Nurses' Union: Cheney Would Be Dead By Now

[sabra]

Source: ABC News/USA Today

USA Today's 'On Politics' Blog Reports: Newspaper ads published yesterday in Iowa said Vice President Cheney would "probably be dead by now" from his multiple heart attacks if he didn't have federally funded health care that most American's can't get. Even before they were printed, they'd been labeled "outrageous" by Cheney spokeswoman Megan Mitchell.

Showing no signs of backing down from its controversial ads, a spokesman for the California Nurses Association and the National Nurses Organizing Committee tells The Washington Post's The Sleuth blog that it's Cheney and the Bush administration who are outrageous:

"What's outrageous is we have an administration that sits on its hands while we have 47 million people who are uninsured ... This administration has ignored this health care crisis," says Charles Idelson, spokesman for the California Nurses Association and the National Nurses Organizing Committee. "They're indifferent to pain and suffering."

Read more: http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2007/12/nurses-union-ch.html

---

[Ian David]

1. Congress can vote to revoke Cheney's health benefits. n/t

[The Doctor.]

2. He's a drain on the system. eom.

[Seabiscuit]

14. Let him pull himself up by his own bootstraps.

We're sick and tired of handouts to such bums on the public dole.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

85. Cheney is wasted oxygen. nt

[MrMickeysMom]

99. Actually, he's wasted protoplasm, using up oxygen and only adding more CO2

In fact, his protoplasm is piss poor...

Cheney probably has no problem getting any of the numerous procedure he's had performed approved for a very modest co payment. This is more sickening every day.

No one on the hill is in a position to change this animal farm health care system, either. That health plan is available to the veterens of Congress, Exec Branches and SCOTUS. Oh, yes... Reinquest- there's someone who should have been dead long before his time - that rotten soul stayed on the Court long enough to illegally annoint the 'prez'. He truly rotted from the neck down, didn't he?

Cheney must be rotting from the inside out. I'm so proud of those nurses...

[Sarah Ibarruri]

101. I wrote those nurses to thank them! They're great! nt

[LiberalVoice]

3. That would imply doing something. nt

[Danf1990]

33. Cheney died years ago

Hes been replaced by a Robot, scary thing though the robot is just as evil as the original Cheney

[balantz]

40. Ahh...now we know who interrupted Bill Clinton's speech.

[the808]

98. that explains it

right before the 2004 election, Cheney showed up in Hawaii on Halloween night after stops in Ohio, Michigan, Iowa and New Mexico earlier that day. It was a super scary Halloween for me and apparently the island gods were scared too (or pissed), we had horrific storms, massive flooding and a bunch of damaged homes by the University. And I remember thinking, "he can't be human."

[rambler_american]

78. I call bullshit

No way he'd be dead.
He's been living without a heart for years. He can only be killed with a silver bullet during a new moon.
Effing bastard!

[ShaneGR]

92. God, i can see the Fox News headlines now...

Cheney sentenced to die by Congress, lol.

[AnneD]

107. No...

if there is any justice, Cheney will die from malfunctioning heart from China and will have toxic levels of lead in his blood.

[thunder35]

4. not a good country if you cant take care of your sick

[awoke_in_2003]

66. Well, to quote JFK

"If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich"
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/j/john_f_kennedy.html

[lpbk2713]

67. And one good quote calls for another ....

"It was once said that the moral test of government is how that government treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life; the elderly; and those who are in the shadows of life — the sick, the needy and the handicapped."

--- Hubert H. Humphrey, U.S. Vice President 1965-69, Speech, 1977.

[awoke_in_2003]

68. Always up for a good quote. nt

[Sarah Ibarruri]

89. I LOVE that quote! nt

[The Backlash Cometh]

5. They are absolutely right.

[Jim__]

6. Is this an argument against federally funded health care?

:sarcasm:

[Zorra]

7. Lol - yeah, that's a tough one. n/t

[DemBones DemBones]

8. No, an argument against giving it only to the privileged few.

(Yes, I saw your sarcasm icon but just wanted to say it anyway, in case anyone missed that.)

[Andrea]

21. Ha!

:rofl:

:rofl:

:rofl:

[corkhead]

46. Ah, you beat me to this low hanging fruit

I am glad I looked for it before I posted nearly the exact same thing
:toast:

[ThatsMyBarack]

9. Kudos to those nurses....

....for speaking up! :thumbsup:

[demnan]

10. Wishful thinking will get us no where

n/t

[Wapsie B]

11. Oh baby, don't eva piss off the nurses!

Even Cheney don't wanna mess around with them. Kudos to one profession that has the guts and the power to stand up and say what's needed to be said. And they're correct. He'd be long gone by now.

[Mountainman]

13. Even Arnold backed off from messing with them!

[mamameow]

27. right,right

this nurse is so right. cheney is a walking dead man. with his history he should have died a very long time ago and i want the same health insurance that he has. we peasants would have died after the second heart attack. why does he have more right to live than us, we did not murder hundreds of thousands!!!!!!!

[Wapsie B]

42. Yes we should all have access to the same healthcare he does.

But it goes back to the old conservative axiom, "All men are created equal. It's just that some are more equal than others."

Welcome to DU!!

:)

[Pastiche423]

55. Or the Orwellian...

[formercia]

12. * Gang needs gene therapy

for the ones lacking or turned off.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=2433451&mesg_id=2433451

[debbierlus]

15. Bravo - As a former nurse, I would like to thank these nurses

Nurses are on the front lines. BEAUTIFUL!

[vanlassie]

16. Finally Someone Who Talks Truth and Then Doesn't Weasle

Some Congress people could take a lesson from these nurses, Harry Reid.

[AnneD]

17. Keep speaking truth....

to power. Go CNA. Welcome to Texas.

[Seabiscuit]

18. If only Congress had their spines.

::sigh::

[xxqqqzme]

36. Maybe the nurses can help them too.

[Dukkha]

56. I'm sure Pelosi & Reid will "move on" this ad

and initiate a resolution con deming it

[LibDemAlways]

19. It's blunt, but it's the truth. Good for the nurses for speaking out.

[Name removed]

20. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[JBoy]

22. "Outrageous"? That all you got?

Might as well have given a "Hmph. Well, I never...".

[neuvocat]

91. Even Cheney isn't denying it.

Leave it up to a spokesperson who doesn't know any better.

[Andrea]

23. I can think of lots of ways to end that sentence

"Cheney would be dead now if..."

I bet everyone has a few ideas on that.

Go Nurses!!!!

[Thor_MN]

28. I see * and Chenney as proof that time travel is not possible in the near future.

Any sane society in the near future with the ability to travel through time would ensure that the entire crowd of neocons would have had life "incidents" leaving them incapable of the destruction that they have wrought.

[pberq]

24. thank you nurses!!!

[parkerll]

25. HA!

Good for the nurses! They are right on.

[SavageDem]

26. Outstanding!

Love to see that converted to a national TV ad.

Nurses and nuns are tough broads. Or is it more P.C. to say "dames"? Molls? Chicks? Wenches?

[Johnny Noshoes]

38. Watch it

or Sister Mary Sarcastica will take a ruler to your hands mister :evilgrin:

[SavageDem]

60. Actually, in review...

...that was a VERY sexist statement for me to make. Non-obviously sexist. The obvious sexism was meant in good fun (I've loved to tease my mother and sister forever, as both are what used to be called rabid feminists - even though I'm squarely in their camp, and they know it). What was less obvious until I reflected on it was the fact that I instantly equated "nurse" with "female."

<chagrin>
I hereby and forthwith apologize profusely for my sexism. I have always been a champion of the equality of the sexes, and I'm embarrassed that somehow this gender/profession stereotyping slipped in.
</chagrin>

[Johnny Noshoes]

76. Actually I was kinda joking

but I guess some would've read your post and seen it in a bad way so its probably best to have said what you've said in reply.

Oh wow this is my 666th post - oh no!:evilgrin:

[SavageDem]

82. Oh, I knew you were joking, Beelzebub...uh, I mean, Johnny

But I was actually kicking myself a bit for automatically categorizing nurses as female.

[Skittles]

96. lol

at work one of our accounts involves online screens that nurses use - I tell my trainees if you see any alerts on these regions FIX THEM QUICKLY BECAUSE YOU DO NOT WANT THE MAD NURSES CALLING :o

[enough already]

29. Finally, someone with the balls to speak truth to power

Paging Dr. Pelosi and Dr. Reid....

[Ilsa]

30. Nurses have backbone. Where's the AMA? They should be

backing up the CNA and NNOC's statements.

That's a great ad.

[Doctor_J]

45. The AMA don't want to lose their individual tax breaks

I know one doctor who spends 1/2 his time on his private yacht or his private plane, and the other 1/2 complaining about how malpractice insurance makes life unbearable. Doctors are part of *'s base.

[drmeow]

63. From the CNA website

" American College of Physicians is calling for an examination of how a single-payer system would work in the U.S."

About freakin' time

[IronLionZion]

72. Don't generalize about doctors

My ER physician Dad lives a middle class life but his malpractice insurance is over $100,000 per year. Don't ask how that's paid for because you won't like the answer.

[IronLionZion]

73. Physicians for a National Health Program (single-payer, HR 676 in particular)

http://www.pnhp.org/

I forgot to mention that my Dad voted for Gore and Kerry.

[lame54]

31. Best argument yet to NOT have federally funded health care

[ShaneGR]

93. Ermmm, no

The argument is to make it available to all Americans, not just the rich and priveleged.

[lame54]

104. i didn't think i had to but, here ya go...

:sarcasm:

[Enrique]

32. Cheney's been dead since '93

[uppityperson]

39. We wonder about that also. Is it really the Original Cheney?

Any way around, good for the nurses.

[Richard D]

34. A true tragedy of socialized medicine.

[Aviation Pro]

35. You can dish it out....

...Mr. Go-Fuck-Yourself-Shitstain-Shoots-Guy-In-Face, but you sure can't take it.

Typical sissy punk.

[benld74]

37. You don't want to p*ss off nurses!

[nahant]

41. Nurses taking a stand for all of us!

The need for universal health is paroment for this country. We should be grateful for the work they do. I have sisters, cousins. nieces, nephews and a son who are nurses. They and most nurses represent the best of what this country is all about. Selflessness and a desire to help others in need. "The doctor decides the treatment and the nurse carries out the treatment and is the patient's best advicate!

[BornagainDUer]

43. This is simply a phenomenal article. It shows an irrefutable and sick irony

when it comes to power and privilege in this country. :mad:

[Maestro]

44. Love this! I just forwarded this to my school nurse.

She will have a field day with it. She is a strong democrat and union member. My MIL is also a nurse as is my brother although currently not practicing (He's a fireman.)

[demo dutch]

47. Exactly my thoughts, when the most recent problem was reported!!

[wicket]

48. K & R

:kick:

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

49. They're not just indifferent to pain and suffering...

...they're are high volume purveyors of it -- and we might want to throw in death while we're at it -- and I worry that we ain't seen nothin' yet.

[RoccoR5955]

50. If Cheney was convicted for his war crimes

He would already be dead!
And the planet would be a better place for it!

[Ellen Forradalom]

51. Unfair. Cheney is among the UNDEAD.

He cannot be compared to the living or dead.

[Politicub]

52. Go, Nurses, go!

What a powerful message, and it push crashcart and his people on the defensive.

[syberlion]

53. It's not about the nurses...

It's because of the care Changeling, er Cheney received from nurses while under federal health care, that's the issue here. Even if he was still running his company Halliburton, no wait he is still running it, isn't he? Well, even if he was "just a CEO" (read: Chief Engineer of Obfuscation, wait, then he is still a CEO...) his medical would be taken care of by the friends he's developed in the insurance industry. Seeing that if the not-for-profit medical system were to win, then the insurance industry would have a whole heck of a lot to lose.

As for "where is the AMA?" on all this, they are tied in with the insurance industry to maintain a for profit system. I've known a lot of nurses over my lifetime and never knew a person wanting to become a nurse say they were going into the profession "for the money." Doctors on the other hand...

On a quick side note, war is a great time for medical advancements. It gives those in the medical equipment field the opportunity to try new things out; companies like GE, Phillips, AGFA, and others. Then there are the Pharmaceuticals (just too many to list here). War is for profit for all those tied in with the military machine. Oh, but it is for the greater good of humanity... Yeah. Right. There are better ways to further medical science then to profit off the dead and dying in a war. Too bad greed blinds those who, after being doctors and now sitting on the boards of some of these companies, supposedly took an oath to first do no harm.

The patriotism shown by the nurses behind this ad is something greater then I've seen recently demonstrated in the halls of congress. This level of patriotism is what we need to see from our feckless representatives. Even if those willing to stand up now have to face the music for their complicity with this illegal administration in the past, better now then never.

And it needs to be now, because never is coming on us fast.

[Oeditpus Rex]

54. '...that most American's can't get'

...was in a blog for the newspaper with the largest circulation in the U.S. and reprinted verbatim by one of the country's major broadcast networks.

How can we expect them to report properly when they can't even spell properly?

:banghead:

[SavageDem]

62. Misuse of apostrophes is grounds for incarceration

Folk's that use apostrophe's for plural's make me insane. Or more accurately, more insane.

[lonestarnot]

57. Prolle sucking up half the national budget the freak. Tell him to go to the vet and cut off his

money. :evilgrin: You were thinking I was going to cut off something else now weren't you?

[ooglymoogly]

58. That should have read, "Taxpayer funded"not "federally funded"

Democrats need to learn the impact of words and phrases and pounce when propaganda is in play. While both true one is vague and benign and one is explosive and puts the finger directly on the travesty.

[SammyWinstonJack]

79. ...

:thumbsup:

[lpbk2713]

59. When Cheneyburton sneezes there's a team of specialists hovering over him within minutes.

If he was a retiree with no assets they would have written him off to let nature take its course long ago.

Our tax dollars at work baby sitting evil billionaires.

[drmeow]

61. Finally,

a group saying something that needs to be said (and is simply the truth) and NOT backing down when the right wing machine goes on the attack. The Democratic leadership could learn a hell of a lot from the nurses. Is there somewhere we can go to express our support for them?

[TexasBushwhacker]

64. He's over 65, so he'd be getting Medicare

Here's one of my Medicare stories.

My dad is 75. He was still working as a CPA. He went into the hospital for an irregular heartbeat (atrial fribillation) on Sept. 21st. Stroke is a risk with AF, so even though he was already on blood thinners, they put him on stronger blood thinners. He had a massive stroke on Sept. 23rd. He's now paralyzed on his left side and can't swallow, so they installed a feeding tube directly into his stomach. He was on a ventilator for the first couple of days, but was breathing on his own after that. They decided that a pacemaker might help, so they put one in. He was improving slowly (talking a little, being able to hold his head up, etc.) but he had a small bedsore on his tailbone. Because of the limitations on Medicare, he was transferred after 4 weeks to a LTAC (long term acute care) hospital. He stayed there for 4 weeks and then was transferred, still with the bedsore (about 1" diam), to a nursing home that would let him sit in a soiled diaper for 2 hours or more while they passed out dinner trays or did more important things. His wife was there every day, but it made no difference. She said that part of his bedsore was dark green, and they told her it was the antibiotic they used.

After neglecting him for 3 weeks, the nursing home decided that he was a candidate for rehab (I think they call this "turfing") and got him admitted to TIRR (Texas Institute for Recovery and Rehabilitation). TIRR took one look at the bedsore (which was now over 4 inches in diameter and left his tailbone exposed) and transferred him immediately to another hospital. He had surgery to remove as much dead and infected tissue as possible, as well as a temporary colostomy so that the wound could heal without the bacteria from his colon causing more infection. He's had an additional surgery and is on a constant morphine drip. With an extra shot of morphine, they continue to debriede the wound every other day, but now it's up to 6" x 7" and he's back on a ventilator. Will he survive this? Probably not. Could he have survived it if he hadn't been transferred from the first hospital to begin with? Who knows?

[Viva_La_Revolution]

90. Debridement - can they try maggots instead?

Sounds gross, but they only eat dead tissue, many hospitals are using them now, much less painful for the patient.

[TexasBushwhacker]

106. Thanks for the suggestion

I knew that "medical maggots" were making a comeback (as are leeches) but I didn't know if they were doing it in the US. Upon further research, I find that they are, but I don't know if there are limitations on the size of the wound, etc.

[LaStrega]

65. are we talking the DSM Register?

if so, suddenly I'm proud of being born in Des Moines and beginning my fledgling newspaper career there.

And um, Dick's heart? ... give up ... m'kay?

[bvar22]

69. Kucinich is the ONLY candidate promoting Federally Funded HealthCare!!!

Mandatory Private "For Profit" Health Insurance is NOT HealthCare!
It is welfare for some of the richest CEOs in the World.


The Democratic Party is a BIG TENT, but there is NO ROOM for those
who advance the agenda of THE RICH (Corporate Owners) at the EXPENSE of LABOR and the POOR.

[franmarz]

70. Us retired-- and still working Nurses

hopefully will be around for a long time. I speak as the third in line of five generations of nurses in our family. From my great grand-aunt, to my young grandson. We are definitely here to stay the course.

[FloridaJudy]

71. Wow!

I'm really proud of my profession today. We nurses rock!

[caligirl]

74. I sent this thread to the CNA via their website email. Great ad and we need this.

[happygoluckytoyou]

75. CHENEY REMARKED......"AHHHHHHHHHH!"

[SleeplessinSoCal]

77. Glad they're standing by this ad. It's stating the obvious, but needs to be pointed out.

[Chrisy5558]

80. When are all Americans going to have access to Health Care?

He doesn't have to worry about rather he gets sick like many of us working Americans who have no health insurance. People might not like what these nurses said, but it is true.

[superconnected]

81. I never thought I'd be against federally funded health care

but if getting rid of it ends cheney, well...

besides, the regular people don't get to participate in it.

[yurbud]

83. Republicans hate it when someone tells the truth about them and DOESN'T apologize for it

Maybe we should have nurses as Democratic senators and congressmen since the lawyers and businessmen in there now are corrupt or cowards.

[AnnieBW]

84. Cheney has a heart

Several of them. The hearts of his political enemies. He keeps them in a freezer, and defrosts one to eat every night.

[lonestarnot]

86. his tin can double as a spitoon when he's done with it. Recycling is a good thing.

[Sam Ervin jret]

87. IT'S ALIVE?!! IT'S ALIVE!!?

he wouldn't be alive without the work of the member's of this UNION either!!

But we still love them!!!

[focusfan]

88. it's not Fair he has free health care and the rest of us suffer

maybe he will get his.

[yellowcanine]

94. Speaking truth to power is often considered outrageous by the powerful.

"How dare they challenge our authority by pointing out the obvious?"

[scarface2004]

95. not would...should

c mon let him have it the bastard!!

[Skittles]

97. he would have died in jail

for shooting an old f*** in the face

[whistle]

100. Cheney lives because of government subsidized heath care

[Kolesar]

102. I watch through USA Today's web-ad just to see an unreadable copy of the Nurses Association ad

:harumph:

[unpossibles]

103. ha! nt

[davsand]

105. I'm sorry, that was a pre-existing condition and it is not covered.

Unca Dick never got to navigate that particular roadblock to care, I'd wager. Maybe if he had he'd have a bit better understanding of how screwed up our health care "insurance" system really is.



Laura