(Photo: AP)
In his post about health insurance executives’ fear of talking on the record about the Obamacare computer problems, Prof. Jacobson offered this quote from the NY Times article:
These are not glitches,” said an insurance executive who has participated in many conference calls on the federal exchange. Like many people interviewed for this article, the executive spoke on the condition of anonymity, saying he did not wish to alienate the federal officials with whom he works. “The extent of the problems is pretty enormous. At the end of our calls, people say, ‘It’s awful, just awful.’ ”
It’s awful, all right, and not just in the way they mean. The level of fear this administration has engendered is—yes, I’ll use the word—unprecedented, at least in this country.
And it’s getting harder to tell what part of the current sycophancy of the MSM is ideological mind-melding and what part is fear, considering the way those in the media who dare to lob anything but softballs at Obama have been treated.
Nixon had an enemies list, but how many people were truly afraid of him? And the people who were afraid of him actually were his enemies. With Obama, it seems that quite a few of the people who are afraid of him are his admirers and supporters, fellow-liberals and Democrats in the press and elsewhere. They’re afraid to tell the truth, afraid they’ll be punished for not sucking up fast enough and furiously enough.
But hey, that’s the way Obama got his start in politics.
Remember the Alice Palmer incident?
In Obama’s very first political campaign he managed to get all his Democratic primary opponents (mostly black, I might add, and including his mentor Alice Palmer) knocked off the ballot on technicalities, making him the only choice left standing. His reputation preceded him to the Illinois Senate as a man to be feared and thus “respected” by fellow-Democrats.
Later, when the party became the majority, new Illinois Senate President Emil Jones cleared the way for Obama to take credit for the legislative work of others, and to ride the crest of those “achievements” all the way to the US Senate, and ultimately the US presidency.
[Neo-neocon is a writer with degrees in law and family therapy, who blogs at neo-neocon.]
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the best parts:
One highly unusual decision, reached early in the project, proved critical: the Medicare and Medicaid agency assumed the role of project quarterback, responsible for making sure each separately designed database and piece of software worked with the others, instead of assigning that task to a lead contractor.
Some people intimately involved in the project seriously doubted that the agency had the in-house capability to handle such a mammoth technical task of software engineering while simultaneously supervising 55 contractors. An internal government progress report in September 2011 identified a lack of employees “to manage the multiple activities and contractors happening concurrently” as a “major risk” to the whole project.
While some branches of the military have large software engineering departments capable of acting as the so-called system integrator, often on medium-size weapons projects, the rest of the federal government typically does not,
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Deadline after deadline was missed. The biggest contractor, CGI Federal, was awarded its $94 million contract in December 2011. But the government was so slow in issuing specifications that the firm did not start writing software code until this spring, according to people familiar with the process. As late as the last week of September, officials were still changing features of the Web site,
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One person familiar with the system’s development said that the project was now roughly 70 percent of the way toward operating properly, but that predictions varied on when the remaining 30 percent would be done. “I’ve heard as little as two weeks or as much as a couple of months,”
Having worked for decades as a software engineer, architect, and manager, I can tell you that it is the remaining 10% of the development that inevitably takes 90% of the work.
More seriously, if what you say is accurate then the next 60 days will bring a cascade of worse problems as incompetent system integration managers mangle the existing code/architecture/contractors in a desperate effort to get something (anything) working.
Your characterization of the system integrator also means that the problems the insurance companies are experiencing wrt invalid user data also will only get worse. FUBAR indeed.
But I am so happy that the federal government has decided to take over health care. I am sure our betters will put much more effort into the overall health care system than they did into what should have been a minor implementation task (exchanges). Right? Right????
Exactly. the old 80-20 rule holds here. That last 20% takes 80% of the effort because that is where the tough coding and all the integration testing and debugging takes place.
But, if it turns out there were design errors, it could be back to the drawing board managing only to salvage a tiny bit of the code.
Exactly. I remember it used to be a joke among us when a project manager declared a project 90% complete, since the project would tend to stay at 90% complete forever, while everything had to be redone because of integration and system testing problems. Most of the time what 90% done really meant was that 90% of the project was still left to be done. With even basic functions like logon not working, this indicates a project that has never had real integration and end to end testing done, which means it is at best halfway done, so expect another 3 yrs to get this turkey completely working.
I’ve been trying to get some of this info to people who have large audiences. John Loonsk is the VP of CGI Federal. He has worked on system interoperability for sharing personal health information among ALL federal agencies for more than a decade. http://bit.ly/1c3RlBY This is at the heart of the Obamacare debacle.
One man was actually able to sign in the the website, but when he opted to decline the Obamacare plans, he was sent a bill for $95.
Failure to pay this ‘tax’ could result in all manner of h3ll being visited upon him, as is typical of past IRS tactics: seizure of home, assets, locked business, frozen bank accounts, jail, expensive court case, legal fees to begin with (but that was under the Bushes and Clintons) no telling what sorts of punishment Obama would wreak upon him.
It is outrageous!
The guy actually called an insurance company and obtained a better policy at a better price.
And they still charged him a penalty!
This goes beyond glitches and flaws. The system is simply a monumental disaster.
And folks, this is just a preview of what’s coming down on us.
Obama’s entire career has been a product of eliminating other choices than his, rather than demonstrating a modicum of talent/capabilities. I wonder if any of the contractors let the higher political appointees know of problems, knowing that this had to roll out on Oct 1. The Administration tolerates no disloyalty (or even loyalists saying displeasing things).
So, who is going to be the Walter Winchell of the MSM and expose O for what he is?
The bumbling incompetence is only realized to it’s full extent when one considers that there exists a private commercial website that does exactly what ObamaCare’s website fails to do and CHEAPER! But only to the end of this year when ObamaCare by law becomes the only portal to provide choices, false choices.
Chronicling the incompetence: Obamacare: Mind-Boggling Incompetence http://pjmedia.com/blog/obamacare-mind-boggling-incompetence/?singlepage=true
For those interested in getting insurance BEFORE being required to get screwed:
eHealthInsurance.com Available to December 15, 2013 Young people, pay attention save yourselves because the government certainly won’t.
How could anyone respect a coward like Obama?
Whoever can come up with the answer to your question, will be able to explain so much about human nature, thus far, inexplainable.
Nobody who recognizes his cowardice does.
You’ve identified an important theme in BO’s career and a memorable line, “Remeber Alice Palmer.” Terrific read.
If they fear you they will respect you.
Chicago politics in a nutshell.
No, fear does not beget respect.
Alice Palmer was not only Obama’s mentor, she was the incumbent!
In 2008 she endorsed Hillary Clinton.
The Good Part?
Obama only has a little over 3 years left in public office then he is to be sent away to an island, far far away from the US mainland; his every move watched at close quarters 24/7/365 for life by the US Government. heh heh heh
He will be able to afford “a little blow” but he’ll have a damn hard time finding a private place to snort it without furtively looking over his shoulder, what with the Secret Service up his ass and all.
Obama’s 2008 election campaign of “hope” and ecstatic cult-worship had a big dose of intimidation on a local level. There were many reports of heavy-handed tactics in the caucuses — without which Obama would not have “won.”
Then there was the routine bullying of people who said they did not intend to vote for The One We’ve Been Waiting For, and there’s the ongoing bullying of people who oppose his “fundamental transformation.”
It isn’t just the Obama inner circle that rules by fear. His ideology supports the use of intimidation by many, many people who don’t need to take orders to apply it.
Fear Obama? Not a chance.
Loathe? Yes. In spades.
I blame the Trekkies who didn’t defend “7 of 9” when Obama’s political ambitions crossed paths with that of her ex-husband. Of course, the internet wasn’t nearly as powerful then as it is now. Browncoats would never tolerate a similar slander of their idols.
Alice Palmer was an old hack Democrat. She announced she was giving up the state senate seat to run in the special election for the U.S. House seat vacated by the disgraced Mel Reynolds. She designated Obama as her favored successor.
After she lost the special election to Jesse Jackson jr., she tried to go back on her withdrawal and endorsement. There were only a few days left before the filing deadline for the primary. So her staff forged most of the signatures her nominating petitions.
Obama was entirely justified in calling her on it. There’s no obligation to let the other players cheat.
[…] wonder whether we’re going to see the latter at any point: I can’t imagine that President Obama is all that pleased at all those Lefties being stroppy […]