White House Knew Obamacare Website was NOT Ready

More keeps coming out about the Obama Regime knowing the Obamacare website was not ready.  And Obama’s line yesterday that heavy traffic was the problem? LIE.

From the Washington Post of all people (with emphasis mine):

Days before the launch of President Obama’s online health ­insurance marketplace, government officials and contractors tested a key part of the Web site to see whether it could handle tens of thousands of consumers at the same time. It crashed after a simulation in which just a few hundred people tried to log on simultaneously.

Despite the failed test, federal health officials plowed ahead.

And that in spite of informed pleas not so to do:

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the federal agency in charge of running the health insurance exchange in 36 states, invited about 10 insurers to give advice and help test the Web site.

About a month before the exchange opened, this testing group urged agency officials not to launch it nationwide because it was still riddled with problems, according to an insurance IT executive who was close to the rollout.

It is *Anglican Understatement Alert* not good that the Obama Administration had three years to get the web site ready and failed.  But what is outrageous is that they knew it was not ready, yet went ahead anyway and gave us a prolonged Shutdown in order to push out this pile.  House Republicans compromised and passed a bill opening the federal government in return for a one year delay in the Obamacare individual mandate.  We now see all too well that delay was needed.  But Obama and the Democrats said no anyway and prolonged the Shutdown and risked going past the debt ceiling deadline.

So Obama shut down in order to cram down our throats an unready Obamacare.

And then he lies about it to boot.  Now even some in the snooze media are waking up:

Mark Halperin, the “Game Change” coauthor and a regular on [Morning Joe], called the rollout “unacceptable” and added that “the secrecy is unacceptable,” accusing the administration of withholding information about how many people have signed up.

His fellow panelist, liberal commentator Mike Barnicle, ratcheted up from there: “They’re lying about it now,” he said. “They’re not depriving us of information, they are outright lying.” The former Boston Globe columnist called the administration’s conduct “unacceptable.”

Yes, lib’ruls and I do agree on occasion.  That this is just a “glitch” or two is just Obama spin.  And that is putting it nicely.

Again, This Was OBAMA’S Shutdown

When I suggested that “Obama is trying the pull that old trick of tyrants – to create and/or use a crisis to crush opponents and to increase one’s own power,” some may have thought I was being “hyper-partisan” or violating Godwin’s Law or something.

The problem is I have been proven *right again*.  Provoking a crisis to crush the GOP and gain more power has been Obama’s strategy all along.  And now there is pretty much a smoking gun to that effect:

“It was during one of those nightly sessions that Jarrett devised the no-negotiating strategy that Obama has employed in his fight with the GOP over the government shutdown,” Klein said, citing sources within the administration….

 “She convinced the president that a government shutdown and default offered a great opportunity to demonize the Republicans and help the Democrats win back a majority in the House of Representatives in 2014 .

. . Valerie also came with the idea of using the words `hostage’, and `ransom,’ and `terrorists’ against the Republicans,’” Klein said.

Jarrett, who like the Obamas hails from Chicago, has deep ties to the president, First Lady Michelle and the extended family.

Thus the House was stonewalled by Obama and Senate Democrats even when they voted to (re)open the government eleven times.  Because crushing those eeevil Republicans was more important than sensible governance.

Oh, and something else lost in the confusion as this whole sordid episode seems to be winding down – Obama yesterday threatened a veto of a debt ceiling increase if it took away the special healthcare treatment of Congress, their staffers, and White House officials.  “Obamacare for thee, but not for we” was that important to him! 

And, of course, he knew that, no matter how unreasonable he was, his news media would spin it as the Republican’s fault anyway, just has they have all along.

Facts are annoying things, especially to Obama and allies.  That’s why you will not hear much of the above from Obama’s kept “news” media.

White House Was Warned Repeatedly of Obamacare Disaster

And before you think it was just those eeevil Republicans who warned Obama that the Obamacare exchanges were not ready, Democrat allies warned the White House, along with insurers and state health care officials.

But Obama went ahead with the now disastrous Obamacare exchange roll-out anyway.

And Republicans offered him a face-saving out.  He could have bought some time, avoided the Shutdown and debt limit impasse if he only agreed to delay the implementation of Obamacare for a year.  It would have been smart politics and sensible policy.  It would have been the right thing to do given that the exchanges clearly were not ready.

But Obama went ahead with the Obamacare exchange roll-out anyway.

And it is a head scratcher.  Is he that spiteful and determined to create a crisis he hopes will backfire on Republicans?  Even at the obvious risk that it would backfire on him?

That Obama refused to take the sensible out of agreeing to an Obamacare delay when he knew (or at least should have known) the exchanges were not ready confirms to me that Obama is trying the pull that old trick of tyrants – to create and/or use a crisis to crush opponents and to increase one’s own power.

But is it working?

“This Tyranny” and Reminders about Anger

If there was ever a time for anger in America, it is now.  For what should be a Constitutional government has been usurped by a tyrant so obnoxious that he would evict the elderly from their homes, Barrycade citizens and veterans from even viewing their memorials and more, much more.

Further I am convinced this is a time for non-violent civil disobedience.  I am heartened to see good gumption like the man who tossed Barrycades from Badlands viewpoints, and WW2 veterans who went through Barrycades blocking their war memorials.  May such simple acts of courage and resistance multiply.

By the way, Dave Carter’s “When the Bleeding Heart Becomes the Iron Fist” is an excellent summary of where we are now as a nation.

But there is a problem with anger, even righteous anger. 

Us men (and women) do not handle anger well.  Even our righteous anger too easily becomes very unrighteous and harmful.  It’s not for nothing that St. James warned, “The wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.” (James 1:20)

I know that all too well from my own experience.  But I’ve also received two timely and needful reminders over the weekend.

The Epistle Lesson yesterday (the 19^th Sunday after Trinity) from Ephesians 4 admonishes “Be angry and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath; neither giver place to the devil.”  St. Paul acknowledges there are times to “be angry,” but when those times come we must be careful to “sin not.” For either through prolonged anger eating us (and/or those around us) up or through our fallen nature and Satan using what may have begun as righteous anger and twisting it into evil, it is difficult for us to keep our righteous anger righteous.  And our nature is such that anger often goads us into committing hateful and harmful sin.

(By the way, I taught this passage to my Sunday School.  Yes, I confessed as I did so.)

This morning, my readings in the Psalms came to Psalm 37, which begins in Coverdale’s translation, “Fret not thyself because of the ungodly”.  Verse 8 elaborates, “Fret not thyself, else shalt thou be moved to do evil.”  And prolonged anger about evil, particularly the evil of tyranny, can indeed so easily lure us into committing evil ourselves.

And tyrants have a history of using that tendency to further increase their power.  A most infamous example is the Nazis’ use of the Reichstag Fire to push through the Enabling Act.

So, while standing up against tyranny, we are to trust in the Lord as Psalm 37 repeatedly and warmly exhorts.  Instead of fretting and being eaten up by anger, we are to remember that He has the final say and will make things right in the end.  And He can and will make things right far better than any rash angry lashing out on our part.

The beginning of Coverdale’s Psalm 57 has become particularly meaningful to me in that respect:

Be merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me, for my soul trusteth in thee;

And under the shadow of thy wings shall be my refuge, until this tyranny be overpast.

Who Shut Down the Government?

Thomas Sowell, of whom I’ve been a fan since I was a youngun, cuts through the Democrat news media B. S. (Sorry for the redundancy there.) as few seem willing to do.

There is really nothing complicated about the facts. The Republican-controlled House of Representatives voted all the money required to keep all government activities going -- except for ObamaCare.

This is not a matter of opinion. You can check the Congressional Record. . . .

The Senate chose not to vote to authorize that money to be spent, because it did not include money for ObamaCare. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says that he wants a "clean" bill from the House of Representatives, and some in the media keep repeating the word "clean" like a mantra. But what is unclean about not giving Harry Reid everything he wants?

Thus the Democrats in the Senate all voted no on funding the government and willfully bought about the shutdown.  And they have rejected numerous efforts since by Republicans to reopen the government, including bills to fund veterans benefits, the national parks, NIH, the District of Columbia, and more.

Whatever your view of the shutdown and of Obamacare, those are indeed the facts.

Downfall XIV: Obama Craves Your Unhappiness

Yes, my headline may seem slightly over the top.  But to what other conclusion should we come when his regime uses a fed funding impasse as a pretext to shut down various popular sites that receive little to no federal funding?

In fact, his blocking off places, such as the WW2 Memorial, costs a lot more than just leaving them be.  The WW2 Memorial normally is not staffed at all, but the Obama Administration sent more people to close and barricade it than it sent to guard the Benghazi Consulate.  Priorities, you know.  Besides that, the Memorial is funded “almost entirely by private contributions” anyway.  So closing it down over an impasse on federal funds is entirely unnecessary and has at least the appearance of sheer vindictiveness.

The Obama Regime has closed and barricaded other privately funded sites, such as the Claude Moore Memorial Farm.  The Regime was even going to postpone the Air Force-Navy football game until someone no doubt *ahem* informed him that is it money-making and already fully funded and that also with mostly private funds (and that postponing it would cost untold money).   

The barricading is going on overseas as well as the regime has closed Omaha Beach.  I wonder what the French think of that?

The Lincoln Memorial is closed, too.  It is among the closures that have not occurred in the past numerous government shutdowns.

So what is the difference this time?  It is hard to see any other conclusion but that Obama wants this shutdown to be as noxious as possible.  Obama craves your unhappiness in hopes it will hurt Republicans.  He so craves the power he would have if Democrats retake the House in 2014 that he is gambling with your access to your national sites.

And he’s played such petty games before during the Sequestration fight.

But if his gamble backfires, if he himself trips over the barricades he has put up, if the public rejects anti-conservative news media spin and instead turns on him as it ought, this nasty episode may only hasten his deserved and overdue Downfall.

---------

Downfall is an ongoing series anticipating and tracking what I expect will be the self-destruction of Obama.

The first post may be found here.  The series may be found here.

Downfall XIII: Obamafail and the Democrat Shutdown (or Right Again)

Yesterday I asserted that Democrat politicos want and brought about the fed shutdown and that Obamacare is not ready for prime time.

Well, not only did we get a shutdown but Democrats in the House, Senate, and, yes, the White House have now rejected Republican efforts to fund portions of the federal government.  Why?  Because Democrats want this shutdown for perceived political gain.  Their flat rejection of yet more reasonable Republican compromises reaffirms that this shutdown is the Democrats’ desire and the Democrats’ doing.

As for Obamacare not being ready for prime time, not only was it very difficult to impossible to enroll on the Obama-trumpeted first day of the exchanges, but there was a security breach of people’s personal information.  Yes, on the very first day.

It’s not for nothing that Drudge for a time yesterday dubbed it “Obamafail.”

And your humble blogger is proven right again.

---------

Downfall is an ongoing series anticipating and tracking what I expect will be the self-destruction of Obama.

The first post may be found here.  The series may be found here.