Pictured here: A Bush LegacyIt's a puzzle to me that God would have told George Bush that he/she wanted him to run for President. And now after six and a half years there is no way I believe that God could have told George to run for President. Is George misguided, delusional or just a lost soul?
Richard Carmona reported how it was to work as the United States Surgeon General with George W Bush as The Decider. Among the claims made by Carmona:
1 He was not permitted to provide relevant scientific data regarding stem cell research, and Bush appointees would delete references to such from his speech texts
2 His report on second-hand smoke was stalled for political purposes
3 His reports on mental health and emergency preparedness were blocked from release
4 He was not permitted to discuss teen pregnancy outside of the realm of abstinence, despite evidence that abstinence-only is a failed policy
5 He attended a meeting with senior officials on global warming, which was labeled 'a liberal cause with no merit.' After discussing the science of global warming with the same officials, he was never invited back.
6 President Bush's name had to be mentioned 3 times per page in any speech texts prepared
7 He was admonished for giving a keynote address to a group associated with the Special Olympics because it helped a 'politically prominent family'--the Kennedys.
Here’s my question: How do President Bush supporters find this acceptable in the democracy that we are supposed to live in? Acceptable? Anyone?
A well written post on this issue on a blog can be found at
http://judiphilly.blogspot.com/2007/07/mayberry-machiavellis-are-at-it-again.html
An excerpt: Indeed, everything Carmona said yesterday merely confirms what John DiIulio was the first to say, five long years ago. DiIulio, a University of Pennsylvania professor and domestic policy expert, lasted barely a year as director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. His parting shot looks more prescient with each passing day:
“There is no precedent in any modern White House for what is going on in this one: a complete lack of a policy apparatus. What you’ve got is everything—and I mean everything—being run by the political arm. It’s the reign of the Mayberry Machiavellis."
The New York Times article on the testimony of former United States Surgeon General Richard Carmona: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/11/washington/11surgeon.html
I googled Richard Carmona and this was the top of the list:
Dr. Carmona Speaks Out
www.APBspeakers.com Hire the former US Surgeon General to speak at your event. Call Today!
On the same search up came this:
U.S. Surgeon General Quits
Richard Carmona Highlighted Dangers of Obesity, Second-Hand Smoke
August 1, 2006
U.S. Surgeon General Richard Carmona, who highlighted the dangers of obesity and second-hand smoke, has quit, effective July 31, just a month after he released a comprehensive report on the dangers of secondhand smoke. A letter circulated on Capitol Hill informed Hill staffers of his resignation.
It's unclear who decided it was time for Carmona to go. The former trauma surgeon reportedly plans to return to his home in Tucson, Arizona. Although public health advocates were pleased with his report on secondhand smoking, they were often critical of Carmona for failing to act more forcefully.
"Went out with a whimper, didn't he?" Arizona heath department spokesman Michael Murphy quippted, according the Arizona Daily Star.
"The surgeon general job is one with enormous potential to improve the public health of the entire nation, and several have done just that," said Dr. Sidney Wolfe of Public Citizen. "But Carmona's reign has been a relatively inactive one. It's hard to remember another surgeon general who was so largely invisible as he has been, and that's a tragedy."
Others defended Carmona for doing the best he could in a pro-business administration.
"I think that report is going to turn out to be the nail in the coffin to the tobacco industry," Dr. Georges C. Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association, predicting it will eventually lead to a ban on all smoking in public. He said Carmona served during a "tough time."
Carmona conceded in an Arizona Daily Star interview that he was frustrated by the political pressures that came with the job.
"There were many days ... when science gave way to politics," he said. "What was done was not always my decision."
Carmona spoke too bluntly early in his reign, telling a Congressional committee that all tobacco products should be banned. Observers said he was kept on a tight leash thereafter.
The Bush Administration has lost several of its more outspoken public health and safety appointees. Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson, who campaigned for more healthful eating, was let go after Bush won re-election. Highway safety chief Dr. Jeffrey Runge, who was openly critical of top-heavy SUVs, was moved to a post in the Department of Homeland Security and Consumer Product Safety Commission chair Hal Stratton quit abruptly last month to become a lobbyist.
Carmona's blunt and extensively researched report found that there is no risk-free level of exposure to secondhand smoke and said the only way to protect nonsmokers from the dangerous chemicals in secondhand smoke is to eliminate smoking indoors.
Secondhand smoke exposure can cause heart disease and lung cancer in nonsmoking adults and is a known cause of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), respiratory problems, ear infections, and asthma attacks in infants and children, the report found.
Carmona's four-year term quietly expired Saturday at midnight. His deputy has been named acting surgeon general, leaving the next move to President Bush, who may wait until after the fall elections to name a successor.
Above article from: http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2006/08/surgeon_general.htm
And NOW, the next (shall I say it?)…the next lame brain appointee by this President. It’s to the point now with these appointees of George W Bush, that if he picked them there’s a slim chance that we are getting quality. If they are quality and get cleared by the legislature, they eventually will be writing a book and the truth will come out. I’ve been thinking this for a long time now: when GWB moves back to Crawford, Texas the stories that will come out about this President are going to be numerous and revealing. THE TRUTH MAY NOT SET GEORGE FREE but it will come out. I mean you can already book Mr. Carmona for speaking engagements! I’d like to be at one of those speeches. And pleeaze, put them up on youtube.
Movie rights, anyone?
And then there’s Dick. Wow.
Okay back to the Surgeon General topic…so we have this Surgeon General nominee, James Holsinger. I’ve been watching the Senate committee on Cspan this week, who are questioning him on the heels of testimony of Mr. Carmona. Personally, he comes off as weak. Weak as an individual. And weak answers. The questions are direct. His answers are around the Bush, and not direct. Just fishy.
Surgeon General Nominee Grilled on Birth Control, Sex Education
By Steven Edwards July 14, 2007
Thursday's hearing for President Bush's nominee for Surgeon General, James Holsinger, focused on Holsinger's 1991 paper condemning male homosexuality, whether Holsinger could stand up to political pressure, and other topics of importance to the public.
The hearing was admittedly pretty boring, but then Senator Patty Murray (D-Washington) took her turn at he microphone. She grilled Holsinger on abstinence-only education, condom usage among our youth, and Plan B among other things.
Transcribed for your pleasure, the dodges of Bush's latest nominee sounded eerily similar to those of Attorney General Albert Gonzales. Whereas Gonzales repeatedly relied on his faulty memory for his dodges ("I cannot recall"), Holsinger relied on his ignorance to avoid contradicting the Bush administration ("I have not kept up with that issue").
Masochists will enjoy this, as it's pretty painful.
Senator Patty Murray (D-WA): Do you think it's appropriate for the White House or the HHS to edit speeches that you were to give?
James Holsinger: I would sit down and talk through the situation and find out what the issue was that they wanted to edit, if that were the case, and then determine if I thought it were appropriate for it to be so edited. If I didn't think it was appropriate to be so edited, then I would have a conversation with the appropriate people to discuss ...
PM: If you were Surgeon General (SG) and there were an extremely important scientific report that was out there and you were told 'Do not release that report,' what would you do?
JH: If I felt that it was of overriding importance, as I've said before, I would resign.
PM: What would be overriding importance to you?
JH: It would depend on the particular situation and what the report was about. It's hard for me to speculate exactly what that might be...
PM: You may be asked to do this. What would you say to somebody from the White House if they told you they did not want you to release the report? What would you say?
JH: I would sit down and say let's talk about it. Let's find out what the issue is. Let's find out whether we can reach any kind of concensus on what is the appropriate way to go. If we can't, and I felt it was of overriding importance, I would quit.
PM: Can you give us an example of an area that you would see as a conflict between yourself and what you have seen from this administration regarding any of their decisions at FDA or health-wise in the past four years?
JH: I'm struggling with trying to figure out how to pick out something, because I have not been tracking all those kinds of issues as closely as I might have had I known I was going to be nominates for SG of the US. I haven't had any reason to.
PM: Well let me ask you a specific one. For the past decade, the federal government has spent more than a billion dollars on unproven, dangerous, abstinence-only programs -- it's been the most dramatic funding increase during the last six years -- and a 2004 report by the House committee on government reform revealed that many of the most common abstinence-only curricula contained errors, contained distortions, contained stereotypes. If you had that scientific report in front of you, what would you say to the administration?
JH: Well, if it was one that I was supposed to sign off on, then I wouldn't be able to. I mean, if there were distortions...
PM: Tell me what you think of the abstinence-only study.
JH: Well, I don't -- I have not had an opportunity to study them, or the science surrounding abstinence education, so until I was able to do that, I could not give you an informed opinion.
PM: You don't have an opinion on abstinence-only curricula at all?
JH: Oh, I think abstinence is one of the mechanisms that we can use around unplanned pregnancies.
PM: What about STDs?
JH: And STDs as well, but I'm just saying that I have not studied the literature to be able to give you an informed answer. That's all I'm saying.
PM: As SG, if you were asked about whether or not the correct and consistent use of condoms or other methods of contraception is an effective way to prevent unintended pregnancies, how would you answer?
JH: Well, I think condom use is an important approach to unintended pregnancies. I would encourage condom use.
PM: For young people? For unmarried people? Would you qualify it?
JH: Well, yeah... I think that, um, the... I would certainly do that for individuals that, um...
PM: As SG, you're speaking across the country -- you're talking to a group of high school kids, and you're asked a question about the use of condoms for young people -- how would you respond?
JH: I would respond that that is one of a number of appropriate means of birth control and prevention of STDs. I would also talk about other subjects -- such as the fact that they need to have conversations with their families around their sexual lives, and what's appropriate. I think that I would encourage them to consider abstinence as one of those possibilities. I think that they need to be fully informed as to what the science shows, as far as the ramifications of unplanned teen pregnancies and the impact that has on the lives usually, only usually, on the mother, not the father, and that we need to have a fully informed group of young people in this country.
PM: What about Plan B? How would you respond if you were asked about that?
JH: Well, I think Plan B is available, so I don't know why that would be an issue.
Senator Murray's time expired and her questioning ended, but you could tell she was not impressed. Plan B is an issue because Murray wants to know whether Holsinger would avoid informing the public about Plan B if it contradicted his personal ideology, or that of the Bush administration.
Holsinger admitting that he would resign if the Bush administration asked him not to release a report on an important scientific advance shows that his allegiance lies with the President, and not the American people his position is designed to inform.
From: http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2007/07/surgeon-general.html
Where, on where does President Bush get his lists of who to nominate for these national positions? Harriet Miers for the Supreme Court, John Bolton for the United Nations, Dick Cheney for Vice President, Michael Chertoff for Homeland Security, Michael "Brownie" Brown for FEMA, speaking of which…
and then there was Katrina.
Wow…this is just too much:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/09/20050902-2.html
The following article is actually on the Whitehouse’s website. If I were them I’d remove this and fast. And they even put parenthesis around the word “applause” after the President said this speech. Oh, my goodness!!
President Arrives in Alabama, Briefed on Hurricane Katrina
Mobile Regional Airport
Mobile, Alabama
In Focus: Hurricane Relief
THE PRESIDENT: Well, first I want to say a few things. I am incredibly proud of our Coast Guard. We have got courageous people risking their lives to save life. And I want to thank the commanders and I want to thank the troops over there for representing the best of America.
I want to congratulate the governors for being leaders. You didn't ask for this, when you swore in, but you're doing a heck of a job. And the federal government's job is big, and it's massive, and we're going to do it. Where it's not working right, we're going to make it right. Where it is working right, we're going to duplicate it elsewhere. We have a responsibility, at the federal level, to help save life, and that's the primary focus right now. Every life is precious, and so we're going to spend a lot of time saving lives, whether it be in New Orleans or on the coast of Mississippi.
We have a responsibility to help clean up this mess, and I want to thank the Congress for acting as quickly as you did. Step one is to appropriate $10.5 billion. But I've got to warn everybody, that's just the beginning. That's a small down payment for the cost of this effort. But to help the good folks here, we need to do it.
We are going to restore order in the city of New Orleans, and we're going to help supplement the efforts of the Mississippi Guard and others to restore order in parts of Mississippi. And I want to thank you for your strong statement of zero tolerance. The people of this country expect there to be law and order, and we're going to work hard to get it. In order to make sure there's less violence, we've got to get food to people. And that's a primary mission, is to get food to people. And there's a lot of food moving. And now the -- it's one thing to get it moving to a station, it's the next thing to get it in the hands of the people, and that's where we're going to spend a lot of time focusing.
We've got a lot of rebuilding to do. First, we're going to save lives and stabilize the situation. And then we're going to help these communities rebuild. The good news is -- and it's hard for some to see it now -- that out of this chaos is going to come a fantastic Gulf Coast, like it was before. Out of the rubbles of Trent Lott's house -- he's lost his entire house -- there's going to be a fantastic house. And I'm looking forward to sitting on the porch. (Laughter.)
GOVERNOR RILEY: He'll be glad to have you.
THE PRESIDENT: Out of New Orleans is going to come that great city again. That's what's going to happen. But now we're in the darkest days, and so we got a lot of work to do. And I'm down here to thank people. I'm down here to comfort people. I'm down here to let people know that we're going to work with the states and the local folks with a strategy to get this thing solved.
Now, I also want to say something about the compassion of the people of Alabama and Mississippi and Louisiana and surrounding states. I want to thank you for your compassion. Now is the time to love a neighbor like you'd like to be loved yourselves.
Governor Riley announced the fact that they're going to open up homes in military bases for stranded folks. And that's going to be very important and helpful.
My dad and Bill Clinton are going to raise money for governors' funds. The governors of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama will have monies available to them to help deal with the long-term consequences of this storm.
The faith-based groups and the community-based groups throughout this part of the world, and the country for that matter, are responding. If you want to help, give cash money to the Red Cross and the Salvation Army. That's where the first help will come. There's going to be plenty of opportunities to help later on, but right now the immediate concern is to save lives and get food and medicine to people so we can stabilize the situation.
Again, I want to thank you all for -- and, Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job. The FEMA Director is working 24 -- (applause) -- they're working 24 hours a day.
Again, my attitude is, if it's not going exactly right, we're going to make it go exactly right. If there's problems, we're going to address the problems. And that's what I've come down to assure people of. And again, I want to thank everybody.
And I'm not looking forward to this trip. I got a feel for it when I flew over before. It -- for those who have not -- trying to conceive what we're talking about, it's as if the entire Gulf Coast were obliterated by a -- the worst kind of weapon you can imagine. And now we're going to go try to comfort people in that part of the world.
Thank you. (Applause.)
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Remember Katrina's Victims
I know this is somewhat old news for those of us unaffected directly…and we have probably forgotten about, but there is an awful track record here:
Brown: E-mail shows Bush glad FEMA took Katrina flak
Sunday, June 11, 2006
Former FEMA director Michael Brown discusses the e-mail Friday on CNN's "The Situation Room."
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The former emergency management chief who quit amid widespread criticism over his handling of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina said he received an e-mail before his resignation stating President Bush was glad to see the Oval Office had dodged most of the criticism.
Michael Brown, former director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said Friday that he received the e-mail five days before his resignation from a high-level White House official whom he declined to identify.
The e-mail stated that Bush was relieved that Brown -- and not Bush or Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff -- was bearing the brunt of the flak over the government's handling of Katrina.
The September 2005 e-mail reads: "I did hear of one reference to you, at the Cabinet meeting yesterday. I wasn't there, but I heard someone commented that the press was sure beating up on Mike Brown, to which the president replied, 'I'd rather they beat up on him than me or Chertoff.' "
The sender adds, "Congratulations on doing a great job of diverting hostile fire away from the leader."
CNN has been unable to verify the authenticity of the e-mail, but the White House designation "eop.gov" is part of the sender's e-mail address, indicating it came from the Executive Office of the President.
A White House spokesperson said in an e-mail to CNN: "This is an old rumor that surfaced months ago and we're not commenting on it. This story has already been reported and I have heard nothing at all that would substantiate it."
Some of the contents of the e-mail were first claimed in a column written by Brown's lawyer, Andy Lester, in the conservative weekly publication Human Events, and subsequently picked up by news media, but until now, the existence of a written record memorializing those claims have been unreported.
The e-mail was provided to CNN on the condition that the sender's name be redacted. Brown said only that the sender was a "good friend of the president," who has been with the president "a long time."
Brown said, he too, considers the sender a friend.
While acknowledging that part of a political appointee's job is to "take the sword" for the president, Brown said he has grown weary of Chertoff making him a scapegoat for FEMA's failures in the wake of Katrina.
"I'm not willing to take that sword for Michael Chertoff," Brown said.
"I'm frankly getting tired of Chertoff out there, every time he testifies, talking about how Brown didn't do this or that," Brown said. "As long as Chertoff continues to criticize me, I think we need to recognize that I was doing everything I needed to do down there."
Brown also reiterated an earlier call for the resignation of Chertoff, whom he said suffers from "political tone deafness." Brown suggested that despite announcements to the contrary, FEMA is not prepared for the 2006 hurricane season, which began June 1.
"I want the White House in general, in particular Michael Chertoff, to stop dragging me through the mud every time the issue of FEMA comes up," he said. "There's a lot of things that need to be done to fix FEMA and continuing to throw that at me is not going to solve anything."
Lester said the White House was handling the situation in "a cowardly way."
"What the White House was actually doing was taking some stories that got started in the media and pushing them and pushing them until everything got diverted to Mike," Lester said. "Mike Brown was being made the scapegoat."
From http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/06/09/katrina.email/index.html
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There was a time that I wasn’t tuned in to every mistake that President George W Bush was making. I mean by that, I didn’t keep tabs and record them all down. Now that I look back, add them all up - I am appalled. I feel if you aren’t fed up with President Bush’s ineptitude, you aren’t paying attention.
He’s not fit to be President of the United States. Aw, heck I’ll go even further, he’s not fit to be the President of anything. He should have stayed in Texas with his baseball job, perhaps. But not the “protector of the United States Constitution”. I venture to guess he has never read the constitution. Would he understand it if he had?
His behavior illustrates contempt for the country and the constitution.
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STOP AND PREVENT GENOCIDE
Darfur Families Need Our Attention and Action NOW
IT’S THE HUMANE THING TO DO
Genocide – “Never Again”
Let’s work on that.
<:<:<:<:<:<:<:<:<:<:<:<:<:<:<:<:<:<:<:<:<:
Get a voice or be willing to be voiceless.
We need to act like free people.
Freedom needs to be exercised
or you don’t have any.
Without you,
we have one less voice for justice.
We are all the keepers of justice
…or not.
Call President Bush and tell him
to live by his words regarding GENOCIDE:
“Not on My Watch”
His telephone number:
202-456-1111
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What good is a democracy that loses its moral compass?
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www.savedarfur.org
www.genocideintervention.net
www.sudandivestment.com
www.ajws.org
www.aiusa.org
www.standnow.org
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Labels: Dick Cheney, George Bush, Harriet Miers, ilovemylife, James Holsinger, Michael Bolton, Michael Chertoff, Richard Carmona, Sandra Hammel, Senator Patty Murray, Surgeon General, The Decider, United States
