BloggeRhythms 10/11/2013

As the battle continues over the health care tax and debt ceiling increase, it just might be that the Republicans are gaining ground. Because no matter how much Dem’s and the liberal press try to say that Republicans are at fault for the slimdown and disruptions caused, dissatisfaction with Dem’s is growing as well.  Some pundits, in fact, are now predicting a total cleaning of both Congressional houses next time around.

 

Furthermore, Nedra Pickler and Jennifer Agiesta of myway.com write that “Americans are finding little they like about President Barack Obama or either political party, according to a new poll that suggests the possibility of a "throw the bums out" mentality in next year's midterm elections. 

 

The AP-GfK poll finds few people approve of the way the president is handling most major issues and most people say he's not decisive, strong, honest, reasonable or inspiring.”

 

There’s also the fact, as I’ve been suggesting all along, that the misguided new health care tax ought to be just left alone, because the odds are extremely high that it will implode by itself.

 

In that regard, Peggy Noonan recapped the debacle succinctly for me, as follows: “A quick summary of what didn't work. Those who went on federal and state exchanges reported malfunctions during login, constant error messages, inability to create new accounts, frozen screens, confusing instructions, endless wait times, help lines that put people on hold and then cut them off, lost passwords and user names.

 

After the administration floated the fiction that the problems were due to heavy usage, the Journal tracked down insurance and technology experts who said the real problems were inadequate coding and flaws in the architecture of the system.”

 

And although the incompetent bureaucrat, Kathleen Sebelius, may not know the statistics for the program she’s responsible for, somebody does. Because, as far as sign-up’s go, the Daily Mail reports that “only 51,000 completed applications using ObamaCare’s health exchanges in the first week, attracting only 6,200 on its first day according to Health and Human Services sources.”

 

Incompetency, however, isn’t limited to only Ms. Sebelius, as pointed out by Peggy Noonan who  hits the nail on the head once again in relating that, “More than any administration of the modern era they know how to talk but have trouble doing. They give speeches about ObamaCare but when it's unveiled what the public sees is a Potemkin village designed by the noted architect Rube Goldberg. They speak ringingly about the case for action in Syria but can't build support in the U.S. foreign-policy community, in Congress, among the public. Recovery summer is always next summer. They have trouble implementing. Which, of course, is the most boring but crucial part of governing. It's not enough to talk, you must perform.”

 

In the meantime though, while the administration’s optimal inefficiency continues to destruct what’s taken over two hundred years to build, let’s not get blinded by the horrendously huge mistakes and forget the little things. Because they count too.

 

It seems, according to the dailycaller.com, that: “Embattled IRS official Sarah Hall Ingram made 155 visits to the White House to meet with a top Obama White House official with whom she exchanged confidential taxpayer information over email.

 

Of Ingram’s 165 White House meetings with White House staff, a staggering 155 of them were hosted by deputy assistant to the president for health policy Jeanne Lambrew, according to a June Watchdog.Org analysis of White House visitor records.

Ingram exchanged confidential taxpayer information with Lambrew and White House health policy advisor Ellen Montz, according to 2012 emails obtained by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.”

So, let’s remember that although the administration may be totally incompetent, botching everything it does due to simple functional inability, they’re not only unqualified professionally but they’re also crooks. 

But lucky for us, and with some help from folks like Congressman Daryl Issa and some whistle-blowers, as each day goes by and evidence builds, they’re slowly but surely burying themselves as well. 

 

That’s it for today folks.

Adios

BloggeRhythms 9/10/2013

I think any truly successful adult would consider an ability to negotiate favorably a significant asset. I also doubt there are many, if any, accomplished professionals in any endeavor who haven’t negotiated in many ways for most of their lives.

 

If you stop and think about it, for most, negotiation’s something encountered quite early in life. Be it angling for a later bedtime, bigger allowance, skipping homework or bargaining for a day off from school to go to a ball game. The give and take of trading is a part of life for just about everyone. Only completely petulant kids say “no” continually, which is why they rarely accomplish anything good for themselves.

 

Since that’s the case, anyone ignorant, arrogant or naive enough to put a foot down, refusing to budge no matter, isn’t only cutting their nose off, they’re occupationally suicidal  because they can’t possibly win.

 

And that’s why I’ve felt from the beginning that in the case of the government slimdown, Republicans had much to gain from  not folding completely from the start, but looking for amenable tradeoff’s instead.

 

I believed that not because I think the Republicans are better in any political way, but nonetheless they had valid points. And more importantly, although the Dem’s were entirely wrong in their positions on the healthcare tax and increased debt, their really bad bet was believing their opponents would fold before a shutdown occurred.

 

But now 10 days have gone by and poll results are showing that voters hold both sides at fault almost equally while the incumbent’s personal job approval rating’s fallen to 44.3. Which means its likely he’ll finally get off his high horse and face reality for once, something he should have learned but didn’t a long time ago.

 

His refusal to negotiate, or even acknowledge an enemy’s existence, cost the lives of four U.S. citizens in the Benghazi attack.

 

Drawing an arbitrary uncrossable line in the sand forced him into a corner where he had to rely on Russia to get him out of Syria. The outcome of that huge gaffe is yet to be seen, but may come back to haunt him again.

 

Then there’s the unilateral ramming through of the health care tax, which the Republicans may not now have to worry about repealing. Because it not only got off to a horrible start, as each day goes by it looks like the systems going to blow up by itself. The only thing absolutely certain about it is that it doesn’t work and may net even be fixable.

 

So, I guess the questions the incumbent ought to be asking himself should focus not only on what refusing to negotiate really costs, but who’s ultimately going to pay the price? And the way things are going at the moment for him, I’d say it'll probably cost him a favorable legacy.

 

Along those lines, more and more information continually surfaces about those in government and their integrity, especially now where the IRS is primarily responsible for administering every citizen’s health care.

 

According to Chris Stirewalt’s column on Fox on-line: “Top Internal Revenue Service Obamacare official Sarah Hall Ingram discussed confidential taxpayer information with senior Obama White House officials, according to 2012 emails obtained by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and provided to The Daily Caller.” Ingram said she was unable to recall the document in question during a Wednesday hearing."

 

With news like that, I wonder how most folks feel about the care and handling of their personal health care data by the government?

 

And then, there’s this one: “The $93 million website launched to process customers through the new ObamaCare marketplace may experience significant technical glitches for months, computer software experts told FoxNews.com. The experts observed numerous spelling errors in the coding of the website and point to the fact that the government skipped some elements in the testing phase of development in order to meet the Oct. 1 deadline. Experts tell Fox News some of the glitches could last into December.”

 

So, once again, as I stated several paragraphs ago, if Speaker Boehner seriously wants to undo the health care tax and take the credit, he better move very quickly. Because if he drags his heels for long, there won’t be anything left to overturn, because it’s going to destruct by itself.

 

That’s it for today folks.

 

Adios

BloggeRhythms 10/9/2013

Busy day today. Didn’t get much time for the news. But, one of the items I scanned made an interesting point, probably true, that the incumbent surely doesn’t want to be the one in office when the nation defaults on its debt for the first time in history. Because, no matter who’s to blame, it would happen on his watch.

 

While the preceding has real validity, whereas the incumbent’s all about image, perception, mirrors and smoke that mask his incompetency, another factor is likely to cause him to find a fix for the hole he dug himself.

 

According to The Associated Press-GfK survey,: “Overall, 62 percent mainly blamed Republicans for the shutdown. About half said Obama or the Democrats in Congress bear much responsibility.”

 

What I found most interesting about the survey is that adds up to 112% in total, which fits this administration perfectly. Because none of them, right up to the very top, know a thing about math, and especially so when they’re trying to figure out why the budget won’t balance.

 

But the thing most likely to get the incumbent negotiating is that: “Most Americans disapprove of the way Obama is handling his job, the poll suggests, with 53 percent unhappy with his performance and 37 percent approving of it. Congress is scraping rock bottom, with a ghastly approval rating of 5 percent.”

 

So, once again, when image outweighs substance, especially when there isn’t any governance capability at all, this too suggests a fix is highly probable.

 

Another problems also arisen suggesting an end to the standoff is needed pretty quickly, as follows:

 

“John Stossel discusses the lessons from fiscal drama in Washington for Fox News Opinion in Shutdown Theater: “If the public starts noticing that life goes on as usual without all 3.4 million federal workers, we might get dangerous ideas, like doing without so much government. Politicians don't want that.”

 

Consequently, just like the sequester turned out to be a dud nobody really cared about, there’s a high probability that except for those affected personally, nobody else gives a good GD about the slimdown either.

 

And then, if you couple that with the fact that the incumbent gives so many speeches, folks tuned him out about four years ago. Which means he’s talking to himself and a handful of folks coerced into listening, and perhaps those in the press who manage to stay awake because they have to. But, all in all, this whole scenario’s a huge waste of time, concerning nothing more than political posturing. And as of right now, it looks like that posture is prone for both sides.

 

That’s it for today folks.

 

Adios

BloggeRhythms 10/8/2013

A couple of random items in an incredibly boring news day.

 

Ronald Kessler new book “Impressions & Observations,” concerns Secret Service personnel assigned to guard U.S Presidents, First Ladies, and Vice Presidents. It contains one of the most accurate quotes I’ve heard in a very long time: “A taxpayer voting for Obama is like a chicken voting for Col. Sanders.”

 

Item two regards a belief I’ve had since the idea of the new health care tax arose several years ago. My premise stemmed from the fact that the government is a basically dysfunctional bureaucracy, populated by de-incented killers of time waiting for early retirement and whatever benefits accrue to their account. And because these ciphers have no ambition or pride in their jobs, their level of performance is close to zero. Which leads to the obvious question of how in the world any kind of massive program can run effectively when managed by people with no capability or drive whatsoever.

 

And now today, we have a couple of proofs of my premise.

 

According to FoxNews.com, Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius appeared on "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart," and was asked “point-blank” by the host if she knew how many Americans had enrolled in the exchanges. She responded, "Fully enrolled, I can't tell you, because I don't know. We are taking applications on the web, on the phone, we'll be giving monthly reports, but I can tell you we've had not only lots of web hits, hundreds of thousands of accounts created."

 

So, the responsible person’s totally clueless and perfectly willing to wait for a month to get a report. Which leads me to wonder what the answer would be if a question were asked of Bill Gates, Warren Buffet or Steve jobs about the minute-by-minute performance of their organizations? 

 

And then there’s this incredible situation, also posted by Fox News”

 

“A two-year investigation by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations has found widespread fraud in the Social Security Administration's Disability Program. A report conducted by Sen. Tom Coburn’s, R-Okla., office found fraud is so rampant, that the Social Security's Disability Trust Fund may run out of money in only 18 months.”

 

Thus, although here again we have glaring examples of absolute, outright and unequivocal incompetence, why should anything else be expected? Because as most experienced folks in business know, if you want to find out how an organization runs throughout, simply look at the ones at the top. 

 

That's it for today folks.

 

Adios

BloggeRhythms 10/7/2013

While the slimdown continues, some obvious but little-covered factors become clearer. 

 

First and foremost, more folks are becoming aware that from the Dem’s perspective, the whole endeavor’s political, having just about nothing to do whatsoever with good governance at all. In fact, to me it seems they don’t care a whit about heath care itself, but are determined to make their Republican rivals look obstructionist. 

 

Thus, as I’ve been suggesting all along, if the Republicans can hold out together in a united effort, sooner or later the Dem’s are going to have start addressing the legislative travesty they’ve created, either finally agreeing to fix it or shut it down. 

 

In the meanwhile, though, I read an interesting article by Noel Sheppard, of MRC NewsBusters via Drudge shedding some light on how the liberal media aids and abets leftist causes wherever it can.

 

Regarding young people, Mr. Sheppard writes that “these folks apart from Facebook and Twitter get their "news" from liberal sources such as the Associated Press, CBS, CNN, MSNBC, NBC, NPR, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and believe it or not Jon Stewart.”

 

He then goes on to cite an interview with a group of journalism students held by host, Frank Sesno, a director of the George Washington University School of Media and Public Affairs, addressing media coverage of politicians.

 

Sesno asks “Who decides who's credible, who's not? How do you cover these people?” 

 

Unidentified male: We shouldn't be giving senators and congressman who are saying falsehood of a -- lying on the -- on the news. So like there are senators and congressmen who have said, you know, the Affordable Care Act is unconstitutional. Well, it is. The Supreme Court ruled that it's constitutional. And that's fine. 

 

So, like, just -- you can't just like say these things because that's how you feel. If someone is going to blatantly say something that's incorrect on the news, as an elected official, we should -- they should lose their access to the media. 

 

Sesno: You shouldn't interview them again? 

 

Unidentified male: No.” 

 

I bring this up because the way the subject was handled by Sesno never really addressed the Supreme Court decision properly at all. 

 

The Court, in fact, didn’t pursue the issue to begin with, whereas Justice Roberts determined the act was a tax and therefore within the discretion of the incumbent and Congress to do what they wanted. And that brings me to my point for today. 

 

Because I firmly believe that if folks truly understood what transpired when this new tax was rammed down their throats, they’d have a whole different attitude toward what had been done. However, the liberal media never mentions the tax aspect at all, instead avoiding the issue completely, protecting their beloved incumbent continually. 

 

And the saddest part of it all is, that between a media that promotes its own causes, combined with educators in the same vein, the minds and thoughts of young folks all over the nation are continually molded to robotically accept biased input without question or retort, regardless. 

 

That’s it for today folks. 

 

Adios

BloggeRhythms 10/6/2013

Here’s a paragraph from a story I found on Drudge by Julie Pace, AP White House Correspondent, that I think pretty much sums up what to expect from the new health care tax.

 

“The rollout of the insurance exchanges has been shaky, with government-run websites plagued by glitches. Despite the problems, Obama told frustrated Americans they "definitely shouldn't give up."

 

I mention this because the administration’s had over three years to prepare for the launch of this extremely unpopular program, and can’t even get the introduction right. So, imagine what’s going to happen down the line when people have actual heath care problems.

 

I know I wouldn't want to arrive in a hospital in a life or death emergency situation, to find that some clerk can’t find if I’m eligible for help because my injury isn’t described accurately in the on-line manual. And what if the system’s down from overload on a busy weekend, and I croak before lackadaisical technicians fix it?

 

Proof of that likelihood stems from the most glaring examples of what to expect from the functions, services and agencies the government tries to run now, such as the post office, the IRS and both houses of Congress. All of which are just about totally dysfunctional.

 

So in the end, if you want to be absolutely certain that the system can’t harm you or make your condition worse, or even kill you, just make sure you don’t have any accidents, need medical care of any kind at all, and under no conditions whatsoever, don't ever get sick any more.

 

That’s it for today folks.

 

Adios

BloggeRhythms 10/5/2013

I’ve mentioned several times before that I think Nancy Pelosi’s one of the dumbest people that ever existed. And because she’s basically worthless, I doubt history will pay her much attention at all. However there's one thing that will likely go down in the annals, when she said that if folks want to know what’s in the health care tax, they’re going to have to pass it. And that’s exactly what’s happening now.

 

As a practical matter, I doubt very much any Democrat in government, other than the specific tax’s creators, knew what was really in the bill at all. Consequently, just like the rest of us, they’re finding out now. And what they’re probably just waking up to is what a horrendous, unworkable pile of nonsensical paper has been created. 

 

And whereas this is the case, Republicans are correct in making a stand, going firmly on record in their efforts to protect the public. And what’s even better for them is that the Dem’s won’t back off, because as each day of the shutdown passes it becomes more obvious that the Dem’s alone own this major disaster.

 

Even the incumbent who’s sworn that he absolutely won't waver, bend or even discuss this issue is now, according to FoxNews.com, “willing to negotiate changes to his signature health care law, ObamaCare, but won’t until Congress resolves its budget issues -- reaching a spending deal to reopen the government and raising the debt ceiling.”

 

So now there’s a chink in the armor, which means that as more time passes he’ll likely become even more amenable. Because he needs a way out from under, or a place to try to shift some blame.  

 

And as far as putting the major onus on Republicans, that isn’t working either as evidenced by the latest Gallup numbers that show on October 4th a presidential approval rate of 41%, with 52% the other way.

 

But what’s even worse for his future I think, is something I saw indicated on Fox News this morning when two young people were interviewed regarding the new legislation.

 

According to them, young folks can expect somewhere between one and two thousand dollars added to their income taxes for health care coverage they neither want nor need. Consequently, their predication is that these folks will either pay the penalty or ignore the tax completely, because these are basically low wage-earners who haven’t got that kind of money in their budgets to begin with. 

 

Which is why I think  that in the age of Facebook, Twitter and continual cell-phone contact, this is a whole new ball game. Because these young folks can band together in a heartbeat, to go on an anti-tax campaign or other mass endeavor too big too handle by a flabby bureaucracy  And who knows, a few months from now IRS top management may all be in jail alongside Lois Lerner, leaving it in shambles as a result.

 

Therefore, since the tide truly seems to be turning and Chicago style muscle-politics aren’t exactly working, the best thing Republicans can do for themselves is to keep staying the anti health care tax course and not give up. Because, the great non-negotitor isn’t really getting anywhere babbling only to himself. .

 

That’s it for today folks.

 

Adios