The Obama administration plans for the future, illustrated

From Michael Ramirez:

John Stewart analyzes the Narcissist-in-Chief

Things are bad for Democrats when even John Stewart is not defending them:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Indecision 2010 - Democratic Campaign Woes
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Rally to Restore Sanity

For more on the nature of Pres. Obama's narcissism, see Bookworm.

PREVIOUSLY on the subject of narcissism:
•Hybrid cars and narcissism
•Narcissist-in-Chief (with cartoon and photo)
•Study: Environmentalists more likely to "cheat" and "steal"
•Obama: "I want you to understand: this is not about me!"
•Obama: it's all about me!
•Confusing Compassion with Narcissism
•Obama's narcissism and the Chicago Olympics bid
•Environmentalism and Narcissism, II
•From OpenLeft: Is liberalism narcissism?
•Environmentalism and Narcissism,
•The side-effects of good intentions

Obamacare endangers health coverage for 1.4 million workers

The Wall Street Journal reports (hat tip: HAP):

McDonald's Corp. has warned federal regulators that it could drop its health insurance plan for nearly 30,000 hourly restaurant workers unless regulators waive a new requirement of the U.S. health overhaul.

McDonald's currently offers "mini-med" plans for its low-wage workers. Owing in part to frequent worker turnover, these plans have higher administrative costs so that they cannot meet the payout ratio of 80 to 85% that Obamacare requires. 1.4 million US workers have mini-med plans and, unless the rules change, could lose coverage.

What made Congress think it was smart enough to determine the right payout ratio? In other industries, payout ratios (or the ratio of product direct cost to price) depend on many factors and vary widely. As long as consumers are free to choose the product that best suits them, this is a not a problem. Now that Congress has set payout ratio requirements for medical care, there will likely be a long series of "unintended consequences." Taking just one as an example, health insurance companies spend a lot of money fighting insurance fraud. Obamacare's requirements for a high payout ratio limit this and could result in insurance fraud becoming more common: the criminals will get rich and the rest of us will pay for it with higher premiums.

UPDATE: The government grants waivers.

PREVIOUSLY on the subject of ObamaCare:
•ObamaCare threatens child-only insurance
•Medical insurance prices rising due to ObamaCare
•Obamacare endangers student health
•Obama's health care and economic policies explained
•Obamacare may raise insurance costs by 54%
•Harvard economist explains why Obamacare will raise premiums
•HHS says Obamacare will cause costs to go up and cause employers to drop coverage

Auto fatalities and the law of unintended consequences

Since texting while driving is clearly a stupid thing to do, has the banning of texting made the roads safer? No, says a new study. The Christian Science Monitor reports:

State laws prohibiting texting while driving have not reduced car crashes, and in some places may have actually increased the number of accidents, says new safety research released Tuesday. . . .

“There is a lot of media attention on the topic in general, but it’s difficult to find specific policy solutions,” says Fernando Wilson, an assistant professor at the University of North Texas in Denton. Last week, his study showing that texting while driving had increased auto fatalities by more than 16,000 between 2001 and 2007 was published in the American Journal of Public Health.

How could a ban on texting make driving less safe? One possible explanation is that the drivers who are stupid enough to text while driving probably also react to the law in a stupid manner. They may see the problem as one of avoiding getting caught which they could do by holding the phone lower in the car so others can't see it. Of course, by holding it lower, their eyes are further off the road than before, making their driving more dangerous.

Are their many people who actually text while driving? Wired reports that half of 18 to 24 year old drivers admit to texting while driving. Young and immortal.

PREVIOUSLY on unintended consequences:
•Liberals versus unintended consequences
•Campaign finance reform and unintended consequences
•Obama, liberal idealism, and unintended consequences
•San Francisco liberals drive blacks from city

Al Gore's favorite scientist arrested again

If you watch An Inconvenient Truth, you will hear Al Gore mentions only one scientist by name: James Hansen. If you were thinking that Hansen was a calm, rational, reasonable man of learning, then you should think again. From Nature:

NASA climate scientist James Hansen has gotten himself arrested while protesting mountaintop coal mining. Again.

The Huffington Post reports that he was among about 100 people arrested outside the White House yesterday while protesting this particularly troublesome form of coal mining. The same thing happened last June, a few months after Hansen proclaimed his willingness to be arrested during another protest.

WattsUpWithThat has more.

PREVIOUSLY on James Hansen:
•Former boss calls James Hansen call an embarrassment to NASA
•NASA's global warming scientists caught hyping false data
•James Hansen "muzzled" by Bush White House?

A superpower run by amateurs

The AP reports (hat tip: Instpundit) on yet another diplomatic gaffe by the Obama administration:

The U.S. government said Sunday it made an "honest mistake" when it displayed an inverted Philippine flag — which wrongfully signified that the Southeast Asian nation was in a state of war — in a meeting hosted by President Barack Obama.

The Philippine flag was displayed upside down behind President Benigno Aquino III when leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations met Obama in New York on Friday.  [Emph. added]

PREVIOUSLY on the subject of the amateurish nature of the Obama administration:
•War on Fox Noews shows White House's frustrations and amateurishness. (update)
•Amateur Hour at the State Dept.: the "reset" gaffe
•Amateur Hour: Obama discovers role of business
•Amateur hour at the White House: Obama snubs Brazil's President

Pot growers oppose pot legalization

This November, California will vote on Proposition 19 which legalizes and taxes marijuana. The Rand corporation forecasts that, if passed, this would lower pot prices by as much as 90%. With pot being a major cash crop in parts of Northern California, NBC/Los Angeles reports that pot farmers and the government officials that they support both "fear" this possible loss of revenue:

The potential price drop has brought unexpected opposition, or at least suspicion, from rural pot farmers who fear the loss of their traditional, though legally risky, way of life.

Marijuana has become so crucial to rural economies along the state's North Coast that even some local government officials are working on plans for coping with a pot downturn.

PREVIOUSLY on this year's pot legalization campaign in California:
•Prop. 19 supporters at the San Francisco rally for John Dennis (who is the Republican challenger to Nancy Pelosi)
•California's upcoming ballot proposition: a quick look
•Conservatives go to pot
•"Legalize today; get high tonight"

November is coming

Fiorina losing ground against Boxer

According to RealClearPolitics compilation of polls, Carly Fiorina had nearly pulled even with incumbent Sen. Boxer (D-CA, shown at right) two weeks ago but her poll numbers have dropped precipitously since then:

UPI reports that Fiorina's supporters lack enthusiasm:

Two-thirds of respondents in the survey taken statewide Sept. 14-21 said their preference for Fiorina was largely based on disapproval of Boxer rather than support of Fiorina, the Chronicle said.

An advantage that California Sen. Boxer has over challenger Fiorina is that Boxer has supported Pres. Obama and, unlike much of the country, Pres. Obama is actually popular in California. Rasmussen reports:

Fifty-seven percent (57%) in California approve of the job President Obama is doing, while 42% disapprove. Those ratings are better than those found nationally for the president in the Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll.

PREVIOUSLY on the always outrageous Sen. Boxer:
•Even global warmists like Senator Boxer are backing away from IPCC
•Ma'am Sen. Boxer for and against climate whistleblowers.
•Will Boxer go the way of Coakley?: CA Senate race tightens (Jan. 2010)
•Boxer and Kerry campaign for cap-and-tax
•Cap and tax in the US Senate: a who's who of the villains and their committees
•Boxer: Never trust anyone who is well dressed

Gov. Christie's greatest hits

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is a politician who knows how to speak plainly and clearly:


PREVIOUSLY on Gov. Christie:
•Gov. Christie on New Jersey and the astounding greed of its teacher's unions
•U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie prosecutes terrorists

Saddam provided terrorists with money, training camps, and weapons says ex-Minister Aziz

This week, the AP has obtained records of the FBI's interrogation of former Iraqi Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz (pictured). According to the notes, Aziz acknowledges that Saddam's Iraq supported terrorists: Saddam provided Islamist terrorists with land with which to raise money (via farming) while also housing a training camp. In addition, Saddam provided them with AK-47 machine guns. While Aziz denied a direct connection with bin Laden, the AP writes:

Aziz acknowledged, however, that the Saddam regime supported other terrorists, including notorious Palestinian militant Abul Abbas, mastermind of the 1985 hijacking of the Achille Lauro cruise ship. American passenger Leon Klinghoffer was killed by the terrorists and his body dumped into the Mediterranean. Abbas was captured in Iraq by U.S. forces in April 2003 and died in custody 11 months later.

Aziz said Baghdad gave Abbas a farm to allow him to generate money for the Palestinian cause. "The farm evolved into a camp where Abul Abbas would train fighters with AK-47s" provided by the Iraqi government, Aziz said, according to a summary of his May 6, 2004 interrogation.

PREVIOUSLY on the subject of terrorism:
•9-11 in review

•Round-up of left-wing terrorism
•Yet another left-wing terrorist
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•The root cause of terrorism
•Gitmo torture: Metallica is proud of its music's message to terrorists
•Speaker Pelosi's deep thoughts on giving Miranda rights to terrorists.
•AG Eric Holder was for enhanced interrogation before he was against it.
•The NY Times finally admits we were fighting Al Qaeda in Iraq
•Gitmo torture tactic revealed: "she touched my thigh!"
•Terror color codes updated for Obama (illustrated)
•NY Times skeptical of Bush but trusts terrorists
•Global warming predicted to cause more terrorism
•Before Al Qaeda: the socialist-terrorist alliance of the 1980s

First human-powered ornithopter

The (Toronto) Star reports:

A University of Toronto engineering graduate student has made aviation history, successfully flying the first ever human-powered flapping-wing aircraft continuously.

Todd Reichert, a PhD candidate at the university’s Institute of Aerospace Studies, piloted the wing-flapping aircraft, sustaining both altitude and airspeed for 19.3 seconds and covering a distance of 145 metres at an average speed of 25.6 kilometres per hour.

Ornithopters (flapping-wing aircraft) have been around for a while but this is the first one efficient enough to carry a human while not requiring more than the limited power that a human can produce.

While it is unlikely that ornithopters will ever be as fast as jet planes, there are other uses for airplanes for which the ornithopter's potential for being quieter and more efficient could be important. In any event, this flight is another human accomplishment. Here is the video:

ObamaCare threatens child-only insurance

The Washington Post reports (via Instapundit):

Some of the country's most prominent health insurance companies have decided to stop offering new child-only plans, rather than comply with rules in the new health-care law that will require such plans to start accepting children with preexisting medical conditions after Sept. 23.

The reasons for this are, of course, the perverse incentives created by Obamacare:

Robert Zirkelbach, a spokesman for AHIP, noted that insurers will be accepting children with preexisting conditions in other types of plans.

But, he said, extending such coverage in child-only policies "provides a very powerful incentive for a parent to wait until their child becomes very sick before purchasing coverage." [Emph. added]

RELATED:  Under Massachusetts' version of Obamacare, emergency room visits have increased.

PREVIOUSLY on the subject of ObamaCare:
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•Obamacare endangers student health
•Obama's health care and economic policies explained
•Obamacare may raise insurance costs by 54%
•Harvard economist explains why Obamacare will raise premiums
•HHS says Obamacare will cause costs to go up and cause employers to drop coverage

It's a paradox: Congress unpopular "despite record"

A Bloomberg News story highlights a conundrum: how could it be that Democrats are unpopular "despite" their "record of legislative achievement that rivals President Lyndon Johnson's `Great Society'":Hat tip: BotW.

A rational reporter would have written that Democrats were unpopular because of their record, not despite it.

PREVIOUSLY on the paradoxes that vex liberal minds:
•"Ironically," conservatives and their children are happier
•It's a paradox!: Crime down when criminals are in jail.
•Paradox: crime is down (again)
•Paradox: few fraudulent voters if voters are required to have IDs

The Obama economy

It is now official: the latest recession was, as the Wall Street Journal reports, "the longest and deepest slump since the Great Depression":
The Democrats has spent two years pushing anti-business/anti-jobs policies. What did they think would happen? Listen this Obama-supporter who spoke at a town hall today in Washington and it is clear that Obama's supporters had no idea there would be downside to their agenda:

PREVIOUSLY on Obamanomics:
•Obama 0, Germany 1:
• Medical insurance prices rising due to ObamaCare
•Laws of Economics 1; Obama 0
•Why Liberal economics fails: redistribution does not create wealth (Illustrated)
•Obamacare endangers student health
•Why business isn't hiring
•Dodd-Frank finance "reform" bill stops bond market cold
•Why unemployment insurance must be extended (illustrated)
•Obamanomics still failing, Washington Post discovers
•Russia goes supply-side
•Study: Liberals are economically illiterate

Too little, too late: Dems turn on Pelosi

The Wall Street Journal reports:

Swing-district Democrats, fighting for their political lives, are beginning to turn on Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.), one of the most powerful House speakers in decades but also one of the most polarizing figures in U.S. politics. . . .

A half-dozen Democratic candidates have aired advertisements seeking to draw distance from the speaker, including one released Friday by long-time Rep. Chet Edwards of Texas. . . .

Thirty-one House Democrats rebelled this week against her position on former President George W. Bush's tax cuts, signing a letter calling for all of the cuts to be extended, not only those for households earning less than $250,000.

It is too bad those those Democrats did not found their voices before Porkulus and Obamacare. If they had, we wouldn't be in the fix we are in now.

PREVIOUSLY on the subject of Speaker Pelosi:
•San Franciscans rally against Pelosi
•Speaker Pelosi and Sen. Feinstein: how their husbands benefit from government contracts
•Speaker Pelosi's deep thoughts on giving Miranda rights to terrorists.
•San Franciscans speak to Nancy Pelosi (Aug. 14)

Why is Islam popular in prison?

(There are moderate Muslims.  This particular post, however, is not about them.)

Bookworm writes that conversion to a religion "looks good" in prison (I presume that means that parole boards like it).  But, there is more:

Further, as my cousin, the prison pastor, says:

It is not a contradiction to be a Muslim and a murderer, even a mass murderer. That is one reason why criminals “convert” to Islam in prison. They don’t convert at all; they similarly remain the angry judgmental vicious beings they always have been. They simply add “religious” diatribes to their personal invective. Islam does not inspire a crisis of conscience, just inspirations to outrage.

This video (hat tip: GayPatriot) explains three key facts about Islam that every Westerner should know:

PREVIOUSLY on subjects related to Islam:
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Fire From the Heartland

I haven't seen the full movie but the trailer is impressive. I particularly liked watching Sec. Geithner squirm:


Hat tip: Uncoverage.

The DVD is to be released October 18th. You can purchase it here.

PREVIOUSLY on the Tea Party movement as seen in the San Francisco area:
•Long Strange Trip: Hippies defend establishment; Tea Party protests (Jul 18)
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•Collected photos of this year's San Francisco Tea Party events
•Minutemen vs. May Day protesters in San Francisco
•A tax day Tea Party breaks out in San Francisco's Union Square
•A tax day Tea Party breaks out on the San Francisco Peninsula
•3 in 10 Californians identify with tea party protests
•To protest Obamacare, San Francisco holds a sick-in (Nov. 15)
•A Tea Party greets Obama in San Francisco (Oct. 15)

Culture of Corruption Shocker

Breitbart has uncovered a shocking audio recording of a phone message left by Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) in which she cites her work as a sub-committee chair on projects of concern to the callee and then asks for contributions. If this isn't overt extortion, what is? Here is a partial transcript of her phone message:

I am a, um, Senior Member, a twenty year veteran and am Chair of the Sub-committee on Economic Development, Public Buildings and Emergency Management. I’m handling the largest economic development project in the United States now, the Homeland Security Compound of three buildings being built on the uh, old St. Elizabeth’s hospital site in the District of Columbia along with uh, fifteen other, uh, sites here for, that are part of the stimulus .

I was, frankly, uh, uh, surprised to see that we don’t have a record, so far as I can tell, of your having given to me despite my uh, long and deep uh, work. In fact, it’s been my major work, uh, on the committee and sub-committee it’s been essentially in your sector.

Breitbart has the full audio and many more interesting details.

PREVIOUSLY on the subject of corruption:
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•How to buy a congressman
•Poll: Dems think it OK to cheat on taxes
•Obama and Tony Rezko
•Democrats and taxes
•How to buy a judge
•How Al Sharpton buys his political contributions
•Corruption at the World Bank
•Speaker Pelosi and Sen. Feinstein: how their husbands benefit from government contracts
•The rules apply only to other people
•Rep. Kagen investigated by FDA
•Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) under an ethics cloud

Justice Breyer looking to overturn the First Amendment

George Stephanopoulos reports on his conversation with Justice Breyer (pictured):

Last week we saw a Florida Pastor – with 30 members in his church – threaten to burn Korans which lead to riots and killings in Afghanistan. We also saw Democrats and Republicans alike assume that Pastor Jones had a Constitutional right to burn those Korans. But Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer told me on "GMA" that he's not prepared to conclude that -- in the internet age -- the First Amendment condones Koran burning.

“Holmes said it doesn’t mean you can shout 'fire' in a crowded theater,” Breyer told me. “Well, what is it? Why? Because people will be trampled to death. And what is the crowded theater today? What is the being trampled to death?”

In other words, under Breyer's proposal, Americans would lose the right of free speech if the government says that there are extremists somewhere who might respond violently. both governments and extremists would find that very convenient.

Hat tip: Dr. Sanity.

PREVIOUSLY on the issues of dissent and free speech:
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•University upset at free speech
•The Right of Free Speech, Selectively Applied
•Tolerating free speech, IV
•Tolerating free speech, III
•More on tolerating free speech
•Those who cannot tolerate free speech