August 11, 2009

8/11: Euthanasia?

The notion that the House health care bill will encourage euthanasia for seniors and disabled people has been a subject of blog chatter for weeks, ever since longtime health reform opponent Betsy McCaughey made the claim on ex-Sen. Fred Thompson's (R) radio show. The blog chatter grew exponentially louder over the weekend when ex-AK Gov. Sarah Palin (R) warned that the Dem health care plan would create a government "death panel" that would decide whether or not to provide health care for Palin's parents and infant son. Liberal bloggers are describing Palin's argument as a "malicious myth" and are blasting the various conservative pundits who are promoting it. Conservative bloggers, on the other hand, argue that Palin's claim is valid. John Hawkins warns: "If you don't think it will happen here if Obama gets his way then you're fooling yourself."

What else is happening in the blogosphere?

• Conservative bloggers (Malkin, Lane, Unum, Hawkins, Jacobson, Henke) are blasting Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and House Maj. Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) for writing a USA Today op-ed in which they accused the conservative activists who are disrupting congressional townhalls of using "un-American" tactics. Some liberal bloggers are also criticizing the op-ed, although others are defending it.
• Liberal bloggers (Sudbay, Wheeler, Willis) are praising Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) for warning that the health reform effort will "lose...momentum" if Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) and his gang of six fail to reach a compromise by Sept. 15.

HEALTH CARE REFORM: Johnny Isakson Wants To Kill Your Grandmother?

Liberal bloggers are buzzing about the fact that a prominent GOPer -- GA Sen. Johnny Isakson -- described Palin's euthanasia argument as "nuts":

• The Reality-Based Community's Mark Kleiman: "Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-GA), the actual author of Section 1233, says that the interpretation of that section as encouraging euthanasia is 'nuts.' Question to be asked to every Republican officeholder and talking head: 'Sen. Isakson says that Gov. Palin is nuts. Do you agree?'"
• The Washington Monthly's Steve Benen: "[Isakson] is a genuine, Grade A, far-right senator from the Deep South, and he thinks Palin's argument is 'nuts.' Assorted wingnuts and Tea Baggers may not believe the administration, Democrats, objective news sources, or the plain black-and-white text of the legislation, but they should at least be willing to consider reality from one of the Senate's most conservative members. So, it's time to put Republicans on the spot, starting with [ex-Speaker] Newt Gingrich. Sarah Palin thinks voluntary advance care planning creates 'death panels'; Johnny Isakson thinks that's 'nuts.' Who do you think is right?"
• Firedoglake's Jane Hamsher: "Pro-life Republican Johnny Isakson wants to murder old people in their sleep. Or something. [...] Quick, somebody ask Newt what he thinks."
• Think Progress' Matthew Yglesias: "Senator Johnny Isakson (R-Georgia) isn't a moderate Republican. He's not even really a 'reasonable' conservative. But he does have a special interest in end-of-life planning and he was one of the drivers behind the idea that Medicare ought to cover voluntary end-of-life counseling sessions for seniors who are interested in such services. This is the molehill out of which Sarah Palin and others built the dishonest mountain of 'death panels.'"
• Mother Jones' Kevin Drum: "[I]t's good to have [Isakson] on the record. [...] Needless to say, though, this won't make a whit of difference among the lunatic fringe."

HEALTH CARE REFORM II: Sorry Johnny, But Sarah's Right

Conservative bloggers are arguing that Palin's warning about Obama's "death panels" is valid:

• Right Wing News' Hawkins: "There's a simple reason this is in the bill: it's cheaper for people to take some pain pills and wait to die in a hospice than it is for the government to provide an expensive operation. Does it say they're going to force anybody to choose that path? NOT YET -- but, you take a non-college educated person: they're old, they're scared, and they're talking to a doctor, who knows much more than they do about their health. It's pretty easy to see how they could be talked into taking the money saving option. People who would live if they were treated in the United States die on a regular basis in countries with socialized medicine because they have to wait in line too long, because they're denied operations, and because the government doesn't want to spend the money on the best equipment. If you don't think it will happen here if Obama gets his way then you're fooling yourself."
• Townhall's Meredith Jessup: "The assumption that a government-run health industry would neglect the needs of aging seniors is not just a logical assumption, but in many parts of the world employing similar 'public options,' it's a reality. If the White House needed more evidence that a government-run health care option would result in forms of euthanasia, they should look no further than the President's advisor on health policy: Dr. Ezekial Emanuel. Emanuel claims that 'doctors take the Hippocratic oath too seriously,' and argues, 'Even if a twenty-five year old receives priority over sixty-five year olds, everyone who is sixty-five now was previously twenty-five.'"
• NRO's Wesley J. Smith: "Palin is not being paranoid. Some of President Obama's most influential health-care advisers have promoted rationing and quality-of-life judgmentalism. For example, Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel's brother, has suggested that we can no longer afford Hippocratic medicine, laid the intellectual groundwork for rationing based on age, and even stated that medical services 'provided to individuals who are irreversibly prevented from being or becoming participating citizens are not basic and should not be guaranteed.' (My analysis of Emanuel's proposals can be found at my First Things blog.) No wonder Palin is worried about the level of treatment her son Trig would receive under Obamacare. True, Palin would be a more effective critic of Obamacare if she didn't write like a college-student blogger. But her concerns are legitimate and substantive. And that shouldn't be lost in the criticism of her lexicon."

THOUGHT OF THE DAY: Negotiating With Terrorists?

NRO's Victor Davis Hanson:

"I think the more we ponder the [Bill] Clinton trip, the worse it is going to be appraised. We have hostages in Iran. An American soldier is being held by the Taliban. Our allies have hostages in North Korea. So what conditions determined the spouse of the secretary of state to make a special trip to meet demands imposed by the North Koreans kidnappers to release their hostages? Had any of the other detainees in various other countries worked for Al Gore, would they have been accorded such visits (e.g., will Bill Clinton now go to Waziristan to meet the Taliban? Will he go to Tehran to meet [Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad?)? This issue is strangely omitted in almost all discussions of the trip.

Once we get beyond the emotional high of seeing two young Americans rescued from such a creepy regime, I think we are going to collectively sober up and realize that we just did what we always said we would never do: bargained for the release of hostages from terrorists. Think away the notion of North Korea as a legitimate government, and we are indeed left with begging a terrorist clique, at a critical time in non-proliferation talks, to release those they kidnapped for the purposes of humiliating the United States. What would have been the press reaction had [George] Bush I been asked by someone like Boone Pickens to visit Pyongyang to free two of his company's kidnapped employees in North Korea with the complicit blessing of the [George] Bush II administration amid talks about nuclear violations?"

LEST WE FORGET: Little Butterball Holding Up Ice Cream Line

From The Onion:

"HARRISBURG, PA -- According to witnesses who are sweating their nuts off, the line at the Baskin-Robbins is currently 12 people deep, thanks to an indecisive little butterball holding things up at the counter. Sources said the chubster, whose breath has almost completely fogged up the glass display case, already has chocolate on his shirt, and is now regarding the ice cream selection with the sort of glazed look typical of the heavily sedated. In the event that Mr. Porkpie ever makes up his mind, it is unlikely that he'll be able to reach into the pockets of his stretched-to-the-limit pants to pull out the money to oh my God, he just asked for another sample despite the fact that everybody in this goddamn line knows he's going to get the chocolate peanut butter. Store regulars said the situation wouldn't be so bad, but the manager had to run to the bank for change, leaving only Wendy behind the counter to wait on this sausage-boy, and she's no rocket scientist."

Posted by Ian Faerstein at August 11, 2009 12:40 PM