OUT: ‘Don’t Touch My Junk’ IN: ‘Mister President, Don’t Touch My Girlfriend’
Posted: October 21, 2014 | Author: Pundit Planet | Filed under: Breaking News, Mediasphere, White House | Tags: BarackObama, Brentwood Los Angeles, CNN, Democratic National Committee, Gwyneth Paltrow, KTLA, Los Angeles, Sunset Boulevard, Twitter | Leave a commentSomebody has a good story to tell about @BarackObama. Tune in this hour with @BrookeBCNN. http://t.co/xUB1gB2FMP pic.twitter.com/LvwwSI2ZYY
— CNN (@CNN) October 21, 2014
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Liberal Mansplaining and Double Standards: The Reckless Misandry of Jonathan Chait
Posted: October 7, 2014 | Author: Pundit Planet | Filed under: Entertainment, Health and Social Issues, U.S. News | Tags: BarackObama, Chait, Football, Jonathan Chait, Misandry, New York, New York Magazine, NFL, Sexism, testoserone, Twitter, United States | 1 Comment“Fashion tends to attract girls suffering from estrogen poisoning.”
Imagine a magazine article about soccer, golf, cosmetics, art, literature, tennis, finance, or…well, let’s say fashion, that included a phrase suggesting women’s interest in it was related to “estrogen poisoning”.
Unthinkable. Ghastly. Unforgivable. There would be an immediate call for its author to be fired. An immediate, prolonged Twitter riot, a festival of shaming. The author’s name and home address would be leaked, the author would get death threats. Demonstrations in front of the magazine’s offices would begin. Calls by celebrities, business leaders, fashion editors, newsmakers, politicians, and perhaps even the president of the united states, for the publisher of the magazine to step down, publicly apologize, or both. Advertisers would flee. It would be the hot topic on news programs and talk shows for days, and days.
But write an article that includes a phrase like that in a New York magazine, in reference to boys, about sports? No problem. Here’s the actual quote:
“Football tends to attract boys suffering from testosterone poisoning.”
I kid you not. I looked for evidence he was being ironic, self-aware, or humorous. Not there. Dude is serious. As most of us have heard it, when said by women, it’s tongue-in-cheek, a shot at male obsessions, like cars, or cigars, or boats, not exclusively about sports. Or, in an unguarded situation, when no men are in the room, I imagine, more at liberty to be frank, hostile and demeaning. Free to refer to the normal condition of being male as “poisoned”.
Since when do men say this? About boys?
Perhaps after years of exposure to it, Chait internalized the phrase, detached from any resemblance to humor or playful overstatement. Is this how liberals talk to other liberals? With a straight face?
Courtesy of Jonathan Chait, New York Magazine readers can endure a lecture by an insulting, sanctimonious, sexist, long-winded liberal, aimed at other misguided liberals, about sports. He thinks you don’t understand football. And he’s here to mansplain’ things.
Wait, there’s more. Imagine, if you will, a sentence like this in a respected New York magazine:
“Interior design channels girls’ misandristic hysteria into supervised forms, shapes them within boundaries, and gives them positive meaning. These virtues, like those often attributed to the fashion industry, can feel like clichés imported from an earlier era.”
Think I’m exaggerating? Here’s Chait’s actual sentence:
“Football channels boys’ chauvinistic belligerence into supervised forms, shapes them within boundaries, and gives them positive meaning. These virtues, like those often attributed to the military, can feel like clichés imported from an earlier era.”
There are other choice quotes, but you can read the whole spectacle here. But readers should know, the author a male. He is uneasy. And he wants you to know it.
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The Hammer: ‘Crisis of Competence’ at White House Exposes a ‘Presidency Falling Apart’
Posted: October 1, 2014 | Author: Pundit Planet | Filed under: Mediasphere, Politics, White House | Tags: BarackObama, Breaking news, Charles Krauthammer, Internal Revenue Service, Iraq, Libya, Obama, Syria, United State | Leave a comment“Abroad, in the vacuum that we created by Obama’s retreat, more aggressive, more wicked, in fact some of the worst people on earth have filled it in Libya, in Syria, in Iraq. Putin’s on the march in eastern Europe. Everybody senses America is not there.”
From The Corner, a clip from this evening’s Special Report. Harsh words from long-time Washington D.C. insider Dr. Krauthammer:
“Domestically, the great idea of expansion of government and new entitlements and all this — this is a crisis of competence. The IRS, the VA, the Secret Service… all of these agencies that we had trust in, under this administration are showing how badly government is run.”
There “is a sense in the country,” says Charles Krauthammer, “that we have a presidency that is falling apart” — call it a “crisis of competence.”
[Charles Krauthammer’s bestselling book “Things That Matter: Three Decades of Passions, Pastimes and Politics” is available at Amazon.com]
On Special Report, the panelist explained how chaos abroad and at home — much of it caused by the decisions of the current administration — is giving Americans reason to worry.
“You combine them, and you get a sense that things are out of control.”
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Chilly Reception for President’s VA Speech
Posted: August 26, 2014 | Author: Pundit Planet | Filed under: Global, Politics, U.S. News, War Room, White House | Tags: American Legion, Barack Obama, BarackObama, Charlotte North Carolina, Kay Hagan, North Carolina, Obama, Standing ovation, Veteran, Virginia, White House | 1 CommentMost of the veterans sat on their hands, leaving awkward silences where White House speechwriters expected ovations
President Barack Obama faced a tough crowd on Tuesday – American military veterans – and fell flat on his applause lines as he failed to win over the American Legion’s convention-goers.
“You could tell when the applause was genuine and when it wasn’t. It was obvious to everyone here.”
— Virginia Legionnaire in attendance
The 35-minute speech seemed to have reminded the audience of the stark divide between the White House’s policy choices and the feelings of the men and women often called on to carry them out.
A Virginia legionnaire who served in the U.S. Marine Corps told MailOnline that ‘a small group of Obama’s admirers – and there are some here – sat near the front and tried to generate applause for him about 10 times.’ Read the rest of this entry »
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WaPo Irony: ‘Obama Aides Were Warned in 2013’ About a Brewing Border Crisis Obama Knowingly Set in Motion in 2011
Posted: July 20, 2014 | Author: Pundit Planet | Filed under: Health and Social Issues, Mediasphere, Politics, U.S. News, White House | Tags: Andrew C. McCarthy, BarackObama, Central America, Federal Emergency Management Agency, Fort Brown, Obama, Texas, University of Texas at El Paso | 5 CommentsThe Left Hand Pretends it Doesn’t Know What the Other Left Hand is Doing
Washington Post: Nearly a year before President Obama declared a humanitarian crisis on the border, a team of experts arrived at the Fort Brown patrol station in Brownsville, Tex., and discovered a makeshift transportation depot for a deluge of foreign children.
“Make no mistake, the president instigated the influx of illegal aliens”
[See Andrew C. McCarthy’s An Obama-Caused Border Disaster]
[Order Andrew C. McCarthy’s book “Faithless Execution“ from Amazon.com]
Thirty Border Patrol agents were assigned in August 2013 to drive the children to off-site showers, wash their clothes and make them sandwiches. As soon as those children were placed in temporary shelters, more arrived. An average of 66 were apprehended each day on the border and more than 24,000 cycled through Texas patrol stations in 2013.
In a 41-page report to the Department of Homeland Security, the team from the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) raised alarms about the federal government’s capacity to manage a situation that was expected to grow worse.
“The administration did too little to heed those warnings, according to interviews with former government officials.”
The researchers’ observations were among the warning signs conveyed to the Obama administration over the past two years as a surge of Central American minors has crossed into south Texas illegally. More than 57,000 have entered the United States this year, swamping federal resources and catching the government unprepared.
The administration did too little to heed those warnings, according to interviews with former government officials, outside experts and immigrant advocates, leading to an inadequate response that contributed to this summer’s escalating crisis. Read the rest of this entry »
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Build it Already
Posted: July 10, 2014 | Author: Pundit Planet | Filed under: Economics, Mediasphere, Politics, White House | Tags: BarackObama, BobbyJindal, Executive order, Louisiana, National Review, National Review Online, Obama, United States | Leave a commentBobby Jindal writes exclusively for National Review Online about Obama’s failure to develop strong energy policy. http://natl.re/1qo2mo0
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Crybaby-In-Chief: 5 Things Obama Has Whined About in His Sad, Sad Life as President
Posted: June 28, 2014 | Author: Pundit Planet | Filed under: Politics, U.S. News, White House | Tags: BarackObama, BEN SHAPIRO, David Remnick, Fox News Channel, Jake Tapper, New Yorker, Obama, Rush Limbaugh | 2 CommentsFor Breitbart.com, Ben Shapiro writes: On Friday, President Obama spent a good chunk of his public speech in Minneapolis complaining about how tough it is to be President Obama. “They don’t do anything except block me!” he complained of the Republican House of Representatives, as though it were the job of Congress to rubber stamp the Great Monarch’s imperial dictates. “And, and, and call me names!”
The most powerful man on earth is a petulant whiner.
But this isn’t the first time he’s had a crying jag over his sad, sad life. Get out your tiny violins.
Whining About The Press. Here’s Obama at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, channeling Richard Sherman:
Sometimes I feel disrespected by you reporters, but that’s okay…Jake Tapper, don’t you ever talk about me like that. I’m the best president in the game!
He was joking. But not about how he feels disrespected. After all, he told Bill O’Reilly in his Super Bowl interview that O’Reilly is “absolutely” unfair for asking basic questions about issues like Benghazi. Poor baby. And in January, he mewled to The New Yorker’s David Remnick that he couldn’t “penetrate the Republican base” because he couldn’t break through the right-wing media firewall to show conservatives he’s “not the caricature that you see on Fox News or Rush Limbaugh.”
Whining About Republicans. In December 2012, Obama stated that Republican opposition to a fiscal cliff deal sprang from personal hatred of him. “I don’t know if that just has to do with, you know, it is very hard for them to say yes to me.” And again in March 2013:
I recognize that it’s very hard for Republicans leaders to be perceived as making concessions to me… Is there something else I could do to make these guys — I’m not talking about the leaders now, but maybe some of the House Republican caucus members — not paint horns on my head?
And just yesterday: “We’ve got a party on the other side whose only rationale, motivation seems to be opposing me.” Read the rest of this entry »
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Obama Golfs While Middle East Burns
Posted: June 17, 2014 | Author: Pundit Planet | Filed under: Global, Politics, War Room, White House | Tags: BarackObama, George W. Bush, Iraq, Josh Earnest, Larry Ellison, Obama, Sunnylands, White House | 2 CommentsFor the Washington Examiner, Byron York writes: Last weekend Barack Obama played his 175th and 176th rounds of golf as president. He played first at Sunnylands, the famously private course on the Rancho Mirage, California estate of the late billionaire Walter Annenberg. Obama next played at Porcupine Creek, the equally private course on the nearby estate of the very-much-alive tech billionaire Larry Ellison.

President Obama, right, rides in a golf cart with longtime friend Bobby Titcomb to the 18th green at Mid-Pacific County Club in Kailua, Hawaii, Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2014. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
“Now, perhaps more than ever, it’s still the wrong Image. Will the president keep playing while his – and the world’s – problems mount?”
The White House said Obama received regular briefings on the worsening crisis in Iraq during his golf weekend. “The president directed [National Security Adviser Susan Rice] to continue to keep him apprised of the latest developments,” said spokesman Josh Earnest, “as his national security team continues to meet through the weekend to review potential options.”
“In all, Bush played 24 rounds during his time in the White House. Obama has played more than seven times that many – so far.”
Earnest’s report was the latest in a long tradition of presidents trying to assure the public they’re on top of things even as they hit the links for a leisurely round, sometimes in fabulously luxurious settings. Presidential golf can be a sensitive subject, especially if there is an international crisis at hand. Nevertheless, Obama continues to play, even as fears grow that events in Iraq, Syria, Ukraine and elsewhere have brought the world to a very dangerous point.
“Obama barred cameras from the course when he played. Wrong Image.”
— Journalist Jonathan Alter
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REWIND: Remember When Obama Was Boasting about His Iraq Policy?
Posted: June 12, 2014 | Author: Pundit Planet | Filed under: War Room, White House | Tags: al Qaeda, BarackObama, Iraq, Mitt Romney, Obama, Romney, Twitter, United States | 2 CommentsFrom The Corner, brilliant sleuthing by NRO‘s Celina Durgin:
Throughout their two terms in office and during his reelection campaign, President Obama boasted about “responsibly” ending the war in Iraq, withdrawing troops, and ending the conflict there. With al-Qaeda-linked militants now controlling multiple cities in that country, his accomplishments don’t look so impressive anymore...(read more)
A look back at when Obama was trying to convince the American people he got Iraq right...(read more)
…Twitter is forever:
Worth a RT: Obama’s national security record – ending the Iraq war, decimating al Qaeda, restoring our standing abroad.http://t.co/q4VvVSmZ
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) October 9, 2012
FACT: More than two-thirds of al Qaeda’s leadership has been eliminated since President Obama took office.
— OFA TruthTeam (@OFATruthTeam) October 17, 2012
Reason No. 27: President Obama responsibly ended the war in Iraq. Here’s quick list of @BarackObama’s accomplishments:http://t.co/nDV9qp4P
— OFA TruthTeam (@OFATruthTeam) November 2, 2012
“Change is turning the page on a decade of war so we can do some nation-building here at home.” —President Obama
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) November 6, 2012
“Gov. Romney said it was ‘tragic’ to end the war in Iraq. I disagree. I think it was the right thing to do.”—President Obama
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) October 9, 2012
VP: “On Iraq, the President said he would end the war. Gov. Romney said that was a tragic mistake—we should have left 30,000 troops here.”
— OFA (@OFA) October 12, 2012
FACT: Romney said that not keeping 10,000-30,000 troops in Iraq is one of President Obama’s “signature failures.” http://t.co/4Hxlf6hY
— OFA TruthTeam (@OFATruthTeam) October 23, 2012
.@BarackObama responsibly ended the war in Iraq. Romney called that “tragic.” Vote for a president who’ll bring our troops home.#VoteObama
— OFA TruthTeam (@OFATruthTeam) November 6, 2012
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Obama at West Point: The Psychology of Surrender
Posted: May 29, 2014 | Author: Pundit Planet | Filed under: Diplomacy, Politics, Think Tank, White House | Tags: BarackObama, Benghazi, Boko Haram, Joel Pollak, Marine Corps University, Sebastian Gorka, Ukraine, United States, United States Military Academy | 2 CommentsFor Breibart.com, Dr. Sebastian Gorka writes: From the vantage point of the just-about-to-graduate cadets at West Point, it must be very cool to have the Commander-in-Chief be your commencement speaker.
Perhaps the ‘wow-factor’ is diminished when the speech is one that underlines why America isn’t important and how the biggest war of the last decade is about to be lost.
“The President’s speech is full of these surreal assertions that bear no resemblance to the actual world we live in”
For those who really must go to the source the full text is here. For those with shorter attention spans see the excellent and almost instantaneous analyses by my Breitbart colleagues Joel Pollak and Charlie Spiering.
Here is another take. Read the rest of this entry »
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Top Five Straw Men Obama Used in West Point Foreign Policy Address
Posted: May 28, 2014 | Author: Pundit Planet | Filed under: Politics, U.S. News, White House | Tags: BarackObama, Foreign Policy, John McCain, Obama, Rand Paul, Straw man, United States, United States Military Academy, West Point | 5 CommentsObama: “We need to do stuff. And the stuff we will do will not be stuff that a crazy person says we should do. It will be good stuff.”
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) May 28, 2014
For Breitbart.com, Charlie Spiering writes:
President Obama outlined his foreign policy on Wednesday during a speech at the graduation ceremony at West Point.
Throughout his speech, Obama used “straw man” arguments, setting up “critics” or “skeptics” that existed to disagree with the president before being knocked down by his rhetoric. While some of these positions are held by political
figures such as Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) or Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), these politicians chafe at having their views presented in a narrow context. For the sake of his speech, Obama presents these positions as the extreme, while carefully positioning himself in the middle.
Here are five examples:
1. Those who believe America is in decline
Obama assured West Point graduates that “America has rarely been stronger relative to the rest of the world” and those who think differently are just wrong.
“Those who argue otherwise – who suggest that America is in decline, or has seen its global leadership slip away – are either misreading history or engaged in partisan politics,” he said.
2. Those who warn against foreign entanglements
President Obama pointed out that throughout history, foreign policy has fallen into two camps, one of which were “self-described realists” who were reluctant to go to war.
“[T]here have been those who warned against foreign entanglements that do not touch directly on our security or economic well-being,” he said.
Remember when President Obama was in this camp? Not anymore. Read the rest of this entry »
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[VIDEO] Obama’s 5-Step Scandal Manual
Posted: May 25, 2014 | Author: Pundit Planet | Filed under: Mediasphere, Politics, White House | Tags: BarackObama, Fox News Sunday, Internal Revenue Service, Jay Carney, Kimberley Strassel, Obama, Wall Street Journal, White House Press Secretary | 4 Comments“It’s the exact same language every time.”
For Truth Revolt, Trey Sanchez reports: The Wall Street Journal‘s Kimberley Strassel suggested on Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace that President Obama has a “scandal manual” in his top drawer as a go-to guide on how to respond to the latest scandal because as it turns out, the administration responds the same way every time.
In an edited video clip, President Obama and White House Press Secretary Jay Carney are shown across the latest three scandals — the IRS targeting conservatives, the AP phone records collection, and now the VA secret waiting lists — saying they first heard about them through the media just like everybody else. Read the rest of this entry »
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Russian Deputy Prime Minister Laughs at Obama’s Sanctions
Posted: March 17, 2014 | Author: Pundit Planet | Filed under: Diplomacy, Russia, War Room, White House | Tags: BarackObama, Crimea, Dmitry Rogozin, KIEV, RUSSIA, Twitter, Ukraine, Vladimir Putin, Vladislav Surkov | 1 CommentKirit Radia reports: Russia’s deputy prime minister laughed off President Obama’s sanction against him today asking “Comrade @BarackObama” if “some prankster” came up with the list.
The Obama administration hit 11 Russian and Ukrainian officials with sanctions today as punishment for Russia’s support of Crimea’s referendum. Among them: aides to President Vladimir Putin, a top government official, senior lawmakers, Crimean officials, the ousted president of Ukraine, and a Ukrainian politician and businessman allegedly tied to violence against protesters in Kiev.
It remains to be seen whether the sanctions will dissuade Russia from annexing Crimea, but one an early clue that they will not be effective came just hours later when President Putin signed a decree recognizing Crimea as an independent state, perhaps an early step towards annexation.
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[VIDEO] Obamacare’s Trio of Doom
Posted: March 17, 2014 | Author: Pundit Planet | Filed under: Health and Social Issues, Politics, White House | Tags: BarackObama, Democratic Party (United States), Guy Benson, Hot Air, Medicare, Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Physician, United States | Leave a commentGuy Benson has the video. Edited by Guy Benson and his associate Sarah Jean Seman, it captures the essence of the the president’s trilogy of rotting, stinking, dead promises.
From TownHall: In light of President Obama’s dramatic goalpost shifting on his ironclad “keep your doctor” pledge, we decided to highlight what’s become of three core promises made by Democrats during their frenetic Obamacare sales pitch:
(1) If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor.
(2) If you like your plan, you can keep your plan.
(3) Everyone’s premiums will go down, with the average family saving $2,500. Americans were also assured that the law wouldn’t add to deficits, would bend the government’s healthcare spending “cost curve” down, and wouldn’t negatively impact Medicare — none of which have been borne out by reality…
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The Most Cynical Generation
Posted: March 14, 2014 | Author: Pundit Planet | Filed under: Education, Think Tank, U.S. News, White House | Tags: Baby boomer, BarackObama, Generation Y, Jonah Goldberg, Pew Research Center, Twitter, Youth | 1 CommentNote: I like how Jonah cautions about the limits of generational stereotyping, while having some fun with…generational stereotyping. There is fun to be had.
Polling: the scourge of journalism these days. The media’s increasing dependence on polling data contributes to the echo chamber. A poll is taken in America every ten seconds, it seems. Wait, I have an idea. I propose we take a poll on how Americans feel about polls! Look below for our poll, and cast your vote. But first, here’s an intro to Jonah’s article:
Jonah Goldberg writes: In case you hadn’t heard, young people these days — a.k.a “the Millennials” — are the most cynical and distrusting generation ever recorded. Only 19 percent think most people can be trusted. According to a big study from the Pew Research Center, they are less attached to marriage, religion, and political institutions than Gen Xers, Baby Boomers, and the other demographic flavors journalists love to use. They like their friends, their digital “social networks,” and their toys, and that’s about it. Not even a majority will call themselves “patriotic.” Probably more dismaying for liberals: Of any living generation, they are the least likely to call themselves environmentalists.
“Honor, glory, and respect are earned individually, not collectively.”
Now, I should say that I often find generational stereotyping pretty annoying. For instance, there was no “greatest generation.” Sure, there were a bunch of great Americans who stormed the beaches of Normandy. But is some guy who was in jail in 1943 for petty larceny deserving of special respect because he was born around the same time as a guy who won the Medal of Honor during WWII?
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The President’s Power Grab
Posted: March 11, 2014 | Author: Pundit Planet | Filed under: Education, Think Tank, U.S. News, White House | Tags: BarackObama, George W. Bush, James Madison, Jonathan Turley, Obama, Separation of powers, United States, White House | 1 Comment
The president’s executive overreach erodes constitutional checks and balances (Alex Wong / Getty Images)
Bambi is not a dictator, but there is a danger in his aggregation of executive power
Another Op-Ed warning about Executive overreach in the Obama era is not unique. What is unique, is that it’s in the LA Times. Does Obama want to be a ruler, instead of a president? Interestingly, the LA Times included this link in the body of the article: Photos: A peek inside 5 doomed dictators’ opulent lifestyles. Think Obama’s personal luxury is overstated? Kings and Queens are required to manage their affairs more modestly than modern U.S. presidents. As Mark Steyn likes to point out, the operational cost of the White House exceeds operating cost of all the remaining Monarchies on earth, combined.
Jonathan Turley writes:
Recently, a bizarre scene unfolded on the floor of the House of Representatives that would have shocked the framers of the Constitution. In his State of the Union address, President Obama announced that he had decided to go it alone in areas where Congress refused to act to his satisfaction. In a system of shared powers, one would expect an outcry or at least stony silence when a president promised to circumvent the legislative branch. Instead, many senators and representatives erupted in rapturous applause; they seemed delighted at the notion of a president assuming unprecedented and unchecked powers at their expense.
“The United States is at a constitutional tipping point: The rise of an uber presidency unchecked by the other two branches.”
Last week, Obama underlined what this means for our system: The administration unilaterally increased the transition time for individuals to obtain the level of insurance mandated by the Affordable Care Act. There is no statutory authority for the change — simply the raw assertion of executive power.
Our system is changing in a fundamental way without even a whimper of regret. No one branch in the Madisonian system can go it alone — not Congress, not the courts, and not the president.
This massive shift of authority threatens the stability and functionality of our tripartite system of checks and balances. To be sure, it did not begin with the Obama administration. The trend has existed for decades, and President George W. Bush showed equal contempt for the separation of powers. However, it has accelerated at an alarming rate under Obama. Of perhaps greater concern is the fact that the other two branches appear passive, if not inert, in the face of expanding executive power. Read the rest of this entry »
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Bait-and-Switch Liberalism: Obamacare and the Politics of Deception
Posted: March 6, 2014 | Author: Pundit Planet | Filed under: Health and Social Issues, Politics, U.S. News, White House | Tags: American Medical Association, Andrew Rosenthal, BarackObama, Jared Bernstein, Obama, Obamacare, Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, White House | 4 CommentsWilliam Voegeli writes: In June 2009, as health-care reform was being debated vigorously across the country, President Obama told the American Medical Association’s convention that, whatever the provisions of the health-care bill he would sign into law ultimately included, “we will keep this promise to the American people: If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor, period. If you like your health-care plan, you’ll be able to keep your health-care plan, period. No one will take it away, no matter what.”
Obama’s belief that “he had to lie for the greater good” was justified since Republicans had told much worse lies about how Obamacare was just a “stepping stone to single-payer.”
After the Affordable Care Act lurched into effect in 2013, it became clear the president meant to say that if you like your doctor and health-care plan, you’ll be able to keep them . . . footnote. And, as you’d expect from a former editor of the Harvard Law Review, that footnote has turned out to be as long and convoluted as a Russian novel.
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New Obama Promise: If You Like Your Life, You Can Keep It
Posted: February 20, 2014 | Author: Pundit Planet | Filed under: Politics, U.S. News, White House | Tags: Ann Coulter, BarackObama, Bill Gates, Margaret Thatcher, New York Times, Obamacare, Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, White House | 4 CommentsAnn Coulter writes: Liberals are winning wild praise for their candor in admitting problems with Obamacare. It shows you the level of honesty people have come to expect of our liberal friends. Now, liberals are applauded for not lying through their teeth about something.
“It’s not that Obama doesn’t believe in American exceptionalism; it’s that he wants to end it.”
What are they supposed to say? This Obamacare website is fantastic! And really, haven’t you already read all the magazines in your current doctor’s office anyway?
The New York Times has described Obama’s repeated claim that you could keep your insurance plan and keep your doctor under Obamacare as a mere slip of the tongue: “Mr. Obama clearly misspoke when he said that.”
“…Obamacare punishes you for having a healthy lifestyle. The Obamacare tax is a massively regressive poll tax on the middle-aged and the middle class.”
Misspoke? How exactly does one misspeak, word for word, dozens of times, over and over again?
That wasn’t misspeaking — it was a deliberate, necessary lie. Even Democrats couldn’t have voted for Obamacare if Americans had known the truth. It was absolutely vital for Obama to lie about people being able to keep their insurance and their doctors.
Of course, it was difficult for voters to know the truth because every time Republicans would try to tell them, the White House and the media would rush in and call the critics liars.
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Netflix is Outperforming HBO and Showtime with its Buzzy Original Shows
Posted: February 14, 2014 | Author: Pundit Planet | Filed under: Art & Culture, Entertainment | Tags: Barack Obama on social media, BarackObama, HBO, House of Cards, Netflix, President, Showtime, United States | 2 CommentsThe second season of Netflix’s hit show House of Cards was released last night and consumer perceptions of the streaming service—which were already at levels that HBO and Showtime could only envy—are soaring.
Tomorrow: @HouseOfCards. No spoilers, please.
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) February 13, 2014

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Paradox: Conservatives Insisting SOTU Speeches are Boring, Nobody’s Watching, Obama is Irrelevant…Yet… We…Can’t…Stop…Talking About It…
Posted: January 29, 2014 | Author: Pundit Planet | Filed under: Breaking News, Mediasphere, Politics, White House | Tags: Al Jazeera America, BarackObama, Bill Clinton, CNBC, Fox News Channel, Hollywood Reporter, MSNBC, State of the Union address, Union | 1 CommentI was going to write about the contradiction between words and deeds, between message, and reality.
The message: “The State of the Union speech is a non-event, featuring an irrelevant president, on subjects that nobody cares about. America is tuning out.”
The reality: “We can’t stop talking about Obama’s State of the Union speech.”
The message, endlessly repeated by conservative talking heads, writers, and bloggers (count me among them) for the last three days, emphasizing boredom, fatigue, irrelevance, tuning out.
But if it’s so irrelevant, and everyone’s tuning out, why invest billions of pixels writing about it, and waste valuable broadcast time, evaluating it, discussing it, talking about it? It means that people are paying attention. Doesn’t it?
Then I saw this.
Falling just shy of the 2013 outing, Nielsen returns put President Obama’s Tuesday address as the least watched since 2000.
Apparently, they were right. America is tuning out.
It could be the only people paying attention were insiders, media people, speechwriters, White House staff members, friends and family of members of Congress, political operatives, cameramen, broadcasters, and editors who had no choice, but primarily, disgruntled conservatives; the people warning us that no one is paying attention.
From the Hollywood Reporter:
TV Ratings: State of the Union, With 33.3 Million Viewers, Hits 14-Year Low
With final ratings in for the State of the Union address, Nielsen Media puts the grand total just shy of last year’s for a 14-year low.
The gross average audience of 13 networks airing President Barack Obama’s speech puts viewership at 33,299,172. That’s down from the 33.5 million that tuned in for the 2013 speech for its lowest showing since 2000. (President Bill Clinton’s final address in office averaged 31,478,000.)
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Benghazi Timeline Reveals: Obama MIA
Posted: January 16, 2014 | Author: Pundit Planet | Filed under: Politics, War Room, White House | Tags: BarackObama, Benghazi, Greg Gutfeld, J. Christopher Stevens, Obama, Protein Data Bank, The Daily Brief, United States, Wednesday | Leave a commentDon’t miss this timeline from Government Accountability Institute. Seeing it displayed graphically, poster-sized, renews focus on one of the two most underreported, unanswered questions in the investigation. 1. Where was the president? The other question that’s been virtually ignored 2. Who pushed the video?
From Brietbart.com, Wynton Hall reports: The government watchdog group that revealed that President Barack Obama failed to attend over half of his daily intelligence briefings (known officially as the Presidential Daily Brief, or PDB) released a devastating Benghazi timeline Wednesday.
[Also see: Extortion: How Politicians Extract Your Money, Buy Votes, and Line Their Own Pockets]
Release of the Government Accountability Institute (GAI) Benghazi timeline comes as a new Senate report published Wednesday concluded that “the attacks were preventable.”
It reveals Obama’s schedule in the week leading up to the terrorist attacks that claimed the lives of four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens.
As the GAI timeline reveals, Obama failed to attend his daily intelligence briefing for the five consecutive days leading up to the September 11, 2012 attack of the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi…

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Found: ‘Pajamaboy’ Ethan Krupp, OFA Employee, attended UW-Madison
Posted: December 19, 2013 | Author: Pundit Planet | Filed under: Breaking News, Entertainment, Health and Social Issues, Mediasphere | Tags: BarackObama, Charlie Spiering, Instagram, Organizing for Action, Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Twitter, YouTube | 1 CommentAfter I found Pajamaboy Ethan Krupp he made his Instagram account private and deleted his YouTube account http://t.co/z3QB8OWiLM
— Charlie Spiering (@charliespiering) December 19, 2013
Bonus:
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The Reality of It
Posted: December 15, 2013 | Author: Pundit Planet | Filed under: Mediasphere | Tags: Authors Guild, BarackObama, Facebook, Mitt Romney, New York, New York Times, Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, White House, Yuval Levin | 1 CommentYuval Levin wryly notes: This New York Times story about how “New York’s professional and cultural elite” are being hurt by Obamacare must have made for rough reading at the White House. Forcing their most devoted supporters to confront the reality of their policies can’t be a good idea for the Democrats. It can lead to paragraphs like this one in the Times:
It is not lost on many of the professionals that they are exactly the sort of people — liberal, concerned with social justice — who supported the Obama health plan in the first place. Ms. Meinwald, the lawyer, said she was a lifelong Democrat who still supported better health care for all, but had she known what was in store for her, she would have voted for Mitt Romney.
That very paragraph, though, in its careless equation of liberalism with concern for social justice, points the way out of the crisis of confidence—just ignore reality. The very end of the story puts it best:
It is an uncomfortable position for many members of the creative classes to be in.
“We are the Obama people,” said Camille Sweeney, a New York writer and member of the Authors Guild. Her insurance is being canceled, and she is dismayed that neither her pediatrician nor her general practitioner appears to be on the exchange plans. What to do has become a hot topic on Facebook and at dinner parties frequented by her fellow writers and artists.
“I’m for it,” she said. “But what is the reality of it?”
Answer first, question second. This would be funny if it weren’t so sad and serious.
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PolitiFact’s Forked Tongue: The Site Once Vouched for its ‘Lie of the Year’
Posted: December 14, 2013 | Author: Pundit Planet | Filed under: Mediasphere, Politics, U.S. News | Tags: BarackObama, Obama, Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, PolitiFact, PolitiFact.com, Sean Higgins, Syria | 3 CommentsJames Taranto writes: PolitiFact.com, the Tampa Bay Times‘s “fact checking” operation, is out with its “Lie of the Year,” and it’s a doozy of dishonesty: “If you like your health care plan, you can keep it.’ ”
Just to show how fast the news can move, back in September this columnist tweeted: “If ‘I didn’t set a red line’ isn’t named ‘Lie of the Year,’ @PolitiFact is a state propaganda agency.” “I didn’t set a red line”–the reference was to Syria’s use of chemical weapons, in case you’ve forgotten–didn’t even make the top 10. Yet our September tweet proved to be mistaken: We cannot fault PolitiFact for the lie it chose instead.
Which isn’t to say PolitiFact doesn’t function as a state propaganda agency. For in the past–when it actually mattered, which is to say before ObamaCare became first a law and then a practical reality–PolitiFact vouched for Barack Obama’s Big Lie.
In her lie-of-the-year write-up, PolitiFact’s Angie Holan includes the following acknowledgment:
In 2009 and again in 2012, PolitiFact rated Obama’s statement Half True, which means the statement is partially correct and partially wrong. We noted that while the law took pains to leave some parts of the insurance market alone, people were not guaranteed to keep insurance through thick and thin. It was likely that some private insurers would continue to force people to switch plans, and that trend might even accelerate.
Her “half true” acknowledgment is itself a half-truth. As the Washington Examiner‘s Sean Higgins noted last month, in October 2008 PolitiFact rated the same statement, from then-candidate Obama, as flatly “true,” on the ground that “Obama is accurately describing his health care plan here.”
We’re not making this up. PolitiFact actually rated Obama’s promise as “true” on the ground that in making the promise, he was making the promise.
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White House Social Media Blunder [PHOTO] Narcissist-in-Chief Replaces Rosa Parks with Royal Selfie
Posted: December 1, 2013 | Author: Pundit Planet | Filed under: History, Politics, White House | Tags: BarackObama, Bull Connor, Daily Caller, Neil Munro, Obama, Organizing for Action, Rosa Park, Selfie, Twitter | 2 CommentsObama Pushes Rosa Parks Off the Bus
Neil Munro writes: President Barack Obama has visually pushed Rosa Parks off the anti-discrimination bus with a single narcissistic tweet.
“In a single moment 58 years ago today, Rosa Parks helped change this country,” declared a Sunday 4:15 pm tweet from Obama’s Organizing for Action group.
The tweet included a photo of the first African American president of the United States sitting in the same bus and in the same seat from which Parks declined an order to move to the back of the bus during a protest in 1955.
In a single moment 58 years ago today, Rosa Parks helped change this country. pic.twitter.com/C502SKfJnj
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) December 1, 2013
Her protest was part of a long effort to end racial discrimination in the southern states. Much of the opposition to equality came from local Democratic politicians, including Birmingham police chief Bull Connor, a member of the Democratic National Council.
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Why would Obama say he is not ideological?
Posted: November 30, 2013 | Author: Pundit Planet | Filed under: Politics, U.S. News, White House | Tags: BarackObama, Ed Rogers, Ideology, Obama, Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Redistribution of wealth, United States, Valerie Jarrett | 2 Comments
President Obama (Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images)
Ed Rogers writes: There are reports that President Obama has turned introspective lately and that he has been more reflective than usual. In this post I will attempt to reflect on his new reflectiveness. After all, readers will need to take naps after all the holiday feasting. I hope this helps.
The president said something recently that I believe was interesting and underreported. At a Democratic campaign fundraiser, the president said he was “not a particularly ideological person.” Assuming he meant it, that was a remarkable thing to say, given that Republicans think of him as a classic liberal ideologue. How did so many get the wrong idea? The president doesn’t see an ideological bent in his actions; he sees himself doing what needs to be done without any ideological motivation. Interesting.
During his brief time in the Senate, Obama was rated as the most liberal senator in the entire body in 2007. In the 2008 campaign, candidate Obama famously told Joe the plumber that he was going to raise taxes because “when you spread the wealth, it’s good for everybody.” What could be more ideological than wealth redistribution? What is Obamacare if not an ideological drive for government control and wealth redistribution? And let’s not forget that the president pursues pointless – some say punitive – environmental policies meant to shape Americans’ lifestyles in furtherance of the ideological embrace of liberal global warming orthodoxy.
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STEYN: The ‘Greatest Act of Punitive Liberalism’
Posted: November 23, 2013 | Author: Pundit Planet | Filed under: Health and Social Issues, Mediasphere, Politics | Tags: BarackObama, Democratic, Mark Steyn, National Review, Obama, Obamacare, Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Senate | 1 CommentJeff Poor writes: On Hugh Hewitt’s radio show earlier this week, National Review columnist Mark Steyn talked about Obamacare and the long-term impact it will have beyond its plagued initial rollout.
Steyn tied Obamacare to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s implementation of the nuclear option to how Obamacare was initially passed with procedural trickery in the Senate in 2009 and then in 2010.
“Well, they will say what he is, that his thing is getting to 51,” Steyn said. “And a lot of, you know, and that seems cute, because we admire political operators. So the guy who can get to 51, we think he’s a smart guy. So all the people who like naked power plays will think this is a pretty cute thing he did today. And everyone will reverse their position on a dime like Obama did. But in the end, it’s, you can be too clever for your own good. This is how Obamacare became law, because of procedural trickery because Ted Kennedy had died, so it means there was a vacancy in the Senate, you couldn’t go back and correct and amend the Senate version of the bill because they were a senator short.”
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Obama’s Catastrophic Victory
Posted: November 5, 2013 | Author: Pundit Planet | Filed under: Health and Social Issues, Politics, White House | Tags: BarackObama, Bill Bradley, Insurance, John McPhee, New York Times, Obamacare, Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, United States | Leave a commentPeggy Noonan writes: Years ago John McPhee wrote a great book about Bill Bradley called “A Sense of Where You Are.” I keep thinking about that title. You have to know where you are in time and space, you have to know who you are and what you’re doing, you have to be able to locate the moment and reorient yourself within it.
Politically where are we right now, at this moment?
We have a huge piece of U.S. economic and social change that debuted a month ago as a program. The program dealt with something personal, even intimate: your health, the care of your body, the medicines you choose to take or procedures you get. It was hugely controversial from day one. It took all the political oxygen from the room. It failed to garner even one vote from the opposition when it was passed. It gave rise to a significant opposition movement, the town hall uprisings, which later produced the tea party. It caused unrest. In fact, it seemed not to answer a problem but cause it. I called ObamaCare, at the time of its passage, a catastrophic victory—one won at too great cost, with too much political bloodshed, and at the end what would you get? Barren terrain. A thing not worth fighting for.
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Body Language Expert: Obama in Crisis Mode
Posted: October 30, 2013 | Author: Pundit Planet | Filed under: Health and Social Issues, U.S. News, White House | Tags: BarackObama, Body language, Daily Caller, Lillian Glass, Obama, Patrick Howley, Twitter, Vladimir Putin | 1 CommentPatrick Howley reports: President Barack Obama’s glitch-ridden Obamacare website rollout has plunged him into a personal anxiety never before seen during his presidency, a professional body-language expert told The Daily Caller.
“Basically, we’re seeing an Obama that we’ve never seen before,” body language expert Dr. Lillian Glass told TheDC. “Body language-wise, he looks tentative. He looks down. We see an embarrassed Obama.”
Glass recognized signs of great distress in the president’s posture and lower jaw in his recent speech acknowledging Obamacare website failures and in other recent public appearances. Read the rest of this entry »
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HACKED: Syrian Electronic Army Attacks President Obama’s Website, Email, Twitter…
Posted: October 28, 2013 | Author: Pundit Planet | Filed under: Breaking News, Global, White House | Tags: BarackObama, Facebook, Internet censorship in Syria, Organizing for Action, Syrian Electronic Army, Techworm, Twitter | Leave a commentSyrian Electronic Army hacked Barack Obama’s Website, email, twitter and Facebook Account http://t.co/vnZPZGJ4Ml @Official_SEA16
— Techworm (@Techworm_in) October 28, 2013
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All things to all people: Obama the Avatar
Posted: October 26, 2013 | Author: Pundit Planet | Filed under: Politics, U.S. News, White House | Tags: BarackObama, Jodi Kantor, Joe Biden, Mitt Romney, NASA, Obama, Patrick Gaspard, United States | Leave a commentCharles C. W. Cooke writes: Discussing the Obamacare disaster in the Rose Garden on Monday, President Obama led with a phrase to which we have become accustomed: “Nobody,” the president emoted, “is madder than me” about this mess.
Along with “let me be clear” and “make no mistake,” this is a favorite construction. Obama, you see, is more concerned for and correct about everything than everybody else at all times. “Nobody shares the frustrations of the American people more than I do,” he told WABC earlier this month; “nobody is more frustrated” than he about the IRS scandal; “no person,” the president affirmed during the election, “is more interested” in “seeing this economy growing strong.”
The line is contagious. In January, while trying pathetically to sell gun control, “Shotgun” Joe Biden informed the press that “nobody” was “more committed to acting on this moral obligation we have than the president of the United States.” “Nobody is more interested,” either, “in finding out exactly what happened” in Benghazi,” “more upset” about “the oil spill in the Gulf, or “more offended about the anti-gay and -lesbian legislation that you’ve been seeing in Russia.”
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Obamacare’s Magical Thinkers
Posted: October 26, 2013 | Author: Pundit Planet | Filed under: Politics, U.S. News, White House | Tags: BarackObama, Canadian Firearms Registry, Macon Phillips, Mark Steyn, Obamacare, Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, TechCrunch, Todd Park | Leave a commentNot even the coolest president ever can conjure up a national medical regime for 300 million people
Mark Steyn writes: If you’re looking for an epitaph for the republic (and these days who isn’t?) try this — from August 2010 and TechCrunch’s delirious preview of Healthcare.gov:
“We were working in a very very nimble hyper-consumer-focused way,” explained Todd Park, the chief technology officer of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, “all fused in this kind of maelstrom of pizza, Mountain Dew, and all-nighters . . . and, you know, idealism. That kind of led to the magic that was produced.” Read the rest of this entry »
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What Happened to All of Obama’s Technology Czars?
Posted: October 25, 2013 | Author: Pundit Planet | Filed under: Health and Social Issues, Politics, Science & Technology, White House | Tags: Aneesh Chopra, BarackObama, Farzad Mostashari, Obama, Open Government Initiative, Steven VanRoekel, Todd Park, Vivek Kundra, White House | Leave a commentMichell Malkin writes: Why does the White House need a private-sector “tech surge” to repair its wretched Obamacare website failures? Weren’t all of the president’s myriad IT czars and their underlings supposed to ensure that taxpayers got the most effective, innovative, cutting-edge and secure technology for their money?
Now is the perfect time for an update on Obama’s top government titans of information technology. As usual, “screw up, move up” is standard bureaucratic operating procedure.
Let’s start with the “federal chief information officer.” In 2009, Obama named then 34-year-old “whiz kid” Vivek Kundra to the post overseeing $80 billion in government IT spending. At 21, Kundra was convicted of misdemeanor theft. He stole a handful of men’s shirts from a J.C. Penney’s department store and ran from police in a failed attempt to evade arrest. Whitewashing the petty thief’s crimes, Obama instead effused about his technology czar’s “depth of experience in the technology arena.” Read the rest of this entry »
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What’s Wrong With Rooting For Obamacare Failure?
Posted: October 24, 2013 | Author: Pundit Planet | Filed under: Health and Social Issues, Politics | Tags: BarackObama, Boston, David Harsanyi, Democratic Party, Obamacare, Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Washington, World Series | 3 CommentsWhen it comes to Obamacare, it’s the best possible outcome
David Harsanyi writes: In a press conference, expected to feature a mea culpa for the Obamacare website fiasco, President Barack Obama turned the tables on his political opponents, scolding them for using their supernatural ability to transform the mere hope of failure into a reality.
“It’s time,” he implored, “for folks to stop rooting for its failure, because hardworking, middle-class families are rooting for its success.”
There is a serious problem with this statement. Now, if you’re a libertarian, rooting for Washington to fail is probably one of your cherished hobbies. It’s certainly one of the most unappreciated sentiments a person embraces. And, most often, there is nothing unpatriotic, immoral or unethical about it. Quite the opposite, actually.
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Here and Abroad, Obama’s Partners are Concluding they Cannot Trust Him
Posted: October 24, 2013 | Author: Pundit Planet | Filed under: Diplomacy, Global, Politics | Tags: BarackObama, Marco Rubio, Obama, Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Riyadh, Rubio, Saudi Arabia, United States | 1 CommentObama’s Credibility Is Melting

© Images.com/Corbis
The collapse of ObamaCare is the tip of the iceberg for the magical Obama presidency.
Daniel Henninger writes: From the moment he emerged in the public eye with his 2004 speech at the Democratic Convention and through his astonishing defeat of the Clintons in 2008, Barack Obama’s calling card has been credibility. He speaks, and enough of the world believes to keep his presidency afloat. Or used to.
All of a sudden, from Washington to Riyadh, Barack Obama’s credibility is melting.
Amid the predictable collapse the past week of HealthCare.gov’s too-complex technology, not enough notice was given to Sen. Marco Rubio‘s statement that the chances for success on immigration reform are about dead. Why? Because, said Sen. Rubio, there is “a lack of trust” in the president’s commitments. Read the rest of this entry »
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Will a ‘Tech Surge’ Save HealthCare.gov ?
Posted: October 23, 2013 | Author: Pundit Planet | Filed under: Health and Social Issues, Science & Technology, White House | Tags: Affordable Care Act, Aneesh Chopra, BarackObama, Bob Kocher, David Halberstam, HealthCare.gov, Monday, Obama, Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Todd Park, VentureBeat, White House | Leave a commentThere might yet be hope from the private sector — just not in the way you might think.

Flickr
Christina Farr reports: Over the weekend, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services promised it would recruit the ”best and brightest” to fix HealthCare.gov, the federal government’s online insurance marketplace that’s part of the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare), which has been plagued by technical defects. On Monday, President Barack Obama promised a “tech surge” to fix the problems.
It’s not going to happen.
HealthCare.gov is not going to get help from “the best and brightest” nor a “surge,” neither of which it can easily afford. In reality, the government’s options are limited, sources tell VentureBeat.
But there might yet be hope from the private sector — just not in the way you might think.
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Tuesday News Dump
Posted: October 22, 2013 | Author: Pundit Planet | Filed under: Mediasphere | Tags: BarackObama, Jay Carney, Jon Stewart, Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, RUSSIA, Speeches of Barack Obama, Town council, United States | 1 Comment- Jay Carney Claims The Obamacare Website Isn’t Failing
- Taranto: Vaporcare
- Again, This Woman Moderated A Debate In 2012
- Russia’s Demographic Revolution
- Man Spends 4.5 Hours On Obamacare Hotline And Still Can’t Sign Up
- Healthcare.gov Is Walking Dead
- Another Journalist Joins The Obama Administration
- Obamacare Website Failed Just Days Before Launch
- Race Hustling Results
- Police Officer Fired After Shooting And Pepper Spraying Squirrel
- What If They Gave A Shutdown And No One Care?
- Even Some Lefty Journalist Are Openly Talking About The Obamacare Failure
- Rand Paul Pushes Constitutional Amendment For Congress
- Unions Vs. Obamacare
- Only 148,000 Jobs Added Last Month
- Small RI Town Seeks Recall Of Town Council Over Obstruction Of Concealed Carry Permits
- Dad Gets Emotional Over His Son’s Grades
- Jay Leno Riffing On Obamacare
- Waiting As Long As He Can, Jon Stewart Finally Has To Address The Obamacare Failure
- Man Buys Ticket To Game 1 Of World Series For Six Dollars
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All Sham, No Wow
Posted: October 22, 2013 | Author: Pundit Planet | Filed under: Health and Social Issues, Science & Technology | Tags: Affordable Care Act, Barack Obama, BarackObama, Health Insurance, Insurance, Kathleen Sebelius, Michael Slaby, Obama, Obamacare, Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Paul Krugman, Robert McNamara, Speeches of Barack Obama | 1 Comment
The lady on the left passed out before the speech was done. Associated Press
Obama Delivers an Infomercial when an Accounting is Due
James Taranto writes: “The Affordable Care Act is not just a website,” President Obama said at the Rose Garden today. “It’s much more.” It’s like a chamois, it’s like a towel, it’s like a sponge.
Another way of putting it is that ObamaCare isn’t just a technical failure. And it isn’t just an economically unsustainable scheme. Now it’s a rhetorical disaster too. Even by the standards of Obama speeches it was terrible. It was so bad, it was the ObamaCare website of political oratory.
Fine, blame us. After all, we called for an Obama speech. But remember that what we called for–it was right there in the subheadline–was an accounting. What he gave us was an infomercial. Read the rest of this entry »
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The Best and the Brightest
Posted: October 21, 2013 | Author: Pundit Planet | Filed under: Science & Technology, U.S. News, White House | Tags: BarackObama, David Halberstam, Max Weber, Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Silicon Valley, The Best and the Brightest, United States, Vietnam War | 1 CommentYuval Levin writes: The administration’s effort to respond to the catastrophic rollout of the federal Obamacare exchange seems at this point to consist of having special teams of IT experts from inside and outside the government — in the president’s words, “the best and the brightest” — come in and help fix the Healthcare.gov site.
Even if you put aside the fact that the phrase “the best and the brightest” was popularized by the title of a David Halberstam book about how smart people can do stupid things (in that case, mismanage American foreign policy and march the nation into the Vietnam War), this idea seems very problematic. Read the rest of this entry »
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President Barack O’Cranky McMeany
Posted: October 9, 2013 | Author: Pundit Planet | Filed under: Mediasphere, U.S. News, White House | Tags: BarackObama, Benghazi, Claude Moore Colonial Farm, Government shutdown, Harry Reid, Horicon Marsh, National Park Service, National Review, United States, Washington Times, White House | Leave a commentIt’s within his power to avoid the ludicrous scenes of this “shutdown.”

Unify, lead, and govern a great nation? Or express hatred, burn bridges, plot revenge, settle scores, waste money, and preside over epic national decline? Decline isn’t so bad, as long as Democrats can concentrate more power.
It is also wholly irrelevant. Of course the executive branch would be not be playing these games if the shutdown had not happened. In that case, the government octopus would be swimming inexorably forward as it usually does, all of its tentacles intact. The more important point to grasp here is not that the various heavy-handed antics in which the Park Service has seen fit to indulge itself since last Monday are unimaginable absent a shutdown, but that almost none of them had to happen because of the shutdown. The offending behavior has, in other words, been a choice — a deliberate ploy contrived and prosecuted by a man seeking to make a public point. Read the rest of this entry »