The Real Death Panelists -- All With the Letter (R) After Their Names . . . .

And further down the one-way rabbit hole of third world self-immolation we go:

For the fourth time in two years, a rural hospital in Georgia is shuttering its doors over a dearth of patients who can pay for their medical services, the Albany Herald reports. An increasing number of hospitals that serve large numbers of poor and uninsured Americans are being forced to close in states that are refusing the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion.

The Lower Oconee Community Hospital, a so-called “critical access” hospital in southeastern Georgia with 25 beds, will close down and possibly re-open as an urgent care center that provides services that aren’t quite serious enough to necessitate an emergency room visit. Patients in the Wheeler County region who need more extensive medical care after the hospital closes will need to travel upwards of thirty miles in order to receive it.

“We just did not have sufficient volume to support the expenses,” said CEO Karen O’Neal in an interview with local CBS affiliate WMAZ. “It’s a terrible situation, and it’s tragic, the loss of jobs and the economic impact.”

http://thinkprogress.org/health/2014/02/18/3299961/fourth-georgia-hospital-shuts/


The Gadfly does not consider it a stretch of the imagination one iota when he states that some Georgia citizens are going to die unnecessarily because of this.

And it all can be chalked up directly to a bunch of ass-picking, neanderthal Georgia legislators who are more enamored of earning their coveted "Look Ma'! I Gave Obama The Middle Finger" Cub Scout patches than they are about the health, welfare and well-being of their constituents.

But you know what dear readers -- The Gadfly has even more wonderful news for Georgians, and it makes for the ideal companion story to this one.  Check it out:

The Georgia House passed a bill Tuesday to allow guns in places of worship, bars, government buildings without security checkpoints, and even eliminate criminal charges for those who accidentally bring their guns to the airport or other secured buildings where guns are prohibited. The bill, a smorgasbord of new gun rights expansions that safety advocates say may amount to the most aggressive bill yet, also expands gun rights in both public K-12 schools and colleges, and even broadens the state’s expansive Stand Your Ground law.

Most of the bill’s provisions apply to anyone who has obtained a state concealed carry permit. While obtaining a permit requires a background check, it does not require any firearms training whatsoever. And another provision of the bill removes the misdemeanor offense of pointing a gun at someone from the list of crimes that bar access to such a permit. Advocates say this provision is particularly alarming for policing domestic violence incidents; currently, police can base a domestic violence gun confiscation on commission of this offense.

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2014/02/19/3303231/georgia-expands-gun-rights-airports-bars-churches-elementary-schools-libraries/


So in summary dear readers, not only are Georgia's bug-fuck insane wingnut legislators making it much more likely for people to be a victim of random gun violence in public venues such as bars, courthouses, churches, libraries and public schools, should you also just so happen to be the doubly unlucky bastard getting gunned down in any of those places which are in rural parts of the state, good fucking luck finding a hospital anywhere nearby to treat your possibly life-threatening wounds.

Oh -- and look out you ladies with abusive hubbies:  "the bill removes the misdemeanor offense of pointing a gun at someone."  Which basically means gals, if your better half comes home piss-drunk from the bar one night and is none too pleased that you don't have his plate of country-fried steak and mashed 'taters hot and ready waiting for him, he can point a loaded gun at your head in anger --- not just because he can, because now the state says it's legal - you know - because FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEDOM!!

Ahhh yes --- The Gadfly loves the smell of right wing conservatism hard at work in the morning, turning America in to the next great shit hole of third world banana republicanism and a sovereignty worthy of wishing to see go down in flaming ignominy, not at all unlike prior degenerate empires in history.  Smells like . . . . Victory!



----TFG