Saturday, August 8, 2009

THERE was a letter to the editor in last evening's local newspaper that cites page and paragraph numbers of an unspecified document that, it alleges, will cause President Obama will do terrible things to people. Of course, this letter is one of the more gross falsehoods being passed around the country by Republican Party operatives and/or their surrogates. There is no single health care bill yet, but rather several, and none agreed to, so just what document the writer is referring to can't be known — perhaps pages in "Alice in Wonderland"?

It was not a legitimate letter. The editor who decides what letters to print should know better. Let Jim Wallis, founder of Sojourners, weigh in on the moral virtues of truth-telling.

To check out the latest claims being perpetuated by the proponents of the status quo (as well as claims by proponents of "reform), go to Politifact.com, a fact-checking site operated by the St. Petersburg (FL) Times.

Or to get the skinny on the "protesters" disrupting town hall meetings on health care reform, read Paul Krugman's Friday column in the NYT. A quotation:

Yes, well-heeled interest groups are helping to organize the town hall mobs. Key organizers include two Astroturf (fake grass-roots) organizations: FreedomWorks, run by the former House majority leader Dick Armey, and a new organization called Conservatives for Patients’ Rights.

The latter group, by the way, is run by Rick Scott, the former head of Columbia/HCA, a for-profit hospital chain. Mr. Scott was forced out of that job amid a fraud investigation; the company eventually pleaded guilty to charges of overbilling state and federal health plans, paying $1.7 billion — yes, that’s “billion” — in fines. You can’t make this stuff up.

You can't? Wanna bet?