I’m still unable to login to my account (assuming it was successfully created) at Healthcare.gov. Today I had some error messages I hadn’t seen before, so maybe that is progress. I think CNN should begin sending out a Breaking News Alert every time somebody successfully signs up for insurance. Just so we know it’s possible.
Healthcare.gov’s motto: “We’re not shutdown, but might as well be.”
Two great political analogies during the “Winners and Losers” segment of the October 5 Weekend Update on Saturday Night Live.
Seth Myers said pf John Boehner having to deal with his Tea Party Congressmen: “You’re like Seinfeld if there were 30 Kramers.”
Co-anchor Cecily Strong then said of the problems on the Healthcare.gov website:
“You can’t campaign on the fact that millions don’t have healthcare, and then be surprised that millions don’t have healthcare. How can you not be ready? It’s like 1-800-FLOWERS getting caught off guard by Valentines Day.”
At break, we were talking about team mascot names. Why, one person asked, do we permit insensitivity to Nordic people by allowing a team to call itself the Vikings?
My high school was the Redskins, pretty much the only ethnic group NOT represented at my central-California mutt of a school. But today, no team would choose “Redskins” or other names which represent a people group in some way. Not PC.
It was suggested we could name all teams after animals. But then PETA would get upset.
So I suggested inanimate objects. You could have the Boston Doornobs. The Kansas City Spatulas. The Detroit Vacant Lots. The Minnesota Refrigerators. Stuff like that. Countless possibilities. Who could possibly be offended? And think of the merchandising possibilities?
Our local Fort Wayne baseball team is the Tin Caps, a name which offends nobody except the ghost of Johnny Appleseed.
I identified as Republican most of my life. However, the Tea Party base now rules the day, and moderates like me are persona non grata. Of late, even John McCain, Lindsey Graham, and Tom Coburn are being blasted as not pure enough.
I think of all the remarkable Republicans I’ve admired, or at least respected, over the years. Some were true giants.
Howard Baker.
Mark Hatfield,.
Richard Lugar.
John Danforth.
Orrin Hatch.
Alan Simpson.
Lamar Alexander.
Bob Dole.
Elizabeth Dole.
Ben Nighthorse Campbell.
Ronald Reagan.
John Ashcroft.
James Baker.
Rudy Guiliani.
Nancy Kassebaum.
William Cohen.
Warren Rudman.
Pete Wilson.
Dan Quayle.
Nelson Rockefeller.
George HW Bush.
Colin Powell.
Barry Goldwater.
Arlen Specter.
Phil Gramm.
Gerald Ford.
Richard Shelby.
Olympia Snowe.
Jack Kemp.
Kay Bailey Hutchison.
John Connolly.
George Romney.
Dwight Eisenhower….
I miss those folks.
A friend, a student of baseball, tried to explain to me the difference between the American League and the National League. This, as I told him, is beyond my threshold of caring. However I think I now understand the difference.
The American League players scratch their behinds, and the National League players scratch…the other side. This is a time-honored tradition, and baseball is all about time-honoring. And spitting, of course. My friend also said something about a silly rule called “designated hitter,” which he considered central to the differences between the leagues, but I lost interest.
I’m sure there are many other distinctions between the leagues, such as preferred chewing tobacco and nuanced bat-tapping-on-cleats rituals. But at my advanced stage of life, when it comes to baseball, scratching and itching is as much interest as I can muster.
They goofed big-time with the sign-up process at Healthcare.gov. I went through the registration process twice last night, yet still couldn’t log in. I tried both accounts this morning, and still no luck. Says my username or password are wrong, and I KNOW they aren’t. So I created a third account this morning…same thing. I’m rapidly approaching the definition of insanity.
These are not fatal flaws–just technical glitches that can be fixed. But it’s a PR fiasco in getting Obamacare started. I’m sure millions of users are frustrated. And the wait times are unacceptable. Makes me seriously wonder, considering the virulence of the opposition, if some high-tech sabotage is occurring.
My interest is only curiosity. The exchanges are for the minority of people who either don’t have insurance or who buy insurance on their own. Most of us get insurance through our work, and it’s generally better insurance than the exchanges offer. But I did want to compare costs, out of curiosity, and so far I’ve not been able to get that far.
Fortunately, there’s plenty of time. Obamacare coverage doesn’t start until January 1, and people can sign up through March. Hopefully they’ll fix the site to allow for the traffic, which should have been expected and is totally capable of being handled.
Having said that–I’ve been using the Healthcare.gov website for several weeks to do research. It’s well designed, very user friendly, easy to navigate, and clearly written. The sign-up screens are very user-friendly. I’m quite impressed overall. I experienced no problems until October 1, when the sign-up began. They just have some major functionality and bandwidth issues with the enrollment process.
Several days ago on Morning Joe, Jim VandeHei of Politico made an interesting observation which has stayed with me. He mentioned two dynamics which contribute to our problems in Washington.
First, all of our leaders are weak.
So there are no strong leaders, only weak persons in positions of leadership.
Second, all of these persons dislike each other.
The anti-Obamacare folks are having a party pointing out problems with the healthcare.gov website. And they have a point. Never in the history of the internet has excessive traffic caused a brand new website, on its first day, to slow down or crash.
From the stuck records file…. Every couple months, it seems, some financial deadline arises and we’re faced with a possible government shutdown, with accompanying apocalyptic handwringing. A bunch of Congressman on both sides of the aisle seem interested in doing this, and are fearless of the consequences.
You have some hardline conservatives who kinda campaigned on doing something like this, and would relish going back to their constituents with proven bravado. And you have Democrats who are 95% sure a shutdown would hurt Republicans, and are happy to unspool more rope. So while everyone says they don’t want a shutdown, I suspect a good number of Congressman secretly hope for one.
I think we ought to just do it. Shut the government down, and get it out of their systems.
As a side benefit, it’ll give the pundits endless hours of fun arguing about who “won” the shutdown. “It’s certainly not the American people,” they will all agree, while blaming whichever side they are not.
Then, after having finally played with this toy in their sandbox, maybe our leaders will say, “Okay, that was fun, but once is enough. Now let’s figure out how to responsibly govern this country.”
Although, that’s probably a bridge too far.
We lost the Sopranos, in which the protagonists were mobsters.
We’ve lost Weeds, in which our hero is a marijuana dealer–a mother just trying to support her family.
We’ve lost Dexter, whose main character is a serial killer.
And now we’ve lost Breaking Bad, about a meth dealer.
What will fill the void to provide new role models for our children?
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Copyright © 2013 Steve Dennie | All rights reserved
