The Comedian-in-Chief took over the Colbert Report last night and it was actually quite hysterical.

Click image to play video

Courtesy of TPM: 

President Barack Obama did his best Stephen Colbert impression Monday night when he crashed "The Colbert Report" set early and kicked the host out of his chair. 

Obama came out just in time for a segment called "The Word," which he renamed as the more presidential "The Decree." 

"Nation, as you know, I, Stephen Colbert, have never cared for our President," Obama began. "The guy is so arrogant, I bet he talks about himself in the third person." 

The segment was ostensibly about healthcare, but the Colbert writers poked fun at Obama throughout. As Obama touted HealthCare.gov's nearly one million new sign ups, the text to the right of the screen read "so, half as popular as a Grumpy Cat video."

For some reason the President's  sometimes halting delivery made this even funnier.

The guy may have the best sense of humor in presidential history.

Afterward there was a legitimate, if sometimes silly, interview which you should not miss either.

You can see part one here. And part two here.

Republicans file lawsuit against President Obama over the Affordable Care Act.

Courtesy of the New York Times:  

House Republicans filed a long-threatened lawsuit Friday against the Obama administration over unilateral actions on the health care law that they say are abuses of the president’s executive authority. 

The lawsuit — filed against the secretaries of the Health and Human Services and Treasury Departments — focuses on two crucial aspects of the way the administration has put the Affordable Care Act into effect. 

The suit accuses the Obama administration of unlawfully postponing a requirement that larger employers offer health coverage to their full-time employees or pay penalties. (Larger companies are defined as those with 50 or more employees.) 

In July 2013, the administration deferred that requirement until 2015. Seven months later, the administration announced a further delay, until 2016, for employers with 50 to 99 employees. 

The suit also challenges what it says is President Obama’s unlawful giveaway of roughly $175 billion to insurance companies under the law. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the administration will pay that amount to the companies over the next 10 years, though the funds have not been appropriated by Congress. The lawsuit argues that it is an unlawful transfer of funds.

I can't believe they finally did it.What a waste of time, money, and resources.

So they are going to sue the President over this, but allowed George W. Bush to lie to the American people and members of Congress and start an illegal war without receiving so much as an order of cease and desist?

Hypocritical bastards!

Well I guess we know what this new Congress will be focused on for the next two years.

Some food for thought.

Source

Gee does that mean that Sarah Palin WAS right?

President assures nation that despite loss of Senate Obamacare will not be repealed.

Courtesy of TPM:  

"If in fact one of the item on (the Republican) agenda is to make responsible changes to the ACA to make it work better," he told reporters during a press conference, "I'm going to be very open and receptive to hearing those ideas." 

But some obvious things would not be open for discussion, Obama said, predictable things like full repeal of the law or repeal of the individual mandate. 

"In some cases, recommendations that Republicans have for changes would undermine the structure of the law," he said. "I'll be very honest with them about that, 'The law doesn't work if you pull out that piece or that piece.'"

That seems to fall in line with what Mitch McConnell visualizes as well in an interview given before the election to Time Magazine:  

Asked to imagine it was Wednesday morning and he wakes up majority leader—a position he’s aspired to, he says, since the 5th grade—McConnell strikes a conciliatory tone, saying he hopes to work with President Obama and Senate Democrats. He said there would be no shutdowns on his watch, despite the fact that he plans to use funding bills to force changes in Obama’s policies. 

Notably, a full repeal of Obamacare was not on his mind, but rather a partial repeal through the appropriations process. Finally, he named his new top priority: keeping the Senate in 2016 (though winning the White House is also “not unimportant”).

McConnell saying that there would be no government shutdown on his watch makes sense if his goal is to hang onto the Senate in 2016.

I actually do not have a great deal of confidence in the President and McConnell seeing eye to eye on much, and that includes which portions of the Affordable Care Act should be changed.

And that does not take into account the "Cruz effect: 

"Cruz also would like the Senate to be as aggressive in trying to repeal the Affordable Care Act as the House, which has voted more than 50 times to get rid of the law. 

Republicans should “pursue every means possible to repeal Obamacare,” Cruz said, including forcing a vote through parliamentary procedures that would get around a possible filibuster by Democrats. If that leads to a veto by Obama, Cruz said, Republicans should then vote on provisions of the health law “one at a time.” 

And when asked whether he would back Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky for Republican leader, Cruz would not pledge his support — an indication that there are limits to how much of a partner he’s willing to be.

There is some possibility that the biggest battles coming out of Washington will NOT be between the Republicans and the President, but rather between the Republican establishment and the Tea Party folks who simply cannot abide government working at all. much less in a bipartisan manner.

As if Alaskans needed another reason to vote Sean Parnell out of office.

Courtesy of Alaska Dispatch:  

The future of the health care program that covers some of Alaska’s poorest residents hinges largely on who voters elect governor in November. 

Republican Gov. Sean Parnell refused to extend Medicaid last year under the Affordable Care Act, what he called Obamacare. In a recent interview with Alaska Dispatch News, Parnell said expansion is “overly costly” and would put “an even greater burden on an already unsustainable system," though he said he is open to other means of Medicaid reform. 

Parnell's independent challenger, Bill Walker, said that if elected governor he would immediately accept Medicaid expansion, extending health care coverage to Alaskans who earn up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level, or about $19,800 for a single adult. But Walker, an attorney and former mayor of Valdez, said that once federal funding for the expansion dips below 100 percent -- it is set to decrease to 95 percent in 2017 -- the state will have to re-examine its decision. 

“If it helps Alaskans, then we should do it,” Walker said in an interview Wednesday with ADN. 

Even once it dips below 100% there is no way this is still not a great deal for Alaskans, and I seriously doubt that anybody could take it away once Alaskans started to receive this benefit. But hey I understand politics in Alaska, and know that Walker has to say things like this for the benefit of the mouth breathers.

As it says further down in the article this Medicaid expansion would affect between 10,000 to 41,000 Alaskans, including your favorite Alaska blogger.

So to sum up Sean Parnell did not do his job to protect personnel in the Alaska National Guard despite the fact that he was being asked to do so for essentially his entire term in office.

Governor Parnell also attempted to stand in the way of progress by challenging the findings of a US District Court judge that the same sex ban in Alaska was unconstitutional.  Even though similar attempts in other states had ultimately failed.

And now we know that the only thing standing between tens of  thousands of Alaskans receiving much needed healthcare is Sean Parnell.

What more do we need Alaskans? What more do we need?