;)
The Commentariat -- Dec. 23, 2013
** NEW. Amy Goldstein & Juliet Eilperin of the Washington Post: "At midnight Monday, the official deadline arrives for Americans to sign up through the new federal health insurance exchange for health plans that begin Jan. 1. But, without any public announcement, Obama administration officials have changed the rules so that people will have an extra day to enroll, according to two individuals with knowledge of the switch."
Michael Shear & Annie Lowrey of the New York Times: "Four years after President Obama vowed to 'dramatically reform the way we do business on contracts,' the spectacular failure of the HealthCare.gov website has renewed calls for changes in how the government hires and manages private technology companies. But despite Mr. Obama's promises in the last two months to 'leap into the 21st century,' there is little evidence that the administration is moving quickly.... Outside experts, members of Congress, technology executives and former government officials say the botched rollout of the Affordable Care Act's website is the nearly inevitable result of a procurement process that stifles innovation and wastes taxpayer dollars." ...
... Jerry Markon & Alice Crites of the Washington Post: "Not considered in the 2011 selection process [for a contractor to build Healthcare.gov] was the history of numerous executives at CGI Federal, who had come from another company that had mishandled at least 20 other government information-technology projects more than a decade ago. But federal officials were not required to examine that long-term track record, which included a highly publicized failure to automate retirement benefits for millions of federal workers.... The company had been included in a pool of pre-screened, approved contractors in 2007, during the George W. Bush administration, and only firms in that pool were later allowed to bid for the Affordable Care Act work. It was at that earlier time that the problems at American Management Systems, the Fairfax County IT contractor acquired by CGI, would have figured into the assessment of CGI Federal, contracting experts say. In hindsight, one former CMS official said, the AMS record 'could well have knocked [CGI Federal] out of the competition, and probably should have.'" ...
... Liz Neporent of ABC News, with the help of the Kaiser Foundation's Karen Pollitz, explains ObamaCare in terms even a child could understand. Actually, quite a useful overview. ...
... Kate Pickert of Time on "why the latest ObamaCare delay is the biggest one yet." Also logically inconsistent, inherently unfair & politically-motivated.
Andy Sullivan of Reuters: " As Washington empties out for the holidays, a final budget fight will play out in the nearly empty Capitol building as congressional staffers parcel out more than $1 trillion to fund everything from cybersecurity to student loans.... This debate will largely take place within what one lobbyist calls a 'cone of silence' with Republicans and Democrats aiming to minimize discord as they race to set spending levels for thousands of individual government programs.... [The process causes] a lobbying blitz as defense contractors, hospitals, day-care providers and thousands of other groups push to maximize funding for the programs that affect them most directly."
Money Pits. Paul Krugman tries to explain the concept of currency to stupid people. (Rand & Ron Paul, take note.) "What's really happening is a determined march to the days when money meant stuff you could jingle in your purse. In tropics and tundra alike, we are for some reason digging our way back to the 17th century."
CW: I know the grey eminence Bill Keller doesn't have to stoop to writing his own headlines, but the title of his column in today's Times --"Inequality for Dummies" -- is a fine expression of his disdain for us dimwitted peons. In the spirit of the season, I'd like to deck that smug bastard.
Michael Katz, in Salon, on "how America abandoned its 'undeserving poor,' an excerpt from his book The Undeserving Poor: America's Enduring Confrontation With Poverty. CW: By my recollections, Katz's history seems accurate, & he doesn't blame everything on Republicans -- also accurate.
President Jimmy Carter & Robert Pastor in a Washington Post op-ed: "It is time to change the agenda, the preconditions and the strategy on Syria -- and end the war."
E. J. Dionne: "... when even the pope wonders aloud as to whether it's appropriate for him to judge, you begin to see the difficulty of deciding what 'true Christians' ought to believe. This raises the question of whether the religiously based principles are merely cultural artifacts that we bend to our own immediate purposes." CW: This is impossible to explain to the zealot, whatever the cant of his zealotry. ...
... Michael Hiltzig of the Los Angeles Times: "I got the gist of the "Duck Dynasty" thing after my first and only viewing: bunch of rural jackasses who somehow struck it rich get brought into our living rooms to be laughed at by the rest of us aristocrats.... A&E knew what it was doing when it put these people on the air, so its show of indignation in 'suspending' one of them ... falls a little flat.... In [Louisiana Gov. Bobby] Jindal's seven-sentence statement [supporting Robertson], not a word of defense for gay people so crudely mocked by Robertson. Not a word to remind us that the life of black sharecroppers in Louisiana's Jim Crow era was not 'godly' or 'happy.' In January of this year, Jindal lectured his fellow Republicans on the need to "stop being the stupid party." ... Now, according to Jindal, Republicans are supposed to embrace offensive and bizarre comments. The party's transformation into a marginal and regional movement thus continues. Jindal has made himself the biggest jackass in the story, and his career as a national political figure the thing to be laughed at." ...
Ironically, if you read the whole interview, not just take one section, he talks very specifically about loving everybody. He talks very specifically about not being judgmental toward anybody, that's God's decision, not his. I mean, it is remarkable. There's sections there where he sounds like Pope Francis. -- Newt Gingrich, on "Duck Dynasty" star Phil Robertson's anti-gay, pro-Jim Crow opinions
Probably not the section where Robertson expresses his preference for vaginas over anuses. Then again, I haven't read everything Francis has said. Maybe the vagina bit was lost in translation. -- Constant Weader
Isaac Chotiner of the New Republic provides an atheist's guide to Christmas. CW: The advice & experience of atheist Deborah Mitchell, whom Chotiner interviews, is very similar to mine. I would add that I appreciate religiously-themed art (Christian & otherwise), & I have plenty of it around the house. This year I bought a charming presepio, which I have prominently displayed.
"The fifth of 7 limited edition, hand-painted, sets of Russian dolls - signed by Sir Elton John, Stephen Fry, and Graham Norton. Featuring artist's renders of five great gay icons: Sir Elton John, Stephen Fry, George Michael, Graham Norton, and Tom Daley. Crafted to raise awareness, and money, for the Russian gay community, all proceeds of the auction will go to the Kaleidoscope Trust."Andri Antoniades of Takepart.com: "For its holiday campaign titled "#ToRussiaWithLove" U.K.-based creative agency Mother London commissioned seven sets of the matryoshka dolls, each painted to look like a gay celebrity, such as Elton John and Stephen Fry. One set of the dolls will be sent to the Kremlin and another to the Russian Embassy in London. The rest are being auctioned off on eBay to raise money for Kaleidoscope Trust, a human rights organization dedicated to promoting LGBT equality worldwide." E-bay-U.K. is auctioning one set here. No indication of what the shipping charges to the U.S. are.
Local News
Matt Pearce of the Los Angeles Times: "A federal appeals court denied Utah officials' request Sunday to immediately halt same-sex marriages in the state, which began after U.S. District Judge Robert J. Shelby[, an Obama appointee] struck down Utah's ban.... Sunday's refusal by the appellate court to suspend Shelby's ruling was not the definitive word on same-sex marriage in Utah, however. In a two-page order, the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals denied the emergency request on technical grounds, saying it had not been made properly. The appeals court noted that officials could file for an emergency stay again if they followed correct procedures." ...
...** NEW. Update: Marissa Lang & Brooke Adams of the Salt Lake Tribune: "A federal judge in Utah -- who last week issued a controversial ruling allowing same-sex marriages -- on Monday denied the state's request for a stay. State attorneys had argued before U.S. District Judge Robert J. Shelby that same-sex couples who marry in Utah would be irreparably harmed if the state's continuing efforts to overturn the judge's ruling succeed and those marriages are later invalidated."
News Ledes
Los Angeles Times: "A former executive with Tiffany & Co. has been sentenced to one year in federal prison for stealing jewelry worth $2.1 million from her employer and selling it. Ingrid Lederhaas-Okun, who worked 25 years at Tiffany and became its vice president of product development and design, pleaded guilty in July to interstate transport of stolen property."
New York Times: "With about a week left in the year, the Obama administration is backing away from a Dec. 31 deadline for securing a deal to keep American troops in Afghanistan beyond 2014, though it is standing by its warning that a total military withdrawal is still possible if delays continue, American and Afghan officials said."
New York Times: "Lt. Gen. Mikhail T. Kalashnikov, the arms designer credited by the Soviet Union with creating the AK-47, the first in a series of rifles and machine guns that would indelibly associate his name with modern war and become the most abundant firearms ever made, died on Monday in Izhevsk, the capital of the Udmurtia republic, where he lived. He was 94."
AP: "After the first full day of winter brought everything from balmy temperatures along the Mid-Atlantic to snow in the Midwest and ice, snow and flooding in the Great Lakes, some people could be left in the dark for Christmas.... By late Sunday, ice and snow had knocked out power to 440,000 homes and businesses in Michigan, upstate New York and northern New England -- about half of whom had their power back by early Monday. The storm also left more than 400,000 customers without electricity in eastern Canada."
New York Times: "Two women from the punk group Pussy Riot serving two-year prison terms for staging a protest performance against President Vladimir V. Putin in Moscow's main cathedral were released on Monday under a new amnesty law.... The two women were convicted, along with a third woman, Yekaterina Samutsevich, whose sentence was later overturned on appeal, of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred."
Reuters: "Russia has sent 25 armored trucks and 50 other vehicles to Syria to help transport toxins that are to be destroyed under an international agreement to rid the nation of its chemical arsenal, Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Monday."
New York Times: "Three activists who played central roles in the uprising against former President Hosni Mubarak were convicted on Sunday of participating in recent protests and sentenced to three years in prison, raising fears that the new government was seeking revenge against opponents of Egypt's old order."
Washington Post: "... Treasury Department officials last week [identified two men] as major financial backers of al-Qaeda and its regional chapters across the Middle East. Although U.S. officials routinely announce steps to disrupt terrorist financing networks, the individuals named in the latest case are far from ordinary. Both men have served as advisers to government-backed foundations in Qatar and have held high-profile positions with international human rights groups."
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Reader Comments (17)
Dearest Marie-
I will most happily grant you your Christmas wish! Since I am in the realm of the Luddites, I had never heard of "Duck Dynasty" until I read about it on Reality Chex--especially the comments. Frankly, it sounds like a lotta racist, bigoted crappola, and we already have plenty of that with our nutsy poli-ti-sans. So........I promise that you will nevah hear "Duck Dynasty," "Goose Dynasty," "Bard Owl Dynasty" or any of that kinda shit from me. Evah! Promise.
Now, Happy Solstice--or Merry Christmas. Whichever you prefer! You deserve both--and so much more!
@Kate and all the others here:
Io Saturnalia!
Thank you Barbarossa!
Re:"... Got to scrap that shit right off your shoes"; Rolling Stones
This site, thanks to Diane; has used the identifier, "asswipe" for sometime now. To honor the people of the great state of Louisiana may I suggest we replace "asswipe" with "anuswipe"?
The ACA contractor story was not a surprise to me. In my employment in the public sphere, I saw many more instances of IT contractors gumming up the works than producing a great product.
In the public sphere, the selection of a contractor is most often governed by a complex set of city/county/state "rules" designed to emphasize cost not necessarily quality work. In the end its a crap shoot that generally doesn't end well for the organization seeking a product. In California, the state Child Welfare System (CWS) was a special horror show. You rarely see a contractor come out short and lose money because of an inferior work product. In these IT companies, the non-tech snake oil salesman gives the initial pitch to the client, backed by a couple of techies. Techies are coiffed and suited for the meet, sporting low social skills and occasionally mumbling some code. Once you've bought the thing, the snake oil guy is unavailable. To add insult to injury, they use your organization as a reference ( ie State of California), during production, to bolster their credibility for the next schmuck. The project is in the works, you haven't actually gotten the shitty product yet. Just working on a big name project buys them points with the next mark.
The organization I worked for, accidentally hired a really competent IT Chief. She built our databases and applications for our specific business needs. We left contractors behind and we were far better for it.
Among a plethora of other reasons, perhaps there were too many contractors with their hands out in the ACA debacle. When innovation and efficiency should have guided the project, we got the same old tired grifters who make a living from the public sphere. Clearly, there was no one herding the cats on this one.
A confession:
Perhaps it was the fascination of the abomination at work or maybe all the attention the Lucky Ducks have received here at RC, I don't know, but when flipping channels last night I was moved to watch another five minutes of Dumb Dynasty.
Embarrassed, disgusted with myself, I wanted to lash out and in typical human fashion blame someone else for what I had done, maybe even RC who reminded me the program even existed, but then I remembered the words of that distinguished moralist and pizza promoter, who said something like...."If you have poor taste, blame yourself."
I was never sure which pizza Mr. Cain was talking about but his remark does seem apropos: I did watch more of the program. No one made me do it. I am heartily sorry; it's all my fault; I will do my penance, summon all my moral courage and try not to sin again.
http://www.salon.com/2013/12/23/the_presidential_hack_list_ranking_barack_obamas_favorite_columnists/?source=newsletter
Ken: Don't feel bad, read the link and see who the President likes to read (allegedly). Alex Pareene isn't impressed. Tom Friedman? Yikes!
At least you've sworn off DD.
Maybe the administration should have hired Ed Snowden to find out how other companies do IT properly.
Oh wait. They DID hire him to do that (at least indirectly).
Procurement procedures for public sector projects are too often hamstrung by reams of rules and filing requirements. I understand why those rules were adopted in the first place (otherwise we end up with people like Dick Cheney handing his own company a no-bid multi-billion dollar contract and the right to gouge the American military in a war zone. Wait we DID end up with that.).
At one point in my career, while working in the public sector, I found myself completely befuddled by a rule that forced me to choose the lowest bidder for some equipment. The next highest bid was only a couple of percentage points higher, had a delivery time that was three months shorter, and was a far better product from a company with a much better track record. It took me several weeks of badgering and writing and re-writing of reports and affidavits before I could purchase the better product. I'm sure most everyone who has worked in the public sector and has been responsible for purchases has similar frustrating stories. Again, I get the rationale for it.
But in the case of the ACA, the Obama administration, supposedly so hip in the ways of the digital universe, succumbed to the problem rather than looking for ways around it. What ends up happening is that smaller, but often more efficient and more adept companies, don't have the personnel or experience necessary to jump through all the hoops to land a federal contract. Stiffs do. Companies like the ones mentioned in Marie's link and in Diane's story. These people are great at one thing only. Getting the contract. Once they have your money, unless you stay right on their necks, you're fucked.
The problem is oversight. One particularly large public sector project I was involved in ended up being successful because we all took oversight very seriously, to the great dismay of the private contractors who were used to calling the shots and distracting public oversight officials with sleight of hand, piles of legal filings, or hoping that the team overseeing the project would be restricted to a guy months short of retirement who slept at his desk and a part-time kid whose diploma was still wet. I don't know what kind of oversight the Obama people had in place but I'm guessing it might have been three part timers and two retirement age guys, who took turns sleeping.
The other day I mentioned a number of things the government is really good at.
Procurement is not one. Either we have the ACA cluster fuck or we have Cheney and his band of pirates robbing us blind.
I certainly don't have the answer but there should be some kind of system that allows for an adjustment to the rules especially for a project the size and importance of healthcare.gov. Procurement rules for purchasing pencils and fleets of government cars are probably not the most efficient when applied to projects that should not and can not be screwed up.
That being said, even private sector companies who have no such restrictions on who they hire can screw up big projects. It happens all the time.
But there must be a way to meld good government with reliable and efficient practices. We might not know how to do that yet, but there will be more and more of these types of projects coming down the pike. Now would be an excellent time to start figuring it out.
Either that or we can just give Ed Snowden his old job back.
With a holiday bonus, of course.
Barbarossa,
Idem ad vos, frater!
You know, in ancient Rome, Saturn was the reason for the season.
Take that, Dynasty Duckies.
And speaking of long bearded religious intolerance, it appears that one national corporation, which had originally decided not to further enrich bigots, stating unequivocally that their company (Cracker Barrel) was not in the business of denigrating anyone, has now decided that they're on the side of homophobic haters and religious nuts after all.
In other words, they've jumped into that barrel of crackers.
One would think it pretty uncomfortable to have crackers in your bed?
(Rather than another comment on the subject, here's a related question. It's pretty clear that the first amendment fusillades directed at A&E by the supporters of Duck Bigots and GOP "leaders" are ridiculous. Is it the sense of the group (RC readers) that this is due to ignorance of how the first amendment actually works, or is it yet another attempt on the right to gin up a controversy they know to be bogus in order to keep the wingers in screaming victim mode? Or both? For my part, I just love the absolute chutzpah of Newt Gingrich comparing this bearded lout to Pope Francis. It's just love, love, love...Oh, and one more thing. Speaking of the bearded lout, I was particularly struck by his statement on the greatness of countries who serve Jesus and how countries without Jesus were all hell-bound murdering scum. I can recall with perfect clarity the last time the USA, under the Jesus banner, bombed and murdered innocent people. Can't say I recall the last time Tibet went in for Shock and Awe.)
Conservative Hypocrisy!
Thought you'd never hear of such a thing, am I right?
Wonders never cease. But Salon brings incontrovertible evidence (try saying that three times fast) for this amazing event.
So the wingnuts are aghast that anyone would attempt to "punish" statements made by free people in the land of the free where everyone is free and entitled to their own free opinion because free speech, and stuff. And how dare anyone try to make you pay for saying things others don't agree with, you know, like attacking your bank account by taking you off your free speech TeeVee show.
Or, maybe, by boycotting your records.
When Georgius Bushus was strapping on the phony armor to lead (I mean, send) troops into battle against Jesus hating Mooslims who didn't attack us so he could kill them all for not attacking us, a certain country trio, the Dixie Chicks, at a concert, stated their concern that we were going down the wrong road with bombing people for not attacking us. Well, you'd a thunk they'd said that Jesus wore a turban and prayed to Mecca. Next thing you know the Dixie Chicks are pariahs. Georgius hisself basically said "serves 'em right for speaking their mind", and you'll recall that Bush's propaganda secretary, Ari Fleischer warned that "Americans better watch what they say" leading any unbiased, working brain type to conclude several things:
A) Speech is only free for wingnuts
B) Imposing sanctions on a party for statements others disagree with is right if done against liberals, but the work of Satan if done against bigoted conservatives.
and
C) the right to free speech is contingent on what you have to say.
Blah, blah, blah, freedom, blah, blah, homophobic morons, blah, blah, infringement, blah, blah, blah, commies, Palin, Jindal, more morons...
Speaking of Cracker Barrel: "Cracker Barrel" music (from their website) is surprise, surprise uniformly white except for Smokey Robinson. All 600 store locations are company owned. They were started by Dan Evins after growing up in the family gasoline business with the first stores in Tennessee and Georgia.
"in 2004, the US Justice Section, right after a lengthy investigation, discovered that the chain cafe experienced segregated consumers, seated and served white buyers right before black buyers, and allowed for white servers to refuse to hold out on black buyers." (http://dailynewsen.com/2013/10/16/8-companies-that-dont-support-gay-rights.html)
That is enough time spent to research this Dufous Dynasty enabling Chick-fil-a clone which likely had Southern zaibatsu meetings with the formerly named "Sambos" on methods to simultaneously screw over and indoctrinate an undereducated workforce all while perfecting a menu highlighting engineered "food" with a shelf-life able to withstand a nuclear winter.
@Diane and AK: agree with both of you despite not having worked on projects in the public sector.
The same does apply in the private sector from my experience - Low bid does not equal best bid since there are numerous factors that need to be considered beside the lowest initial cost.
One thing not mentioned is that it all begins with the spec from which the bids are quoted against. Often times the "customer" doesn't know enough about what they want for the final deliverables in order to develop a reasonable specification, relying instead on the vendor to be the experts and for them to know what the customer intended to receive (via ESP?) If the spec isn't worth a shit, that's exactly what you'll end up with - a big steaming turd.
Once you've stepped in it, and realize what it is, you end up spending a lot more money/time/energy fixing it, hoping that it can be fixed or, at least, revised into something somewhat close to your expectations.
Some vendors actually have this as their business model. Low-ball the customer to get the job, then stick up there ass later by making it up through change orders, expediting charges, additional labor costs, etc.
@ et al. Glad Midsommar! At least for those in the southern hemisphere. All others need to wait six months. :-)
I've moved this comment forward to respond:
Whyte Owen: " Marie et al., re. year's end fun. Took the linguistics quiz you linked. After living in MN for 28 years, and before that Iowa City, Brussels, Saint Louis and Chapel Hill, it id'd me as a native of Baton Rouge. So wrong, I grew up in a town 60 miles West of there."
I expect they got me when I admitted to "crawfish." There's no way they would let me out of the South after that.
Marie
I took the NYT dialect survey too but the NYT refused to display my results. I found the original one, which was much longer and inoperable. However, talk about persistence in the face of useless information, I clicked on each question from the NYT survey and looked at the associated maps. I couldn't nail an actual city, but clearly after 30 years in California, my speech is still Michigan ( except for soda - I left "pop" behind).
Duck Dynasty. I avoided it because life has enough reality without manufactured stupid. However, I have to be truthful, the beards got me skittering down squirrel trails of wondering how a person can eat anything and not have a snack left 2 weeks later.
I took the NYT language test expecting to be identified as a Detroiter as I spent my first 22 years 120 miles away in London Ont. Surprisingly I'm deep blue and the Times refused to name any city I might relate to. Suspect most of you are not in the least surprised.
Saw a picture of the Robertson clan taken 8 years ago. Clean shaven yuppies one and all. It's all showbiz all the time until you scrape off the pancake.
re "blah, blah, blah, freedom, blah: Had Obama's pundit list been published 6 years ago there would be a lot fewer disappointed Democrats in America. Resigned but not disappointed.
I rate the Michael Katz's Salon article on the undeserving poor a must read (and clip).
Not even close on the dialect survey. Salt Lake City, Modesto, Fresno. Fun questionnaire, though. And, Marie, they got me on the crawdads, too--that's what sent me to Modesto. Those linguists must have a fetish about crayfish, crawfish, crawdads. Wonder if they've ever sat down to a steampot of them (peal the tails, suck the heads).