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October 2013

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 25, 2013 12 Comments
CBS News reports, Did White House Obamacare guidance stop ahead of 2012 election?: CBS News has been digging into the cause of the delays in preparing the website for the government's health insurance market and has learned was a major interruption in the months before President Obama's re-election. At the height of the 2012 presidential election campaign, it was crunch time for the Obama administration to release key instructions so contractors could work toward the October 2013 deadline. But a Health and Human Services official who was closely involved tells CBS News that in late summer, the administration stopped issuing proposed rules for the Affordable Health Care Act until after the election. The result was what many viewed as a serious delay as contractors, states and insurance companies awaited crucial guidance to move forward. CBS further reports on the cancellation of health care plans people liked:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 25, 2013 82 Comments
Republicans repeatedly have made proposals to protect the public from the Obamacare disaster. Not just the substance of the law, but also the timing of the individual mandate. Way back when (i.e, about two weeks ago), Democrats called such proposals extortion, terrorism, suicide-bombing and legislative arson. Now an increasing number of Democrats, particularly those up for re-election in 2014, are calling for similar delays. https://twitter.com/allahpundit/status/393742009246035970 Perhaps Republicans should take a "what goes around, comes around" attitude, and do nothing to help Democrats out of the bind they are now in. Democrats own Obamacare's failure completely. That's the primary outcome of the government scale-back, which now is over. Democrats were willing to shut a portion of the government to prevent any meaningful changes, and were willing to (erroneously) threaten a debt default rather than agree to the types of changes many Democrats now are proposing. So we should now help Democrats out of the healthcare.gov debacle? We should now, having been demonized, help the Democrats who demonized us? Erick Erickson says screw them (my characterization), Follow the Law:
No conservative wants things to get worse. We just know things will get worse. Obamacare will be deeply destructive. People are already seeing it. The only way Obamacare would ever work is if people behaved irrationally. It is a system that requires the young to go out and by their own insurance, but allows them to stay on their parents’ insurance until they are well into their twenties. The law operates only if people do not behave like people.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 25, 2013 8 Comments

From Thomas in Portland, Oregon: I saw this combination of bumper stickers and just thought it was terribly ironic. Obama 2012 and "Don't believe everything you think." How does this statement apply to the Obamacare website roll-out, to being able to keep your current plan, or to bringing...

Posted by Mandy Nagy on October 24, 2013 19 Comments
(Photo: The Guardian) The US has begun the awkward process of notifying intelligence services in some countries that documents obtained by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden contained information about their cooperation with the US. From the Washington Post:
U.S. officials are alerting some foreign intelligence services that documents detailing their secret cooperation with the United States have been obtained by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, according to government officials. Snowden, U.S. officials said, took tens of thousands of documents containing sensitive material about collection programs against adversaries such as Iran, Russia and China, operations that in some cases involve countries not publicly allied with the United States. The process of informing officials in capital after capital about the risk of disclosure they face has been painful and delicate. In some cases, one part of the cooperating government may know about the collaboration while others — such as the foreign ministry — may not, the officials said. The documents, if disclosed, could compromise operations, officials said.
The duty of informing these other intelligence services, according to the Post, has fallen to the the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. This news comes as the administration is on the defensive about allegations that the NSA monitored the cell phone of German chancellor Angela Merkel.  President Obama spoke with Merkel on Wednesday, where he "assured the chancellor that the United States is not monitoring and will not monitor the communications of the chancellor," according to Politico.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on October 24, 2013 8 Comments
(Photo: Saint Joseph Abbey website) As we near the end of October, I thought this seemed like an appropriate free market success story to share: Monks in Louisiana win right to sell handcrafted caskets
When the state Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors told the Benedictine monks of St. Joseph Abbey in southern Louisiana they could not sell their handcrafted caskets to the public, the normally peaceful order took the fight to court. Hurricane Katrina had wiped out the order's traditional income from selling timber, so the brothers decided to market the simple cypress boxes they had long built to bury monks who died. They were priced at $1,500 or $2,000, far less than a funeral home would charge. But the state board, composed mostly of embalmers and funeral home directors, ordered the monks to stop. Their five-year legal battle ended quietly at the Supreme Court last week with a defeat for state-enforced "economic protectionism" and a victory for small entrepreneurs. It is part of a growing trend of successful "economic liberty" cases championed by the Institute for Justice, a libertarian legal group based in Arlington, Va.
The costs of a typical funeral have risen from about $700 in 1960 to over $7000 today.  It looks like as technologies have been developed or improved in this country, both life and death have gotten more expensive: Legal Insurrection #03

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 24, 2013 37 Comments
Mandy noted the other day, WH spox denies Sen. Durbin claim House GOPer told Obama “I cannot even stand to look at you”. It gets more interesting. It turns out that Dick Durbin wasn't "lying" if by lying you mean saying something he knew to be untrue.  It was curious why Durbin would not name names.  Now we know.  He would have had to name Harry Reid as his source. The White House gave the line to Harry Reid, who read it to the Democratic Senate caucus, one of whose members -- Durbin -- went public with it.  The story still was false, and the White House is claiming a "miscommunication." I'm not buying that.  The supposed statement took place on October 10, as Democrats were standing united against cutting a meaningful deal with Republicans. I'm leaning toward the "miscommunication" not being so, but part of a White House strategy to hold the party together at a critical time. Huffington Post reported (h/t Hot Air), Harry Reid Told Caucus That Pete Sessions Was Behind Obama Insult, Senators Say:
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) told his Democratic caucus last week in a private meeting that a top House Republican said to President Barack Obama, "I cannot even stand to look at you," according to two Democratic senators who were present. The account was confirmed by two Senate Democratic aides who said they independently learned of the exchange from other senators. A White House official said Thursday that the administration did relay such a message to Reid, but that it was the result of a miscommunication. “While the quote attributed to a Republican lawmaker in the House GOP meeting with the President is not accurate, there was a miscommunication when the White House read out that meeting to Senate Democrats, and we regret the misunderstanding," the official said in a statement.
Politico further reports:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 24, 2013 59 Comments
We have highlighted here many times the almost insane "zero tolerance" policies at school wherein students are disciplined, suspended and expelled for biting a Pop Tart into the shape of a gun, bringing Quarter coin-sized gun keychain charms to school, and even pointing a pencil and saying "bang." And then there is this, a full-sized "toy" AK-47 which got a 13-year old shot by police, Authorities investigate fatal deputy-involving shooting of 13-year-old Santa Rosa boy:
Sonoma County sheriff's deputies shot and killed a 13-year-old boy Tuesday afternoon during an encounter in a southwest Santa Rosa neighborhood. The boy's father, Rodrigo Lopez, identified the teen as Andy Lopez and said he had been carrying a toy gun that belonged to a friend. Santa Rosa and Petaluma police detectives are investigating the shooting. Interviews were conducted throughout Tuesday night, Santa Rosa Lt. Paul Henry said Wednesday morning.... It was unclear Tuesday whether the rifle, which sheriff's officials characterized as a replica, was capable of firing BBs or other projectiles.

Posted by A.F. Branco on October 24, 2013 8 Comments

Note: You may reprint this cartoon provided you link back to this source.  To see more Legal Insurrection Branco cartoons, click here. Branco’s page is Cartoonist A.F.Branco...

Posted by David Gerstman on October 24, 2013 20 Comments
Yesterday's New York Times featured an article Obama’s Uncertain Path Amid Syria Bloodshed that is probably one of the most devastating indictments of the President's Syria policy published. I don't think that the reporters set out to critique the President and the tone of the article was always respectful. https://twitter.com/michaeldweiss/status/393101410037821440 Still there are two description that really stuck out. The first was a general critique.
As one former senior White House official put it, “We spent so much damn time navel gazing, and that’s the tragedy of it.”
Over the past two years the article describes the various rationales the administration had for not intervening and that sentence turns out to be a very apt theme for the way the administration acted, or, more precisely, chose not to act. Then there was this:
Even as the debate about arming the rebels took on a new urgency, Mr. Obama rarely voiced strong opinions during senior staff meetings. But current and former officials said his body language was telling: he often appeared impatient or disengaged while listening to the debate, sometimes scrolling through messages on his BlackBerry or slouching and chewing gum.
One would have assumed that a Syria policy was one of the two most important foreign policy issues facing the President. (The other is the question of Iran's nuclear policy.) Being "disengaged" during such momentous discussions is worse than being engaged but making bad decisions. https://twitter.com/tobyharnden/status/393025446348349441  

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 24, 2013 13 Comments
We've written before about the travails of the Canadian Blazing Cat Fur blog against laware utilizing Canadian "hate" laws. Now Ezra Levant, another Canadian blogger and outspoken critic of radical Islamic tactics in Canada, is fighting in court over a lawsuit filed several years ago, as reported in the Globe and Mail:
Controversial television journalist Ezra Levant will find himself in court Oct. 15 to answer for a series of blog posts in which he repeatedly called a Canadian Islamic Rights activist a liar. Mr. Levant, who hosts a daily show on Sun News Network, wrote the posts while covering unsuccessful human rights complaints against Maclean’s magazine for its coverage of the Islamic community over a two-year span. Mr. Levant’s posts were critical of Khurrum Awan, a member of the Canadian Islamic Congress who spoke at the Canadian Human Rights Commission hearings and served as its youth president. In his statement of claim filed to Ontario Superior Court of Justice, Mr. Awan said Mr. Levant suggested he was “a liar, a perjurer, an anti-Semite, a con artist, unfit to be a lawyer and has acted in a conflict of interest.” “The plaintiff has suffered mental distress, humiliation and loss of reputation,” reads the statement of claim filed by lawyer Brian Shiller of Ruby Shiller Chan Hasan Barristers. “The plaintiff has been shunned by former friends, ridiculed in various publications and is the subject of odium and contempt.” In his statement of defence, Mr. Levant suggests any damage to Mr. Awan’s reputation was self-inflicted.
In an October 15, 2013, column at Sun News, Price of freedom is high, Levant explained the history of lawfare against him:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 24, 2013 5 Comments

From Buckeyeminuteman, with the Subject line: How About Spending Control? Here is an SUV I saw in Montgomery, AL. The driver makes a good point about our politician's priorities. Also, I wanted to take this time to tell you thank you for the great work you...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 23, 2013 30 Comments
Legal Insurrection, with the help of Judicial Watch, still is fighting the FOIA litigation to get a full document production from the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department and D.C. Office of Attorney General Irvin Nathan as to the investigation and non-prosecution of David Gregory and others at NBC News for the clear on-camera violation of the D.C. gun laws. NBC procured, and Gregory flaunted, an illegal 30-round ammunition magazine even though NBC was explicitly warned by the MPD not to do so:

Gregory OAG Email Dec 21 2012 NBC to MPD3

Gregory got special treatment. Not so many other more ordinary citizens. The latest outrageous case of D.C. overreach and bullying of citizens who are not David Gregory is documented by Emily Miller at The Washington Times (via The Patriot Perspective), D.C. businessman faces two years in jail for unregistered ammunition, brass casing:
Mark Witaschek, a successful financial adviser with no criminal record, is facing two years in prison for possession of unregistered ammunition after D.C. police raided his house looking for guns. Mr. Witaschek has never had a firearm in the city, but he is being prosecuted to the full extent of the law. The trial starts on Nov. 4. The police banged on the front door of Mr. Witaschek’s Georgetown home at 8:20 p.m. on July 7, 2012, to execute a search warrant for “firearms and ammunition … gun cleaning equipment, holsters, bullet holders and ammunition receipts.” Mr. Witaschek’s 14-year-old daughter let inside some 30 armed officers in full tactical gear.

Posted by Mandy Nagy on October 23, 2013 11 Comments
The House GOP Conference issued the following statement today (received via email) regarding a conversation between a potential customer and an online chat customer service representative for Healthcare.gov:
Earlier today, the House Republican Conference released a video highlighting actual excerpts from an online chat between a potential customer and a customer service representative for Healthcare.gov.  The individual who experienced the chat session was Adrian Smith, 34, of New Jersey.  Smith released the following statement to confirm his story with Healthcare.gov: “Thank you for your inquiry about my experience on October 11, 2013 using the healthcare.gov support chat.  I can confirm that the excerpts used in the YouTube video and the full transcript posted at www.gop.gov/yourstory is authentic and exactly as I experienced on October 11. I am a resident of New Jersey and work for a higher education institution. I am not employed by the Republican Party. “After a recent job transition, my family needed to make an informed decision about healthcare options for the approaching year. After repeated registration problems, I was able to create a healthcare.gov account on October 11 and began the tedious process of entering specific personal information about our family. Each page resulted in a long wait before being able to proceed. At some point in the process it appeared that our family information became corrupted and I was unable to proceed with the family profile.

Posted by Mandy Nagy on October 23, 2013 40 Comments
In a Facebook posting over the weekend, Democratic Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois alleged that a top House Republican leader told President Obama, "I cannot even stand to look at you," during a negotiation meeting over the government shutdown, according to a report last night in The Hill.  The claim drew sharp denials from Republican leadership and the White House.
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said in a Facebook post that the alleged confrontation happened during a meeting between Republicans and the president. "Many Republicans searching for something to say in defense of the disastrous shutdown strategy will say President Obama just doesn't try hard enough to communicate with Republicans," Durbin said. "But in a 'negotiation' meeting with the president, one GOP House Leader told the president: 'I cannot even stand to look at you.'" "What are the chances of an honest conversation with someone who has just said something so disrespectful?" the Illinois Democrat added. An aide to House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said he had "no idea what [Durbin's] talking about."
Durbin did not name the individual to whom he referred in his Facebook post and offered no further specifics as to when the alleged exchange supposedly took place. Boehner’s spokesman Michael Steel denied the claim, saying, “The speaker certainly didn’t say that, and does not recall anyone else doing so,” according to National Review’s The Corner.  A spokesman for Eric Cantor also said the House Majority Leader does not remember anyone saying that. In today’s press briefing, White House press secretary Jay Carney flat out denied the exchange occurred, saying “it did not happen.” https://twitter.com/samsteinhp/status/393078474791206912

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 23, 2013 36 Comments
Joan Walsh of Salon.com threw a classic Salon.com race-card fit the other day because Ted Cruz referred to healthcare.gov as being run by Nigerial scam artists:
Hey, did you hear the one about the disappearing “Nigerian email scammers”? They’ve “become a lot less active lately” because they’ve “all been hired to run the Obamacare website.” That’s Sen. Ted Cruz, folks, on his Reactionary Real America Victory Tour Monday night, and he’ll be here all week, maybe all decade. Tip your waiter! Declaring that our first black president’s signature policy achievement is being run by “Nigerian email scammers” is GOP dog-whistle politics at its finest. Of course, Cruz wasn’t just going for cheap laughs at the expense of the Affordable Care Act. He knows it’s a short hop from Nigeria to Kenya for his Obama-hating Houston audience.

Twitter - @Salon - Nigerian scammer dog whistle

It's actually not a short hop from Nigeria to Kenya, over 2000 miles, but whatever. I think the Nigerian scam artist analogy fits, although there is no single perfect analogy for the redistribution of wealth scheme that is Obamacare. The American people were promised one thing, and are receiving another.  The thing they were promised -- you can keep your doctor and your insurance, and pay less through easy to use exchanges -- never existed, any more than "Mohammed Abacha,the son of the late Nigerian Head of State." But since we have to be absurdly sensitive to "short hops" from Nigeria to Kenya so as to stay off of Salon.com's radar, perhaps we can refer to healthcare.gov, and Obamacare more generally, as BernieMadoff.healthcare.gov.  Again, not a perfect analogy, but it demonstrates a point.

Posted by Mandy Nagy on October 23, 2013 9 Comments
It turns out the disappearance in recent days of a noted snarky national security tweeter was no Halloween prank after all.  The anonymous personality known to Twitter as @natsecwonk has not only been outed, but is out of a job. From Politico:
A senior National Security Council staffer who was a key member of the White House team negotiating on Iran’s nuclear weapons program told POLITICO he deeply regrets tweeting hundreds of anti-administration messages under the pseudonym @natsecwonk. Jofi Joseph, 40, was fired from his job on the NSC nuclear non-proliferation team a week ago after a months-long probe into a barrage of tweets that included caustic criticisms of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and top NSC officials, especially Ben Rhodes – whom he accused of dodging questions about Benghazi. “It has been a privilege to serve in this Administration and I deeply regret violating the trust and confidence placed in me,” Joseph told POLITICO in an email. “What started out as an intended parody account of DC culture developed over time into a series of inappropriate and mean-spirited comments.  I bear complete responsibility for this affair and I sincerely apologize to everyone I insulted.”
Joseph's @natsecwonk bio was an apt description, "Unapologetically says what everyone else only thinks. A keen observer of the foreign policy and national security scene. I'm abrasive and bring the snark." The Daily Beast, which first broke the story, collected many of the account’s tweets before it was shut down, and offered this sampling in its post:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on October 23, 2013 36 Comments
Kathleen Sebelius is insistent that no one told Obama prior to October 1 that testing and evaluation had indicated healthcare.gov likely would fail. Not even as a government "shutdown" was looming over the issue of delaying the individual mandate for a year?  Even though an inoperable healthcare.gov website would justify the Republican position?  Even though a failure of the website would be a major embarrassment? HHS chief: President didn't know of Obamacare website woes beforehand
President Barack Obama didn't know of problems with the Affordable Care Act's website -- despite insurance companies' complaints and the site's crashing during a test run -- until after its now well-documented abysmal launch, the nation's health chief told CNN on Tuesday. In an exclusive interview with Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta asked when the President first learned about the considerable issues with the Obamacare website. Sebelius responded that it was in "the first couple of days" after the site went live October 1. "But not before that?" Gupta followed up. To which Sebelius replied, "No, sir."
This all sounds eerily familiar:

WaPo IRS Scandal No One Told Obama

Senior White House officials, including Chief of Staff Denis McDonough, learned last month about a review by the Treasury Department’s inspector general into whether the Internal Revenue Service targeted conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status, but they did not inform President Obama, the White House said Monday.
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