On the way to work Friday afternoon I caught this exchange* between Rush and “Kathy in Kansas City”. She described an encounter between herself and a specialist she was referred to about her carpal tunnel syndrome. Kathy is a nurse and lawyer and she was referred to this guy by her primary care physician. Somehow they got to talking about capital punishment and the conversation went downhill from there. She was so put off by the comments the doctor was making she asked for her treatment to be stopped and told him she was filing a complaint. The key part of Kathy’s call was this:

CALLER: Well, I’ll tell you outright exactly how it went because I immediately burst in and said, “Well, but, you know, there is the dignity of every individual human life.” I said, “When somebody is sentenced to death we want to be really, really sure that they are guilty,” and I said it’s like with, you know — I didn’t know he was for Obamacare, so I said it’s like with abortion, with individual babies, or with, you know, older people. He broke in and that’s where he said the thing about capital punishment and how we shouldn’t even really bother too much about it, there shouldn’t even be such a long appeal process because not only criminals, he said, but people who are useless in society, said it’s really clear to me for some time that they should just be, quote, put out of the way. I brought up the mammographies, none until you’re 50 years of age, at which point he told me it’s true that a lot of young women would probably die or have breast cancer and it would go undiagnosed, he said, but, you know what, I’m originally from Canada, so I really like that model because we really can’t give such great care as we give, we have too many MRIs floating all over the place. I said to him, “Look, I understand.” I said, “I’m a lawyer for tort reform, I don’t want doctors practicing defensive medicine.” He said, “But that’s not enough. We just have to realize that people cannot get this great care they think they’re entitled to.”

Let me emphasize:

He said, “But that’s not enough. We just have to realize that people cannot get this great care they think they’re entitled to.“

Now this doctor was originally from Canada, you know, that country to the north of us that has such a great health care system. The country whose health care system is held up as a model for what ours should be. The country whose health care system was rejected by one of their own provincial premieres who came to the United States for his heart surgery.

The conversation went on:

CALLER: Well, I don’t know why he’s for it. He kept saying that he was from Canada and how great Canada was. I asked him, “Well, how come you’re practicing here?” No answer.

RUSH: Wait. If he’s talking about how great Canada is then goes on to cite, yeah, we don’t waste care on people that don’t need it, we don’t give mammograms, I mean people aren’t entitled to all the coverage they want, they just think they’re going to get it for nothing, but they’re not. That’s exactly what happens in Canada.

CALLER: Exactly. He was perfectly clear, and he was totally cool with that. I can’t tell you what it feels like to be flat on your back, you know, they’ve got these different needles in you when you’re getting an EMG and you’re kind of a captive audience and I started to realize with such horror that that was how he was treating me. And he was true to his word. Because when I had come in he said, “I’m reading the thing from your doctor, I’m sure that you need to have the surgery, both sides,” he said, but at the end he became very angry with me because I had shot his arguments all to pieces. I told him about Zeke Emanuel saying how the problem with our care system is that doctors take the Hippocratic Oath too seriously.

Kathy left without paying the guy and later called his office requesting they not bill her or her insurance company. It’s a good thing she did that now because if ObamaCare™ isn’t repealed she probably wouldn’t be able to do that.

Ed Morrissey has a collaborative piece at Hot Air. Read the NYT article he links to. Saying no is what the elites want. If this plan will somehow magically reduce the deficit, then saying no, and often, will of course be the way in which they will try to make it happen. Kathy’s specialist seemed to want to wait until she was nearly crippled with carpal tunnel, saying he just didn’t see the “numbers” he needed to treat her, especially after she challenged him.

If Kathy’s experience with this Canadian doctor is indeed the future of ObamaCare™, I say no thanks. But if this health care deform doesn’t get repealed, it well may be a bureaucrat saying no, or “I just don’t see the numbers I need” rather than a transplanted specialist who, even though he seems to love Canada’s system, chose to come to the U.S. to practice medicine. By the way, he never did answer Kathy when she asked him why he came here, if he thought Canada’s system was so great. Maybe Canada’s health care bureaucracy wouldn’t let him make the money he thought he should be making, hmmm?

Stick around, Doc. If ObamaCare™ isn’t repealed, you’ll soon be in the same boat. Or worse.

*Please note links to transcripts from Rush’s show on the guest page become inactive a week from the date they are posted.

Lost among the news going into Tuesday’s elections was the story of a former Planned Parenthood director in Bryan, Texas who resigned after seeing the ultrasound of an abortion. Fox News had the story on their website Monday.

Abby Johnson, 29, used to escort women from their cars to the clinic in the eight years she volunteered and worked for Planned Parenthood in Bryan, Texas. But she says she knew it was time to leave after she watched a fetus “crumple” as it was vacuumed out of a patient’s uterus in September.

I imagine what she saw was something like the infamous “Silent Scream” video and when they say ‘Warning. Graphic content.” they mean it. Part 3 on that page is the relevant part.

Our friend and RedState member Mailloux has written several powerful diaries on abortion and Planned parenthood, including the “Fetal Hand Grasp Child”, “The Arrogance of Man and the Triumph of Love”. “Somewhere Between Rage, an Abyss of Sorrow, and Redemption . . .”, and “Live Action, Planned Parenthood, and John 8:44″. The deceit of Planned Parenthood he talks about in “The Arrogance of Man and the Triumph of Love” is front and center with Abby Johnson’s story. While the public face they put on is one of concern for all aspects of women’s health, including pregnancy tests, breast and cervical cancer screening, and STD testing Abby found out what the true focus of the organization was as director of the Texas clinic.

Money. Abortion money.

Johnson said she became disillusioned with her job after her bosses pressured her for months to increase profits by performing more and more abortions, which cost patients between $505 and $695.

“Every meeting that we had was, ‘We don’t have enough money, we don’t have enough money — we’ve got to keep these abortions coming,’” Johnson told FoxNews.com. “It’s a very lucrative business and that’s why they want to increase numbers.”

Planned Parenthood’s national media director Diane Quest says 90% of their focus is on prevention explaining that a “core component the organization’s mission is to help women plan healthy pregnancies and prevent unintended pregnancies.” But at the Texas clinic where Johnson worked her bosses saw things differently. She was told to change her priorities and focus on abortions.

“For them there’s not a lot of money in education,” she said. “There’s as not as much money in family planning as there is abortion.”

Without a doctor in residence, she said, her clinic offered abortions only two days a month, but the doctor could perform 30 to 40 procedures on each day he was there. Johnson estimated that each abortion could net the branch about $350, adding up to more than $10,000 a month.

“The majority of the money was going to the facility,” she said.

[snip]

“Ideally my goal as the facility’s director is that your abortion numbers don’t increase,” because “you’re providing so much family planning and so much education that there is not a demand for abortion services.

“But that was not their goal,” she said.

Somehow I don’t think the Bryan, Texas clinic is alone in that goal. One has to wonder just how many Planned Parenthood clinics think likewise. They have since filed a restraining order against Johnson and Coalition for Life, an anti-abortion group that held frequent prayer vigils outside the clinic. After resigning Johnson joined that group. A hearing is set for November 10 to determine if an injunction will be issued against them. A spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood said

We regret being forced to turn to the courts to protect the safety and confidentiality of our clients and staff, however, in this instance it is absolutely necessary

Gateway Pundit has also covered this story and has a video from local TV.

One has to wonder how many other Abby Johnson’s are out there and what kind of coercion PP puts on people who resign for whatever reason not to talk to the press. Johnson said she never intended to release any sensitive information about her patients, but for uncertain reasons the restraining order was issued anyway. But the accusations by Johnson of encouraging as many abortions as possible certainly seems like one reason to me. That would fly in the face of the visage PP presents to the public, a public that is increasingly anti-abortion, as this Examiner article notes referencing a Gallup poll earlier this year.

I imagine that after seeing an abortion on ultrasound Abby Johnson has come to realize that one of the old arguments pro-abortion activists consistently put out to promote their cause has lost some validity. The one of “It’s my body. I should have the right to an abortion if I want one”

Someone else’s body is involved. Someone whose rights are to be denied as PP seeks more profits. 1 Timothy 6:10 tells us “For the love of money is the root of all evil”. To me there is nothing more evil than the murder of an unborn child.

Abby Johnson has decided she does not want to be a part of that anymore.

[Video Update]

On Saturday, November 7th Abby Johnson appeared on Huckabee. Hear her story in her own words. The audio on this clip is a little distorted, so you may want to turn the volume down a little.

There’s just nothing I can add to that. Unviable tissue mass? Yeah, right.

Yep, Northeast Tennessee/Southwest Virginia hosted the President as he came to push health care Wednesday. Now this area went heavily for McCain in 2008, as this map shows (click on Tennessee and Vrginia to see the county-by-county breakdown, then scroll over the counties to see the percentages of Obama vs. McCain. The relevant counties here are Sullivan, TN and Washington, VA). So why would Obama even bother coming into enemy territory to push his plan? Well, even here, believe it or not, he’s been able to chose a, probably, sympathetic audience.

You see, he’s appeared at a Kroger grocery store in Bristol, VA. Kroger’s employees are union, and the folks employed at this store are represented by the UFCW Local 400. As this article points out, only those with tickets could get in to see and hear Obama, and only Kroger employees got tickets. Some town hall meeting, eh? The UFCW, like most unions, favors the health plan and donates to Democrats’ campaigns:

UFCW is a strong health care reform advocate and backs cost controls in the health insurance industry as well as Obama’s call for a public health insurance option.

The union, in a statement on its Web site (www.ufcw.org), said it does not support taxing health benefits.

UFCW also recently questioned Walmart’s announced support for “fair and broad” health insurance coverage mandates on employers.

“As a company that has had a significant role in fueling this nation’s health care crisis, I have serious questions about Walmart’s commitment to playing a constructive role in fashioning reform that, in fact, provides quality affordable care for all,” UFCW President Joseph Hansen said in a June 30 letter sent to Obama.

The union’s political action committee gave more than $1.8 million to House and Senate Democratic candidates in the 2008 federal election cycle, according to the Federal Election Commission.

Meanwhile, from just south of the state line, Tennessee has TennCare, something that Congressman Phil Roe (R-TN01) is trying to convince his Democrat colleagues in Congress is a failed public single-payer plan that they, and Obama, should consider.

When TennCare took over Tennessee’s Medicaid program in 1994, Roe said it was billed as a managed care solution that would keep health care costs down.

Instead, said Roe, the program was rich with its benefits and co-pays, and businesses dropped private coverage and let their employees get on TennCare.

TennCare went from a $2.5 billion program to an $8 billion-plus program hampered by litigation and on the verge of threatening the state’s fiscal health, according to international consulting firm McKinsey & Company.

There’s more from Roe here. But, with a Democratic majority in Congress, Roe isn’t finding much of an audience. He notes:

…Congressional Democrats who are in the majority and have the votes to pass health care reform aren’t listening to him.

“There’s no two-way street (of exchanging information). … That’s been bothersome to me,” Roe said.

Welcome to Washington, Congressman. Roe is currently serving his first term as TN-01′s Representative to Congress, and I daresay his opposition to this and his vote against Cap and Tax Trade hasn’t exactly endeared him to Speaker Pelosi. Not to be deterred, however, Roe has teamed up with Marsha Blackburn, a former Tennessee state Senator and fellow Congressperson (R-TN-07), to try and get out the message that TennCare offers an important message for healthcare reform advocates. Of that effort he says:

“It’s not just for the Blue Dogs (the fiscally conservative congressional Democrats),” Roe said of the effort with Blackburn. “It’s for the American people and the other side. We have not addressed cost in this (health care reform) bill at all.”

I wish you the best, Phil and Marsha, as Obama speaks to yet another captive audience just north of your district and tells them everything will be fine.

Update section:

Here’s 2 videos of the exchange at Kroger. In the first, there’s some soundbites of Obama talking about health care. If you thought there would be something other than what he’s said before, well, sorry:

The second captures some protestors, unfortunately it’s from behind the crowd, so yiu don’t get to see what’s on their signs, but the boos are plentiful as the motorcade goes past:

This one is a streaming RealVideo file, and you’ll need the free RealPlayer to see it:

http://wcybstream.wcyb.tv:8080/ramgen/video/we6pm.rm

There at about 5 minutes in to the newscast you can see the protestors Justin_Case mentions in his comment below.

She was attending the Iranian protests with an older man, some accounts say it was her father, more recent ones say it was her professor. By all accounts they were just watching the protests, not really actively involved, certainly not engaging the Basij themselves. This video purportedly shows them right before fate reared its ugly head:

But then Neda’s world went black. A shot, either from a building or a motorcycle, rang out, and, well, most of you have probably already seen the video of her after being gunned down. (WARNING: Graphic content, also you’ll need a YouTube account to see it).

Since then, as this FoxNews.com article points out she has become the “face of the protests” in Tehran. The 26-year old philosophy student’s death has galvanized many of the protestors.

Mehdi Khalaji, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near Eastern Affairs, told FOXNews.com that Neda has become “one of the pillars of this movement now,” and the bloody images of her dying in the street are its “main icons and symbols.”

Indeed. Backtracking in the article we find that

In the space of just hours, the philosophy student became the image of Iran’s democratic protests, nicknamed the “Angel of Freedom.” But it is Neda’s real name, which means “voice” or “calling” in Farsi, that is resonating in slogans throughout Iran’s capital and beyond.

Apparently she wasn’t all that involved with the elections, either.

Her fiance said in an interview with BBC Persian that she had not supported any candidate in the allegedly fraudulent elections. Neda wanted “freedom for all,” he said.

The Iranian leaders haven’t turned a blind eye to the reaction this senseless killing has had on the protestors either. In addition to reports before and after Neda’s murder hit YouTube that wounded protestors were being arrested at hospitals and were beginning to seek shelter at foreign embassies memorial services for Neda and other protestors killed are being forbidden. The latter is in violation of Islamic law, according to Ali Salehi, a research analyst at UCLA. There is a memorial service being called for Thursday for Neda and all the protestors killed by Mehdi Karroubi, a leader of the demonstrations.

“Should the masses come it is going to be very devastating because they will be facing those who they believe to be her murderers in the face,”

Whether or not there is a violent crackdown at Thursday night’s memorial, the Islamic underpinnings of the regime are more and more being called into question by Iranians, said Salehi, particularly after the ban on mourning Neda, which contradicts Islamic law, he said.

“Not only is that not right, but according to Islamic tradition it is immoral and improper, so they are essentially breaking one of their own laws out of fear.”

To me, that alone shows how desperate Khameini and the other mullahs are. To be taking the death of this young woman and others this seriously as to violate one of their own laws shows that the fear Salehi alludes to is one of the Iranian Revolution possibly coming to an end. That of course means the end of their own power over the Iranian people, either directly or through someone like Ahmadinejad. No despot will give up such power easily, the desire for control is just too strong. But Khameini’s calls for an end to the protests and declaration of Ahmadinejad as the winner fell on deaf ears. Today, the demonstrations went on amid calls for a general strike for tomorrow. Just how much is Neda’s memory spurring this on? We may not know for awhile, if ever because of the strict news blackout being imposed. But every revolution has a rallying cry and a focal point, Neda may well be both for at least some of the protesters this time. The breaking of Islamic law by forbidding memorial services for her and others could also prove to be even stronger for many others.

After all, wasn’t the establishment of Islamic law what the Iranian revolution back in the 70′s all about?

Neda,
May God hold you in his arms and comfort your family and friends in their time of sorrow. Peace be with you and them.