Shrub picks another winner.

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Bush's Pick for Surgeon General Makes Us Sick: Killed Veterans, Hates
Gays, Loves Republicans

By
Created 05/25/2007 - 1:58pm

A BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS

Dr. James Holsinger was tapped [1] by President Bush Thursday to be the
nation's next Surgeon General. Sure enough, Holsinger's record is mired
with incompetence, zealous conservatism, and, of course, sizable
campaign contributions to Republicans.

As Chief Medical Director of the Department of Veterans Affairs under
Bush's father, Dr. Holsinger was neglecting our vets long before Walter
Reed made it fashionable. A government investigation found "several
cases in which incompetence and neglect led to the deaths of patients."
[2] Dr. Holsinger was forced to admit blame for the deaths of six
patients [3] in less than a year at a single Chicago hospital alone.

But the problems weren't limited to Chicago. In a Wyoming, a patient
scheduled for surgery for a treatable cancer died after he was ignored
for 45 days following the resignation of the staff urologist over a
contract dispute. Thirty VA hospitals were found to have "high numbers
of patient complications and other indicators of substandard care."

A decade later, Dr. Holsinger was appointed Kentucky's Cabinet Secretary
for Health and Family Services. By the end of his tenure, a Kentucky
newspaper found that the state was at the bottom of the nation for
almost every health measure. [4] Kentuckians die at a rate of 18 percent
above the national average, the newspaper reported.

"We don't have to worry about foreign aggressors. We are killing
ourselves off," said Dr. Baretta Casey, a Hazard physician and
University of Kentucky professor. "I see a lot of illnesses similar to a
third-world country," added Dr. Sandra Dionisio, a Kentucky internist
trained in the Philippines.

"We've got some big mountains to climb," Dr. Holsinger said of the
findings, a few months before he jumped ship [5] for a cushy teaching
job at the University of Kentucky.

So why does Bush want Dr. Holsinger to be the nation's top doc? For
starters, he hates gay people. As president of the United Methodist
Church's Judicial Council, Holsinger ruled in 2004 that "the practice of
homosexuality is a chargeable offense for clergy" [6] after a highly
publicized internal trial for openly lesbian pastor Karen Dammann.

In 1991, Dr. Holsinger resigned from church panel studying homosexuality
[7] "because he felt certain its conclusions would follow liberal lines."

Last year, a Methodist pastor blasted Dr. Holsinger for essentially
trying to embezzle some $20 million [8] from the Methodist Church
through a charity Holsinger chairs. Holsinger has lost in court twice
[9] on the matter but continues to appeal through the legal system.

The coup de grace of the Dr. Holsinger story is his more than $16,000 in
political donations [10] since 1998 ­ all to Republicans, including
George W. Bush. You can bet Cheney also had a role in the appointment
since Dr. Holsinger specializes in cardiology.

Dr. Holsinger seems like a great choice for the VP to take hunting, but
he hardly seems like the best candidate out of all the doctors in
America to become our next Surgeon General.

A BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS


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http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/analysis/214

Shrub picks another winner.

---
Bush's Pick for Surgeon General Makes Us Sick: Killed Veterans, Hates
Gays, Loves Republicans

By
Created 05/25/2007 - 1:58pm

A BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS

Dr. James Holsinger was tapped [1] by President Bush Thursday to be the

Dr. Holsinger seems like a great choice for the VP to take hunting, but
he hardly seems like the best candidate out of all the doctors in
America to become our next Surgeon General.