Urologist Jack Cassell has a message for anyone who supports President Obama and health care reform: Find a new doctor. He posted a sign on his front door with the following message:

The sign reads: "If you voted for Obama … seek urologic care elsewhere. Changes to your healthcare begin right now, not in four years."

As if it weren't enough to put out that particular flavor of welcome mat, there's also this little gem:

In his waiting room, Cassell also has provided his patients with photocopies of a health-care timeline produced by Republican leaders that outlines "major provisions" in the health-care package. The doctor put a sign above the stack of copies that reads: "This is what the morons in Washington have done to your health care. Take one, read it and vote out anyone who voted for it."

Beyond the obvious temper tantrum, I'm at a loss to understand exactly what his problem might be. It's not like he accepts patients from a myriad of insurers. According to his Doctor.com listing, the only insurance he accepts is CIGNA. Since he's a specialist and surgeon, I can only assume he's a little angry that he might get some new patients down the road as more people are able to get health insurance and seek medical treatment?

Oh, and in case you wondered, the answer is yes. He's a registered Republican, and his wife is running for local office. For all of his education, it seems he can't be bothered to read the actual provisions of the law, preferring the Frank Luntz abbreviated version instead.

No warm fuzzies for Dr. Cassell from Rep. Alan Grayson, either.

The outspoken Grayson described Cassell's sign as "ridiculous."

"I'm disgusted," he said. "Maybe he thinks the Hippocratic Oath says, ‘Do no good.' If this is the face of the right wing in America, it's the face of cruelty.... Why don't they change the name of the Republican Party to the Sore Loser Party?"

Seriously. I'll let the medical community sort out the ethics, but if I saw that sign on my doctor's door, I'd find a new doctor. Pissed-off urologists aren't my cup of tea.

UPDATE: Via Huffington Post, a video of the good doctor, in his own words:

CNN's conservative pundit named Alex Castellanos tried his best to undermine Alan Grayson's charge that republicans have a non existent health care plan which is hurting America. He's as slimy as they get since he's an old ad man and he made me cringe when he said this to Rep. Alan Grayson.

Castellanos: I'm a republican congressman and I have a question. Which particular Americans do you think I'd like to die? Can you name some?

Well I have a name for you..

Kimberly Young

Friends say the Miami University graduate who died this week after reportedly suffering from swine flu delayed getting medical treatment because she did not have health insurance.

News of Kimberly Young’s death Wednesday, Sept. 23, came as a shock to those who knew the vibrant 22-year-old who was working at least two jobs in Oxford after graduating with a double major in December 2008.

Young became ill about two weeks ago, but didn’t seek care initially because she didn’t have health insurance and was worried about the cost, according to Brent Mowery, her friend and former roommate.

Mowery said Young eventually went to an urgent care facility in Hamilton where she was given pain medication and then sent home.

On Tuesday, Sept. 22, Young’s condition suddenly worsened and her roommate drove her to McCullough Hyde Memorial Hospital in Oxford, where she was flown in critical condition to University Hospital in Cincinnati.

There are thousands more just like Kimberly. Castellanos should be ashamed to even go there, but he's a conservative pundit and he can say anything.

I think the blogosphere appreciates a liberal with guts. Alan Grayson needs our support so he can keep fighting for the Kimberly's of America.

President Obama, I hope you'll go see this for yourself - and drag the inhumane Blue Dogs along with you:

AMY GOODMAN: As debate continues in Washington over healthcare reform, thousands of Americans in neighboring Virginia are preparing to line up this weekend to receive free healthcare provided by a group called Remote Area Medical.

The charity was originally set up to provide doctors and medicine to isolated communities in the developing world, places like the Amazon jungle, where medical treatment is hard to come by. But the group quickly found itself having to set up in communities across the United States, where medical care is a right millions of Americans cannot afford.

Founded in 1985, Remote Area Medical is a non-profit, volunteer relief corps that provides healthcare free, dental care, eye care, veterinary services, and technical and educational assistance. It’s based in Knoxville, Tennessee, but the group frequently travels to set up relief centers, what’s called “expeditions,” across the country. This weekend they’ll be once again back in Wise County, Virginia.

Stan Brock is the founder of Remote Area Medical, joining us on the phone from Knoxville, Tennessee.

Stan, welcome to Democracy Now! Now, you are the Stan Brock of Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom, that show that was on Sunday nights for I don’t know how many years?

STAN BROCK: Yes, Sunday evenings, 7:00 p.m., as I recall, on NBC.

AMY GOODMAN: And what brought you from that, and what were you doing there, to founding Remote Area Medical?

STAN BROCK: Well, Remote Area Medical history goes back to many years when I lived in the Upper Amazon, and this is before Wild Kingdom. And I was living with a tribe of Native Americans called the Wapishana Indians, and we were—well, it was a very remote area on the northern border of Brazil in what used to be British Guiana. I had a nasty accident there with a wild horse. And while I was being pulled out from underneath the horse, one of the Wapishana said, “Well, the nearest doctor is twenty-six days on foot from here.”

It was about that time that I got the idea of bringing those doctors just a little bit closer. And that’s what we did many, many years later when I formed Remote Area Medical, but subsequently found that there were a lot of people like those Wapishanas here in the United States that didn’t have access to healthcare. And so, 64 percent of everything we do is now right here in America.

AMY GOODMAN: Talk about what, for example, you’re about to do this weekend, this expedition that you’ve got in Wise, Virginia. In fact, you’re about to start sending off supplies just after we speak.

STAN BROCK: Yeah. Well, it will be the 575th Remote Area Medical expedition. The 574th ended just last Sunday. And we see many, many hundreds and often thousands of people at these operations. In fact, last year at Wise, Virginia, we did 5,586 patient encounters, with 1,584 volunteers in just two-and-a-half days. And to give you some idea of the volume of medical work that goes on in one of these RAM expeditions, we pulled 3,896 bad teeth there last year, but we did save 1,888 teeth by filling them, so that was an improvement over the year before. But—

AMY GOODMAN: How important is dental for any health plan?

STAN BROCK: Well, that’s a very good question, because even though when you look at the figures at the end of the year, and we see more patients in general medical procedures and consultations, diabetes and heart disease and so on, the dental and vision care are two items that Americans just do not have access to when it comes to affordability in this country. And so, any plan that’s going to provide any type of universal healthcare or partial universal healthcare in this country must address the issue of dental treatment and vision treatment and eyeglasses for adults, because those are the two overriding factors that are bringing people to our clinics: intense pain, so they can’t function, or the inability to be able to read or drive a motorcar or operate machinery, for which they perhaps just simply need a pair of glasses.

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President Bush: "I made it very clear to the Congress that the use of federal money, taxpayers' money to promote science which destroys life in order to save life is - I'm against that. And therefore, if the bill does that, I will veto it.''

Reader Renny has a good idea: "To get a petition going around that people who are against stem-cell research can sign saying they or any of their children under legal age, because they are so against it, will not use in their lifetime any medical treatment that was born through stem cell research. I think having these sent around in churches so they will be forced to sign it so they do not look like hypocrites in front of their co-idiots.

Attaruk, Susan, and Digby have other thoughts as well.

MajiKthise has another excellent piece on this issue.

1. What is the issue here?

Morally and legally, the Terri Schiavo case is about a patient's right to refuse medical treatment. This piece by an editor of the American Journal of Bioethics gets to the heart of the matter. (I believe the author is Professor Glenn McGee.) As he notes, there is an overwhelming consensus any adult has the right to refuse any medical treatment. Disabled and incapacitated patients retain this right. The only difference is that these patients must be represented by guardians charged to speak on their behalf. read the full article

A common myth is that Michael is in it for the money:

Judge Greer found that the Schindler's financial motivations were just as conflicted as those of Michael Schiavo. Michael was awarded $300,000 for his own loss, and the Schindlers demanded that he share it. The money was paid out in February 1993. Schiavo and the Schindlers last spoke on February 14 of that year. Judge Greer wrote that that the Schindlers fell out with Schiavo over Michael's share of the malpractice settlement. read on

Pat O'Brien

Peggy Noonan is messing with the truth:   uggabugga

FALSE. The point at issue is, can a guardian, with court oversight, determine what medical treatment can be applied to an incapacitated person? In this case, it's withholding nutrition. It could just as easily be a decision to proceed with radical surgery or medication - which could be contested by parents (or other people for that matter).

DATA POINT: Did you know? (from the Los Angeles Times) 

Peggy Noonan is messing with the truth:

FALSE. The point at issue is, can a guardian, with court oversight, determine what medical treatment can be applied to an incapacitated person? In this case, it's withholding nutrition. It could just as easily be a decision to proceed with radical surgery or medication - which could be contested by parents (or other people for that matter).

DATA POINT: Did you know? (from the Los Angeles Times)

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"He was a respiratory therapist before she had the accident, and you can't tell me they never talked about life-and-death decisions. That is something he would have been dealing with every day."

The latest buzz in the health-care industry has nothing to do with new drugs or medical treatments.

It's all about moviemaker Michael Moore and where he's lurking these days.

Some of the nation's biggest drug manufacturers and health insurance plans confirm they have issued warnings to their sales representatives and other employees in recent weeks, telling them to be on the lookout for the shaggy filmmaker in his trademark baseball cap. And, under no circumstances, are they to talk to Moore.

The industry's red alert was prompted by word that Moore plans to aim his camera lens at the health-care industry, much as he did with other targets, most recently President Bush in "Fahrenheit 9/11."

The planned movie, tentatively titled "Sicko," is expected to focus on health-care industry business practices, specifically those of the managed-care and pharmaceutical industries, which have both been mentioned in Moore's recent speeches and interviews, his spokesman said.

Health-care companies are hardly enthused.

But Moore's people seemed amused by the industry's call to arms, saying health-care companies obviously have reason to be concerned if they feel the need to put their employees on guard. Moore representatives say there isn't even a timetable for production to begin, and financing has yet to be finalized.

The business practices of HMOs and certain other health plan business practices that encourage low-cost medical care have long been criticized as short-changing patients.

Practices targeted

Meanwhile, drug industry marketing practices have been a target of prosecutors and lawmakers who say they can lead to unnecessary prescriptions by doctors or to higher health-care costs.

The industry's gift-giving practices, intended to win physician loyalty to certain drugs, have been of particular concern in a climate of growing consumer outrage over drug costs, which have risen at an annual rate of 15 percent during each of the last four years, far exceeding inflation.

"We would welcome any public disclosure on the way this multibillion-dollar industry works," said Lynda DeLaforgue, co-director of consumer group Citizen Action Illinois. "They would certainly have reason to be concerned about any group looking into their business practices, looking into the amount of money that they use to influence the political and legislative process. These are obviously the typical things Mr. Moore delves into deeper."

If industry reports on Moore sightings are to be believed, the filmmaker himself is taking a page out of drugmakers' handbooks to do his movie by offering medical professionals payments for access to their offices.

They have poured so much money into this machine, and it still doesn't work. Why no uproar about how the Osprey has contributed to the deficit? Could it be because the parts are manufactured in so many congressional districts?

A Boeing-built Air Force CV-22 Osprey aircraft crashed Thursday night in southeastern Afghanistan, killing at least three service members and one government contractor, according to NATO officials.

Numerous other service members were injured in the crash, which occurred approximately seven miles west of Qalat City in Zabul Province. The injured were transported to a nearby base for medical treatment.

Military officials said the cause of the was unknown and the names of the dead were not immediately released.

[...] The CV-22 conducts long-range infiltration and re-supply for U.S. forces and employs tilt-rotor technology that allows it to take off and land as a helicopter. While in the air, the engines can roll forward, allowing the aircraft to fly like a turboprop plane at much speeds than helicopters.

The Marine version of the Osprey, the MV-22, made its combat debut in Iraq in October 2007. The CV-22 was declared fully operational in March 2009.

An Air Force official told the Washington Post the aircraft had just arrived in Afghanistan as part of the first deployment of Air Force Ospreys to the country.