I just moved here last year, and I can't wait to move to Seattle. Gravity Falls is neat, though.

I felt kind of bad about submitting this: Laura and the Portland Cello Project are friends of mine and we've played shows together. Oracle is the one responsible here and not the commercials.

the whole episode's put up on youtube btw:

http://youtu.be/5tCmriZSxxk

Yep. Fuck Oracle for making Laura Gibson look bad.

The state has a long history of failed IT projects, and failed projects in general. The political consequences of these failures haven't been to disrupt political control; as that is now impossible in most regions of the US. What has happened, is that a majority of citizens are now voting down just about every project and bond request that is forced to the ballot. This is hardly a preferable state of affairs.

If you really want to understand the state, consider that the 3 time governor announced his re-election campaign days after the implosion of the Cover Oregon website. To this date, no serious contender for his job has emerged.

she put something up on her facebook saying "sorry for killing you all" so she's got a sense of humor about it. Also, the producers contacted her and the Portland Cello Project first. It's actually been pretty good publicity, and I'd rather see an ad like this than the usual "here's how to sign up for coveroregon. You know that I have a ,000 toothbrush right?" type shit.

The Oregon Lottery has a similar ad campaign: "Look at how unique and bearded we are.. we make signs instead of using fancy graphics because we're crafty like that. Now feel good about that you lost to Video Poker and Kino because trees."

What really gets to me is the arts tax. Don't get me started on the arts tax. Get me started on the arts tax.

And the governor? He's a former ER surgeon, huge booster of the health care industry in the state, and liberal democrat. Cover Oregon was supposed to be the crown jewel of his last term in office and an example to the nation of the right way to do health care.

He had every reason to succeed. Support from the Fed, support from the electorate, and a sufficient minority of Republicans to prevent political interference with the project. Instead, with everything going in his favor, he steered the ship directly into the heart of the sun. You can't even really blame Oracle, although you are welcome to try. The state prosecutor tried that and failed to find legal liability. Like the governor, he had every reason to succeed at this.

A true telling of the Cover Oregon story would be a remarkable and fantastic thing: I hope to hear it one day but remain less than sanguine over the prospects of that happening.

Ha! I heard that art tax thing brought in like 200 grand total? It probably costed more to implement the tax than they'll recover in revenues.

I'll admit that I was boners for her when "Stay" was popular.. I like girls with cat eye glasses.. but in a way she ushered in a wave of shrill girl rock that frankly I can't stand. "I'm-a just a girl so put me on the back of your motorcycle you just fixed yourself and drive me down to cardboard city" type shit. Laura has an immensely powerful voice and this is in no way indicative of her sound.

We get it infinite, jesus. You can stop defending her.

Ah Bort! I've been reserving my stars for you.

Democrat Governor. Democrat controlled Senate. Democrat controlled House. Signature program of Democrat President. 350 million dollar federal grant.

With every reason to succeed, with support from a large majority of the populace, with both their local political fortunes and possible those of the parties control of national house and senate, they soundly and utterly failed. A failure so large and ugly as to potentially affect the next presidential election. There is failure, then there is this 5 star spangled banner of a monumental fucked apart piece of nonsense. A failure for the ages, my friend. One for the ages.

The healthcare.gov Web site failures are largely receding in people's minds, I think, but that certainly doesn't excuse them. But Oregon's site failures are likely to be an issue in the election; it's one thing to fix a Web site, it's another to spend 0 million and get nothing out of it except a gig for infinite jest's friends.

The thing that perpetually astonishes me is the spread in quality of programming work. The Oregon site was primarily done by Oracle, not a couple sophomores trying to land some beer money; there's no reason Oracle, of all companies, shouldn't have nailed this. So I can't even blame Oregon for choosing contractors poorly. But when you've put all your eggs in one basket, you'd damn well better keep an eye on that basket.