Patterico's Pontifications

2/4/2010

Jim Treacher Hit by Vehicle Driven by State Department Security Official — Then Gets Jaywalking Ticket

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 8:56 pm



It would be hyperbole to compare this to the Chinese government’s practice of executing prisoners, and then sending a bill to the prisoner’s family for the bullet.

So I won’t.

But still . . . this is pretty absurd:

According to Medlock, who writes under the name Jim Treacher, he was struck at about 7:15 p.m. on Wednesday, while crossing M Street in downtown Washington. Medlock says he was walking within the bounds of the crosswalk, toward a blinking white signal, when a government SUV suddenly turned left and plowed into him, knocking him to the ground.

Bystanders tended to Medlock, collected his crushed glasses and called an ambulance. McGuinn, meanwhile, called The Daily Caller’s offices from the scene to tell Medlock’s colleagues about the incident. But he did not identify himself to them or to Medlock.

Medlock was taken to Georgetown University Hospital with a broken left knee, lacerations and bruises. He will undergo surgery later this week.

At the hospital, DC police officer John Muniz arrived to issue Medlock a $20 jaywalking ticket. Medlock was lying sedated on a gurney, so Muniz delivered the ticket to a Daily Caller colleague, who was at the hospital with Medlock. He looked embarrassed as he did so. Behind him stood a man dressed in a dark suit who identified himself as a “special agent.” He said nothing but wrote in a notebook.

Curiously, the ticket says that Medlock was struck at an intersection four blocks from where the accident actually took place. . . .

You have got to be [expletive deleted]ing kidding me.

They gave him a ticket?!?!

Shame on Them

Filed under: Economics,Obama — DRJ @ 6:06 pm



[Guest post by DRJ]

Today the United States House of Representative voted 217-212 to increase the national debt limit to $14,294,000,000,000. The Senate authorized the increase last week.

— DJR

Time for Salon to Retract Libelous O’Keefe Article

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 5:39 pm



The National Center for Public Policy Research issues a press release that begins:

Kevin Martin of the black leadership group Project 21 and Amy Ridenour of the National Center for Public Policy Research are questioning the accuracy of an article in the left-wing online magazine Salon which implies that independent filmmaker James O’Keefe is a racist.

Add to that: the article is also being questioned by Patterico of, uh, Patterico.

Dot com.

The press release quotes Martin, the black conservative, as follows:

As a panelist at the Robert Taft Club ‘Race and Conservatism’ event in 2006, I had the chance to personally meet James O’Keefe after the event ended. He voiced personal support for me and my positions. He also repudiated the radical elements in the room that night.

Marcus Epstein invited me – a black conservative – to a discussion on race issues, not O’Keefe. What transpired was a spirited debate against radical elements of which I and other conservatives were clearly opposed. At no time did I feel intimidated, nor was I ever treated poorly by my hosts. The Blumenthal story is long on accusation and short on facts.

The left is attempting to label O’Keefe as a racist, but this probably has nothing to do with his ideas or associations now or then. I believe it is only because he recently exposed the radicalism of ACORN and the illegal advice its workers chose to give out. By labeling O’Keefe a racist, they likely seek to change the public view of O’Keefe’s work from one of exposing corruption and law-breaking to one of a white conservative going after a group empowering the poor and minorities.

I was just about to begin a long screed expounding on other deficiencies in the Salon article, when what should flash upon my screen but this: a comprehensive explanation of the faults in the article by my favorite alpaca ever: Retracto.

Don’t be shocked if Salon is forced to retract. The Village Voice just got through issuing an embarrassing retraction of its own. I’ll be watching for Salon’s.

Has any figure in recent history been the victim of so much inaccurate “journalism” by so many outlets as James O’Keefe? [UPDATE: I mean really recent history — like, say, so far this year.]

Previous post on the Salon article here.

What Happens When Government Health Care Doesn’t Work?

Filed under: Health Care — DRJ @ 2:54 pm



[Guest post by DRJ]

Nine-year-old boys die:

“A Montbello mother says her 9-year-old son’s death from severe asthma could have been prevented had Denver Human Services resolved problems with his Medicaid pharmacy benefits.

Zuton Lucero said she called Human Services every three days for months last year when she was suddenly unable to get prescription drugs for her son, Zumante.

The boy’s health deteriorated without the medication, his doctor said, and he died at Children’s Hospital in July after losing consciousness at his house after an attack.”

The article has the sorry details. Be warned before you read them.

Advocacy lawyers blame a flawed state computer system and the county human workers who “fell down.” I also blame the system because when government is the final arbiter, there is no appeal.

— DRJ

Senator Brown Sworn In

Filed under: Obama,Politics — DRJ @ 2:47 pm



[Guest post by DRJ]

Scott Brown was sworn in this evening as the Junior Senator from Massachusetts and the newest Senate member:

“Do you solemnly swear that you will support the Constitution of the United States against all enemies?” asked Biden, stumbling over some of the few words that followed.

“I do,” said Brown.

At 5:13 pm, the Senate applauded.

And Brown mingled with his fellow senators.”

Meanwhile, President Obama invents New Senate Math:

With Brown’s arrival, President Barack Obama joked somewhat ruefully this week, the GOP now has a “41-59 majority” in the Senate — that is, the votes sufficient to filibuster the Senate on anything the party chooses.

Already, the president told fellow Democrats this week, the GOP has crammed “20 years of obstructionism into one” with its attempted filibusters.

— DRJ

Obama’s Daily Economic Briefing

Filed under: Economics,Obama — DRJ @ 2:30 pm



[Guest post by DRJ]

A year ago, President Obama added a Daily Economic Briefing to his calendar to ensure he is “up-to-date and in-the-loop” while “Treasury, the Fed and his economic advisers work to pull the nation out of recession.”

How’s that working out? Judging by this report from ABC News’ Jake Tapper, not so good:

“President Obama veered off script – and away from the facts – when he spoke about the stimulus bill today in Nashua, NH.

“Now, if you hear some of the critics, they’ll say, well, the Recovery Act, I don’t know if that’s really worked, because we still have high unemployment,” the president said. “But what they fail to understand is that every economist, from the left and the right, has said, because of the Recovery Act, what we’ve started to see is at least a couple of million jobs that have either been created or would have been lost. The problem is, 7 million jobs were lost during the course of this recession.”

Um, it’s not true that “every economist” has said the Recovery Act has saved or created two million jobs.”

Tapper’s post has several examples, like the fact that Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers chair Christina Romer has quoted the 2 million jobs number. But others like Dan Mitchell at the libertarian Cato Institute, J.D. Foster at The Heritage Foundation, and Harvard University labor economist Lawrence Katzare are more skeptical. Even the OMB’s Peter Orszag has told his staff to stop claiming jobs “saved or created.”

Maybe this is what happens when Obama doesn’t pay attention to his Daily Economic Briefings and deviates from his prepared text. Or maybe this is what happens when the briefers only tell Obama what he wants to hear.

— DRJ

Job-Hunting Advice (or How Not to Get a Job)

Filed under: Law — DRJ @ 2:14 pm



[Guest post by DRJ]

A recently humbled 3L gets good job-hunting advice from an unexpected source.

H/T Instapundit.

— DRJ

Salon Writer Max Blumenthal: James O’Keefe Is a Racist

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 7:30 am



Well, of course. When your other attacks aren’t working, race is where you go:

[O’Keefe’s] right-wing admirers don’t seem to mind that O’Keefe’s short but storied career has been defined by a series of political stunts shot through with racial resentment. Now an activist organization that monitors hate groups has produced a photo of O’Keefe at a 2006 conference on “Race and Conservatism” that featured leading white nationalists.

. . . .

According to One People’s Project founder Daryle Jenkins, O’Keefe was manning the literature table at the gathering that brought together anti-Semites, professional racists and proponents of Aryanism.

Over at Big Journalism, Larry O’Connor does most of the heavy lifting, showing how a photo of O’Keefe:

O'Keefe Racist 1

was Photoshopped in a shameless and obvious fashion to make O’Keefe look like a racist:

O'Keefe Racist 2

O’Connor says he is “surprised it wasn’t a hood and robe.”

O’Connor also notes how witnesses (like Dave Weigel) can’t confirm the “manning the table” allegations.

I’d just like to add my two cents. First, author Max Blumenthal (fittingly, the son of character assassin Sid Blumenthal) manages to suggest racism based on this:

Meanwhile, O’Keefe lost his job at the Leadership Institute in 2008 for a prank call he made to an Ohio-based Planned Parenthood clinic. During the call, O’Keefe offered a donation to the clinic on the condition that it would be earmarked to pay for aborting African-American fetuses. “Because there’s definitely way too many black people in Ohio,” O’Keefe remarked to the receptionist. “So, I’m just trying to do my part.”

Blumenthal fails to note the context, which made it clear that O’Keefe was posing as a racist to see if Planned Parenthood would accept money from a white supremacist who was donating as a way to exterminate blacks. And they were perfectly happy to. O’Keefe is the “donor” in this exchange, which makes clear that he was engaged in his usual Borat-style mocking of the person he was dealing with:

Donor: When I underwrite abortions, does that apply to minorities too?

Planned Parenthood: If you specifically wanted to underwrite an abortion for a minority person, you can target it that way. You can specify that is how you wanted it spent.

Donor: Ok, yeah, because there’s definitely way too many Black people in Ohio, so I’m just trying to do my part.

Planned Parenthood: Ok, whatever.

Donor: Well Blacks especially need abortions too, so that’s what I’m trying to do.

Planned Parenthood: Well, for whatever reason, we’ll accept the money.

Donor: Ok great, thank you.

Finally, this Blumenthal-penned paragraph is also shameless in its dishonesty:

O’Keefe’s termination by the Leadership Institute hardly ended his career as a conservative activist. Right-wing online publicist Andrew Breitbart, hearing of the merry prankster’s exploits, hired him to carry out the ACORN operation that would make him famous. Since his arrest, however, some of O’Keefe’s former associates are scrambling to save face. “I am shocked by the reports of this behavior,” declared O’Keefe’s collaborator on the ACORN operation, Hannah Giles. (Giles had tarted up as a prostitute for the stunt.)

Breitbart didn’t hire O’Keefe to do the ACORN investigation. That’s just one of the many things that Blumenthal made up. Breitbart has been clear: “James O’Keefe came to me with the ACORN story with a bow.”

Also, by the time Blumenthal wrote his screed, Hannah Giles had written in full-throated support of O’Keefe at Big Journalism. Hannah explained that, like many of us, she was initially fooled by sloppy Big Media reports into thinking O’Keefe was accused of trying to wiretap Landrieu.

For 48 hours, rampant rumors of phone taps, possible felonies, rash behavior and the phrase “Watergate Jr.” spread like wildfire. No one knew the reality of the situation. Even I was very concerned by the initial reports. I had no inkling of this project and once again found myself a victim of the MSM’s filthy, desperate and fact-free drive-by reporting.

Blumenthal’s piece is too chock-full of baseless innuendo to address every dishonest point. These are just some of the highlights. If you want to take on more of it, feel free to do so in the comments.

Anyone who trumpets Blumenthal’s screed is acting as a shameless partisan or a dupe.


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