Twitter doesn't want to play with me anymore.

So, I got suspended from Twitter yesterday.  This makes it the second time in 4 days. 

It didn't tell me what I had done wrong.  It just started getting distant and prickly, and then stopped returning my calls.

Today, I instituting Twitter Watch to track how long it will take to reinstate me and stop depriving the world of my delightful tweets.  The world must be entertained!!!

Biden’s niece: Don’t you know who I am? | New York Post

File this under, "Things never to say out loud to police".

http://nypost.com/2013/10/30/bidens-niece-to-cops-you-dont-know-who-youre-doing-this-to/

Sucker!

"He really only has one move."

Campaign-yam Style

Josh Barro of Business Insider is suspicious about all of HHS's assurances. "The administration is still behaving like it is trying to get Obamacare enacted, and therefore its top public relations task is to bury negative stories about the law and emphasize the upside," he wrote.

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/362299/can-website-really-be-saved-john-fund

Plan B

http://www.gocomics.com/mike-lester/2013/10/24


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People in Healthcare.gov Stock Photos Now Visibly Panicking

http://www.theonion.com/articles/people-in-healthcaregov-stock-photos-now-visibly-p,34307/?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=SocialMarketing&utm_campaign=Status:1:Default

Can the GOP pay to place a "told you" ad on the increasing number of insurance cancellation notices?

I mean, if the administration can pay to have "Due to Republican intransigence..." messages placed at the gates of nat'l parks, the least the Republicans should be able to do is include a little tear sheet (or one of those silver foil sunburst stickers) reminding the voter/former policy holder that we had had a liiiittle skepticism about President "if you like your plan, you can keep it" Obama.

Alternate slogan:

"Obama lied, your policy's denied"


http://hotair.com/archives/2013/10/23/oh-good-insurance-cancellation-notices-are-snowballing/

The "first duty in life"

"The greatest evils and the worst of crimes is poverty; our first duty, a duty to which every other consideration should be sacrificed, is not to be poor."

George Bernard Shaw

Obama has declared Healthcare.gov problems unacceptable. Problem solved. « Hot Air

Just Words TM

Mary Katherine Hamm: "I think Obama thinks when he says things, they just happen. There's no small part of his entire candidacy and presidency founded on a sort of magical thinking. His presence would fix Washington even as he did nothing to fix it and exacerbated many of its worst features. His words would heal our divides and probably the ocean. It's not surprising that his signature law would be animated by a lot of the same. He said "Travelocity for health care," didn't he?

He said Benghazi's perpetrators would be brought to justice, didn't he? He said the IRS acted inappropriately, didn't he? Problem solved.

The pattern should make Obamacare supporters very nervous about whether this thing can be fixed quickly."

http://hotair.com/archives/2013/10/21/obama-has-declared-healthcare-gov-problems-unacceptable-problem-solved/

New, Improved Obamacare Program Released On 35 Floppy Disks

http://www.theonion.com/articles/new-improved-obamacare-program-released-on-35-flop,34294/

Blame. Evade. Demagogue. Repeat.

"Dismissing the extent of the problem and reminding voters that Republicans fought the law -- which is essentially all Obama did in his Rose Garden remarks -- is a deflection, which shouldn't be confused with implementation or governing."

http://www.nationaljournal.com/white-house/why-obama-should-be-freaked-out-over-obamacare-20131021

In one sense, President Obama is absolutely right. Republicans DID oppose Obamacare, of course, but for a litany of reasons that were expressed over and over again since 2009.

Rather than treating those reasons - concern about unintended consequences of the new regulations on premiums, existing plans, and business decisions, and the potentially staggering costs of creating a new entitlement program in the midst of an out of control debt situation (fueled by existing unsustainable entitlement programs) - as potentially legitimate, principled concerns, the President chose instead to demagogue the Republicans (and the Tea Party grassroots movement) as obstructionist, uncaring reactionary elitists.

The President had an opportunity to address a real problem - uninsured Americans, a flawed market for health care, and an out of control health care costs- in a constructive way and chose to continue the pure partisanship and arrogance that characterized his approach to passing the economic Stimulus.

As Fournier writes, the web site is the easy part of this whole thing. The real problems behind Obamacare - dependence on the individual mandate to force the "invincibles" to sign up en masse for health insurance and subsidize universal coverage, skyrocketing premiums, transformation of the plans available to the currently insured, the natural (and predictable) response of businesses to new requirements with regards to hiring, hours, and provision of plans, and, last but not least, the growing costs to government and impact on quality of care (did i forget anything? - are still simmering beneath the surface and demagoguery, blaming, and evasion will not solve them.

But unfortunately those may be the only tools this President knows how to use.

Why Obama Should Be Freaked Out Over Obamacare - NationalJournal.com

If only there had been some opportunity to, say, delay it or something.

http://www.nationaljournal.com/white-house/why-obama-should-be-freaked-out-over-obamacare-20131021

Hope for the next generation: 4-year-old boy recites 'A Few Good Men' monologue [VIDEO] | The Daily Caller

The kid thinks better with his bat.

http://dailycaller.com/2013/10/21/4-year-old-boy-recites-a-few-good-men-monologue-video/

Video: White House not being honest about ObamaCare problems, says Ezra Klein; Update: Obama blames Republicans, shutdown « Hot Air

I want an Obamacare drinking game (heck, an Obama presidency drinking game).

"let me be clear"...drink.
"blaming republicans"...drink.
Broken promise...drink.
Straw man...drink.

I'm going to miss him. He has set a high bar for the next democratic president.


http://hotair.com/archives/2013/10/21/video-white-house-not-being-honest-about-obamacare-problems-says-ezra-klein/

Extra Point. You've been warned.

President finds 16 people able to login to web site to rebut 100s of thousands of negative examples

Shorter Obama: "Who are you going to believe?  Me or your own lying experience spending hours trying unsuccessfully to login?"

http://thehill.com/blogs/healthwatch/health-reform-implementation/329527-obama-to-address-aca-site-problems

The Reality of America's Finances | FreedomWorks

http://www.freedomworks.org/blog/joncgabriel/the-reality-of-americas-finances

A Future With Only 10 Universities (Minding the Future, #OpenVA)

http://www.hackeducation.com/2013/10/15/minding-the-future-openva/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+HackEducation+%28Hack+Education%29&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher#.Ul3gSHeLjTE.facebook

Obamacare, Failing Ahead of Schedule - NYTimes.com

This is actually a pessimistic (for conservatives) article about how the obamacare rollout failure might discredit exchanges and lead to a push toward a top down expansion of Medicare and a bottom up expansion of Medicaid by liberals. (Oh joy - perfectly sustainable, perfectly healthy)
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/20/opinion/sunday/douthat-obamacare-failing-ahead-of-schedule.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0


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Four Things We Think We Know About Obamacare - Bloomberg

Good overview of some information/misinformation about Obamacare rollout

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-10-18/four-things-we-think-we-know-about-obamacare.html

Libertarians are such elitists

CIVILITY: Dem Rep. Steve Cohen: Tea party GOP 'domestic enemies' | The Daily Caller

But remember, it's the tea party and the Republicans who are extremists who demonize people with different points of view.

http://dailycaller.com/2013/10/19/dem-rep-steve-cohen-tea-partiers-are-domestic-enemies-video/

Scarborough Defends Ted Cruz: Not His Fault the GOP Lacks Any Sort of ‘Leadership’ | Mediaite

"There's no such thing as leadership now with that Tea Party caucus," Bloomberg's Al Hunt chimed in. "These people just don't worry about leadership."

What do you mean "these people"?

Oh right...this citizen-driven, decentralized, leaderless Tea Party movement that wants only to stand athwart the Democratic (and Republican), (il)liberal, progressive, statist tide of history, yelling "Stop!", thus securing the blessings of liberty for themselves and their posterity.

Curious that they (and their reps in Congress) aren't falling into line.

Who woulda thunk it?

http://www.mediaite.com/tv/scarborough-defends-ted-cruz-not-his-fault-the-gop-lacks-any-sort-of-leadership/

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Rubio: We’ll win on ObamaCare in the long run, because it’s unsustainable « Hot Air

There's a difference between opposing a government program because of the fear that people will get addicted to it and it will be hard to wean them off (Sen. Ted Cruz's pre-shutdown comments) and opposing a program because you think it will work (cynical interpretation of Cruz's comments).

If I thought obamacare (or any progressive program) would actually work (rather than be shipwrecked on the shoals of economics and the reality of human behavior) then I (and most other republicans) would support it.

But we don't...so we don't.

It's not fear, or pride. It's principles.

http://hotair.com/archives/2013/10/17/rubio-well-win-on-obamacare-in-the-long-run-because-its-unsustainable/


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This could be a conservative drinking game

Drink when you hear (or see) any of the following:

Elite media
Hollywood values
Tax and spend
Clintons
Obama
Pelosi
Reid
Schumer
Cronyism

Polls and Politics

Instapundit Glenn Reynolds commenting on Sen. Lindsey Graham's comments about polls factoring into the Rep. decision to fold on the shutdown/debt ceiling fight.

"The GOP has to deal with the problem posed by a hostile media. It's like trying to mount an invasion when the enemy has air superiority."

http://www.instapundit.com

Conservatives have to expand this fight to more fronts - media, education, entertainment, low info voter channels - rather than "suiting up" on the day of battle.

The March of Folly - obamacare edition

"Failure is not an option." Is a Great Ed Harris quote, but amidst the litany of hubris, incompetence, and "fingers in the ears" blindness/self delusion that led up to the launch/crash, perhaps the administration should have adopted a different approach.

The "we hope its not a third world experience" was at least honest, but it turned out to be a low bar that still tripped up our dedicated progressive statists.

Folly marches on and Icarus plummets to the sea.

http://mobile.bloomberg.com/news/2013-10-14/obamacare-needs-a-drop-dead-date.html


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Obamacare Needs a Drop-Dead Date - Bloomberg

Perhaps not the best metaphor for a health care related product.

http://mobile.bloomberg.com/news/2013-10-14/obamacare-needs-a-drop-dead-date.html

Video: The Affordable Care Act is looking pretty darned unaffordable

This is what happens when insurance is no longer insurance, but a public utility.

"if you like your current plan, you can keep it." The president was Arrogant, Ignorant, or duplicitous to make that claim. Choose two.

http://hotair.com/archives/2013/10/16/video-the-affordable-care-act-is-looking-pretty-darned-unafforable/

Bad news, men: Study shows bacon lowers fertility « The Greenroom

It's worth the consequences.

http://hotair.com/greenroom/archives/2013/10/16/bad-news-men-study-shows-bacon-lowers-fertility/

WH: Sebelius Has Obama's 'Full Confidence'

"Did I say it would be ready in three years? I meant, three years and three weeks. That's the ticket."

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/10/15/WH-Sebelius

"Heckuva job, Kathleen"

High compensation.
Insulation from private sector benefit cuts.
AND absolutely no consequences for complete and abject failure to fulfill promises/meet expectations?

I have to say, Obama is making government employment look more and more appealing.

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/10/15/WH-Sebelius

Don't Believe The Debt Ceiling Hype: The Federal Government Can Survive Without An Increase - Forbes

Take a crash course in how the government could shrink and meet its essential obligations without a debt ceiling increase.


http://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffreydorfman/2013/10/03/dont-believe-the-debt-ceiling-hype-the-federal-government-can-survive-without-an-increase/

Palin: ‘Defaulting On Our National Debt Is An Impeachable Offense’ « CBS DC

Debt ceiling riddle:

We have funds enough coming in to pay the interest on our debt without a debt ceiling increase. The executive branch can prioritize payments and pay our debt/interest first, thus avoiding a default. So if America defaults on its debt obligations, the responsibility will lie squarely on whose shoulders?

Answer: The republicans. Because you're a racist.

http://washington.cbslocal.com/2013/10/15/palin-defaulting-on-our-national-debt-is-an-impeachable-offense/

Roger L. Simon » ObamaCare Best Advertisement for Libertarianism Ever

"Forget Hayek, forget Rand, forget even the California Department of Motor Vehicles, the best advertisement for libertarianism ever is ObamaCare.

No organization, legislation or plan in memory makes a stronger argument for the inferiority of government to the private sector than the black comically named Affordable Care Act."

http://pjmedia.com/rogerlsimon/2013/10/13/obamacare-libertarianisms-best-advertisement/

Man prevents bear from killing him by grabbing its tongue | canada.com

There's got to be a conservative/shutdown/debt limit fight narrative in here somewhere, but until we find it...just enjoy the badassness.

http://o.canada.com/technology/gaming/man-prevents-bear-from-killing-him-by-grabbing-its-tongue/


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Amen, brother

Shutdown

Media polls show Americans blame Republicans for shutdown that media has spent weeks blaming on Republicans

James Madison Anticipates the Possibility of Government Shutdown--and Predicts that the House of Representatives Can and Should Prevail | The Volokh ConspiracyThe Volokh Conspiracy

http://www.volokh.com/2013/10/10/james-madison-anticipates-possibility-government-shutdown-predicts-house-representatives-can-prevail/


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Submitted for your consideration...Barack Obama

"The fact that we are here today to debate raising America's debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. It is a Sign that the US Government cannot pay its own bills. It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our Government's reckless fiscal policies. ...Increasing America's debt weakens us domestically and internationally. Leadership means that 'the buck stops here'. Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and Grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better."  Barack Obama, 2006

President Barack Obama has said that he made these comments in the context of a debate about increasing the debt ceiling that he knew was simply for show, the votes were there for raising it so he knew that his vote, and his comments, were not essential.  They were Just Words (tm).

* "Just Words" was made popular by Candidate Obama scriptwriter (and governor of Massachusetts) Deval Patrick; Candidate Obama used Patrick's Just Words to rebut Candidate Hillary Clinton's allegation that his actions or even later speeches were not consistent with his bold, fiery prose.  Joke's on her.  (Whatever happened to that lady anyway?)

Will: Obama cut classes day they taught separation of powers | The Daily Caller

http://dailycaller.com/2013/10/09/george-will-obama-cut-classes-the-day-they-taught-separation-of-powers-at-harvard-law/

Gallup: Dysfunctional gov’t passes economy as top concern « Hot Air

"As these intrusions become more malicious and arbitrary, Americans are going to come to the conclusion that we have too much government, not just dysfunctional government, and that will become more and more of a priority.  The Obama administration is working its Big Government philosophy out of a job."

http://hotair.com/archives/2013/10/09/gallup-dysfunctional-govt-passes-economy-as-top-concern/

"We are a nation that has a government...not the other way around." - Ronald Reagan

Balkinization: Foot Voting vs. Ballot Box Voting

The key difference between foot voting and ballot box voting is that foot voters don't have the same incentive to be rationally ignorant as ballot box voters do. To the contrary, they have strong incentives to seek out useful information. They also have much better incentives to objectively evaluate what they do learn. Unlike "political fans" who can afford to be "rationally irrational" about political information, foot voters know they will pay a real price if they do a poor job of evaluating the information they get.

http://balkin.blogspot.com/2013/10/foot-voting-vs-ballot-box-voting.html

The Government Brand

Remember how the Bush administration imperiled the Republican brand of "competence" with its mismanagement of the aftermath of the Iraq war, and (to a lesser, much more media magnified distorted extent), Hurricane Katrina?

So, here's a question: Does progressivism depend on government being competent?  What about honest, incorruptible, beneficent? 

Part of how progressives justify the never ending expansion of government is by arguing that "government is just another name for doing things together", that it's a noble, compassionate, effective entity that can justly and dispassionately regulate evil and redistribute resources for the betterment of all.  "Who could be against that?" they ask.  (Conservatives arguing about freedom and choice get tarred as hard hearted troglodytes who would strangle and dismember Santa Claus if given the opportunity.)

Of course, a bedrock of modern conservatism (classical liberalism) is the distrust of government - and that distrust has evolved to encompass many forms: the classic fear of power and tyranny, the awareness that corruption and waste accompanies concentrations of power, a belief in the inefficiency of top down, central planning.

What happens when the government is increasingly seen as negative by its citizens?

When it's seen as:
- partisan and abusing power (IRS partisan targeting of tea party groups)

- Abusive and secretive (NSA spying allegations)

- Spiteful (Park service shutdowns of open air monuments and parks)

- Incompetent (Obamacare exchange roll out)

- Negative impact on quality, choice, price (Obamacare impact on insurance options - admittedly, I'm assuming here so I may be wrong; Obama has been very free with his power to waive/exempt groups from the law, will he be able to do the same with the laws of economics?)

That government tends towards arrogance, waste, corruption, and abuse is an article of faith among conservatives which is why we tend to seek to shrink and limit it to areas of absolute constitutional necessity.

What happens when the people that progressives depend on to support their expansions of government no longer are seduced by the belief in the "goodness" of government?

What happens when you damage the brand so much that people will no longer buy it?

Unbelievable: Obama gets no questions at presser on ObamaCare rollout or shutdown theater « Hot Air

What's revealing about the "we would have asked if not for the shutdown!" defense is that it suggests that reporters are prisoners to the daily news cycle rather than the people who create the news cycle. You hear something akin to that during every election season, when some news anchor will interrupt six hours of wall-to-wall horse-race coverage to lament the fact that the media focuses too heavily on horse-race coverage to the exclusion of policy. Page one today is about the shutdown, ergo they're duty bound to ask about nothing but the shutdown — even though they're the ones who decided what page one would look like to begin with. Perfection.

http://hotair.com/archives/2013/10/08/unbelievable-obama-gets-no-questions-at-presser-on-obamacare-rollout-or-shutdown-theater/

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"Settled law"

I thought conservatives were supposed to be the ones arguing about "settled law" and the illegitimacy of challenging the "status quo".  

Securing the consent of the governed is not a one-off event, nor is securing congressional appropriations.  Interestingly enough, appropriations happen every year and congressional elections every two.  In pursuit of making sure that the government retains the "consent of the governed".

What else could we have the government run?

And then shut down over political disputes (or spitefully deny citizens access to in an attempt to punish the opposing party)?

- Roads

- air travel

- food production and/or delivery

- entertainment

- local schools

- health care

When progressives wish for government control to ensure equal access for all, remember that control of resources can both open and shut doors.

How can you have idea competition and entrepreneurship in a command and control, top down, one size fits all political philosophy like Progressivism?

Prosperity requires freedom, not diktat.

http://pjmedia.com/eddriscoll/2013/10/07/why-progressives-always-get-tech-wrong/

Reason #437 that I'm a limited government conservative

George Will on Fox News Panel:
"There are two ways to make the conservative case for proper suspicion of government based on questions about its competence and its motives.

 You can read Madison Montesquieu,  the Federalist papers, and Jefferson or you can sit back and wait for the government to behave the way it did this week."

Liberals have a hard time responding to conservatives' avowed belief in small, limited government with anything other than ridicule and accusations of small-heartedness. 

But maybe conservatives are just noticing, say, thousands of years of human history and speculating that maybe human nature is a thing.  Lord Acton wrote that "Power corrupts and Absolute Power corrupts absolutely."  Maybe people who have control over others - whether they're government officials or thirteen year old girls at the top of a social clique - tend toward wielding that power for their own ends.  And maybe political philosophers who have thought and written on this topic in lengths greater than bumper sticker messages or tweets had a point when they argued that government might need to be limited.

Whether it's through displaying arrogance and incompetence (Obamacare exchange rollout, post war management in Iraq) or arrogant political venality (the desire to inflict as much pain on the electorate they are elected to serve through the administration of the shut down in order to punish the administration's political enemies) or whether it's just plain old fashioned conflict of political interests and philosophies (the failure to pass a budget or to pass a continuing resolution to fund the government), the federal government never fails to give you a reason to desperately want to limit and constrain it.

The rational reaction to that dysfunction (or Madison might argue, its natural function) is to give the government strict limits, enumerated powers, and checks and balances; it's NOT to advocate expanding its powers by asking the government to take on more completely regulating 16% of the American economy and micro-manage increasing spheres of private behavior.

"We are not seeing an absence of government..."

We are seeing an excess of bad government.

RT @MidwestChemSafe

Lee: Shutdown Behavior ‘Best Argument Against Obamacare Anyone has Ever Made’

"The Obama Administration's behavior during the first week of the shutdown has been the best argument against Obamacare anyone has ever made," said Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah).

The American people do not want Obamacare, and they are demanding that Washington act to protect them from the harmful effects of this unfortunate law.  The president's response has been to ignore them, allow the government to shutdown, and then use his power to close national parks and monuments, stop paying veterans' benefits, and cut off cancer research," he continued. "This is exactly why we should not expand the government's power over our health care choices.  What power the government has, it will use – and misuse – to advance its own interests, even if that means punishing the American people along the way."

http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2013/10/07/lee-shutdown-behavior-best-argument-against-obamacare-anyone-has-ever-made/

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I stand corrected

One of my commenters pointed out that "consent of the government" is a bedrock principle of our American experiment.  (The barricades are just an extension of the political philosophy of John Locke(d out).

No view for you peasants.

I understand completely the impulse behind the administration's blocking off this small parking lot and I am thankful for it.

I had no idea how much danger I have been in these past, say, 25 years stopping and enjoying this view of the Potomac without a government escort.

Civil disobedience never felt so nature-ry

Fort hunt park closed because of federal shutdown? It takes more than a barricade...

...And an armed guard to stop a person who has a rag soaked with chloroform in his pocket.

Or else shut up.

"one should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth or else shut up." Arthur koestler

(I don't know who Arthur Koestler is...I'm sure that one of these days I'll take it upon myself to get Wiki-smart about the man but for now, I'll reference him as the guy who provided the quote that sits atop of theothermccain.com)

I'm taking it upon myself to write ruthlessly about what I believe to be the truth and in so doing to either challenge and reevaluate what I believe to be the truth or discover (as I suspect) that every belief that I have is perfectly accurate and wholly defensible.

A writer writes..always

"one should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up.