Always strive to learn something useful. --Sophocles

There are a lot of reasons, one of the big ones being that the Republicans gutted the funding which forced Health & Human Services to scrounge for money which forced them to use almost 50 contractors to build this thing. HHS screwed up in two major ways. First, they didn't appoint a top dog contractor who was responsible for integrating this mess. HHS thought they had the in-house expertise to handle managing it all, and they clearly did not. They also chose a Canadian shop that had a track history of poor performance on government contracts. I have no idea how they got the contract, there's talk that there was some higher level quid pro quo going on, in that the company that bought out the main contractor is owned by Obama fund raisers and that fundraiser-owned company has been hired to fix the mess.

But the second one was a biggie: HHS specified that the system would run on top of a database system called MarkLogic. Not Oracle, not SQL Server, not IBM bringing in something. Most databases used in business for record-keeping use SQL, Structured Query Language. This organizes data in to tables that control the amount of redundant data and do lots of things to enforce data quality. SQL is predicated on algebraic set logic where the tables (sets) are manipulated using set operations: intersections, joins, differences, etc. I've been working with relational databases for about 30 years and I absolutely love the way it works. It's extremely fast, it's extremely robust, and has a very long and proven track record.

MarkLogic is not an SQL database. It uses a technology called NoSQL, which eschews a lot of the strengths of SQL databases, gaining speed, a smaller footprint in the OS, and lower cost. It is a datastore, but not like SQL. It has such a small footprint, as a matter of fact, that pretty much all smartphones use it internally to structure operations.

And MarkLogic seems to be a pretty good database (I've never worked with it). The London Olympics last year used MarkLogic to organize and stream all their data and video, and it performed marvelously. There are lots of examples of MarkLogic performing well.

There's only one big problem: the developers had never worked with it before. So in addition to creating a complex system, the developers had to abandon a lot of their previously honed techniques and learn new ones. New development techniques, new testing techniques. The developers balked at the spec, but HHS held firm.

And now we have the mess that we have.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/23/us/politics/tension-and-woes-before-health-website-crash.html

http://beta.slashdot.org/story/194761

"Just as the Fugitive Slave Act was an overreach by the federal government, so too we understand that Obamacare is an assault on the rights of individuals."
—Rep. William O'Brien

Yes. Helping the poor and uninsurable get health insurance through a subsidy is exactly like slavery.

"We'd be hard pressed to explain why we were opposed to a bill we were in favor of."
—Sen. Mitch McConnell on Cruz filibuster

Cruz did a couple of interesting things, including reading the Dr. Seuss book Green Eggs and Ham. He seemed to quite revel in the "I do not like" parts, but I don't know if he got to the end and realized that the main character ends up quite liking green eggs and ham. Kind of a poor metaphor to put forth the point that people don't like the Affordable Care Act when your example turns around to liking what it initially hates.

But I particularly like people calling Cruz's speech a fauxlibuster. I think another word has been added to the vocabulary.

I do wish McConnell would explain why they are opposed to the Affordable Care Act when initially it was a Republican plan put forth from the Heritage Institute think tank. Both Heritage and the RNC now violently oppose the ACA, but neither has come out with articulable, cogent reasons why they're now rejecting their own legislation and neither has come out with an alternative except 'the free market will take care of the problem', when we've yet to see the free market take care of any actual problem.

I think their big objection is that Obama is guilty of Presidenting While Black.

"It's well known that Roberts, unfortunately for him, has suffered from epileptic seizures. Therefore he has been on medication. Neurologists will tell you that medication used for seizure disorders, such as epilepsy, can introduce mental slowing, forgetfulness and other cognitive problems. And if you look at Roberts' writings you can see the cognitive disassociation in what he is saying."
—radio host Michael Savage

And am looking forward to seeing more excuse-making why it should be repealed.

And for another quote:

"Just because a couple of people on the Supreme Court declare something to be 'constitutional' does not make it so."
—Rand Paul

Sorry, the core of the job of the SCOTUS means that if a majority decides it is constitutional, it's constitutional until the law is rewritten or repealed.

"Under no certain circumstances will I give the government control over my body and my health care decisions."
-- anti pro-choice Rep. Michele Bachmann

Hmmm, ironic much?