A Liberal's Hit List: Nov 15, 2009

Real Health Care Reform: What's Next

Sunday, November 15, 2009

By Dr. Mehmet Oz
The Huffington Post

On a recent episode of my show, I met a woman named Sandi. Her eyes streamed with tears as she told me about how she binged on food every night after her children were asleep. She was at her wit's end. She was suffering with complications from obesity -- borderline diabetes, hypertension, fatigue and most importantly, depression and anxiety. To modern medicine, she was a simple math equation -- her BMI needed to be under 30, her blood sugar around 100 and blood pressure around 120/70. There are any number of useful drugs that could help. But they would by no means deal with the cause of her problems or bring her to wellness.

Sandi isn't just a math equation that I can fix with drugs or surgery. She is a person, plain and simple. To treat her properly I need to understand every aspect of her life -- her food cravings that she likens to getting a crack hit, her feelings of defeat as she gives in night after night, her feelings of powerlessness and isolation. I need to look at her family; her life circumstances; her mental and spiritual health; her relationships; her daily routine; where she lives and how she gets to work each day. I need to provide to her with a comprehensive list of additional resources -- therapists, counselors, nutritionists, exercise trainers, spiritual counselors, her personal "go to" team to buttress every corner of her personhood.

Sandi will go to a long-term rehabilitative facility that treats patients with chronic eating disorders by addressing the physical and emotional components that make up the distress I witnessed at her intervention. The list of factors is lengthy, but each of them is deeply embedded in every tear that rolls down her cheek as she shares her story. And Sandi's tears are a call to action....(Remainder.)

Greta Van Dumbass Hypes Caribou Barbie Memoir, Fails to Disclose Husband was Palin Advisor

By Media Matters

Fox News host Greta Van Susteren devoted the opening segment of her prime-time program to covering Sarah Palin's yet-to-be released memoir, Going Rogue: An American Life -- about which she claimed "the entire country is buzzing" -- including making a pitch for Palin to appear on her program. But at no point during the segment did Van Susteren disclose to her viewers that her husband, John Coale, reportedly advised Palin following the 2008 presidential campaign and reportedly stated that he conceived of and created Palin's political action committee, SarahPAC....(Remainder.)

The Stupid Virus

Via The Huffington Post

"SuperNews!"--aka the guys that brought you the Twouble with Twitters, Larry King interviewing the Large Hadron Collider and Emoticon Wars--have returned this week to bring you the answer to this question: Why are people so stupid? Turns out it's a virus spread by an Obama-hating monkey. He's responsible for birthers, the people who equate health care reform to the Holocaust, and Rush Limbaugh.

McCain Campaign Emails Contradict Palin's "Going Rogue"

By Sam Stein

The Huffington Post

Sarah Palin's much-discussed book, "Going Rogue," hasn't even been officially released yet and already its accuracy is in question.

The Huffington Post has obtained internal McCain campaign emails -- addressed to and by the former vice presidential candidate -- that directly contradict or cast serious doubt on several of Palin's assertions. The emails were passed along by a mid-level staffer who called early excerpts of "Going Rogue", a serious mixing of truth and imagination."

In one email thread, dated October 14, 2008, Palin says she is "not thrilled" with the idea of going on Saturday Night Live as a way of marginalizing the show's unflattering impersonations of her.

"Not after seeing clips of what they've been playing re: my family," Palin writes to campaign manager Steve Schmidt, as well as top strategists Rick Davis; and Nicolle Wallace. "I had no idea how gross 'celebrities' on that show and in other celebrity venues could get when it comes to family and other aspects of my life that have nothing to do with seeking the vp slot. These folks are whack - didn't know it was as bad as it is... what's the upside in giving them any celebrity venue a ratings boost? That's Todd's input also," she concludes, in reference to her husband.

Schmidt would respond minutes later, telling Palin that, "if you don't want to do it you should not," while adding that a guest appearance would "get an enormous amount of" attention and help her "to fly above all this."

"The american people will see someone who can laugh at themselves which has alwauys [sic] been a trait they admire," he adds....(Remainder.)

In House, Many Spoke With One Voice: Lobbyists’

By Robert Pear

The New York Times

WASHINGTON — In the official record of the historic House debate on overhauling health care, the speeches of many lawmakers echo with similarities. Often, that was no accident.

Statements by more than a dozen lawmakers were ghostwritten, in whole or in part, by Washington lobbyists working for Genentech, one of the world’s largest biotechnology companies.

E-mail messages obtained by The New York Times show that the lobbyists drafted one statement for Democrats and another for Republicans.

The lobbyists, employed by Genentech and by two Washington law firms, were remarkably successful in getting the statements printed in the Congressional Record under the names of different members of Congress.

Genentech, a subsidiary of the Swiss drug giant Roche, estimates that 42 House members picked up some of its talking points — 22 Republicans and 20 Democrats, an unusual bipartisan coup for lobbyists.

In an interview, Representative Bill Pascrell Jr., Democrat of New Jersey, said: “I regret that the language was the same. I did not know it was.” He said he got his statement from his staff and “did not know where they got the information from.”

Members of Congress submit statements for publication in the Congressional Record all the time, often with a decorous request to “revise and extend my remarks.” It is unusual for so many revisions and extensions to match up word for word. It is even more unusual to find clear evidence that the statements originated with lobbyists....(Remainder.)

"Palling Around With Terrorists" Incident Shows Cracks In McCain-Palin Campaign

By Melinda Warner

Media Matters

One of the overarching themes of Going Rogue is the idea that the McCain team controlled, thwarted, smothered, and sacrificed Sarah Palin with every opportunity. A cursory glance at the text shows that Palin felt her opinion and ideas were not valued and that the McCain headquarters simply issued missives to Palin and expected compliance.

Additionally, those who watched the progress of the 2008 presidential campaigns closely will notice Palin's version of events sometimes is in direct contradiction to the versions originating from outside observers and the McCain team.

For example, Palin describes her "palling around with terrorists" comment as having been a headquarters "approved sound bite about Obama." And when criticisms flew afterward, she took the fall while at headquarters "the folks there did little more than duck." [Palin, Going Rouge, p. 306-7]

However, a November 2008 article appearing in Newsweek told a different version of the Ayers story. Newsweek reported that among campaign staff "[t]here was grumbling that Palin had jumped the gun by bringing up Ayers at her rallies before the campaign could properly do the groundwork with a rollout strategy and ads. (At one rally, she had talked about Obama 'palling around with terrorists.')...One adviser later speculated that she impulsively talked about Ayers because she felt thwarted - she had really wanted to bring up the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. (Actually, Palin was feeling hurt and angry over the tabloid treatment of her 17-year-old daughter Bristol, and decided - on her own - that Ayers should be fair game. McCain's advisers were working on a strategy that would launch an Ayers attack the following week...)"...(Remainder.)