[jwplayer config=”pjmedia_eddriscoll” mediaid=”68275″]
In 1969, hot on the heels of Stanley Kubrick’s sentient Hal 9000 computer in his epochal 2001: A Space Odyssey, Universal produced the talky cult film, Colossus: The Forbin Project, starring Eric Braeden as the film’s titular Teutonic technocrat and von Braun stand-in. (My mom would later adore Braeden as suave good guy plutocrat Victor Newman on The Young and the Restless.) Released while astronauts were going to the moon, and with leftwing paranoia regarding President Nixon nearing its peak, it seemed almost believable in 1970 that the US government could build a giant computer network that was both omniscient and omnipotent.
Good luck with that, for reasons explained here.
Which brings us to today’s House Commerce and Energy Committee hearing, with Kathleen Sebelius, America’s best-loved would-be Website builder in the hot seat. Regarding the video at the top of our post, Allahpundit writes:
Via NRO, watch to the end or you’ll miss a cutaway on the split screen that made me laugh aloud. Can it really be true that a website that’s been inaccessible to most of the planet for most of the past month, which was so poorly designed that it ended up effectively DDOSing itself, has never technically “crashed”? Yup, says Sebelius, because it’s never been overloaded to the point where it’s been knocked completely offline. Direct quote: “It is functional, but at a very slow speed and very low reliability.” It’s functional, technically.
Check out what happened to the “functional” talking point 20 minutes later, though, when she was asked the billion-dollar question about enrollments and adverse selection:
Sebelius does not release enrollment numbers in health care law. Says “The system isn’t functioning so we are not getting reliable data”
— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) October 30, 2013
But hey, like, you know, whatever:
[jwplayer config=”pjmedia_eddriscoll” mediaid=”68277″]
And finally, our exit quote:
Same thing Americans are saying about Obamacare RT @igorvolsky: Sebelius overheard on open mic: “don’t do this to me.”
— Senator Ted Cruz (@SenTedCruz) October 30, 2013
No, really, she actually was caught saying that:
[jwplayer config=”pjmedia_eddriscoll” mediaid=”68278″]
At the point, I’d likely end this post by embedding the video of PJTV’s Alfonzo Rachel singing “Under My Bus.” But as the Politico recently noted, Sebelius’ job may be safe for a while, despite her staggering incompetence: just imagine the grilling her successor would have to face from the GOP if Sebelius does get tossed under the Obama bus.
Update: And so, the hits just keep on coming: “Kathleen Sebelius Falsely Claims It Would Be Illegal For Her To Join Exchanges.”
Join the conversation as a VIP Member