Gingrich fearmongers over euthanasia, Stephanopoulos rebuts: "Those phrases appear nowhere in the bill"
August 09, 2009 11:12 am ET
From the August 9 edition of ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos:
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Media Matters: The Palin chronicles
The Friday Rush: A series of conflicts
Contrary to media hype, Sarah Palin is very unpopular
Palin’s Health Care Priorities and Alaska’s Daughters
15
07
2009
Today, Lisa Demer of the Anchorage Daily News has broken a story that adds another scandal to the growing list of scandals that have plagued this administration, and shines the light on Alaska’s very own health care crisis. Demer’s story centers on the horrendous condition of the Alaska’s state programs that are designed to help its most vulnerable citizens, the elderly and disabled.
The situation is so bad the federal government has forbidden the state to sign up new people until the state makes necessary improvements. [snip]
The moratorium is expected to last four or five months. State officials estimate about 1,000 Alaskans will be affected.
A particularly alarming finding concerns deaths of adults in the programs. In one 2 1/2 year stretch, 227 adults already getting services died while waiting for a nurse to reassess their needs. Another 27 died waiting for their initial assessment, to see if they qualified for help.
No other state in the nation is under such a moratorium, according to a spokeswoman for the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
There are currently eight lawsuits pending against the state which also rang alarm bells on the federal level.
Doctors and other health care providers wrote to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid with concerns that the state wasn’t responsive. Some alleged that the lack of state controls “has resulted in the death(s) of the active clients,” the federal review said.
While the people served are frail and suffer from chronic health issues, the state never investigated to determine if any failure in service contributed to the deaths, the federal review found.
“Thus, if someone passed away because a (personal care assistant) did not show up, for example, there was no indication this would have been reported or investigated,” the report said.
The state plans to start doing fatality reviews.
The state plans to start doing fatality reviews?
So, it would appear, since we are the only state where the situation is bad enough to require federal intervention that the administration has had its mind on other things. We know, of course, that the governor has been busy with her farewell tour, flying all over the state and signing bills and doing little shout outs and quotes of the day on her twitter account, and getting ready to become a full-time celebrity.
But what about health? What have been, and what currently are the administrations top priorities on matters of health and human services? It’s obviously not the care and well-being of our vulnerable seniors, so what is it?
The administration is spending an awful lot of time on the upcoming ballot initiative that will address parental notice and consent for anyone under the age of 18 who is seeking to terminate a pregnancy. Here is the initiative language with recent changes in language underlined. parental20involvement20initiative1
Two years ago, the Alaska Supreme Court on a 3-2 ruling said that a parental consent law was unconstitutional because it transferred the right to make such an important decision to a parent or a judge. They also stated that a parental notification law, however, might be constitutional.
Although she stated she’d like to take this on personally, Palin, under the advice of her attorney, took a step back.
“I got a preliminary opinion from Law (Department) just giving me a heads up that critics would certainly file an ethics charge against me if I were to sponsor an initiative,” she said. “So though I maintain I have First Amendment rights just as any other citizen does, I won’t flirt with the notion of giving critics more ammunition to keep filing wasteful ethics charges against me, but instead I’ll volunteer to be the first signature.”
There go those critics again, demanding ethics. And there goes the governor again, not quite understanding the first amendment, or the ethics act.
Planned Parenthood, recognizing that a girl who doesn’t want to tell her parents she’s pregnant, or fill out paperwork to get time off from school to go stand before a judge in superior court and convince him or her that she is mature and intelligent enough to make decisions about her own reproductive health, might just take the situation in to her own hands.
Girls researching self-induced abortion on the Internet could find all kinds of bad advice, said Clover Simon, Executive Director of Planned Parenthood.
In the week prior to Sarah Palin’s hurried announcement that she’d be stepping down as the governor of the state, a new scandal was brewing on the horizon. It didn’t get as much publicity as some of the other numerous Palin scandals, in part because everyone became preoccupied with her resignation.
The fact that a frightened teen who doesn’t want to become a parent might do what others have done and just try to Google her way out of her predicament may have crossed the mind of Beverly Wooley, the state’s public health director, who was scheduled to appear before the legislature on this issue. She stated, earlier this month that she was forced out of her position, largely due to differences between her and the governor on the parental involvement issue.
Wooley said she also intended to answer questions from legislators and said she would rely on data, not anyone’s personal beliefs. Whether she personally agreed with the governor is beside the point, Wooley said.
She intended to refer to studies from states that already had passed similar legislation, she said. Some of the research shows that, with parental involvement requirements, girls tend to get abortions later in their pregnancy, which is riskier and more expensive, she said. Other research shows fewer girls get abortions, which abortion foes like Palin likely would applaud.
And while Palin says she “will not hesitate to speak up in support of Alaska’s daughers,” her concern does not seem to extend to Alaska’s daughters whose parents are literally dying from neglect because of budget cuts and mismanagement. The “culture of life” seems to have an expiration date that our seniors have passed. And left out are Alaska’s daughters who will choose not to talk to their parents, and take matters in to their own hands rather than submit to the emotional stress, embarrassment and legal wranglings of convincing a judge that they were abused, or the victim of incest, or just not ready to be a parent.
By all indications Lt. Governor Sean Parnell, who is set to take the helm of state on July 26th will have his work cut out for him. His predecessor has left him quite a mess. Where will his priorities lie?
http://www.themudflats.net/2009/07/15/palins-health-care-priorities-and-alaskas-daughters/
The Republican party ran this country into the ground for eight years.
Commentators are being way to nice to these idiots.
What did Bush do for eight years? The invasion of Iraq was the biggest mistake made by an American president in our nations history.
America may never recover from that single blunder. When we pull out all hell will break loose. The press will blame Obama.
Obama is in a no win situation.
He is trying to handle problems that the G.O.P. created and the press is criticizing his every move.
Obama should resign and turn everything back over to them since they made this horrific mess and now seem to have all the answers against everything he does.
They also allow the right wing hate speech to continue. Obama does not need the headache.
This country is going to hell and we only have ourselves to blame.
Maybe America enjoys being screwed by the wealthy!
Cause? Lack of Democrat(ic) oversight of the housing, mortgage and financial markets. Congress has failed in their duties, even when they had a lame duck president. Now, although they have a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate, an overwhelming majority in the House and a very popular Democrat in the White House, they still are helpless and ineffective in even getting their own legislation out of committee! There's no room to blame the GOP on that. The GOP couldn't stop it even if they wanted to. Only Democrats can say "no" to themselves. They are the ones who have total control over whether bills get passed and signed into law. The GOP is only a mouse in the circus known as Washington, DC.
Congressional approval ratings set an all-time record low during the period since Democrats took over the legislature in 2007. In all fairness, it's rebounded since then, but no GOP-run legislature of even George Bush himself has ever had lower approval ratings than that of the recent Democrat(ic) controlled congress. They're now desperate to hold on, in spite of total control. What a bungling, incompetent bunch.
And the GOP at 19% popularity? Yeah, I can see where you think it's the Democrats who are in trouble. It's opposite day!
That sentence explains all.
Loved the rest of the conversation with Newt and then Dean said he actually agrees with Newt and then used that to push for the reform. MMFA should include that, it is a classic.
The cons show why they do not like to debate anything. They lose everytime. Imagine Hannity debating, Dean, Maddow....it would be funnier than a Marx Brothers movie.
- Groucho
Randy
"Thank you sailor."
The Goon Show
I don’t know what they have to say,
It makes no difference anyway --
Whatever it is, I’m against it!
No matter what it is or who commenced it,
I’m against it.
Your proposition may be good
But let’s have one thing understood --
Whatever it is, I’m against it!
And even when you’ve changed it or condensed it,
I’m against it.
I’m opposed to it --
On general principles I’m opposed to it!
Chorus: He’s opposed to it!
In fact, in word, in deed,
He’s opposed to it!
For months before my son was born,
I used to yell from night till morn,
Whatever it is, I’m against it!
And I’ve kept yelling since I commenced it,
I’m against it!
performed by Julius (Groucho) Marx
Music by Harry Ruby and lyrics by Bert Kalmar
Stephanopoulos rebuts: "Those phrases appear nowhere in the bill"...
Gingrich (after the camera's stop rolling) in a panic exclaims... "It's in the fine print... IT"S IN THE FINE PRINT DAMMIT...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... it's in.................................................................................................................................................................... the fine print (sniffle)
Tomorrow on Fox they will cover the Gingrich breakdown as yet another example of Bill Clinton's far reaching reach...
Don't let facts get in the way of your fear mongering. The bill also mentions nothing about acme treatments for teens, diaper rash creams or hair replacement procedures. I am sure you can work those into your routine.
Palin proves the theory about opening your mouth will serve to prove others suspicions. She drops out of politics because of attacks on her family then inserts her family into the most outrageously fabrication of a claim one can think of. A death squad looking at your worth to society.
Perhaps you can add credibility to Palin's fabrications by spreading more rumors about this death board. This way she can say any rebuttal to the rumor is a direct attack on her kids and she can be the bear protecting her cubs.
I can be all "mavericky" too...
You're clearly a class act.
Looks like one of resident hicks got a new moniker.
Randy
If so he's complaining on a research thread about the horrible way he's been treated.
If they'd promise to keep up this racist, anti Hispanic, anti-intellectual, birther, astroturf, death panel stuff I'll make a donation to the Republican Party.
That might be the best way to assure a permanent Republican minority.
Good job, Newt!
I would be willing to bet you that there are more unemployed Republicans and Independants than Democrats. Care to put your money where your mouth is?
Wait, just cleaned my glasses. They were covered with ConFog. You said Rapture....now I get it.
Don't worry you phony Rightwing Christians, you will pay at the time of the Rapture and you will pay dearly.
"What do you mean 'depart from me?' Didn't I shoot enough abortion doctors? Didn't I listen to Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity every day? Didn't I vote straight-ticket Republican all my life? What did you want from me?"
"Here's a hint, boob; the Beatitudes weren't put there just to take up space. Now STFU and stop wasting my time..."
Even though Rush is ON LOAN FROM GOD, we really don't know the direction he came from..HINT: we know it isn't Heaven.
Man and his dog are walking, and the man looks down at the dog and says 'Boy, I'm gonna miss you when the Rapture happens'.
Next panel, the man is there alone.
Its sad that you would have to explain or comment in such an ignorant way my friends, and trust me once we break through these walls of divide (Republican-Democratic) and it is coming where we can talk amongst eachother maturely instead of attacking and criticizing, we will all get the change, that we will all benefit from and need, and that we all truly want and deserve. Guys,
Don't be so hateful and angry it makes people look full of it no matter what side of the political spectrum you connect to.
You mention "walls of divide" and suggest that we try to work together.
The President has made a good faith effort to reach agreements with the Republicans on many different issues. The economy, the housing crisis, the health care bill, the insurance crisis, etc.
On every single front, the Republicans have stood united against everything he's tried to accomplish. There has been no compromise coming from those on the right.
They held power for almost eight years and dictated to us, the disloyal, un-Americans. The Democratic Party compromised on many different fronts and worked with the previous administration where possible.
Don't preach to us about infringement of rights. The last eight years have proven that conservatives hold no right sacred except the second amendment.
Matterers,
A photon of relevance! I am totally unimpressed. The media has long played with elected, former officials, shills, pundits, hacks, etc., and one particle is sighted? Finally, something new in media that attention took, for a millisecond of sanity. Progress is a simple step, in a complex society, that struggles, while the battle of lies continues.
Speaker Gingrich, along with all the wrong-talkers, does not have a stable universe. Encountering reality, his body reeled back, as facts crashed into his three-dimensional mass. Amazing, what a photon can illuminate.
Mr. Stephanoplos' laser could have made the faux-light emitting from Speaker Gingrich implode, but chose to flip the accountability switch off. A photon.
The show wants him back. The, "yes but..," is held off for politics. Keep the story going, we have liars to feed. Yes, they are fellow Americans, yet we must protect the rich-lusting-power-mongers who trodden the masses. That does not mean, vote for them. You do not bite the hand that feeds you, someone said. I do not want to be fed, if the other hand beats me. The simple solution, vote. One hand shows favor to the loyal, and reaches against others with distain.
Best wishes,
Ronin Kannushi
To sum your post up simply, all I can say is:
B A, Bay
B E, Bee
B I, Bic E Bye
B O, Bo
Bicky I O B Bicky I O Boo...
If you know what I mean
Isn't a photon a two-thousand pound picture?
There are a billion photons for every proton in the universe. Space was created so that they'd have both have some room to bounce arround in.