Others Say Smart Stuff, Too - Part XLVII

From Victor Davis Hansen ("The Orphaned Middle Class"):

The problem with Obamacare is that its well-connected and influential supporters -- pet businesses, unions and congressional insiders -- have already won exemption from it. 

Others Say Smart Stuff, Too - Part XLVI

From Frank J. Fleming, on governmental gridlock:

Right now, politicians have the power to suddenly decide to tax us all at 100% and then spend the money replacing all of our roads with a high-speed rail system. What keeps them from doing that? Common sense? Come on, look at the morons we have in government — Congress is filled with idiots who couldn’t run a lemonade stand and who have grand visions to transform the nation. No, the only thing stopping them is that they’re divided into two parties who viscerally hate each other.

The Lap Dogs Become Attack Dogs

White House ventriloquist dummy Jay Carney suffers the wrath of the White House press corps over their lack of access, and manipulation of the news by the Obama administration.

Great news for Obama

The unemployment rate for November actually hit 7.0%, great news for Obama, because it's been a year since it's been that low. Even better is that the Labor Force Participation Rate, which affects the unemployment rate, ticked up to 63.0%. (The LFPR counts those in the workforce. Not in the workforce, you can't be counted as unemployed, whether you're working or not.)

As I've detailed often before, Obama has benefited from a drastic drop in the number of people who are counted in the workforce. It has kept his "official" government-reported unemployment rate below ten percent, even though millions of more people are not working than when he took office. Since a picture is worth a thousand words, here's what the LFPR has done under Obama:

Labor Force Participation Rate since January 2009

Now. Since some people will think Obama's drop in workforce participation is just a continuation of an ongoing trend, here's the LFPR for the last ten years.

Labor Force Participation Rate since 2003

Flat for several years, with a decline beginning in January 2009 that accelerated and continues to this day, giving Obama an artificially low unemployment rate that makes all the headlines.

Congratulations. If you've read this far, then you've seen something the majority of Americans have no clue about.

Obamacare,the hard sell

The Weekly Standard has a story detailing the adventures of members of "nonpartisan" Enroll America (a huge percentage of which are former Obama campaign staffers) as they try to give members of a Florida neighborhood information on Obamacare. "Hard Sell: Going door-to-door for Obamacare" finishes up with a seminar to help 100 people navigate the Obamacare website to enroll for insurance. (Spoiler alert: After three hours none of them are able to enroll.)

Worth reading to see the crumbling cogs in this Rube Goldberg machine.