Here's another one of those hand-collides-with-the-forehead moments.
Earlier this week, forty students at a Salt Lake City elementary school had their lunches snatched away from them by a district official. Her title? ---uh--- Child Nutrition Manager! They were then chucked in the garbage because once served, they couldn't be re-served. (The lunches that is, not the kiddos. Just thought I'd better clarify that).
The reason that these pupils lost their lunches was that their families' accounts were deemed delinquent. To make matters worse, these poor boys and girls were mortified in front of their classmates. Some cried. So did at least one cafeteria lady.
According to the Salt Lake Tribune, which first ran the article, last Wednesday's lunch-snatching has been an ongoing policy. Apparently it's happened elsewhere too, including Texas. (Surprised)? Owing to the justified public outrage generated by this recent episode, the policy is at least now out in the open.
There are times that I can't help but believe that such abject cruelty and meanness can be contagious. These lunch-snatchers seem to be taking their cues right from the playbooks of two particular congressfolks (one former): Stephen Fincher and Newt Gingrich.
Mr. Fincher is the Western Tennessee congressman and self-anointed biblical scholar who cited a passage from the Bible indicating that "those who don't work, don't eat". (His words). (According to real scholars, the quote was taken grossly out of context). The congressman cited it as justification for his vote to cut food stamps. Yet he's never refused government aid for his own family's thriving four-square-mile cotton plantation.
Not to be forgotten is Mr. Gingrich: former Speaker of the House, presidential candidate, and serial hubby. Here's what he declared back in November, 2011:
Time to relax our truly stupid child labor laws.
Schools should fire their unionized janitors and
hire children as young as nine to do the work
instead.
That's a hard act to follow, folks. I'm absolutely sure that the vast majority of us are better than that. We need to elect more public officials who truly reflect our values.
Friday, January 31, 2014
Thursday, January 23, 2014
Republican Voters Could Be Signing Their Own Death Warrants
Republican legislatures in two dozen states are still not allowing an expanded Medicaid program --- a vital provision of Obamacare --- to benefit their lowest-income residents.
Other than their visceral hatred for the president and everything associated with him, I can't think of any reason why these public officials would be so hell-bent on punishing their states' poorest citizens.
Oh yeah, I nearly forgot; many of these lawmakers seem to believe that the poor are to blame for their own misfortune. Yet, there's at least one potentially lethal fly in the ointment. Apparently, many small-town hospitals are shutting down, having been deprived of the Medicaid funding so vital to their survival.
The upshot is that the health of everyone in those states is at risk, regardless of financial status. Timely treatment for life-threatening injuries or medical traumas is no longer available. It's already happening.
A very well-written and well-documented article is available on-line from Bloomberg News. (Obamacare Cutbacks Shut Hospitals Where Medicaid Went Unexpanded; Byline: Toluse Olorunnipa, 11/24/13).
It doesn't matter how anyone voted or whether or not one is insured. Consider the case of a prototypical Harrumphing Old White Dude: an ironbound, 69-year-old Republican! A heavy smoker and voracious eater with 25 pounds of extra belly freight, he's assaulted by that cardiac yelp: the intense chest pain that also radiates down his left arm.
The nearest hospital, starved for funding has recently shut down. The next-closest medical center is forty miles down the road; the only ambulances in the region are busy. No matter how hard he prays to the Lord, Harrumphing Old White Dude will have breathed his last!
Do I paint a grim picture? Like I said, it's already happening, folks. If you're a resident of one of the affected states, there's a solution to this horrific state of affairs. Vote Democratic this November.
Other than their visceral hatred for the president and everything associated with him, I can't think of any reason why these public officials would be so hell-bent on punishing their states' poorest citizens.
Oh yeah, I nearly forgot; many of these lawmakers seem to believe that the poor are to blame for their own misfortune. Yet, there's at least one potentially lethal fly in the ointment. Apparently, many small-town hospitals are shutting down, having been deprived of the Medicaid funding so vital to their survival.
The upshot is that the health of everyone in those states is at risk, regardless of financial status. Timely treatment for life-threatening injuries or medical traumas is no longer available. It's already happening.
A very well-written and well-documented article is available on-line from Bloomberg News. (Obamacare Cutbacks Shut Hospitals Where Medicaid Went Unexpanded; Byline: Toluse Olorunnipa, 11/24/13).
It doesn't matter how anyone voted or whether or not one is insured. Consider the case of a prototypical Harrumphing Old White Dude: an ironbound, 69-year-old Republican! A heavy smoker and voracious eater with 25 pounds of extra belly freight, he's assaulted by that cardiac yelp: the intense chest pain that also radiates down his left arm.
The nearest hospital, starved for funding has recently shut down. The next-closest medical center is forty miles down the road; the only ambulances in the region are busy. No matter how hard he prays to the Lord, Harrumphing Old White Dude will have breathed his last!
Do I paint a grim picture? Like I said, it's already happening, folks. If you're a resident of one of the affected states, there's a solution to this horrific state of affairs. Vote Democratic this November.
Sunday, January 12, 2014
Revival of the 50-State Strategy: Could the Dems Regain the House?
My lenses are not rose-tinted, but I'd like to believe that the midterm elections this November could defy the books. Yep, I honestly believe that the Democrats have a chance to recapture a majority in the US House, despite heavy odds.
A modified version of the 50-State Strategy pioneered by Howard Dean, the chairman of the Democratic National Campaign Committee (DNCC) in 2006, might be worth considering. The primary objective of this approach was focused on gaining support for Democratic presidential candidates in red states. However, a concerted effort was also made to promote Democrats running for state, local, and congressional offices. This endeavor worked well enough to help the Dems regain a House majority in the 2006 midterm elections.
Many political observers will be likely to cite a long-standing historical pattern in regard to congressional elections: that is, the party in the White House generally tends to lose seats in mid-term elections. That's generally been the case and 2006 was no exception.
However, I believe that this pattern could be broken because these are extraordinary times. Here's why: Many of the Republicans elected in 2010, especially those with Tea Party backing, have demonstrated an unprecedented degree of both inflexibility and abject cruelty. Here are some examples: Even during the era of Bush the Younger, House and Senate Republicans routinely approved extensions of federal unemployment benefits when the need was apparent. Additionally, threats of government shutdowns and fiscal default were never even on the radar.
Republicans in both houses of Congress are now insisting that the $25 billion price tag for a yearlong extension of federal unemployment insurance needs to be paid for by cutting other programs. Tax hikes? "No, no, no!" cry the Repubs, petulantly stamping their feet. Oh by the way, the 16-day government shutdown left us all $24 billion poorer!
One can only hope that well-intentioned voters --- those who really care about their neighbors and friends --- will grow weary of hard-hearted Congressfolks like Stephen Fincher, a Republican from western Tennessee, who opposes any sort of measure offering relief to struggling families, insisting that it's no business of the government's. After all, he insists, "Those who don't work don't eat", according to the Bible. Yet his own family's thriving cotton farm receives an average of $300,000 a year in agricultural subsidies!
Granted, convincing voters to exercise their franchise during mid-term elections is always a challenge. And harrumphing old white dudes always vote! But in 2012, many determined voters valiantly and successfully resisted concerted efforts on the part of Republican officials to suppress their rights to the ballot.
Once again, the odds may be heavy, but I'd like to believe that a Democratic House in 2014 is more than just a dream.
A modified version of the 50-State Strategy pioneered by Howard Dean, the chairman of the Democratic National Campaign Committee (DNCC) in 2006, might be worth considering. The primary objective of this approach was focused on gaining support for Democratic presidential candidates in red states. However, a concerted effort was also made to promote Democrats running for state, local, and congressional offices. This endeavor worked well enough to help the Dems regain a House majority in the 2006 midterm elections.
Many political observers will be likely to cite a long-standing historical pattern in regard to congressional elections: that is, the party in the White House generally tends to lose seats in mid-term elections. That's generally been the case and 2006 was no exception.
However, I believe that this pattern could be broken because these are extraordinary times. Here's why: Many of the Republicans elected in 2010, especially those with Tea Party backing, have demonstrated an unprecedented degree of both inflexibility and abject cruelty. Here are some examples: Even during the era of Bush the Younger, House and Senate Republicans routinely approved extensions of federal unemployment benefits when the need was apparent. Additionally, threats of government shutdowns and fiscal default were never even on the radar.
Republicans in both houses of Congress are now insisting that the $25 billion price tag for a yearlong extension of federal unemployment insurance needs to be paid for by cutting other programs. Tax hikes? "No, no, no!" cry the Repubs, petulantly stamping their feet. Oh by the way, the 16-day government shutdown left us all $24 billion poorer!
One can only hope that well-intentioned voters --- those who really care about their neighbors and friends --- will grow weary of hard-hearted Congressfolks like Stephen Fincher, a Republican from western Tennessee, who opposes any sort of measure offering relief to struggling families, insisting that it's no business of the government's. After all, he insists, "Those who don't work don't eat", according to the Bible. Yet his own family's thriving cotton farm receives an average of $300,000 a year in agricultural subsidies!
Granted, convincing voters to exercise their franchise during mid-term elections is always a challenge. And harrumphing old white dudes always vote! But in 2012, many determined voters valiantly and successfully resisted concerted efforts on the part of Republican officials to suppress their rights to the ballot.
Once again, the odds may be heavy, but I'd like to believe that a Democratic House in 2014 is more than just a dream.
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