i love the admiral answering questions. "at this point we don't anticipate that" lol
Gotta commend the admiral for keeping a straight face. I didn't get the whole
ecological metaphor thing they're trying to tack on this now. It was more of a
"GTFO, CONGRESSMAN! JUST GTFO! Are you kidding me here???" moment.
And now for entirely too much information...
Hank Johnson's Guam Comment a great unintentional April Fools Joke
By Emily Moulton
Georgia Congressman Hank Johnson (D) unwittingly made the case for greater focus on earth science in our public education system when he conveyed his fear that Guam would capsize if the US went ahead with a plan to station more troops there. His remark came during a House Armed Services Committee hearing last week. After making a belabored point that Guam is in fact really small, Rep. Johnson explained:
"My fear that the whole island will become so overly populated that it will tip over and capsize"
Adm. Robert Willard heroically kept his poise and respectfully answered "We don't anticipate that."
When you watch the video, it does NOT appear that Hank Johnson is joking about Guam possibly tipping over due to overpopulation.
From the dead-serious expression on his face to the "tippy" motion he does with his hands, Johnson does (or did) appear to believe that islands, at least the small ones, actually float atop the waves like big boats. Can you imagine believing that? Or that the Earth is flat, or that the sun revolves around us?
He might be a great Congressman! He just has a 4th grade level knowledge of earth science.
Ted Clayton replies:
I just watched the video you provided, Emily. I hadn't looked at it earlier, tho I had read several accounts of Johnson's questioning & exchange with the Admiral. The video does put a different light on things...
I also saw while looking around for more discussion of the Guam-situation, commentary that
Congressman Johnson is seriously ill ... has lost a lot of weight, is under heavy medical treatment ... and that jumped out at me on the video, that the guy looks - and sounds! - like he's in rough shape.
I think he was probably trying to make an April Fools-type funny ... but he's speaking to one of our top military leaders about a pretty dicey international hot-potato that has Sec. of State Clinton dancing like Fred Astaire and our relationship with Japan riding on a tricky diplomatic & political resolution ... and I thought the whole performance was 'unnecessary & uncalled-for'. Not to mention, un-funny.
We have a military base (Futenma) on (the island of) Okinawa, Japan. Japan has been after us for half of forever to remove it, 'or something'. We have been in negotiations and planning to arrive at a compromise resolution for 10 years, and it's all coming down to the wire in next few weeks/couple months.
Part of the resolution is to move 8,000 of the Marines from Futenma, to Guam. They have 9,600 dependents. There are about another 8,000 permanent non-military staff that go with the troop contingent. There are perhaps 50,000 temporary construction workers who will build the new facilities on Guam. An 80,000 temporary increase in population on Guam, about 25,000 permanent.
A meltdown on Guam ... the infection of Guam with the same 'disease' that is rendering our long-standing tenure on Okinawa untenable ... would be a major crisis for U.S. strategic status in the Western Pacific-Asian region.
I'm willing to give Hank Johnson several kinds of benefit of the doubt over the way he chose to question the Admiral, including that it was approaching April 1st, that he's sick & on medication, and possibly that his penis isn't everything that he had hoped for ... but I'll be expected repeated rounds of nuanced apologies & mea culpas in the coming days.
They've alread started, sorta.
Quote the Congressman:
“I wasn’t suggesting that the island of Guam would literally tip over I was using a metaphor to say that with the addition of 8,000 Marines and their dependents – an additional 80,000 people during peak construction on the tiny island with a population of 180,000 – could be a tipping point which could adversely affect the island’s fragile ecosystem and could overburden its stressed infrastructure. Having traveled to Guam last year, I saw firsthand how this beautiful – but vulnerable island – could easily become overburdened, and I was simply voicing my concerns that the addition of that many people could tip the delicate balance and do permanent harm to Guam.”
So ... I think his grasp of physics & geology is probably intact, but his better judgement certainly wasn't guiding him at the House Armed Services Committee session last week.
From
Hank Johnson: Guam Might 'Tip Over' or Capsize... | Gather
Johnson should take some time off to recover from his illness, imo.That article is from a blog, right?
U.S. Rep. Hank Johnson battling hepatitis CAJC Exclusive:
Congressman has shed 30 pounds in the past year due to hepatitis C
By Bob Keefe
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
WASHINGTON -- For months, speculation has swirled in both Atlanta and Washington about U.S. Rep. Hank Johnson's health.
The Lithonia Democrat's already-thin frame has shed 30 pounds in the past year. His speech is slower than ever, and he regularly gets lost in thought in the middle of a discussion. He is easily fatigued and often impatient and irritable.
Monday, he revealed why.
In an exclusive interview with the AJC, Johnson disclosed he has been battling hepatitis C, an incurable, blood-borne liver disease, for more than a decade.
He was officially declared free of the virus in January, but it has ravaged his liver, resulted in thyroid problems and other health issues, including depression, for which he's also being treated. To keep the disease in remission, Johnson is going through an experimental treatment that he said has been the worst part so far.
"I am weaker than I ever have been," Johnson, 55, said in his Capitol Hill office.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, hepatitis C is transmitted when clean blood comes in contact with blood infected by the disease. Between 3 million and 4 million people in the United States have the disease today, and many more may not even know they have it because it can lie dormant for decades.
Before 1992, hepatitis C was commonly transmitted through blood transfusions. Today, with improved blood screening, the most common mode of transmission is through injection drug use, but it also can be spread by other means, such as through contaminated razor blades or dirty tattoo needles or by coming into contact with infected blood in other ways. It also is occasionally transmitted through sex, or from a mother to a child, said Dr. John Ward, director of the CDC's division of viral hepatitis in Atlanta.
Johnson said he first learned he had the disease in 1998. He said he does not know how he contracted it.
With Mereda Davis Johnson, his wife of more than 20 years, seated beside him in his Capitol Hill office, Johnson said he has never used intravenous drugs or engaged in any other sort of risks that could have caused him to get the disease. He also said he has never had a blood transfusion.
"I have no idea," he said when asked how he contracted the disease.
Mereda Davis Johnson said the disease has been the most difficult challenge she and her husband have ever faced. She said she gets checked regularly for the disease, and that it has not spread to her or either of the couple's two children.
"This has been the most difficult challege for him ever," said Mereda Davis Johnson, an Atlanta area attorney. "I know I could not do it. But Hank is tough."
Rep. Johnson decided to disclose he had the disease after the AJC asked him about it amid rising questions about his health both in Washington and in the 4th Congressional District, east of Atlanta, which he has represented since 2006.
The disease, he said, was one of the reasons he decided to run for office in the first place.
When he was first diagnosed 11 years ago, Johnson said, his doctor gave him 20 years to live.
"I determined that if I only had 20 years to live, I am going to do everything I wanted to do in life," he said.
Johnson said he got his financial affairs in order, saved some money for his family and then ran for DeKalb County Commission, serving two terms beginning in 2000. When he had the opportunity to run against former congresswoman Cynthia McKinney for the 4th Congressional District seat, he decided to do so. He beat her in a runoff election in August 2006. He was unopposed for re-election in 2008. "The final goal I had was to be a congressman," he said.
Johnson said he doesn't worry anymore about dying. While his liver has degraded and other health problems have resulted from his treatment, he said doctors have given him no limitations on how much longer he'll live.
He is being treated at Walter Reed Army Medical Center with a combination of interferon and ribavirin, which, like cancer chemotherapy, comes with many side-effects.
"He has been a model patient, sticking with his course of treatment even when it was most difficult," his physician, Dr. Maria Sjogren, said in a statement.
Up for re-election in November 2010, Johnson said he is planning to begin campaigning for office again, in earnest, when he's done with his latest round of treatment in February. At least two Republican challengers have said they'll run for his seat.
Alan Abramowitz, a political science professor at Emory University in Atlanta, said he doesn't think that an illness such as Johnson's is necessarily damaging to a politician's career. That's especially the case in a district where they have a strong base, he added -- as Johnson has with Democrats in the 4th Congressional District.
"Certainly it's something they're going to have to deal with," Abramowitz said. "But it's my guess that if someone has a solid base in their constituency, they could survive it."
Along with seeking re-election, Johnson said he wants to become an advocate for hepatitis C victims. He said Monday he has signed on as a co-sponsor of a House bill that would establish and promote a comprehensive prevention, education and research program for viral hepatitis infections.
He also said he plans to begin working with the National Viral Hepatitis Roundtable, a coalition of more than 100 organizations that works to prevent viral hepatitis.
"On behalf of the entire chronic viral hepatitis community, we offer Congressman Johnson our support, prayers and encouragement," Martha Saly, director of the group, said in a statement. "Congressman Johnson's announcement shines a much-needed spotlight on a public-health issue that has historically resided in the shadows."
Sometimes called the "silent epidemic" because it can manifest itself in a victim for decades without showing any symptoms, hepatitis C has become better known publicly in recent years.
Numerous celebrities, including singers Naomi Judd and Natalie Cole and actors such as Pamela Anderson and Christopher Kennedy Lawford, who have been stricken with the disease, have become outspoken advocates. They encourage people to get tested regularly and they are pushing to find a cure.
Johnson said he hopes to do the same.
"There are literally millions of people walking around with this virus who do not even know they have it," Johnson said. "And once they do know they have it, the stigma of getting treated is there.
"I'm going to be a public figure who takes the stigma away from having the virus," he said.
From
U.S. Rep. Hank Johnson battling hepatitis C *| ajc.com
