Ventura: Bush/Ashcroft to use medical records to quash dissent?

From Michael Ventura's latest Letters at 3 a.m.column:

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The Times summarizes other critiques of his efforts: "If patients have no reasonable expectation of privacy ... the government may be more aggressive in seeking records from hospitals, insurance companies, and other businesses in criminal, civil, and administrative cases." That's putting it mildly. The only possible motivation for claiming such sweeping rights is to assemble dossiers of intimate material which, if Bush wins this issue, can then be used against dissenters of all kinds. (Remember that under the USA PATRIOT Act, many forms of dissent can be classed as "terrorism" at the president's whim.)

As is Bush's usual practice, he sent a small fry to publicly defend these drastic subpoenas, a spokesman named Trent D. Duffy (where does the far right get these names?!), who assured us all that this president is "strongly committed to medical privacy." The Bush White House does not answer questions. Instead it issues sweeping statements and is unconcerned that its statements arrogantly contradict its actions. Trent D. Duffy did not mention that the government has not informed any of the patients concerned that it wants their records. Nor did he comment on what else the government is demanding. This is the Times' summary of the government's demands, and let's print it in bold, since it's certainly bold:

"The government also seeks these materials for the last three years:

Records of any second-trimester abortion in which the patient suffered a medical complication, regardless of the technique.

Records in any case in which a doctor caused a fetus' death by injecting chemical agents in the womb in the second or third trimester.

Documents related to any medical malpractice claims arising from certain abortions.

The names of all doctors who have performed any type of abortion."

The last item is especially chilling. All but "partial-birth" abortions are legal. So why is Bush demanding the names of all doctors who've performed a legal procedure? Obvious answer: a list for a witch hunt. If Bush is re-elected, those doctors can expect excessive, harassing scrutiny of their taxes, insurance forms, Medicare and Medicaid forms, etc. A president who breaks his promise to protect "the right of every American to have confidence that his or her medical records will remain private" (his own flip-flopping words), is easily capable of such harassment, especially when he need not worry about re-election.


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http://www.austinchronicle.com/issues/dispatch/2004-03-19/cols_ventura.html

They also want to use medical records in CAPPS II airline passenger screening.

The excuse is that a terrorist might have suffered from experimenting with wmd. The real reason is to crush dissent.

...behind damn near everything they do. That, and to make their pals wealthier still...

If they keep pushing us towards Free-Market Stalinism, or overstep the boundaries of cilivization to try and jump to Imperial Amerika 2020 BEFORE 2020...

God Help Us All.

...perhaps their jumping to Amerika 2020 earlier than "planned" may tip their hand just enough to shock the remaining non-somnambulant few into action....?