Boortz Challenges Olberman to a Duel!

Ok, ok - I admit to a bit of hyperbole in the title - technically it wasn't a "Duel" it's a Debate, but then when you're dealing with a deluded Wingnut he says Potah-to while probably meaning Squash.

Here's what got under Boortzy's Skin.

OLBERMANN: Each day it seems the lunatic fringe finds a new way to permit its adherents to view the rest of us as a little less than human – we don’t count as much as they do, ordinary Americans don’t matter.

Newest example, hate-radio-host Neal Boortz yesterday: ‘Obamacare will do more damage’ he said, ‘ than a successful terrorist bombing of an airliner and kill more people as well.’ So, rather than count how many things are wrong with that statement, or how many times Neal Boortz must have been abused for him to wind up so dehumanized for him to say such a thing, let us answer it on his terms. What would you do, sir, if terrorists were killing 45,000 people each year in this country?

[At first I thought Keith was reading a TYPO when he said 45,000 - because had thought it was only 4,500 - but then I checked and HE'S RIGHT!]

45,000 people a year IS MORE THAN TEN TIMES THE NUMBER OF PEOPLE KILLED AT 9-11 OR DURING THE ENTIRE IRAQ WAR - and it happens Each and Every Year.

"We're losing more Americans every day because of inaction ... than drunk driving and homicide combined," Dr. David Himmelstein, a co-author of the study and an associate professor of medicine at Harvard, said in an interview with Reuters.

Overall, researchers said American adults age 64 and younger who lack health insurance have a 40 percent higher risk of death than those who have coverage.

...

"For any doctor ... it's completely a no-brainer that people who can't get health care are going to die more from the kinds of things that health care is supposed to prevent," said Woolhandler, a professor of medicine at Harvard and a primary care physician in Cambridge, Massachusett

There is not likely to be another terrorist attack as deadly as was the attack on New York's Twin Towers not unless Chemical, Biological or Nuclear elements are used. And at this point the that odds of that, when terrorists have to resort to packing a bomb under their nutsack, are practically NIL.

Just under 4,000 people died on 9/11 and just over 4000 Americans in the Iraq War.

There is NO WAY we could have a Terrorist Attack TEN TIMES THE SIZE OF 9/11 each and every year -- and the primary result of Health Reform by providing access to care to at least 35 Million additional American is likely to Lower that figure not increase it.

To which Boortz responded via Twitter.



Boortz is a guy who said the residents of New Orleans who survived Katrina and needed assistance afterward were "Parasites", he's called welfare recipients "Human Parasitic Garbage" and that low income Americans shouldn't be allowed to vote.

At the very least he's a class bigot, and potentially a full-on racist.

Here's the thing though, Boortz argument is that Obama's Plan (which at this point is really Harry Reid's Plan) is like to KILL Americans - but the problem is that AMERICANS ARE ALREADY DYING, and every indicator - each and every single one - is that increasing access to care Will Save Lives.

Most of the Health Care Debate so far has been over the issue of costs controls and cost containment. That's where the debate of the Public Option vs Individual Mandates exists. How Will Costs Be Decreased? Even in the one alleged "Lie" that Obama has uttered during this entire process, it's been about whether providing access to preventative care rather than emergency/critical care will Save Money - and the CBO has said it won't, but that it would SAVE LIVES.

Via PoliticFact.

"Sweeping statements about the cost-saving potential of prevention ... are overreaching," according to the paper. "Studies have concluded that preventing illness can in some cases save money but in other cases can add to health care costs."

And a study conducted by researchers from the American Diabetes Association, American Heart Association and the American Cancer Society concluded that, while interventions to prevent cardiovascular disease would prevent many strokes and deaths, "as they are currently delivered, most of the prevention activities will substantially increase costs."

So, the consensus is that, while preventive care will almost certainly save lives, it won't reduce government spending on health care. As a result, we rate Obama's statement False.

So Obama was wrong about saving money with preventive screenings according to the CBO - but he's was RIGHT about it saving lives.

The Claims that Obama care will lead to Euthanasia are False and have been thoroughly debunked by Factcheck.org

On former Sen. Fred Thompson’s radio show, former lieutenant governor of New York Betsy McCaughey said that the House’s proposed health care bill contained a provision that would institute mandatory counseling sessions telling seniors how "to do what’s in society’s best interest ... and cut your life short." House Minority Leader John Boehner made a slightly more measured statement, warning that the same provision "may start us down a treacherous path toward government-encouraged euthanasia if enacted into law."

In truth, that section of the bill would require Medicare to pay for voluntary counseling sessions helping seniors to plan for end-of-life medical care, including designating a health care proxy, choosing a hospice and making decisions about life-sustaining treatment. It would not require doctors to counsel that their patients refuse medical intervention.

Just to make this personal for a second, me and my wife haven't technically had health care for the last 6 years since all my work as a Software Contractor for the State of California went in the shitter after Enron dry-boned our entire state and completely fracked up the budget.

We've had to use Emergency Room-Based Care ever since - on the Average our wait times have been for about 25 Hours at a stretch. As a result, we don't go unless it's REALLY SERIOUS - like a lot of American's we simply don't do "Preventive Care" - and the last time we waited nearly a week and half before my wife's abdominal pain became too intense we had to grin and bare 20 hours awake in a set of stiff-backed plastic chairs. As usual, it was almost exactly 20 Hours later that we finally saw a Doctor and they diagnosed her with Diverticulitis, which if we had waited much longer could easily have turned fatal.

I still have a stiff shoulder - 3 months later - from trying sleep in that damn chair. In fact I've had a lump on my leg the size of a stack of quarters for about 5 years - I'm not letting those NUMB-NUTS anywhere near it, not until I have real health care again.

We've seen people in that Emergency Room with Severed Limbs (a finger specifically) - openly bleeding on the floor and still had to wait nearly 20 hours without meds while being told only to "Put Pressure on the wound". That would be wound that made him nearly pass out every time he touched it. More Pressure? Yeah, right.

Wanna talk about delayed care and long wait times? Two Years ago my wife fell down a flight of stairs, it took 18 Months... EIGHTEEN MONTHS... to get these people in County services to give her an MRI and see why she was suffering from chronic back pain that entire time. That would be back pain so severe that she goes into sleep-deprivation unless she takes a vicodin every night. Turns out that a bit of bone is impinging on her Spinal Cord - and just yesterday (on the date of our 19th Wedding Anniversary), which is still 2 Months after the MRI itself - they're thinking they might have to get a neuro-surgeon involved to release the pressure before the cord is completely severed.

DON'T TELL ME THAT PEOPLE WITHOUT HEALTH CARE ARE DOING JUST FINE IN AMERICA! That's a Fracking Lie!

Shit like this is why all the people "Kill The Bill and Start Over" from either side of the aisle were not on my Christmas List. For a lot of us, the CLOCK IS ALREADY TICKING, and a "Do-Over" is not acceptable.

Neal you DOLT, care under the Obama plan will not be "Rationed" - instead out of pocket costs will be capped, and Minimum Standards of quality based on better postive results for the patient will be instituted, not ways to exclude patients from care in order to reduce the "Bottom Line".

Any serious reduction to the number of people who are already dying because of lack of care is likely to far outstrip all we lost on 9-11 and all we lost on Iraq and in Afghanistan Combined - EVERY YEAR.

But here's the thing, the people who lives would be saved (and dramatically improved) would be exactly the people that Boortz considers to be Parasites, the Poor and the Uninsured. People like me who saw their career and livelihood completely flushed down the toilet by Bush and his Crony Corporatism. People that Boortz doesn't consider to be "PEOPLE" at all - which if you go back again is Exactly What Keith Said.

OLBERMANN: Each day it seems the lunatic fringe finds a new way to permit its adherents to view the rest of us as a little less than human – we don’t count as much as they do, ordinary Americans don’t matter.

Ordinary Parasitic Americans who have the temerity simply need a little help once in a while.

Ordinary Americans like Nataline Sarkysian who died because her private insurance plan - CIGNA - cancelled her care because had the nerve to get Cancer at 17.

Ordinary Americans like Eric Dela Cruz who couldn't get a heart transplant because he wasn't on a government run health-care program like Medicare.

Ordinary Americans like me and my wife.

There is no "Debate" here.

Olbermann is dealing in Fact, while Boortz is working in absolutely paranoid fantasy. Meeting Boortz "Mano-a-Mano" is a complete waste of time other than to completely humiliate him by pointing out the sad fact that Santa Clause, the Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy, Darth Vader and Death Panels Aren't Real!

And the evil lazy poor people aren't going to use their secret ACORN ARMY to take all your Health Care away..hee hee...

Vyan