Bush Crew Screws Public Health Interests

Picture Courtesy of Google Search

In a perfect world the science tells the truth because facts simply do not lie. Enter the White House and the President and you can choose to ignore the science of facts simply because you sit behind the desk at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Pick and choose your science issues and dictate to not just the people of America but to the world what you politically want people to hear. Not the scientific facts but the political spin from a political machine.

If President Bush owned a tobacco farm then smoking would be good for you and me. Chuck the scientific facts of medical science out the window and buy a pack of butts for America! I’m just going out on a limb but I believe the President is guilty of the KISS theory, Keep It Simple Stupid. Not for our protection but his own.

Even his own hand picked former Surgeon General Carmona is blowing the horn of science over what the President wants the people to really know. Apparently, the former Surgeon General served at the Presidents will as long as it washed with the politics of the day as he felt it would serve him best.

Over at the New York Times they have this to say about our President and his thought process on what you need to know about medical science as he sees fit…

White House Is Accused of Putting Politics Over Science
By GARDINER HARRIS
Published: July 10, 2007

WASHINGTON, July 10 — Former Surgeon General Richard H. Carmona told a Congressional committee today that top officials in the Bush administration repeatedly tried to weaken or suppress important public health reports because of political considerations.

Dr. Carmona, who served as surgeon general from 2002 to 2006, said White House officials would not allow him to speak or issue reports about stem cells, emergency contraception, sex education, or prison, mental and global health issues because of political concerns. Top administration officials delayed for years and attempted to “water down” a landmark report on secondhand tobacco smoke, he said in sworn testimony before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

He was ordered to mention President Bush three times on every page of every speech he gave, Dr. Carmona said. He was asked to make speeches to support Republican political candidates and to attend political briefings, at least one of which included Karl Rove, the president’s senior political adviser, he said.

And administration officials even discouraged him from attending the Special Olympics because, he said, of that charitable organization’s longtime ties to the Kennedy family.
“I was specifically told by a senior person, ‘Why would you want to help those people?’ ” Dr. Carmona said.

The Special Olympics is one of the nation’s premier charitable organizations to benefit disabled people.

Dr. Carmona joins a list of present and former Bush administration officials who assert that politics often trumped science within what had previously been nonpartisan government health and scientific agencies. - New York Times

If you were to take the scenario of the facts that he shut down and dummied up the Surgeon General then what the hell did he do to the folks working for him that were supposed to look out for the Environment? Expand the thought process to other areas like the FDA or the FBI. How about the CIA or the Department of Interior? How many ways can you twist the facts to serve the people you love most?

Anyone have a list of contributors to “W’s” Presidential Library yet? If the science did not work for the friends of Bush then I’m guessing that the President put a gag order out on it.

Some notes on what the Surgeon General is supposed to do if not overruled by the White House...

Duties of the Surgeon General

To protect and advance the health of the Nation through educating the public; advocating for effective disease prevention and health promotion programs and activities; and, provide a highly recognized symbol of national commitment to protecting and improving the public's health;

To articulate scientifically based health policy analysis and advice to the President and the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) on the full range of critical public health, medical, and health system issues facing the Nation;

To provide leadership in promoting special Departmental health initiatives, e.g., tobacco and HIV prevention efforts, with other governmental and non-governmental entities, both domestically and internationally;

To administer the U.S. Public Health Service (PHS) Commissioned Corps, which is a uniquely expert, diverse, flexible, and committed career force of public health professionals who can respond to both current and long-term health needs of the Nation;

To provide leadership and management oversight for PHS Commissioned Corps involvement in Departmental emergency preparedness and response activities;

To elevate the quality of public health practice in the professional disciplines through the advancement of appropriate standards and research priorities; and

To fulfill statutory and customary Departmental representational functions on a wide variety of Federal boards and governing bodies of non-Federal health organizations, including the Board of Regents of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, the National Library of Medicine, the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, the Association of Military Surgeons of the United States, and the American Medical Association.

I'm thinking that the Hippocratic Oath and the Oath of President are like oil and water? Am I wrong?

Papamoka

Recommend this post to a friend...
Link to this post and we will reciprocate in kind...

Bush Morals on Stem Cell Research…

Cross posted at Bring IT ON!

Where President Bush failed to act then the States and the Governors have taken up the charge where it concerns Stem Cell Research. Once more on yet another critical issue to our nation the President and his lack of vision are being trampled on by yet one more Governor that knows where the future of science is. President Bush claims to be against embryonic stem cell research for moral reasons and yet he would have no problem incinerating those same embryos as medical waste that is at the very heart of this heated discussion. Donated embryos without a womb or hope of a womb will degrade over time and when that time comes they simply light a match and thus end the discussion and his argument of higher principles and personal morals on life being sacred.

What simply amazes me to no end is that the states and the Governors of our nation are showing what true leadership is when it comes to medical science. The few Governors that have chosen to take on stem cell research are truly the people that deserve our nations and the world’s gratitude. George Bush is the oxymoron President that will protect and embryo in a cellular state with no chance of survival outside of a womb and yet he will send our young men and woman to fight a war that his administration made up? If that doesn’t make you go Hmmm then I don’t know what will?

Over at the New York Times they have this great piece on Governor Deval Patrick and his commitment to medical science …

Massachusetts Proposes Stem Cell Research Grants
By PAM BELLUCK
Published: May 9, 2007

BOSTON, May 8 — Gov. Deval Patrick on Tuesday unveiled a $1.25 billion proposal intended to help the state maintain its status as a pre-eminent place for stem cell research and other life sciences.

The money would provide grants for university and hospital scientists, establish special research centers to make their work faster and more efficient, and train workers for biotechnology businesses.

It would also establish the first stem cell bank, a repository of all the stem cell lines created in Massachusetts laboratories, which would serve as a kind of stem cell lending library to scientists around the world.

“In many ways the health of this industry and the health of our society are very closely linked,” Mr. Patrick said at an international biotechnology convention here, where he announced the plan. “That’s why we will not rest on our laurels.”

Mr. Patrick’s plan involves $1 billion in state money over 10 years, some borrowed through bond issues, plus $250 million in matching money from private business.

Massachusetts is home to some of the most advanced research in stem cells and other life sciences, including the work of Craig C. Mello, a University of Massachusetts scientist who shared the 2006 Nobel Prize in Medicine for his work on silencing the effect of certain genes, which could lead to treatment of diabetes, AIDS and Alzheimer’s disease. Scientists at Harvard and other Massachusetts research centers have created more than 30 new lines of embryonic stem cells, more than researchers in other states.

Other states have proposed committing money to the field. Among them are California, which approved a $3 billion program; New Jersey, which has proposed $270 million; and New York, where Gov. Eliot Spitzer has proposed $1 billion for stem cell research.

These states are all seeking ways to get around the Bush administration’s restrictions on federal financing for embryonic stem cell research, which were imposed because President Bush objects to the necessity of destroying human embryos in order to create the stem cells. – New York Times

America has to continue reaching for the outer limits of science and beyond not simply because we can but that we have to if we are going to continue as the leaders of the free world. We can not sit idly by while our families are suffering and dying from diseases that could possibly be cured if the research is simply started today. This research that could take decades may not save you from your terminal illness today but it just might save your grand child or great grand child.

There is another thought that was running through my head while reading this article and that was the sense of vision and long term job growth that this technology will bring to the states that dare to dream and fund it now. Back in the early seventies and eighties Massachusetts was the hub of computer technology companies and an industry leader in computer sciences. Companies like Wang, Digital, Data General, Prime One were just a few of the big players in that market and yet today they are all gone. Computer systems and parts and everything to do with building computers for the most part are now feeding families overseas now. Then you have to think about Detroit and what the people there are going to do now that their future is in question? Just knowing that the world’s largest auto maker is now in Japan has to send a shiver up your spine.

Embracing stem cell research will ensure America and Massachusetts is a player in the higher paid job markets ten, twenty and thirty years down the road. Some folks call it Progressive Government. I just call it smart government.

Governors like Deval Patrick know that you have to keep moving forward and embracing new ideas and new sciences to keep the good paying jobs in his state and help emerging opportunities to reach a bountiful potential. It is the job of the Governor of every state to make sure that the jobs that pay well will be there if not in his or her term then ten or twenty years down the road.

I’m trying to think of any science or technology that would promote a future of great jobs at descent salaries other than big oil that this President has embraced. Nope, I got nothing. Can you think of one?

Papamoka

Cross Posted at Bring It ON!

Recomend this post to a friend...
Link to this post and we shall reciprocate in kind...

Technorati Tags:stem cell research, embyonic stem cells, adult stem cells, federal funding stem cells, bush, cheney, republicans, religious right, medical reseach, diabetes, parkinsons, alzheimers, spinal cord injury, harvard, umass, childrens hospital, deval patrick, governor deval patrickm, california research bond, nancy reagan, ronald reagan, new york times, pam belluck, progressive government, catholic church, pro life, ma, mass, medical science, medical research
Generated By Technorati Tag Generator