Got Cronies?

Let's take a break from Obamacare, shall we?

Here’s big news: Turbo-Tax Timmy is definitely NOT going to replace the Bernanke as Chairman of the Federal Reserve.

My that was good! I wonder what the private sector has to offer?

He wanted to make some real money, so instead of just picking up another federal pension he’s going to go to work for Warburg Pincus LLC starting next spring!

Right after the release of the book he’s been working on, “How I Saved Wall Street the Whole World from Financial Collapse with Your Tax Dollars.”

Butt wait: Warburg Pincus? Aren’t they one of those, uh…

job killing vulture capitalist companies? You know, like the “Mitt-Romney-killed-my wife-and-gave-her-cancer” kind of venture capitalist?

"When Mitt Romney and Bain closed the plant, I lost my healthcare, and my family lost their healthcare.  And, a short time after that, my wife became ill. I don't know how long she was sick and I think maybe she didn't say anything because she knew that we couldn't afford the insurance. And then one day she became ill and I took her up to the Jackson County Hospital and admitted her for pneumonia and that's when they found the cancer and by then it was stage four…she passed away in 22 days. I do not think Mitt Romney realizes what he's done to anyone, and furthermore I do not think Mitt Romney is concerned."

Well yes, yes it is. And it sounds like just about the right kind of job for somebody who goes by the name “Toxic Timmy.”

Gosh! This math is hard.

I just hope he knows what he’s getting into, because he’s going to be the guy in charge:

At Warburg, he will serve as president and managing director, not the kind of figurehead or advisory positions that public-sector figures often land after government stints.

Because unlike the public sector, where Timmy has spent his career, in the private sector when “mistakes are made”  the buck stops at the desk of the guy in charge, not some nameless underling.

Of course if nobody ever tells you anything, how can you accept the blame?

So if future audits reveal problems with Warburg’s information system, accounting, or tax returns, Timmy won’t be able to blame Turbotax ® and still pass “GO” to collect his big bonus.

To get the biggest refund, just override all those pesky “error” messages

So welcome to Wall Street, Timmy,

Where greed is still good,

…as long as you have the right (which is to say, left) ideology.

Where money Never Sleeps,

It just passes from your hand to government’s to crony capitalists’

And people with bad teeth never make it to the sequel.

No matter how much tiger blood they have

So here’s my advice for Timmy, on how to make it big on Wall Street: get those rodent teeth of yours capped.

Because you can be greedy, as long as you don’t look greedy.

Got Peanuts?

Today’s Public Service Announcement was paid for by: CGI, Government contractor to Healthcare.gov and friend of Michelle’s

Got Cronies?

Linked By: @batfreight, @ValCSilver on twitter, and Abby L Call, Dennis Denton on facebook, and BlogsLucianneLoves, and NOBO2012 on Free Republic, Thanks!

Cross-Posted on Patriot Action Network

The Obamacare Fix is in: Feets Don’t Fail Me Now!

“There's man all over for you, blaming on his boots the faults of his feet.” – Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot 

Some Friday traveling music, for your enjoyment (click button to play):

These Boots Are Made For Walkin’: Nancy Sinatra

 

I believe this is yet another historic first in our historic presidency - did you see it?

“Not my fault, man.”

The President of the United States just blamed “the man” for all the problems with Obamacare.gov!

“I wake up every single day working as hard as I can on behalf of Americans out there from every walk of life who are working hard, meeting their responsibilities, uh, but sometimes they’re struggling because of the way the system works isn’t giving them a fair shot.”

He’s got Bubba’s “I feel your pain” lip biting down pat:

Although some would argue that if BO woke up a bit earlier and got to work a bit sooner, the “working as hard as I can” bit would be more convincing. Because when this is what it looks like, well, maybe you shouldn’t be so quick to advertise that fact:

Anyway, in addition to the morning talk show host false empathy lip biting pose, Big Guy has also mastered the Bubba finger pointing technique, which is good for providing a little extra cover:

“Nice finger technique, butt squint those beady little eyes a bit more!”

Blaming the vast right wing conspiracy and Teahadists is like tossing free crack at the MSM and LoFos.

Although we are a little cheezed over the fact that it was Bubba’s finger-pointing at Barry on his now infamous Oz-y-TV appearance that made yesterday’s no-fault-apology-and-jiffy-lube- job necessary in the first place.

"I personally believe, even if it takes changing the law, the president should honor the commitment the federal government made to those people and let them keep what they got," Clinton told OZ-y-TV.

Constitutional scholars may note that when Bubba said “even if it takes changing the law” he was not referring to the constitutional law that gives legislative power to Congress. Butt then, when “your gift” is the ability to “fundamentally transform America” without anyone uttering a peep about how you do it, I guess you do have special powers. In BO’s case those powers have included the power to issue decrees by Presidential fiat. I’m still not sure that part is legal though; maybe I should check with Mark Levin, or Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

“Ah tell ya’ man, I don’t know how he does it either. Maybe he really does have a gift.”

Butt I digress: yesterday Big Guy announced the “big fix” for all the problems created by his legacy legislation which caused “a whole bunch of folks” to lose the healthcare plans that they liked.

By official Presidential fiat #217, Barry declared that the 8-10 million people from the individual insurance market that he knew would be cancelled and forced into the Obamacare exchanges, really could keep the healthcare plans that he promised they could keep; before he told them they couldn’t keep them. Period.

Got that? If not, don’t worry because there is a major caveat anyway: you can still only keep the healthcare plan you liked if – and here’s the official caveat - if the insurance companies and the state insurance commissioners agree you can. Which, of course, they won’t. Because they are big, greedy and evil.

So, unless this whole “blaming da’ man for not being down wit da struggle” meme plays better than I think it’s going to:

“Who da’ Man!?”

“Yo, dude -”

 

We’re just going to be forced to go to plan B (The “B” in Plan B stands for “Blame Bush”). It’s worked so far.

h/t Hope n’ Change

Linked By: Larwyn’s Linx on Doug Ross@Journal, and Adrienne’s Corner, and Annie Brown, Candace Crider, Abby L Call, Chuck Jones, Clint Counts on facebook, and BlogsLucianneLoves, and NOBO2012 on Free Republic, Thanks!

Cross-Posted on Patriot Action Network

With Obamacare if you like your American Pie you can keep your American Pie: it will just be smaller. And cost more

Not only are all the Democrats in Washington upset about Obamacare, now even the dog is pretending he doesn’t know Big Guy:

“Bo waits for President Barack Obama to enter the Outer Oval Office, Nov. 6, 2013” – official White House photo by Pete Souza

It’s worse than I thought – do you have a dog? If so, how often do you enter the house without your dog going crazy-happy to see you? Little Bo doesn’t even want to acknowledge Big BO’s existence. Around here we call it “Landrieu-ing.”

I think the rest of the post could use a little traveling music (click play button)

American Pie: Don McLean

Sorry Nancy, Obamacare isn’t working out as well as you’d hyped. Now that people are finding out what actually IS in “THE BILL” it’s not really everything they had hoped and dreamed of…with the exception of Sandra Fluke and the rest of the sluts (their term, not mine).

They’ve all been celebrating for months now.

Butt suddenly nobody else seems to want to own Obamacare, literally, as well as figuratively.

Oddly though, aside from Ted Cruz and Mike Lee, the Republicans seem to have forgotten the political axiom that states “if your opponent is self immolating, throw a little more gasoline on him and step back.”

So the establishment RINOs are vacillating  between Plan A: a bill that proposes to delay the implementation of Obamacare until such time as all the incumbent Democrats running for reelection in 2014 win, or, Plan B: a bill that addresses the unconstitutional law requiring citizens to purchase a product they don’t want to buy, by augmented it with another unconstitutional bill that requires corporations to offer a product that they don’t want to sell.

The RINOs seem to be working nearly as hard as the Democrats to replace the win-win motto of American capitalism with the socialist’s motto of lose-lose:

No sir, it’s not your imagination: your piece of the pie is definitely getting smaller.

Butt that Cruz guy, he seems to be the only one who knows that “you can’t fix stupid.” Here he is on the Kelly files, saying seditious things like “Stop fiddling around the edges; we need to start over.”

Apparently he hasn’t been advised: it’s the law of the land. So we can’t do anything about it.

Meanwhile, talk about “fiddling around the edges:” Big Guy signed another important piece of legislation into law yesterday: H.R. 2094, the School Access to Emergency Epinephrine Act. Also known as the:

"School Access to Emergency Epinephrine Act," which includes in the statutory authorization for certain asthma-related grants a funding preference for States that require schools to:  maintain epinephrine supply; and have on the premises trained personnel who can administer the epinephrine as needed.

In other words, we’re giving the schools more money to train teachers how to use an Epi-pen. (Place on thigh, push button. Done. Life saved. Call 911.)

The usual subjects rejoice in yet another Obama legacy Bill signed into law

Did I mention that Wee Won-1 has a peanut allergy? Well she does.

It's personal, the President says:  First Daughter Malia is allergic to peanuts...

“Got Insurance?”...“Used to got, but now, not.”

What’s this? Bad news on Wednesday? This stuff’s supposed to be held till late Friday afternoon.

Prospects of having the Obamacare website up and running by November 30: zilch, zero, nada.

Butt no problem: we’ve got the marketing campaign ramped-up for when it does work: it’s called “got insurance?” and it’s got it all.

Stay balanced, my friend.

  Hey Susie, hey Nate: Got Common Sense?

Drink up girls, it’s good for you.

Guess how many people  - who used to “got insurance” that they liked  - “not ‘got insurance’ today” because it was cancelled due to Obamacare? To date: 5 million;  forecast: 52 million before this national nightmare is over.

Which might explain our falling numbers in the Presidential popularity contest too. In a nutshell: “not good” and getting “not gooder” (that’s new postmodern-grammar, see above).

So here’s a bright spot amidst all this “not gooder” news: Lady M has taken on a new role: “Michelle Obama Edges Into a Policy Role on Higher Education” (h/t Arabella Trefoil).

Michelle Obama, after nearly five years of evangelizing exercise and good eating habits, will begin a new initiative on Tuesday that seeks to increase the number of low-income students who pursue a college degree. The goals of the program reflect the first lady’s own life and will immerse her more directly in her husband’s policies.

And we’ve got pictures!

“Ok, Show of hands, how many recognize my frock?”

Many of Mrs. Obama’s supporters have been eager to see her use her résumé — before coming to Washington, she was an associate at the Sidley Austin law firm and a health care executive in Chicago — and her role as the first black first lady to expand her agenda. While she has also worked to help military families, her best-known initiative promotes healthy eating.

As I understand it, Lady M will be “expanding her agenda”  beyond No Child’s Fat Behind to focus on the value of higher education. She will place special emphasis on birth control (“Got Birth Control?”),

and the new common core grammar (“Got Grammar?”).

“So, like, I’m sure none of you guys ever recall me not using non-standard grammar or syntax, right?”

We’re not focusing on math because both Lady M and Big Guy managed to get through college and enjoy huge success without ever having to take a math class. And they don’t want your kids punished with a math class either:

“Got Job?”

So they can spend $100,000 on a college degree in order to wait tables, ask if “you’d like fries with that order” or help us lower the unemployment rate and just stop looking for a job altogether. Then they can join the 92 million (and growing every month) Americans enjoying life outside the labor force. And get their free birth control from Obamacare too. THANKS, OBAMACARE!

Now where did Susie go? I’ve got a former boss who want’s to, uh..."Voir dire" her.

“Now Susie, place your right hand on...”

And I might have a current boss who would like to "Voir dire" Nate.

Hey Nate, ever dreamed you could be the President’s body man?

Linked By: Larwyn’s Linx on Doug Ross@Journal, and Clarice Feldman, and Abby L Call, Mireille Buser, Candace Crider, Laurie Guthrie, Clint Counts on facebook, and BlogsLucianneLoves, and NOBO2012 on Free Republic, Thanks!

Cross-Posted on Patriot Action Network

October’s Official Numb-ers: Caution, there will be math!

You all know that in our 2+2=5 world, numbers are the bane of our existence.

Butt sometimes you just have to tackle them anyway, so here goes, in no particular order:

Healthcare.gov enrollees: So far we are reporting somewhere between 40-50,000 signed up. That’s a little (97%) below our target number.

It’s still a bit unclear at this point who’s getting counted in these numbers because, unlike free market accounting, in Obamacare accounting “liking” is the same as buying. Butt I understand our official direction is to count any low hanging chads.

It’s a little bit fuzzy right now how those choosing the completely free option of Medicaid will be treated in our numbers, butt my guess is we count them twice. Because, as Fancy Nancy advised us, welfare, like unemployment, returns $2 in economic activity for every $1 in benefits doled out. Anyway, the fact that we’ve enrolled just 3% of our first month target number is not really a big deal - everyone knows the website wasn’t working! So we’re just a little behind the 8-ball. 

h/t El Rushbo via Newsbusters

Oh, and by the way, that number of enrollees is offset by the 4.8 million Americans who have lost their healthcare insurance (so far) even though they wanted to keep it.

JOBS JOBS JOBS report: despite fears of a “Government Shutdown Slowdown” 204,000 new jobs were created (unexpectedly!) in October. Don’t get too excited though, since most of them were low-paid service jobs, probably filled by illegal aliens. I wonder what’s causing such a surge in the demand for bartenders?

Maybe Hillz knows

Anyway, despite the schtrong jobs number, it wasn’t enough to keep up with the number of citizens who reached “adult” age last month, so we’re still in the hole. This is where the numbers get really tricky, so stay with me here: despite creating 204 thousand new jobs, we had 213 thousand new adults entering the workforce and 932 thousand(!) Americans “unexpectedly” leaving the labor force (no longer looking for work) last month; which means the overall number of Americans with a job fell by – 735 thousand!! Yikes! That brings the total number of Americans no longer “in the workforce” to 92 million!

The good news, of course, is that with nearly 92 million people officially “not looking for a job” our “official” unemployment rate remains firmly locked in Carter 1.0 territory at a very reasonable 7.3%. And think of all the increased economic activity those new 2-4-1 welfare benefits will generate!

Butt, 92 million, that’s nearly a third of us!!! How can we afford that? Just ask Nancy! No wonder Big Guy wants to raise taxes on everybody who has a non-welfare income “on the wealthiest Americans.” How else are we going to pay for all those Healthcare.gov subsidies we’ll be handing out to the millions of unemployed Americans?

And wait: more good news! The stock market is up 105 points! Butt since I’ve probably made your head spin with all these numbers, I’ll save the discussion on how our QE-Forever monetary policy has created spiraling inflation that more than offsets any increases in the stock market for a later date.

Instead of focusing on negatives, let’s move on to something positive: like Lady M’s improvement in selecting appropriate Veteran’s Day attire.

I realize I posted this yesterday in the comments, butt its not easy finding positive things to report on around here.

Note: 2013 over 2009 performance reflects a huge improvement butt past performance is no guarantee of future results

Also note that Lady M is wearing one of the coats from the military collection that I selected for her future Veterans Day appearances back in my 2010 Lady M’s Fall Fashion Notebook.

Big Guy has been a little more hesitant to embrace my recommended military uniform look; not because he doesn’t like it butt because it’s a little too, uh…shall we say, obvious?

How many former FOBs (Friends Of Barry) can you ID?

Linked By: Larwyn’s Linx on Doug Ross@Journal, and Clarice Feldman, and Abby L Call, Mireille Buser on facebook, and That old debbil on JustOneMinute, and BlogsLucianneLoves, and NOBO2012 on Free Republic, Thanks!

Cross-Posted on Patriot Action Network

Veteran’s Day: Remembering Why We Fight

Happy Veterans Day to one and all; and a special, humble, thanks to the over 23 million Americans who have served, and are now serving, in uniform to make the world safe for democracy. While the face of freedom’s enemy morphs over time, we must remain forever vigilant against its eternal malignancy. Lest we forget.

Auschwitz

I know this was posted by robert anthony in yesterday’s comments, butt since today is Veteran’s Day, it’s a good opportunity to repost Weasel Zippers Fun Fact of the Day, via an email from Bill in Kentucky to Bret Baier:

“Putting things in perspective: March 21st 2010 to October 1 2013 is 3 years, 6 months, 10 days.  December 7, 1941 to May 8, 1945 is 3 years, 5 months, 1 day.  What this means is that in the time we were attacked at Pearl Harbor to the day Germany surrendered is not enough time for this progressive federal government to build a working webpage.  Mobilization of millions, building tens of thousands of tanks,  planes, jeeps, subs, cruisers, destroyers, torpedoes, millions upon millions of guns, bombs, ammo, etc. Turning the tide in North Africa,  Invading Italy, D-Day,  Battle of the Bulge, Race to Berlin – all while we were also fighting the Japanese in the Pacific!!  And in that amount of time – this administration can’t build a working webpage.”

Also in less time than it took the Wizards of Smart to build a website, two titans of American industry - car builder William Knudson and shipbuilder Henry J. Kaiser - transformed America’s industrial strength in 1941 into the “Arsenal of Democracy” that propelled our Greatest Generation and our Allies to victory in WWII. (see Freedom’s Forge; it’s an amazing story)

When Detroit was great: Willow Run B-24 Bomber plant, home of Rosie the Riveter, during WWII. Now scheduled for demolition, like most of Detroit

Sometimes our Vets face mortal combat, (from the top: WWI, WWII, Korean War, Vietnam War, Gulf War 1, Iraq War, Afghanistan War)

  

 

 

And sometimes they just stand as centurions at the gate:

Until such time as the gates are taken down

Fall of the Berlin Wall

by wise men with a vision for the world much larger than themselves:

“Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”

Men more concerned with freedom than with their place in history:

Candidate Obama in Berlin, 2008: “I love you back, world!”

Because of such men, and because of the men and women they led, these remains of the  Berlin Wall are just artifacts today, reflecting in a pool somewhere outside Berlin.

 Saturday marked the 24th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

So Happy Veterans Day to everyone who is serving, has ever served, has a family member who served, or who just has heartfelt gratitude for all of our veterans who have helped preserve the last best hope of the world. And I’m not talking about the Won.

"You and I have a rendezvous with destiny. We will preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on earth, or we will sentence them to take the first step into a thousand years of darkness. If we fail, at least let our children and our children's children say of us we justified our brief moment here. We did all that could be done."

P.S. Upon finally reading Richard Fernandez’ excellent article, as recommended by Fausta yesterday, I strongly advise you to do so as well, if you haven’t. It is very apropos of which we speak today: The Three Deceits

AN UPDATE FROM CARLYLE FOR EVERYONE WHO HAS BEEN WORRIED AND WONDERING  HOW SHE’S DOING: She is currently in the hospital following surgery. She is quite weak, slowly mending, and promises to be back with a complete update when she is able. I’m certain she would greatly appreciate your prayers.

Linked By: Larwyn’s Linx on Doug Ross@Journal, and Janet Moorhead, Abby L Call on facebook, and BlogsLucianneLoves, and NOBO2012 on Free Republic, Thanks!

Cross-Posted on Patriot Action Network