

The repeat is starting right now-- in fact, it started a minute ago.

George Washington University breaks down some declassified docs and finds out the NSA was bugging Art Buchwald, the WaPo's humor columnist, and a number of other people you might not expect.

Posted by: Ace at 08:02 PM | Comments (74)
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Some random clicking led me to this NPR piece on red light cameras which was interesting.

What's the point of a red-light camera — to make intersections safer or to generate revenue? That's the question prompted by researchers at the University of Tennessee, who say the cameras are sometimes used in ways that are more likely to make money than to improve safety.

OK, you're done rolling your eyes now I suppose...moving on... more...

Posted by: Purple Avenger at 06:50 AM | Comments (438)
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Front Yards Are Now School Zero Tolerance Zones

Madness:

A 7th-grade student in Virginia Beach, Va., suspended from school for shooting an airsoft gun in his front yard will find out on Monday if he is expelled for the rest of the year, a local television station reported.

Khalid Caraballo, 13, and some friends were playing with airsoft guns on his front lawn as they waited for the bus one morning, WAVY first reported. Airsoft guns are non-lethal replica firearms that fire plastic pellets by way of spring-driven pistons.

A concerned neighbor called 911 to report the incident.

"He is pointing the gun, and it looks like there's a target in a tree in his front yard," she told the dispatcher. "This is not a real one, but it makes people uncomfortable. I know that it makes me [uncomfortable], as a mom, to see a boy pointing a gun."

Ironically, the caller's son was playing with Khalid and Aidan in the Caraballo front yard.

In a Twitter post Tuesday evening , Virginia Beach School Board Chairman Daniel Edwards attached a letter defending the school's disciplinary actions against the boys: "Yet somehow student safety has taken a back seat in the intense media coverage of this case. This is not an example of a public educator overreaching. This was not zero tolerance at all. This was a measured response to a threat to student safety."

A Trivia Question

What two countries in the world are doubly-landlocked (you must cross at least two borders to reach the coast)?

Answers: Here

Posted by: Maetenloch at 06:33 PM | Comments (401)
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Thanks, Obama!

Thousands of North Texans are asking, “What are those long, silky strings floating in the air?” Turns out they’re the webs of spiders in their annual migration to better hunting grounds, and surprising a lot of people.

...

They’re called “ballooning” or “floating” webs made by young, migrating spiders. “There’s some that produce a ball like a balloon, and there’s some they call tent spiders because they create almost like a triangle,” according to Texas A&M Agrilife horticulturist Patrick Dickinson.

...

Dickinson says the migration is so widespread it can be witnessed across the globe. “In Brazil they do it this time of year when they look for the flight of the spiders, and the skies will literally be clouded by the shrouds of these strings from the spiders.”

Under ObamaCare you will be entitled to have 400% as many flying hunting spiders landing in your mouth.

Thanks to @rdbrewer4.

Posted by: Ace at 03:14 PM | Comments (161)
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Really.

Well you sure showed him what demagogy looks like.

I had tweeted about this yesterday. Let me reprint those before these moments are lost, like tears. In. The rain.

more...

Posted by: Ace at 02:26 PM | Comments (183)
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