just a few lies about the healthcare bill you'll be seeing

Another day, another nauseating anti-health care reform commercial, spouting the patently untrue line that the house bill will set up the government to "decide if older patients are worth the cost." What blatant tripe. Like the ridiculous statement by Sarah Palin, this lie is continuously perpetuated by nut-cases bent on furthering their own political ends by riling up the public to basically vote against their own interests. This absolutely enrages me.



This is probably not the most offensive commercial advertising against the house's health care bill out there right now, but I'm going to focus here for a bit. I won't bother defending against the stupidity of their claim--what a waste of my time, not to mention dignity. Instead I'll focus on the real issue: the Why of the lie. The Who of the lie.

This apparently innocuous 60Plus Association, the sponsor of this commercial, is headed up by National Spokesperson Pat Boone. Yeah, that Pat Boone.

According to his wiki under the "politics" section, you will find:

In 2006, Boone wrote an article for WorldNetDaily, in which he argued that Democrats and others who were against the President during the Iraq War could be questioned for their patriotism. He was interviewed by Neil Cavuto on Fox News, where he expressed his outrage against the opponents of George W. Bush (namely the Dixie Chicks) that their criticisms of the President showed they did not "respect their elders." Another article defended Mel Gibson after the actor was recorded making an antisemitic rant.

In early 2007, Boone wrote two articles claiming that the theory of evolution is an "absurd," "nonsensical" "bankrupt false religion." He later wrote an editorial in the form of a fairy tale where a young Prince Charming was seduced by a dwarf, got AIDS, and then overdosed.

In the 2007 Kentucky gubernatorial election, Pat Boone campaigned for incumbent Republican Ernie Fletcher with a prerecorded automated telephone message stating that the Democratic Party candidate Steve Beshear would support "every homosexual cause." As part of the campaign, Boone asked, "Now do you want a governor who'd like Kentucky to be another San Francisco?" This caused a great deal of controversy and backlash for Boone.

More recently, he assisted the John McCain 2008 presidential campaign by lending his voice to automated campaign phonecalls.

On December 6, 2008 Pat Boone wrote an article for WorldNetDaily wherein he drew analogies between recent gay rights protests, and recent terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India. He reminds readers of hostage taking, exploding bombs systematic murder and chaotic conditions of carnage. In it, he asserts that marriage is a biblically ordained institution, which the government has no part in defining. He then states that equal rights for women, blacks and slavery were not "obtained by threats and violent demonstrations and civil disruption" but rather through due process. He concludes by warning that unless they're checked, the "hedonistic, irresponsible, blindly selfish goals and tactics of homegrown sexual jihadists will escalate into acts vile, violent and destructive." The Human Rights Campaign has called this article "a new low in anti-gay rhetoric".

This is a guy who is going to lie to you. This is a guy with his own agenda (and it ain't a pretty one). Read up on the associations sponsoring all the crappy advertising you're seeing, and know who's motivated by what before you believe them. These people don't have our best interests at heart.