Have you heard about this one? An ex-Bush appointee, Jim Towey — one in charge of the White House Office of Faith-Based Initiatives under BushCo (!) — writes an op-ed in the WSJ painting a booklet that provides some guidance on end-of-life planning and claims that it deliberately steers vets towards death.
This would be, of course, wrong. The HuffPo has some great info on this, but the first thing you should know about Mr.Jim Towey and this current jihad of lies is this:
In addition, Towey seems to have his own axe to grind. He has repeatedly tried to get the government to spend millions to purchase his “Five Wishes” book, which is published by Aging With Dignity, a non-profit group he founded, to distribute to veterans across the country, according to sources within the VA. Towey used his influence with the White House to get a meeting with VA officials, including then-Secretary of Veterans Affairs Jim Nicholson. At one meeting, Towey was informed that the VA could not act on such an unsolicited proposal without violating federal procurement regulations, according to VA sources.
Got that? Towey has his own book to peddle and is likely not real happy to not have a steady buyer of his product. On top of that, he’s working the refs:
In his op-ed, Towey stated that this panel did not include any representatives of faith groups or disability rights advocates. In fact, according to the VA, the panel included a priest, a rabbi, a renowned disability rights advocate, and the president of the organization that produces “Five Wishes,” the alternative advance care planning document that Towey is promoting and selling.
The panel supported the use of the “Your Life, Your Choices” booklet but included some suggestions for revising its content. The plans to update and release the booklet were developed under the Bush administration and it is due for release in 2010.
And the last nail in the coffin is that this lie was picked up by the Quitta from Wasilla — which means that every wingnut on the planet is peddling this BS by now. Even though the only thing that they are working towards is to have the government buy Towey’s book.
Adding — Kevin Drum took a look at this today, and he did a Nexis search to find any mention of this pamphlet developed by the VA from 2006 through last month. He can’t find any. Why is that, you ask? Because there was no controversy over this until the wingnuts decided that they needed another fearmongering arrow in their already overflowing quiver.
Bonus Question — how is it that these people with all of this showy faith business can be such liars? I thought that was one of the 10 Commandments that they so badly want to hang in courthouses. Seems that the more useful place for the 10 Commandments is right by their keyboards.