In what can only be called a stunning decision, a conservative Republican Governor is taking a stand against cervical cancer, even when his political “base” is against his position:
Mr. Perry’s action, praised by health advocates, caught many by surprise in a largely conservative state where sexual politics is often a battleground.
[…]
Under the order, girls and women from 9 to 21 eligible for public assistance could get free shots immediately. The governor’s office said parents could opt out of the school program “for reasons of conscience, including religious beliefs.”
“Requiring young girls to get vaccinated before they come into contact with HPV is responsible health and fiscal policy that has the potential to significantly reduce cases of cervical cancer and mitigate future medical costs,” said Mr. Perry, who was re-elected to his second full term last November.
HPV, affecting 20 million people nationally, including one in four 15-to-24-year-olds, is the nation’s most common sexually transmitted disease. Texas has the second-highest number of women with cervical cancer, with nearly 400 deaths last year, the governor’s statement noted.
The vaccine, approved for ages 9 to 26, is given in three shots over eight months. The shots are effective for at least five years, and together cost $360, said Curtis Allen, a spokesman for the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
This is amazing news. But there’s more:
Merck is bankrolling efforts to pass state laws across the country mandating Gardasil for girls as young as 11 or 12. It doubled its lobbying budget in Texas and has funneled money through Women in Government, an advocacy group made up of female state legislators around the country.
Perry has ties to Merck and Women in Government. One of the drug company’s three lobbyists in Texas is Mike Toomey, Perry’s former chief of staff. His current chief of staff’s mother-in-law, Texas Republican state Rep. Dianne White Delisi, is a state director for Women in Government.
The governor also received $6,000 from Merck’s political action committee during his re-election campaign.
Some of my “left-of-center” buddies were quick to accuse Perry of doing the bidding of a big donor. It may very well be the case.
But does that change things? Even if Gov. Rick Perry has “sold out” to the drug lobby, isn’t that OK if it saves hundreds of lives? I’m all for voting out the crooks, but lets get some perspective. If Merck’s influence over the Governor of Texas will save even one young woman’s life, then I say God bless him. Most Christian conservatives are against the vaccine; they say it’ll make girls more likely to have sex. They’d rather seen women die, I guess.
Republicans are like Labradors; I’m inclined to reward them for good behavior. In Gov. Rick Perry’s case, he gets a Milkbone from me for showing some “enlightenment.”
http://seattletimes.nwsource.c.....ebb02.html
Mike Mike Mike. It is so much easier to find a Boys and Girls club to borrow the money from and then declare bankruptcy when you run out of money. That is how you stay on top in the world of liberal talk radio.
Former radio talk-show host found guilty of insurance fraud
By Natalie Singer
Seattle Times staff reporter
Former KIRO radio talk show host Mike Webb was found guilty of insurance fraud this morning and sentenced to 240 hours of community service.
King County Superior Court Judge Julie Spector issued the verdict following an abbreviated trial, in which she reviewed police reports and documents from Webb’s first trial, which ended in a mistrial. Webb opted for the abbreviated trial rather than be tried before a jury.
Webb worked for KIRO-AM (710) radio for 10 years and hosted a liberal late-night show before he was fired weeks after being charged with the felony in December 2005.
Prosecutors and police say that Webb filed a fraudulent insurance claim with Geico insurance after a traffic accident on June 28, 2005, when his Lexus was struck by another vehicle driven by an uninsured driver near the University Bridge in Seattle. During Webb’s first trial, Geico investigators testified that it wasn’t until the day after the accident that Webb purchased an insurance policy online from their company.
Mike Mike Mike. It is so much easier to find a Boys and Girls club to rip off. That is how I stayed on top in liberal talk radio.
I’M WITH YOU WILL. GOVERNOR GOODHAIR CAN SAVE AS MANY LIVES AS IMPROVING MEDICAL SCIENCE WILL ALLOW.
THE WINGNUTS ONLY HURT THEMSELVES WHEN THEY OPPOSE ADVANCES LIKE THIS.
HEY DOOFUS: THANKS FOR THE NEWS. MAYBE YOUR BUDDY MWS WILL WEIGH IN! HE HE HE!!!
BOYS AND GIRLS CLUB? IS THIS WHAT YOU’RE REDUCED TO? IT SHOULDN’T BE A SURPRISE. YOU’VE BEEN DIMINISHING YOURSELF WITH EACH LAMEBRAIN POST SINCE YOUR LOSER POST AFTER THE ELECTION CONTEST.
AND YOU’VE BEEN LOSIN’ EVER SINCE.
POOR DOOFUS: MISSES BRAINLESS BALONEY’S OLD GARBAGE ON THE RADIO. NOW GOLDY HAS HIS OLD SPOTS. FITTING JUSTICE!!!!
@1 Betcha the uninsured driver was MTR.
As one of the people Will referred to as “left of center” I’d like to say that I’m not left of center. I’m actually a pretty centrist Democrat.
4
You mean like Mike Web. Of course they never named the other driver, could it be Bobby Bridge. heheheehehe
If Texas Governor Rick Perry can do all this for Merck, in exchange for a $6,000.00 campaign contribution, what is Washington Governor Christine Gregoire going to do for the “Payday Loan” industry, in exchange for $31,150.00 or more in campaign contributions?
http://www.horsesass.org/?p=2492#comment-641608
I’ll tell you what encourages girls to have sex — BOYS!!!
Funny, Roger. Glad the cartoon only increased your appetite for carrots and Mrs. Rabbit!
YOS LIB BRO says:
BOYS AND GIRLS CLUB?
Puddy is right, you must be clueless!! It not like this is some conspiracy theory. With a response like that you would think we were talking about a succussful liberal talk show host. heheehe
I don’t really care if he did the right thing for the wrong reason, I’m just glad he did the right thing. It’s a pity that the innocent daughters of fundamentalists are still going to die, but at least the daughters of the sane will be safer.
Guess “the base” didn’t donate enough to his campaign to keep the drug companies away.
HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR
Show me a Republican and I’ll show you a two-faced hypocrite liar.
If I understand the position of the evangelicals, they are against making the vaccine mandatory. With contageous diseases like Measles that need herd immunity, it makes sense for a vaccine to be mandatory.
Getting the vaccine is a good idea. Making the vaccine free is a good idea and a worthy public health expendature. Making it mandatory is not a good idea. Not because I think it will promote promiscuity, but because I am against using the power of the government to force medication on people who might not want it.
I would be inclined to agree with you, except for the provision that allows parents to opt-out of the program “for reasons of conscience, including religious beliefs.”
Parents can say “no”, and it isn’t a program where students would be subject to peer pressure of other discrimination for opting out. Essentially, very few people would have to know, and somehow I doubt that most students would discriminate on that basis alone.
Yes, students find some really strange reasons to ostracize others, but anyone using “she didn’t get her HPV shot” as a reason would have found something else had that one not been available.
14
That’s not just the Christianists, though. Actually, the first thing I thought of when I read that was, “Christian Scientists.” I think they refuse all vaccinations, including MMR, polio and others that are pretty common.
Are there any parents out there actually doing any parenting?
I’m all for the vaccine, but let’s let parents decide if they think their daughters shoud get it. Why does everything have to be forced?
I wouldn’t think much force would be required when the alternative is a higher risk of cancer. But when it comes to the fundie wingnuts, maybe they think dying an early, lingering, brutally painful death is just an easier way to get to Heaven.
9…Unless they’re gay, Roger.
I don’t think I’m able to read Rick Perry’s mind. Perhaps he really was driven to do this by his conscience. On the other hand, many will take it along with Merck’s campaign merely as evidence that greed trumps ideology.
There are other lobbying campaigns being conducted by Big Pharma for things like mandatory testing of school children for “depression”, to bolster the market for SSRI’s. Personally I think Merck is doing a good thing in this case, but it’s likely that they’ve taken into account their own return on investment as well as promotion of hte public good.
Broadway Joe,
What about parenting? Any of that going on in America today, or is it just something that happened years ago?
The opposition to this vaccine is disturbing on a number of levels. First, the concern that it will “give kids a license to have sex” is ridiculous. If parents really believe they need the prospect of STD’s in order to scare their kids to abstaining, there are still plenty of other STD’s around, many of which are scarier than HPV. And it doesn’t just protect promiscuous teenagers, it protects every girl who will ever be sexually active (including with her future husband).
Second, one can only surmise from this logic that these conservatives are actually glad STD’s are out there in order to control sexual behavior. Why else would they be opposed to the widespread use of a drug that could largely eliminate an STD? Would they also be upset if a vaccine for HIV was found? Would they want to prevent kids from getting that too?
The “parents’ rights” argument would have some validity if parents could not opt their kids out of the vaccine if they objected to it. But they can. End of argument there as far as I’m concerned.
I really don’t understand the opposition at all. It just seems like nothing more than a knee-jerk reaction to the concept of “you’re going to give an STD vaccine to an 11-year-old??”