While most of us were sleeping Republicans in the house of representatives were hard at work. Under the guise of balancing the budget they passed legislation that will cut all funding to planned parenthood and would further impede on a woman's reproductive rights and safety.
The Republicans did not pass this obscene piece of legislation strictly to save money, oh no, it was passed because they want to send a clear message that abortion is wrong. The three and a half hour "budget" debate focused not on saving money but on attacking women and reproductive rights and safety.
John Boehner called it democracy in action,yes that's right stripping women of health care and family planning is something he thinks we should be proud of.
What they fail, or don't care, to realize is that planned parenthood has prevented unwanted pregnancy, not through abortion, but through education and contraception.
Without planned parenthood millions of sexually active people will have no place to go for STI screenings and tests. Millions of women will go without gynecologic exams. Millions of preventable pregnancies will drain other state programs and cash strapped families.
It is an outrage to me that in this decade men are climbing over each other to take away my right to protect myself from unwanted disease and pregnancy.
In the interest of full disclosure, I cannot imagine ever getting an abortion. That said I cannot imagine living in an America where I don't have the choice.
This legislation is sending a clear message to women that their health safety and well being do not matter at all to the Republican party.
I am shocked and horrified by this behavior, and whether you believe in abortion or not, whether you are religious or not, the thought that your rights as a woman can be cast aside so thoughtlessly should horrify you to.
This is the link to the article about the vote.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/19/AR2011021900503.html?hpid=topnews
This is a link to an earlier article about the debate that happened Thursday, this article has video of the bill's sponsor as well as quotes from both sides of the isle. Please read.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2011/02/house-debate-on-defunding-plan.html
Saturday, February 19, 2011
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Revolutions don't work-- Glenn Beck
I will not take up a lot of space on this.
I will just say, Glenn we had a revolution and we are doing okay. Maybe instead of digging in your founding father costume box you should read a little history.
I told you it was short.
I will just say, Glenn we had a revolution and we are doing okay. Maybe instead of digging in your founding father costume box you should read a little history.
I told you it was short.
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Closing USDB schools
Well, the Utah legislature wants to close down the schools for the deaf and blind. The reason, they say, is that most students would do fine if left to their own school districts. This is not only a false statement it is a dangerous one. Most USDB students do go to school within their respective districts, but they are not well served by them. These students receive equipment and training from the USDB schools. They have special teachers that help them with work and these teachers help the school to be more accommodating to the student's special needs. For children with multiple disabilities mainstreaming is not possible or would be far to difficult for either the child the district or both, for these children the school for the deaf and blind is essential. Closing these schools would place an undue burden on cash strapped districts, it also could lead to students being denied their legal right to a quality education. I for example would have had a much harder time in school without my resource teacher, during eighth and ninth grade when I didn't have her the school forced me into resource and remedial classes with the profoundly disabled rather than give me printed material that I could read. The truth is, we live in a state that undervalues it's disabled community and this is a tactic to take education away from students who deserve it. In 1973 it was determined that all children deserved an education, this is Utah's way of superseding federal law.
Without doing any research to find out what it would cost for individual districts to provide for these new students they assume this measure will save them $19 million. With some common sense they would realize that either individual districts would end up expending this same amount of money to educated these children, or these children would get an inferior education.
Undoubtedly some of you are thinking, "Aaron, this is just a proposal." My answer to that is look back to two weeks ago when the legislative budget committee said that Utah was doing great but might need to cut 7% from every department. The Utah Statesman reported what that could mean to USU, and Gov. Herbert told us not to worry it probably wouldn't happen. Well now that the session has begun everyone is talking like that cut is a forgone conclusion. In Utah every time the legislature mentions a cut it almost always happens. The chance that this state could lose it's schools for the deaf and blind is real. I did not go to the school, but I did benefit from it, this isn't some unimportant program, this isn't frivolous wasteful spending. This is about educating peoples children.
Without doing any research to find out what it would cost for individual districts to provide for these new students they assume this measure will save them $19 million. With some common sense they would realize that either individual districts would end up expending this same amount of money to educated these children, or these children would get an inferior education.
Undoubtedly some of you are thinking, "Aaron, this is just a proposal." My answer to that is look back to two weeks ago when the legislative budget committee said that Utah was doing great but might need to cut 7% from every department. The Utah Statesman reported what that could mean to USU, and Gov. Herbert told us not to worry it probably wouldn't happen. Well now that the session has begun everyone is talking like that cut is a forgone conclusion. In Utah every time the legislature mentions a cut it almost always happens. The chance that this state could lose it's schools for the deaf and blind is real. I did not go to the school, but I did benefit from it, this isn't some unimportant program, this isn't frivolous wasteful spending. This is about educating peoples children.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
My response to the state of the union address
First of all the overall tone of the speech was good, I felt that the mixed seating gave it a good bi-partisan feel.
There was a lot that I liked, I thought it was important to bring up education and to talk about alternative energy.
I have to say though that Obama in my view made a big mistake by not coming out with a more detailed description of the spending freeze and how much it would reduce the deficit by. A lot of people wanted to hear it and by not putting it out there he has just encouraged a new herd of Tea Party "patriots" to run for office. That is not good for anyone.
I thought it was ill timed to ask for more spending, first of all it's not going to happen, and secondly it puts the new health care reforms in jeopardy. The way he asked for money for infrastructure and then effectively threw Medicaid under the bus was uncalled for. You cant tell me that a 5% spending freeze is only a cut to Medicaid. If Obama thinks that by leaving the under-insured high and dry is going to help reign in these Tea Parties he is mistaken. The Tea Party rallies will continue because they only want two things, for him to fail and to keep health care in the hands of the privileged.
As for the Republican response. What can I say Paul Ryan is a douche box. This guy spent the whole rebuttal talking about repealing health care reform and comparing us to Greece. Someone should explain to him that Greece has twice the social program spending as we do and a retirement age that is lower than ours. He said that the private sector has historically done more for the poor than government. I don't think even he could believe this bull shit. I would ask him to look at Ireland, who adopted the U.S. free trade system when the ecconomy went south the poor there had nothing. Maybe I shouldn't have been so hard on the president, after all the only thing these Republicans want to hear is a repeal of health care.
The Tea Party response was weird and of course made reference to WWII but it was to the point and short.
There was a lot that I liked, I thought it was important to bring up education and to talk about alternative energy.
I have to say though that Obama in my view made a big mistake by not coming out with a more detailed description of the spending freeze and how much it would reduce the deficit by. A lot of people wanted to hear it and by not putting it out there he has just encouraged a new herd of Tea Party "patriots" to run for office. That is not good for anyone.
I thought it was ill timed to ask for more spending, first of all it's not going to happen, and secondly it puts the new health care reforms in jeopardy. The way he asked for money for infrastructure and then effectively threw Medicaid under the bus was uncalled for. You cant tell me that a 5% spending freeze is only a cut to Medicaid. If Obama thinks that by leaving the under-insured high and dry is going to help reign in these Tea Parties he is mistaken. The Tea Party rallies will continue because they only want two things, for him to fail and to keep health care in the hands of the privileged.
As for the Republican response. What can I say Paul Ryan is a douche box. This guy spent the whole rebuttal talking about repealing health care reform and comparing us to Greece. Someone should explain to him that Greece has twice the social program spending as we do and a retirement age that is lower than ours. He said that the private sector has historically done more for the poor than government. I don't think even he could believe this bull shit. I would ask him to look at Ireland, who adopted the U.S. free trade system when the ecconomy went south the poor there had nothing. Maybe I shouldn't have been so hard on the president, after all the only thing these Republicans want to hear is a repeal of health care.
The Tea Party response was weird and of course made reference to WWII but it was to the point and short.
Friday, January 21, 2011
Arizona health plan
Some of you may have heard about those 98 people on a waiting list for organ transplants in Arizona. If you haven't let me explain. The state of Arizona had a program that helped people who needed organ transplants and could not afford them. I say had because Jan Brewer recently cut all funding to the program. After the story broke on national news a Republican from Illinois went through the Arizona state budget to see what could be done to save the program, he found 27 possible solutions. Jan Brewer didn't use any of them. Instead she unveiled her own plan.
She would cut all Medicaid benefits to 280,000 childless adults in her state, some of whom are severely mentally ill.
She says that the money saved would go to fund the transplant program and save the lives of the now 96 people on the list.
I think this is the most disgusting display of robbing Peter to pay Paul. As if the concept of stealing health benefits from half a million people were not horrid enough, the money would not benefit those on the transplant list until July.
Another major flaw in this plan is that the Medicaid money would not be enough to pay for all of the surgeries and the likelihood of finding a doctor willing to do surgery for pennies on the dollar is slim. The other major flaw is this. Under the old program the government gave the state a grant of three million dollars to help pay for the transplants, now that it is gone so is that money.
Finally Governor Brewer seems to be counting on the fact that none of these 280,000 people who would now have no insurance will get sick. Does she think that these people will remain healthy because they can no longer see a doctor?
So, why be concerned? For one thing this plan is horribly misguided, there are some who are saying that Brewer is using the transplants as an excuse to cut benefits that she would have cut anyway. That doesn't seem to be a bad assumption.
I care because these are people who are the most vulnerable, adults who don't have children and persons who are mentally ill have very few resources that they can count on for help.
The other reason is that as of last year, the state of Utah has looked to Arizona for guidance. I shudder to think that our legislature might pick up on this idea and write a bill of their own just like it. Make sure you know how to contact your representatives this is one idea that fails everyone.
She would cut all Medicaid benefits to 280,000 childless adults in her state, some of whom are severely mentally ill.
She says that the money saved would go to fund the transplant program and save the lives of the now 96 people on the list.
I think this is the most disgusting display of robbing Peter to pay Paul. As if the concept of stealing health benefits from half a million people were not horrid enough, the money would not benefit those on the transplant list until July.
Another major flaw in this plan is that the Medicaid money would not be enough to pay for all of the surgeries and the likelihood of finding a doctor willing to do surgery for pennies on the dollar is slim. The other major flaw is this. Under the old program the government gave the state a grant of three million dollars to help pay for the transplants, now that it is gone so is that money.
Finally Governor Brewer seems to be counting on the fact that none of these 280,000 people who would now have no insurance will get sick. Does she think that these people will remain healthy because they can no longer see a doctor?
So, why be concerned? For one thing this plan is horribly misguided, there are some who are saying that Brewer is using the transplants as an excuse to cut benefits that she would have cut anyway. That doesn't seem to be a bad assumption.
I care because these are people who are the most vulnerable, adults who don't have children and persons who are mentally ill have very few resources that they can count on for help.
The other reason is that as of last year, the state of Utah has looked to Arizona for guidance. I shudder to think that our legislature might pick up on this idea and write a bill of their own just like it. Make sure you know how to contact your representatives this is one idea that fails everyone.
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
And Lo Glenn Beck did speak in parables.
It has been awhile since I have spoken of our Lord Beck. The truth is I have discovered that not only does his logic defy reason, reason cannot be applied to him. I just happened to flip to Fox this afternoon and heard a lovely parable that Beck was preaching to the conservative, or is that converted?
Beck's story begins with a tree, and a very close neighborhood. See there is this cottonwood that grows near a river in the back yard of this family, and everyone in the neighborhood sits under this tree. See that is the first problem with the story, who is going to let all the people in town hang out in their back yard, but I digress.
I will skip the flowery language, no doubt it will be taken down in an illuminated manuscript for you to buy on his web site.
The end of the story is this; the tree falls down in a horrible storm because it lived by a river and the owners of the tree cared for it so it's roots were just beneath the surface of the earth.
As Glenn sums up, the tree didn't have to go far to find water, it had life to easy so when the storm came it died.
The tree is of coarse America and the roots are us the citizens and the water is "social programs"
So if we follow Glenn's logic, countries that take good care of their people fail because they have nothing to cling to.
Well lets see if this bears out. According to Beck countries that fell did so because their citizens had access to "life giving water". Yeah that sounds like Sierra Leon, oh wait it doesn't. Okay how about France, oh wait people were out of work and starving, well that doesn't make any sense. Beck said that if we have to struggle to survive we become stronger. I beg of you Beck, name one nation that has fallen as a direct result of taking care of it's people. Name one rebellion caused by people who had good jobs.
Aside from being a perfectly lovely story Becks parable simply does not make sense. If giving citizens access to food, shelter and health care causes collapse than why is Canada doing all right. The housing collapse of 2007 hurt many countries, but none of them are gone. Finland and Sweden are still here, and they(gasp) give workers lots of vacation time.
So sorry Beck Jesus you are not.
Beck's story begins with a tree, and a very close neighborhood. See there is this cottonwood that grows near a river in the back yard of this family, and everyone in the neighborhood sits under this tree. See that is the first problem with the story, who is going to let all the people in town hang out in their back yard, but I digress.
I will skip the flowery language, no doubt it will be taken down in an illuminated manuscript for you to buy on his web site.
The end of the story is this; the tree falls down in a horrible storm because it lived by a river and the owners of the tree cared for it so it's roots were just beneath the surface of the earth.
As Glenn sums up, the tree didn't have to go far to find water, it had life to easy so when the storm came it died.
The tree is of coarse America and the roots are us the citizens and the water is "social programs"
So if we follow Glenn's logic, countries that take good care of their people fail because they have nothing to cling to.
Well lets see if this bears out. According to Beck countries that fell did so because their citizens had access to "life giving water". Yeah that sounds like Sierra Leon, oh wait it doesn't. Okay how about France, oh wait people were out of work and starving, well that doesn't make any sense. Beck said that if we have to struggle to survive we become stronger. I beg of you Beck, name one nation that has fallen as a direct result of taking care of it's people. Name one rebellion caused by people who had good jobs.
Aside from being a perfectly lovely story Becks parable simply does not make sense. If giving citizens access to food, shelter and health care causes collapse than why is Canada doing all right. The housing collapse of 2007 hurt many countries, but none of them are gone. Finland and Sweden are still here, and they(gasp) give workers lots of vacation time.
So sorry Beck Jesus you are not.
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Clearfield rep proposes killing cats
There is a bill to be discussed in the Utah legislature that would exempt people from prosecution if they "humanely" kill a "feral" animal. This was sponsored by the Republican representative of Clearfield UT. Apparently there are massive groups of feral dogs and cats in his district.
What this bill means is that if any citizen in Utah sees a cat or dog they have the right to shoot it and claim that they thought it was feral. Is this a stupid idea? Hell yes it is. Look I have a cat who likes to go outside in the spring and summer if this passes I could never let him out. In Utah most landlords have a negative attitude about pets, a law like this gives them permission to shoot that annoying dog or pesky cat. This is the worst act of animal cruelty that I have ever heard of. The idea that shooting an animal can be thought of as humane, depending on where that animal is shot it could take hours for them to die.
What this bill means is that if any citizen in Utah sees a cat or dog they have the right to shoot it and claim that they thought it was feral. Is this a stupid idea? Hell yes it is. Look I have a cat who likes to go outside in the spring and summer if this passes I could never let him out. In Utah most landlords have a negative attitude about pets, a law like this gives them permission to shoot that annoying dog or pesky cat. This is the worst act of animal cruelty that I have ever heard of. The idea that shooting an animal can be thought of as humane, depending on where that animal is shot it could take hours for them to die.
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