Nobody Asked Me, But...

1) So George Bush has stopped painting selfies…note to Dumbya – use a phone, it's faster…and is unveiling an "art" exhibit for his Presidentin' Liberry. "I see the spirit of hope," my ass!

2) By the way, I was going to post a Top Ten list of Bush's worst paintings and my impression of them, but I was short-circuited by David Letterman

3) There's a deep-water ocean on Enceladus. Unlike other bodies of fluids on other moons, this one may actually be composed of some liquid water.

4) I love Johnny Depp. You never know what to expect when he does the traditional.

5) I blame Obama.

6) This is a tragic loss for journalism. Niedringhaus had an unique style that told a story quickly and compactly, and yet rarely was there wasted space in her photos.

7) I didn't get the chance to fully comment on this, but I actually like this idea. Pity it didn't pan out properly.

8) ♫ I want to tell her that I love her a lot
    But I gotta get a belly full of wine
    Her Majesty's a pretty nice girl
    Someday I'm going to make her mine, oh yeah,
    Someday I'm going to make her mine. ♪

9) If you're wondering why, after six years, Teabaggers are still mad as hell and trying to undermine the President, here's why.

10) Finally, this week in poop

Never In Doubt

President Barack Obama took a victory lap around the Rose Garden yesterday, as the Affordable Care Act hit the point of no return:

WASHINGTON — The sharp partisan debate over the merits of President Obama's signature health care law isn't about to end.

But with the president's announcement on Tuesday that more than 7.1 million Americans have signed up for insurance under the Affordable Care Act, he has managed a remarkable comeback that not so long ago looked implausible.

In the process, he may also have stiffened the resolve of fellow Democrats up for re-election who have been continuously battered by Republicans over the law's implementation.

Kudos to the President for dragging the nation, parts kicking and screaming, into the mid-20^th Century. That many employers are falling all over themselves in support of this action, including many very large health insurance companies, speaks to the wisdom of doing anything to improve the old system. After all, what good is a health insurance plan that has major disincentives to sign up?

It’s not perfect, but it’s the best first step we could rationally expect to take given the idiotic intransigence of those among us who hate poor people and blame them for being poor.

For my part, I always assumed cooler heads would prevail and people would realize what a great deal it is to have health insurance. If anything, I felt 7 million might be shooting too low, not taking into account the massive opposition to the plan from morons and 26 Republican governors who really really hate that they have poor people inside their borders.

This is why I’m not President, however: I’m not cynical enough.

It’s interesting to note that progressive action, like Social Security and Medicare, or the War on Poverty, will meet with intense resistance but reactionary crap like tax cuts and defense spending – while protested strongly – always seem to get a pass in this country. I dream of a day when the opposite will be true, and people start taking responsibility for being a community, and not taking immunity.

Finally!

The day has arrived when Obamacare comes out of rehearsals and goes fully live, and guess what? It’s already outperformed expectations:

The first yearly sign-up period for Obamacare closes today, with early returns suggesting the administration may near a projection of 7 million enrollees made before the U.S. health exchange struggled at its startup.

The rollout has been under constant attack from Republican foes and faced a key U.S. Supreme Court (1000L:US) decision that allowed states to limit the Medicaid expansion that was an important part of the plan. It also suffered from myriad technical flaws in the website that made it unusable for more than a month.

The government last week said 6 million Americans had enrolled by March 27 and about 1 million people a day were visiting healthcare.gov. The sign-ups met a mark set by the Congressional Budget Office in February that was reduced from an initial 7 million estimate after the law’s troubled start in October. Republicans questioned the credibility of the numbers.

So not only has it outperformed the reduced expectations of the bipartisan controlled Congressional Budget Office, it has likely exceeded even the original estimates which were pegged as “too high” and too difficult to achieve!

Well, alright now!

To be sure, it’s far from perfect. Hell, it’s far from excellent, but it’s a start down the right path and will now become a permanent fixture in the American economic landscape.

And mind you, the plan has successfully rolled out despite the obstructionism of Congress in funding it and the various legal challenges thrown up as roadblocks and why?

Because it’s a good idea, has merit and can work, but Republicans would prefer to get the credit for it, despite the fact that President Obama has been forthright in saying that the ideas came from Republican proposals, including the plan implemented by Mitt Romney in Massachussetts.