Senate Set to Confirm Sebelius as Health Secretary

[Bruno]

This after yesterday Gibbs said not having a person in place as HHS Secretary in no way was hampering their ability to address the swine flu situation.

Never let a good crisis to to waste! :rolleyes:

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/04/28/senate-confirm-sebelius-health-secretary/

WASHINGTON -- The Senate was set to approve President Barack Obama's nominee for health and human services secretary Tuesday, giving the agency a leader in the midst of the swine flu outbreak.

Morning debate and an afternoon vote were scheduled to confirm Kathleen Sebelius, the two-term Democratic governor of Kansas. She was expected to get the 60 votes needed in the Democratic-led Senate, though perhaps with little margin to spare.
Anti-abortion groups have been lobbying Republican senators to vote against Sebelius, criticizing her stances on abortion and her ties to a late-term abortion doctor who donated to her campaigns. Sebelius initially underreported to senators the size of those donations, though she apologized and said it was an inadvertent error.

If she's confirmed, Sebelius would have an immediate challenge because of the swine flu outbreak. With no HHS secretary in place, the White House has turned to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to help lead its response, even while insisting that vacancies at the top of HHS were not a problem.

Sebelius would be the first of 20 HHS officials requiring Senate approval to clinch her job, so she'd be getting to work without much of a team. The Senate hasn't acted on Obama's nominees for deputy HHS secretary or commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, and Obama hasn't even nominated people for other key jobs, including surgeon general and assistant secretary for preparedness and response.

The whole process was set back when Obama's first pick for HHS secretary, former Sen. Tom Daschle of South Dakota, withdrew in February over unpaid taxes. Sebelius is the last of Obama's Cabinet nominees awaiting confirmation.

[FindLiberty]

Sebelius? ...sounds like another disease?

[Bruno]

Sebelius? ...sounds like another disease?

Agreed. At first Sebelius appeared to lie dormant - most likely waiting for an opportunity to strike when its host was at its most vulnerable. It has now progressed with unprecedented speed, and will likely take full control of its host within hours.

[silverhawks]

So let's get this straight.

With no HHS in place, with the position being taken up by the Homeland Security Secretary, we have a possible flu pandemic outbreak (which last broke out 33 years ago only at a military base), which conveniently wipes out news of torture memos and government accountability, and takes people's minds off the financial crisis.

The Homeland Security Secretary has the authority to close down flights and ports to prevent the spread of disease, but doesn't.

The President himself goes to Mexico, to the very heart of the outbreak, shakes the hand of a man who dies 24 hours later, comes back home and goes golfing.

The threat of infection (note: not actual infection) also stops people gathering (and allows the govt to justify forcibly breaking up public protests), makes people suspicious of one another, allows the President to declare a state of emergency and assume dictatorial powers, makes people accept vaccines without question, and makes people dependent on the federal government for aid.

The government, which is well known for using crises and fearmongering to further political agendas.

People also won't complain when they see "sick" people being forcibly isolated from the general population in quarantine camps, and they won't question mass deaths, or mass graves, because they can be attributed to viral disease and disease prevention.

Take into account how many cases have been publicised, and how many of those people have actually died.

Yeah, when you take all of this into account, this is all looking a bit too coincidental and convenient to me.

[He Who Pawns]

silverhawks, i think you are reading too much into this.

[Bruno]

So let's get this straight.

With no HHS in place, with the position being taken up by the Homeland Security Secretary, we have a possible flu pandemic outbreak (which last broke out 33 years ago only at a military base), which conveniently wipes out news of torture memos and government accountability, and takes people's minds off the financial crisis.

The Homeland Security Secretary has the authority to close down flights and ports, but doesn't.

The threat of infection also stops people gathering (and allows the govt to justify forcibly breaking up public protests), makes people suspicious of one another, allows the President to declare a state of emergency and assume dictatorial powers, makes people dependent on the federal government for aid, and makes people accept vaccines without question.

People also won't complain when they see "sick" people being forcibly isolated from the general population, and won't question mass deaths, or mass graves, because they can be attributed to viral disease.

Yeah, when you take all of this into account, this is all looking a bit too coincidental and convenient to me.

Yep, that about sums it up

[silverhawks]

And now, via LATruth, we see that the Federal plan to deal with this crisis is mass decontamination, mass observation, mass containment and mass "fatalities disposal"...

This after "conspiracy theories" being shouted down about FEMA camps, plastic coffins and mass graves.

As Judge Wendell Holmes once said:


The question in every case is whether the words used are used in such circumstances and are of such a nature as to create a clear and present danger that they will bring about the substantive evils that the United States Congress has a right to prevent.

Clear and present danger, anyone?

Is it time NOW?