Some things just cannot be unseen, and that’s even true in editorial cartoons.  Investors Business Daily’s Michael Ramirez makes this one count, using the most current cultural controversy as a reflection on the most current display of domestic-policy incompetence (via Power Line):

We have a couple of other items worth noting on ObamaCare, too.  The Daily Caller noted earlier this week just how much effort the Obama administration has put into avoiding the word “tax” on ObamaCare taxes.  In a new IRS rule on the ObamaCare individual mandate, they replace that word with a lengthy euphemism … more than fifty times:

The Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) final rule on Obamacare’s individual mandate, released this week, uses the term “Shared Responsibility Payment” more than 50 times to describe the mandate’s non-compliance penalty, which the Supreme Court in 2012 defined as a tax.

The IRS also used the term “shared responsibility penalty” in the rule, which does not identify the individual mandate as a tax.

The 75-page rule published by the IRS, which is tasked with enforcing Obamacare as the law is fully implemented in 2014, is entitled “Shared Responsibility Payment for Not Maintaining Minimum Essential Coverage.”

While the Obama administration originally pitched the individual mandate as a penalty, not a tax, Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts ruled in June 2012 that Obamacare is only constitutional because the individual mandate is technically a tax.

It’s not a tax. It’s a Glorious Opportunity To Advance The Nation Through Your Sacrifice!  Or maybe it’s a Five Year Plan, or a Cultural Revolution. It’s difficult to keep up with these euphemisms.

Not everyone has to sacrifice, however.  In Illinois, they are bypassing all of the competitive-bidding hassle and just awarding the contract to run the exchange’s computer system to … choose a vendor fired by Louisiana for ethical violations:

Making ObamaCare a reality will require massive computing power to track, store and process the millions of individual cases

But in Illinois, contracts to compute that state’s cases – valued as high as $190 million – are being awarded without competitive bidding. …

CNSI, however, has encountered problems in other states.

The company sued Louisiana after a contract there was terminated during an investigation into whether CNSI and a handful of other companies violated ethical guidelines during the procurement process.

According to openthebooks.com there were also cost overruns in Washington and Maine and a lawsuit in South Dakota that ended in mediation.

The federal government certified them anyway, because — and I’m not making this up — the ethical and fiscal concerns didn’t mean that their technological performance wasn’t up to snuff:

However, the federal government certified CNSI, which was sufficient for Illinois to move forward with the intergovernmental agreement.

“The issues in other states since then do not in any way reflect the technological capabilities and performance Michigan has experienced with CNSI,” wrote director Hamos.

Sounds like Illinois is set to do to its citizens what Miley Cyrus play-acted during her VMA performance.

Also, be sure to check out Ramirez’ terrific collection of his works: Everyone Has the Right to My Opinion, which covers the entire breadth of Ramirez’ career, and it gives fascinating look at political history.  Read my review here, and watch my interviews with Ramirez here and here.  And don’t forget to check out the entire Investors.com site, which has now incorporated all of the former IBD Editorials, while individual investors still exist.