[Guest post by DRJ]

The Harris County (Houston) Hospital District plans to buy Memorial Hermann Southwest Hospital and market it to private insurance patients to make it financially viable. Here’s one doctor’s reaction to the sale:

“Doctors here believe a county facility is not the place to bring private-pay patients,” said Dr. Owen Maat, a gastroenterologist with a busy practice at Memorial Hermann Southwest. “They want to go to an attractive hospital where they get a private room and are treated well. That doesn’t happen at a county hospital.”

Other physicians see financial problems:

“Retaining the hospital’s physicians and their private-insurance patients is crucial if the hospital district wants to avoid imposing a tax increase, as it has stated. Such patients help defray the cost of care to indigent patients the hospital district serves.

“If the district thinks they can do this without raising taxes, they’re insane,” said Dr. Michael Kleinman, a Memorial Hermann Southwest surgeon. “It might take a while, but there’s going to be an exodus of doctors from here.”

Some Hermann doctors claim the majority of the staff opposes the sale, and Memorial Hermann Healthcare System President and CEO Dan Wolterman said a recent forum with physicians made town halls with members of Congress “look peaceful.” But a hospital spokeswoman “objected to the characterization of widespread unhappiness among doctors about the deal,” describing them instead as a “vocal faction.”

I hope this isn’t a preview of things to come.

— DRJ

[Guest post by DRJ]

Instapundit summarizes ObamaCare:

“Obama: I’m going to turn healthcare upside down. Not sure how.

People: I don’t think I’ll like this.

Obama: Haters!”

But thanks to William A. Jacobson at Legal In-sur-rec-tion, we know one thing about ObamaCare: The IRS will be the New Health Care Enforcer. He says both the House and Senate bills require that information about household members and their health care coverage be reported to the IRS. Under the House version, people who do not have acceptable coverage will be taxed approximately 2.5% of AGI. According to Jacobson, “[t]he Senate version is similar, although the tax is called a ‘shared responsibility payment’ not a tax.”

— DRJ

[Guest post by DRJ]

Quote of the Day:

“Did she think nobody would dig this up? Did she think she wouldn’t have to eat her own words? Did she think?“

H/T Instapundit.

— DRJ

[Guest post by DRJ]

President Obama appeared at a health care town hall event in Montana today where he faced more tame questions, with two exceptions. Here’s the first question:

“One questioner, an NRA member, called on POTUS for more information about how he’ll pay for health care legislation. Obama acknowledged he might raise taxes, but said he wouldn’t burden the middle class: “We’ve got to get over this notion that you can have something for nothing.”

Now which recent Presidential candidate was responsible for nonsense like saying we should spread the wealth around? Oh, yeah.

Here’s the second semi-tough question for Obama:

“POTUS also got quizzed by a health insurance salesman, who asked why the White House was training its fire on his industry and working to “vilify” insurers. Obama said that’s not what he’s trying to do: “If my intent was to vilify them, we’d be saying private insurance has no place in the health care market.”

Hmmm. In his own words: “But I don’t think we’re gonna be able to eliminate employer coverage immediately. There’s gonna be potentially some transition process.” [EDIT: And other quotes at the link.]

— DRJ

[Guest post by DRJ]

Great News from the adjective-prone Dana household: PFC Pico is coming home. Many thanks to PFC Pico and her family for her service.

— DRJ

[Guest post by DRJ]

Washington Redskins back-up running back Ladell Betts played a preseason game with the wrong name on his jersey — Bettis. Betts had this response:

“Actually, I do like Jerome Bettis, but I don’t prefer to have his name on my back,” he said. “I wasn’t upset or anything. I think the equipment people felt bad, but I wasn’t mad at them.”

Betts is starting his eighth year with the Redskins.

— DRJ

[Guest post by DRJ]

Friday afternoon is a good time to post on any scandalous political stories … like DNA reportedly shows Rielle Hunter did have John Edwards’ love child. The only good part of this story is watching Mickey Kaus gloat.

— DRJ

[Guest post by DRJ]

America has record unemployment and deficits, sour financial news, and is fighting a war in Afghanistan but fortunately President Obama is answering the tough questions:

“Do you have the power to make the school lunches better?” [Damon] Weaver asked.

“Well, you know, I remember when I used to get school lunches sometimes they didn’t taste so good, I gotta admit,” confessed Obama. “We are actually seeing if we can work to at least make school lunches healthier.”

More power to this little reporter but doesn’t Obama have better things to do than spend an hour with a sixth grader?

UPDATE: He’s also interviewed VP Joe Biden and Damon told ABC News that “President Obama is not much long-winded as Biden”. Heh.

— DRJ

The Houston Chronicle reports:

U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee on Thursday distanced herself from a University of Houston graduate student and Texas Obama delegate who falsely identified herself as a pediatric physician at the congresswoman’s health care reform town hall meeting this week.

“I’ve never met her,” Jackson Lee said as she prepared to take questions from doctors and other health care workers in a session at St. Joseph Medical Center.

Roxana Mayer, who warmly embraced Jackson Lee at the close of Tuesday’s session at a Fifth Ward community center, had spoken in favor of the president’s health care package. The Texas Medical Board, which oversees doctors in Texas, has no record of Mayer, 31, holding a physician’s license.

In a West Coast political blog, Patterico’s Pontifications, Mayer admitted she is not a doctor.

When queried by the Houston Chronicle if she held a medical license outside Texas, she responded via e-mail: “If my initial statement to the Houston Chronicle can not be substantiated, then I understand your responsibility to omit it.”

Jared Woodfill, chairman of Harris County Republican Party, on Thursday said Mayer’s misrepresentation “shows you what we’ve known all along.”

“The Democrats,” he said, “will do anything it takes to pass Obamacare, whether it’s misrepresentation, deception, trickery or outright fraud. It appears there are no boundaries to what they are willing to do.”

I don’t know if Jackson Lee had anything to do with Mayer’s attendance. But I do know that Mayer was invited to the event by a radical Obama supporter who ran an Obama campaign office that sported a picture of Che Guevara.

Mayer yesterday told me that she was invited to the town hall meeting by a listserv message sent by Maria Isabel, who ran an Obama campaign office sporting a Che Guevara flag:

Look, Maria Che-Guevara lady, or whatever, I saw her at about three events during the primaries, and she was a county delegate, too. I know she has been very involved with a lot of stuff with the campaign, but I did not get involved in the general election. I am on a listserve where she sent out a message about the town hall. I haven’t coordinated with her, didn’t even say that I was going. She’s a bit over the top, huh?

Yes, she is, Ms. Mayer.

Maria Isabel (identified by Babalu blog) at Obama/Che HQ

Maria Isabel at town hall meeting

Maria Isabel with Obama

But you know what. Ms. Mayer? It’s also a bit over the top to lie about whether you are a doctor to enhance your credibility in a discussion about health care. So I’d say you and Maria Isabel are two peas in an “over the top” pod.

Funny how the two of you ended up sitting together in the front row.

To add to the intrigue, Hot Air yesterday revealed that Mayer was an organizer for Obama’s Organizing for America. So you have two Obama activists sitting in the front together, one of whom invited the other via a listserv. One is a Che Guevara fan and the other lies about being a doctor.

Yes, Mayer says she acted on her own. Given her track record of dishonesty, I am skeptical. Also, note that she has now been “advised” by unnamed people not to talk any more:

In an e-mail to the Chronicle today, Mayer said she’d been advised not to talk further about the matter, but did not say who counseled her.

I have sent her an e-mail to ask her who gave her this advice. But, you know, she has been “advised” not to respond. So she probably won’t.

P.S. What are those similar looking clipboards being held by Isabel and the woman sitting next to her?

UPDATE: As I reported last night, the Lone Star Times was the first to report Ms. Isabel’s presence, and her Che Guevara connection. What this post adds is the fact that Ms. Mayer was invited by Ms. Isabel (who is, by the way, one of Ms. Mayer’s Facebook friends). In addition, most of the photos in this post are from the Lone Star Times site. They have done excellent work on this.