Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Sen. Coburn speaks to OKC Rotary Club




The new Senate crusader against Jurassic Pork has become a spokesperson for just about any topic. On the war Sen. Coburn states; "In Iraq we have seen phenomenal change in less than 12 months over there. The fact that they changed tactics and strategy and it has been highly successful and you see that in the economics, you see that in fatalities, you see that in statistics, you see it in terms of freedom opening up, you see it in casualties, even in the traffic. In every way the surge has been successful. We have had a see change in the last fifteen months."

Thank you Sen. Coburn, it is refreshing to know that after $500 billion US dollars we finally see something.

Make no mistake Sen. Coburn's rise in the polls was made larger on the senate floor, July 28th, 4:00 PM. That day was the showdown in the senate created by Sen. Reid. on a motion for a cloture vote on S. 3297 which contained the ALS Registry Act S.1382 on "Hold" by Sen. Coburn. His followers the last two weeks have praised him for the spanking he give Sen. Reid. That day the 52-40 vote put ALS, (Lou Gehrig's disease) further away from possible research and the hopes for any cure.

What worries me, is while the country thinks we have a crusader against pork, we really have someone willing to block any topic and in this case he has aided to block ALS without debate. For example, Don Lambro of the Washington Times this week described that S. 3297 was designed to contain some yums yums. He accused Sen. Reid of adding bills that contained some good things, proposals to help victims of paralysis and ALS / Lou Gehrig's disease and to fight drug use. "These sweeteners were added to make the lard go down a little easier". Mr. Lambro failed to mention that Sen. Reid was the one who introduced the ALS Registry Act not this year but in 2004. Mr. Lambro, ALS is far from sweet.

Mr. Lambro explained all the worst bills with dollar amounts but failed again to explain the seriousness of the ALS Registry Act. Maybe I shouldn't blame Mr. Lambro, he obviously is not familiar with ALS and ALS patients are not equipped with individual press people or an organization willing to take on the senate crusader and tell the public the real facts.

By the end of the August vacation, ALS will have claimed another 525 lives.

2 comments:

ALS Grumpy said...

JMC-

You strike to the heart of things, my friend. (And this is not a guy called McCain when I call you, my friend.)

ALS patients and the families living through the ravages of the disease are sorely in need of some effective PR and lobbying at a national level.

Alas I will probably succumb to ALS before we see a registry or a national PR or lobbying voice.

In fact in the three years Congress has been agonizing over the registry, at least 15,000 of us have died from ALS. Oh, we can't be sure how many because there is no system to reliably collect and record such data.

Anonymous said...

I wonder if Dr. Coburn is familiar with Rotary's Four Way Test-

Is it the truth?
Is it fair to all concerned?
Will it build good will and better friendships?
Will it be beneficial to all concerned?

Perhaps he should view his blanket hold practice through the lens of the Four Way Test.