(Via Daily Mail)  Michelle Obama got in touch with her theatrical side today as she hosted a Careers in Film symposium at the White House.
The First Lady, 49, took to the stage and told high school students attending the event that she quite fancied herself as a Disney princess after hearing composer Alan Menken talk about how he had created scores for films including Beauty and the Beast.

Closing her eyes, with both hands clasped to her chest, she exclaimed: ‘I don’t know about you guys, but I was listening backstage, and I just wanted to put my ball gown on and twirl and twirl.’   (link)

The “Vulnerables” (pictured below) have been given the green light to yell, scream, ridicule, gnash teeth, disparage and belittle President Obama, HHS, The White House and Obamacare.   Free reign on the optics, BUT ONLY THE OPTICS. 
They are free to do/say anything to save themselves in order to make “appearances” better for them in the face of their constituents.  However, they are not allowed to structurally do anything which might change the law itself.
WASHINGTON DC – Democratic senators facing voters next year are willing to give the White House time to resolve the glaring problems with Obamacare.
Very little time.

At the pleading of senior White House officials, Senate Democrats are holding off on demands to delay major aspects of the health care law until the Obama administration has the opportunity to fix the website problems that are thwarting enrollment in the program.
Democratic senators facing reelection have a green light to bash the White House and call for certain legislative fixes. But they’ve been urged by senior administration officials not to insist on delaying the controversial law’s core: The mandate for individuals to purchase insurance coverage or face penalties. (more…)

Someone tell me what exactly is the U.S. value, or interest, in this Obama-doctrine again?   Concessions for Iran and Disparagement for Israel ?    Seriously.

GENEVA – On the eve of a new round of nuclear talks between Iran and the six world powers, a U.S. official said Wednesday that the powers want Iran to halt its nuclear program for six months in exchange for temporary sanctions relief.
The American official added that imposing any new sanctions on Iran at this stage would seriously undermine the negotiations.
During the three weeks since the last round of talks in Geneva, Iranian experts have been meeting in Vienna with counterparts from the six powers – the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany – to discuss the technical aspects of this first step, including how Iran’s nuclear program will be suspended and which sanctions would be eased.  (read the update)

Meanwhile: (more…)

The media and Republican goal now shifts to the historic national election of first female President Hillary Clinton.

With that in mind the media and the GOP “Decepticons” (the Old Guard) will proclaim New Jersey Governor, Chris Christie, as the second coming of political Jesus.   The Republican establishment will swoon over Christie’s large victory and proclaim his resounding win as evidence he is the last and only great hope for 2016.
In complete, albeit temporary synergy, the progressive media will reinforce this GOP message (in the *DROOLING extreme) because they too have a vested interest in seeing Governor Chris Christie rise to be the chosen GOP candidate in the same vein as they selected Governor Mitt Romney.

[*if you want a funny exercise: record all of the dreamy, swoony and complimentary things the media will say about Chris Christie over the next 48 hours.  Save them, and then compare them to what happens mid-summer 2016 – from the exact same people]

The media do not want a bold contrast. Bold contrasts are dangerous to progressive advancement. Bold contrasts are scary.  Bold contrasts represent “risk”.   Remember who they called “maverick” in 2007.   No, the progressive media will position to have a candidate who is ideologically closer to oppose their chosen Hillary.
Chris Christie fits that billing perfectly.   White banker, pro-amnesty, pro-Islam, pro-big government, pro-big business, pro-bailouts, anti-state’s rights, Pro-FEMA, Pro-expanding Medicaid, Pro-Obamacare;… the perfectly squishy middle-man to replace perfectly squishy Mitt Romney, who replaced perfectly squishy John McCain, who replaced.. well, you get the picture.
The GOP even groomed him in the optic of his victory speech: (more…)

A week ago we posted the story which aired on CNN and outlined the White House threatening insurance companies to keep their mouths shut and don’t talk bad about Obamacare.
When we shared the story we included the following paragraph:

Whenever you see the words “threats” and “directly from the White House” in one sentence or phrase, you can be intellectually confident President Obama’s Chief of Staff, Denis ”The Fixer” McDonough, is the source of the pressure.

Some people took exception, a few even emailed pointing out that Denis McDonough is now the President’s Chief of Staff and would not be the one “out of the office and pressuring anyone”.   It’s simply “not his job to protect policy” and “he doesn’t have time to fill that role” was the essential framework.
Well, we don’t think Treepers are stupid.   Nor will we obfuscate by not pointing to things which -while they might break from traditional framework- are more than likely to be the reality of what’s going on:
If it walks like a duck, talks like a duck, sounds like a duck, looks like a duck – it isn’t a flippin’ swan that waddles.
(more…)

CAUTION ! YOU MUST remember the ideology behind who we are talking about here. This is NOT a normal presidency prone to changing directions based on public pressure. This IS a radical insurgent presidency committed to advancing a cause REGARDLESS of opinion.
Radical Alinsky-minded liberals, and Alinsky-trained community organizers, have spent years honing the skill of goal advancement AMID ADVERSITY.  Even if their behavior is acceptable to 5% of a collective group – they are able to disconnect themselves from their “id”.
There is actually a psychological training they go through where they learn to override the normal function of the psychological “id”.
In normal people the “id”, which is the unconscious sense of guilt and personality, generates needs of fulfillment from recognition of ‘doing-the-right-thing’.   In normal people if these needs are not satisfied, the result is a state of anxiety or tension. (more…)

The below paragraphs are excerpted from a larger article available at American Commitment.Org Explaining the changes to all Americans under Obamacare structural standards testing, “Essential Health Benefits”:

According to HealthPocket: “The data shows that there will be a near complete transformation of the individual and family health insurance market starting in 2014. Less than 2% of the existing health plans in the individual market today provide all the Essential Health Benefits required under the Affordable Care Act (ACA).”
Even the best of the best plans are being canceled in the individual market. Bob Laszewski, a top industry analyst, described his cancelation:

“I have been in this business for 40 years. I know junk health insurance when I see it and I know ‘Cadillac’ health insurance when I see it. Right now I have ‘Cadillac’ health insurance… The new plan would have a deductible $500 higher than the one I now have and a lot more if I go “out-of-network” inside the rest of the Blue Cross national network… And, wait all you people telling me rate shock does not exist, the new far more restricted plan costs 66% more than our current monthly premium.”

Not in the individual market?  Scott Conover did an extensive analysis on Forbes showing that there are also changes in the small-group market – where only five percent of plans offered required pediatric dental check-ups – and the large-group market.  He found that overall 129 million Americans will no longer have the health plan they had, including millions whose previous employer coverage will be outright dropped.  (read full article)

Axelrod-isms:

• People didn’t lose their health insurance – They’re “transitioning” to better coverage.

• The website is not broken – It’s encountering a “glitch”.

• They didn’t promise you could keep your healthcare plan TODAY –  They promised only the plans you liked which were being used before the law was signed were protected.   Not the ones issued over the past 3 years.

• The law was created to protect a breathtaking, and extraordinarily massive, number of people who were uninsured (30 million) – The number of people who have, or will, lose their coverage is a very, very small number, a “sliver” (15 million).

*Note:  I love how David Gregory is just filled with angst.   Why were we, your loyal supporters, defenders of ‘the one’,… why were we, set up for this pounding ?   You could have avoided it…. why…. oh why… didn’t you stop him ?   Whyyyyyyy?   

The best thing that can happen to turn public opinion solidly against Obamacare is to keep putting this guy, Ezekiel Emanuel, out there as the face of it.  He absolutely personifies all that is associated with the ‘we-know-better-than-you’ arrogance:

You can watch him in action HERE

He hides his construction of socialized death health panels by asserting he is against euthanasia.   However, this is belied by the fact, in his own admissions, he is a noted advocate for the withdrawal of medical treatment for the “elderly” or those “beyond help”.

David Gergen appeared on the AC360 Later show on Wednesday October 30th.    Gergen is a Clintonian Liberal, and gave his assessment of how President Obama appears disengaged from governance. 
However, his more accurate summary was when he described the White House as a command center for purely politically driven operations, and not actually governing or accomplishing anything.
…. at least he started out that way until the Kool-Aid drinkers, Andrew Sullivan and Charles Blow, were able to pick their aghast jaws off the floor and begin to push back.  D’oh…. It was quite humorous to watch.
The Copyrighted Video of the segment is available HERE.  It is well worth the watch.   Also, below is the CNN transcription from the segment.
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