This should most certainly and most deservedly open the door for Dr. Howard Dean, whom I always felt would be the best possible choice for HHS; even FDA Commissioner would be a large enough and challenging enough job for this great American, who singlehandedly rebuilt the Democratic Party, and like the analysis or not, helped to hand the Presidency to Obama. Although Governor Sebelius has been given the HHS job, it is not too late to read about the alternative, as now the Surgeon General position might be looking good for Dr. Dean.

Here are three of my prior articles on Howard Dean for HHS:

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Vermont-Senator-Bernie-San-by-Silla-Brush-090209-701.html

and

http://www.opednews.com/articles/The-United-States-Needs-Dr-by-Stephen-Fox-090203-382.html

and

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Why-Howard-Dean-MD-would-by-Stephen-Fox-081109-258.html

Please take the time to email both President Obama and VP Biden in support of Dr. Dean as Surgeon General; I truly believe the very future of American Health and Illness Prevention is at stake, given the corporate onslaught into the regulatory processes we are supposed to trust and depend on in our naive and deluded faith that the FDA "is there to protect us."

Dean is a graduate of Albert Einstein College of Medicine, former Governor of Vermont, a true progressive, and one of the brightest minds in public service at this time. He has practiced Family Medicine in Burlington, Vermont, and his wife, Judith Sternberg M.D., has her own practice of medicine in the Burlington area.

Anyone with half a brain, from either or both political parties, realizes that Health Care Reform without launching a fierce illness prevention program is as doomed to failure as would be putting a nice new box of bandaids on an open wound infected with gangrene, which described well the wreckage of American health at the hands of Big Pharma and Big Junk Food, and Big Television dumbing down the survival instinct for the past 60 years.

Big changes are coming, I believe, especially with the excellent Supreme Court decision in the past few days denying Big Pharma their favorite hiding place from liability suits, the fact that they obtained FDA approval, and this clearly will put a far greater onus on the FDA to get things right to begin with, instead of continuing to rubber stamp what industry wants from the FDA, from scientists who are then offered a way out the revolving door into a cushy corporate spot working for the firms they once regulated.

I could easily see a new consortium of some high powered legislators who are both interested in and cognizant of the problems in the FDA, the Health and Human Services Department, and in the office of the Surgeon General, if Dr. Dean were given that job by Obama in a long overdue gesture of appreciation, not just for his political services, but for his capacity to solve extremely serious and growing problems in American Health Care and prevention.

These legislators include Congressman Bart Stupak of Michigan, Congresswomen Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, and Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa.

Think about it. Who else would you trust for designing a complete overhaul of the FDA, the Department of Health, and the Surgeon General's functions more than Dr. Howard Dean?

Stephen Fox, Editor, New Mexico Sun News

stephen@santafefineart.com

Author's Bio: In 1980, Stephen Fox founded New Millennium Fine Art, a Santa Fe gallery specializing in Native American and Landscape, and is very active in New Mexico Legislative consumer protection politics, trying above to get the FDA to rescind its approval for the neurotoxic and carcinogenic artificial sweetener, Aspartame. [http://www.prlog.org/10070694] In a strictly legislative context, his most important writing has been for the Hawaii Senate: http://www.prlog.org/10056715-hawaii-senate In his capacity as Contributing Editor of the Santa Fe Sun News, Fox recently interviewed Mikhail Gorbachev: http://www.prlog.org/10064349-mikhail-gorbachev He has been adamant and resourceful about exposing the charlatans of the sometimes-organic food movement. Take the time to read this press release concerning California Attorney General Jerry Brown's suits against Whole Foods, Avalon, and others, for either knowingly or negligently adding a deadly carcinogen to their body care products and soap, as in Whole Foods 365 Label products: http://www.prlog.org/10079593 He cordially invites all Op Ed News readers to visit New Mexico in 2008!

www.opednews.com/articles/Gupta-out-as-Surgeon-Gener-by-Stephen-Fox-090305-508.html