Reading The Pictures: Rove's Fun and Games in the Name of Wounded Warriors

Props to Media Matters for taking apart the distortions about the VA's "end-of-life" educational pamphlet propagated by Karl Rove, Sean Hannity and Fox News.

Most relevant, in light of Karl's playful prop on Hannity's Monday show, however, was Rove's claim that the booklet, on page 99, directed vets to the Hemlock Society as the single referral for "end of life" directives. In fact, according to MM, the Hemlock Society is not even mentioned in the 51 page booklet.

Something progressives sometimes fail to bring up, however, in countering the "death panel" meme -- at least, when it comes to the V.A. and veterans counseling -- is the larger hypocrisy at play. In other words, what Rove and the wingnuts are doing is playing politics on the backs of the thousands of often severely mentally and physically disabled veterans they -- especially Rove, as the architect behind the selling of the Iraq War -- unnecessarily put in harms way in the first place.

It wasn't until late 07, by the way, that Bush even appeared with the more severely war wounded -- and only then after these veterans, having been sought out by photojournalists, became the subject of numerous media stories. Sadly, Bush's photo-ops mostly exploited these soldiers as props in the attempt to mitigate the PR damage and salvage his legacy in his last year in office two years after Katrina exposed Bush/Rove's "compassionate conservatism" for the slogan it was.

So Karl, if you're that intent on exploiting the kind of suffering and cost that would lead a veteran and/or his family to question the worth of existence, maybe you should tell it to the people paying for your handiwork, not Sean Hannity.

(screen grab: FOX News)

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Comments

[iteach4tomorrow]

It simply infuriates me to see Rove lie about services offered to soldiers in order to advance his political agenda. My son almost died on December 10, 2003 due to Rove and Bush's war of choice. As far as I am concerned they used my son and the sons and daughters of others to pursue their personal vendettas. Now they continue to exploit our children in an attempt to scare people in to continuing the status quo that allows their cronies to reap the profits of an profit driven health care system. They have no shame.

[Pupadup4oBama]

Those staged photo-ops are the precise reason why I love Barack Obama - there is nothing fake about him when he hugs a baby, or gives comfort to an elderly woman....h­e just is, and he just does.

[Moose49]

My father-in-law is nearing 90, and has recently been through a series of ailments, including several broken bones incurred in an auto accident. The quality of care he receives is world-class, with the VA going above and beyond the call of duty to help him recover, rehabilitate and regain his quality of life. It is superior to the care those not in the VA receive. And it is 100 percent socialized medicine, just like they provide in the UK -- his providers are employees of the federal government.

What will it take for people to realize that there are some things the government does better than the private sector, health care being exhibit A? Whether it's the VA (British-style socialized medicine) or Medicare (Canadian-style single-payer), they're both light years ahead of the private, for-profit insurance industry with its army of claims adjusters interfering with the doctor-patient relationship and trying to renege on their promise to pay for our care when we get sick or injured.

[Ahoon]

Haven't you heard ? It's all about money ! People aren't important.­...MONEY is !

[haji99]

After 22 years in the armed forces, and now retired, I can tell you first hand that military and VA care is seldom "superior". Good sometimes, mediocre often, but seldom approaching the quality that I receive outside that system. What I see often is the institutional mentality that leads to discontinuity and oversights in care. Customer service is not a priority because face it- where else are the customers going to go? Insofar as medical care, everyone collectively is responsible, therefore no one is. Consider also that upwards of 20% of Medicare expenditures are consumed by fraud. Expenses are contained by setting reimbursements below market rate, then creating a legal requirement for doctors & hospitals to accept medicare patients and payment levels. They just average it out with their "free market" patients. Bottom line- I'm all in favor of discussing health care reform but lets look at the PROBLEMS, not just who pays for it. As a government run program I think we'd end up with the medical equivalent of the US Postal Service.

[Moose49]

Obviously, I can't dispute your experience. All I can say is that I am repeatedly struck by the contrast between by father-in-law's experience with the VA -- where all the records are electronic so can go anywhere in the system -- and my mother-in-law's experience with Medicare, which means going to private doctors. My father-in-law gets more care and better care with better benefits. The VA has paid for physical therapy in the home, all the equipment he needs (e.g., wheelchair, then walker), etc.

I can also say, as someone who buys health insurance on the open market, that if I had the choice to sign up with Medicare (or a comparable public option), I would do it in a heartbeat to avoid the nightmare of dealing with an insurer who spends all their time trying to deny legitimate claims and forcing me to jump through 20 more hoops than anyone I know who is on Medicare.

[Laura McBride]

Your mediocre would be an uninsured person's superb. I wonder why those who have so much, so much choice and so much access to the developed world's least effective health care system, cannot see their way clear to open opportunities for health care to 47 million of their fellow citizens who have none. Could it be greed? Could it be lack of compassion? Could it be ignorance? Could it be gullibility, and a willingness to allow themselves to be duped by the imbecilic rantings of Sarah Palin and Charles Grassley? I don't expect an answer: I don't expect the Party of No and its fellow travelers has given it that much thought. They just react, like a bunch of amoebae in a petri dish being goosed with electrodes.