Have you wondered who started the whole euthanasia talking point going? Where did it originate and why was it put there? Of all the silly things.
It was Republican Johnny Isakson from Georgia who introduced the Soylent Green amendment in the Senate bill because he learned his lessons well from the Terri Schiavo incident. And he's shocked that conservatives have taken his amendment and made a mockery of it.
The most awesome Digby has the story:
Ezra found a semi-sane Republican on the "The Dingoes Want Moy Bayby" controversy. He's Johnny Isakson of Georgia, who turns out to be the guy who put the Soylent Green amendment in the Senate bill:
Is this bill going to euthanize my grandmother? What are we talking about here?
What we're talking about in the health care debate mark-up, one of the things I talked about was that the most money spent on anyone is spent usually in the last 60 days of life and that's because an individual is not in a capacity to make decisions for themselves. So rather than getting into a situation where the government makes those decisions, if everyone had an end-of-life directive or what we call in Georgia "durable power of attorney," you could instruct at a time of sound mind and body what you want to happen in an event where you were in difficult circumstances where you're unable to make those decisions.
This has been an issue for 35 years. All 50 states now have either durable powers of attorney or end-of-life directives and it's to protect children or a spouse from being put into a situation where they have to make a terrible decision as well as physicians from being put into a position where they have to practice defensive medicine because of the trial lawyers. It's just better for an individual to be able to clearly delineate what they want done in various sets of circumstances at the end of their life.
How did this become a question of euthanasia?
I have no idea. I understand -- and you have to check this out -- I just had a phone call where someone said Sarah Palin's web site had talked about the House bill having death panels on it where people would be euthanized. How someone could take an end of life directive or a living will as that is nuts. You're putting the authority in the individual rather than the government. I don't know how that got so mixed up.
You're saying that this is not a question of government. It's for individuals.
It empowers you to be able to make decisions at a difficult time rather than having the government making them for you...read on
Keep reading the piece to find out Why is the state of Georgia trying to kill your grandmother? Where will it end?
Why haven't the media interviewed Johnny Isakson dozens of times so the truth can get out to America? Instead, we have crazy people yelling Beckerwocky and shouting down the town halls.
Good job, Ezra, for going to the source. Your pals at the WaPo can learn something.
...I'm very skeptical. This guy sounds much too rational to be a Repug.
he's not running for re-election, so he can say what he really thinks, a la Voinovich.
Jon Tevlin: Bachmann's wayward son up and joins AmeriCorps
JON TEVLIN, Star Tribune
Why do our children always disappoint us?
We spend 18 years carefully teaching and molding our kids, hoping they avoid the mistakes we made, praying they become upstanding, hard-working adults.
Don't listen to rock n' roll (or hip hop, or bebop, depending on the era), we warn them. Yet what do they do as soon as we turn our backs?
Still, we lecture: Join the Army, don't join the Army. Become a doctor, not a teacher. And for heaven's sake, don't go into journalism.
I heard that one, and like many kids, ignored the wisdom of my parents.
Because we are so sure of our own moral compass and political ideology, we probably also hope our kids follow us into the church pew and the voting booth. Yet, they rebel. The '60s hippie parents sometimes spawn the bow-tied neo-con. The bow-tied neo-con begets the philosophy major who panhandles for beer money.
Maybe it's the Lord's way of keeping the world upright.
But for the parent, it still stings. Can you imagine dinner at the Shrivers when Maria married Arnold?
So it has to sting right now for Rep. Michele Bachmann.
Here's what Bachmann said about President Obama's plan to expand AmeriCorps, a program that puts young adults to work making the world a better place by teaching disadvantaged kids and helping the poor:
"[It's] under the guise of quote, volunteerism, but it's not volunteers at all," she said on the Sue Jeffers radio show in April. "It's paying people to do work on behalf of government. There are provisions for what I would call re-education camps for young people, where young people get trained in the philosophy the government puts forward and then they have to go work in these politically correct forums.
"As a parent, I would have a very, very difficult time seeing my children do this."
You've probably guessed by now that Bachmann's son, Harrison Bachmann, recently joined Teach for America (TFA), one of the programs under the AmeriCorps umbrella.
The last application deadline was in February, and successful candidates were notified within two months, according to Kerci Marcello Stroud, national communications director of TFA.
So when Bachmann issued her screed, her son might have already been accepted, and certainly would have applied. Ouch.
Rumors of his defection started recently on a couple of blogs, and the diligent folks at www.dumpbachmann.blogspot.com confirmed with TFA that a person named Harrison Bachmann had joined the cause.
There are several people with the same name about that age in the country, but Stroud on Tuesday confirmed that Bachmann's son has joined.
Harrison Bachmann declined an interview through TFA, and Stroud said that privacy prevented saying where he would teach this fall. Bachmann's office did not return calls.
Coincidentally or not, TFA came to Minnesota just this year, exactly because the state's socioeconomic inequalities have grown as the state has retrenched its programs for the poor, disenfranchised and under-educated. For the first time, we have to rely on the charity of good kids like Harrison Bachmann to step up and help out at our schools.
I know Bachmann doesn't believe her son is volunteering, but rather is becoming yet another government-paid drain on the taxpayer. In a way, she's right. AmeriCorps members are school district employees and thus receive the same salaries and benefits as other beginning teachers, from $27,000 to $47,500, depending on the region.
I might suggest that if you feel strongly that this is more government control, you should show up at Bachmann's next town hall meeting and scream slogans at her. But that would be rude and, frankly, a little crazy.
The pay's not bad for a recent graduate, but Harrison will likely earn it. According to the TFA website: "Our teachers ... go above and beyond traditional expectations to lead their students to significant academic achievement, despite the challenges of poverty and the limited capacity of the school system. Our mission is to build the movement to eliminate educational inequity by enlisting our nation's most promising future leaders in the effort."
Harrison must be a smart kid, a caring kid. Must have been raised well.
As an AmeriCorps member, he won't be allowed to participate in politics or disseminate partisan material. Even if there were a "propaganda camp," as Jeffers called it, he sounds like the kind of person who could survive it.
Thank you, Harrison, for your service. Here's hoping you inspire kids to dream, and get inspired in the process.
Who knows, maybe you'll even have an opportunity for a teaching moment with some political leaders, but I doubt it.
jtevlin@startribune.com • 612-673-1702
My sister is a GOPher - she is intelligent and rational (albeit misinformed and wrong)
"I know that there are people who do not love their fellow
man, and I hate people like that! " ~ Tom Lehrer (1928 - )
...condolences on your sister.
I've seen far too many terminally ill patients flogged by their loved ones keeping them going on ventilators, tube feeds, vasopressors, etc. It really looks like a miserable way to go and leads to a lot of arguing and turmoil for the surviving members. The most peaceful passings are those where the individual clearly makes his or her wishes known and puts them in writing and also provides decision making capabilities to a friend or family member.
I think for Johnny, though, he was mostly thinking about how to save some money, this was just an avenue to that end.
...a consideration that people must make at times. Because keeping someone on life support is so expensive, whatever estate they may have had will likely be lost to pay the bills. For some people, they would rather leave their estates to loved ones rather than some hospital or insurance company.
ICU is crazy expensive, ours is $6,000/day just for the room and the hospitals will make sure that they get their money.
palin is just a cheerleader for the cause. she again puts her chidren in the spotlight. this is what she will do until the next election. palin will do the dirty work for romney/pawlenty.
What Palin and the other war crazy bastards in the republican party conveniently forget to mention is that insurance companies already deny life saving treatments causing patients to die. Yet, not a peep about that from Palin or Ray Gun Gingrich (He recently said our president should have shot down those North Korean missiles with a ray gun...the question of course is...what f**king ray gun?)about that.
Remember it was Don Imus who raised such a stink on his MSNBC morning program that the republicans were finally shamed into raising death benefits for those killed in Iraq. At the time they were paying like $25,000 to the Gold Star families. And..Let's not forget about the outrageous care they gave our soldiers at Walter Reed Army Hospital. My point is...these neocon bastards have their health care...screw the rest of us.
don smith
..and I can truely say that it was pretty spectacular. Hardly any yelling and screaming and my congressman (Tom Cole from Oklahoma) did a decent job.
Even though he does not support the Presidents health care agenda, he debunked this non-sense also. It was refreshing to see him not appeal to the lunatic fringe. (He even debunk some gripe about Michelle Obama having staff with a payroll or something) He said it's tough to be first lady. You work hard and get nothing for it and that, Laura Bush had staff also.
Since it was in Oklahoma, the ratio was about 70-30 Wingnut and, fo course, there were a few from the Cult of Limpbaugh there calling people socialist and communist..etc. One lady, who stood up and eloquently talked about getting the government out of people's lives, received the loudest ovation and a standing ovation. It was a fine speech albeit a departure from reality.
I'm sure a lot of families feel such guilt if they have to make the decision to pull the plug, even though they know it's the right thing to do, so they keep allowing all sorts of expensive applications to be tried and in this moment of guilt, they lose sight of any expense. Later they have to deal with that cost. You can make it much easier if you leave instructions for them telling them what to do as per your orders and your decision.
How this gets turned into euthanasia is just beyond me. I need a little help please, putting these two things together. Does Isakson think that following the directions of a living will is euthanasia? Is that what he is pushing?
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.
...missed that from the blog. He was as confused as we are that it could have been so misinterpreted. This apparently was in response to what he saw with the Terry Schiavo case. If you don't know who that is, she was the Florida woman who was brain dead and kept alive by machines for 15 years. Her husband wanted to pull the plug but her family kept getting court orders to prevent it.
I have no idea who paid for those bills, but I'm guessing it wasn't the insurance company.
I live in Florida and not so far from where the Schiavo circus took place. Had she had a written living will none of us would know her name today.
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.
...Isakson was thinking by proposing it.
I felt a ton of guilt following the wishes of a living will.
Even knowing I was doing what my loved one wanted (and what I would have wanted for myself in his place) it still ate me up inside.
Just like you said, I knew I was doing the right thing, and it bothered (still does at times) me for years...
I cannot imagine having to deal with such a decision without having a living will in place.
Bailin' Palin is nutz.
Earl Blumenauer, from Oregon, proposed this in the House.
His website:
http://blumenauer.house.gov/
I guess Isakson thinks if you don't have a living will the govt will euthanize you whenever they want to.
Maybe he thinks that Schiavo was euthanized because it was costing so much for elected officials to fly all over the country trying to keep her alive, including the president flying into DC in the middle of the night just to sign some bill or something that had to do with her situation. Plus what were the fees for Frist to watch a several year old film of her and diagnose her as being in fine mental shape.
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.
Had won a civil malpractice suit from the original injury that left her in a persistent vegetative state - originally $1.2 million (I'm pretty sure)
At the time of her death there was less than $50k remaining.
"I know that there are people who do not love their fellow
man, and I hate people like that! " ~ Tom Lehrer (1928 - )
encouraged the husband to:
let her die
date someone else
get a divorce
stop pursuing every single experimental therapy or treatment
until he won the civil suit, and refused to give them "their share".
all of this was available to read online in the posted court records, why the 'liberal' media never reported on this I have no idea...
Bullshit. They wanted to keep her going until the bitter end.
Not UNTIL money was part of the equation.
BEFORE that, they saw everything MUCH differently.
But thanks for the language, and the apparent difficulty with reading comprehension.
Sorry. Part of my misunderstanding was your writing style. Excuse me.
I can tell him how it all got so mixed up: Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, Lou Dobbs, Brian Kilmeade, Chris Matthews, Newt Gingrich, etc, etc, etc.
for someone to talk to their physician about their end of life care?
If anything, I think it makes more sense to give everyone a one time tax rebate for meeting with their/an Attorney to ensure the appropriate legal documents are enacted and in place.??! #;)
You don't have to be old or infirm or even a little sick to know that some day You're Gonna' Die and you can decide at any time under what terms and conditions that happens, and make sure they're codified.
I'm sure glad my Dad had his documents in order, as it made it much easier for my sisters and I to let him go.
"Egotism is the anesthetic that dulls the pain of Stupidity" - Frank Leahy
Beck is saying tonight that if there is a national financial crisis and we are broke, the government will resort to rationing health care. Then he goes on to read some quotes (which I bet are taken out of context) by some of Obama's advisors and czars which appear to grade the usefulness and value of young people as opposed to the elderly. Another talks about a fetus not being a child until it is three or four years of age. Then he reads Palin's quote about the "death panels" and asks, given what he has just provided, is it ridiculous to talk about such things as rationing health care and euthanasia.
This guy is whacked and should be taken off the air just for the shit he is spewing tonight.
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.
My parents both have living wills and my dad also has a DNR. No one forced them to choose those options. They chose them for their own personal reasons and my family respect their choices. DNRs and living wills are nothing new.
This issue though must be part of the health care plan because no matter what, it is going to occur just as it does now. There will be people out there who do not have a living will or DNR order and may not be able to make the choice themselves because of their physical or mental condition just like Terry Schiavo. When that occurs someone is going to have to decide. from what I understand the government is providing that option now so that more Terry Shiavo cases do not occur. Simply providing that option is not state sponsored euthansia. Its simply providing the citizen the right to choose what they want done before they become incompacitated at some point. I see nothing wrong with that. Apparently the right wants more Terry Schaivo tragedies to occur because that is exactly what is going to happen if we listen to them. In the end, the right doesn't want the government, the doctors or the patient the right to decide his or her fate. The right wing wants to reserve that right for themselves.
My rep, Tiahrt, was in town today and spewed some nonsense about euthanasia. Then he got booed by a bunch on Mennonites. I'm guessing he's not used to being criticized because he immediately recanted. Tiahrt only talks with lobbyists and people who agree with him so he wasn't used to the reaction he received.
Booed by Mennonites. That has got to take some doing.
me-oww!
...a level-headed, caring, and truly 'compassionate' man. He has taught 6th-grade Sunday School at his Methodist Church in Marietta, GA for years...still does when he's in town...and is truly sincere about it. He was a middle-of-the-road Republican in Georgia before Republicans became what they are now and was appointed to various State positions (chaired the Board of Education, for example) by Democratic Governors - even Zell when Zell was really a Democrat.
I will admit that as soon as Johnny went to Washington - he was appointed to complete Newt's unexpired term when he quit Congress in embarrassing disgrace (see how long that lasted) and then, several terms later, moved over to the Senate - he seemed to fall in love with the money and power, and certainly marched to the Repug drumbeat. But I still know that, in his heart, Johnny is as fine a man as he ever was and this is just one more example of it. Of course, if he keeps this up, Newt may run against him here - he'll be vilified for returning to his moderate roots - and given that this state is as lost as any in the country, the SOB (Gingrich) would probably win.
Republicans have already approved and put into practice such death panels for euthanasia.
Don't forget the state of Texas (republican governor) deliberately killing baby Sun Hudson and senior citizens who are ill under the Advance Directives Act of 1999 approved by Bush.
Isakson has backed off his comments already as per a Front Page post on DailyKOS. Who didn't see that coming?
...My comments about 'the saintly', the fine man, the man I once respected as the only Republican I knew worth voting for, are just so much more bullshit. He's now come out with a 'I never even heard of an amendment calling for end of life counseling being added to the Health Care bill'...and in fact I'm not even remotely associated with Health Care Reform...I hate it...get it away from me...'
I suppose I was more right when I said that he had succumbed to the money and power of Washington - although I thought that, perhaps, he still had a glimmer of what he once was. Can't wait until one of his sixth grade Sunday-schoolers asks him if he thought that Richard Hamilton would be proud of the man Johnny Isakson had become? Richard was a wonderful human being. A paraplegic from an auto accident as a teenager...moved and functioned with the aid of a motorized wheelchair with all the necessary attachments needed for him to manipulate his specially-equipped van that he drove to his job at the Federal Building in Atlanta every day...until one day a big, semi-truck, decided that Richard's van wasn't moving fast enough and demolished it and him. Richard assisted Johnny with his SS class and taught it when Johnny was in Washington. He above all would have wanted to see something done about our health care mess, but his hero, the once great, Johnny Isakson has apparently had a jolt sent to the electrodes attached to his balls through which 'they' send messages whenever folks wander off the reservation.
Shame on you Johnny and if any of your minions happen to be monitoring this, I hope they show it to you. Of course, you've long since ceased being the man Richard Hamilton knew and honored but, I suppose thankfully, he's not here to witness it.
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