Patterico's Pontifications

2/28/2010

Health Care Votes in the House (Updated)

Filed under: Health Care — DRJ @ 3:58 pm



[Guest post by DRJ]

Does Speaker Pelosi have the votes to pass health care legislation in the House? Yes and No:

I’d feel a lot better if the Democrats were counting on Reid for votes instead of Pelosi.

— DRJ

UPDATE — On the other hand, Pelosi lost another “Yes” vote today:

“Today, Rep. Neil Abercrombie’s retirement takes effect as the veteran Democrat devotes his full time to running for governor of Hawaii. Abercrombie voted for the House bill, so that’s one more “yes” vote that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi won’t have if she hopes to pass health care using reconciliation.

Pelosi has lost three “yes” votes since Nov. 7. The others: Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., who died Feb. 8, and Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Fla., who resigned Jan. 3 to become the head of the non-profit Center for Middle East Peace and Economic Cooperation.

The House vote last time was 220-215, so Pelosi will need to persuade some of the 39 Democrats who voted against the House bill to vote for the Senate bill — which is the first step of a two-step reconciliation process. That won’t be easy.”

Unemployment During the Recession

Filed under: Economics — DRJ @ 3:35 pm



[Guest post by DRJ]

Everything looks bad on this map but flyover country doesn’t look quite as bad.

— DRJ

Another Lie from Brad Friedman (And Eric Boehlert!)

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 2:27 pm



“While we can’t know if the text transcripts O’Keefe released were accurate, since he refuses to release the audio tape . . .” — Brad Friedman, in his letter to Clark Hoyt.

The full unedited audio of every visit for which there is a transcript is available at Big Government. As Friedman knows, since I told him this repeatedly when we appeared on the radio together.

UPDATE: Apparently Eric Boehlert is part of this hoax as well. Eric Boehlert has linked Friedman’s post but did not lift a finger to correct Friedman.

Remember: Boehlert has repeatedly claimed that O’Keefe “lied” or committed a “hoax” merely because O’Keefe did not correct Steve Doocy’s claim about his manner of dress at ACORN. By Boehlert’s logic, Boehlert has himself engaged in a hoax, by endorsing Friedman’s post but failing to correct Friedman’s falsehood.

UPDATE x2: Robot Theater does actual Twitter messages between Boehlert and Breitbart:

H/t: PoliGrrl.

UPDATE x3: Thanks to Instapundit for the link. I want to make it clear again that Boehlert is being hoist on his own petard — as he has set up a standard for James O’Keefe that, if applied to Boehlert himself, makes Boehlert a liar.

I should also note that Boehlert’s relentless focus on O’Keefe’s clothing is a nonsensical issue. It has nothing to do with the actions of ACORN employees who believed they were helping someone set up a house for 13 year-old girls to turn tricks and give O’Keefe the money.

The unedited audio proves there was no nefarious editing. Don’t let the liars try to tell you different. Click the link and examine the evidence for yourself.

UPDATE x4: Friedman admits that he and Boehlert lied and tried to hoax people. Details here.

Obama’s First Presidential Health Checkup (Updated x2)

Filed under: Obama — DRJ @ 2:05 pm



[Guest post by DRJ]

President Obama had a physical today. He’s in excellent health with only one medical issue:

“President Barack Obama is using nicotine replacement therapy to help himself quit smoking, according to the results of his physical exam released Sunday.

Navy Capt. Dr. Jeff Kuhlman examined Obama at the Bethesda Naval Medical Center in Maryland Sunday morning and recommended that the president “continue smoking cessation efforts.”

The American Cancer Society explains why it’s so hard to quit smoking.

— DRJ

UPDATE: The U.S. stop-smoking website Smokefree.gov indicates the maximum duration for an NRT patch is 6 weeks and in President Obama’s home state of Illinois, government services only approve nicotine replacement therapy for 6-12 weeks:

The Department will first implement this edit with nicotine replacement patches. According to guidelines published by the American Psychiatric Association, the recommended duration of therapy for nicotine replacement is six to twelve weeks. Longer durations of nicotine replacement therapy have not been found to be more effective. Therefore, the duration of therapy for nicotine replacement patches will be limited to 90 days within a 365-day period.

Reports suggest Obama may have been on NRT gum or a patch since at least 2007, and he used the gum 6 months longer than recommendations allowed. Maybe the health care time limits don’t apply to him the way they would to others, especially those receiving government health care … or maybe he keeps falling off the wagon.

UPDATE 2: Here is the physician’s report.


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