ANOTHER TESTIMONIAL

Last night Anderson Cooper interviewed Dr. Richard Carmona, U.S. Surgeon General for the Bush administration until last year. The job of the Surgeon General is to give expert advice and professional facts to the administration on all issues of public health so that The President can be well informed in making decisions on everything from disease control, to health eduction in the public schools (and all things in between). Earlier that day Dr. Carmona spoke to a congressional committee on problems he saw from his tenure with the Bush administration. It was not pretty. This is a quick excerpt from his conversation later with Anderson Cooper. The entire transcript can be found here. COOPER: Former surgeon generals have said that this administration put greater restraints on surgeon generals than any time in the past. Do you think that's true? CARMONA: This is the most partisan we have ever seen government, and it's the most marginalization that we have seen pushed on a surgeon general in the history of this nation. And that's not my opinion. That's coming collectively from my predecessors who watched my tenure. Reading the transcripts from Anderson Cooper 360 and hearing his testimony on The Hill yesterday, it is flat out scary how The Bush Administration has been more concerned about pursuing it's ideologies and agendas than it is about listening to The Surgeon General's professional advice on matters of public health. From issues of stem cell research, teaching condom use vs. abstinence in high school, to clean needle exchange programs to prevent the spread of AIDS. In each one of these issues (and countless more) the good doctor has been ignored, chastised, silenced and ridiculed for making stances that serve the best health interests of this country. Meanwhile, the Bush Administration has made the exact opposite stances on all of these issues than what a doctor at the very top of his field knows to be sound and logical health policies. And as Dr. Carmona states, this is not his biased oppinion. This is the oppinion of 4 previous Surgeon Generals, including C. Everett Coop, one of the most respected Surgeon generals before and since he served for The Reagan Administration. At least we're all getting a thorough rectal exam from the administration in the meantime.