Patterico's Pontifications

11/8/2009

Healing the Healer

Filed under: Health Care,Obama,Politics — DRJ @ 10:10 pm



[Guest post by DRJ]

Before the health care vote, President Obama reportedly rallied the Democratic House members with this description of Americans who are leery of health care reform:

“Mr. Obama, during his private pep talk to Democrats, recognized Mr. Owens election and then posed a question to the other lawmakers. According to Representative Earl Blumenauer of Oregon, who supports the health care bill, the president asked, “Does anybody think that the teabag, anti-government people are going to support them if they bring down health care? All it will do is confuse and dispirit” Democratic voters “and it will encourage the extremists.”

The more things change, the more things stay the same. Here’s how candidate Obama described Americans who were leery of Hope and Change:

“You go into some of these small towns in Pennsylvania, and like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing’s replaced them,” Obama said. “And they fell through the Clinton Administration, and the Bush Administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not. And it’s not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.”

Obama the bipartisan healer needs some healing.

— DRJ

Hasan is Talking

Filed under: Terrorism — DRJ @ 7:04 pm



[Guest post by DRJ]

The Austin American-Statesman reports Nidal Malik Hasan is still in critical condition but he’s conscious and talking:

“Dewey Mitchell, public affairs chief at the hospital, said he did not know if the accused gunman in Thursday mass shooting at Fort Hood is talking to investigators.

“I am not sure how much he is talking,” Dewey Mitchell said. “There is some communication going on. I just got that indication from people on our nursing staff.”

If Time Magazine is right, Hasan may be talking about his secondary trauma:

“As an army psychiatrist treating soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, Major Nidal Malik Hasan had a front row seat on the brutal toll of war. It is too early to know exactly what may have triggered his murderous shooting rampage Thursday at Fort Hood – Hasan is accused of killing 12 people and wounding 32 others before he was wounded by a police officer – but it is not uncommon for therapists treating soldiers with Post Trumatic Stress Disorder (P.T.S.D.) to be swept up in a patient’s displays of war-related paranoia, helplessness and fury.

In medical parlance it is known as “secondary trauma”, and it can afflict the families of soldiers suffering from P.T.S.D. along with the health workers who are trying to cure them.”

The author acknowledges there could be other causes, too: Hasan could have been harassed because he’s Muslim; or his actions could be related to his objections to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; or Hasan’s pending deployment could have aggravated concerns raised by the war experiences of his patients; or the high rate of suicides at Fort Hood could have pushed Hasan over the edge.

It’s a lengthy list but apparently there wasn’t enough space to mention the possibility … the very slight chance … that this might be an act of terrorism.

— DRJ

Jason Falkner at Spaceland

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 7:03 pm



Mrs. P. and I got to go on a rare date last night to see Jason Falkner at Spaceland in Silver Lake. (We had dinner down the street at a good Italian restaurant called Domenico’s, which served some absolutely wonderful ciabatta bread from a place in Santa Monica called Ca D’Oro.) Falkner, formerly of Jellyfish and the Grays, has had a long solo career with many interesting songs.

It was a good show. Falkner concentrated mostly on songs from his last two albums; sadly, there were no Grays songs on the set list. Still, a nice night out; it was almost as if we weren’t in our forties.

Falkner

L.A. Times Front Page Mentions Nothing About Passage of PelosiCare; UPDATE: Yes It Does; Paper Just Has Wrong Front-Page Image on Site

Filed under: Dog Trainer — Patterico @ 4:32 pm



Did the House of Representatives really just pass PelosiCare last night? Is it true that she got only 2 more votes than the bare majority required to pass? Did the House really pass an amendment that would ensure that federal dollars would not be used for abortion in any new health care initiative?

I thought that all happened. But I can’t find any evidence of it on the front page of the Los Angeles Times.

Am I wrong to think that this is all relatively big news? I mean, not as important as the Konocti resort, or an advertisement for marketloftsauction.com, or a blurb about the return of the biker look to fashion. These are the things that are on today’s Los Angeles Times front page (.pdf).

But nothing about health care?

Really?

I don’t even see this as an issue of ideology; just basic competence. Were the people who determined the front page’s layout on drugs, or what? One too many visits to the medicinal marijuana clinic, perhaps?

Whatever they’re smoking over there, it must be good stuff. Because this is just bizarre.

UPDATE: Commenters are telling me that the physical paper has the normal stories (and spin) you would expect. The link above is what the paper has listed on its site for today’s front page, and it’s dated November 8, 2009, which is today. I got to it by clicking a link that reads: “Page one from today’s paper of November 8, 2009. (PDF file).” But as Kevin Murphy explains:

What you have there is obviously the Saturday-Sunday newsstand wrapper that is usually supplemented with the “real” Saturday front page somewhere inside.

Well, that’s reassuring. Because this really seemed beyond weird. Thanks to Kevin for clearing that up.

So the bottom line is: when they say it’s “Page one from today’s paper” — it’s not. I should have known better than to trust them . . .

More SEIU Trouble?

Filed under: General — DRJ @ 4:27 pm



[Guest post by DRJ]

Remember Kenneth Gladney, the man who was allegedly beaten by persons wearing SEIU shirts at an August 2009 Carnahan health care event? California state worker and SEIU member Ken Hamidi feels Gladney’s pain after Hamidi reportedly was beaten by some West Coast SEIU members:

“A state worker is recovering after a bloody brawl at a union hall. He says members of the local SEIU 1000 beat him up and sent him to the hospital all because he wanted to expose allegedl corruption within the union.
***
“Three, four people jumped at me, wrestled with me, then did all that,” said Hamidi. “I was covered in blood and then over to the emergency room.”

In 2008, Hamidi was a candidate for President of local SEIU 1000 where the theme of his candidacy was accountability, transparency, and reform. Hamidi also ran for California Governor in 2003 and was a successful First Amendment crusader in 1995.

UPDATE: SEIU says it’s the innocent party.

— DRJ

Obama Administration Warns Democrat Strategist: Stay Off of Fox News

Filed under: Dog Trainer,General — Patterico @ 3:01 pm



The Los Angeles Times (yes, the Los Angeles Times!) reports:

At least one Democratic political strategist has gotten a blunt warning from the White House to never appear on Fox News Channel, an outlet that presidential aides have depicted as not so much a news-gathering operation as a political opponent bent on damaging the Obama administration.

The Democratic strategist said that shortly after an appearance on Fox, he got a phone call from a White House official telling him not to be a guest on the show again. The call had an intimidating tone, he said.

The message was, “We better not see you on again,” said the strategist, who spoke on condition of anonymity so as not to run afoul of the White House. An implicit suggestion, he said, was that “clients might stop using you if you continue.”

Keep it up, Obama.

Be On the Look Out

Filed under: Crime — DRJ @ 2:41 pm



[Guest post by DRJ]

Mass murders in Texas and Florida, and PelosiCare passed the House last night — those are this week’s big stories. Here’s a little story:

“Investigators say the man was playing game inside the business, went to the counter, flashed a gun, and demanded cash.

After getting the money, he got away in a teal chevy compact car.

The suspect is a White Male, 5’11”, around 40-years-old, and weighs 220 pounds.

He was wearing a green blouse and skirt, mesh leggings, a blonde wig, high heels and make-up.

Call police if you have any information.”

Photos would be nice, too.

— DRJ


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