right….he was referring to a 4 year old event….I guess that makes perfect sense.

no – he was making a broad reference to provisions in the bill that could provide additional aid to states affected by natural disasters, so yeah, that does make perfect sense.

Sorry, Righties, you were all dead Wrongie on this one.

I remember that earthquake and its response but I think that was more of a ‘cover’ shot to keep
that Senator in her seat.

The reference to the earthquake, not the earthquake itself… duh.:)

But wasn’t Obama still being disingenuous about the whole thing? First, I am very sure that the Louisiana purchase was put in there in the Senate for purely political reasons to get Landrieu’s vote. To claim that it wasn’t political is an untruth (to put it politely). Second, it was my understanding that the legislative language was drawn up so that ONLY Louisiana would get the money. I thought, for example, that Mississippi–which was struck by the same hurricane as Louisiana–wasn’t going to get the same benefits. (To be clear, it didn’t actually SAY Louisiana only, but the requirements to get the money could only be met by Louisiana.) I’m not as certain about the second point, so maybe someone from Mediaite could fact check that part of it because it is a significant point. (and if you’re going to play apologist for Obama on the earthquake in Hawaii, you ought to check whether the language in the Senate would even apply outside of Louisiana.

And why exactly should this earthquake in Hawaii in 2006, which did not kill a single person, entitle Hawaii to different medicare/medicaid reimbursement rates? Can someone explain that to me? I’m not being a crank here. I’m willing to be persuaded. But I’m still awfully skeptical of Obama’s point.

I don’t find you to be cranky. The entire HCR legislative process has stunk, from the timidity of the Democrats and their over-willingness to the Republicans obstinate refusal to come forth with proposals and to participate in the process. We’ve had two clear examples of the complete breakdown of our legislative branch in recent times: the WMD/War Resolution process in which the Republicans were more than eager to fabricate reasons to invade and occupy Iraq, and the Democrats failed to questions aggressively and the HCR process. If every single member of Congress, both Republican and Democrat, were to be turned out, our nation would be well served.

The Medicare/Medicaid answer is part of the governmental failure we are talking about, including but going beyond Congress, straight into the White House. As utterly awful as W was, as miserable a failure as W’s administration was, I have to say I am not sure President Obama has set the standard for the way by which we ought to conduct our business.

>And why exactly should this earthquake in Hawaii in 2006, which did not kill a single person, entitle Hawaii to different medicare/medicaid reimbursement rates?

Of course the only way that necessitates medical care is due to death.

I don’t frequent the two linked blogs, so maybe they have some kind of relationship that I’m not aware, but I was immediately struck by the similarity of their language in the two clips.

M:

If you want to be a jerk about it, here’s a link to a USA Today article about the earthquake. It reports that there was property damage, but “NO DEATHS OR SERIOUS INJURIES.”

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2006-10-15-hawaii-earthquake_x.htm

So I repeat my question? Why does this justify different health care reimbursement rates?

Mediaite did a good job here. Conservative blogs jumped on Obama and said there was no earthquake when there was. But it looks to me like that’s just part of the story. The Hawaii earthquake justification is an attempt by Obama to put lipstick on a pig.

Again, the jury is still out for me on this. I’m open to persuasion, but this looks like Obama was lying to me. It was a sophisticated and nuanced lie, but still a lie.

Ummm..wow…no wonder Mediaite has its reputation for vapidity..

Bammie said himself that, even though that too was disingenuous, that the provison in the healthscare bill was supposed to cover healthcare emergencies…

There still is a healthcare emergency in Louisiana??? Really??

Do they still need to send “corpsemen” treta the injuered there?

Anyhoo…there no deaths…not even major injuries in the 2006 Hawaii earthquake.

Could you imagine how the leftards would erupt if Palin had said something like this? Not that she would..she’s one helluva lot smarter than Bammie

STOP THE PRESSES! I’m calling a foul on this one. Mediaite MISQUOTED Hot Air. Hot Air DID NOT say that there hasn’t been an earthquake in Hawaii since 1972. They said, and I quote: “[T]he last earthquake in Hawaii to cause any deaths at all was in 1975, and two people died.” This is the same point I made above. Why should you change federal health care reimbursement rates for an earthquake that did not cause any deaths, or even any serious injuries??

Mediaite is also ignoring a good portion of Gateway Pundit’s report. Gateway pundit points out that, as I thought, the Louisiana purchase covered Louisiana, but not Mississippi and Texas, which were struck by the same hurricane.

Between this and Glynnis MacNicol’s hatchet jobs on Glenn Beck earlier in the week, Mediaite has really taken a credibility hit in my eyes this week. If I want one-sided apologists for the Obama administration, I’ll turn on MSNBC.

Yeah as I pointed out in the piece, there are certainly important and relevant part to this byzantine bill to debate. but claiming “This moment, from Bret Baier’s interview on Fox News with Obama, might just be one of the biggest “WTF?!” moments from Obama’s presidency yet. Obama is either completely making things up, living in an alternate reality, or really, really confused. … Apparently, there was a devastating earthquake in Hawaii that we all somehow missed” as the Hot Air writer surmised is simply off.

It would appear that the rightie bloggers are the idiots here as usual. There was also a Hurricane in 1995. I remember it because it took place during the filiming of Jurrassic Park. It you’re looking for a stupid, clueless President, George W. Bush is still the modern day king.

That would be Hurricane Iniki.

Colby, fair point. You did quote Hot Air at length, and their rhetoric was overblown. I retract my “stop the presses” condemnation. (But the more I look Obama’s earthquake defense, the worse it looks.)

It’s just laughable. Some blogs may have not gotten it right that there had been no earthquake, but they certainly understood that the president was using the wrong analogy in order to spin a perk.

This is a bit like the ole straining at a gnat and swallowing a camel.

I have to say, without any criticism of any of the posters (since Righter and Jeff Merrill are not gracing us this morning, Thanks Be to God,) or the posts, this is a remarkably picayune topic.

So there’s provisions in the bill that deal with major disasters. What’s wrong with that?

I agree with Cecelia. Everyone is making a big deal about “who is right” and “who is wrong” about the earthquake in Hawaii when the fact of the matter is that the wording of the “Louisiana Purchase” clause could only apply to that one state even though there were OTHER states on the LEFT and RIGHT (a little political humor there : ) that were also devastated by Katrina.

The President tried to obfuscate the stink of the deal by again “spreading the wealth” around and when you check the facts his point about the earthquake does NOT change the illegitimate manner in which the democrats obtained that senator’s vote.

The president tried to stay out of the “weeds” of “process” and redirect the conversation to “substance” I don’t think he accomplished that and in fact for me he just demonstrated that he is NOT clean as the wind swept snow and is either the stupidest president EVER or he knows exactly what is going on behind closed doors to get this bill passed thus leaving a great deal of pig sh_t all over him.

Finch,
This is what libs to. They can’t defend Obama’s performance in the interview, so they latch on to some insignificant tidbit and hope that’s what the story turns into and not say, that BO has no idea what is or isn’t in the bill.

AnonymousFinch says:
March 18, 2010 at 9:08 am
STOP THE PRESSES! I’m calling a foul on this one. Mediaite MISQUOTED Hot Air. Hot Air DID NOT say that there hasn’t been an earthquake in Hawaii since 1972. They said, and I quote: “[T]he last earthquake in Hawaii to cause any deaths at all was in 1975, and two people died.” This is the same point I made above. Why should you change federal health care reimbursement rates for an earthquake that did not cause any deaths, or even any serious injuries??

Finch,
You should email mediaite about a correct. I’m sure they want to get the story correct. I would do it for you, but I’m quite sure they are sick to death of me!

Michelle F:

Thanks, but in retrospect I think I was wrong. Colby quoted the Hot Air piece at length, including the line that concerned me. In fact, he gave it more context than I did. I think that’s fair game. But think Obama’s point is bogus.

Well as I previously stated. the left will latch onto this to avoid having to defend his performance. That’s ok though, denial helps them get through the day!

Perhaps the earthquake occurred in our 57th state.

HAHA, funny you say that, because I was thinking that maybe he meant one of the other 57 states!

MichelleF – how could we get sick of you! And thanks AnonymousFinch for saying that you were wrong. No sarcasm intended — Its a rare and laudable trait in the comments section! We’ve ALL been wrong before, and might be again one day. So, praise be to those confident enough to admit their own faults from from time to time.

As long as it’s not one of those Keith Olbermann-style apologies.

The Hawaii earthquake justification is an attempt by Obama to put lipstick on a pig.

=—–

Bingo!

If the media say the interview was a “draw”, that means BHO was terrible.

He didn’t know what was in the bill, lied about Medicare and referenced an irrelevant earthquake.

http://homepage.mac.com/mkoldys/blog/jdp.html

Here’s a link with video of Bret Baier talking about the interview.

The point is the President was still being disingenuous about the “Louisiana Purchase” provision because the language was in fact constructed in a way that only Louisiana would receive benefits. The State itself is not mentioned but because there are specific notations to locale and dates it is the only State that qualifies, therefore any other State and future natural disaster is not included.

Olby Sucks says:
March 18, 2010 at 11:36 am

The Hawaii earthquake justification is an attempt by Obama to put lipstick on a pig.

=—–

Bingo!

—

Sorry, there’s no B 86.

But conservatives live in a never-ending Tizzy anyway.

Well now. The GOP Gargoyles are off their perches again here today!!

ANOTHER “manipulation” of the ‘facts – to what purpose?

What?? Did Palin say that Hawaii was a country ??

This is 1 of the foremost blogs in the field of education. If I don’t came in for a couple of days, there are so many posts that it’ll make me a couple of hrs just to go through whatever I omitted!! Praise.

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