Bad Deeds for 9-7-2009

 

Republicans Who Criticize Public Health Care Get Their Surgeries at Government Hospitals – Republicans in Congress have raised the specter of a bloated, “socialized,” bureaucrat-run nightmare of a health care system as a means of undermining the White House’s effort at a systematic overhaul. And yet, as Democratic sources are now pointing out, when medical crisis hit close to home, many of these same officials turned to a government-run hospital for their own intensive care and difficult surgeries.

• Take, for instance, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who warned that “a government takeover of health care” would “take away the care that people already have [and] are perfectly satisfied with.” In its place, the senator said, would be “a system in which care and treatment will be either delayed or denied.” That was July 2009. In February 2003, McConnell actually went to one of those government-run institutions (where treatment is, apparently, “either delayed or denied”) for a procedure of his own. The Kentucky Republican traveled to the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, to have an elective coronary artery bypass surgery after it had been revealed that he had arterial blockages.
• Senator John McCain, (R-Ariz.) for instance, recently applauded the town hall protesters who were, in his words, revolting “against a government-run health system.” That was August 2009. In May of 2000, McCain had surgery at the Bethesda Naval Hospital to remove a potentially lethal melanoma from his left temple.
• Senator Kit Bond (R-Mo.), meanwhile, has warned of the rationing of care, expensive costs, and reduced quality that would come under a government-run health care plan. In April 2003, however, he traveled to Bethesda Naval Hospital to undergo hip replacement surgery in an attempt to alleviate degenerative arthritis in his left hip.
• Senator George Voinovich, (R-Ohio), has declared that a “bureaucratic Washington-run government plan is not the answer” to the nation’s health care needs. In June 2003, the Ohio Republican (who is retiring from the Senate in 2010) went to Bethesda Naval Hospital to have a pacemaker installed.
• The best example of this double standard, however, may be Rep. Roy Blunt, (R-Mo.) who compared government-run health care to an elephant, stomping on and killing off the mice of the private insurance industry. Blunt has had two procedures done at Bethesda Naval Hospital. The first came in July 2002, when he underwent surgery to remove his left kidney. The second came a year later, when he underwent prostate surgery after being diagnosed with early-stage prostate cancer.

They seem to love their “socialized medicine.”

 

Has Glenn Beck Inhaled Too Much DDT? – Glenn Beck is advocating the reuse of the banned pesticide DDT. Perhaps Glenn Beck is looking for more sponsorship from the pesticide industry given the loss of his other sponsors. Once again Beck claimed to use “facts” in his support of DDT, but some more research into his “facts” reveals just how misinformed Beck is.

Beck overlooked the side effects of DDT. After all, we could kill mosquitoes and stop the spread of malaria by spraying gasoline everywhere but would that really make sense given the side effects? Beck uses a whooping two scientists to support his claim that DDT has no harmful side effects to humans. One of Beck’s sources is Bruce N. Ames who developed the Ames test used by tobacco companies in their attempt to prove cigarettes are healthy. Needless to say Ames methods are questionable when applied to humans. Thomas Jukes is Beck’s other source who Beck claims “proves” there is no evidence of DDT being harmful to humans. Jukes died in 1999 which makes Beck’s claim curious since a number of studies have in fact proven the harmful effects of DDT on humans since 1999. Did Jukes rise from the dead to refute these studies?

 

No Respect for Bernake at CNBC – Here’s a screen shot of how business channel CNBC covered remarks by Chairman of the Board of Governors of the United States Federal Reserve Ben Bernake. How BLAH! Stay classy, business guys!

 

Louisiana Governor Mixes Political Campaigning and Church-Going at Taxpayer’s Expense – Over a period of five months, Republican Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal took more than three dozen helicopter trips. Fourteen were to attend Protestant church services, according to state records. Jindal is Catholic.

At least two aides usually accompanied him along with his security detail and State Police pilots. The public pays their salaries as well as the fuel and upkeep for the helicopter. The helicopter that the governor uses the most costs $1,200 an hour to operate — about $45,000 for five months of church visits.

Political commentator and former Insurance Commissioner Jim Brown said Jindal is playing good politics by continuing to concentrate on churches in north Louisiana.

 

Reagan Preached Tax-Cut Gospel to America’s Students – The conservatives are having a freak-out over President Obama’s planned speech to students urging them to stay in school and work hard. But, in 1988, President Reagan’s talk with school children was broadcast live and rebroadcast by C-Span, and Instructional Television Network fed the program to schools nationwide on three different days. Much of Reagan’s speech that day covered the American “vision of self-government” and the need “to keep faith with the unfinished vision of the greatness and wonder of America” but in the middle of the speech, the president also covered low taxes (helping the rich).

Regards,

Jim