How Much More Pain, Misery + Dysfunction Will Americans Tolerate From This Government?

A 25-year old man in NY was arrested for trying to join al-Qaeda. Here's the amazing part. He said it was easier to join al-Qaeda using their website than it was to sign up for Obamacare...Leno

• "We've been told to make life as difficult for people as we can. It's disgusting." That was said by a Park Ranger to the media during the shutdown.
• That one statement makes it very clear the Obama administration and our own government wants to spread as much misery and pain on the American people as they think they can get away with. As Michael Goodwin of the NY Post wrote recently, "I've been saying for a while that there is no bottom to Obama. He's not just ruthless. He's without scruples and honor." The statement by the Park Ranger appears to reinforce that observation.
• Perhaps no where was this more apparent than with the most recent government shutdown and the demonizing of the administration's political adversaries.  It took a foreign publication, the UK Telegraph, to put the entire episode in perspective: "This was a childish, as well as unpleasant, display of petulance by Mr. Obama, who treats elected officials as though they were puppets who should dance to his tune..." Allow me to add. He treats most Americans in this manner.

• As we all recall, this ruthlessness was also apparent with this administration's treatment of its veterans and military personnel. We've witnessed it with the treatment of our WWII and Vietnam Vets during the shutdown. We've also seen it with cutbacks in our military hospitals and the unacceptable backlogs in disability claims at the VA---in the hundreds of thousands. And just today, it was announced that the Obama administration wants to replace the iconic Marine cover (cap) with something that resembles what train conductors wear. Quite frankly, it's an insult to the gloried Marine tradition.
• As distressing, most Americans have been unable to dodge the pain and misery imposed by this administration. We all know the emotional distress millions of Americans have been subjected to in the last five years because of the wretched state of the economy (90M have already dropped out of the workforce. Folks, the current population of the U.S. is about 316M people. Do the math but subtract children, retirees, those disabled, etc., and you can clearly see that 90M number is exceedingly disturbing).

Obamacare Exposes The Deceit, Dishonesty And Lies Of The Obama Administration

It was kind of a rough day today. A friend of mine was given about six months by his doctor---not to live, to sign up for Obamacare...Leno

Note: Since this piece was posted, we now know the Obama administration and Democrats knew there would be countless cancellations. In other words, they lies.

• In 2009 and countless times later, Pres. Obama promised Obamacare (The Affordable Care Act)  would let Americans keep their health plan if they liked it.
• Yesterday, Florida Blue announced it would be cancelling 300,000 individual policies over Obamacare. The Newark Star Ledger reported in late summer that over 100,000 people in New Jersey will lose their health care plan. Last week, Blue Cross Blue Shield of NC confirmed some of their policies were cancelled.
• In fact, even the knee-pad media could no longer hide the news. NBC reported earlier this week that "health plans are sending hundreds and thousands of cancellation letters to people who buy their own coverage."
• There are also thousands of anecdotal stories emerging of Americans having to pay more for their health care because of the ACA.
• And if those horror stories are not enough, perhaps this news will nudge the remaining "believers" to finally wake up. Millions of Americans have either lost their jobs or have been relegated to part-time status as a direct result of Obamacare. For example, as reported by the Department of Labor last month, approximately 77% of all jobs created last fiscal year were part-time jobs.
• Last month Gallup reported that 41% of small businesses froze hiring and blamed the Affordable Care Act. Hospitals have already laid off over 41,000 employees blaming it partially on Obamacare.

• But even federal workers want no part of ACA. A recent survey of 2,500 federal employees and retirees found that only 2.9% want anything to do with ObamaCare. FedSmith.com
• The ObamaCare casualty list grew larger in the last two weeks due to the now infamous computer glitches---glitches that cost the American taxpayers about $500M.
• And just today, the New York Post is reporting that the mandated electronic medical record system (EMR) is a disaster. A Philadelphia orthopedic physician described it this way: "If you think singing up for Obamacare is a nightmare, ask you doctor how the EMR mandate is going." Another physician said doctors are seeing more pixels than patients. Even the developers of the EMR system (ComCart Medical Software) criticized the feds and state governments for their misguided obsession to stipulate which features must be in the EMR's. Michell Malkin
• Finally, reports are emerging that the Obama administration knew of the Obamacare website glitches but ignored the warnings. Real Clear Politics
• One added caveat separate from the Obamacare controversy has to be addressed. If the stimulus worked as the Obama administration and Democrats proclaimed for several years now, why are there over 90M Americans out of the workforce, the highest level in the last 30+ years?
• One can only come to this conclusion: Obamacare, if it has done anything, exposed the deceit, dishonesty and lies of this administration and government. One cannot come to any other rational conclusion.

Postscript: Since this was posted, we learned about more deceit---one name---Gruber.

For The Obama Administration + The Political Class Ideology Trumps Competence

New, Improved Obamacare Program Released On 35 Floppy Disks...The Onion

• Last week, I questioned whether even Pres. Obama cares about the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). I asked myself that question after the story broke regarding the failed launch of the Obamacare web site. In fact, most Americans are now asking themselves how an administration can spend three years and $400-500M developing the web that doesn't even work (And today, even Consumer Reports warned consumers to stay away from Healthcare.gov because they had to admit--it sucks big time). I asked myself similar questions after every new revelation reinforcing the law's many problems. That's in addition to the administration's long record of failed domestic and foreign policies.

• Those questions and more also lead me to ask: Does Pres. Obama's ideology trump competence? We know he prefers to reward loyalty over competence. We've seen examples of this over and over again. After the Fast and Furious scandal unfolded (Remember that? We lost track of over 2000 guns we gave to drug cartels, at least one gun was traced to the killing of Brian Terry, an American border patrol agent), Eric Holder was not fired. In fact, Holder was even held in contempt of Congress for refusing to turn over documents related to the "botched Fast and Furious gun-running scandal" (CNN's words, not mine). He still remains the country's chief law enforcement official.

• We now know from several investigations---including Congressional investigations---that the attack on our consulate in Benghazi was a complete FUBAR. Yet, the individual overseeing the State Department, Hillary Clinton, was not fired. In addition to that, her record of achievements is conspicuous by its absence.  Even more disturbing, she appears to be the leading Democrat candidate for the 2016 election. But it doesn't end there. Since she left office, she's been deluged with one award after another.
• Hillary Clinton was not the only one who appears to have been given a pass for her breathtaking incompetence. Susan Rice, currently National Security Advisor, was promoted to that position even after she peddled the false story---blaming a video---for the attack on the consulate in Benghazi.
• Remember the IRS scandal? Well, it's still being investigated. But do you recall Sarah Ingram? She was the commissioner for the tax exempt office that targeted mainly conservative groups (the core of the scandal). She was promoted to head ObamaCare for the IRS.

The Political Class + The Media Are Navigating America Into The Heart Of Darkness

Report: You Live In An Embarrassing Country...The Onion

• After reviewing Obama's last 5 years and all the failures associated with this administration, I recalled "Heart of Darkness," a novel by Joseph Conrad. The novel is rich in symbolism. One of the many symbols Conrad highlights is darkness (hence the title). Darkness, to the best of my memory, denotes evil, corruption and madness. The film, Apocalypse Now, had some of the same symbolism.
• And while our current situation is not as dark as the novel and the film portray (there been other periods in our history when all was much bleaker as in the Civil War), it certainly appears our nation is descending into a strange and disturbing state of darkness.
• How can any rational American feel otherwise with a political class and its enablers who are devoid of any scruples or honor (I include both Democrats and Republicans in this political class, most of whom happen to be Progressives)?  I've written about the pathetic state of the nation for years now from high unemployment, high poverty levels, a divisive administration, an incoherent foreign policy, and the worst economic recovery in our history.
• But all of those and more are just symptoms of what the real problem is facing our great nation. We're currently living in a nation where the political class and its promoters in the media want us to believe all is well, all is normal (many refer to this as the "new normal." Garbage). It's an illusion created to divert our attention to the problems they've created. We've been deluged with notions of power, lies, hope, change, transparency, polarization, corruption, cronyism, gridlock, shutdown, faux negotiations, etc. etc. The irony in all of this is they want us to believe they (the political class) can repair the very problems they've created.  In addition, when we do witness a few courageous politicians like Ted Cruz who alert us to the true intent of the political class, they are derided and even referred to as crazy, hostage takers, anarchists, etc. even by their own party. These young conservatives are a threat to the "gray bearded" elites in the Republican Party.