Friday, October 11, 2013

Anyone surprised that a 'disengaged executive' would put out a product that was not tested?

(My new American Thinker post)

 CBS has an amazing report about the computer problems behind ObamaCare.  The best part of the report is an interview with a software expert who said that he'd be embarrassed to put out something like this. 
The amazing thing is that The White House was aware of these problems but nevertheless went ahead with the release date:   

 "Robert Laszewski, a consultant with clients in the healthcare industry participating in the new exchange, said insurance companies were complaining "loudly" that the site had experienced problems before the launch. "People were pulling out their hair," he told The Washington Post Wednesday."   

 And it apparently cost $634 million, a rather high figure for a system down for days.  Will anyone be accountable for that?  Anyone getting fired?  Or is this like "Fast & Furious"?   

 For some time, we've written about President Obama's managerial style, or what Frank Burke, contributor to American Thinker, referred to as  "an abdicative manager":    

 "The abdicative manager evidences a tendency to flee from responsibility and is frequently encountered in situations where he or she never wanted the job in the first place (for instance, a son or daughter who inherits a company or the individual who discovers that they are incapable of adequate performance).  Abdication can be exhibited in a variety of ways, ranging from physically removing oneself through travel (the confusion of movement with action), to obsessing about personal interests or a limited range of controllable subjects.    
Obama's frequent vacations and absences, especially in times of crisis, coupled with his unwillingness to personally invest himself in key initiatives, are demonstrative of this style. An excellent example occurred after passage of the healthcare initiative. Having ceded authority in what would later be described as his key achievement to Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, he watched as they forced the bill through under a manufactured emergency that precluded lawmakers from having time to read it. He then went on a four-day vacation before signing it. "     

 The Obama White House is an enterprise operating without a strong executive.  Therefore, everybody is on their own.  Also, President Obama is surrounded by people who are afraid to confront him with "bad news" or disagreements.    

 The net result is an ObamaCare program that no one tested.  Why is anyone surprised? 



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We remember Scott Carpenter 1925-2013

Scott Carpenter died this week in 2013:     
Carpenter was selected as one of the original seven Mercury Astronauts on April 9, 1959. He underwent intensive training with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), specializing in communication and navigation. He served as backup pilot for John Glenn during the preparation for America’s first manned orbital space flight in February 1962.Carpenter flew the second American manned orbital flight on May 24, 1962. He piloted his Aurora 7 spacecraft through three revolutions of the Earth, reaching a maximum altitude of 164 miles. The spacecraft landed in the Atlantic Ocean about 1000 miles southeast of Cape Canaveral after 4 hours and 54 minutes of flight time.On leave of absence from NASA, Carpenter participated in the Navy’s Man-in-the-Sea Project as an Aquanaut in the SEALAB II program off the coast of La Jolla, California, in the summer of 1965. During the 45-day experiment, Carpenter spent 30 days living and working on the ocean floor. He was team leader for two of the three 10-man teams of Navy and civilian divers who conducted deep-sea diving activities in a seafloor habitat at a depth of 205 feet.He returned to duties with NASA as Executive Assistant to the Director of the Manned Spaceflight Center and was active in the design of the Apollo Lunar Landing Module and in underwater Extravehicular Activity (EVA) crew training.In 1967, he returned to the Navy’s Deep Submergence Systems Project (DSSP) as Director of Aquanaut Operations during the SEALAB III experiment. (The DSSP office was responsible for directing the Navy’s Saturation Diving Program, which included development of deep-ocean search, rescue, salvage, ocean engineering and Man-in-the-Sea capabilities.)Upon retirement from the Navy in 1969, after 25 years of service, Carpenter founded and was Chief Executive Officer of Sear Sciences, Inc., a venture capital corporation active in developing programs aimed at enhanced utilization of ocean resources and improved health of the planet. In pursuit of these and other objectives, he worked closely with the French oceanographer J.Y. Cousteau and members of his Calypso team. Carpenter dove in most of the world’s oceans, including the Arctic under ice.

We grew up watching these astronauts on school, usually in school in my case.  We always had a teacher that would allow us to watch the capsule takeoff.  It was so exciting.

 Carpenter's death means that John Glenn is the lone survivor of that great group of men.

 RIP Scott Carpenter!
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ObamaCare is starting to look like “la zafra de 10 millones”!

(My new Babalu post)
My mother said this about Obama in 2008:  "Este tipo habla mucho....como Fidel".
I guess that Cuban mothers know best!
Our mothers have a good eye for charlatans, don't they?    
In 1970, Fidel Castro, the self appointed "experto de todo" in Cuba, challenged Cubans to a "zafra de 10 millones":   
"Workers were exhorted to participate in this gargantuan effort through a massive propaganda campaign.  All means of communication were devoted to the dissemination of the official rallying cry: "The Ten Millions Go" (Los Diez Millones Van).
A popular music group achieved almost immediate fame, echoing the government’s slogan by identifying themselves as Los Van Van.
The government controlled media, mass organizations, schools, and work centers were used to convince the population that the harvest represented another battle. The nation was encouraged to win this battle through discipline, sacrifice, and self-denial.
Yet, the miscalculations, mismanagement, censorship, emphasis on moral incentives, massive mobilization of unskilled workers to the cane fields and lack of sober planning led to the failure of this inordinate effort.
It is estimated that at the end of the 1970 harvest more than one million people had worked in the cutting, loading and transporting of the sugar cane.
The concentration of all resources and energies into achieving a ten million-ton sugar harvest also had adverse effects in other production sectors of the economy, with the exception of rice, fish, and eggs.   Economic dependence upon the Soviet Union increased.
The cutting and milling of planted sugar cane that should have been reserved compromised the success of the 1971 harvest.  In 1971 domestic consumption of sugar per capita was rationed to two pounds a month in order to meet export obligations.
Turning the harvest into the sole objective of every productive center, agency and mass organization, in the end, promoted the disorganization of the entire society.
It also contributed to further consolidate the on-going militarization process.  The total social and economic cost caused by the 1970 harvest may never be properly measured.
Although the goal was not achieved (the 1970 harvest only reached 7,558,569 tons) the harvest occupied the lives of the Cuban people for an entire year and passed into history under the name of "The Ten Million Ton Sugar Harvest".
"La zafra" failed because "los azucareros", the people who had managed Cuba's very successful sugar industry for decades, were in Miami, in prison or not listened to.
We are learning today that ObamaCare is one gigantic mess.  Once again, we see that no one listened to those who knew a thing or two about health care or designing software.
CBS has an amazing report about the computer problems behind ObamaCare. The best part of the report is an interview with a software consultant who said that "he'd be embarrassed" to put out something like this.
The amazing thing is that The White House was aware of these problems but nevertheless went ahead with the release date.
Industry experts warned The White House that the computer was not ready, much like sugar industry experts warned Castro that a "10 million harvest" would not work.
My guess is that the Obama administration is 24/7 political enterprise devoid of any economic reality or critical input.
They didn't listen to reason or people who warned several times that ObamaCare was not ready for prime time, lunch time, morning time, weekend time or any other time!
Like Castro and the "zafra de 10 millones", Obama did not listen to the people who were warning him about the problems.
Like Castro and "la zafra", Obama put ideology over common sense in the pursuit of a goal.
Castro never got his "zafra de 10 millones" but his irresponsible pursuit of the goal wrecked the Cuban economy and increased the island's dependency on the USSR.
Wonder if ObamaCare will meet the same fate?  Wonder what damage this mindless pursuit of ObamaCare will have on our economy today and tomorrow?  We already know that it has had been a job wrecker so far.


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