HEALTH CARE
Right Wing Attacks 12-Year Old Boy
On Sept. 22, President Bush used
his weekly radio address to lambaste Congress for its efforts
to increase five-year
funding for
the State Children's Health Insurance Program
(SCHIP). In the address, Bush threatened to veto the bill, which he
eventually did on Oct.
3. A week later, in an effort to change Bush's mind, the Democratic
Radio Address featured a 12-year old boy named Graeme
Frost, who had received life-saving care through Maryland's CHIP
program after his family was in a car accident. "I don't know why
President Bush wants to stop kids who really need help
from getting CHIP," said Frost in the address. "All I know is I have
some really good doctors...and I'm glad
I could see them
because of the Children's Health Program." Conservatives, like
House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH), were quick to complain about Frost's impassioned plea for
presidential compassion. "To use an
innocent young child as a human shield...is, frankly, beyond the
pale," said a spokesman for Boehner. The Weekly Standard's William
Kristol called Frost's address "pathetic."
Boehner and Kristol's disparaging complaints were mild, however,
compared to the attacks on Frost and his family that soon developed on conservative
blogs and talk
radio over the past week.
THE ANATOMY OF A SMEAR: On
Saturday, Oct. 6, a poster
at Free Republic propagated information alleging that Frost was
actually a rich kid being pampered by the government. Among other bits
of information, the post by the Freeper "icwhatudo"
asserted that Graeme and his sister Gemma attend wealthy schools that
cost "nearly $40,000 per year for tuition" and live in a
well-off home. The Freeper smear, which distorted
the facts with innuendo, was soon picked up across the conservative
blogosphere. The National
Review, Michelle
Malkin, Wizbang, Powerline, the Weekly
Standard blog and others all
used the Freeper's claims to launch assaults on the Frost family. "The
boy is fair game," said National Review's Mark Steyn. One blogger
at RedState suggested that "a team of PIs" should be hired to
investigate the Frost family's finances in order to "destroy
their lives with that info." Instead of hiring a team, Malkin
investigated the Frosts herself, visiting Mr. Frost's business and
driving to the family's home. On Monday, right-wing radio host Rush
Limbaugh picked up the story, claiming that Democrats "filled
[Graeme's] head
with lies just as they have some of these soldiers." Though
congressional conservatives are staying officially silent on the smear
campaign, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's (R-KY) office is intently
tracking the story while one Senate GOP aide told the Politico, "We're
going to ride this story."
MYTH -- THE FROSTS ARE RICH: As
The New Republic's Jonathan Cohn, a
health care reporter, notes, the
Freeper's charges amount to little more than the fact that the
Frosts "have
jobs, make a decent living, and own their home." "One house in the
Graeme's neighborhood has recently sold for half a
million dollars, they reported," writes Cohn. "Graeme's father, Halsey,
owned his own
business and had his own commercial property. Graeme and his sister
went to an elite private school where tuition was some $20,000 a year."
While these assertions by the Freeper are correct, they omit crucial
context that directly undermines the conclusions fueling the
conservative histrionics. Together, the Frosts "earn
between $45,000 and $50,000 a year," which makes them "eligible for
Maryland's Children's Health Program." Though Graeme does attend the
private school, the
Frosts only pay $500 a year due to a scholarship. Because of
injuries
sustained in her accident, his sister Gemma attends another private
school that costs
$23,000 a year, but
the state pays the entire cost. As for their "lavish home," the
Frosts bought it in 1990 for $55,000, at a time when the
neighborhood was less safe. Including Halsey's workplace, the family
"is still
paying off the mortgages on both properties" they own. In her
investigation of the family, Malkin spoke to a friend of Halsey's, who
said the family is "struggling,"
but she refused to believe it.
FACT -- SCHIP HELPS WORKING FAMILIES: The
fact that families like the Frosts can "have jobs, make a
decent living and own their homes" but still not be able to afford
health insurance is exactly what SCHIP seeks to address. "SCHIP
finances basic, usually private health insurance for children in
families with too much
income to qualify for Medicaid but too little to
afford coverage on their own," write former Sen. Tom Daschle (D-SD)
and Center for American Progress President and CEO John Podesta. The
Congressional Budget Office estimates that at any given time, about
5.4 million children are eligible for Medicaid or SCHIP, yet remain
uninsured. The SCHIP bill passed by Congress, but vetoed by
Bush, would
extend coverage to four million children. "We stood up in the first
place because S-chip really helped our family," Bonnie Frost told the
New York Times. "And
we wanted to help other families." For her desire to extend
the help her family has received to others in need, Ms. Frost and her
family are now being targeted
by conservatives with an ideological axe to grind.
MILITARY -- ARMY OFFERS LUCRATIVE
BONUSES TO STEM 'CRITICAL SHORTAGE OF OFFICERS': The Army is
offering
large cash bonuses in the face of "a critical shortage of officer
ranks that have been hit hard by frequent
deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan." "Army officials said that
lengthy and repeated war-zone tours -- the top
reason younger officers leave the service -- plus the need for
thousands of new officers as the Army moves forward with expansion
plans have contributed to a projected shortfall of about 3,000 captains
and majors for every year through 2013." In an effort to stem these
shortages, the Army has offered bonuses of "$25,000 to $35,000 in
exchange for committing to serve three more years." So far, about 6,000
of the
eligible 18,000 officers have taken the bonus. This shortfall is not
unique to officers; the Army was able to meet its recruitment goal
recently but only by rushing "enlistees into its ranks more quickly
than usual, depleting
the number
in the pipeline for next year to less than 7,000 -- the smallest in
more than a decade." In a press conference Monday, Army Chief of Staff
Gen. George
Casey stated the Army
would continue to be "out
of balance" as long as significant number of U.S. troops
occupy Iraq.
IRAQ -- MILITARY ANALYST BLASTS THE 'SOFT-PARTITION' OF IRAQ AS A
'CRUEL OXYMORON': Recently,
the Senate voted 75-23 in favor of an amendment introduced by Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE) calling
for the division of Iraq into at least three sectarian enclaves. "You
make federalism work for the Iraqis," claimed Biden. In a report released yesterday, Center for Strategic and International Studies
analyst Anthony Cordesman hit back against the idea of a
"soft-partition" imposed by coalition forces. "Cordesman said any form
of formal federalism or partition
could be dangerous." Calling the label "soft partition" a
"cruel oxymoron," he said that "virtually every aspect of sectarian and
ethnic struggle to date has been brutal, and come at a high economic
cost to those affected" and would encourage external elements to
"exploit Iraq's weakness and divisions." The soft-partition plan is
also supported by Brookings
Institution analyst Michael O'Hanlon, a long-time escalation
proponent. In his
opposition to the plan, Cordesman is joined by the 98
percent of Iraqis who oppose the partitioning of their country on
sectarian lines, according to a September poll.
ETHICS -- ALABAMA GOV.
ALLEGEDLY PROSECUTED 'AS A RESULT OF ROVE TALKING TO' DOJ: Last
month, House leaders began an investigation into improper communications between former White House adviser Karl
Rove and the Justice
Department regarding the prosecution of former Democratic Alabama
governor Don
Siegelman, who was jailed in June on federal
corruption charges. Yesterday, House Judiciary Committee Chairman
John
Conyers (D-MI) released the full
143- page testimony of Alabama lawyer Jill Simpson, who said that
Rove directly intervened in the prosecution. "They were pursuing Don
Siegelman as a result of Rove talking to the Justice Department,"
she said. Simpson testified that Rove had assured Republicans involved
in the prosecution that Siegelman would face Mark Fuller, an
Alabama federal judge who reportedly "hated" Siegelman.
Simpson said that Rove told these operatives that "Fuller would hang Don
Siegelman." The Committee is expected to investigate the Bush administration's alleged interference in the activities of the
Department of Justice next week. As Time noted, if Simpson's testimony
is accurate, "it would show direct political involvement by the White
House in federal prosecutions -- a charge leveled by Administration
critics in connection
with the U.S. attorney scandal."
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A poll done for Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) "found that 70 percent of
registered voters think President Bush's $200 billion Iraq war
supplemental spending request should be rejected
or conditioned on redeployment."
"The Marine Corps is pressing to remove its forces from Iraq and to send
marines instead to Afghanistan, to take over the leading role in
combat there, according to senior military and Pentagon officials."
The United Nations urged U.S. authorities to establish mechanisms to hold security contractors accountable "for unjustified killings
and to ensure that offenses committed in Iraq 'by all categories of
U.S. contractor employees' are subject
to prosecution."
The AP reports that the State Department "may phase out or limit
the use of private security guards in Iraq, which could mean canceling
Blackwater USA's contract or awarding it to another company in line
with an Iraqi government demand."
A new study finds that the "amount of moisture in the air near
Earth's surface rose 2.2 percent in less than three decades."
Researchers note that this increase
in humidity bears the "man-made fingerprint of global warming."
And finally: "Staffers at the Senate Press Gallery have been
noticing heavy usage on one of their printers in recent weeks and set
out to find out why." Launching a "quiet investigation," one staffer
"discovered a suspicious file in the computer and printed it out." The
file turned out to be "page after page from the Daily Racing
Form." Staffers suspect either "someone
from the cleaning crew or a reporter staying late at night."
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In a "major defeat to the Bush administration," a federal judge
ruled that "the government cannot use mismatched Social Security
data" to root out undocumented immigrants from the workforce, saying it
would do "irreparable
harm to innocent workers and employers."
ILLINOIS:
Pharmacists opposed to dispensing emergency birth control agree to let
someone
else fill the prescriptions, ensuring that minors "would not be turned
away."
MASSACHUSETTS:
"Public health regulators reversed yesterday a controversial limit on
stem cell research imposed during the administration of Governor Mitt
Romney (R)."
UTAH: "Utah is
responsible for more greenhouse gas emissions per capita than the rest
of the nation."
THINK
PROGRESS: Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) discredits right-wing hysteria
over a rumored congressional investigation of talk radio.
TPM
ELECTION CENTRAL: Nearly 90 Members of Congress sign a letter
pledging to no longer fund the Iraq war.
DAILY
KOS: Listeners of Rush Limbaugh's radio show flood VoteVets.org
with hate mail.
MEDIA
MATTERS: CNN's Glenn Beck falsely claims Scooter Libby "went to
jail" for obstructing the CIA leak investigation.
"I urge members to oppose the Armenian genocide resolution now
being considered by the House Foreign Affairs Committee."
-- President Bush, 10/10/07
VERSUS
"The Armenians were subjected to a genocidal campaign that defies
comprehension. ... If elected President, I would ensure that our nation
properly recognizes the tragic suffering of the Armenian people."
-- President Bush, 2/19/00
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