Canadian Physician Vs. Republican Senator: Senator Slam Dunked!

I work to avoid generalization and stereotypes when and where possible. The following exchanges literally takes away an opportunity to overlook the deep and wide crevasse between a learned professional physician (woman, young, competent, executive-cool-feisty) and the intellectual capacity of yet another baby-boomer Paleozoic Era Republican member of Congress.

How is it possible the congressman could have felt the witness was not carefully chosen to join the committee as witness? How could the nocturnal slow snail slug congressman not know the witness would anticipate his tired and tried GOP questions? 

Dr. Danielle Martin, vice president at the  Women’s College Hospital in Toronto

Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.)

                       

  VS. 

When Burr asked Martin “on average how many Canadian patients on a waiting list die each year,” she answered with a fact about the American healthcare system.  “Do you know?” Burr asked.  “I don’t, sir, but I know that there are 45,000 in America who die waiting because they don’t have insurance at all,” Martin said.

There’s more…..

Burr: What do you say to an elected official who goes to Florida and not the Canadian system to have a heart valve replacement?  Martin: It’s actually interesting, because in fact the people who are the pioneers of that particular surgery, which Premier Williams had, and have the best health outcomes in the world for that surgery, are in Toronto, at the Peter Munk Cardiac Center, just down the street from where I work.  So what I say is that sometimes people have a perception, and I believe that actually this is fueled in part by media discourse, that going to where you pay more for something, that that necessarily makes it better, but it’s not actually borne out by the evidence on outcomes from that cardiac surgery or any other.

International healthcare Hearings.

http://youtu.be/iYOf6hXGx6M

"Between Two Ferns" Obama Derangement! How very silly!

AP Photo / David Zalubowski

President agrees to join the Between The Ferns show for delivery of a critical message about the Affordable Care Act, his appearance led to millions visiting the ACA site and, of course “Stiff-Necked Fools” (Bob Marley Lyrics) and Fox News went “deranged.”

The stiffest of the all, David Gergen, joined Bill O’Reilly and Fox News et al., in showing how conservative America would shape the nation. And, frankly, they are lying.

What I personally care about David Gergen could fit on the action tip of a sewing needle with enough room for sharing the tip with Chris Christie. While running for the presidency in 2008, I watched and heard Gergen criticize candidate Obama for not standing tall and fighting on certain issues. The very moment candidate Obama moved to more confrontation as the election neared, Gergen was there on CNN mumbling through a comments about how Obama’s actions were not presidential.

Talking Points Memo on Gergen

TPM LIVEWIREAs Expected, Obama’s ‘Ferns’ Interview Made CNN’s David Gergen Uncomfortable  (“Used with permission from the TPM websites, a service of TPM Media LLC.” ) If Gergen had his druthers, no president would ever appear on such a show. And the septuagenarian is certain there’s a better way for Obama to reach the kids. David Gergen        ✔ @David_Gergen Am no fan of presidents appearing on shows like Between Two Ferns. Obama has better ways to reach young about ACA. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/11/us/politics/obamas-new-approach-takes-a-humorous-turn.html?hpw&rref=us&_r=0 … 10:27 PM – 11 Mar 2014 Obama’s New Approach Takes a Humorous Turn The president’s interview on “Between Two Ferns,” an online parody of celebrity interview shows, is an attempt to get young people to sign up for health insurance on the government’s website. The New York Times @nytimes David Gergen        ✔ @David_Gergen Big fan of @galifianakisz. He’s hilarious & his dad played HS football w my brother Ken. Still–best venue for Obama? http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/11/us/politics/obamas-new-approach-takes-a-humorous-turn.html?hpw&rref=us&_r=0 … 10:43 PM – 11 Mar 2014 Obama’s New Approach Takes a Humorous Turn The president’s interview on “Between Two Ferns,” an online parody of celebrity interview shows, is an attempt to get young people to sign up for health insurance on the government’s website. The New York Times @nytimes David Gergen        ✔ @David_Gergen Unimaginable that Truman, Ike, JFK, Reagan would appear on Between Two Ferns. They carefully protected majesty of their office.  8:18 AM – 12 Mar 2014 It was a pretty predictable reaction from Gergen, who served as an adviser to four presidents and has been rhapsodizing about the majesty of the Oval Office ever since. The White House certainly saw it coming.  Shortly before the “Ferns” interview surfaced online, Obama spokesman Dan Pfeiffer joked that the bit might “give David Gergen a heart attack.”

Gergen in summary. “Who in hell anointed David Gergen in all of his conservatism, a barometric-caller and assessor on what is or is not presidential?”

Fox News?

Progressives and Liberals (and Left leaning Independents) know that Fox News has a mission. The network is the singular most visible purveyor of Right-wing dogma and communications. That means the network is about the business of propaganda without equal. 

No, we do not agree MSNBC is an exact Left-leaning balance. Of course, we are biased to the Left (big-time), but we are also fair. If we consider the extent of lies from Fox and the extent of apologies for wrong information from MSNBC, we need not indulge in further consideration.

If you need additional points to ponder, consider the flak from the Right regarding President Obama’s appearance on the “Between Two Ferns” Show. Fox News executives, managers, producers and visible millionaire hosts all know every president since Truman has partaken if some form of public humor.  The introduction of home television with associated (and requisite) cameras virtually ensured humorous television appearances from the White House. It is impossible Fox News (And David Gergen of CNN) would not know of exhibits you will see in the following Rachel Maddow Show segment. If we accept either they have to know of past humorous performances out of the White House or their refuse to research prior to developing news stories, the only conclusion in their Two Ferns derangement: propaganda.

http://on.msnbc.com/1koBbaF

Additional reading

Salon Dot Com (Lincoln’s fart joke)
AlterNet Dot Org

Joe Stewart And Fox New’s Eric Bolling

Image via Wn.Dot Com

Fox News in their individual millionaire hosts splendor draws attention from a millionaire who cares and sees the light: Jon Stewart, Comedy Central’s, The Daily Show. You might say well Stewart is a comedic entertainer. I will retort, for you to think about what you just thought or said and think about fox News. I would add just a bit to your second thought.

Fox News is not only comedic entertainment, it is socially dangerous comedic entertainment for people who harbor social views that should have changed as the nation moved through the decades (and centuries). I offer a metaphoric opportunity with revealing imagery. Fox New millionaires spew venomous rhetoric to viewers who remind of Paleozoic Era (Pre-Devonian Period) amphibians and refusal to explore leaving their aquatic environment for a look at the shore. They are not stuck in their comfortable and precarious aquatic environs, yet some have evolved to breathing the same air we breathe. Despite sharing life as we know it, many Fox News viewers (and AM talk radio listeners) are stuck in their social paradigms comparable to living and breathing creatures who cannot share a more universally accommodating world.

We often share segments from The Daily Show’s, Jon Stewart. The latest offerings related to Fox News and conservative dogma.

Stewart explores Fox New’s Eric Bolling and the Fox News attack on SNAP programs.

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/…./fox-news-welfare-academy

The Daily Show
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