The Two-headed COBRA

I spent three years in this industry, and have an above-average understanding of COBRA. I just found this little nugget, however, hiding in the "stimulus" bill: subsidized COBRA payments and a "2nd chance" clause for those who turned down COBRA eligibility.

Since businesses are required to offer this stimulated version of COBRA, downsizing to save money will end up causing them more trouble than laying off the huge bloc of employees may have...or at least send them scrambling for cash.

Good. Olbermann is an Idiot

Behold Tuesday's Cable opinion show ratings:

CABLE NEWS RACE
TUES., MARCH 10, 2009

FOXNEWS O'REILLY 3,212,000
FOXNEWS HANNITY 2,376,000
FOXNEWS BECK 2,331,000
FOXNEWS BAIER 2,274,000
FOXNEWS SHEP 2,044,000
FOXNEWS GRETA 1,965,000
CNN COOPER 1,214,000
CNN KING 1,185,000
MSNBC MADDOW 1,041,000
CNNHN GRACE 986,000
MSNBC OLBERMANN 928,000

The funny thing is that Maddow, who's been on the air a lot shorter time than Keith Uberdork, is now eating his lunch in the ratings...wait...they're both employed by MSNBC, and Maddow comes on AFTER Uberdork--which means people WAIT until Keith is done before turning on Maddow.

HAAHAHAHAHAAHAAA

Your Tax Dollars at Work, Although You May Not be at Work UPDATED

So if this is to be believed, the Kennedys are getting fatter off of your tax dollars, courtesy of the ridiculously socialist "stimulus" package that Pres. Obama signed. Now that it's already signed, we get to read the hundreds of pages of earmarks.

So much for the "Americans will have five days prior to any vote to review legislation online" pledge:

"Sunlight Before Signing: Too often bills are rushed through Congress and to the president before the public has the opportunity to review them. As president, Obama will not sign any non-emergency bill without giving the American public an opportunity to review and comment on the White House website for five days."

Lie #1.

So much for the "no earmarks" pledge as documented here.

Lie #2.

So much for the "no lobbyists in my house" pledge.

"No political appointees in an Obama-Biden administration will be permitted to work on regulations or contracts directly and substantially related to their prior employer for two years. And no political appointee will be able to lobby the executive branch after leaving government service during the remainder of the administration."

Exhibit A. HHS Secy Nominee Daschle. BOOM! Outta here.

Lie #3.

I don't care who you voted for in the '08 election. But if you voted for Obama based on his shallow "hope" and "change we can believe in" bumper sticker campaign, you were misled, either willfully or unwittingly. You were misled. Inside his first 50 days, Pres. Obama has already reneged on key pillars of his "change" foundation--destroying credibility and positioning himself to be an even bigger liar than Pres. "I am not a crook" Nixon. Not good company. Not a good start.

And I leave you with this nice little summary of Obama's ability to pick credible, worthy individuals to fill his posts.

Does anyone feel inspired or a sudden increase of confidence with Timothy "Timmy" Geithner opens his mouth on the economy? <crickets chirping>

How about master locutor Robert Gibbs? "We're working on it." "We're putting together some proposals." "I'll check on it." Huh?

Heaven help us.

UPDATED: Apparently I'm not the only one who is "underwhelmed" by Robert Gibbs.