What the Gupta Are They Thinking?

[Daveparts]

What the Gupta Are They Thinking?
By David Glenn Cox
http://theservantsofpilate.com




What kind of Gupta is this? We all make mistakes; it is, after all, normal to make mistakes. The Obama administration made a mistake in picking megachurch, megabuck, megabigot, religious leader Rick Warren to speak at the inaugural ceremonies.

Warren will make his remarks and then fade away, back into the world of dollar signs on crucifixes and feeling good about himself by casting stones at others. Safe in the knowledge that Jesus will never reach him to throw down his tables or to throw his punk ass out of the temple. Warren is a symbol of all that is wrong with religion today. Mother Teresa went into war-torn Beirut to rescue handicapped children and Warren goes on the Today show to hawk his book.

But the news that the Obama administration is seriously considering Dr. Sanjay Gupta for Surgeon General gives one pause. At first glance it makes you say, ok, you got me, who’s he really going to pick? This isn’t a mistake, this is a fuck up. A magnitude five, first-class fuck up. We have a politician that ran for office on a promise of health care reform, and then he picks to lead its effort a corporate stooge, a shill who blows in the wind, repeating whatever message his corporate masters whisper into his ear.

A shill hostile to single payer insurance. Why not pick C. Everett Coop, he’s not doing much except for “Life Alert” commercials? Apparently this administration has fallen and can’t get up, and bumped its head on the way down. Let’s forget that Gupta is a corporate stooge, lacking all credibility except as a cable network huckster. He has no administrative experience whatsoever; he makes Brownie look like a wise choice.

The Bush Administration appointed John Bolton as its UN ambassador, despite Bolton’s life-long hostility to the UN. The plan was simple; Bolton was to act as an obstructionist to thwart any move by the UN that might appear hostile to American interests. So how then do you explain a Gupta? Was the guy at Fox News too busy?

If it were just Gupta’s lack of credibility, it might be explained away, but he is also grossly unqualified. Literally thousands of doctors managing small to medium-sized hospitals all across America are immanently better qualified than Gupta. It makes about as much sense as naming Clint Eastwood to the Department of the Interior because he used to make Westerns.

The new President is a student of Abraham Lincoln and should well remember that Lincoln had to be smuggled into Washington because of the Constitutional crisis. Franklin Roosevelt had to deal with bank failures on his first day in office. Roosevelt understood that there was a crisis in confidence among the American people, a feeling that the government couldn’t, or had no interest in, helping the man on the street. There’ll be no honeymoon this time either; the times will not allow for it.

The American people today feel that their government has been bought and sold, that there is no help for them. It's all showmanship over salesmanship. We have a barn full of show horses and not a plow horse in the bunch. Gupta is a symbol of all that is corrupt and rotten, in both the media and in medicine, and to add him to the government mix threatens to undermine the credibility of the administration as a whole. Not only should Gupta be dropped, but whoever thought he was good choice should go as well.

My mother used to say, you only have one chance at a first impression, and Gupta gives the impression that the promised “change” is nothing more than a slogan. The impression is of a fraud, and maybe it's not suppose to be but it sure does smell like it. Added to the remarks made by House Democrats that the stimulus plan smacks of trickle down, and you’ve got a credibility problem, Mr. President.

For the last eight years the American people have been lied to, misused and abused, and now they are expecting better. Your credibility has been put at risk by your predecessor, and our patience is wearing thin. How do you expect us to take this administration seriously with such choices? We laughed at Sarah Palin, discussing her foreign policy credentials. How is this any worse? How about Pee-wee Herman to lead abstinence education programs? Or Dick Cheney to lead anger management classes?

Gupta wasn’t even able to handle Michael Moore one-on-one, so how will he handle House and Senate Republicans? Moore throttled Gupta, CNN, and Wolf Blitzer, and CNN put Gupta’s program on hiatus until the furor died down. This is your choice to lead health care reform? Seriously? This is your guy? The Clinton administration chose Hillary Clinton as their point person for health care reform. As a fighter I would consider her a heavyweight, while Gupta is at best a bantamweight, and they carried Hillary from the ring on a stretcher. Gupta, if (laughingly) approved, won’t make one round.

The Republicans are probably laughing their butts off right now. Here they were afraid that Obama might spoil their health care gravy train, and Obama comes up with Gupta with cardboard sword and tinfoil shield in hand. The symbolism is clear; Obama’s choices have all been moderates. Controversial only because they’ve never done anything, this is an administration full of sideways promotions and recycled ideas. This isn’t change but small change, spare change, and change by neglect.

A fair assessment of our situation in America is that the good news is, there is no good news. And the bad news is..., too horrible to contemplate. A faltering national economy in a stumbling world economy and you picked Gupta? (See the good news)

We are, as a nation, perched upon a precipice; dark clouds hover over our nation's life. We need, we demand, strong action. People of courage and fortitude and of ideas, ideas of their own, new ideas to revive our nation. When Churchill assumed the office of Prime Minister in 1940 he said, "I was conscious of a profound sense of relief....I felt as if I were walking with destiny and that all my past life had been but a preparation for this hour and for this trial." He felt the confidence to do whatever it took to succeed, and told the House of Commons, "I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat."

While we are offered nothing but Gupta!

[NOW tense]

1. I say Dr. Drew should be the pick.

If we are to have a celebrity doctor for this job I say we need a Psychologist. It is about time we start looking at mental health not how long we can live.

[endless october]

7. i am giving the Gupta pick a chance.

honestly, you need a salesman in that post. and Gupta is very likable and effective. i think he's a good pick.

but, honestly, i would also support Dr. Drew.

[NOW tense]

10. I am giving all the picks a chance.

I am guilty of posting some things I really don't mean, but feel the urge to comment. We are all guessing on what is going to happen and PE Obama isn't even inside the White House yet.

[Two Americas]

12. sales and leadership

Sales and leadership are diametrically oppositional to one another.

I am saddened that people now see the Left as just another commodity, as merely an alternative bill of goods to sell people on.

The Republicans have to use sales and marketing techniques and package their program as though it were a consumer product, because they have nothing of substance to offer. It reflects weakness, not strength.

Who is it that needs to be sold, and who could be sold? Certainly not the people. They need leadership, not a sales job. The Republicans in Congress? They are not going to be sold on anything. The health industry corporations? They will not be sold on anything, either.

This is a strong indication that it is the people who are the target of the sales job, and the reason that a sales job is needed is because they will not be getting what they desperately need.

[eridani]

21. Only if you approve of what he is selling

Which is continued murder for profit by private insurance companies.

[tsuki]

2. "It makes about as much sense as naming Clint Eastwood to the Department of the Interior

because he used to make Westerns."

:rofl:

[Joe Bacon]

8. Clint Eastwood is a strong environmentalist

We had several ballot propositions to save what's left of the redwood trees and Eastwood made several commercials supporting those propositions. He's also supported a lot of conservation measures. Clint is far more moderate on this than the wacko Jesus Freaks who are still fucking up the Republic Party!

[MasonJar]

18. I think Eastwood might be a credible pick also, but I think the relevant

phrase in the Eastwood suggestion was "because he used to be in Westerns." There might be other, valid reasons to select Clint Eastwood for Interior, such as environmental concerns, but the poster's point is that being on CNN and a salesman type is not credible reasons to choose Gupta.

[panader0]

3. How about Dr. Ruth?

[Cleita]

4. Gupta isn't the big problem in health care reform, it's the new

Secretary of Health and Human Services, Tom Daschle, another corporate shill who has dismissed single payer universal health care as fine for other countries but not this one. His health plan is to insure everyone with the same insurers who brought us the health care mess to begin with. Both choices reflect how Obama feels this should be done or he wouldn't have picked them. My only hope is that Daschle is making the effort to have meetings across the nation with the ordinary people who are affected by health care to get their opinion on how it should be done. Let's hope he listens and if he has a change of heart that he can convince the new President what the best way is to do this.

[glowing]

5. What the Gupta is correct!!! The healthcare industry is about 6 months away

from being completely useless and bankrupt itself. As jobs continue to bleed, and the jobs that are left shed expensive health insurance plans to remain vialbe, there won't be enough of these insurance co's left to even sit at the table. Any that are left will be begging for a morsel. Now is the time that we can have a healthcare policy that allows the govt to take over for non-profits. Its the one thing that willinstantly make th enation less stressed and will allow for the medical industry to hire the professional they need. As of now, ER rooms are over run and general practitioners are losing patients due to their customers NOT having insurance. AND we all know, as the baby boomers are retiring, we will have massive need for more healthcare providers; not less.

Perhaps the ins. companies that are left over could sell "extra's".. Like the Aflak type of ins that pay you if you are sick or take absence from work for a baby or longer term illness. and specialize in insurances for cosmetic surgeries. They will have to adapt or become obsolete... But general care for mind, health, and wellness is a right that every man, woman, and child should have access to.

[Cleita]

6. Well, the plan is to insure everyone by making them have health insurance.

You will have to pay for it or the government will pay for it out of your taxes but the insurance companies will survive with government help to screw you over another day while they post profits on Wall Street. That is the plan.

[glowing]

11. Yes, I understand there are costs.. but the overhead costs on individual

private insurers is extremely costly for the consumer. Spreading the risks across the entire nation, putting patients info on file, and making it non-profit, govt run will save incredible amts of money. We spend more money per person on healthcare than anyone.. and our current model excludes very many people. Bushie has shed 2.5million jobs.. that's many without any insurance now.. and many companies are passing on the entire cost to the employee or cutting it completely, which means many are working without benefits. I'm very sure we are well past 47million without healthcare at this time. AND if you saw Sicko, you'd see that HMO's and PPO's still cost a person a lot out of pocket if they are actually sicker than the standard dr. visit, and then there's the whole other issue where the ins. co. denies covering a Dr's reccommendation because its too costly.

[Cleita]

13. I agree with you but your government doesn't. They are corporate shills

who don't have the cojones to send the insurance companies and other health care parasites packing. Read this. I just put this up:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=103&topic_id=415196&mesg_id=415196

These are the various plans that Congress will be considering. No where is HR 676, the plan we need, being considered.

[girl gone mad]

19. if they try that, I won' t pay the tax.

They can throw me in jail. I refuse to give a dime to the greedy, corrupt insurance industry.

[Phred42]

9. WHen the hell is Obama going to put Progressives and Liberals in some key positions?

Ain't happenin' is it?

:shrug:


This HAS to start steeling you SOMETHING there Pollyanna.

[Cleita]

14. Where is the bipartisanship promised? It seems we left wing loonies who

elected them into office need a few bones thrown to us.

[bluethruandthru]

16. We're the ones being left out.

The right and center-right are in the drivers seat.

[eridani]

22. He has, actually. In Labor and Energy

Nothing wrong with bugging him to appoint progressives to health care positions, too, however.

[Phred42]

27. Satisfied with a couple of bones?

I'm not.

[eridani]

28. Those are important appointments

And yes, I intend to keep hollering about health care and getting away from our current economic model.

[Skittles]

24. LOLOL

you really are naive, huh? :rofl:

[Phred42]

26. Man... dont' pee in my Easter Basket

:toast:

[Two Americas]

15. good work

Some of these picks are odd, to say the least. Vilsack was s surprise to me for the same reasons. We expect caretakers and figure heads, glad handers and salesmen from the Republicans. We face many challenges in agriculture and food policy, and Vilsack in a non-entity - no background, no strong positions, no commitment, no experience. People then say that Obama will be calling the shots, he will be large and in charge. But Obama has no background in or knowledge about agriculture. Are we to imagine that none of that is required, that the agency can be effectively managed by empty suits? That would only be true if there were no program for the relief of the people in the works, if the job were to merely babysit the agencies on behalf of the corporations who will be the ones actually setting the course and making decisions.

It is a shame that we cannot discuss them without running into hostility from people who see criticism as disloyalty. There is something odd about the super-loyalty, as well. We have a PE who is talking post-partisanship, and yet his most zealous defenders are the most partisan group in the Democratic party in a long time, so much so that they defend everything he does, tolerate no discussion, and see anyone who does not as the enemy. That is partisanship taken to an extreme degree.

There is much to consider and discuss about the appointments. No president can micro-manage the federal bureaucracy, so the appointments matter. we are then told that Obama is brilliant, and has an innovative and yet-to-be revealed master plan, and that if we just "give him a chance" all will be well.

Perhaps in the corporate world you can put a person in charge of automobile companies who knows nothing about automobiles - although we have now seen the outcome of that - or a person in charge of an energy giant who knows nothing about that business, and whose only qualification was that he was a golfing partner of George Bush - and we know how that one turned out - but it makes no sense in government, of we are going to see government as an agent for the people, as the defender of the left behind and the left out, as an advocate for the have-nots rather than as a mechanism for advancing the interests of the powerful.

[glitch]

20. Excellent post. nt

[MasonJar]

17. I do not believe this position will lead the health care charge; however,

that said, it is an "out in front of the public" position which seemingly indicates the direction that the new administration is leaning in health care and it is a poor tilt. Why did Obama not choose Dr. Howard Dean? He is a man of proven skills, medically, administratively and politically. Obama is either afraid of Dean or influenced by Rahm against him. What I do NOT understand the MOST of all these appointments is the DLCer, Rahm Emanuel. I have never liked him; he is no "change candidate" choice.

[KoKo]

23. Gupta Pick truly says that "Bought and Sold Presidency" picks one of it's own ...in Sympathy?

OMG...I hope not. I'd like to know which of Obama's set of illustrious advisers picked that "Corporate Shill Gupta" as the voice of our Public Health Service.

Truly, it's a very deranged choice...and I hope it's not a sign of more to come...with Michael Powell (Colin's Doofus Son) to take back the FCC! AYYYYYY that would fortel so much doom for us and our media, that I can't force myself to think more about it, beyond this post..

[Oldenuff]

25. Taking a chance on Gupta?

I'm not sure that we have the luxury of time on our side to be "taking a chance",whether it is SG or anything else.Every single pick should be of character above reproach, and eminently qualified for their respective appointments.Sadly,I don't see that in a couple of Obamas picks.

Is it really change,or is it just the same old crap with a different hairstyle?