Foot in Mouth

Last night I watched President Obama in his now almost monthly news conference. This one concerning his push for nationalized health care. It was the same old talking points, hammering on the former president and down right fabrication.

One thing that struck me was that he said 14,000 people a day were losing their insurance coverage. That's 420,000 people a month. Or 5,040,000 a year. I would like to see where he gets the numbers for that. Of course that can never happen because who knows what the numbers really are.

It was hard to pay close attention because he just rambled on and on, not really saying much of anything. The answer to the first question lasted in the neighborhood of eight minutes and didn't even answer the question. Normal for this president, I guess.

What made me sit straight up in disbelief was his answer to the last question of the evening. The one concerning his friend Dr. Gates of Harvard University. Now Dr. Gates is distinguished in his field of African American studies, considered to be the foremost authority in the country. Mr. Obama admitted that they are friends, but also that he did not have all the facts surrounding this case. In case you don't know, Dr. Gates was arrested for disorderly conduct by a white police officer in his own home. He had forgotten his keys and when returning home from a trip had to force his way into the home. A neighbor had called police about a possible burglary. All I know is that the police arrived and after determining that this was Dr. Gate's residence he was arrested for disorderly conduct. I don't know the particulars and will not guess. I will leave that to the president.

Now, the president recounted the reason for the police presence and was fine with that. What gets to me is the following. Mr. Obama, the president of these United States, said on national television that the police "acted stupidly" in arresting Dr. Gates. He tried to cover it up by saying the he did not know if race played a part, but stated the long history of racism by police in detaining black and Latino people. He even tried to say the word Latino with a Spanish accent. Pathetic.

I believe that I said that I didn't know what happened inside the house and so did Obama. I wont guess as to what happened, so why should he? What kind of message did he send to people last night? I think it was that the police are stupid and racist. I almost fell off the couch when I heard this and I was laying down.

Then I heard that moron Robert Gibbs say that the president wasn't calling the officer stupid. What the hell do you call it then?

Let me ask the president this, I work as a police officer in a city with a large Latino population, is it fair to say that when I pull over a car that has a Latino driver that I'm using racial profiling? Or am I just pulling someone over for a traffic violation? What about the gangs in my city? What if most of the members are Latino? Am I just being prejudiced when I arrest one of them for a crime? Or how about the fact that I'm just doing my job and I pull over cars and arrest people that need it no matter the color of their skin?

I'm sick and tired of people that have watched one too many episodes of their favorite cop show thinking they know everything about my job and how to do it. Here's an idea for all the pinhead street corner lawyers out there. Why don't you try being a police officer for the next ten years or so and then tell me what you think. Until then you can all just shut your mouths because just like President Obama last night, you have no clue as to what you are talking about.

It's no wonder he isn't allowed off the tele-prompter very often.