Helen Thomas does it again

Glenn Greenwald:

“For the last question at his press conference yesterday, Obama was asked by CNN’s Suzanne Malveaux about his reaction to that video {of Neda} and to reports that Iranians are refraining from protesting due to fear of such violence. As Obama was answering — attesting to how “heartbreaking” he found the video; how “anybody who sees it knows that there’s something fundamentally unjust” about the violence; and paying homage to “certain international norms of freedom of speech, freedom of expression” —

Helen Thomas, who hadn’t been called on, interrupted to ask Obama to reconcile those statements about the Iranian images with his efforts at home to suppress America’s own torture photos (“Then why won’t you allow the photos –“).

The President quickly cut her off with these remarks:

THE PRESIDENT: Hold on a second, Helen. That’s a different question. (Laughter.)”

—haha

“The premise of Thomas’ question was compelling and (contrary to Obama’s dismissal) directly relevant to Obama’s answers: how is it possible for Obama to pay dramatic tribute to the “heartbreaking” impact of that Neda video in bringing to light the injustices of the Iranian Government’s conduct while simultaneously suppressing images that do the same with regard to our own Government’s conduct?”

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/06/24-10

“It’s not the economy, stupid, you’re mentally ill”

Are you angry about illegal wars, torture, millionaires bailed out on
the backs of the people?

Not to worry. The American Psychiatric Association has a cure for you.
And unsurprisingly it comes in the form of a pill to treat
“bitterness” as a mental illness. Really. The APA is debating at its
convention whether bitterness should be included as a “mental illness”
diagnosis in the DSM: “post-traumatic embitterment disorder”.

Says Christopher Lane in his Psychology Today blog:
“No one could accuse the American Psychiatric Association of missing a
strain of sourness in the country, or failing to capitalize on its
diagnostic potential. Having floated “Apathy Disorder” as a trial
balloon, to see if it might garner enough support for inclusion in the
next edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental
Disorders, the organization has generated untold amounts of publicity
and incredulity this week by debating at its convention whether
bitterness should become a bona fide mental disorder.”

http://blogs.psychologytoday.com/blog/side-effects/200905/bitterness-the-next-mental-disorder