I want some sanity back and my country as well

The last couple of days, or should I say the last couple of months or more,
have been totally insane when it comes to politics in this country. You
have the Democrats at both the state and federal level on a spending orgy
that has no end. You have Democrats like President Obama and House Speaker
Pelosi and others shoving health care reform down our collective throats and
the people gagging on that one. You have terrorism cases being handled as
criminal matters rather than military ones. You have Democrats who have no
clue as some in the state of Illinois want to cut spending, or at least
pretend that this is what they want. You have state Democrats who are
proposing their favorite solution to the problem of the spending orgy,, that
being a tax in crease in a bad economy. It won't fly and they are clueless
to that as it is their only solution. You have programs all over the place
who are getting hurt as a result of this; and you have the federal
government, through the recently-passed health care monstrosity, dumping
people on to the state Medicaid system which is in trouble already. What
more could go wrong? Plenty if these idiots aren't stopped.

The liberals have wanted to shove their agenda down our collective throats
for a long, long, long, long time; and now it appears that they will succeed
if they aren't stopped. These people are so arrogant that they think they
can do whatever they want. They have no clue about the outrage of the
people nor do they have any clue about what will happen this November.

What needs to happen is a /Republican revolution that makes 1994 look like
child's play. What needs to happen is that the Democrats need to be told
that they are absolutely and completely out of touch with the people. It
doesn't help that the majority of the media is in bed with these idiots
either. Fox and maybe the Wall Street Journal are two of the better outlets
for news as they aren't biased. The mainstream media, on the other hand, is
and they've been losing audience share because of it as people have other
options and are using those options.

I have never given to a campaign nor worked on one in the past but that
might change if the right situation presents itself because I want my
country back. I don't recognize what this country is fast becoming, a
country where the government takes care of your every want and need rather
than the individual making his or her own choices and controlling their own
lives. It used to be that we had statesmen who would step up in tough times
and do what was right. I'm not sure we have that anymore. Instead we have
Chicago-style politics at the national level. It's the politics of
coercion, thuggery and arrogance. I don't want that. People like the late
Sens. Simon and Kennedy were partisan to the core but each knew when to
reach across the aisle. The same can't be said about today's so-called
leaders. Those like Pelosi, Reed, and Obama lead by intimidation and
they'll do anything to get what they want, including buying votes with
sweetheart deals. This occurred so many times on the health care
monstrosity, it's not funny. There's the Stupak sellout, the cornhusker
kickback, the Louisiana purchase, Gatorade and more. It all stinks and I
can't take the stench anymore. I want my country back.

We all need to do whatever we can to take our country back from these
idiots. I plan to check some things out and see where I go from here but
taking no action is not an option. Only time will tell what action I will
take.

Powerless on health care

Right now I feel powerless as the steam roller that is health care reform,
oh I mean deform, keeps rolling on. Last night this country was
transformed in a historic way with the passage of health care reform. This
legislation will drive up the deficit, saddle our children and grandchildren
with debt, kill jobs, force people on Medicaid, mandate that everyone have
health insurance and use the IRS to achieve these ends. This country was
transformed from a free enterprise system to a socialist economy last night.
Government knows best according to the Democrats. Well, not in this
author's opinion. Government doesn't know best and I sure as hell don't
want to be asking for permission to do absolutely anything related to
health care from what I can eat to when I can make a doctor's appointment
and with whom. Don'[t even get into health care records which I won't be
able to access because they haven't considered the needs of people with
disabilities.

I feel powerless because I am opposed to this train wreck. Fortunately I am
represented by a Congressman who is also opposed and I certainly appreciate
his no vote on this monstrosity. He knows that this will be a jobs killer
and will hurt the economy. How the hell could it not when you are affecting
1/6 of the economy.

and the contempt for life shown by the Democrats is breath taking. What you
saw last night was the naked repeal of the Hyde Amendment which bans
federal funds for abortion. The Democratic comeback on that is that there
will be an executive order regarding this. Well, what is done by executive
order can be taken away by the same means. You also have the fact that,
according to Rep. Roskam, an executive order must be congruous with the
legislation in order to be constitutional and this one would not be. Stupak
and his ilk were rolled on this legislation big time. There's no question
about it. The Democrats were so desperate for votes on this one that they
were willing to do anything to get what they want. Welcome to Chicago
politics at the national level.

I've heard that this monstrosity will be signed as soon as this Tuesday.
Hopefully it will soon be declared unconstitutional, something that I have
heard several state AGs are going to go to court and contend as soon as this
is signed. I hope to God that they succeed because this travesty cannot be
allowed to stand. Where in the Constitution does it state that the
government has the power to compel a citizen to buy something, in this case
health insurance? It doesn't. The Dems obviously don't understand the
meaning of commerce.

Let the Republican revolution begin. Maybe we can bottle up this
administration until we can get it out of office. For the sake of this great
country. I want my country back and the fight is now to get it back. I
pray that the courts will stop this travesty and soon.

Obama Care no thank you

I was recently visiting some family members and let's just say that we don't
agree on health care reform. The people we were visiting did not seem to
think that the Republicans have any alternatives to the huge mandated
takeover by the government of health care. Yes they do and these need to be
looked at seriously by all involved for no one side has all of the answers.
God knows the Democrats don't. The Democrats' answer is for the government
to take over health care thus creating some 118 new agencies if the estimate
on this that I heard is correct. Do I want government to expand that much?
Hell, no I don't. It only contributes to the deficit and drives us further
into debt and makes people more, not less, dependent on the government for
things that they should be able to control themselves. I don't want some
government puke telling me when I can go to the doctor. The insurance
companies do enough of that right now. For example, I'm told how often I
can go to the dentist, especially if I want insurance to pay for it; which,
by the way, is why I have insurance. I'm told how often I can get tests
such as a mammogram. I certainly don't want to be told by some government
puke what I can eat and when; and I fear that could come in the name of
combating obesity. Don't forget that the Democrats see the restaurant
industry as evil and in need of regulation.. That should be considered an
issue for another day but unfortunately it ties in here in the name of
telling restaurants what ingredients they can use in food preparation and
how much they can use of things like salt. It's my responsibility to make
choices about what I put into my body, not the government's responsibility
to make that choice for me. More on that some other time.

Have there been some mistakes? Yes and the biggest one was with the
prescription drug program for Medicare. Why wasn't the government allowed
to negotiate for the lowest price? Well, because Congress caved in to the
pharmaceuticals and insurance lobby on that one. Even this Republican
doesn't agree with that move.

Republicans talk about allowing people to buy insurance across state lines.
This is all well and good as long as the state with the lowest standards
doesn't become the Delaware of the insurance industry. I say this because
Delaware has the , what I would consider, weakest laws regarding corporation
and/or bankruptcy; which is why a lot of companies incorporate there. What
is done to make sure this doesn't happen, I don't know nor do I pretend to
have the answer. This is one argument which was brought up on our recent
visit.

There's so much wrong with the Democratic plan that I don't know where to
start but I also think it's going nowhere and fast. It needs to die a
merciful death, that's for sure. About the only argument we did win on our
recent visit was over the presence of death panels in the Democratic plan.
There is language about this in the bill, section 1233, and those with whom
we were engaged in this conversation did not say much when we brought this
up. I wonder if they knew that we were right.

Let's have some meaningful, incremental reform that doesn't explode the
deficit. Why do the Democrats want to give us a plan that requires 10 years
of taxes for six years of benefits? Why do they want this to take affect
after they leave office rather than immediately? Is the legislation that
bad that they don't want to own up to it? My answer to that question is yes
it is. Let's scrap the current legislation and start over, that is if Obama
will truly listen to the people rather than practice Chicago-style politics
on this one. If the Democrats want to fight over this one, then the
Republicans should just stand and watch them kill the legislation. It's the
best thing that can happen to this country.

The time is now for H.R. 3101

If ever there was a critical time for legislation, now is it when it comes
to H.R. 3101, the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of
2009. This legislation would do a number of things in the area of access to
telecommunications including the following"'
Require hearing aid compatibility (HAC) for cell phones.
Require accessible user interfaces for telecommunications devices.
Provide $10 million a year from the Universal Service Fund (USF) to fund the
purchase of telecommunications equipment for deaf-blind consumers.
Restore the requirement for video description.
Require that programming that moves to the Internet have video description
and closed captioning.
Require small devices to carry closed captioning and video description .

I've just outlined the key provisions of the bill. To date we only have 30
co-sponsors for this legislation. We need much more than that in order for
this legislation to move. Are we prepared to see this opportunity for
meaningful legislation in this area lost? I sure am not. I am not prepared
to be party to telling the deaf-blind community that we don't care about you
and your access needs. I'm not prepared to tell people who are blind or
visually impaired that they must have sighted assistance to set up a home
theater system. I'm not prepared to tell people who use hearing aids that
they can't have direct access to a cell phone. I'm not prepared to tell
people who are blind or visually impaired that they must pay extra for
access to all of the features of their cell phone. In short, I'm not
prepared to lose this opportunity and lose it we could if nothing happens
with this legislation.

If nothing happens this year, the legislation will die and must be
re-introduced next year. There's no guarantee that this will happen as no
one knows what the Congress will look like next year; and if we couldn't get
this done in a Democratically-controlled Congress, there's certainly no
guarantee that we'll even get this introduced in a Republican-controlled
one. Therefore, the time is now for H.R. 3101. Don't let this time pass
you by. Please contact your Representative in Congress and ask him or her
to co-sponsor this critical legislation. If you don't, the opportunity
could be lost for a generation. Are you prepared for this to happen? I'm
not.

Live from Washington

Today was the first full day of meetings here in Washington D.C. We had a
full agenda too.

We discussed how to advocate effectively for your school for the blind, how
to use ACB radio to get more content to more people, convention plans for
this summer and legal matters such as confidentiality, conflict of interest
and financial forms.

It was all good information but I do have concerns in one area. That area
is the use of ACB radio. I don't mind using it but we need to remember that
audio content doesn't work for everyone. There are some among us who don't
have enough hearing to make effective use of audio content.

I must say though that I am proud and excited to be here. I thought fondly
of who I think influenced me and thought of a couple of giants in ACB, one
living and one dearly departed. Both of these people have spoken up for the
db community. I would like to think that I have followed in their footsteps
although the shoes to be filled are large indeed.

That's all for today. We had a heavy load, especially at the end with all
of the legal stuff. That can get you down if you let it because it can seem
so big, bad and challenging. We as leaders can't let it get to us though.
If we do, we're done. I'm not ready to give up.

More thoughts from Washington tomorrow.

Batteries not being nice

Last week I had a day where a couple of batteries were not being nice at
all. First the left hearing aid battery went out. I got that fixed after
the nurse found the batteries and discovered that she had one left in the
size that I needed. Then, later the right one started doing the same thing.
I had to hope that this battery would make it until I got home, which it did
barely.

It's frustrating when you don't have both of them working as directionality
is messed up as is the amount of sound you hear. That's not a good thing at
work either, especially considering the fact that I work on the phone and
use a computer.

I got the second battery changed as soon as I got home and all was well with
that problem.

However, I have an ear mold that likes to show up once in a while and it has
decided to do just that. Once I'm done traveling, I'll get it looked at but
now is not the time. I don't know why it always shows up when I'm
traveling. I hate only having one hearing aid in is also a pain for the
same reasons mentioned above. I hate it too. I won't do that one outside
of home either as my mobility is royally messed up if I do and that's not a
good thing. If only that ear mold would behave. It would be very nice.

Adventures with a chili can

It was Super Bowl Sunday and my husband and I were making a dip to celebrate
prior to the game. There was one problem though. I was getting my
ingredients together as it was my turn to make the dip. It's a real easy
recipe too. I had the cream cheese and the chili and I knew where the
shredded cheese was. The problems is that I then lost track of the can of
chili.

I thought it was over by the chips on the south counter of our kitchen. We
both looked all over for it. And a minor shouting match was had over this
with me accusing him of throwing the thing out and him saying he didn't do
it. I finally went to a neighbor's place to have him help us look for the
can as both of us are blind. The neighbor found the can immediately when he
walked in. It was sitting on the north counter pretty as you please. If it
was any closer, it would have bitten both of us in the nose. I did move it
and forgot that I had done so. Boy was I embarrassed. How many shades of
red could I turn for that one? Also where was the nearest hole that I could
crawl into?

Believe me we had some laughter and a discussion with the can after that
one. The can of chili was promptly put into the dip and the dip prepared
and consumed. That can would not haunt us again..