I've come to realize that one must avoid the inclination to be shocked or surprised by the actions of the Bush administration. Today's reported appointment of Susan Orr to head the Department of Health and Human Services family planning program is just another in a long string of head scratchers.
Susan Orr, most recently an associate commissioner in the Administration for Children and Families, was appointed Monday to be acting deputy assistant secretary for population affairs. She will oversee $283 million in annual grants to provide low-income families and others with contraceptive services, counseling and preventive screenings.
In a 2001 article in The Washington Post, Orr applauded a Bush proposal to stop requiring all health insurance plans for federal employees to cover a broad range of birth control. "We're quite pleased, because fertility is not a disease," said Orr, then an official with the Family Research Council.
"We have another appointment that just truly politicizes family planning," said Mary Jane Gallagher, president of the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association. "The last time I looked, both Republicans and Democrats used contraception in America."
Orr is a former employee of the Family Research Council, a right wing group founded by James Dobson of Focus on the Family and currently headed by Tony Perkins. The group has used the research of discredited psychologist Paul Cameron to promote their anti-gay agenda as well as to promote other extreme positions of the far right. Need I say more?
I think not. Instead, I decided to have some fun with the appointment so I created the following top ten reasons George W. Bush appointed a birth-control opponent to head the family planning program at the Department of Health and Human Services:
Number Ten:
He's simply trying to be consistent with his disdain for the "politics of obstruction".
Number Nine:
Ever since hearing the band "Rhythm Method" perform, his views on family planning were changed forever.
Number Eight:
The President doesn't like to make the same mistake twice...therefore he accepts that Iraq didn't have...STD's (or was that WMD's?) so he's sure as hell not going to support the meme that people who use condoms won't acquire them either.
Number Seven:
Ever since the Iran-Contra Affair, the President has been opposed to the government having any involvement with "contra-ception".
Number Six:
His father hated broccoli...he hates "condom-ments".
Number Five:
The President opposes a draft because he believes its a free country...but not when it comes to having children. We're going to need every soldier we can get to man his planned fifty year presence in Iraq.
Number Four:
He thinks getting your tubes tied has to do with restricting access to the "internets".
Number Three:
The President previously stated, "Too many OBGYN's aren't able to practice their love with women all across this country." To make that happen, he has a vision in mind and Susan Orr is the best person to bring his plan to fruition.
Number Two:
The President is willing to expand poor children's access to health care through S-CHIP...but not unless he has some guarantee that the country is going to have a lot more of them.
Number One:
In order to insure unencumbered access to the "eggs", the President believes the fox should guard the hen house.
Tagged as: Abstinence, Contraception, Department of HHS, Family Research Council, George W. Bush, Humor, James Dobson, Paul Cameron, Susan Orr
Daniel DiRito | October 17, 2007 | 1:02 PM |
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Not all children are created equal...at least that seems to be the message from the President and those who support his veto of legislation which sought to expand the States Children's Health Insurance Program (S-CHIP)...legislation which is favored by a wide majority of the voting public and which passed both the House and the Senate by margins just short of the numbers necessary to override the President's veto.
In response to the President's recent radio address...in which he highlighted the veto of the S-CHIP legislation...Graeme Frost, a twelve year old boy, delivered a plea for George Bush to reconsider his opposition to the expanded coverage. In short order, the GOP throat dogs literally converged upon Graeme and his family.
Leading the right wing lynch party of unhinged and uber enforcers in the attacks on the twelve year old boy and his family is none other that Michelle "The Mouthpiece of Malice" Malkin. Malkin's assault contains the regular ration of bloviated blogging...lecturing her legions as to the lessons learned from the last episode of Hillary's efforts to impose socialized medicine. She posits her mission is one which results from duty...a duty which she must accept in light of the liberal leaning media's unwillingness to get to the "bottom" of the Frost family details...details she unabashedly chases with reckless abandon. She frames the fracas as follows.
From Michelle Malkin:
When a family and Democrat political leaders drag a child down to Washington at 6 in the morning to read a script written by Senate Democrat staffers on a crusade to overturn a presidential veto, someone might have questions about the family’s claims. The newspapers don’t want to do their jobs. The vacuum is being filled.
If you don’t want questions, don’t foist these children onto the public stage.
Fight your battles like adults and stop hiding behind youngsters dragging around red wagons filled with your talking points.
___________________________________________________
Not content to argue the merits of the legislation, Malkin decided it was her duty to "examine" the financial status of the Frost family since she's convinced the mainstream media aren't "doing their jobs". Her "journalistic" duties included a drive-by of the Frost family residence and a stop off at the commercial building owned by Mr. Frost.
Malkin is seemingly operating under the misguided assumption that her job is akin to the donning of latex gloves and ordering the "patient" to bend over. Given the fact that her own head routinely resides in a dark and dank domicile, it should come as no surprise that she would believes it is her prerogative to insert it where it most certainly doesn't belong.
Given the above excerpt, it would seem that Malkin also suffers from a selective memory and has conveniently chosen to forget the vainglorious promenading of snowflake babies which took place when the President signed the veto of legislation which would have expanded government funding for stem cell research...a veto which sought to prevent the destruction of embryos...the same embryos which are frequently destroyed in the invitro fertilization process that created these snowflake babies...a procedure which is only available to the privileged or those who possess first rate health insurance policies.
Apparently the Bush administration and its minions believe they are entitled to determine which children are worthy of being paraded in front of the camera for partisan political purposes and which ones are to be savaged by those who oppose the expansion of health care coverage. The Frost family apparently failed to read the relevant sections of the Malkin marquee which disqualified them from entry into the ever increasingly constricted tent of compassionate conservatism.
I guess we shouldn't be surprised to find out that the Bush administration condones the use of mercenaries given their prevalence in the war in Iraq. Notwithstanding, while it may be premature for us to condemn the actions of Blackwater with regards to their alleged transgressions for which we at home lack first hand evidence; it isn't too early for American's to condemn the vile and vicious acts of the mercenaries who have chosen to visibly and indiscriminately savage a twelve year old boy and his family here in the homeland.
Tagged as: Blackwater, George W. Bush, Graeme Frost, Health Care, Health Insurance, Iraq, Mercenary, Michelle Malkin, SCHIP, Veto
Daniel DiRito | October 9, 2007 | 1:28 AM |
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As expected, George Bush has vetoed the expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) which was recently passed by wide bipartisan margins in the House and the Senate. The veto occurred without the fanfare which has typified most of "The Decider's" actions. There will be no "Mission Accomplished" banners on this one...no gathering of the snowflake babies as was witnessed in vetoing legislation to expand government funded stem cell research. You see, when the culture of life fits the President's ideology, babies matter; when it doesn't, we get statements like the following:
"I believe in private medicine, not the federal government running the health care system."
Mr. President, let's make one thing perfectly clear, "private medicine means no medicine if one is too poor to purchase health insurance." George Bush can couch his argument anyway he chooses, but it will not change the fact that his actions will deny health care coverage to those in greatest need. Further, when the President argues that health care coverage should be expanded by offering tax deductions to those who purchase private insurance, he is really promoting the status quo. Apparently the President can't see past his own silver spoon.
Under the legislation, the program would double -- from 4 million to 8 million -- the number of children covered.
Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah was among those Republicans who split from the president. "It's very difficult for me to be against a man I care so much for," he told his colleagues on the Senate floor before the vote. "It's unfortunate that the president has chosen to be on what, to me, is clearly the wrong side of this issue."
A Washington Post-ABC News poll conducted September 27-30 found 72 percent of those surveyed support an increase in spending on the program, with 25 percent opposed. The poll's margin of error was 3 percentage points.
Bush and many Republicans contend the program's original intent would be changed under the bill.
The program gives coverage to parents who make too much to qualify for Medicaid but not enough to buy private insurance for their children. Critics have said their concern is that parents might be prompted to drop private coverage for their children to get cheaper coverage under the bill.
Just what would be wrong with covering an additional 4 million children and providing insurance to some parents who can't afford to buy private insurance? Further, if the President wants these parents to buy private insurance, where are they going to get the money to do so? If they had the money for private insurance, don't you think they would buy it for their children? If they can't protect their own children, how in the hell are they going to obtain coverage for themselves? Private insurance is already available...get a clue Mr. President...poor people can't afford it!
George Bush may think this veto will restore his credentials as a fiscal conservative...but the truth of the matter is that it simply highlights the fact that this President is neither conservative nor compassionate. He is a man driven by political considerations and calculations...and little else. George Bush is a petulant and pompous man who suffers from delusions of divinity. If there is a heaven, he had better hope the Bush family has already purchased a majority ownership. Then again, what would make me think that he doesn't already have the deed in his privileged little paws?
Let's be honest, this President may tell us he supports "no child left behind"...but he lives by a different motto...the one that says, "no Bush left behind".
Tagged as: Congress, George W. Bush, Health Care, Medicine, Poverty, SCHIP, Veto
Daniel DiRito | October 3, 2007 | 12:10 PM |
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