Democrats and the legacy media are crowing that Obama has done it again and vanquished his foes in the evil insurance industry. Gibbsy tweets:

Kids 1, insurance 0 as companies agree to comply with new regs so kids with pre-existing conditions can get health ins.

It was a losing issue for insurance companies and they needed to get it off the table quickly. So why not send out their chief lobbyist to announce they're playing nice-nice?

"Health plans recognize the significant hardship that a family faces when they are unable to obtain coverage for a child with a pre-existing condition," Karen Ignagni, president of America's Health Insurance Plans, said in a letter to Sebelius. Ignagni said that the industry will "fully comply" with the regulations, expected within weeks.

Of course, you'd have to be as foolish as Gibbs to believe that when the lawsuits get filed, the actual text of the ObamaCare law, which doesn't require insurers to cover children with preexisting conditions, will be given less attention that the letter of a lobbyist and inconsistent regulations from HHS.

Insurers want to change the subject. Dems want to show the President winning. They've agreed to their own private reality.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 05:20 AM | Comments (25)
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Ugh. Monday.

Later: Crap. I mean Tuesday. *yawn*

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 04:58 AM | Comments (71)
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Here's something I know about calling people racists and hatemongers when they aren't racists or hatemongers.

It pisses them off. As well it should. But that's the narrative now, Americans who are rightly furious with the Administration and Congress at forcing through the largest vote-buying act in history don't have reasons, they just have hate.

Ed "the Round Mound of Sound"* Schultz gets lazy with the Heritage Foundation's Ernest Istook and cannot seal the deal.

Ed gets his own funny ha-ha words about Dick Cheney (they oughta rip out the heart of Dick Cheney) fed back to him with a side of "physician heal thyself" and fumbles the rest of the interview.

Talking points are not really effective show prep Ed.

video tip via Rosetta.

* yeah, it's a cheap shot. I liked it.

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 06:27 PM | Comments (798)
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Allah teases John Hawkins for laying traffic bait in his latest blogger poll, which asked us to give up or down votes to 35 right-wing figures.

At least among bloggers, Allah collects a cool 84% approval. David Frum, Kathleen Parker, and Ron Paul did not get such high marks.

Then Allah throws down some link bait of his own:

Thanks to those who voted for being so nice; I fully expected to finish underwater. Hawkins was thoughtful enough to name all of the bloggers who responded, too, so now I get to guess who the 12 “dislikes” were. (Hmmmmm.)

Hey, Allah, I'll never tell.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 05:41 PM | Comments (57)
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Welcome to the Monday.

Another Improv Everywhere production - Giving 'Ted' the best night of his life

In case you haven't heard of them Improv Everywhere is a New York-based group of pranksters who give people happy surprise experiences instead of trying to embarrass or humiliate them. Here they pick a random guy at a bar and decide to give him a birthday party complete with a cake, gifts, free drinks, and even ex-girlfriends who want to get back together. He's confused but rolls with it and has a great time. If you liked this, be sure and check out their Foodcourt Musical mission.

Posted by: Maetenloch at 05:36 PM | Comments (1008)
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Sundown is sometime around now, depending on where you are in the U.S. Passover greetings to our Jewish friends.

This is an open thread, so knock yourselves out.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 04:20 PM | Comments (201)
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If John Deere and Caterpillar are to be screamed at for accurately noting their balance sheets post-ObamaCare, what is the president's preferred action? Falsifying their books?

The White House political and legislative operations were said to be livid with the announcement by several large U.S. companies that they were taking multi-million or as much as a billion dollar charges because of the new health-care law, the issue was front-and-center with key lawmakers. By last Friday, AT&T, Caterpillar, Deere & Co., and AK Steel Holding Corp. had all announced that they were taking the one-time charges on their first-quarter balance sheets. More companies were expected to make similar announcements this week.

"These are Republican CEOs who are trying to embarrass the President and Democrats in general," says a White House legislative affairs staffer. "Where do you hear about this stuff? The Wall Street Journal editorial page and conservative websites. No one else picked up on this but you guys. It's BS."

In what way is it BS?

On Friday White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel and Obama senior advisor Valerie Jarrett were calling the CEOs and Washington office heads of the companies that took the financial hits and attacked them for doing so. One Washington office head said that the White House calls were accusatory and "downright rude."

Obama's also hopping mad that insurance companies have the audacity to note he sloppily drafted his Multi-Trillion-Dollar Abortion and that kids with pre-existing conditions are not, in fact, required to be insured.

Insurers agree that if they provide insurance for a child, they must cover pre-existing conditions. But, they say, the law does not require them to write insurance for the child and it does not guarantee the “availability of coverage” for all until 2014.

William G. Schiffbauer, a lawyer whose clients include employers and insurance companies, said: “The fine print differs from the larger political message. If a company sells insurance, it will have to cover pre-existing conditions for children covered by the policy. But it does not have to sell to somebody with a pre-existing condition. And the insurer could increase premiums to cover the additional cost.”

Congressional Democrats were furious when they learned that some insurers disagreed with their interpretation of the law.

A year ago, Obama threatened to call out executives who kicked up a fuss over his policies. But he had a hell of a lot more political juice, then. I don't think CEOs are particularly frightened now at being called out by an unpopular president.

Posted by: Ace at 01:37 PM | Comments (712)
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Figure that: if you make it illegal not to buy something, it gets more expensive.

Health insurance premiums for young adults are expected to rise about 17 percent once they're required to buy insurance four years from now. That estimate is from an analysis by Rand Health.

Young people will need to carry more of the burden of health care under the new health overhaul law. The new law limits an industry practice of charging older customers more.

Of course, this is only the hopeandchange to premiums for young adults. The young adults who would have chosen to forgo health insurance because they're young, healthy, and stupid (like I did), are now forced to participate in the whole scheme. The higher rates are just icing.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 01:16 PM | Comments (93)
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This could get ugly -- but hopefully comity will prevail.

Six winning candidates in Iraq's parliamentary elections will be stripped of their votes and lose their seats — which would cost secular politician Ayad Allawi's bloc its narrow victory — if a federal court upholds a broad purge of candidates who are suspected of past involvement with the late dictator Saddam Hussein's outlawed Baath Party, Iraqi officials said Monday.

The six winners are among 52 candidates who were disqualified just before the March 7 elections by Iraq's Accountability and Justice Commission, the controversial government body charged with "de-Baathification" efforts. Iraq's election commission allowed them to run, choosing to shelve the divisive matter rather than delay the elections. An Iraqi court will have at least two weeks to rule on the challenge.

If it succeeds, the effort to deny Allawi his bloc's slim victory could threaten hopes that the elections would pave the way to a new unity government, ease secular and ethnic tensions and open the way for the Obama administration to speed the withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from Iraq as it sends more to Afghanistan.

The latest push to disqualify the candidates comes after Allawi's Iraqiya bloc won a narrow victory over incumbent Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki's State of Law coalition. At least three of the winning candidates are on Allawi's slate, so Iraqiya would lose its two-seat lead over Maliki's bloc if a federal court sided with the Accountability and Justice Commission to strike the votes rather than removing the candidates and allowing substitutes from the same bloc to take the seats.

The most important thing here, to me, is that Maliki passes power peacefully over to Alawi. Nothing else is more important in a democracy than the confidence that votes matter and power can and should change hands.

Posted by: Ace at 12:56 PM | Comments (56)
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Whoops: The source appears to be a parody site, not a news site.

God looks out for drunks and fools, but not, apparently, retards.

Famed global warming activist James Schneider and a journalist friend were both found frozen to death on Saturday, about 90 miles from South Pole Station, by the pilot of a ski plane practicing emergency evacuation procedures.

"I couldn't believe what I was seeing", recounted the pilot, Jimmy Dolittle. "There were two snowmobiles with cargo sleds, a tent, and a bright orange rope that had been laid out on the ice, forming the words, 'HELP-COLD'".

One friend of Prof. Schneider told ecoEnquirer that he had been planning a trip to an ice sheet to film the devastation brought on by global warming.

Guess he got what he came for, in a way.

Whoops: The source appears to be a parody site, not a news site.

Posted by: Ace at 12:04 PM | Comments (163)
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