Letters to the Editor
Nequals1
Published Letters: 332 Editor's Choice: 7
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@ casual observer: Mission, Vision and Values
[Read the article: Keith Olbermann's reply and Obama's secret plan to protect the rule of law]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I'm late to the party, so please forgive me if I missed anyone's previous points, but this is important to me:
Kucinich has run for president twice, been a rep for many years, and appears to not understand where his party is, and where it's going. Why is that?
The Democratic Party website has no stated mission, vision and values statements anywhere. My inquiry about them went unanswered.
As soon as you click on the Republican party website, the mission, vision and values - the MESSAGE - is what you see all over the place, all the time. It's ubiquitous.
Point of inquiry: doesn't Keith Olbermann's Countdown (is that the right name) show have its own MSNBC blog? If so, why is he using Daily Kos, a blog which arbitrarily bans users and which is not an organ affiliated (to my knowledge) with Olbermann's employer by which to publicize one's job, as Keith is an NBC employee and certainly has public pulpit venues therein, to refute Glenn's argument?
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Can you hear me now?
[Read the article: Torture and the rule of law]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I'm glad that you are finally getting around to addressing the US policy and programs on torture, Glenn. I wrote to you a couple of months ago trying to get advice on where to seek clarification about which agency regulates nursing and medical practice of licesned professionals who are federalized. I also wrote to the USPHS, and finally, received this reply to my queries yesterday. Perhaps readers here can help.
Sorry for the delayed response. You have reached the wrong email box. This is the recruitment email box for Commissioned Corps officers of the U.S. Public Health Service.
I do not know the answers to your questions, but let me investigate and get back with you.
V/r,
LTJG Stacey McBryde
U.S. Public Health Service
Policy Advisor - Marketing
Phone: 240.453.6081
For more information about the Commissioned Corps, visit www.usphs.gov.
-----Original Message-----
Sent: Wednesday, May 14, 2008 10:13 AM
To: OSPHS (HHS/OS)
Subject: www.usphs.gov message: Nursing Practice Authority
I have several questions after reading the Washington Post series, Careless Detention, about nursing licensure and practice authority for nurses employed by DIHS which I hope you can answer.
* Under what regulations do DIHS nurses now operate? Are they still considered USPHS commissioned officers? If not, what is their status and who appoints them?
* What recourse do they have for unsafe practice conditions, questions about scope of practice, avenues to protect and advocate for patient safety, and their own continued licensure?
* What licensure and credentialing requirements does the DIHS maintain for nurses?
* Who grants DIHS this authority?
* Who approved the DIHS repositioning from DHHS to DHS?
* What recourse do patients have when they believe their care to be less than the minimum standard for safety?
* What professional nursing licensing body has authority over DIHS nursing practice?
* What authority do the state boards of nursing have for DIHS nurses who are practicing in their state, but who are licensed elsewhere?
I am alarmed that nurses, physicians and psychologists are used by the US government as agents of abuse and torture. That is a clear breach of the social contract and the public's trust. But no one seems to hear this message or to care.
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@ pmorlan et al re: What can be done about apathy?
[Read the article: Torture and the rule of law]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Like pmorlan and others (notably ondelette and retired military patriot)I have investigated and reported via blogging about the use of torture on prisoners and immigrant detainees by agents of the US government. They are the least read (and never commented on) posts on my blog.
I asked multiple questions about investigating the banality of administrative and regulatory practice authority for licensed healthcare professionals who are being used (right now) as agents of abuse and torture. No one responded. If not here, where the readership is, for the most part, informed and engaged, then where?
Three professions, medicine, nursing and psychology, are breaking their social contract and the public's trust by allowing their members to commit acts of abuse and torture. The American Nurses Association has no public position on torture, the American Psychological Association is in the middle of in-fighting about it, and the American Medical Association disavows it, but doesn't sanction members who participate.
I submitted a post about it to a large medical blog carnival, and it was mysteriously rejected - the reason given changing with every response.
No one wants to read about it, think about it or act to stop it, either. Did you know there are several stop torture actions you can take right now? (Buttons on the right sidebar on my blog).
Are you familiar with the Physicians for Human Rights report on torture? (You can read it - again on the right sidebar.)
Are you subscribing to the ACLU blog which addresses it?
Are you talking about it with your friends, co-workers, and casual acquaintances?
It won't gain traction as an item until we are forced to look at ourselves allowing it by passivity.
I blogged about the "good nurse's duty" in Nazi Germany, and it applies to the good American citizenry today - and here.
Until you are willing to confront torture up close and personal - and accept your role in allowing it to continue, understand that you are laps ahead of the American public which is fed its pap from media which will never broach the subject, let alone investigate it fully, contextually and accurately. That is now our job to do given the catastrophic failure of the fourth estate and US government.
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@ Glenn re: Amity
[Read the article: The motivation for blocking investigations into Bush lawbreaking]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The revelations about the knowledge and awareness of Pelosi about torture puts her statement about impeachment being off the table in a whole new light.
She wasn't referring to just Bush and Cheney - I believe she was including herself and her "rank" colleagues in that ssweeping statement, as well.
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@ What Constitution re: action plan
[Read the article: The motivation for blocking investigations into Bush lawbreaking]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I like the way you think. Your plan of action is comprehensive absent the impeachment proceedings that should be considered for Pelosi, Harmon, Hoyer and Rockefeller. It would change the media narrative, and it would re-center the framing of the issue.
Constitutional defense, support and preservation - what a "radical" notion!