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City of Brass

Governor Palin proclaimed April 16, 2008 as Healthcare Decisions Day in Alaska

posted by Aziz Poonawalla | 12:40am Friday August 14, 2009

I called Sarah Palin a flat-out liar in my previous post because I believe she is too intelligent to believe that Obama’s reform agenda really includes “death panels” which would coerce euthanasia on senior citizens. The purpose of Palin’s deliberate lie was to get language about patient choice and living wills removed from the Senate version of the bill, which she succeeded in doing. With the cynical assumption that it won’t be restored in the final version of the bill, this is tantamount to denial of patients’ right to make decisions about their care at precisely the point in time when they are most vulnerable and least able toc ommunicate those desires.

Watching the Rachel Maddow show this evening, I saw a segment which made Palin’s grotesque hypocrisy on the matter quite clear – the official declaration of April 16, 2008 as “Healthcare Decisions Day” in Alaska, as proclaimed by then-Governor Sarah Palin. Here is the full text of the proclamation from the official website of the State of Alaska:

Healthcare Decisions Day

WHEREAS, Healthcare Decisions Day is designed to raise public awareness of the need to plan ahead for healthcare decisions, related to end of life care and medical decision-making whenever patients are unable to speak for themselves and to encourage the specific use of advance directives to communicate these important healthcare decisions. WHEREAS, in Alaska, Alaska Statute 13.52 provides the specifics of the advance directives law and offers a model form for patient use.

WHEREAS, it is estimated that only about 20 percent of people in Alaska have executed an advance directive. Moreover, it is estimated that less than 50 percent of severely or terminally ill patients have an advance directive.

WHEREAS, it is likely that a significant reason for these low percentages is that there is both a lack of knowledge and considerable confusion in the public about Advance Directives.

WHEREAS, one of the principal goals of Healthcare Decisions Day is to encourage hospitals, nursing homes, assisted living facilities, continuing care retirement communities, and hospices to participate in a statewide effort to provide clear and consistent information to the public about advance directives, as well as to encourage medical professionals and lawyers to volunteer their time and efforts to improve public knowledge and increase the number of Alaska’s citizens with advance directives.

WHEREAS, the Foundation for End of Life Care in Juneau, Alaska, and other organizations throughout the United States have endorsed this event and are committed to educating the public about the importance of discussing healthcare choices and executing advance directives.

WHEREAS, as a result of April 16, 2008, being recognized as Healthcare Decisions Day in Alaska, more citizens will have conversations about their healthcare decisions; more citizens will execute advance directives to make their wishes known; and fewer families and healthcare providers will have to struggle with making difficult healthcare decisions in the absence of guidance from the patient.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, Sarah Palin, Governor of the state of Alaska, do hereby proclaim April 16, 2008, as:

Healthcare Decisions Day in Alaska, and I call this observance to the attention of all our citizens.

Dated: April 16, 2008

Sarah Palin knew full well last April that advance directives are not “death panels” and she knows full well that the text of the bill in question only calls for reimbursing doctors when patients choose to “have conversations about their healthcare decisions”. The text of the proclamation is a far beter rebuttal to Palin’s death Panel nonsense than anything else I’ve seen. And it bears Palin’s own signature.



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Comments read comments(19)
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matoko_chan

posted August 14, 2009 at 9:46 am


Dude, that wasn’t a victory for her.
Obama stole her power with serenghetti magic right there.
She must be realizing that about now….he excised the end-of-life panels to pull her fangs…..now she can’t demagogue deathpanels to the low information base.
I think Sarah Palin is interesting, my habbibi.
In a way, she has killed the GOP. There are two types of people in the wide-wide world…elites and non-elites, and two basic tribal affiliations, conservative and liberal. Probably there is some genetic component. The american electorate segregates into thirds, basically…conservatives, independents and liberals, with half of the independents tending liberal and half tending conservative.
Traditionally the conservative leadership has posed itself as representing the non-elites, the commoners. This is a good strategy, because there are a lot more non-elites than elites. But America is a democratic meritocracy, so their leadership had to be a stealth elite pretending to be a commoner in order to win national elections.
Now Sarah Palin comes along and she is truly non-elite. What is more, she starts a movement to drive all the elites out of the GOP. But she is simply unelectable in a meritocracy.
So right now 6% of scientists are republicans, and 65% of people with post-grad degrees are democratic…..what this means is academe is painted blue, because teaching research scientists and people with post-grad degrees make up 99% of uni professors. So where do young conservative replacement reps with college degrees come from?
They don’t.
Add the pressure of the demographic timer on the non-hispanic cauc majority running out….and we are seeing conservative panic.
So the frenzy on the conservative side is tactical.
Healthcare reform isn’t Obama’s waterloo…..it is theirs.
I think she will try for the nom….the only way she can force Obama to engage with her is if he has to debate her. ;)
Just watch.



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hootie1fan

posted August 14, 2009 at 10:31 am


Don’t you know that “creating facts” and lying (aka bearing false witness) are okay as long as you do it in the name of Jesus Christ, Ronald Reagan and the corporate wallet.



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kelly

posted August 14, 2009 at 11:30 am


Sarah Palin will go to hell for the lies that she as told and the misery that results from her lies.



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bgates

posted August 14, 2009 at 2:35 pm


It’s hard to tell whether you’re a flat-out liar, because I don’t know whether you’re intelligent or not. Obviously encouraging people to discuss end-of-life medical care is much more innocuous when those doing the encouraging aren’t also vocal about the need to reduce cost (ie effort and expense) of end-of-life medical care.
Obama’s advisor was very clear that medical care would have to be rationed, and some group of august professionals would decide how to ration. If Palin’s memorable term for the dispassionate government employees who will have the final say over who is denied medical care bothers you, great.



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matoko_chan

posted August 14, 2009 at 2:59 pm


bgates, this game move is over.
Palin was demagoguing “death panels” to the low information base.
Obama cut the language out.
Next move.



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Your Name

posted August 14, 2009 at 3:10 pm


bgates
Even if you bought everything you heard on Fox News, what makes you think they would do a worse job of rationing than have been the insurance companies?



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Ernst

posted August 14, 2009 at 11:59 pm


What Sarah Palin in her proclamation is talking about is VOLUNTARY, what Obamah in that bill is talking about is a government forced ‘death panel’ or whatever you want to call it. The process described in that bill amounts to a death panel. We still have a constitution and a bill of rights, in case you forgot.



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Scorpius

posted August 15, 2009 at 7:38 am


Once again Aziz PooniWaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaWaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa is an abject liar. The first time came when, years ago, he libeled Israel by saying they were researching a bioweapon*, the second when he libeled Sarah Palin.
It is just inevitable that you put government in charge of of something everyone wants and needs like health care that rationing will happen. And with rationing comes denying people care that a board decides they don’t need or that would be a net deficit to the system. And with Barry already on record wanting a “single payer” or government-run health care system, this will happen.
Oh, and yes we have rationing now by the Insurance companies and HMOs; the difference is that if you are denied you can pay out of pocket. Once the Fed takes over health care the only way you can pay out of pocket is on the black market making you a criminal for trying to save your life.
*Yes, Aziz, you will never live this down. You are a racist little shit who does not belong in civil society.



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Dennis

posted August 15, 2009 at 12:53 pm


I asume that the angry disrespectful comments above where made by Republican right-wingers. Typical.



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Izela Gayle

posted August 15, 2009 at 2:53 pm


Has no one figured out that the woman realizes that she can do talk show and make money and be free to say whatever she wants? I dont think this makes her evil, I would think that anyone who had run for public service do it for valid reasons. I think she sees herself as a modern woman and she is right. I am a Bahai so I am not into partisan politics, but it sure is entertaining.
We live in magical times where one person can rise with hardly any capital to prosperity.
I hope many will see themselves being able to lift themselves. She did, she is a mother and has held public office and became notorious in a brief period of time. She would be a fool to stay in politics.
I believe she sees herself as the next female talk show hostess ala Oprah Winfrey. We have Jerry Springer and Rush Limbaugh, she sees the oppportunity for a female of her persuasion to be heard.



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Izela Gayle

posted August 15, 2009 at 2:55 pm


Has no one figured out that the woman realizes that she can do talk show and make money and be free to say whatever she wants? I dont think this makes her evil, I would think that anyone who had run for public service do it for valid reasons. I think she sees herself as a modern woman and she is right. I am a Bahai so I am not into partisan politics, but it sure is entertaining.
We live in magical times where one person can rise with hardly any capital to prosperity.
I hope many will see themselves being able to lift themselves. She did, she is a mother and has held public office and became notorious in a brief period of time. She would be a fool to stay in politics.
I believe she sees herself as the next female talk show hostess ala Oprah Winfrey. We have Jerry Springer and Rush Limbaugh, she sees the oppportunity for a female of her persuasion to be heard.



report abuse
 

Izela Gayle

posted August 15, 2009 at 2:57 pm


Has no one figured out that the woman realizes that she can do talk show and make money and be free to say whatever she wants? I dont think this makes her evil, I would think that anyone who had run for public service do it for valid reasons. I think she sees herself as a modern woman and she is right. I am a Bahai so I am not into partisan politics, but it sure is entertaining.
We live in magical times where one person can rise with hardly any capital to prosperity.
I hope many will see themselves being able to lift themselves. She did, she is a mother and has held public office and became notorious in a brief period of time. She would be a fool to stay in politics.
I believe she sees herself as the next female talk show hostess ala Oprah Winfrey. We have Jerry Springer and Rush Limbaugh, she sees the oppportunity for a female of her persuasion to be heard.



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Scorpius

posted August 15, 2009 at 5:39 pm


Dennis,
Nah, I’m a Democrat.



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Victoria

posted August 16, 2009 at 7:33 am


Relating to our national “dialogue??” on the healthcare in this country and what to do about it: I just did a cut and past of the following quote found today on the Beliefnet site with the riotous, mob type of responses, recently seen in our town meeting forums and elsewhere in mind “That it may please thee to inspire us, in our several callings, to do the work which thou gives us to do with singleness of heart as thy servants, and for the common good, we beseech thee to hear us, good Lord.” Then I clicked on this link to see what spiritual prayers or thoughts you had to offer today and saw your comment on Sarah Palin.
This issue is so important to all of us as a nation, both financially and morally, that a substantive and accurate dialogue is essential! This Bull —- approach will not help us to evolve a good plan. Please stop and play out the real questions that we should be addressing in considering our national solutions to Health Care issues and inequities! We cannot afford to play around with this and use it for political positioning for party switches by people responding to miss-information and purely emotional not reason based and ethical basses. REAL NATIONAL DIALALOGE TO FIND TRUTHES should and must be our national mission. And we need the guidance of our higher than self, under whatever name, God in my case, to help us get past the limits of self interest (Greed), ego and adrenal responses that give a delusion of power and owning “rightness” or “truth”.



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Your Name

posted August 16, 2009 at 1:52 pm


Palin is a woman of strength,her whole life has been and always be on the spotlight,she’s a transparent person,nothing is hidden that media
and all detractors will never know.If there’s one thing she got screwed up,i guess let the media bring out the detail why things happened.Good and bad comments are welcome to her but to judge her
is not and never our business,it’s God’s.



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JHA

posted August 17, 2009 at 3:33 pm


To call a person, or, a thing for what it is is not being judgemental. It’s telling the truth. Sometimes the truth hurts. Sarah Palin was being disingenuous at best and hypocritical at worst as was shown in the article above.
To say that she is a fighter is something I question at least as of late. She didn’t event finish her first term as Governor of Alaska (one of the least troublesome states to govern). Perhaps, staying out of the political fray is her best bet considering she lacks the credibility, or the credentials make the informed calls on the political issues.



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OBJECTIVE

posted August 17, 2009 at 4:34 pm


“Your Name” is missing the point by just defending someone of her/his faith rather than addressing the issue. The issue is simply this: Why would someone deliberately cloud with fear our Seniors’ vision in understanding the proposed Health Reform. Sarah “might” be a woman of strength, (and that’s debatable from my point of view), but that’s not what the writer of this column is considering. He was simply revealing the two faces of a person who is calculatingly attacking the proposed Reform, while at the same time is using the main principles the same Reform in proclaiming April 16 a State-wide Heath Care Day in Alaska. Judging Sarah as a person was not the “why” for the author’s opinion. And if YOU are leaving Judgment to God, why are you writing your own judgment under someone else’s name? You would be serving your fellow believers better if you helped them know how to discriminate between loud false, harmful attacks and unemotionally true discussions of the proposed Reform. That is the only way we, all of us Americans of every faith, can help the President incorporate our voices and views into the New Reform. Sarah does love the spotlight. And her strength shouldn’t be admired. Because it is the byproduct of an egocentric and self-serving soul.



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lewis

posted November 3, 2011 at 10:36 pm

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