Truthful Politics

Over the weekend I had a chance go through Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity's transcripts and researched their citing. Just to let you know that anyone can do this and if you have a computer at home you do not even have to leave the house.

Let us start with Sean Hannity's transcript of his July 23rd show. Sean begins the show by saying "Now we here at "Hannity," we're not going to let that happen. Tonight, we're going to show what happens when the government takes your life and death decisions into its own hands."

He begins with Ainsley Earhardt a FOX news correspondent, telling Sean's viewers about Major General William Davies (no relations), US Army (Ret) who suffered from pain in the chest and went to a hospital who told him they were not sure what caused it, but possibly indigestion. Maj. Gen'l. Davies would not take that for an answer so he proceeded to go to a cardiologist in Carlisle, PA, Doctor David Kahn. After being on the treadmill for only a few minutes it was discovered that there was a problem with his heart. Dr. Kahn stated that "the quickest way to get him studied was to take him to the hospital, so I did." How wonderful of Dr. Kahn to be such a concerned doctor, but how does this show what will happen when the government takes your life and death decisions into its own hands? I am sure for every wonderful story as this, there are more that show how horrible our health care system is. For example my brother-in-law had the symptoms of a heart attack on a Friday night, he went to their local small-town hospital. He was then transferred to a slightly larger hospital in Kingston, NY for tests that could not be performed at Margaretville Hospital. It was discovered that he had blockage in one of his arteries and he was immediately sent to Albany Hospital to have a stint put in. Total time - from Friday night to Monday. His doctor did not drive him to the hospital, his wife did and then the ambulance. My sister will even tell you, 'do not have a heart attack on a weekend, they will just make you comfortable and keep you alive until the weekday.'

He then goes on to talk about Katherine Hale a cancer survivor but again her story can be repeated numerous times and it shows what is wrong with our system.

Now though the plot thickens. Sean Hannity goes on to talk about Shona Holmes from Canada, who was diagnosed with a "brain tumor" and came to the US for treatment because she would have to wait a few months for certain testings in Canada. Well there seems to be some hoopla over her story and I am not going to repeat them here, suffice it to say she did have a medical problem and did need to have it taken care of. However, I can cite the same thing here in the US. I recently was caregiver to my 94 years old aunt who lived in NJ. I called a doctor to get her an initial visit once I had her here in NC. This doctor was highly recommended to me by hospice. This was in June of 2009, do you know when his first available appointment was? January of 2010, my aunt passed away July of 2009. I did eventually find her a doctor and she did have an appointment soon after she moved down here in June.

Now to Sean's next example of how bad national run health care is; Katie Brickel, a cancer survivor, from England. Katie was approached by Conservatives for Patient's Rights, a group started by Richard Scott who founded Columbia Hospital Corporation. Here is a little tidbit on CHC, shortly after it's merger with Hospital Corporation of America, it was investigated by the government for Medicare/Medicaid fraud in the late 1990's and paid 1.7 billion in fines, one of the largest settlements ever made. Just a little side note-HCA was started by two members of the Frist family, one being former majority leader of the US Senate Bill Frist (R); however, Mr. Frist sold all his shares of stock in 2005, but not without some controversy (again I will not go into details here but you can search it). CPR has on their website a pamphlet for you to read under their Resources section called Medicaid's Cost, Like Medicare's, Have Risen Far More Than the Cost of Private Health Care the only thing I can say is yes as long as there are companies out there, like you ran Mr. Scott, and carry out fraudulent practices against the system, yes then the cost will rise. On to Mrs. Brickel, she and others claim they were mislead by CPR as they were told they were going to do a documentary on whether health care in the US should be nationalized and that what she had said was "skewed out of proportion."¹

To wrap up his show Mr. Hannity goes back to Mr. Davies regarding his health care and this is how Major General Davies sums up what would have happened if it was under this current bill "I can only suppose that given, you know, the circumstances that I was facing, if that happened in Canada or the United Kingdom, that perhaps I could have died. That's the conclusion I can draw." (bold inserted by me) So I suppose what happened to Mr. Davies to begin with is not saying that our system needs to be fixed? So this is how Mr. Sean Hannity wants everyone to believe that the bill HR 3200 will devastate our current wonderfully run health care system. I can only suppose... that does say a lot to prove it to me. How about to you?

¹Times Online

UPDATE: I am glad to see that Rachel Maddow also reported on Richard Scott.

I am sorry but these two blogs have been down for a few months while I dealt with an illness in my family. I was finally able to bring my aunt home the end of June which was originally planned for the fall. We had a wonderful five weeks together until she passed from this world on the 29th of July at 10:30 PM.

May she finally rest in blissfull, painless, sleep until she is ready to come back again.

Cathy
Editor

Cathy von Hassel-Davies has had 3 articles published on Associated Content. Associated Content is a news and information website that will put out call for submission or they might even pick up submitted pieces.

Cathy has had 2 pieces of their calling published plus 1 she submitted. Out of the 3 pieces 1 is exclusive so it not reprinted on this site. 

If you are interested in reading the articles here are the links.

Aunt Tilly's Easy Cheesy Spicy Dip

Raleigh, NC New Year's Eve Celebration

Oprah's Moment of Serendipity with Tom Cruise and Family

Bystander Thwarts Carjacking by Using a Frozen Turkey as a Weapon

At a Harris Teeter in Fuquay-Varina, N.C. Fred Ervin was spotted beating Irene Bailey as he tried to steal her vehicle. Bystanders at the Harris Teeter began intervening and an unidentified male hit Ervin in the head with a frozen turkey.

As Fred Ervin tried to leave the Harris Teeter lot he ran into 5 other vehicles that were parked near the Bailey's Nissan.

Ervin did manage to leave the Harris Teeter parking lot and get onto 401 before the police stopped and arrested him. During a 911 call you can hear a women telling the dispatcher that "there is a woman hurt, he is crashing cars, he can't get out."

According to WRAL news "the police intend to charge Fred Ervin with assualt with a deadly weapon with intent to kill, assualt with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury, robbery, driving with a revoked license, hit-and-run and larceny." This was a cumulation of robberies and hijackings that Ervin was involved in over the weekend of November 22, 2008. He also hijacked another vehicle owned by Mr. Quijada and robbed the McDonald's at a BP gas station across the street from Harris Teeter.

We do not know if Ervin has been released from the hospital where he was checked for a head injury.

 

Cathy von Hassel-Davies

As of this writing Sen. Obama has 306 vs. Sen. McCain's 146. What a hard long fought battle!!!!

I am seriously beginning to worry about the McCain/Palin strategy; it is as if they are trying to incite riots by inflaming their audience. To the extent that one man even shouted out, "Kill Him," and at another point the audience turned around and started jeering at the media section.

Queen of Spain aka Erin Kotecki Vest wrote a wonderful blog post titled Enough is Enough where she describes how Palin rallied up her audience in Florida and how she plans on counterattacking.

Another article that also describes how Palin inflamed her audience in Florida is by Washington Post writer Dana Milbank entitled Unleashed, Palin Makes a Pit Bull Look Tame.

Please everyone THINK about what is being told to you. Don't just take the word of whomever you are listening to. In this day and age there is no excuse for this. Instead of that half-hour sitcom you want to watch, go to Google, go to ASK, go to your library, research what you heard or read and check on it. Then take the time to look at their references, are they referencing an article they wrote? if so, find another source. Are they referencing the original source, GREAT then you know they are on the right track.

Here is a great example for you. I was on the GOP.com page reading their article Obama Tax Backgrounder and started reading and researching their citations. The first quote they give is an article in the USnews.com; however, that journalist does not mention where he received his information. Now scroll down to the heading Obama Has Repeatedly Voted for Higher Taxes in the U.S. Senate, and see what they have in the brackets?! RNC Research. Now why would I believe what they are writing when they cite their own research department; it would have even more helpful if they would have linked to the bill, the vote, and/or the resolution. They do link to thomas.loc.gov; however, if you follow the link it takes you to the Days in Session page?!? Why in the world would they link there? I can only guess, is it that they automatically assume you will not click on the link and research it yourself and just take them at face value? Now thomas.loc.gov is a great site, but it would of been helpful if the GOP linked directly to the actual referenced page as Factcheck.org does. Also, just because they quote a news source does not make it factual, which would be like quoting Barack Obama or Sarah Palin on a statement they gave, it just doesn't work, you need to follow through.

So please do not take someone's word, or believe every commercial or every news story, go and do the research yourself.

Become an informed citizen and voter!

Cathy von Hassel-Davies

The clip that I found (I am still looking for the full video on this) from MSNBC starts out with Senator McCain talking about the 10 trillion debt and he looks very angry; however, he does wink at the camera when a specator shouts something out (we cannot hear what the shoutout was). John McCain claims 'there are essential things we do not know about Obama or the record that he brings to this campaign.' This is funny because Senator McCain has no problem misstating Sen. Obama's record of congressional votes, especially in regards to taxing the middle class (see factcheck.org). Senator McCain states, 'that we have all heard what he (Obama) said, but it is less clear what he has done or what he will do. What Sen. Obama says today, and what he has done in the past, are often two different things. He has often changed position in this campaign, and the best way to determine where he really will take this country is to examine where he has tried to take it in the past.' I really wish Senator McCain would state which positions Barack Obama has changed positions on. I have listend to many of Barack Obama's speeches and he seems to say the same thing each time. Please if I'm wrong do correct me.

John McCain says that whenever he has questioned Obama's policies or record, Obama has called him a liar. I did watch the debate and when John McCain would state something about Senator Obama's issues, Obama would say that is a lie. Should Barack Obama agree with John McCain's false statements? Reading through factcheck.org there are many instances where John McCain and Sarah Palin have lied, why not call the kettle black when it is true? Now please do not get me wrong, there are instances where Senator Barack Obama has stretched the truth about McCain's record and I will get to those posts in the next week.

Senator McCain states that 'Obama never answers a serious or legitimate question he is asked.' Again, I really wish these politicans would give instances, as I know of many instances where Sarah Palin has not answered questions. She even came right out during the debate and said she wouldn't answer some of the questions. I guess what is good for the goose is not good for the gander or vice versa in this matter. 

Senator John McCain goes on to say that he 'doesn't need lessons in telling the truth to the American people and were I ever to need any improvement in that regard I probably wouldn't seek advice from a Chicago politician,' with this said, Senator McCain gives the biggest grin, like he has just said the best thing. Sorry, but I know what he was referring to, and I think if I was a politician from Chicago I would be highly insulted by his comment. 

After listening to the small talk Obama did this afternoon in Asheville NC and this small video clip (about 3 1/2 minutes) I must say, Obama talked more about the economy than he did about McCain; whereas, McCain sent out some very insulting zingers to his opponent and not a whole heck of a lot on the issues. I would much rather have heard McCain speak on issues, why doesn't he? I am looking forward to tomorrow nights debate.

Cathy von Hassel-Davies

Is the title Truthful Politics an oxymoron? Some might seem to think so. My goal for this site will be to report on local, state and national politics in a non-partisan way. I intend to look at and research issues, statements and voting history and bring these to you in a clear way.

I am a registered Republican who does not vote party lines but truly looks at issues. I watch TV ads, debates, read newspapers, magazines and anything else, I then look up and research the information to see how true they are. Once I am done with my research I then decide who I will vote for.

I truly wish more people did this but I know we all don't have that kind of time, so I am hoping this is a place you can come to and read up on what you hear and find out the truth. I will be doing the research for you.

I look forward to getting to know you!