President suffering from Foot-In-Mouth Disease

gee its a good thing he is taking being President and the importance of his words so 'seriously' ... I remember when President GW Bush would mess up on a word, stumble during a speech people were all over it saying how 'dumb' he was, what an 'embarrassment' it was when he talked -- well where are those same people

So lets see .... so far this week there have been two huge ones (I'm sure there will be more):

The President has accused doctors of ordering unnecessary procedures just to make a buck his quote was ...

" .... so if their looking, and you come in, and you have a bad sore throat or your child has a bad sore throat, or has repeated sore throats -- the doctor may look at the reimbursement system and say to himself 'you know what, I make more money if I take this kids tonsils out' -- now that may be the right thing to do, but I'd rather have the doctor making those decisions based on whether you really need your kid's tonsils out or whether it might make more sense to just to change -- maybe they have allergies, maybe they have something else that would make a difference ... "

hmmm, where was the mass media - network media - outrage and rips at the President over that one??? AND I kept out all the stammering he was doing .... I don't mean to imply that he should be picked on for his stammering, but Bush sure was when he did it -- could you imagine the hay day that the media would have had if Sarah Palin had said something like this?? OMGs!!!!

I know that there could be a few drs that will do that ... but the majority of drs don't even know what the reimbursement programs are -- the billing department is totally separate. The dr may know what circumstances would likely be covered by insurance companies - but not the billing part of it.

Then there's the whole Gates vs. Police thing ... where the President came out and said that the police 'acted stupidly' - and couldn't see where that might get him in just a bit of trouble (see my previous post for the exact quote) ... so now he has tried to back track it - after the tapes & police report were released which kind of collaborate what the officer was saying.

In one of the dispatch calls where the officer is asking that campus police still come out, you can hear the professor in the background speaking loudly - you can't hear what he's saying but you can tell that it is not in a regular tone of voice. The police report released states that the professor followed the officer onto his porch and that he was verbally abusive to the cops(although it has been pointed out that the reporting-officer wrote down that the 911-caller said it was an A-Amer male entering the home, when she hadn't mentioned race until pushed by the dispatcher for a description ... but that should dismiss his entire report) ...

So now the President is asking both Gates & off. Crowley to the WH to 'settle it' over -- excuse me?? I thought this man was a lawyer? He knows you aren't supposed to get these two in the same room once charges have been made -- its too late now ... Gates was booked, photographed (oh, that's another post), and in the system - it will be up to the court systems now as to what happens to him, and he will more than likely just have a 'slap on the wrist' either comm. service, fine or (more than likely) a stern talking to ... and I have to tell you, I hope the judge gives him an ear full about cooperating with the police - if he had just followed the directions of the officer it would have been over in about 5 minutes, after all Officer Crowley had said that when he saw that the man was a professor from the university he called for the campus police.

But the part that cracks me up is the non-apology that he offered ...

" ... in my unfortunate choice of words I gave the impression that I was maligning the Cambridge police dept or Sgt Crowley, specifically [ginger says: Noooooo, sounded like you supported them all along and were totally unbiased] - and I could have calibrated those words differently, and I told this to Sgt Crowley - I continue to believed, based on what I've heard, that there was an over-reaction in pulling Prof. Gates out of his home to the station. I also continue to believe, based on what I heard, that Prof. Gates probably over-reacted as well."

WHAT?? How come it is that the officer definitely over-reacted in his mind and the Professor probably over-reacted? What is all that? he kept saying 'based on what I heard' ... from whom? media, Gates, Crowley, or the official records ... maybe from the by-standers who saw it all - and apparently had a professional quality camera there - and didn't run off to the rag sheets or news crews to report what happened ... in fact it seems that other than the 911-caller no one has felt it was that big of a deal - and even then the 911-caller only spoke to clear her own name when the news reporters started saying that she claimed it was a black man who was breaking in.

Interesting part of this is -- no one has mentioned, but its in the police report, that this particular home had recently been broken into and the lock didn't work properly - which Gates commented on when Crowley asked if he wanted to give his keys to one of the other officers so that the building could get locked up. SO - his home was broken into once already ... a neighbor saw it being forced into again ... a cop shows up to check it out ... and he's going to give the cop a hard time for doing his job? someone please tell me who over reacted here?
The moment that Gates refused to give the officer his ID he could have been taken into custody ... but the officer gave him several chances to comply ... and even then it wasn't until Gates made the huge scene outside the house that he was taken into custody, and by the sounds of it the officers did everything they could to accommodate his physical condition.

And people think Biden puts his foot in his mouth too much?

Swine flu isn't the issue -- its Foot-in-Mouth Disease that is running rampant in Washington DC!!

If only there was a cure for that.