re Obamacare "tech surge" at The White House to fix broken Ocare website: I posit educated guess why West Wing is being so secretive re identities of this Nerd Squad A-Team meets Mission Impossible: Saving Obamacare 2.0. That answer is "optics"

CNN

Pundits' prescriptions for what ails healthcare CNN contributor Ryan Lizza and A.B. Stoddard from The Hill give Brooke Baldwin their RX for the Administration's healthcare woes. October 30th, 2013 06:32 PM ET 

http://newsroom.blogs.cnn.com/2013/10/30/pundits-prescriptions-for-what-ails-healthcare/

Somewhat out of the blue Thursday, while reading some tweets of some of the people I religiously follow, I got to wondering if I'd actually stumbled across at least one of the reasons why the White House is being so secretive as to the identities of this Nerd Squad A-Team 
meets Mission Impossible - Saving Obamacare 2.0

Given the condescension that has come out of the WH over the past 5 years on a whole host of policy and political issues involving gender and identity politics, often greatly amplified by their echo chamber of sycophants in the Beltway press corps, especially among younger female reporters and producers, isn't it likely that seeing concrete facts or photos that confirm that the Obamacare rescue crew is largely composed of not just men but the dreaded White Men would just be too much of a PR buzzkill and "optics" problem for Team Obama to publicly countenance?

Instead of wholesome, free spirit, All-American girl-next-door and savvy computer nerd poster girl Angela Bennett (Sanda Bullock) in The Net, it's sixty-something year old Dads and Uncles with computer super-powers far beyond the ken of most normal mortals coming to the rescue.

Note what happens at 0:42.
Someone has hacked into a cabinet member's personal medical file. 

Just wondering...

Tech experts enlisted to help fix Obamacare website 
By CNN Staff 
updated 4:17 PM EDT, Thu October 31, 2013
http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/31/us/obamacare-website-experts/index.html

The Rob Portman for VP boomlet begins to take shape, and once it becomes a bandwagon, it won't be stopped

Sen. Rob Portman and Sen. Ron Wyden Introduce Bill to Help Lower Medicare Costs by Keeping Seniors Healthy. March 29, 2012.

http://youtu.be/r51NayIBBVc

Personally, despite the avalanche of media stories we've seen in South Florida for months exploring and positing various positives and negatives about Marco Rubio, I've thought that Ohio senator and former OMB chief Rob Portman would be the GOP pick for Vice President for probably about eight months, which is part of the reason why I started a subscription to his YouTube Channel around then, and as you may've surmised, the video above is the fruit of that tree.

Over the weekend, when reading what was new at The National Journal, a magazine that, as I've noted before here, I first became aware of while attending IU, I came across this very persuasive column by Major Garrett making some of the same points that I've been making in conversations for months down here, a few of which are precisely why Rubio is not as qualified right now.

Despite what you may start hearing from the Mainstream Media about Mitt Romney looking to protect his right-flank by choosing one of two former governors, it won't be either Tim Pawlenty or Mike Huckabee, because in my opinion, neither has the ability to move a sufficient number of the tens of thousands of college-educated Independent voters in North Carolina, Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania who are THE voters who will decide November's election.

They are more interested in the economy, cutting government spending and creating jobs than they are in social issues, and Rob Portman is someone whose résumé and personality will appeal to them, especially the entrepreneurs who genuinely want meaningful health care reform, but NOT the sort of over-reach and top-down government tyranny of Obamacare, which will be a job-killer.

The National Journal

ALL POWERS

Rob Portman's the One

Why I think the senator from Ohio is going to be the veep nominee.

By Major Garrett

Updated: April 5, 2012  2:45 p.m. 

April 4, 2012  6:00 a.m.

Mitt Romney will be the Republican nominee, Wisconsin sealed the deal, and he will pick Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio as his running mate.

Write it down. And harangue me mercilessly this summer if I am wrong.

Column writing, I have learned, is part provocation and part explanation.

There is nothing provocative about declaring that Portman will be Romney's running mate, except that it hasn't happened and I don't know it an as absolute fact.

But everything tells me it will be so.

Read the rest of the column at:

http://www.nationaljournal.com/columns/all-powers/rob-portman-s-the-one-20120404

-----

http://twitter.com/#!/MajoratNJ

http://www.youtube.com/user/SenRobPortman

WSB-TV Video: Dying cancer patient in Atlanta-area evicted from gated Apt. complex, personal belongings looted by strangers -and neighbors!

WSB-TV video: Dying cancer patient in Atlanta-area evicted, personal belongings looted by both complete strangers and neighbors in the Chelsea Ridge Apt. complex. Channel 2 Action News reporter Mike Petchenik reports from Johns Creek in north Fulton County on a bad personal story that just got a whole lot worse by showing the worst side of human behavior -and business practices.

http://bcove.me/fy058swl
Story at: http://www.wsbtv.com/news/28614207/detail.html


-----


http://www.wsbtv.com/index.html


Atlanta Journal Constitution homepage: http://www.ajc.com/

If Obamacare is so great, why do so many people want no part of it, esp. Union members? Barone: O Skirts Rule of Law to Reward Pals, Punish Enemies

The Beltway story du jour involves the ever-reliable and observant Michael Barone of the Washington Examiner explaining something in detail that you may have heard a little about about on the radio or TV, but never got an adequate explanation for -the overwhelming evidence of favoritism among Obama supporters in gaining waivers from provisions of Obamcare they said everyone had to obey.
Or as he puts it, "Examples of crony capitalism, bailout favoritism and gangster government."

-----

Washington Examiner

Obama Skirts Rule of Law to Reward Pals, Punish Enemies

A Commentary By Michael Barone

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Question: What do the following have in common? Eckert Cold Storage Co., Kerly Homes of Yuma, Classic Party Rentals, West Coast Turf Inc., Ellenbecker Investment Group Inc., Only in San Francisco, Hotel Nikko, International Pacific Halibut Commission, City of Puyallup, Local 485 Health and Welfare Fund, Chicago Plastering Institute Health & Welfare Fund, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee, Teamsters Local 522 Fund Welfare Fund Roofers Division, StayWell Saipan Basic Plan, CIGNA, Caribbean Workers' Voluntary Employees' Beneficiary Health and Welfare Plan.

Answer: They are all among the 1,372 businesses, state and local governments, labor unions and insurers, covering 3,095,593 individuals or families, that have been granted a waiver from Obamacare by Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius.

Read the rest of the essay at:

http://washingtonexaminer.com/politics/2011/05/obama-skirts-rule-law-reward-pals-punish-foes

Previous Barone post at: http://washingtonexaminer.com/people/michael-barone

South Florida media blows easy lay-up on health care reform -what else is new?

I could've asked this rhetorical question anytime
during the summer or last month or last week,
and the answer would be the same, but here
goes:
Where exactly are the interviews by reporters
from the Miami Herald and South Florida
Sun-Sentinel and Channels 4, 6, 7 or 10
with the various candidates running to replace
Kendrick Meek in Congress on what they
think about the particulars of the current health
care debate and the bill that got passed by the
House late Saturday night, one of whom will
likely get elected?

Well, they are invisible to the naked eye
because they have never taken place.

Instead, South Florida's apathetic media have
taken to drowning us in the smug, snarky and
arrogant comments of South Florida media pet,
Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, the woman
who wouldn't even meet her own constituents
face-to-face on the issue, preferring to go the
Tele-Town Hall, which is to participatory
democracy what Publix frozen pizza is to
Sicilian Cuisine.

Not that South Florida media even got up
long enough from their summer slumber
to chide her about this, or even commented
on how imperious this made her look.
As if she didn't have that attitude down pat!

Can you guess where DWS was when she
'participated' in the group telephone call
masquerading as constituent work sessions?

Actually, I know, but the real answer is that
sometimes it doesn't matter what you as an
elected official think, what's important is
showing that you care enough to listen
with an open mind.

She couldn't even gather up enough energy
to fake it for an hour or two.
Pathetic!

As we all know by now, DWS is not exactly
known for being one of the great listeners
among South Florida's elected officials,
nor is she someone with a rep for keeping
an open mind.

Her robotic Goldilocks empathy may cheer
some Broward condo commanders who only
want to hear her stay "on message," but it
leaves many moderate Democrats like me
cold.

So returning to media issue avoidance, as is
usually the case when it comes to news,
rather than actually being a tool for well-informed
news junkies in South Florida on this issue,
it's even worse when WIOD gets into the act,
because they play the same damn comments
every thirty minutes for over at least six hours
straight.

And when you know you're looking at hearing
dreary DWS all afternoon repeating Team
Pelosi's talking points, that's a real tune-out
factor.
Even makes you wonder what Jim Rome
is talking about in The Jungle on WINZ

By the end of four hours, you almost yell
out in Pavlovian anger what's about to be
said, word-for-word.
(This is also known as 'The Susan
MacManus Problem' to me and my
circle of friends on account of her
consistently insipid comments that
are no doubt supposed to sound
high-minded if not droll, but which
are usually neither.)

I did a thorough search of all news stories and
columns in the Herald or Sun-Sentinel for
the entire year to see if they quoted any of the
candidates' position on health care, based on
a few different popular lists of announced
candidates for CD-17, and guess what
turned up?
Nothing.

That's my CD and that's your South
Florida media hard at work.
Or is it hardly working?

I know some of the most well-informed
people in the whole ocean-side duchy of
Hallandale Beach and SE Broward County,
and yet with less than a year to go before
the election, nobody I know has seen
a single one of the roughly a dozen
announced CD-17 candidates in Hallandale
Beach at a non-partisan public event.

Part of the problem of a large part of Hallandale
Beach being in a gerrymandered district
like Kendrick Meek's -see maps
http://www.thegreenpapers.com/maps/111th.cgi?FLH17,
and http://www.nationalatlas.gov/ -of literally
being just a few miles south of FLL Airport,
yet merely being the appendage to a CD
like 17 based in Liberty City, Overtown,
Opa-Locka and Miami Gardens, is that the
candidates based there think they can
ignore you.

But guess what?
Our votes count, too.
And we can vote against candidates just
as easily as we vote for them, too.
With purpose or spite or whatever
particular emotion we feel at the time.

That makes you wonder how close the
fastball questions you ask of the candidates,
in front of the media, ought to come
to their head when you eventually
get the chance, since eventually,
you will.

How badly do you want to show how
unprepared THEY are to represent the
area in Washington?

Do you pepper them with simple questions
they consistently strike-out on, or do you
ask them hypotheticals, and then argue that
their answers actually show there's little
in their background to indicate they have
the chops for the job?

Trust me, Washington doesn't need
more dummies.

Have they ever been to Washington, D.C
before, a la Edward Markey?

Sometimes, a brush-back pitch or two serves
a very useful purpose, especially for people
who've already shown a pronounced tendency
to take you for granted.

I've wondered for months what would happen
to all the political calculations and CW if an
Anglo candidate with some demonstrated
organizational and people skills like a
Kevin Burns got into the race for CD-17?

And what if such a candidate declared
publicly that they'd let the other dozen
candidates ignore Hallandale Beach if
they wanted to, but that they'd actually
visit cities located within the CD,
and NOT take them for granted?
Hmm-m-m...

As they used to say during the beginning
VO narration to MTV's The Real World,
at least the first few season I watched,
I think these candidates who've ignored
voters here are going "to find out what
happens... when people stop being
polite... and start getting real...
The Real World"

The Real World Miami's Flora vs. Mike & Dan @ Yahoo! Video

The Real World: Washington, D.C.
premieres on December 30th.
http://popwatch.ew.com/2009/06/10/the-real-world-cancun-washington-dc-mtv/

Kendrick Meek's curious out-of-the-blue Saturday morning Town Hall meeting

A last-minute email of mine that went
out across the transom late Friday night
to interested parties across the Sunshine
State concerned whether or not Rep.
Kendrick Meek would actually be making
what amounts to an in-store appearance
at Hallandale Beach City Hall on Saturday
morning, or go the route chosen by
Debbie Wasserman Schultz.

And therein lies the mystery...

This is an edited version of that email.
-----------------------
Friday September 11th, 2009
11:25 p.m.

Last Wednesday afternoon while up at Hollywood
City Hall for their City Commission meeting on the
explosive Police pension issue, I saw the flyer below
on their public notice board near the City Clerk's
office and snapped a shot of it.



Hm-m-m...
So Congressman Meek will hold a Town Hall
meeting pertaining to Health Insurance Reform
at David Park Community Center, 108 N. Park
Road in Hollywood on Saturday the 12th from
9-11 a.m.

Not to discuss the issue of "health care reform" that
everyone originally bought into for reasons of logic,
compassion and economics, but health insurance
reform, the new tact taken by Obama in his effort
to sell a program that doesn't really seem to exist
on paper so much as in the hands and heads of
Senator Max Baucus's Senate Finance Committee
and staffers. http://finance.senate.gov/

(See Proposed Framework for Health Care Reform,
from Sept. 9th
http://finance.senate.gov/press/Bpress/2009press/prb090909.pdf
Also, see various Baucus, Grassley Policy Options
for Financing Comprehensive Health Care Reform
listed at http://finance.senate.gov/sitepages/legislation.htm )

So, having been surprised at coming across this
news nine days ago without having read anywhere
else about it, I made a mental note to myself to use
the photo and mention it on the blog as the date
drew near, which was going to be Thursday.

But literally as I was in the middle of writing about it,
with my list of health care articles and links at the ready
to sprinkle here, I decided to take a break and take
a spin over to the Sun-Sentinel's Broward Politics
blog to see if there was anything percolating over there.

In retrospect, I'm glad I did because it prevented me
from writing and posting something I'd immediately
have had to pull down and make surgical edits to.

What I saw there shocked me:
Congressman Kendrick Meek plans health
care town hall in Broward

Posted by Anthony Man on September 10, 2009 09:52 AM

http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/news/politics/broward/blog/2009/09/congressman_kendrick_meek_plan.html

My first thought: Isn't that the same time that
he's supposed to be in Hollywood?
And my second was why is it being held there,
in such a small facility?

I immediately started wondering whether Meek
& Co. would pull a phony Town Hall like another
South Florida gerrymandered congressperson
who's never had to run a competitive race for
their seat, Debbie Wasserman Schultz.

You'll recall that she recently had a pre-digested
Tele-Town Hall, which has all the civic charm
and spontaneity of a car maintenance manual.
Where seldom is heard a discouraging word...

Then, this morning, the Herald ran a similar
version on page 3B, which is what I had in my
email to you all this morning, at bottom.

This afternoon, I swung by the HB Cultural
Center to find out why this event was being
held Saturday morning in a facility that barely
holds 100 people, when the Cultural Center
behind City Hall can hold many times that
number.

Well, it turns out the HB PAL is having their
abbual antique sale there the whole weekend,
so that's out, unfortunately.

But still rather curious about how the whole
event seemed to spring up overnight, since
neither I nor any of my well-informed friends
had heard anything at all about Meek actually
coming here until Thursday's Sun-Sentinel blog
post, I asked a someone in a position to know
whether or not an effort had been made to have
it in the Cultural Center in the past few weeks,
or, at a future date, when more citizens could
attend.
"No."

You might recall that during the recent
congressional recess of several weeks,
the deadest and warmest weeks of the
year in Washington, trust me, rather
than taking advantage of that time to
cross the countyline and have a health
care meeting at the HB Cultural Center,
Meek was campaigning all over the state
for the U.S. Senate.

Tonight, around 8:15, I walked by HB City Hall
and was surprised to see that a barricade had
already been erected in the parking lot near
the entrance off U.S.-1.



Looking north towards the barricade from
in front of HB City Hall, with U.S.-1 to the right.

This, of course, was the 'one trick pony' they
employed for many years, to no positive effect,
at the city's public beach, as a substitute for
their actually patrolling the beach areas like
other South Florida oceanfront cities do,
esp. on busy three-day holiday weekends like
last weekend.

But in Hallandale Beach, under this particular
mayor, this particular city manager and this
particular police chief, that's not the way they
do things.

Which doubtless explains why there are always
so many dozens of police cars glued to the
HB Police Dept. parking lot that are never seen
on the city's roads.
But then what am I saying, you already know that,
don't you?

As you may recall, the real tip-off to potential
miscreants arriving at North Beach, with mischief
on their mind, that they had no reason to fear the
police were those bowls of cat food and water
that were placed directly in front of either the
police car's tires or underneath the chassis.
Day-after-day, week-after-week.


One of the three empty Hallandale Beach
police cars parked near the public entrance
to HB City Hall tonight.
Can't say for sure if it's one of the many
that's been growing roots over near the
Old Dixie Highway entrance to City Hall
the past few years, that were caked with
months worth of dirt.
It was too dark to tell since the three parking
lot lights closest to the entrance -shocker-
weren't working.
Just like last week and last month and...


The ruse is now in place tonight at HB City
Hall as I write this, and as you can also see,
the Meek folks don't want you taking flash
photographs.
Perhaps he thinks he's Amish


Please don't take photos of the Congressman
in the building that your taxes paid for -he's
now Amish!


Why do I have a bad feeling that many
of the Hallandale Beach 108 will be plants?



Hey, what do you know, the parking lot light
closest to the public entrance of HB City Hall
is STILL out.

And, the very light that's closest to the one
and only HB Police Dept.-controlled security
camera in front of that side of City Hall.

The light that has NOT worked for 18 of the
21 months since the cameras first went up.

The light that HB Police Chief Magill could
apparently care less about seeing fixed,
judging by his pathetic excuses many months
ago when I reminded the whole Commission
during public comments of a night meeting
he was present at, how poorly the City Hall
area has lit at night for years, and if they
doubted it, they could just step outside and
see for themselves.

There are many cities in this country where
my comments would've led to it being fixed
the next day, if out of embarrassment more
than anything.

But not here in HB.

Months later, that light just keeps on snoozing
thru the night.
That's your Hallandale Beach City Hall in action!




Meanwhile, down the street a few blocks,
on the median of U.S.-1 & S.E. 9th Street,
I said hello again to our old friend
-the HB sign.

Moved a few hundred feet north many months
ago because of FDOT road construction, despite
its new location, its light STILL doesn't work,
extending its previous futile record of being out
of commission to well over five years
-longer than the U.S. fought in WWII.

Another Mike Good/Joy Cooper success story.

Now that I've added a big memory card to my
digital camera, I can shoot video and plan on
doing so Saturday morning, to capture whatever
happens, if anything.

I strongly suggest that those of you with an
interest in attending bring along your own
camcorder to record the action,
such as it may be.

See photo at:
http://miamiherald.typepad.com/nakedpolitics/2009/09/no-bullhorns-no-protesters-at-meeks-town-hall-.html
--------------------------
This weekend, I'll be posting something I've already
written about Meek and the candidates who are
seeking to replace him in Congress, and why they've
been so curiously AWOL in Hallandale Beach,
as well as the pages of the Herald and the
Sun-Sentinel, but for now, I just wanted to pass
this along in case you're up to the idea of asking
about arcane provisions of 3200 at 9 am on a
Saturday morning.

I'll be there with my camera and writing pad at the
ready, hoping for either insight or group dynamic
hijinks, but not really expecting to see either.

------------------

Posted on Fri, Sep. 11, 2009

Meek to hold town hall on Saturday in Hallandale Beach

U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek will hold a town hall meeting Saturday in Hallandale Beach to discuss proposals to overhaul the nation's healthcare system.

Meek, D-Miami, represents part of South Broward. He is also running for his party's nomination for the U.S. Senate next year.

The event will begin at 9 a.m. in the City Commission Chambers, 400 S. Federal Hwy., Hallandale Beach.

Doors will open at 8:30 a.m. Space is limited and will be provided on a first-come, first-served basis, Meek's office said.

-- SUN SENTINEL