The xray tech I just saw tried to pull the Benghazi Bullshit on me!

[riderinthestorm]

I couldn't believe it! Went for a chest xray and while he's fiddling with the machine he casually asks if I've voted yet. I'm surprised at his question but decide whatthehell, I'll play along. I'm in an office in the middle of Dupage County IL, one of the reddest counties in the US so I have a pretty good idea what I'm going to run into.

"Not yet", I say. "I do plan to go do it after this however".

"Who you going to vote for if you don't mind me asking" he says.

"Obama". Then I laughed and added, "I'm a die-hard lefty liberal!"

His mouth gets tight and he asks me, "don't you care about the US reputation in the world? How trashed its become under Obama?"

"No way," I answered firmly. "I completely disagree..." whereby he proceeds to hurry up and interrupt me (because he's pressing me up against the plate and time is short)... "that's why they felt they could attack our embassy in Libya and kill our ambassador there. And now Obama isn't doing ANYTHING! to get those guys. They're getting away with it. It looks weak."

He walks back into his cubby to take the pic and I have to hold still and just breathe for the xray which gives me a moment to contemplate my answer. When the buzz tells me the xray's done I answer.

"Benghazi happened at our consulate. Not the embassy. It was a CIA post that was being targeted, not the ambassador, and all evidence looks as though this was a rogue insurgent group like AQ so you have some pretty serious facts wrong. Lastly, what exactly do you think Obama should do? Bomb the newly democratically elected government over something a couple of bad actors did?"

We stared at each for a moment. He turned away to send my xray to the doc and told me I could get dressed. When I walked out, he was nowhere to be seen. I'm absolutely certain I did nothing to persuade him on the issue since the mindset about the Benghazi Bullshit is fierce in the redlands but its definitely "the" issue for Rethugs.

[txdemsftw]

1. Ignorance is strong on 'their side'....

But, good for you for trying to set the record straight...even if he doesn't care about the actual truth.

[renate]

2. how completely inappropriate! OMG!

It'd be inappropriate even if he'd turned out to agree with you, of course. It would have been one thing if you'd brought the election up, but I think it's completely unethical for him to try to foist his opinion upon you unasked.

[Butterbean]

5. Agreed. I'd complain to patient relations. He needs to

learn to keep his mouth shut and his opinions to himself when it comes to patients. You just don't do that crap, and yes, even if he had agreed with your positions, it would have been inappropriate. I am appalled that he actually brought it UP to you first. That's just beyond the pale. I would never even consider bringing up politics with my patients, EVER.

[Indpndnt]

10. Exactly. This guy needs to be reported.

This is way beyond inappropriate.

[riderinthestorm]

17. Eek! Really?! I don't know the protocol but I will say he was CLEARLY fishing

and went out of his way to directly ask.

Like I said, I was pretty surprised.

[Butterbean]

20. I'm a nurse, and I'm telling you, what he did was wrong and against the rules.

You just don't freaking do it. It's akin to asking a patient if they've been saved or not, okay? Imagine if he did that. Political beliefs are personal and can touch off a firestorm. You are taught to NOT GO THERE with patients, EVER. Did your vote relate to your care in any way shape or form? No. He had no business talking about that with you, period. He got lucky that he got someone tolerant and cool headed. Next person might not be that way.

[riderinthestorm]

22. Well damn. I may do that then. It was very, very weird and like I said, he WAS very blatant nt

[Butterbean]

23. I am just horrified and cringing that he did that. I have had PATIENTS ask me

about politics at the bedside, and even ask me if I'm saved (get that one a lot), but I usually just deflect it as fast as I can and move on to a different topic. Dude has no tact or bedside manner. Gah. Please report him. PLEASE. He needs to be smacked down by a supervisor at the very least.

[LeftInTX]

25. I'm a nurse too & Butterbean is 100% right

[riderinthestorm]

16. I thought it was pretty damn weird myself.

But since the Benghazi thing is clearly the "deflection" issue, I couldn't resist.

Professionally, I NEVER bring up politics in my line of work, and I'm in a completely apolitical field.

Pretty strange all around

[CaliforniaPeggy]

3. When they can't answer you.....

You know you got them.

Well done!

[ProudProgressiveNow]

18. +1 Agreed. nt

[darkangel218]

4. Hopefully he didnt do anything wrong/to hurt you

I don't trust wingnuts. IMO, you're brave to engage that idiot before an xray.

[Lucinda]

6. Maybe he will try and find info to support his side, and realize he's being misinformed.

Glad you have him something to think about.

[TwilightGardener]

7. It's so bizarre--you can see them all reacting to their 24/7

FOX programming. It's like they were all loaded with a chip or malware and released into the public. Edit to add: It's the new birtherism.

[heaven05]

35. it's

a chip. romneybots.

[Cha]

60. Exactly, Twilight! They're so brainwashed..it's hard for them not to

regurgitate even in a completely inappropriate situation.

Maybe a word from their supervisor is just what is needed!

[lindysalsagal]

8. He had no idea what you were saying.

They're like monkeys: They repeat what they hear without understanding a word of it.

[peace13]

9. Make sure your doc double checks that xray to be certain it is yours!

I do not trust these folks one bit. Hope all is well with you.

[riderinthestorm]

32. I didn't think of that. I'll be fine - bad asthma attack from the harvest winding down around here

I will say though, its the first time the docs have brought up my lifestyle....

Suggested it may be time to consider a different career/location. So I was all wrapped up in my head about THAT piece of information when I met up with the xray tech.

[peace13]

49. Take care! N/t

[regnaD kciN]

11. I would have added...

..."You mean the way that Bush's weakness let bin Ladin feel he could attack the U.S. mainland, killing 3,000 of our citizens, and Bush wouldn't do ANYTHING to bring him to justice -- unlike Obama?"

[ellenfl]

30. good rejoinder! i'll have to remember that. eom

[flying_wahini]

37. good one

[justiceischeap]

12. My neighbor's son is super-liberal and even he believes some of it

He said HRC refused to send help when asked for it, according to Chris Stevens' diary. CNN is the one with the diary, so I don't know where he's getting this stuff but even if a die-hard liberal can be taken in by it, I can't imagine how those listening to the Benghazi News Network 24/7 can keep from being sucked in.

[Skittles]

13. Benghazi is their new Fast and Furious

I imagine it kills them, how none of the "controversies" Fox News wails about actually sticks.

[jillan]

14. One thing I have been using is to tell these wackos that I am STILL waiting for an explanation why

9/11/01 happened on our soil despite all the warnings the last administration received.

But, but, but - Bam Bam let Benghazi happen - scandal!

And Dubya let 9/11 happen on our soil.

That usually shuts them up for awhile.

Jerks! Sorry you had to go thru that at a place where politics shouldn't be an issue

[nichomachus]

15. The only ones talking about Benghazi are the Foxaholics

The minute someone tries to bring it up, I just tell them to shut up.

[magical thyme]

19. He shouldn't be discussing politics with you

and certainly not bringing the topic up. That was highly unprofessional of him to put a patient on the spot like that. I hope you bring it up with your doctor or the clinic or whoever his boss is. They may not appreciate having a technician pulling crap like that. They sometimes have seriously ill people coming in for treatment, not to be stressed by political lectures.

I know that where I work, if a lab assistant started that sort of crap with a patient while drawing blood, they'd be in deep trouble. We aren't allowed to do anything political behind the scenes to each other either, although the teabaggers have a real hard time following that rule.

[Summer Hathaway]

21. I have a standard response to

those who say that our enemies are emboldened by a 'weak' US administration:

"Imagine how weak they must have determined Bush/Cheney to be when they decided to launch the September 11, 2001, attack."

[hvn_nbr_2]

24. "U.S. reputation trashed under Obama"

My response: "That's why George Bush won the Nobel Peace Prize."

[Scuba]

26. Sadly, I also have a story....

In spring of 1988 my 17-year old son got an infection in the aortic valve of his heart. He needed a replacement, and fast. His valve was "delaminating" and pieces were getting stuck in other parts of his body and causing other infections. He suffered a mild stroke.

Because of his young age, neither a mechanical nor swine valve was recommended. Only a human cadaver transplant was considered appropriate. Only two or three surgeons in the country were doing such procedures. One was the University of Alabama Hospital in Birmingham. They sent their jet ambulance to retrieve my son fast-tracked him to the cardiac OR. Impressive.

Minutes before he was to be taken into surgery a tech arrived to shave his entire body. While doing so, he steered the conversation to politics. He played his cards close to the vest until I told him I had voted for Jessie Jackson in the Wisconsin primaries particularly due to his positions on healthcare.

He never took his eyes of his work, but his words are still clear to me today: "If that n****r gets elected, we'll kill him."

He collected his gear and exited the room, now chilled by silence. My son, his mother and I could not believe what we had heard.

After my son left that institution I filed a complaint, writing a detailed account and sending it to the hospital CEO and Board of Director members, as well as Guy Hunt, Governor of Alabama. I heard nothing back from any of them.


I'm probably still on a "shoot on sight" list down there somewhere.

[riderinthestorm]

27. OH. MY. GOD!!! That's completely FUCKED up!

This guy wasn't seething, just intense. And definitely NOTHING like your experience.

On the advice of those above, I'll definitely call in the am about him. I didn't catch the guy's name but hopefully I can let the supervisor know that they need to get their staff to dial back on the politics.

Hope your son is doing okay. My sister just had a double kidney/liver transplant in February. The entire medical field is such a miracle to me.....

[ceejdre82]

58. I would be....and I am sure you are...STILL seething about that!

[DFW]

28. How many of these Foxsuckers, do you suppose, could find Benghazi on a map of the world?

How many of them, do you suppose, could even tell you, without looking, on what continent Benghazi is located?

[ceejdre82]

51. I am SURE RoMONEY couldn't!

I am sure he thinks that Syria is its passage to the sea....even though Benghazi is on the sea....

[Bernardo de La Paz]

29. When the man is at the controls of lethal radiation, don't fool around with shit questions like that

[creon]

31. They do notknow what took place

and they do not want to know what took place.

ignorance is bliss

[pasto76]

33. He IS doing something about it. He sent [more]drones there the that week. Scares the shit outta them

cause dont ever forget, President Obama has a 4 year record now of killing DOZENS of AQ and bad guys with drones. Frankly, Im surprised that we havent heard news of drone attacks yet. But I also guess that means there arent any 'camps' or hangouts the bad guys are concentrated in. Which is smart for them, and bad news for anyone they are staying with.

[kerouac2]

34. Ask who they supported in the GOP primary and ...

If they say someone other than romney, tell them that -their- candidate said you can't trust romney.
If they say ron paul, say that even ron paul hasn't endorsed romney.
Tell them that if they didn't support romney then, then they shouldn't be able to support him now.
They shouldn't vote at all. They should send a message to THEIR party that they want better candidates. They have the power to change their party. If they must vote, they should vote for a 3rd party candidate. Inspire them...

[riderinthestorm]

38. It was a very fast appointment.

He didn't ask me until I was already gowned and he came back in to "adjust" everything for the pictures so we had a very, very small window to interface. I think that's what really caught me off guard - he was maneuvering the conversation deliberately, rapidly, towards the rethug soundbites.

I like a LOT of the suggestions I'm hearing on this thread. Clearly the Benghazi Bullshit is the subject du jour in the redlands - it helps to collectively pool brainpower in coming up with snappy responses. I just didn't have time (and my mind wasn't entirely "on" the conversation anyway at that very moment).

[Gman]

36. My knee jerk response: You mean our reputation is worse than it was after Bush's 2 wars? How so?

[ceejdre82]

53. This was my initial thought....

The Libya thing was terrible, we lost American lives....but 9/11 happened ON American soil.....which makes the United States look worse? Also, other countries have opinions of the U.S. based on many factors, we aren't exactly loved by many Middle Eastern countries, having much to do with the Bushies. AND...do these Teabaggers/Repugs remember how well RoMONEY's trip abroad went during the Olympics?

[Gman]

56. It wasn't just Iraq

even though Iraq is the most obvious example. It goes from John Bolten as UN ambassador to all points of the globe where we were assholes.

[avebury]

39. I think that I would have been

demanding a different technician and I would have reported exactly why.

[WinkyDink]

40. Gee, insurance salesmen, X-ray technicians---so many alleged conversations with outraged strangers.

Never happened.

[riderinthestorm]

44. Heh.

Check my post history - I've never posted about something like this happening to me in almost 7 years here. Like I said above, I don't engage anyone usually. It absolutely does NOT come up in my daily life and I was really surprised to be on the receiving end. As you can see there are far more snappy rejoinders than mine in the other posts. If I were really telling a tale, I'd have concocted a better come-back than I did.

Like I said, the guy wasn't outraged - just intense. Deliberately maneuvering the convo to start in. The Benghazi shit is being stirred and hopefully my clumsy response, and the resulting EXCELLENT suggested responses here, leaves other posters better prepared than I.

Edited to add - I wasn't trying to demonstrate my swift wits either. My real objective was to demonstrate how this issue is so close to the surface of their thoughts. Its erupting in all sorts of inappropriate ways.

[humbled_opinion]

41. I have had this discussion numerous times

with the teabaggers I work with.... They are insistent that the White House is in cover up mode because the CIA post was asking for back up and lazering targets for an airstrike that never came. They say if the President knew in real time what was happening and if the President gave orders to do whatever it takes to rescue the Americans then who in the chain of command failed to respond and why hasn't that person been held accountable? Then they get into this theory of theirs that the President and his admin kept insisting for weeks that it was the youtube video that caused the demonstrations from which the attack eminated when in fact that information has been debunked.... and of course their old saw now is ... Why didn't the President hold a press conference to address all this and put it behind him, unless of course he is guilty of the cover-up and in that case he better hope he doesn't win re-election because Benghazi gate is going to take all of them down....

BLAH, BLAH...

Then I make their heads spin when I say, "What the hell are guys even talking about, there is nothing about any of what you claim on CNN or ABC, CBS or NBC, or in any newspapers so where are you all gettting your info from?

[ceejdre82]

52. ooo, SNAP!

Good reply!

[lolly]

59. Do they ever consider the key flaw to this theory?

There is no reason why Obama would have told anybody to "stand down" if they had the ability to knock them out.

They seem to keep inventing bizarro world reasons why he didn't--but obviously, if he had, that would have been a political gold mine.

It's like the weird birther stuff--why on earth would a woman go to all the trouble to fly to Kenya, have a baby in a hut, then immediately fly back to Hawaii and start faking evidence that her baby was born in Hawaii so he could get American citizenship--when all she had to do was STAY IN HAWAII and have her baby.

[ErikJ]

42. Fox Gate

[Vox Moi]

43. If I was receiving care ...

... and the caregiver brought up politics I would suggest that we discuss this after the procedure.
This is not a good time to distract people, or let them distract themselves, no matter how minor the episode of care seems to be.


That being said, the X-ray tech was totally out of line.

[ErikJ]

45. Uh-huh and what happened to those Fast and Furious and Solyndra thingies.?

Did even one of Beck's hundreds of conspiracies pan-out?

[madaboutharry]

46. A victim of the Fox News Apocalypse.

The poor schmo has had his brain cells sucked dry by Sean Hannity and Bill O.

[Ford_Prefect]

47. They seem unable to think, period.

Whole ideas they cannot process and parsing the details of anything is clearly out of the question. Fear drives them into that state and once there they cannot be persuaded.

I used to have similar contact with fundies of all kinds when i was in college. They seemed to assume that I was fair game until I reminded them that choice and reason were both gifted to man. That usually stopped them but it never changed their minds.

[JackBoik]

48. "... How trashed its become under Obama?" Really, 'cause worldwide survey suggests otherwise...

Obama would win a worldwide vote — by a landslide

In a 2012 election outside the United States, Barack Obama would beat Mitt Romney 65 percent to 18 percent, GlobalPost finds.


http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/politics/elections/121010/obama-romney-world-vote-election

[ThoughtCriminal]

50. Probably made him reluctant to bring it up again

for the rest of the day at least.

[siouxsiecreamcheese]

54. I live in South Carolina

So yeah... I go to my doctor, and in the waiting room what do they have on the tv? Fox "news". I'm sitting there trying to ignore it, surrounded by slack jawed idiots head nodding to the lies. Meanwhile, I have a blood pressure problem as it is. I go in to see the dr, and of course my blood pressure is high. It gets lower if i take a few deep breaths usually. But, I don't know how doctor offices can have fox on or even msnbc for that matter for the righties, that can rile patients up with crap they don't agree with? Put on the weather channel or something less controversial.

[LeftInTX]

55. One of my doctors puts it on WTBS

A breath of fresh air to watch Everybody Love Raymond in the waiting room.

[yellowcanine]

57. Completely unprofessional for a provider to argue politics with a patient. You should have

complained to his supervisor.

[Liberal_in_LA]

63. yep

[kath]

61. During the bush years, around *60* people died in 12 attacks on US diplomatic facilities

See post #5 in this thread http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021579791#post1 :

"On Bush's watch, there were 12 attacks on US diplomatic facilities:

View profile
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrorist_attacks_on_U.S._diplomatic_facilities

22 January 2002 Calcutta, India Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami gunmen attack Consulate
14 June 2002 Karachi, Pakistan al-Qaeda truck bomb detonates outside Consulate
12 October 2002 Denpasar, Indonesia Consular Office bombed by Jemaah Islamiyah
28 February 2003 Islamabad, Pakistan Unknown gunmen attack Embassy
30 June 2004 Tashkent, Uzbekistan Islamic suicide bomber attacks Embassy
6 December 2004 Jeddah, Saudi Arabia al-Qaeda gunmen raid diplomatic compound
2 March 2006 Karachi, Pakistan Car bomb explodes outside Embassy unknown
12 September 2006 Demascuc, Syria Gunmen raid US Embassy
12 January 2007 Athens, Greece RPG Fired at Embassy by Revolutionary Struggle none
18 March 2008 Sana'a, Yemen Mortar attack against US Embassy
9 July 2008 Istanbul, Turkey Armed attack against Consulate
17 September 2008 Sana'a, Yemen Two car bombs outside US embassy in Yemeni capital



Around 60 died.

Where was Darryl Issa, Mitt Romney & the GOP's outrage in the media for all those attacks?

Bush got massive funding increases for diplomatic security. Obama got massive funding decreases for diplomatic security.

Score: Bush 12 attacks in 8 years, Obama 2 attacks in nearly four years."

[Liberal_in_LA]

62. then he irradiated you with some extra xrays?

or whatever the technical term is.