Race for the Cure founder joins Bush Administration

[OzarkDem]

DALLAS - June 18, 2007 - President Bush today announced the nomination of Nancy G. Brinker as Chief of Protocol at the Department of State. In this role, Brinker will be responsible for overseeing the visits of chiefs of state, heads of government and other international dignitaries who travel to the United States to meet with the President, Vice President or Secretary of State. She will also accompany delegations representing the President at official ceremonies abroad. The White House officially announced the news today.

"I am honored to serve our country in this important, public capacity," said Brinker. "I was raised to always give back to the world, which is why I've dedicated my life to Susan G. Komen for the Cure and raising awareness about women's health issues on a global level. This position provides me the opportunity to serve at the ultimate level."

http://cms.komen.org/komen/NewsEvents/KomenNews/070618_Brinker_WH_Appointment

Note: Maybe she'll be too busy for her behind the scenes lobbying against health care reform.

On edit: if you're looking for a high quality alternative, donate to the Virginia Clinton Kelley Fund that President Clinton established at the National Breast Cancer Coalition. Also the organization Sheryl Crowe works with. No running required, but you can go walk around the block after donating if it makes you feel better...

http://www.natlbcc.org/bin/index.asp?strid=781&depid=16

[babylonsister]

1. Wow. I remember you being not such a big fan of this org. Now I know why. nt

[OzarkDem]

2. Its hard to overcome

all those billions of dollars in corporate advertising campaigns.

[babylonsister]

3. Ever since we had our 'talk' about SBKomen, I've deleted the

e-mails. This enforces it, both thanks to you. There are worthier places to put your money and mouth. Thanks.

[blm]

4. I loathe that organization and their entire approach - they raise millions and spend them

frivolously for the most part.

It's a typical haves and have mores charity that makes them feel better about their privileged lifestyles.

I spent some years doing celebrity events for a NY-LA based foundation where they operated on the barest budgets so 95% of the money went directly to serious lab research for blood cancers.

Komen spends too much money patting themselves on the back.

[OzarkDem]

5. Paris Hilton of breast cancer groups

Actually more like General Electric...

They raise a lot of money through corporate connections (nothing wrong with a litle of that as long as it doesn't influence your mission and agenda and the message about breast cancer to the public is honest and substantive).

But other breast cancer groups have struggled with their monopolistic and predatory practices. In the last couple of years they've been ruthless; spending tens of millions of dollars (or more) trying to run competing breast cancer groups out of business and dominate the market.

Sadly, American women fall too easily for the advertising and marketing. Survivors call our group all the time asking for help to pay medical bills, etc. and always remind me how much money they raised for Komen. We still help them.

[emilyg]

8. Breast cancer survivor

I am proud to say I never gave to them.

[derby378]

11. Actually, some of us DUers joined them in Texas last year for a Race For the Cure...

Shame to hear that some folks are charging they're wasteful - but it's definitely worth looking into.

As for the Brinker family, aren't they all a bunch of long-standing Republicans, anyway?

[blm]

14. It's not just 'some' charges. I worked 13 years in research fundraising events

in the 80s and 90s and because the LA events are fairly competitive, we kept careful watch on other foundations and they're spending priorities - Komen Foundation was famous for being more about funding image than funding serious research. With the amounts they are raising they should be funding much more research than they do.

I fully acknowledge that one good aspect is the raising of awareness through these events and those who participate are great for bringing that to the table, but when it comes to crucial research and reaching out to those low-income women with little access to healthcare dollars, Komen is NOT a strong foundation in that regard.

[derby378]

15. Understood

Will keep that in mind for the future. An actual cure will help more breast cancer patients than any pink ribbon will.

[OzarkDem]

16. Not to mention

the fact that they lobby behind the scenes (hiring lobbyists privately and off record) against important legislative priorities like funding treatment for uninsured women (Breast & Cervical Cancer Prevention and Treatment Act), Patients Bill of Rights and the Breast Cancer & Environmental Research Act (BCERA).

The only research they tend to fund is low impact, high visibility stuff. They're very Rovian in how they can create the public impression of going after important issues while doing something completely different in private.

Komen recently funded a study at Silent Spring Institute to summarize and catalogue all the research showing chemicals linked to breast cancer. Looks great, but they refuse to lobby for funding to complete that research in humans.

[Mel]

6. I hear you

I did research when someone close to me got breast cancer and the things I found out years ago so turned me off of the pink ribbon campaign.
In case anyone is interested here's a link I found a while back
http://www.lightparty.com/Health/ProfitBreastCancer.html

[OzarkDem]

7. Good link

Corporations and the GOP figured out a long time ago how to market breast cancer to sell products and promote a fluffy pink image of breast cancer while downplaying the real issues.

Mammography has been oversold to the public, resulting in stalling funding for research into better methods of detecting breast cancer. New Bush appointee Nancy Brinker once served on the Board of Directors of General Electric, one of the biggest manufacturers of mammography machines.

Digital mammography was another big scam, with GE and others pushing the new "miracle" for breast cancer screening that ended up being inferior to analog mammography. Of course those studies didn't come out until after all the hospitals and clinics had invested billions in the worthless technology. One of the reasons the cost of mammography screening is rising these days is all the hc providers paying off the debt for those worthless doorstops.

The environmental issue has been a big fight too.

The GOP learned in the early 90's how to exploit breast cancer to lure women voters. Dems, the ones for whom it should be a natural issue have completely ignored it.

[libnnc]

12. I did not know this

Thanks for the post. Wow.

[OzarkDem]

9. Kick

[OzarkDem]

10. kick

[Babsbrain]

13. Donations to Big Pharma and *

God forrbid any of the money went to research about how and why so many women are getting breast cancer. If researchers could be proactive and find the cause, Big Pharma couldn't make so much money making drugs to treat it.

And she and her rich rich repug hubby donated big buck$ to the busheviks.

[libnnc]

17. kick

I'm interested in learning more about this

[Pastiche423]

18. Thank you, OzarkDem and BLM

for this important information. I was completely unaware.