Ailing Kennedy seeks quicker Senate succession

Sen. Ted Kennedy speaks at a news conference on Capitol Hill in a file photo. (REUTERS/Jim Young)

Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, terminally ill with brain cancer, has asked state legislative leaders to change the law and let Gov. Deval Patrick appoint a temporary replacement upon his death.

Under current law, the seat would be empty until a special election could be held 145 to 160 days later, but the 77-year-old Democrat senator sent a letter to Patrick, State Senate President Therese Murray and State House Speaker Robert DeLeo asking the governor be allowed to appoint an interim U.S. senator, should one be needed, rather than wait up to five months for a special election.

A spokesman for Kennedy said on Thursday the letter was not related to any deterioration in his health.

Senator Kennedy has been a lifelong supporter of revamping the nation’s healthcare system, but his absence from the debate and public life in recent months has raised speculation that he will not be well enough to cast a vote when the time comes, according to New York Times, Reuters and Boston Globe reports.

Democrats need Massachusetts' two senators to muster 60 votes in the U.S. Senate, which is crucial to blocking any Republican maneuvers to stall the legislation, Reuters pointed out.

Democratic votes will be crucial to passing the healthcare legislation that is the subject of intense Congressional (and national) debate, and if Kennedy were to die before the vote, his seat would likely be vacant as per the current law.

Patrick and legislative leaders have yet to comment on the senator’s request to appoint an interim senator rather than wait for a special election.

“It’s typical of Ted Kennedy to be thinking ahead and about the people of Massachusetts, when the rest of us are thinking about him,” Patrick said in a statement.

In a joint statement, DeLeo and Murray said: "We have great respect for the Senator and what he continues to do for our Commonwealth and our nation. It is our hope that he will continue to be a voice for the people of Massachusetts as long as he is able."

Massachusetts state law allowed the governor to appoint a temporary replacement for a Senate seat until 2004, when Democrat Sen. John Kerry was running for president and the Democratic-controlled Legislature wanted to prevent then-Gov. Mitt Romney, a Republican, from naming a replacement if Kerry won the presidency, the NYTs reported.

In his letter, Kennedy, who has held his seat for 47 years, wrote that he supported the new law but added, “I also believe it is vital for this Commonwealth to have two voices speaking for the needs of its citizens and two votes in the Senate during the approximately five months between a vacancy and an election.”

Kennedy also asked that Mr. Patrick “obtain, as a condition of appointment of the interim Senator, an explicit personal commitment not to become a candidate in the special election."

Kennedy "wanted to ensure that whomever received that appointment did not have any head start or advantage in the special election," his spokesman said.

Although the letter was delivered Tuesday, it was dated July 9.

Kennedy was diagnosed with a virulent brain tumor in May 2008 and for most of this year has stayed away from Washington and the public eye. He has spent the summer at his home on Cape Cod and occasionally has been spotted sailing with family members, according to news reports.

He did not attend the public funeral last week of his sister, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, and didn't travel to Washington to accept the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Obama.

Sources: New York Times, Reuters, Boston Globe
Copyright © 2009, Primetime Oracle
All Rights Reserved

Barney gets Frank at healthcare town hall meeting

Rep. Barney Frank argues with a man after a town hall meeting Tuesday night in Dartmouth, Massachusetts. (Getty Images)

It's about freaking time a legislator with balls showed up at one of this town hall melees and confronted the monomaniacs who evidently lack the knowledge, manners and intellect to engage in constructive debates.

Personally, while I believe the healthcare system must be reformed somehow, I've yet to decide how I feel about the House and Senate proposals because I've yet to process and understand the data. How can I have an educated opinion without the information? Yet, that's exactly what these radical freaks are doing at town halls across America--shouting and yelling and protesting and opposing without having the slightest idea what they're opposing.

Following is the story posted by CNN with my lovely comments.

Most Congress members conducting town hall meetings this month have chosen a noncombative posture to deal with angry participants who disrupt the proceedings. Not Rep. Barney Frank.

At a lively two-hour meeting Tuesday night in Dartmouth, Massachusetts, Frank gave as good as he got in confronting opponents of overhauling the nation's health care system.

The crowded hall had both supporters and detractors, but the opposing side was much louder and more raucous (and more irrational and immature), booing the Massachusetts Democrat from the moment he was introduced and shouting questions and challenges at him throughout.(These bigots--sorry, but the ones throwing temper tantrums and interrupting what could be a productive exchange of ideas and information are bigots--claim to be the brains of the country while behaving like genitals.)

"You want me to talk about it or do you want to yell?" he asked over and over when interrupted while trying to answer. Continued shouting brought a sterner rebuke. (Yet another example that these fanatical buffoons are more interested in making a scene and "Waterlooing" Obama than in understanding what the bills propose and obtaining answers to legitimate questions.)

"Disruption never helps your cause," he said more than once. "It just looks like you're afraid to have rational discussion." (Exactly.)



While Frank attempted to respond to all questions, he gave up when one woman compared health care proposals favored by Frank and President Obama to policies of Nazi Germany. (Good for him--she's obviously a dunce.)

"When you ask me that question, I'm going to revert to my ethnic heritage and ask you a question: On what planet do you spend most of your time?" Frank asked. (LOL!)

"You stand there with a picture of the president defaced to look like Hitler and compare the effort to increase health care to the Nazis," he said, adding such behavior demonstrated the strength of First Amendment guarantees of what he called "contemptible" free speech. (What do you think are the chances that this extremist nutcase would be holding an Obama-as-Hitler sign if she didn't have health insurance?)

"Trying to have a conversation with you would be like trying to argue with a dining room table," Frank said to the woman. (ROFLMAO!) "I have no interest in doing it."

Despite the disruptions, the meeting covered many of the issues of the healthcare debate, with Frank shooting down rumors that a House health care bill would mandate free insurance coverage for illegal immigrants.

He read from the section of the bill that excludes payments for that purpose, and when another questioner referred to a different section guaranteeing nondiscrimination, Frank pointed out that the first section he read superseded that language.

Some in the crowd applauded, but others booed and shouted (ugh...just like little children--such as display is embarrassing whether you favor or oppose reform). Frank asked why the detractors shouted for him to answer, and when he did, they shouted more.

"What's the matter with you all?" he said. "I don't know if you get angrier when I answer the questions, or when you don't think I do."

It's called "monomania dementia" Frank, and there's no cure...if you ask me.

Sources: CNN, YouTube
Copyright © 2009, Primetime Oracle
All Rights Reserved

Town hall meetings are today's civil war

Left: A video from CNN affiliate KNXV shows a man carrying an assault rifle at a protest against President Obama on Monday in Phoenix, Arizona. (KNXV)







Two days ago I told a friend of mine that the heated town hall meetings on healthcare reform could be this era's version of a civil war, and that had this "battle" taken place in the 60s or 100 years ago, people would be shooting each other.

Little did I know that weapons had already made an appearance in a couple of demonstrations last week.

One Rambo-wanna-be man, for example, showed up at a protest in Phoenix--where Obama was addressing veterans--carrying an assault rifle and a handgun.

He mindfully took it with him to what he knew would be a dangerously heated encounter with "the enemy." Like a dozen others carrying weapons that day, he paraded his rifle allegedly to exercise his right to bear arms. Fine, but that was not his only motive, if you ask me.

He relied on his weapon to intimidate those on the other side of the argument, to shut them up lest they get shot. He chose to draw power from a fire arm instead of the strength of his position on the debate. How convenient, how lazy, and how lame.

He also took the rifle to the rally because he thought he might need it, because he thought he might use it.

Police spokesman Sgt. Andy Hill said the group carrying weapons was "interested in exercising the right to bear arms."

"I'm exercising my rights as an American in Arizona," Rambo, who refused to give his name, told KNXV.

Um...he shows up with fire arms at a protest against the president of the U.S., claiming it's his right, walking around like a tough guy, but he hides his name? Coward. No wonder he needs guns.

I'm not questioning his right to carry arms; I believe in that right. I'm questioning his judgment.

If exercising this right was his only purpose, why not carry the guns while walking his dogs, why take them to protests bursting with people on the edge of violence?

"I come from another state where 'open carry' is legal, but no one does it, so the police don't really know about it and they harass people, arrest people falsely," Rambo said. "I think that people need to get out and do it more so that they get kind of conditioned to it."

I don't buy it.

The man added that he was unhappy with some health care reform proposals. Exactly. Here we go...

"I'm absolutely, totally against health care, health care in this way, in this manner," he said. "Stealing it from people, I don't think that's appropriate."

And that's why he's carrying the rifle.

Plus, what about the angry person likely to lose control while standing inches away from an armed person during one of these crowded meetings or protests? What if someone there feels like exercising his finger with a trigger?

Arizona law has nothing in the books regulating assault rifles, and only requires permits for carrying concealed weapons, so despite the man's proximity to the president, there were no charges or arrests to be made, CNN reported.

Last week, a man protesting outside Obama's town hall meeting in New Hampshire had a gun strapped to his thigh. That state also doesn't require a license for open carry.

Asked whether the individuals carrying weapons jeopardized the safety of the president, U.S. Secret Service spokesman Ed Donovan said, "Of course not."

Of course not?

The individuals would never have gotten close to the president, regardless of any state laws on openly carrying weapons, Donovan said, explaining that a venue is considered a federal site when the Secret Service is protecting the president and that weapons are not allowed on a federal site. The men carrying weapons were outside the venues where Obama was speaking, Donovan said.

"We pay attention to this obviously...to someone with a firearm when they open carry even when they are within state law," he told CNN.

He's downplaying the issue because that's what he's supposed to do. We don't need to trigger yet another national debate on Second Amendment rights--not now at least.

But here's the thing: given that many opposers of healthcare reform are gun-proud Republicans, chances are more goons who evidently can't rely on their intellectual abilities to debate this issue will show up armed at town hall meetings and protests.

Someone is going to get shot.

Sources: CNN
Copyright © 2009, Primetime Oracle
All Rights Reserved

How do healthcare proposals compare?

(photo source unknown)

President Obama is traveling to Montana today for yet another so-called town hall meeting to explain what his healthcare reform plan is all about. Therefore, I thought it would be a good idea to post the following information listing what each of the plans under debate propose.

If you ask me, there are too many unknown variables in all of the plans because there's simply no way to address each and every possibly scenario in healthcare and insurance coverage. And given people's resistance to change, fear of the unknown, and the wild notions Republicans are spreading about healthcare reform--that it will turn the U.S. into a socialist country, among them--I can't see how any of these plans could ever get a fair chance.

Furthermore, when I think about the notoriously lazy legislators who vote on bills without reading them (being thousands of pages long probably doesn't help), and considering the complexity of the subject, I can't help but wonder how any of them could possibly fully understand any of the plans enough to cast an educated vote.

FACTBOX on healthcare reform as published by Reuters

When Congress returns Sep 8, lawmakers will continue work on an overhaul of the $2.5 trillion U.S. healthcare system. There are three different plans in the works, all containing changes that would be phased in over a number of years.

In the House of Representatives, three committees have each approved changes to one House bill. The changes will be melded by House leaders into final legislation before a floor vote expected in September.

In the Senate, the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee has approved its version and the Senate Finance Committee is working on a separate healthcare overhaul bill.

The following is a comparison of major points in the various proposals.

INSURANCE MARKET REFORMS

All bills include the following:

• Bar discrimination based on gender or pre-existing medical condition.
• Coverage is guaranteed and benefits could not be rescinded after coverage is issued.
• No annual or lifetime caps on benefit payments.

Senate Health Committee and Finance Committee

• Premiums could vary only on family size, geographic region, tobacco use, age and benefits provided.
• Coverage is guaranteed and benefits could not be rescinded after coverage is issued.
• Insurers must provide financial incentives for quality and preventive care.

House bill

• Would eliminate co-pays for preventive care.

COVERAGE

Senate Health Committee bill

• Individuals are required to obtain coverage or pay a penalty of up to $750 per year. To help people pay for it, credits would be available up to an income of $88,000 a year for a family of four.
• Employers are required to pay 60 percent of coverage for workers or pay $750 per year penalty. First 25 employees are exempt.
• Health and Human Services Department would decide what is in a basic insurance plan required to be offered to all.

Senate Finance Committee bill

• An individual mandate is likely. No employer mandate is expected to be included but employers whose workers obtain subsidized coverage through an insurance exchange would have to cover some of the cost of those subsidies.

House bill

• Individuals would be required to obtain coverage or pay a penalty based on income.
• Employers would be required to contribute 65 percent of workers' family insurance premiums or pay an 8 percent penalty. No penalty for small businesses but competing versions define small business as either under $250,000 or $500,000 annual payroll.

INSURANCE OPTIONS

Senate Health Committee bill

• Insurance "gateway," or exchange, would serve as a clearing house for private insurers and a new public insurance option run by the government to sell policies to those who do not have coverage elsewhere.
• New government-run insurance system would negotiate with providers for payments not more than the average of private insurers in the gateway system.
• Those who have insurance would be permitted to keep their current plans and health insurers could sell policies outside the gateway system.
• Health and Human Services Department would set out essential health benefits and minimum coverage for individuals.
• Temporary aid for employers to cover retirees between ages 55 and 64 until the gateway system is in place.
• Dependents would be covered until age 26.

Finance Committee

• Expected to provide for non-profit co-operatives rather than a government-run insurance plan.
• Establishes state insurance exchanges for small businesses and individuals without employer-sponsored insurance.
• The proposed new government-run plan or co-op insurance plans would be offered through these exchanges.

House bills

• Would set up a public insurance option similar to the Senate Health Committee bill.
• State insurance exchanges would offer individuals and small businesses insurance from private insurers or the government-run plan.
• Insurance co-operatives would be allowed.

INSURANCE SUBSIDIES

Senate Health Committee and House bills

• Provide various forms of individual subsidies on a sliding scale up to 4 times the poverty level ($88,000 for a family of four).
• The bills provide for some form of premium credit or tax subsidy for small businesses.

Senate Finance proposal

• Expected to provide refundable tax credit for individuals up to 3 times the poverty level.
• To provide a small business tax credit.

MEDICAID

Millions more people would become eligible for state Medicaid health plans for the poor.

Senate Health bill

• Expansion to those with incomes up to 150 percent of the poverty level.

Senate Finance

• Expansion to be determined. Federal government would bear added costs for a number of years, expected eventually to shift those costs to states.

House bills

• Expansion of coverage to 133 percent of poverty. Requires states to enroll those newly eligible.

MEDICARE

All bills include provisions to improve quality of healthcare in the Medicare program for the elderly. Payments to be designed to encourage quality, not quantity of services.

House bill

• Requires government to negotiate prices with drug companies.
• Eliminates the drug coverage gap over 15 years.
• Will cover the cost of voluntary discussions with healthcare providers on end-of-life care.

(Compiled by Jackie Frank and Donna Smith, editing by Eric Beech)

To read the House bill, go here.

To read the Senate bill, go here. (The document does not specify which of the two bills--Health or Finance committee--this is.)

Sources: Reuters, CNN
Copyright © 2009, Primetime Oracle
All Rights Reserved

Happy Birthday, Mr. President - Obama turns 48

On his own 48th birthday, President Barack Obama Tuesday turned the spotlight on a reporter also celebrating her special day, who pitched up at the White House in the year he was born.

Obama sang "Happy Birthday" and presented Helen Thomas, the doyenne of the White House press corps, with cupcakes and a single candle to celebrate her 89th birthday, before planting a kiss on her cheek.

The outspoken Thomas, who has covered every president since John F. Kennedy, spoke quietly to Obama, who ignored reporters' shouted questions about his own birthday and ex-president Bill Clinton's mercy mission to North Korea.

Left: Obama brings cupcakes for reporter Helen Thomas in the Briefing Room. (AFP)

"Helen wished for world peace, (and) no prejudice, but she and I also had a common birthday wish," Obama said.

"She said she wishes for a healthcare reform bill," Obama said, referring to his signature domestic reform legislation, working its tortuous way through Congress.

Thomas, a former UPI wire service reporter who now works for Hearst Newspapers, has a place of honor in the front row of the White House briefing room, and first worked the White House beat in 1961.

Obama celebrated his own birthday by largely avoiding reporters, and holding a lunchtime meeting with a 57 of the 60 Democratic senators and independents who largely control the fact of his domestic agenda in Congress.

Missing were senators Edward Kennedy, Robert Byrd and Barbara Mikulski for health reason.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said that Obama celebrated his birthday at the weekend with a trip to the Camp David presidential retreat surrounded by family and friends.

The president indulged his passion for basketball, and even had a game of tenpin bowling -- scoring a 144 -- a much better showing than his widely ridiculed attempt to bowl during an embarrassing 2008 campaign photo-op.

Source: AFP (source of 1st photo unknown)

N. Korea frees 2 U.S. journalists after Clinton trip

Former President Bill Clinton and North Korea's leader Kim Jong-il pose for a picture in Pyongyang in this photo released by North Korean official news agency KCNA Aug 4. Talk about stiff...

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea released two jailed American journalists on Tuesday after a visit from former U.S. President Bill Clinton in the highest-level U.S. contact with Pyongyang since Clinton was president nearly a decade ago.

UPDATE: A spokesperson for former President Bill Clinton on Tuesday confirmed that he and the two U.S. journalists who have been freed in North Korea, have left the country. "President Clinton has safely left North Korea with Laura Ling and Euna Lee. They are en route to Los Angeles where Laura and Euna will be reunited with their families," Matt McKenna said in a statement. They are scheduled to arrive in Los Angeles Wednesday morning.

North Korea's KCNA news agency said North Korean leader Kim Jong-il had issued a "special pardon" to the two journalists, Euna Lee and Laura Ling of U.S. media outlet Current TV, which was co-founded by Clinton's vice president, Al Gore.

The two journalists were arrested on the North Korea-China border in March and accused of illegal entry. A North Korean court sentenced both of them last month to 12 years of hard labor for what it called grave crimes.

Photos of journalists Laura Ling (left) and Euna Lee displayed during a public vigil in San Francisco, June 24.

There were immediate questions about what Clinton had discussed with Kim beyond the fate of the two reporters during a visit that gave Kim what he craved -- direct U.S. attention and a visit from a highly placed emissary.

The news agency insisted that Clinton "courteously conveyed a verbal message of U.S. President Obama expressing profound thanks for this and reflecting views on ways of improving the relations between the two countries."

The White House had denied that Clinton carried any sort of message from Obama, but Obama officials otherwise remained silent while awaiting the diplomatic negotiations to unfold.

Clinton, husband of U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, was the highest-level American to visit the reclusive communist state since his secretary of state, Madeleine Albright, went there in 2000.

He was greeted warmly on his arrival and had what KCNA described as an "exhaustive conversation" over dinner with Kim and his top aides.

Former President Bill Clinton is welcomed with flowers upon his arrival at Sunan airport in Pyongyang.

The North Koreans immediately sought to put their stamp on what they felt had happened during Clinton's visit.

"Clinton expressed words of sincere apology to Kim Jong Il for the hostile acts committed by the two American journalists against the DPRK after illegally intruding into it. Clinton courteously conveyed to Kim Jong Il an earnest request of the U.S. government to leniently pardon them and send them back home from a humanitarian point of view," KCNA said.

Obama adviser David Axelrod had told MSNBC that Clinton was on a "private humanitarian mission" and that "I don't think it's related to other issues."

KCNA attempted to portray the visit in terms of what was possible in the future, saying Clinton's visit would "contribute to deepening the understanding between the DPRK and the U.S. and building the bilateral confidence."

Side Benefit?

Clinton's visit could have a side benefit of improving the atmosphere between the United States and North Korea that could restart talks on Pyongyang's nuclear weapons.

North Korea's chief nuclear negotiator, Kim Kye-gwan, was among those greeting Clinton, whose administration was believed to have been close to agreement with the North before he turned over power to George W. Bush in 2001.

Many analysts predicted Pyongyang would use the journalists as leverage to wring concessions from Washington, which sought to place U.N. sanctions on the North for a May nuclear test.

Clinton's trip followed months of military provocations by the impoverished North, which has turned its back on negotiations with regional powers, including the United States and China, to convince it to give up ambitions to build an atomic arsenal.

In Washington, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said it was not clear whether Clinton had been authorized to discuss policy issues.

"It would be nice if it's the foundation for a better relationship," Graham, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told NBC's "Today Show."

People watch a news program at a railway station in Seoul, reporting former President Bill Clinton's visit to North Korea Aug 4.

Yun Duk-min of the Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security in Seoul said the visit held out the possibility of "a dramatic turnaround by North Korea that could lead to a new phase of negotiations."

Wrong Signals

It was the second time a former U.S. president went to North Korea to try to defuse a crisis. Former President Jimmy Carter flew there in 1994 when tensions were running high, again over the North's nuclear weapons program.

Carter helped broker a deal at that time in which Pyongyang suspended construction of a 50-megawatt plutonium reactor in exchange for heating oil and other energy aid.

One analyst said Clinton's visit was rewarding North Korea's "bad behavior."

Clinton's arrival coincided with mounting speculation over succession in Asia's only communist dynasty. Several reports suggest an increasingly frail-looking Kim Jong-il, 67, has settled on his third son to take over.

"It's just what they (North Korea's leaders) need," said B.R. Myers, an expert on the North's state ideology at the South's Dongseo University.

(Additional reporting by Yoo Choonsik in Seoul, Lucy Hornby in Beijing, David Morgan and Ross Colvin in Washington; Writing by Steve Holland; Editing by Patricia Wilson and Peter Cooney)

Source: Reuters, BNO

Healthcare industry spends big on lobbyists

It's no surprise that healthcare companies are pouring millions of dollars in lobbying to influence how legislators will vote on President Obama's healthcare reform.

Pharmaceutical companies, doctors, insurers and hospitals are the leading spenders, Reuters reported.

Here is a look at some of the biggest spenders so far according to Senate reports:

- Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers, $6.1 million.

- Pfizer, $5.6 million

- American Medical Association, $3.8 million.

- Eli Lilly, $ 3.6 million

- Amgen, $3.4 million.

- Blue Cross/Blue Shield, 2.8 million.

- GlaxoSmithKline, $2.3 million.

- Novartis, $1.8 million.

- MetLife Group, $1.7 million.

- Allstate, $1.5 million.

- Merck & Co. $1.5 million.

Source: Reuters
Copyright © 2009, Primetime Oracle
All Rights Reserved

Was it happy hour at the Beer Summit?

From left: VP Biden, Prof. Gates, Sgt. Crowley and President Obama (Alex Brandon/AP)

We don't know exactly what was discussed during the highly anticipated Obama-Gates-Crowley Beer Summit near the White House's Rose Garden today.

What we do know is that Vice President Joe Biden participated as well, and that President Obama drank Bud Light, VP Biden chose Bucklers, Harvard Prof. Henry Gates had a cold Adams Light and Sgt. James Crowley stuck to his favorite, Blue Moon. They also nibbled on peanuts and pretzels.

The beers were served in cold mugs.

Crowley and Gates wore dark suits for the occasion, while Obama and Biden kept their coats off.

How's that for award-winning political reporting?

We also know that Obama told reporters this was not a "beer summit."

"I noticed this has been called the 'Beer Summit.' It's a clever term, but this is not a summit, guys," Obama told reporters earlier.

"This is three folks having a drink at the end of the day, and hopefully giving people an opportunity to listen to each other. And that's really all it is. This is not a university seminar," he added, noting that he was"fascinated with the fascination about this evening."

The goal is to lower the temperature on an event that has become too hyped and symbolic, Obama said, noting that they would try to reduce the "anger and hyperbole," and promote "self-reflection."

Reporters stood 50 feet from the Fantastic Four and were escorted out two minutes into the meeting.

In typical politically correct, puritanistic American fashion, there are some--you know, those who get off on finding the negative and offensive in every situation, regardless of how absurd it is to central issue--who are questioning if the Beer Summit is sending "the wrong message" about the use of alcohol. Ugh!

UPDATE: The White House released the following statement from President Obama after the summit:

"I am thankful to Professor Gates and Sergeant Crowley for joining me at the White House this evening for a friendly, thoughtful conversation. Even before we sat down for the beer, I learned that the two gentlemen spent some time together listening to one another, which is a testament to them. I have always believed that what brings us together is stronger than what pulls us apart. I am confident that has happened here tonight, and I am hopeful that all of us are able to draw this positive lesson from this episode."

Sgt. Crowley held a press conference after the event. He said Gates and he didn't spend much talking about the past but "a lot of time discussing the future." Below are some of his statements:

- "What we have here is two gentlemen who agree to disagree." - We had a cordial and productive discussion today." - "It was a private discussion, it was a frank discussion, and I'd rather not go into specifics." - "This was a positive step moving forward for the whole country." - "We do have a venue in mind for a second discussion." - "There was no tension." - "It's business, but discussing it like gentlemen instead of in the physical sense or in the court of public opinion."

As to the so-called "teaching moment" that news anchors are trying to figure out, I think it's quite clear: dialogue. I see learning in the exchange of perspectives on this and any controversial topic. I see value in healthy discussion vs. irrational bullying.

By the way, I think this would've NEVER taken place in Bush's White House. Bush would've chuckled at Crowley's suggestion to have a beer with Gates; said "yeah, sure," and blown it off. Actually, most likely Bush would've never been asked to comment on the matter while giving a press conference on health care. Obama was sucked into it because he's black...if you ask me.

For background info, check out these previous posts:

Obama-Gates-Crowley Beer Summit scheduled, posted yesterday; Cop to Obama: 'Let's have a beer with Gates', posted July 24; Gates accepts invite for beer with Obama, Crowley, posted July 25

Copyright © 2009, Primetime Oracle
All Rights Reserved

Racial-slurring Boston cop says he's not a racist

Only his mama would believe him.

Justin Barrett (right), the Boston police officer who sent a mass e-mail calling Harvard Prof. Henry Louis Gates Jr. a "banana-eating jungle monkey" has apologized, saying he's not a racist.

Are you fucking kidding me? I'm not racially touchy, and even I can see that that remark couldn't possibly be taken any other way.

"I regret that I used such words," Barrett told CNN affiliate WCVB-TV. "I have so many friends of every type of culture and race you can name. I am not a racist." Sure you're not.

He regrets it because he's about to lose his job. But he's toast. Banana-eating jungle monkey? WTF!

Barrett was placed on administrative leave after allegedly sending the mass e-mail to his National Guard buddies and the Boston Globe (what a dunce!) in which he vented about a July 22 Globe column on the Gates arrest, and he might lose his job as a result.

Yesterday I said that putting the racial issue aside, this guy should get fired for being this stupid. No one this dumb should carry a weapon and be in a position to arrest people. (See Dumb Boston cop fired for racist email re: Gates.)

I can't wait to see him explain how his jungle-monkey remarks are not racist tonight at Larry King Live. Surely, a lawyer will be sitting next to him or off camera.

I used to live in Massachusetts. I've heard about the monkeys, which were usually described as "swinging off trees" by the "non"-racist people when talking about black people. Trust me--it's 100% racial.

In a news conference held Thursday morning, Boston Police Commissioner Edward Davis denounced the e-mail, CNN reported.

"We have a relationship to maintain with the community," he said. "Police officers certainly have First Amendment rights, but they can't cross the line. I believe this crosses the line."

Davis said he spoke with Gates, who was "gracious and incredibly thankful that we took action."

Gates, a top African-American scholar, was arrested on July 16 by Sgt. James Crowley of the Cambridge Police for disorderly conduct after the officer responded to a 911 call reporting a possible home invasion of Gates Cambridge home. The charge later was dropped.

The controversial incident sparked a national debate about racial profiling in which even President Obama got involved. (See Obama-Gates-Crowley Beer Summit scheduled, posted yesterday. For background and additional information, click on the links for earlier stories at the end of the post.)

Globe columnist Yvonne Abraham supported Gates' actions, asking readers, "Would you stand for this kind of treatment, in your own home, by a police officer who by now clearly has no right to be there?"

In Barrett's e-mail, which was posted on a Boston TV station's website, he stated that if he had "been the officer [Gates] verbally assaulted like a banana-eating jungle monkey, I would have sprayed him in the face with OC [oleoresin capsicum, or pepper spray] deserving of his belligerent non-compliance."

Barrett used the "jungle monkey" phrase four times, three times referring to Gates and once referring to Abraham's writing as "jungle monkey gibberish," CNN reported.

One time and he might have been able to tip-toe around with some insanely concocted excuse. But four times? He's toast.

Barrett also said that he was "not a racist but I am prejudice [sic] towards people who are stupid and pretend to stand up and preach for something they say is freedom but it is merely attention because you do not get enough of it in your little fear-dwelling circle of on-the-bandwagon followers."

And he apologized last night? What for? An apology alone does not change a man's character.

Barrett's comments were taken out of context, said his attorney, Peter Marano. So it's my and everyone else's fault because we're idiots who either can't read or can't understand what we read. Right.

"Officer Barrett did not call professor Gates a jungle monkey or malign him racially," Marano said. "He said his behavior was like that of one. It was a characterization of the actions of that man." Or a monkey...

Um...I don't think that will fly.

Davis wants Barrett, a two-year member of the Boston police, fired, a source close to the investigation said. But he will continue to be paid while on leave, and no date has been set for his termination hearing, CNN reported.

UPDATE: As expected, Barrett appeared on Larry King Live sitting closely to his lawyer, who took it upon himself to answer for the cop several times until Larry cut him off.

Before answering any questions, Barrett again repeated what he had memorized of the apology given earlier today. It sounded rehearsed. "I'm not racist," he said once or twice during that introduction.

Alrighty. Then, why did you apologize for what you said if it wasn't a racist comment?

Larry asked one really smart and crucial question: "Have you ever used that language before."

Take a guess at what the cop said. You got it.

"No, I have never used those words before."

There's no way he hasn't, and now he's fucked because someone will come out of the woodwork and show up on Larry King to reveal that he or she has heard Barrett use that term before.

After another interruption from the lawyer, Larry wisely pressed on, asking the cop what then made him choose those words--"banana-eating jungle monkey"--if he's never used that kind of language before.

"I don't even know ... I couldn't tell you ... I have no idea," Barrett said.

Are you kidding me? How can he not know whether or not he's ever said something like banana-eating jungle monkey? He has no idea? Right. I tell you what, if that's the case, then in addition to racist and dumb, he's also a forgetful flake--another reason to keep him off the force, if you ask me.

This dunce sat down and composed a letter he expected an editor at the Boston Globe to take seriously and possibly publish. He was so proud of it, he also sent it out via a mass email to friends at the National Guard.

Writing such a letter forces the writer to pay more attention to word choice than when merely speaking the words, which often happens a bit too soon after thoughts emerge, so we "speak before we think" and end up regretting our words. It happens to all of us. It happened to Obama when he said, "the Cambridge police acted stupidly" arresting Gates in his own house.

"There was no intentional racism or bigotry in my words," Barrett said. "I did not intend that."

Then, what exactly did you intend, and what did you think those words would communicate?

The truth is he does know, he could tell us but chooses not to, and he does have an idea. Of course he does. But what is he gonna say--"yes, I've used that language before"? Of course not, because that would mean he's a racist, which he vehemently denies.

If he tells the truth, he's fucked. If he lies, he's fucked. Basically, he's toast.

"I treat people with dignity and respect ... I'm not a racist."

This guy could use his own "teaching moment," if you ask me.

Source: CNN
Copyright © 2009, Primetime Oracle
All Rights Reserved

Obama-Gates-Crowley Beer Summit scheduled

Event: Beer Summit
Time: 6 p.m. Thursday, July 30
Place: Picnic table next to the White House's new swing set
Attendees: The Cop, the Prof. and the President
Agenda: Smooth over racial issues over beer
_______________________________________________

The question, for me at least, has been what kind of beer would the the cop, the professor and the President would choose for the White House's first Beer Summit.

Today, White House Press Secretary Gibbs told reporters that Obama will drink Bud Light, Harvard Prof. Henry Louis Gates Jr. has said he likes Red Stripe, and Sgt. James Crowley told the President he prefers Blue Moon.

Red, Lite and Blue...interesting...

“There’s no formal ... agenda other than cold beer,” Gibbs said.

Crowley reportedly plans to bring his family and take pictures. Gibbs said that as far he knows the cop and the professor will pay their own way to Washington.

Crowley arrested Gates, an eminent professor of African American Studies at Harvard, for disorderly conduct after a 911 call from a neighbor indicated a possible home invasion. News of the controversial arrest spread like wildfire, and when Obama was asked to comment on the matter, he said the Cambridge police acted stupidly arresting Gates in his own house. Well, the shit really hit the fan after that comment--hence the Beer Summit.

_______________________________________________

For additional information, check out my previous posts on this subject:

Cop to Obama: 'Let's have a beer with Gates', posted July 24.

Gates accepts invite for beer with Obama, Crowley, posted July 25.

Sources: ABC News
Copyright © 2009, Primetime Oracle
All Rights Reserved

Dumb Boston cop fired for racist email re: Gates

Not this time, you're not!

How stupid does a cop--in Boston of all places--have be to send a mass email calling Prof. Gates a "jungle monkey"?

While he's getting fired for the racial slurs, he might as well be fired for being such a monumental dunce. Someone with such lack of common sense, shouldn't be in a law enforcement position, if you ask me.

Police officer Justin Barrett has been put on administrative leave after using racist slurs to describe Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., who has been at the center of a controversial and highly publicized arrest in which even President Obama has gotten involved.

The 36-year-old cop was stripped of his gun and badge on Tuesday afternoon when Boston Police Commissioner Edward David learned that Barrett was the author the email.

Barrett, who has been at his Boston police job for two years, is also a member of the National Guard, and the e-mail reportedly was sent anonymously to his fellow guard members and to the Boston Globe.

The leave is pending the outcome of a termination hearing, said Boston Police Department spokeswoman Elaine Driscoll. “There is no room on the department for someone who uses those words,” she said, declining to provide the specific text of the letter.

Boston Mayor Tom Menino described Barrett as a "cancer in the department" and said he should be fired immediately.

Barrett has no prior disciplinary history. An investigation on the matter is underway.

Gates, a 58-year-old preeminent African-American scholar, was arrested at his Cambridge home July 16 by a white Cambridge cop, triggering a national debate on race that reached all the way to the White House.

Gates and his arresting officer, Sgt. James Crowley, 42, are scheduled to "have a beer" at the White House with Obama tomorrow night to discuss the incident. The President became involved in the controversy when he said that “Cambridge police acted stupidly” when arresting Gates.

Sources: BNO, Boston Herald
Copyright © 2009, Primetime Oracle
All Rights Reserved

Gates accepts invite for beer with Obama, Crowley

Harvard University Prof. Henry Louis Gates Jr. is working on a PBS documentary about racial profiling. (Senne/AP)

Henry Louis Gates Jr. has accepted an informal invitation to have a beer with his arresting officer Sgt. James Crowley and President Obama.

And, if you ask me, they all could use a few cold ones...

"I am pleased that [Obama] is eager to use my experience as a teaching moment, and if meeting Sgt. Crowley for a beer with the President will further that end, then I would be happy to oblige," the Harvard professor said in a statement posted on the website TheRoot.com, of which he's the editor in chief.

At a daily press briefing yesterday, Obama said Crowley suggested beers at the White House during a telephone conversation that took place soon after the Cambridge Police Department and police unions held a press conference to announce they supported Crowley's actions on the day of the arrest.

Sgt. James Crowley (left) was surrounded by fellow officers offering support at a press conference Friday. (Spencer/Getty Images)

Gates said Obama phoned him on Friday, reportedly after the press briefing, to discuss his July 16 arrest outside his Cambridge, Mass., home after a neighbor reported a possible break-in. The intruder turned out to be Gates trying to open a jammed door, but a (totally unnecessary and stupid, if you ask me) confrontation between him and Crowley ensued, and the cop arrested Gates for disorderly conduct.

Though the charges were later dropped, the bust ignited a fierce debate about racial profiling. Fueling the controversy was Obama's remark that the Cambridge police "acted stupidly" by arresting Gates in his own house after he had produced and ID showing he lived there.

Right: This photo, taken by a neighbor July 16, shows when Henry Louis Gates Jr. was arrested at his home in Cambridge, Mass.

The issue has competed with healthcare reform to dominate the news cycle for the past week. Gates said he apologized to the President for the arrest becoming a distraction from more important matters.

"I told the President that my principal regret was that all of the attention paid to his deeply supportive remarks during his press conference had distracted attention from his health care initiative," Gates wrote.

In the same statement, Gates said he looks forward to studying the history of racial profiling for a PBS documentary.

"If my experience leads to the lessening of the occurrence of racial profiling, then I would find that enormously gratifying," he said. "Because, in the end, this is not about me at all; it is about the creation of a society in which 'equal justice before law' is a lived reality."

____________________

For background and additional information, check out the following post:

Cop to Obama: 'Let's have a beer with Gates' - posted July 24

Sources: TheRoot.com, NY Daily News
Copyright © 2009, Primetime Oracle
All Rights Reserved