Bush's bizarre appointment (More Bush 'bipartisanship')

[ck4829]

President Bush made some winningly conciliatory remarks the day after his party's Nov. 7 electoral drubbing, saying he looked forward to governing in a more bipartisan fashion. Then he turned around and started naming kooky ideologues to key posts.

The latest recess appointment, Eric Keroack as head of the federal government's family planning office, is an extremist so out of line with scientific thought that it is difficult to describe his views without laughing.

As medical director of A Woman's Concern, a small chain of nonprofit pregnancy counseling clinics that offer no information on birth control, Keroack has agitated against abortion and even contraception — including for married women. The organization continues to push the discredited nonsense that abortion increases a woman's chances of breast cancer and is more dangerous during the first eight weeks of pregnancy (when, in fact, the risk of complication is actually at its lowest). Birth control, according to A Woman's Concern's tortured logic, is somehow "demeaning to women." And Keroack has argued that women who have sex with multiple partners alter their brain chemistry in the process, making it harder for them to form close relationships.

This is the man who will oversee $283 million in annual Department of Health and Human Services grants for providing access to family planning education and contraceptives "to all who want and need them."

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-ed-keroack27nov27,0,4380666.story?coll=la-opinion-leftrail

[Swede]

1. Par for the course.

This is the usual BS from this administration.

[fredrickdouglas]

5. So Why Do We (The Left) Keep Remarking On It Astoundedly

And what is this silliness about appointing ideologues? Since when did appointing someone with an ideological approach become a bad thing. I know some will say that it's just that 'their' ideology is problematic. And I agree, it is.

But I get the vibe from many on what goes for the Left that simply being and ideologue is a problem as well. As if people without any ideological bias are what we really need, putting aside for the moment that such people do not exist.

What is wrong with ideology?

[LeftishBrit]

6. Nothing is wrong with ideology as such; but there is something wrong with appointing people who are

ideologically opposed to the duties that they are being hired to do.

It is like appointing a Jehovah's Witness with an ideological opposition to blood transfusions to work as a hospital surgeon.

[Swede]

11. If he was in a financial or industrial post,fine.

But in family planning? A man diametrically opposed to abortion,when many are better suited for the post.

[Silent3]

12. An ideologue isn't just someone with an ideology

The term "ideologue" is generally applied to someone who adheres to an ideology in such an extreme way that nothing else, like contrary practical reality and obvious failures caused by the application of said ideology, can break through.

[ck4829]

17. That's all he is, an ideologue. He seems to have no real experience with family planning

Just abstinence education.

[angry_chuck]

25. yeah

he abstains from education

[Jiyah]

31. Good job, there. I sure heard the Cons scream when Ginsberg and Breyer

were appointed, and not through recess appointments too.

Oh, how I love Freeper logic.

This should be good.

:popcorn:

[me b zola]

35. mental illness is not an ideology

[unpossibles]

41. I don't know about you, but I know that "we (the left)"

are opposed to the very idea that someone who is such an extremist is the head of something so important.

Perhaps you thought Katrina was handled well? That was just incompetence. Now add in some ill-formed bigotry (I see his views on the effects of sex on women's brains as being pretty goddamned sexist).

But "we (the left)" would prefer to have appointments who will uphold the law and do the bidding of "we (the real government)"

What would you prefer? I mean, I know Mark Foley did a great job of protecting kids, right?

[kestrel91316]

44. It's not about ideology. It's about a pattern of appointing blatant

MONKEYWRENCHERS to high government positions. Bush puts assholes like this guy in place with the specific intent of DESTROYING our government.

It's the RW's MO. See, that way they can point to the incompetent bureaucrats (who the sheeple will forget Bush appointed) and say: "Look! Government is bad and incompetent so we have to de-fund it and get rid of it."

Remember - Grover Norquist, bathtub, shrinking and drowning?

[yellowcanine]

2. I agree but this was not a "recess appointment". I am surprised a major newspaper

would make a mistake like that. The position does not require Senate approval so it is not a recess appointment. It still is a bad appointment, though.

[gratuitous]

3. So they're saving $283 million on that budget

Because according to their director, nobody anywhere at anytime would ever need family planning education or contraceptives. Ergo, no money will be spent at all by this office, and its $283 million budget will go unspent.

What can you say about an administration that appoints someone who doesn't believe in family planning to head up the family planning department? No wonder Republicans think government programs never work; they put the most irresponsible, ideological demagogues into positions of authority, then watch as it inevitably fails, and somehow persuade people that it's all the fault of the big, bad gummint.

[Jack Frost]

47. Not saving at all...

The $283 million just won't get spent on what it's intended for, it will get spent on abstinence education and other illogical right-wing propaganda.

[havocmom]

4. Is that Veterinarian bush appointed still heading up department

for women's health issues?

Anybody but me see the bush/cheney junta a lot like the rulers of a post-Apocalypse world envisioned by Heinlein in Farnham's Freehold? In that book, regular people were considered stock animals, bred or prevented from breeding at the will of the rulers, used for tools and food, treated by veterinarians.

We are chattel of the corporate state.

[LynneSin]

7. I still remember the guy he appointed for the FDA's Women's advisory Group

...he gave out scripture as prescriptions and resigned because his wife exposed the fact that he was into Kinky Sex which she hated

http://www.thenation.com/docprint.mhtml?i=20050530&s=mcgarvey

David Hagar was the guy - here's the article about him

[kay1864]

21. Fortunately, Hager resigned right after that article came out

Maybe Keroack has a similar skeleton in his closet. We can only hope...

[Jiyah]

32. Remember the Horse Guy he appointed for FEMA?

What was his name? Brownie I think it was. . .yeah, he did a bang up job.

More cronyism.

[Jack Frost]

48. he anally raped her while she slept

and when asked why, he said he "missed". Apparently, the rape part was OK.

I find it amusing that Bush's appointee to the FDA's Women's Advisory Group, is a gynocologist who can't even find his own wife's vagina.

And yes, if you think you've heard this fact before, it's been part of Bill Maher's schtick for a while.

[kestrel91316]

45. No. And I think you know that. But you sure never miss a chance to

slam veterinarians, don't you?

Keep it up. Make sure EVERYBODY believes we are incompetent boobs.

[havocmom]

46. WTF? I happen to prefer vets to MDs. They are better observers

Just thought it was very telling that bushco figured a veterinarian was just dandy to head up agency supposedly concerned with women's health issues.

You are barking up the wrong tree, doc! If more MDs were half as diligent as most vets, we would be a healthier nation. I just don't want OB-GYN issues decided by someone without the pertinent text books.

[Marie26]

8. K&R

But are we really surprised?

[Hawaii Hiker]

9. Another stupid Republican who doesn't believe in

science, but instead believes in science fiction...What a nut this Keroack is, so much for the BS Bush spewed after the elections about working in bi-partisan fashion..

Who could forget that wacko senator from Oklahoma, James Imhoffe, who thinks global warming is nothing but a hoax...

It's pathetic that people with 12th. century views have such positions of power...

[derby378]

10. Nancy, Harry, we're counting on you to not let these schmucks get past you...

All of a sudden, I can't wait for January 4, 2007.

[kay1864]

13. Sadly, this appointment does not require Congress' approval

Dunno what, if anything, we can do about it. :(

[Minnesota_Lib]

14. Birth control is demeaning to women? Is standing in line at a soup kitchen with 6 kids demeaning?

Jeeze, this is too much. What is wrong with these people?

This just confirms what we all already knew. Bush is insane.

[Iris]

16. Good question. I'd also like to know if having sex with multiple partners affects a MAN'S brain

chemistry in a negative way as well?

[Minnesota_Lib]

22. Maybe that would explain why I am so crazy. LOL

[Iris]

34. Ah, well! at least it was fun while it lasted, no?

[Minnesota_Lib]

15. Bushco is concerned alright. Birth control = less cannon fodder for future wars.

[jwirr]

18. It has occurred to me that the reason *ss keeps nominating these

incompetent workers may be because no one else will work for him. They are too smart!

[unpossibles]

42. that makes more sense than I want to admit....

scary.

I always thought it was so Bush felt smarter by comparison - which explains all the "he's doing a great job!" things right before the crap hits the fan....

[jwirr]

51. I remember when JFK was President he attracted some of

America's brightest and best to work in his cabinet. Then along came Nixon and he, like *ss, had trouble finding the best people, as we can see in his leftovers from the present administration.

[sleepingdog]

19. Eric Keroack.......

......the product of an aborted abortion when it would have been in humanity's best interests for the proceedure to proceed. :banghead:

[louis-t]

20. Desperate to leave his filthy imprint

I think we will see more of this in the next 2 years. As bad as his appointments have been, they will get even worse as a frightened man-boy tries to sabotage government for his successors.

[drm604]

23. One more good argument for impeachment. n/t

[Ladyinblack]

26. Impeachment

I have been concerned that impeachment would be bad for the country. I am now convinced that not impeaching this president would be worse. Of course chaney, rums. and rice should be included.

[TheMadMonk]

24. And now we know why they wanted to allow pharmacists to "exercises...

...their consciences". To set a precedent that would allow whoever they put in this position to do the same.

This is the man who will oversee $283 million in annual Department of Health and Human Services grants for providing access to family planning education and contraceptives "to all who want and need them."

[peace13]

27. Women have become the second class citizens of the world

and good men should wake up to what is happening here or they will find themselves without the comforts that they have come to take for granted! Peace on earth, Kim

[Iris]

28. more like, "Women remain the second-class citizens of the world."

We have NOT come a very long way, baby! :(

[peace13]

29. It's funny because in my own personal life I only realized this

recently. The recent pokes at abortion and birth control woke me up. I was raised by my divorced mother with my two sisters and it was a different world. Peace, kim

[Iris]

33. well, I grew up in the "Free to Be You and Me" 70s, so you can imagine how

disillusioned I am!

[peace13]

37. That's funny!

Here we are still trying to make sense of it all! Peace on earth, Kim

[Iris]

39. yeah. I'm planning to introduce my niece and nephew to Marlo Thomas this

Christmas! Maybe start a new wave!

[Anakin Skywalker]

30. Who Did Dubya Appoint Proctologist? The Rightwingers of This Nation Need One.

What's with the uptight attitudes, man?

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

36. Wow, even all the Bush voting, FOX watching OB/GYNs I know all prescribe birth control.

I wonder if any of them even care about any of this.

[dembotoz]

38. so what do we do now

obviously we need to shove this right back up his ass.
If we can not produce action on this, we should stop calling ourselves grass roots and check into assisted living facilities.
gw's position is way far right on this, lets expose it and make him pay.

[Vert]

40. Sex = altered brain chemistry?

What about women with mental illnesses that are virgins?

[Justyce]

49. I wonder if it causes the same

altered brain chemistry in men who have had sex with multiple people.... surely not.... <ahem>.

[LeahMira]

43. Of more concern...

... are the women who could be denied the information and care they expect, and the "surprise" babies that will be born as a result.

Ideology is one thing, but lives are in the balance here.

[KamaAina]

50. This Keroack needs to get "On the Road"

pronto!

The Democratic-controlled committees that will soon be in charge of the HHS budget need to take a close look at that $283 mill...

edit: punctuation