Politics Questioned in Hospital Plan (Laura Bush's Children's Hosp Iraq)

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/iraq/la-fg-hospital24feb24,1,772918.story?coll=la-home-headlines

Earlier this year, First Lady Laura Bush formed an unusual alliance with the White House National Security Council to fund a new state-of-the-art children's hospital in Iraq.

But rather than being embraced as a welcome addition to a nation with a shattered health-care system, the proposed hospital has quietly become a battleground.

Critics have questioned not only the wisdom of a high-end hospital in a country without basic health care, but the politics behind the proposal. The hospital would be operated under the guidance of Project Hope, a charity whose president is a Bush family acquaintance from Texas.

The clash, believed to be one of the few between the White House and Congress over a specific reconstruction project, has left the National Security Council bargaining for the hospital's fate and legislators questioning the administration's overall plan to rebuild Iraq.

[leesa]

1. These freaks are so far out of touch with reality...

although seeing as how her father-in-law and her nasty husband will be keeping the occupancy rate high with maimed and deformed children, for decades to come, perhaps the Bush name should be attached to it.

[madrchsod]

2. they have or had

at least 5 children's hospitals or hospitals with advanced natal care. these hospitals were state of the art before bush the lesser`s war and the un sanctions.

[PartyPooper]

3. Can you just imagine the furor if Hillary had been behind such a scheme?

*gasp*!

Look, I'm all for restoring the basic infrastructure and health services of Iraq. But, this "new state-of-the-art" childrens' hospital smacks of more Bu$h cronyism.

[cliss]

4. Some things just

defy comment, like this article. I guess the only thing I can say is this shows how perverted politics have become. How this idea could ever have made it to the discussion stage, much less to actual plans, is beyond me.

This couple is so out of touch with reality, that the just might pull it off. Why not start a George Bush Charity Center down the street?

[wellstone_democrat]

5. Project Hope very big with

several of the "Freeperish" religious nuts I know in Texas. I know nothing about it myself but I hear them talk about "tithing" through their Baptist church for the "good work" the organization does. Given their other interests along these lines, I assumed it was a missionary organization.

[kskiska]

6. This reminds me of Paul O'Neill's trip to Africa with Bono

(it's detailed in the O'Neill-Suskind book) where it's pointed out that water is needed in these primitive villages. When O'Neill asked about the previous studies on this problem, he was told that it cost way too much to build a system. All they needed were simple wells dug for a pittance. The government's estimates were for for plants to serve a city the size of Cincinnati. O'Neill went to Bush and tried to get a get money for the wells, but no one was interested. Now he's doing it on his own.

[I AM SPARTACUS]

8. well...O'Neill in Africa - did'n happen quite that way...

...in looking at the water situation in rural Uganda, O'Neill took a posture along the lines of "you say you need all these water programs - what's the problem, it only costs a few dollars to drill a well...". His ngo host then explained to him that sustainable development is a bit more complex than that. Extracting foot from mouth, O'Neill then made a good DC effort to see that his ngo host was in line for additional USAID funding.

To his credit, he turned his faux pas into a creditable deed...if he's funding efforts himself, cheers to him...

[burrowowl]

7. On commondreams and here

there were posts on a children's hospital with sewage backing up on the floors, still not enough for treating children with disentary, etc.
WHAT UNMITIGATED GALL, LAURA!
I see, a hospital for the rich and the rest be damned.

[teryang]

9. Sounds like another BushFRAUD

Tapping into government revenues for a foundation sounds right up their ally. Getting Laura to front it is a stroke of genius. Maybe they could consult with Nancy Reagan on how to steal the most the fastest. Of course, that really isn't necessary, they could call JebFRAUD on the secure line and dump tens of millions more into the secret European accounts.

[Voltaire99]

10. The Laura Bush Hospital for Uranium-Enriched Children

Dear Eye-raqis:

For a limited time only, receive 50% off your second amputation when you pay for the first amputation at regular cost!

[Ferretherder]

11. Priceless.

n/t

[leetrisck]

12. Think there is also a Laura Bush Medical Clinic

in Kabul, Afghanistan. Wonder how it is doing? Our tax dollars at work with ms. bush's name on it.

[Malva Zebrina]

13. How incredibly cruel and ironic to name a hospital after Laura Bush

A children's hospital above all.

How awful--her husband murdered tens of thousands of them and maimed thousands more, lied to us and the world to do so, and she as the first do nothing lady has a children's hospital named after her. What total absolute crap. All the vampires have surged into Iraq to cash in on a serial killer, war criminal's invasion haven't they.





Your husband's work, Mrs Rictus Stepford--proud to have a hospital named after you? You can show it to your grandchildren and brag about how a hospital for children was named after you, you who did not a damn thing in your life but raise money for a war criminal husband, and pretend you had a lifetime career in librarianism.

[MaineDem]

14. In Portland, ME there's the Barbara Bush Children's Hospital

I gag every time I even hear the name.

[0007]

15. Eleanor Roosevelt is doing flip flops and hand springs on her grave

2 first ladies - Lynne and Eleanor Roosevelt Pickles

Her determination to build the hospital comes as the first lady seeks a higher profile in government and politics during a presidential campaign year. She has already stepped up her appearances at fundraisers and begun a campaign to raise awareness of women's heart health issues.

[Barrett808]

16. Especially loathsome in light of the recent Independent report

Dying of neglect: the state of Iraq's children's hospitals

The wards are filthy, the sanitation shocking, the infections lethal. Sewage drips from the roof above cots of premature babies. This is the state of Baghdad's top children's hospital, 10 months after the fall of Saddam, reveals Justin Huggler
21 February 2004

In Iraq's hospitals, children are dying because of shockingly poor sanitation and a shortage of medical equipment. In Baghdad's premier children's hospital, Al-Iskan, sewage drips from the roof of the premature babies' ward, leaking from waste pipes above.

In the leukaemia ward, the lavatories overflow at times, spreading filthy water across the floor that carries potentially lethal infection.

Rubbish is piled on the stairs and in the corridors: old broken bits of machinery, discarded toilet cisterns, babies' cots filled with mountains of unwanted paperwork. The fire escape is blocked with discarded razor wire.

Nearby lie blankets still black with the blood of Iraqi soldiers wounded during the war - for months, they must have been fetid breeding grounds for disease.

(more)

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=493560

[starroute]

17. Project HOPE Board of Directors

Dr. Michele Barzach, International Consulting in Health Strategy

Arthur J. Benvenuto, President, Healthcare Strategies LLC

Arno Bohn, Bohn Consulting

Jo Ivey Boufford, M.D., Dean, The Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service

C. L. Clemente, Retired Executive Vice President, Pfizer, Inc.

Mrs. Edward N. Cole, Briarpatch Ranch

John W. Galiardo, Former Vice Chairman of the Board and General Counsel, Becton Dickinson

Jack M. Gill, Ph.D, President - The Gill Foundation, Research Scientist - Harvard Medical School, Founder - Vanguard Ventures

Bill Gradison, Board Member, Public Company Accounting Oversight Board

William L. Henry, Retired Executive Vice President, Gulf Oil Corporation

John P. Howe, III, M.D., President and Chief Executive Officer, Project HOPE

Dr. Franz B. Humer, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, F. Hofman-LaRoche, Ltd.

Robert A. Ingram, Vice Chairman, Pharmaceuticals, GlaxoSmithKline

Richard Jay Kogan, Retired, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, Schering-Plough Corporation

Katsuto Kohtani, Advisor, Agilent Technologies Japan, Ltd.

Göran S. Malm, President and Chief Executive Officer, Icon Medialab Asia

Gerhard N. Mayr, Executive Vice President, Eli Lilly and Company

J. Michael McQuade, Ph.D., Division Vice President, Medical Division 3M Company

Dayton Ogden, Chairman, SpencerStuart Worldwide

Steven B. Pfeiffer, Chairman, Executive Committee Fulbright & Jaworski, L.L.P.

James E. Preston, Retired Chief Executive Officer, Avon

Felicia Warburg Rogan, President, Oakencroft Vineyard and Winery Corp.

Stephen H. Rusckowski, Chief Executive Officer, Cardiac & Monitoring Systems, Philips Medical Systems

Charles A. Sanders, M.D., Retired Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Glaxo, Inc.

Dr. J . Friedrich Sauerländer, Chief Executive Officer, Manufacture des Montres Rolex S.A.

Curt M. Selquist, Company Group Chairman, Johnson & Johnson Healthcare Systems

Louis W. Sullivan, M.D., President Emeritus, Morehouse School of Medicine

Karen E. Welke, Retired Group Vice President, 3M

Bradley A. J. Wilson, Chief Executive, OnMedica Group Plc - UK

EMERITUS MEMBERS
Maurice R. Greenberg
Ben L. Holmes
Jerry E. Robertson, Ph.D.

[progressivebydesign]

19. Hey! Jack Gill is my friend's Father in Law!

Jack M. Gill, Ph.D, President - The Gill Foundation, Research Scientist - Harvard Medical School, Founder - Vanguard Ventures

His son and daughter-in-law are as liberal as it gets. Wierd to see his name on this.. He gives money to many universities and medical facilities. I have no idea of HIS politics... but I think he's pretty damn conservative, and lives in Texas.

[Sabriel]

18. Wouldn't it help more...

if we stopped maiming and killing their children in the first place? And what's next, the "George W. Bush Institute for World Peace"? Argh.