Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, the medical ethicist and oncologist who advises President Obama, does not own a television, and if you catch him in a typically energized moment, when his mind speeds even faster than his mouth, he is likely to blurt out something like, “I hate the Internet.” So it took him several days in late July to discover he had been singled out by opponents of health-care reform as a “deadly doctor,” who, according to an opinion column in the New York Post, wanted to limit medical care for “a grandmother with Parkinson’s or a child with cerebral palsy.” “I couldn’t believe this was happening to me,” says Emanuel, who in addition to spending his career opposing euthanasia and working to increase the quality of care for dying patients, is the brother of White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel.
Tag Archives: house
Failing to reform health care ‘truly scary,’ Obama says
President Obama complained Tuesday about opposition scare tactics against a proposed health care overhaul but said that failing to fix problems in the current system would be the scariest outcome of all. Obama addressed a supportive town hall meeting that contrasted with combative events held by Democratic Congress members, which have generated heated and sometimes disruptive responses. Also Tuesday, hostile crowds shouted questions and made angry statements against proposed health-care legislation at meetings in Pennsylvania and Missouri led by Democratic senators Arlen Specter and Claire McCaskill.
Condemnation over Suu Kyi sentence
The White House criticized the sentencing of Myanmar’s opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi to 18 more months of house arrest Tuesday, joining a chorus of condemnation from figures ranging from the Dalai Lama to the U.N. secretary-general.
Burma Court Finds Aung San Suu Kyi Guilty
Democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi will spend another 18 months as a prisoner of Burma’s military junta, a Rangoon court decreed today.
Has Congress Overreached in Search of Comfy Air Travel?
Last year’s howls of outrage when U.S.
Myanmar junta returns Suu Kyi to house arrest
Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi was found guilty of violating the terms of her house arrest by a military court Tuesday — and sentenced to serve 18 more months in home confinement.
Disruptions drown out debate at health care meetings
The battle raging over President Obama’s health care plan has spread from across the aisles in Congress to across the country.
Kate Gosselin breaks silence in interview
Even with their divorce pending, Kate Gosselin said — when asked if she still loves her soon-to-be ex Jon Gosselin — "When I think back to the Jon I knew — yes, suffice it to say." However, the star of TLC’s “Jon & Kate Plus 8,” who continues to wear her wedding ring, said that’s not because of any hope of reuniting with Jon. Speaking on Monday’s “Today Show” in her first live TV interview since her marriage ended seven weeks ago, Kate broke into tears as she told the program’s Meredith Vieira that the ring remains on her finger because “I don’t want to upset [the children].” The sextuplets and twins, all under the age of 10, “know that it’s my ‘married to Daddy’ ring,” she said. Repeatedly describing herself as “determined to hang in there,” Gosselin, 34, said “I am as well as can be expected” and prepared to deal with whatever life hands her.
Health care protests ‘clearly being orchestrated,’ senator says
The Senate’s second-ranking Democrat slammed recent town-hall protests over health care on Sunday, insisting they violate "the democratic process," while the Senate’s top Republican accused Democrats of "attacking citizens" with such complaints. Speaking to CNN’s “State of the Union,” Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Illinois, said: “We have these screaming groups on either side.
Putting Burma’s Junta on Trial
Last month two famous defendants — one adored, the other despised — appeared in courts nearly 10,000 km apart. Charles Taylor, the former President of Liberia, is being tried by a special tribunal in The Hague for murder, rape, torture and other war crimes allegedly committed during the decade-long conflict in neighboring Sierra Leone