Palin May Not have Been Off-Base with the Death Panel Comment

[Tarheel]

This is really nice...really rich.  What a wonderful and thoughtful thing to do for Veterans. (sarcasm) 

Folk in the media and many Democrats have mocked Sarah Palin for commenting about the fear of a possible "Death Panel" with Chairman Maobama's Healthcare Plan but apparently the Administration has already started down that path of thought with a 'Death Book' being distributed in the Department of Veteran's Affairs.

This is monstrous.

This is an excerpt from an article in the WSJ, all emphasis is my own:

The Death Book for Veterans
[AUGUST 19, 2009]

By JIM TOWEY

If President Obama wants to better understand why America's discomfort with end-of-life discussions threatens to derail his health-care reform, he might begin with his own Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). He will quickly discover how government bureaucrats are greasing the slippery slope that can start with cost containment but quickly become a systematic denial of care.

Last year, bureaucrats at the VA's National Center for Ethics in Health Care advocated a 52-page end-of-life planning document, "Your Life, Your Choices." It was first published in 1997 and later promoted as the VA's preferred living will throughout its vast network of hospitals and nursing homes. After the Bush White House took a look at how this document was treating complex health and moral issues, the VA suspended its use. Unfortunately, under President Obama, the VA has now resuscitated "Your Life, Your Choices."

Who is the primary author of this workbook? Dr. Robert Pearlman, chief of ethics evaluation for the center, a man who in 1996 advocated for physician-assisted suicide in Vacco v. Quill before the U.S. Supreme Court and is known for his support of health-care rationing.

"Your Life, Your Choices" presents end-of-life choices in a way aimed at steering users toward predetermined conclusions, much like a political "push poll." For example, a worksheet on page 21 lists various scenarios and asks users to then decide whether their own life would be "not worth living."

The circumstances listed include ones common among the elderly and disabled: living in a nursing home, being in a wheelchair and not being able to "shake the blues." There is a section which provocatively asks, "Have you ever heard anyone say, 'If I'm a vegetable, pull the plug'?" There also are guilt-inducing scenarios such as "I can no longer contribute to my family's well being," "I am a severe financial burden on my family" and that the vet's situation "causes severe emotional burden for my family."

When the government can steer vulnerable individuals to conclude for themselves that life is not worth living, who needs a death panel?

One can only imagine a soldier surviving the war in Iraq and returning without all of his limbs only to encounter a veteran's health-care system that seems intent on his surrender.
...

Full commentary:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB20001424052970204683204574358590107981718.html

[Saniflush]

Holy freaking shit!

[Kaos]

I hope they all die.  And in ways not contemplated.

[Come Honor Face]

WTF!

Why in the fuck would they give these brochures out?  Sounds like the brochure is pretty much telling the vets to just say "fuck it" instead of getting help and assistance they need.

[GH2001]

They love to badmouth Sarah because she is usually right and is a threat to 'them'.

It is a play right out of the play book of every modern liberals' hero, Saul Alinsky ('Rules for Radicals').

RULE 12: Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.. Cut off the support network and isolate the target from sympathy. Go after people and not institutions; people hurt faster than institutions. (This is cruel, but very effective. Direct, personalized criticism and ridicule works.)

Seriously, look this guy up. Everything Obama or any other hard left liberal does, is right out of this guy's play book. They idolize him. Very scary.