The NY Times published a lengthy story by David Kirkpatrick Saturday which attempts to explain what took place last September 11th in Benghazi. Much of the story confirms things reported elsewhere, but the author comes to a different conclusion about
Hundreds of messages proclaiming Iranian resistance to the United States have been published as comments on Barack Obama’s official Facebook page. “Hey America, Be Angry at Us and Die of This Anger, Go Die” is one of many which have
There are a lot of end of year lists circulating this week. This BBC list of 100 interesting facts which appeared in news stories in 2013 may be the most interesting one. Some are science facts, others arcane bits of
In a poll of registered voters, CNN finds that NJ Governor Chris Christie beats Secretary Hillary Clinton 48-46 in a hypothetical 2016 match-up. It’s still a year before 2016 campaigning begins in earnest but pollsters continue to ask who voters
Obamacare is not going to bend the cost curve downward. In fact, there are reasons to think it may exacerbate monopolistic practices which lead to overcharging. That’s the premise of a new piece in Washington Monthly which suggests further government
There was a surge in enrollment in December which brought Obamacare back from the brink of abysmal failure to something more like plain-old failure. A spreadsheet suggests enrollment in private plans is now at 26 percent of the goal for
On Christmas Eve in the afternoon, Reuters dumped this story recapitulating the long history of Obamacare’s IT failure. It’s a technology failure that stemmed from management failure, one which the ultimate manager, the President himself, was completely unaware of until
I just went to healthcare.gov to see how it was doing on the eve of the newly announced deadline (today was the deadline until this morning). Here’s what I found: Right now on http://t.co/q5M34LsNOW: pic.twitter.com/hwNSlIPcAB — John Sexton (@verumserum) December
Last week the White House announced that Obamacare itself could count as a hardship, meaning anyone with a cancelled plan could opt out of the individual mandate for 2014. Friday, CBS This Morning got some reaction from insurers, who were
Obama had a bad 2013 but Huff Post’s Sam Stein wants to know why. Among the answers he comes up with is the White House’s own arrogance. Stein reviews a series of reasons why 2013 broke bad for the President.
The Obama administration has extended the deadline for enrollment from Monday at midnight to Christmas Eve at midnight. There was no public announcement of the change. According to the Washington Post, which published the news Monday, CMS declined to comment
This week the administration claims they have almost broken even on the number of people who gained vs. lost insurance, but they offered no way for anyone to check their math. That’s a problem because their claims don’t seem to
Based on statements the President made in his press conference today, Obamacare is on track to enroll about 12.5 percent of its final goal by January 1st. The President released new information on the progress of Obamacare enrollment Friday. In
CNN/ORC have released a new poll which finds President Obama still stuck at his lowest approval rating ever, 41 percent. Obama’s disapproval is also unchanged this month at 56 percent. Majorities of two important Obama constituencies–women (52-45) and young voters
Thursday Ezra Klein once again compared Obamacare’s unpopular rollout to Medicare part D. While it’s true that part D was unpopular and that Obamacare could one day surmount its image problems, Klein continues to gloss over the significant differences in
Does the twenty-something college kid in onesie pajamas strike terror into the hearts of conservatives? That’s the argument being made by several liberal writers today as part of a backlash against conservative mockery of the goofy OFA ad. Adam Serwer
Ronald Reagan told the story of a benefit stealing “welfare queen” back in 1976 to argue for smaller, leaner government. Liberals have complained about the generalization ever since. Paul Krugman called it a “bogus story” as recently as 2007. It
Yesterday OFA tweeted out an image of a young man in hipster glasses and zip-up pajamas, encouraging everyone to “get talking” about Obamacare over the holidays. The image was roundly mocked on the right, which of course led to push
Under pressure from the Obama administration, insurers have decided to “voluntarily” extend the deadline for paying premiums by 10 days. Today the board of AHIP, the insurance industries largest trade group, voted to grant an extension until “at least” January
Jeffrey Goldberg has an opinion piece in Bloomberg today which should be required reading for gun control advocates. Goldberg makes five points about why the Newtown tragedy did not become the inflection point that many gun control advocates hoped it
Nearly five years from the inauguration of President Obama an overwhelming majority of Democrats continue to blame George W. Bush for the nation’s economic troubles. The Washington Post released the results of a new poll today. The results were mostly
A series of new ads feature three individuals known for doing good in their life along with a “new guy.” The ads were created to encourage donations to Unicef in Sweden. All of the characters speak English (Jesus speaks with
Wendy Davis talks often about her background growing up poor and later living in a trailer as she runs for Governor of Texas, but those experiences don’t seem to have shaped her attitude toward charity. Tax returns show that State
Last January President Obama kicked off his push for new gun control legislation saying “if there is a step we can take that will save even one child from what happened in Newtown, we should take that step.” Last week
A newly released estimate of France’s Purchasing Manager’s Index (PMI) finds the nation falling to a 7-month low. If the figures are reflected in the next quarterly GDP, France will have entered another recession. The PMI report published by Markit
