Disrupting the Narrative of the New Left, its allies in Academia, Hollywood and the Establishment Media, and examining with honesty the goals of cultural Marxism and the dangers of reactionary and abusive political correctness.
THE NARRATIVE AND POLITICAL CORRECTNESS
“Threats to freedom of speech, writing and action, though often trivial in isolation, are cumulative in their effect and, unless checked, lead to a general disrespect for the rights of the citizen.”-George Orwell
A rising tide of Democrats has begun voicing support for easing the deadlines and penalties of the Affordable Care Act, showing the first cracks in party unity against GOP opposition to the health care law.
The pressure is acute in the Senate where Democrats in conservative or competitive states are lining up behind proposals to delay Obamacare, citing problems with the administration's glitch-plagued online rollout.
Sen. Kay Hagan, D-N.C., announced Thursday she supports delaying the enrollment period for two months and waiving the tax penalty for individuals who fail to enroll for the same period of time. The delays would "make up for time that is being lost" while the website is not functioning properly, she said in a statement.
Hagan's statement came the same day the House held its first hearing into flaws in the website, and Julie Bataille, communications director for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, told reporters, "The system just wasn't tested enough."
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., proposed this week delaying the enrollment period, citing problems with HealthCare.gov. Her plan was quickly endorsed by Democratic Sens. Mark Begich of Alaska, Mark Pryor of Arkansas, and Mary Landrieu of Louisiana. All five Democrats face competitive 2014 re-election races.
Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., said he is drafting a proposal to delay for one year the requirement for individuals to purchase health insurance.
A prominent 2014 Senate Democratic candidate, Michelle Nunn in Georgia, on Thursday endorsed delaying the requirement for individuals to buy insurance.
A House Democrat, Rep. John Barrow of Georgia, also called for delaying the individual mandate in a floor speech this week, citing the administration's prior decision to delay for one year a separate requirement for employers.
Today, CBS News political director John Dickerson warned that the president is in danger of entering a "credibility death spiral" due to the growing list of Obamacare false promises.
On CBS this morning, Dickerson presented a rather bleak context for the president's Obamacare presser today. Dickerson says the president's primary goals for this morning's healthcare address are to defend against the barrage of bad press about the "total fiasco" of the program's rollout and to attempt to encourage younger, healthy customers to enroll (to prevent the "death spiral" of the whole program).
But the major problem, Dickerson argued, is the problem of the president's plummeting credibility. Obama's suffering more than just "a political black-eye" or the setbacks of a few "glitches." The president's repeated false promises that Americans could keep their current health plans, that the new system had been "tested up and down," and that the enrollment issues were just minor technical issues all simply "didn't turn out be true":
"It's one false promise after another."
The result, Dickerson argued, could be a "credibility death spiral" for the administration.
Like the Washington Post's Ezra Klein - who argued the failures of Obamacare could turn out to be a "huge betrayal of faith" - Dickerson casts the administration's failure to deliver on his "signature achievement" as a potentially devastating blow to the American people’s trust in the president.
Healthcare.gov launched more than a week ago, and while millions of Americans have signed into the site, not many have been able to actually sign up for insurance because of glitches with the website.
Administration officials implementing the new health care law will be on the hot seat Wednesday as the House Oversight Committee hopes to find out what the problems were.
Committee Chairman Darrell Issa told CBS News' Jan Crawford that he plans to ask how the mess surrounding the website could even happen.
No one knows how many people have managed to enroll because the administration refuses to release those numbers, but the website’s launch has been rocky.
Media outlets have struggled to find anyone who's actually been successful. The Washington Post even illustrated that sought-after person as a unicorn, and USA Today called the launch an "inexcusable mess" and a "nightmare."
White House officials initially blamed the problem on an unexpectedly high volume as they had more than 8 million hits in the first week, but after it went offline over the weekend for repairs, officials now acknowledge other problems.
"We've identified the glitches, we've added hardware, we're recoding software, and I can tell you today is better than yesterday, and we are hoping in the very near future to have a seamless process that's what we are aiming for," Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said.
However, computer experts say the website has major flaws.
"It wasn't designed well, it wasn't implemented well, and it looks like nobody tested it," said Luke Chung, an online database programmer.
Chung supports the new health care law but said it was not the demand that is crashing the site. He thinks the entire website needs a complete overhaul.
"It's not even close. It's not even ready for beta testing for my book. I would be ashamed and embarrassed if my organization delivered something like that," he said.
Julian Bond is 73 years old, so maybe he's past caring how idiotic he sounds, especially on a completely idiotic network like MSNBC, where saying stupid things is de rigueur. If he's suffering from dementia then I apologize in advance for asserting that he's completely full of shit. But on the off chance that he is actually lucid and meant exactly what he said then this kind of self-serving hypocrisy is just the latest example of why liberals cannot be trusted with power.
Stacey Dash is not happy with his comments, either.
Julian Bond how dare you pull the racist card! Always the excuse. Pathetic. This is about Liberty and Justice. Lies and TRUTH.
— Stacey Dash (@REALStaceyDash) May 14, 2013
An amazing clip. Not just because of the aggressive smears (even the MSNBC anchor seems slightly taken aback) or because it's surreal to see a leader of the NAACP, of all organizations, suddenly comfortable with government investigating disfavored groups, but because there's barely any hedging at all. Typically someone who's inclined to make excuses for the IRS's behavior will acknowledge that it was wrong, if only for tactical reasons, and then try to change the subject by finding a different angle to the story - GOP overreach, the "real scandal" spin, etc. Not Bond. He's playing pure power politics here: The tea party is a menace, therefore they deserve harassment in the form of extra scrutiny by the government. Save fair treatment for groups that deserve it. He's repulsive, but you'll rarely see the political id unleashed for this story the way he does it here.
Bond's characterization of the Tea Party as "admittedly racist" is not only insulting but demonstrably false. And the claim that the Tea Party is the Taliban simply demonstrates his ignorance of what the Taliban is all about. But even if Bond had a clue I doubt it would matter because it's painfully obvious that real talk is beyond him at this point.
He used to be somebody significant. Sadly, he's just another babbling old fool, a fossil from a bygone era. He's lowered himself to being merely a much older version of Toure (another race-hustling assclown from MSNBC). As he said, "The truth may hurt, but it's the truth."
