George H.W. Bush shaves head for leukemia patient

[hedgehog]

Source: USA Today

The office also announced that Bush's Protective Division has "launched a website at www.patrickspals.org to assist with Patrick's medical bills, and organized the Inaugural Patrick's Pals Motorcycle Benefit Run on August 10th in Kennebunkport -- a 50-mile motorcycle ride through the Maine countryside followed by a lunch and silent auction to raise funds for Patrick's treatments."


The office also announced that Bush's Protective Division has "launched a website at www.patrickspals.org to assist with Patrick's medical bills, and organized the Inaugural Patrick's Pals Motorcycle Benefit Run on August 10th in Kennebunkport -- a 50-mile motorcycle ride through the Maine countryside followed by a lunch and silent auction to raise funds for Patrick's treatments."

Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2013/07/24/george-hw-bush-cancer-secret-service/2584467/

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I wonder what GHW Bush thinks of Obama care.

[adieu]

1. GHWB could have done more

if instead of shaving his head, help lead a way to forge a solid universal health care program in the US so that current and future Patricks of this country don't need Motorcycle rides, benefit runs and intentionally bald ex-presidents to raise money for his survival.

Do the right thing, you dolt!

[DavidDvorkin]

2. Yes!

[apnu]

29. He's a Republican and is of the "fuck you I got mine" set.

Remember this is the guy who didn't know the price of milk and what a grocery store bar code scanner was. As VP and President, he was never in touch with reality. How this guy successfully ran the CIA is beyond me. Oh wait, Bay of Pigs...

[alp227]

37. the scanner story is fake...

http://www.brendan-nyhan.com/blog/2008/08/the-bush-41-gro.html

[sadbear]

3. He could have at least tapped into that vast crime family fortune...

to help pay for all the treatments this poor little guy is going to need to beat this thing.

Who care? Who here wouldn't shave their head to help this little guy feel better?

[EC]

4. That's nice.

But why the website? Is the insurance the Secret Service gives that bad? Wow, the guys that are protecting the President's and their insurance doesn't cover their kids cancer?

[24601]

19. Secret Service employees are eligible to participate in the Federal Employee Health Benefit Plan

here's the OPM website: http://www.opm.gov/healthcare-insurance/healthcare/

Don't know which, if any, plan his dad elected, but benefits differ based on the plan & level (e.g. with Blue Cross Federal it's basic or standard). OPM's FEHBP open season is in the fall and here's what the web site says:

"During the annual FEHB Open Season, anyone eligible to participate in the FEHB Program may enroll, change health plans or options, cancel your FEHB enrollment, and change participation in premium conversion (waive or begin participation)."

"Outside of Open Season, newly eligible employees may enroll within 60 days of their becoming eligible for the program, members who move outside of the area covered by their plan may enroll in a different plan covering their new location, and OPM may announce special Open Seasons affecting members of specific plans only. There are also a number of other circumstances which can make you eligible to enroll or change your FEHB coverage outside of Open Season."

Generally, the employee pays approx. 30% of the premium with the employing department/agency paying the rest from appropriated funds. Some employees have different percentages, most notably postal workers.

[lynne]

23. They have the option of numerous policies -

- offered within the Federal Employees Plan and can switch policies during open season should they wish. I may be that this agent had a policy with a high deductible or large percentage of co-pay. It could be that certain procedures aren't covered or are covered only to a certain amount.

Even with insurance, there can be a huge amount of unpaid bills with a serious illness.

[ehrnst]

35. Many private insurers will only cover 80% of those types of treatments.

Leaving that 20%, which can wipe a family out.

[Beacool]

5. Not a Bush fan, but that was a classy and compassionate thing to do.

Kudos also to the SS men for supporting their colleague.

[Myrina]

9. Dr. Evil & Mini-George?

Ok maybe not too funny but the photo lent itself to the comparison ...

[brer cat]

10. I agree that it was compassionate.

He and Barbara lost a child to leukemia, so I am sure this was heartfelt. Even ogres can have their moments.

[BeyondGeography]

13. Yup

http://www.today.com/news/barbara-bush-recalls-daughters-death-i-saw-her-spirit-go-1C7174610

[Beacool]

15. I had forgotten about that.

[Historic NY]

28. + 1 he lost a daughter to the disease.

[Beacool]

30. Yes, others brought it up.

I had forgotten about the daughter they lost.

[RoccoR5955]

6. One detail was overlooked.

It was the little head, between his legs that he shaved.
(and he needed a microscope to find it.)

Why the hell didn't he give some of his family's millions instead? What a dishonest and thoughtless task!
A "bigger" man would have given funds.

[leveymg]

7. Why humanize and eulogize Poppy Bush as something other than what he is?

This is Bush family and GOP PR at work. Such a nice man.

[Mnemosyne]

14. ^^^THIS^^^ nt

[Puzzledtraveller]

16. Well our prez did

[leveymg]

17. Institutional conservative.

If eating live kittens for breakfast were an established part of American government and economy, Obama would sacrifice anything to preserve it. Even kittens . . .

[Myrina]

8. Ol' Buzzard's trying hard to avoid hell now.

He must have had a near-death experience recently & got a glimpse of what he was going to reap after all those decades of sowing evil for profit ...

[awoke_in_2003]

11. Fuck him and his entire family. nt

[Cleita]

12. Too bad he and Babs didn't have the same

concern when his own four year old daughter Robin died from leukemia. Instead she was buried without a service and he and Babs played golf the day after her death.

[hedgehog]

21. I won't condemn them for that -every family has its own way of handling grief.

[Cleita]

22. My point is that there wasn't a whole lot of grief there.

Read the book, "The Family", about the Bush family, written by a Republican.

[hedgehog]

24. I don't know how accurate it was, but I recall a biopic of

Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt that showed a scene in which they lost an infant son. Eleanor is shown to have kept a quiet demeanor, then to have rushed to the bathroom to turn the taps on to drown her sobs. The implication was that she'd been taught never to show emotion. Maybe that was just dramatic license, but it does suggest different cultures behaving different ways.

I've missed my Mom every day for two years, but I never shed a tear.

[Cleita]

25. Not the same thing.

But if you feel he's a guy with feelings that's your prerogative.

[Cleita]

27. Also, if you scan google, there seems to be a whole load

of Bush Family feel good, personal stuff out there, very recent, too. It seems they are white washing their family image. I wonder why? Rumor is Jebby is gonna go for the White House. Now as far as the old guy shaving his head? He's old. He's mostly bald anyway and what's there is thinning. It was a great photo op and he had nothing to lose.

[yurbud]

18. People googling this might inadvertently stumble across W's bald fetish:

http://www.buzzfeed.com/ryanhatesthis/16-photos-of-george-w-bush-touching-bald-mens-heads

and the bizarre connection to Jeff Gannon, Republican gay prostitute.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Gannon

[daleo]

20. Such a glabrous Bush.

[Rstrstx]

32. Clever, but..

..I think that went over the "heads" of many people

[daleo]

33. Well played.

[applegrove]

26. First George W. Bush in Africa and now George Sr. shaving his head. Someone told the Bush

family that it pays more to be interconnected to the world than to have power or wealth.

[mwrguy]

31. Fuck Bush and his evil empire n/t

[Rain Mcloud]

34. I do not buy it.

For the last 100 years the Bush-Harriman dynasty has profited from crimes against humanity.
Lately it has come to some peoples attention and the brand has become tarnished to the point that the prospect of another Bush as president seems unlikely.
The old farts ambition has been to see Jebbie become president and regrets the way that Dubyuh mishandled the PR while doing his and uncle Mohammed's bidding.

[Sunlei]

36. how many other families went homeless due to crushing medical debt and crap insurance?