Kathleen Sebelius Gets A Potentially Helpful Book

Sibelius

Here’s Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Services getting a “gift” from Tennessee State Senator Brian Kelsey during a visit to Memphis yesterday. The Memphis Daily News was there to capture the moment.

Yes, Kelsey is a Republican. Still one has to admit that this is pretty hilarious.

H/T: Buzzfeed

FILED UNDER: Humor, US Politics, , , ,
Doug Mataconis
About Doug Mataconis
Doug Mataconis held a B.A. in Political Science from Rutgers University and J.D. from George Mason University School of Law. He joined the staff of OTB in May 2010 and contributed a staggering 16,483 posts before his retirement in January 2020. He passed far too young in July 2021.

Comments

  1. bill says:

    it is funny, whats funnier is that we don’t even know how people have signed up for aca. like its some huge secret in captain transparency’s regime.

  2. Tony W says:

    @bill: Really? That’s the new conspiracy? How many people have signed up?

  3. bill says:

    @Tony W: i dunno, you know? the day 1 report was pretty funny (if it’s correct). no need to be so defensive, it’s gonna a save us all…..right?

  4. Dean says:

    @Tony W: Not knowing how many people signed up is not a conspiracy. However, in basic website design, you should be able to know on at least a daily basis how many people have done what on your website. The administration has been saying that they will have that information in a couple more weeks.

    While the website “glitch”, as the president likes to call it, is great fodder for the talk show comedians, it is a critical piece to the implementation of ACA. If it can’t do the basics, we are all going to see even higher health insurance costs and many risk being without insurance on January 1.

    So, no conspiracy, just incompetency,

  5. MarkedMan says:

    So – anyone have any guesses as to who “bill” is? I’m getting the feeling he’s one of the regulars with a new name…

  6. rudderpedals says:

    It would have been cool if she had a copy of Big Dummies Guide to Sabotaging Legislation to trade with the knucklehead but OTOH it’s already going swimmingly.

  7. James Pearce says:

    Still one has to admit that this is pretty hilarious.

    It’s funny like a pun is funny.

    It’s funny, but not that funny.

    After all, HHS doesn’t need “Websites for Dummies.” They need “Advanced Coding 405.”

  8. James Pearce says:

    @MarkedMan:

    I’m getting the feeling he’s one of the regulars with a new name…

    Nah, I can’t think of any of the regulars who are so averse to capitalization and proper punctuation.

    I think it’s obvious who he is. He’s Cormac McCarthy.

  9. Tony W says:

    @Dean: I’d guess that at this point WebTrends-type beacon/statistics gathering CPU cycles are better spent on transactional threads. Some of those stats gathering functions are super inefficient. If I was running the ‘recovery project’ that’s the first feature I’d turn off for performance reasons.

    Of course somebody making that rational tradeoff could be described as “incompetent”, particularly if that accuser had some sort of agenda….

    If it can’t do the basics, we are all going to see even higher health insurance costs and many risk being without insurance on January 1.

    I’m having a hard time connecting how a government website’s problems have anything to do with what private companies charge for their premiums, nor whether those private companies ultimately write policies.

  10. Rodney Dill says:

    Hilarious

  11. JKB says:

    Hey, she’s no dummy, she’s a high government official. The book needs more pictures…and uni-corns.

  12. 11B40 says:

    Greetings:

    Hopefully there’s a chapter in it about when and how to write your resignation letter. After all, she has admitted that she is both “responsible” and ” accountable” whatever those words now mean in President Obama’s seraglio.

  13. gVOR08 says:

    Still one has to admit that this is pretty hilarious.

    I wouldn’t go so far as hilarious. Mildly amusing maybe. About as helpful and constructive as one expects from GOPs.

  14. anjin-san says:

    How things change when the shoe is on the other foot…

    Republicans begged for patience after train wreck Medicare Part D rollout

  15. anjin-san says:

    @ 11B40

    Hopefully there’s a chapter in it about when and how to write your resignation letter

    A resignation would not be out of line. But since the GOP has broken the area of government pertaining to approving Presidential appointments, a chain reaction has taken place that keeps people in jobs when perhaps they should be gone.

    So, it’s clearly not about better government for Republicans. Their agenda remains to damage Obama, by any means possible.

  16. 11B40 says:

    @anjin-san:

    Greetings, anjin-san:

    I was thinking more along the lines of Joseph Conrad’s “Lord Jim”. You know, that personal honor thing.

  17. anjin-san says:

    many risk being without insurance on January 1.

    How do you figure? I carry my own coverage via Kaiser. My plan is going away due to HCR. Kaiser has sent me information about my new plan, all I have to do is switch and pay my premiums. It costs a little more, but not more than I might expect from a typical year over year increase.

    I also have the option of getting coverage via Covered CA. I just called them. Had about a 90 second hold, and was connected with a representative that was helpful and well informed. Even if the website is flat out down or not working, you can still get information and sign up.

    So, all I have to do is a comparison between what Kaiser if offering and the Kaiser plans Covered CA offers. There is a bit of work, and I have to make some time and effort to be fully informed and take some responsibility for my own health care coverage. Hardly seems unreasonable.

    Of course there is alway the option of not being responsible, ignoring the fact that cancellations are taking place, and then screaming “Obama screwed me” if you end up with a coverage gap, but we all know conservatives are about “personal responsibility”, so there should be no danger of that happening.

    What Really Happens To People Whose Insurance Is ‘Canceled’ Because Of Obamacare

    Obamacare – 97% win, 3% lose

  18. anjin-san says:

    I was thinking more along the lines of Joseph Conrad’s “Lord Jim”. You know, that personal honor thing.

    Did you feel the same way when Sarah Palin bailed on the citizens of Alaska that had placed their sacred trust in her to execute the duties of the Governor of Alaska?

  19. wr says:

    @anjin-san: Silly Anjin. “Personal honor” is yet another of those attributes that Republicans demand of Democrats but never feel compelled to demonstrate themselves.

  20. An Interested Party says:

    If only someone would send this to John Boehner and Mitch McConnell, or better yet, to all the Teahadists in Congress…

  21. bill says:

    here’s something from 2010, yes-2010… it’s from an adviser to obama- harvards david cutler

    “They were running the biggest start-up in the world,” Cutler told Goldstein and Eilperin. “And they didn’t have anyone who had run a start-up, or even run a business. It’s very had to think of a situation where the people best at getting legislation passed are best at implementing it. They are a different set of skills.”

    it’s similar to the current admin, not a lot of private sector job creators- but very good at spending others money.

  22. grumpy realist says:

    @bill: Then how in the hell do you think the military gets all of its hardware? It’s not like they’re buying a Stealth Bomber on the open market….

    No, the problem is the gov’t put the whole website mess in the hands of a bunch of clowns who promised much more than they were able to deliver and were rotten engineers, to boot.

  23. Mike says:

    @grumpy realist: Which is why people should be asked to step down and replaced (and no I am not a repub) – if I am in charge of a really large and important product or task force or whatever and what I have been tasked to do has utterly failed, then I should be held accountable.

  24. bill says:

    @MarkedMan: i’ve been here for a year or so- i don’t always have time to play in here as i have a job/life/etc…. plus the topics get kinda lame as they’re geared for liberals to chime in on for the most part. notice there’s not much going on in the obamacare fiasco (the law, it’s implementation and dare i say it….the webpage)?

    @James Pearce: thx james, but no!

    @grumpy realist: i don’t get the “stealth bomber” analogy but they did royally screw the pooch with whoever they hired (i won’t bother with the “no-bid” stuff in here) – but now it seems like they hired the same people to fix the mess they created…correct me if i’m wrong. and i agree, if obama is so peeved at all this and he’s taking so much heat for it then why hasn’t anyone tendered a resignation letter….let alone be thrown under the bus?