Former Surgeon General Richard H. Carmona told a Congressional panel Tuesday that top Bush administration officials repeatedly tried to weaken or suppress important public health reports because of political considerations.
The administration, Dr. Carmona said, would not allow him to speak or issue reports about stem cells, emergency contraception, sex education, or prison, mental and global health issues. Top officials delayed for years and tried to “water down” a landmark report on secondhand smoke, he said. Released last year, the report concluded that even brief exposure to cigarette smoke could cause immediate harm.
Dr. Carmona said he was ordered to mention President Bush three times on every page of his speeches. He also said he was asked to make speeches to support Republican political candidates and to attend political briefings.
And administration officials even discouraged him from attending the Special Olympics because, he said, of that charitable organization’s longtime ties to a “prominent family” that he refused to name.
It is going to take years to undo the damage of these guys. There is simply no facet of government which has not been infected by these hacks.
Paul L.
Too bad, the Bush Administration could not keep him from overhyping obesity and second hand smoke.
SHS
ThymeZone
I can’t think of a better way to describe the Potatohead Government than to say that they’d put their politics above your health.
Of the People, for the People, by the People. Lincoln could not have anticipated these fuckers.
ThymeZone
I don’t have the numbers in front of me, but I’d be surprised if obesity didn’t kill more people in a day than terrorism has ever killed, in total, in this country.
What kind of a dumb fucking remark are you making here, Paul?
You just can’t help stepping on your own dick, can you?
Punchy
And how long, again, was this guy stealing paychecks? 3 years? 4?
Looks like Dr. C has a case of The Powell!! Symptoms include diarrhea of the mouth after an incubation period of YEARS during which the afflicted show absolutely no ill-effects, and actually seem to relish in having such a disease. The antibiotic for this disease appears to be money, fame, and just discovered recently, hookers; removal of person from aforementioned environment causes an almost universal case of The Powell, although the onset could still take a few more years (depending on, of course, if the hookers are still droppin by, which used to be hard to figure out prior to the combination of dumbassness + cell phones).
I recommend Dr. C see Iglesias, David, Cummins, Bud, and Comey, James for additional counseling and advice on how best to live with this crippling affliction.
Alan
The damage to the GOP will never be undone until the social cons are kicked out of the Party. But contrary to the “head in the sand” Republicans who believe the social cons are only given lip service, the GOP is firmly in the social cons’ control. So it ain’t gonna happen.
Jill
Too bad no one listened to the Bush critics/dirty hippies for the last 6 years, they said this was happening way back then.
Tom Gellhaus
Was Paul O’Neill the only senior-level official with any integrity ? He was forced out early on for not playing ball with this overly-political administration, and spoke up soon after leaving.
Chad N. Freude
Let’s not bother to read the actual quote:
Unless we act to control increasing obesity, many more people will die from the consequences of obesity than from terrorist acts.
Certainly the remark of a left-wing socialist government-control pro-terrorist loony with an anti-American agenda.
Chad N. Freude
Sorry, I should have linked to the quote.
Chad N. Freude
Punchy presents a real challenge. There may be a prize for the first person to submit the correct meaning of his post. Does anyone have the decoder ring?
DougJ
I haven’t read the post yet, but whatever it is that Bush did, Clinton did it too.
zmulls
I’m even more surprised about the Special Olympics line, which isn’t bolded. What sort of a rat-bastard do you have to be to tell someone not to go to the Special Olympics, just because you have a beef with one of the other contributors????
Rome Again
I’d like to predict right now that BushCo is so intrusive, that when Petraus’ report on the surge arrives, it’s going to say we must continue our push in Iraq, or else terrorists will be on the next plane to Milwaukee.
les
Presumptively rhetorical. Oh well, he’s our rat bastard.
Chad N. Freude
Somebody who really doesn’t like the Kennedy family.
Zifnab
Fixed.
Paul L.
Nice of you to use the “in this country” to limit the terrorism number. You will note the quote I posted does not say “in this country”.
How about giving me some numbers of people dying directly from obesity.
i.e.
300,000 adult deaths in the United States each year are attributable to unhealthy dietary habits
Of course that number got revised down (not that public health industry advocacy sites ever use the revised numbers).
Obesity Obsession.
Chad N. Freude
Fixed.
les
Shorter Paul: let’s fire all the doctors while we focus on the real threat–scary brown people.
Punchy
I can’t help it if your reading acumen matches that of a teen-ager in Alabama. Ok, here’s the skinny–this guy is acting very much like Colin Powell did/does. Wallows in the fame, swallows pride (and perhaps other stuff), and disgraces himself and his position.
Then, suddenly absent the spotlight and swelling with an odd colloidal dispersion of hubris, moxie, bravdo, and repentance, decides to vomit forth much angst, innuendo, and background. Conscience-clearing at a town-hall with a bunch of old white stiffs.
Next time maybe I’ll write in crayon so you can feel more comfortable reading it.
Face
Was this pun intended?
ThymeZone
PaulL, you have erased all doubt that you are the biggest idiot that ever posted here.
Seriously. I think we need to award some kind of prize.
I’m thinking of a large dunce cap make out of foreskin.
ThymeZone
PaulL, you have erased all doubt that you are the biggest idiot that ever posted here.
Seriously. I think we need to award some kind of prize.
I’m thinking of a large dunce cap made out of foreskin.
Chad N. Freude
Paul L cites a Fox News report by an anti-junk-science crusader from the Cato Institute with not-quite-scientifically-unbiased credentials.
I don’t know if the statistical claims quoted are valid or if the CDC is deliberately pushing a health agenda using false statistics, but I’m intrigued by the use of “fearmonger” in the text. Why is it that those who raise alarms about public health problems are labeled fearmongers, but those who raise alarms about terrorists swarming into the US if we leave Iraq are not?
Chad N. Freude
Clear, well-structured declarative sentences will do, but thanks anyway.
The Other Steve
The Special Olympics is Partisan?
That one just blows my mind.
Hyperion
re secondhand smoke
i was unaware until recently of the possible role Polonium plays in the development of lung cancer.
and PaulL: thanks for the jackalope release.
ThymeZone
Speaking of fearmongering, anybody have a You-Tube link to the idiot Chertoff saying that he has a “gut feeling” that Al Qaeda is up to something?
We need it for the Potatohead How Fucking Dumb Do They Think We Are archives.
Chad N. Freude
Question for Punchy-
Despite your distaste for Carmona, do you believe his allegations of political interference are true? Other people from other agencies have made similar allegations. If you don’t believe them, why not?
Andrew
I don’t see what is so difficult about this:
The terrorists will stop at nothing to deliver universal health care and healthy dietary guidelines until they rule America with their Sharia-medical iron fist.
JWeidner
Because, dammit. You need to be scared of terraists and keep voting for the only party that can protect you. Beyond that, everything is liberal propaganda.
Now, go shopping and support our economy.
Chad N. Freude
Should I wait for the stores to open first?
Chad N. Freude
If you have to ask, you’re too fucking dumb to know the answer.
Face
I believe everything he says. However, I have nothing but comtempt and disgust for these fuckers that steal paychecks for FOUR years, KNOWING they’re not doing their job, knowing they’re hurting Americans with disinformation, edited reports, outright lies, etc., yet never speak up until they’re safely out of gov’t and usually a good year or two into the speaking circuit that pays them millions.
Fuck him and his accusations. 5 years too late. If he, or Powell, or Comey speak up on ANY of this malfeasance prior to Nov. ’04, we’d have President Kerry. So fuck him and his crocodile tears.
Punchy
I think he’s a phony. The man is probably telling the truth, but who cares? He’s doing the same thing that Colin Powell did. Where were these accusations when they happened?
I’ve heard the analogy to this is that of a battered wife. Too scared to leave, and nowhere to go. I fully reject this analogy, as all of these Rich White Men have plenty of other job offers.
He should have sang like a canary at the first outrage. Otherwise he’s a phony and a jackass.
Paul L.
The Bogus ‘Science’ of Secondhand Smoke
I am skeptical of wikipedia links for a disputed subject like second-hand smoke or global warming.
It seems that the administrators of wikipedia like to perform gatekeeping/editing on subjects that do not fit their world view.
You have a extra one? Nice way to refute what I posted.
Tsulagi
Me too. These assholes take spoiled brat pettiness to Olympian proportions.
Surprise factor on the rest of the crap? Zero.
ThymeZone
Can you send me a picture?
RSA
These kinds of long-after-the-fact revelations from people like, say, Tenet bug me, too, but depending on the person, I can see a possible motivation for some. They may think, “This is totally screwed up, but if I raise a red flag, they’ll just replace me with someone worse. If I work within the system, maybe I can change things or at least prevent them from getting worse. ” I think that the first thought above is completely justified, that the Bush administration turns everything they touch into shit (they’re the anti-Midas), and the more they touch it, the shittier it gets. But the second thought above turns out to be wrong. So far I don’t think anyone has been able to prevent the Bushies from their rush to the bottom of whatever they’re involved in.
Punchy
Here’s the rub. This will get media play. The Special Olympics bit should get this story on the tee-vee. All the rest is “digruntled angry cracker” who-cares-we’re-CNN-bullshit.
But dog on the retarded? That’s CNN-able. Hell, it appears as if many of them work at CNN, so perhaps it’s personal.
The Other Steve
They do. Go try to edit the entry on The War on Christmas, and question the whineyness of the people pushing it.
It’ll get rolled back in minutes.
Dreggas
The obesity thing is one that just bugs the crap out of me. Some people are fat, period. One of my favorite shows is Penn and Teller’s bullshit in which they did an episode on the “obesity epidemic” and found that most studies that warn of OMG FAT PEOPLE! are sponsored by, you guessed it, companies wanting to sell more diet pills.
Yeah our eating habits need to change, we’ve traded health for expediency and have also traded the health content of our food for lower prices. We won’t change that by making more diet pills. Fundamentally we need to change our thinking on how we eat and what we eat. If a person just stops drinking soda they can lose up to 20 lbs (I know I did) just because of cutting out “High Fructose Corn Syrup”.
One has to wonder if all of the issues facing us healthwise these days (apart from viruses like the Flu etc.) are more related to what we are taking into our bodies. A lot of it has to do with artificial ingredients and processed foods. Now everyone is different but when I stopped shopping up and down each aisle and stuck to the outer edges of the grocery store I started feeling better and healthier just cutting out all the “processed” shit in my diet.
People are too focused on the “effect” (obesity), vs. the cause (piss poor nutritional value and over use of synthetic or processed food).
RSA
Add lack of exercise to the cause, and that’s about right.
Dreggas
That’s the only reason I can see for Powell staying.
Dreggas
Agreed, but for me that’s a given. Granted I haven’t been going to the gym the past week since we have our nephew over and he’s all of 10 but as soon as he’s gone it’s back to the gym.
As a personal anecdote, I notice when I stop eating right and go for convenience foods, my energy levels are crap, normal bodily functions (to be PC) are out of whack and I generally feel sick. Eat well and I am up and at’em with little to no effort.
Chad N. Freude
I do, for one. Maybe Carmona should have quit and gone public at the first intervention or the second, but he didn’t, so his character is questionable. However, whatever his negatives are, they should not be allowed to obscure the fact that the administration politicized a scientific office, interfered with the dissemination of medical information to the public, put political considerations above the physical well-being of citizens, and there is a record of their having done the same thing in other scientific areas. His motives for not speaking out earlier don’t make his allegations less serious or less important to public health, which I think is worth caring about.
jg
Dismissed. Packed away. Forgotten. If there’s a way to keep information from reaching the brain of a wingnut it’ll be employed.
Andrew
Second hand smoke: You call it a carcinogen, Paul L calls it… life.
jg
Chad, Chad, Chad, there is no ‘However’. He’s dismissed now. There are reasons to queston his credibility, because of that we will only talk about his (lack of) credibility. None of that other stuff will reach the ears of anyone for whom it would do any good.
All you have to do is read the right wing blogs to see how easily they dismiss any issue that can’t immediately be spun against the democrats. The situation is hopeless. Wingnuts will not listen to information that conflicts with what they already believe to be true. They’d rather hear from trusted sources what the issue is and how they should feel about it.
Bubblegum Tate
Absolutely not. Break into the nearest store to show just how badly you want to support the economy, the War on Terra, and Jebus. While you’re twiddling your thumbs waiting for stores to open, the terrists are plotting to decapitate you!
ThymeZone
They don’t give a shit about anything except putting a finger in the eye of the people they see as being their tormentors. There is no ideology, no set of principles, no intellectual integrity to their politics any more. Hasn’t been for years. It’s all about being able to say Fuck You to …. you. That’s it. They’ll destroy this country if they have to, they really don’t care.
Yes, they are that fucked up.
ThymeZone
I have it on good authority that PaulL weighs 375 lbs.
Faux News
Paul L has discovered the spice Melange! It is second hand smoke!
Paul L IS THE KWISATZ HADERACH!
The Sleeper has awakened. On Balloon Juice no less. Who would have thunk it?
Andrew
Does a team of retarded midget write him? Like Darrell, I mean.
Andrew
Better here than on LGF. Can you imagine the fat assed paranoid chickhawk Fremen that would produce?
Jessica
This sounds cold-hearted, but regardless whether people bury the information or not, the obesity problem will work itself out within a generation or two. I don’t think it’s so much a political issue as the fact that there’s a segment of the population (including those in office) who now feels entitled to ignore anything that doesn’t support what they want to hear, truth or not. So, those who can’t be bothered to understand basic nutrition will get fat, develop chronic conditions and die early. Those who don’t want to end up like that, won’t.
Chad N. Freude
That sounds like … [dramatic organ chord] … DARWINISM!!!
HyperIon
most people do not want to rock the boat. they want to get along, especially if there is ANY downside to not getting along (like people saying nasty things about you or losing your job). most people do not have a backbone. they will not stand up….until the stakes get really high. that’s when the mob behavior can take over.
Paul L.
You must be thinking of Michael Moore, Oliver Willis or the late Steve Gillard.
Still, I am a fat bastard at 230 lbs 5’10” (BMI 33).
Chad N. Freude
In the meantime, the airlines will continue refitting planes with wider seats, paying increased fuel costs for the increased passenger weight, indemnifying passengers injured by other obese passengers, … The list goes on. The point is that “Who cares? Let them eat cake and get fat,” has economic consequences that may not be immediately apparent.
maf54
Paul L:
A little cushion for the pushin’! Pizza party!
Who’s in?
Punchy
Cankles, bitches.
Chad N. Freude
Dude, you really ought to do something about that. I would hate to lose a dueling adversary to an obesity-related premature death.
jg
On the Dan Patrick show Phil the Show Killer would call you………beefy.
ThymeZone
Just yankin your chain, actually :)
Rome Again
Not I. If you find that sort of thing appealing maf, go for it, but I’ll pass, thank you.
demimondian
Well, no, actually, it sounds like inheritance of acquired traits. That’s commonly confused with Darwinism, but it’s not the same thing at all.
Paul L.
Wow, I never known anyone until now who watches Michael Moore films because they think he is hot. :)
Chad N. Freude
RSA
Lamarckism is even worse, being French in origin.
Chad N. Freude
Let’s try that again.
I was thinking of overeating as an anti-survival selector, but whatever.
Some day, I’ll get the hang of this.
Chad N. Freude
How many people can I antagonize with a single three-line post?
Tax Analyst
I think that’s rather arbitrary and judgmental, Chad.
Personally, I would defend Paul L’s right to obesity to his death. I would not be the Weight Police, nor a “Nanny State Lib’rul”.
Waitress, another round of Twinkies for my friend, if you please.
Rome Again
I agree, I am a liberal after all. ;)
tBone
Presumably this Carmona dude has plenty of free time on his hands these days. What say we try to convince him that he should be studying the health of Paul L’s jackalope herd? I’d be very interested to discover what causes them to be such sickly, pitiful, short-lived creatures.
Dreggas
I agree, you want to get fat and die it’s your choice, just like it’s mine to eat healthy, exercise and still smoke half a pack a day.
Freedom, bitches.
Paul L.
What restaurant do you go to that serves Twinkies?
Be careful, I really started gaining weight when I quit smoking.
RSA
Not me, you arrogant bastard.
demimondian
According to Mr. L., he “raises issues in a proprietary manner, feeding them a specially regulated and confidential diet of shit and shit-byproducts, resulting in a uniquely piquant combination of short term viability and long term deniability.”
I take that to mean he won’t tell me.
Tax Analyst
Freedom: It is a bitch sometimes, isn’t it?
All those damn decisions & choices one must make…and “Why?”, when “Daddy the Decider” will make them all for you.
tBone
Ah, they’re on an all-spoo diet. Got it.
Dreggas
I’ve quit before (of course started again) and managed not to gain much weight, fortunately I can handle a few pounds without it being unseemly. I am 220 and 6’3″ even when I was 240 I barely showed it (that was when I was drinking soda constantly) so I at least wear it well.
ThymeZone
They hate you for your freedom!
Tax Analyst
Please, “Special Olympics”…that’s so passe in 2007…Consider; George Bush has proven that even someone who is “Differently Abled” intellectually can become POTUS.
Yep, we’ve come a long way, Baby…
Tax Analyst
Yeah, and they’ll stone you when you’re trying to be good, as well.
But at least I would not be so all alone…
Yeah, I know…(Everybody out there groans)
…apologies to those out there under 40…
Chad N. Freude
As a liberal, I am not judgmental. I merely know what’s best for everybody and want to see laws enacted that require people to act in their own best interests. Sort of like Hilary.
Rome Again
Everybody must get stoned!
Rome Again
My grandmother was called “Nanny” too.
Dreggas
Well I don’t think it ought to be blasphemy just saying Jehovah…
Bubblegum Tate
One of my favorite Norm MacDonald jokes: “New York City introduced a ban on smoking in bars and restaurants last week. Already, the city has gained 20,000 pounds.”
It’s all in the delivery.
Wolfdaughter
I see this thread has become a contest of seeing who can make the worst joke, ho ho ha ha.
Back to Carmona. He’s a Tucsonan, as am I. I never met him, but he got a lot of press around here as he is quite a colorful character. I don’t remember all the details, but before his Surgeon General gig, he worked at Kino Hospital, which used to treat a lot of the poor people, being the only hospital on Tucson’s southside. Some guy came into the hospital brandishing a gun. I don’t remember if he was threatening to shoot people or was trying to commit robbery or what, but the police were called and he took off. Carmona took off after him, also armed, and managed to catch and shoot him. Can’t remember if the guy survived, either.
Carmona is a diehard Republican of the Goldwater school. I can picture him being tapped for Surgeon General and feeling very honored. Then he gets into the job and begins to realize that he’s being muzzled and moreover, that he signed on with a bunch of f***ups. Being a diehard Repub, it takes him quite a while to admit just how wrong he was to take the job on, and besides, he likes the perks and power, if with a muzzle on. And his mindset would also work against his speaking out while still employed.
I’m a commie pinko ratfink liberal and have no use for the Bush cabal, and knew it would be bad news. How it could not be glaringly obvious to everyone just how incompetent and venal he is…
And I’m not saying it was right to not speak out. Yes, Powell and Carmona and all the others should have spoken out long ago, but they are still doing some good by speaking out later. Better late than never is so true here. Bush’s polls keep sinking, and that’s a GOOD sign.
pswiderski
I don’t know why I am amazed when literally not a week goes by with more similar revelations coming out. Whether its Whitman or Simon or Powell or this guy, the ideologues won and decent (if not so smart, because after all, they took the job) people lost (and we all lost). The blatant politicization of EVERYTHING in this government, whether at the DoJ or NASA (remember the re-writing of climate science) or Surgeon General or, well, literally every “independent” branch is beyond astounding. They’re the new Bolsheviks, and either you were with them or you with the Terrorists and Democrats (same difference to this bunch). We had Rove orchestrating much of this because it was part of establishing Republicans as the “permanent majority” (how democratic is that??), and a bunch of truly not-well ideologues all around this pack who really bought into the Torquemonda “the ends justify the means” philosophy. In the end, Republicans lost their soul (in a big, big way which would have Goldwater spinning away in his grave), the country lost its standing and we are all the poorer for it. Shameful, shameful, shameful.