This is lower than low. The bills supporters have sent out mass emails to disability lists accross the country saying that they will lose their funding unless they call their senators and urge their support for the bill.

This is bad, bad, bad! The disabilitycommunity is being bombarded with lies about the porkulus bill.

This is the same over inflated Trillion dollar pork bill that is trying to be passed now by hitting up the disability community. What they do not tell you is that the money that goes to each state will be controlled by the federal government. In other words, the states have no say so in how the money gets spent. So if the feds say across the board the money is going to only poor areas, that is what will happen no matter what. This is Taxation without Representation, and personally I don’t want it. Plus what works in New York will not necessarily work in Texas.

Please be careful with your support for this bill. The supporters in congress are waging an all out war with scare tactics to attempt to get this passed.

I have also heard that these provisions may not even be in the bill. I dont know that for sure, but someone should check it out,



This is the email I got:

National Down Syndrome Congress and National Down Syndrome Society Action Alert!
February 5, 2009

In This Issue –Call Your Senators Today!

Action Needed Immediately
Call Today!

Call TOLL FREE
1-800-473-6711 and ask for your Senators’ offices. Ask them to support the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

Please send questions or comments to susan@ndsccenter.org.
::

Immediate Action Needed on Important Disability Provisions
Call your Senators Action Needed Immediately

This is a critical moment for funding for services for individuals with disabilities. Action is needed on two important matters currently before the Senate.

Action Item One
Support Disability Provisions of Economic Stimulus Package
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 is on the Senate floor this week.
Several of the provisions of this Act benefit people with disabilities including:

Medicaid
- $87 billion for an increase for the federal medical assistance percentage (FMAP)

Education
- $13 billion for IDEA Part B State Grants and $500 million for Early Intervention - Part C of IDEA

Social Security- $17 billion total for a one-time payment ($300) to all SSI and Social Security recipients, veterans, and others and $890 million to improve the National Computer Center and information technology

Jobs - $500 million for Vocational Rehabilitation programs.

Several amendments are being proposed that could jeopardize this desperately needed funding. Please call your Senator and ask him or her to pass this bill. As always, constituent calls are essential in getting important legislation passed.

Talking Points

·Please support S.1 and oppose any amendments that would weaken Medicaid assistance to states.

·The economic recovery package provides important funding to programs that provide essential support services to people with disabilities.

·Please keep these provisions in the bill.

Action Item Two
Ask Your Senator to Support Sense of the Senate Resolution to Rescind Certain Medicaid Regulations

Please ask that your Senators also support the attached “Sense of the Senate to Rescind Certain Medicaid Regulations”. The Amendment is sponsored by Senators Schumer, Inouye and Baucus and states that it is the Sense of the Senate that the following regulations should be rescinded that would have an impact on individuals with disabilities.

1. School-based Medicaid services, such as transportation

Some school districts are able to access Medicaid funding to be reimbursed for transportation and other administrative costs for Medicaid eligible children. This regulation, if not rescinded, could severely limit this funding causing already financially strapped school district to lose a great deal of funding.

2. Medicaid rehabilitative services

This is an important source of Medicaid funding for many adult services. Losing this funding would cause the loss of these services.

3. Case management services

This regulation would limit funding for case management services for individuals with disabilities, primarily those leaving institutions.

Below are the relevant portions of the amendment.
SEC. 5006. SENSE OF THE SENATE REGARDING RESCISSION OF CERTAIN MEDICAID REGULATIONS

It is the sense of the Senate that the following regulations relating to Medicaid should be rescinded:

(4) REHABILITATIVE SERVICES.-The proposed regulation published on August 13, 2007 (72 Federal Register 45201).

(5) PAYMENTS FOR COSTS OF SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION, TRANSPORTATION.-The final regulation published on December 28, 2007 (72 Federal Register 73635).

(6) CASE MANAGEMENT SERVICES.-The interim final regulation published on December 4,2007 (Federal Register 68077).

This is one of the best ideas I have come across to address the unending amount of blank checks and bailouts that seem to be plaguing our country right now. 

A congressman in Texas has estimated that the taxes collected for social security and Medicare for two months equals 300 billion.  He says if the Government would suspend taxes for two months, and allow the people to decide where the money would go.  This would ultimately infuse our entire economy with 300 billion dollars. 

Some would go in the bank, some would be spent on tangible goods, some would be used to catch up on mortgages or credit card bills, but it would stimulate the economy. 

I have heard some naysayers comment that minimum wage workers would get a measly amount where the millionares would get hundreds of thousands.  Beside the fact that the money is theirs that they earned,  the two hundred thousand the millionaire earned could potentially  create four new jobs for those people earning minimum wage.  Thus someone with no job could move into those minimum wage slots. 

I think this idea is brilliant and I ask everyone to please contact your representative to make your views known!  There is also a link at the bottom to sign a petition.  It will be the only way to get our voices heard.  Here is what the congressman from Texas said:

Convert Paulson’s Last $350 Billion into Tax Holiday, says U.S. Congressman

“Billions of Dollars for Taxpayers, but Not One More Penny for Executive Bailouts”

WASHINGTON, D.C. - As millions of Americans are hoping to maximize their holiday shopping budgets on today’s Black Friday bargains, one U.S. Congressman is fighting to prevent more outrageous spending sprees by Washington with taxpayer dollars going to executive cronies.

With $350 billion of the $700 billion bailout still available to Paulson pending Congressional approval, a conservative Texas lawmaker is proposing to put that money towards a tax holiday from both personal income tax and FICA tax for Americans during January and February of 2009.

He stated, “By instating a temporary tax holiday, we could electrify the American economy and provide overwhelming relief to taxpayers, all for less than the cost of the current failed Paulson-Pelosi bailout system.”

“We need to give this money to the people who earned it. I am sick of Washington millionaires trying to decide which of their cronies should get the next wad of taxpayer money,” Rep. Louie Gohmert continued. “Think about how much you would have if you didn’t have any social security or income tax withheld from your pay check, or if you didn’t have to pay those taxes for January and February! Americans could take and invest their own money where they believe it should go - to paying down mortgages, buying a new car, making credit card payments. The economy would get relief where it is needed the most. Why try to decide how to prevent foreclosures? Just give taxpayers their own money to catch up on their payments. Those in lower income brackets who are hit the hardest by the FICA tax would see huge money back, and then THEY could choose who should benefit from their hard earned money.  Even the self-employed and small business owners would receive a fantastic amount of their own much-needed money, and they will be able to invest that back into their businesses and even create the ability to hire more people.”

Gohmert is currently preparing a bill to declare the tax holiday for January and February of 2009 and is also gathering support at the same time. He said, “We can save more home mortgages, increase employment, and boost economic growth for a lower price tag with this plan than with any centralized bureaucratic program, all by giving the power back to the taxpayers. I am demanding that not another penny goes to executive bailouts, but these billions of taxpayer dollars should go to the taxpayers who earned them.”

According to American Solutions, a conservative think tank founded by former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, Americans pay $101.6 billion per month in personal income tax and $65.6 billion per month in FICA tax. Under Gohmert’s proposed plan, all of these taxes would not be paid during January and February of 2009, and the money would stay in the hands of American taxpayers - the ones who best know where economic stimulus should be targeted.

Gohmert’s two month tax holiday would stimulate the economy while costing less than the remainder of the Paulson-Pelosi bailout plan.
Rep. Louie Gohmert (TX-01) has also recently proposed returning all 2008 income taxes to American taxpayers as a solution to boost the ailing economy, as he believes taxpayers, rather than the government, should be using their hard-earned money to choose the economy’s winners and losers.

If you’d like to support Rep. Gohmert’s plan and tell Congress to put an end to the government’s excessive bailouts, sign the online petition at RedState.com by clicking HERE or paste https://redstate.kimbia.com/taxholiday into your web browser.

For example, '********' wrote, (names and points changed to prove my point):

The genius behind obama, in his deceit, ego, pride, arrogance and self-serving interests is incredible to watch.

Charm and good looks are deceitful.  This is a candidate who on opening night promised multi-billion dollar government programs, all while promising to cut taxes for 95% of Americans.   In actuality, every piece of legislation he has supported in his past has done nothing but continually increased taxes for those making as little as $42,000/yr.  Additionally, he underhandedly tried to make this election about race when he said that his face was not like the faces on our paper bills. 

Like the skilled socialist and Karl Marxist he is, obama plays with the loyalty of his people, and he sets them up to fail.

On opening night when most of America was hypnotized to listen to him, he and his liberal media friends dismissed any of his corrupt standards which could we measure against him.

Obama suggested to America that we think like he does - that education is not necessary; that prior voting record is not necessary; that acorn community organizers don’t participate in fraudulent voting practices, and that experience isn’t important to a “Washington insider.”

Anytime someone comes into an arena of responsibility and accountability, and the first thing he does is attempt to cover up his fraudulent and shady past - you have a HUGE problem.

We are all supposed to accept him without measuring him against anything, and everything he's done in the past.

Obama continues to destroy the concept of unity in this country, all while he and his wife deny any air of hatred and racism.  Additionally, he dismisses Michelle’s anti-American statements, papers and acts, and they claim that they never really listened to Rev. Wright all those twenty years his family sat in that pew week after week.  

Obama is good at what he does. He takes out his own standards, and pretends to be someone he has NEVER been.

 At a debate with McCain, he backpedaled on his statement that he would meet directly with the likes of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad without preconditions, and then during the Palin-Biden debate, Joe said several times that Barack has never said that, so what’s the truth?.

Obama's best defense is a good teleprompter because he is uncomfortable defending his lies.  When in actuality, the best defense of a lie is the truth.  This is something we can plainly see he can never admit because he refuses to answer a single question the same way twice.  He has continually changed his answers based on to whom he is speaking.  Obama thinks he is above reproach in this cocoon of no accountability, which he has skillfully fashioned for himself.  While he pulls the wool over the eyes of the American people.

Now that he has been elected, obama is bringing back his tarnished image, with the promises he made during the election falling on deaf ears and underneath his feet.

I have to question Obama on his value system by asking, what about the example you are setting for your own children when you say you don’t want them punished with a baby?   When the truth is, your own mother was pregnant at 17 and unwed?  Was she punished with a baby? 

And of course, obama will try be the leader of America stressing bipartisan unity because a divided house cannot stand.  He talks about reaching across the aisle but he has never done so in the Senate.

This is the operation of a slick con-artist, out for self.   He destroys everything that could hold him accountable, in order to make it easy for his party to operate as long as they can without accountability.   This con-artist will find a common ground with someone, anyone, and this becomes his platform that he argues “we” against “them.”  Be it racism, fear, pro-abortionists, the middle class, the poor, whatever that common ground turns out to be.  Obama will use it to attract a following, garnish support, and then continue to plow his way through these United States in his own selfish ambition to gain power at whatever cost.  All disguised as, the people's will and all under a cloak of false humility and desire to serve those people.

Give me a break!  Before we receive anyone claiming to speak for the people, do you think it would it incite obama if Christian-Judeo men and women asked God for themselves if his policies support a Christian-Judeo view?   I think not.

Should we as Christian-Judeo people ask God if obama really believes in the 'God given' sanctity of life given his planned policies?

If so, we who are of the Christian-Judeo faith have a duty to listen to God's teachings, and to reject any of obama's proposals that go against the very basic principles that God, Christianity, and the modern Jewish faiths specifically says are wrong.

But if not, we have rejected our Judeo-Christian duty to live by His word.  Our society will continue to decline under obama’s presidency until ‘we the people’ are driven back to our value driven ethical ideas and morals that we profess to be the very foundations of our faith based character.

Senator McCain,
 
I believed in you during this election.  I blogged and commented my heart out for you.  I had three different blogs that I authored myself in support of you.  I made youtube videos for you and stayed awake nights arguing with idiots defending you.  I donated the little amount I could spare from my meager earnings for you.

Why in the world are you giving Sarah Palin the cold shoulder?!  Why are you not asking for the bashing to stop??  Why have you not acknowledged how much she did for your campaign??  If the shoe was on the other foot, you know she would have done it for you.  Why can't you show her the same respect? 

I am starting to think you might not be the great hero that I thought you were.  I am very upset that the man I put up on the highest pedestal is acting like a coward.  My heart is breaking over this.

Do you just not care?  Were you only joking with your "Country First" message.  Was it all a campaign slogan and nothing more? 

Why do you have to hurt your supporters this way?  Why can't you be the bigger man that we imagined you were and stand up for what is right?

I guess my husband was right when he said you were no true conservative.  I argued with him that it was not true, but I am going to have to conceed on that one.

My heart is heavy and my faith is more than broken.  We are all doomed because no one is who they seem to be.  I guess that is the nature of the game.

I am so sorry for you.

It is hard to express the extent of my pride and admiration for Sarah Palin.  There is so much to be thankful for, and electronic words sometimes lack the passion of true emotions.  One thing Palin has done for me is especially close to my heart.  While having an advocate for special needs in the White House will be a big plus in my book, Sarah has brought back a much needed pride in conservatism. 

For many years I was the quiet conservative never really speaking out in mixed company, for fear of an unhealthy confrontation.  Specially about heated items like abortion.  I also believed in the family, with the mom and the dad having very different roles that work together seamlessly.  I believed in God, not just some higher power, and I believed God's rules were the final 'say-so' no matter how much you tried to debate any issue.  Not only that, but I believed those rules came from God. Not just because some republican told me to believe it.  However, I was fairly quiet about it.

Enter Sarah Palin.  Who holds her head high, and never makes apologies about her conservative values.  She is proud of them and darnit, so am I! 

The other awesome thing about her, is that SHE’S NOT PERFECT, but she’s allot closer to perfect than the proclaimed Messiah on the other side.  All the slams, all the smears, and all the failed attempts to wreck her character, have only served to make us like her even more.  I love the way she takes on each accusation as if to say, “ok, are you done now? Can we get back to the issues at hand?”   That is COOL.

So, I am proud to wear my conservative values on the outside.  I am proud to proclaim myself to be pro-life.  You can argue your pro-abortion/pro-choice position until you are blue in the face, but I don’t answer to you, I answer to God.  I am not a radical Christian, by any means, but SO WHAT IF I AM?  Christianity is not something to be trashed upon, at any level of commitment.  Christian values are based on sound rules and actions for the betterment of ALL people.  What’s so horrible about that? 

This is not to say I would not welcome any religion into our great United States.  Because we all have a place here, for many faiths. The motto is, 'freedom of religion,' not 'freedom FROM religion!'  However, if your religious beliefs lead you into hate and destruction, than there is no place for you here, and in my humble opinion is not a religion at all.  Christian values are not about race or labels, it is about human beings learning to love each other.

I offer this to all of you as a glimspe into my heart of hearts admiration for Sarah Palin. She is my hero.

Obama needs to learn from Al Gore's mistake of being consensual amid a knife fight

Monday, 29 September 2008

In five weeks, I hope to look back on this column with a wry chuckle at my paranoia. If the system works, Barack Obama will take the White House. The two issues John McCain is most closely associated with – invading Iraq, and deregulating the economy – have produced history-snatching catastrophes in the eyes of 80 per cent of Americans. In the first debate, McCain revealed he had nothing to say except more of the same: aggression abroad, market fundamentalist ideology at home. So why am I worried?

Obama is only a few jittery points ahead in the polls, and he has yet to face an October Surprise. This is an old term in US politics, invented when, on the eve of the 1968 election, Lyndon Johnson announced a halt to the bombing of Vietnam. It was a desperate attempt to push the Democratic nominee, Hubert Humphrey, over the finish line – and it failed. But October Surprises need not come from the opposing party. They can come from anywhere.

The first and worst would be the reappearance of Osama Bin Laden. Just five days before the 2004 election, he released a video effectively endorsing John Kerry. He told Americans to imagine corpses crying: "Call to task those who have caused our death!" and said they should "return to what is right," rather than reward "the liar in the White House".

Why would he do this? Bin Laden's long-term strategy is to "provoke and bait". He explains to his supporters: "We conducted a war of attrition against Russia with jihad fighters for 10 years until they went bankrupt. We are continuing in the same policy – to make America bleed profusely to the point of bankruptcy." To achieve this, "all we have to do is send two mujahideen [to a remote, irrelevant area] and raise a piece of cloth on which is written 'al-Qa'ida' in order to make the [US] generals race there, to cause America to suffer human, economic, and political losses."

This is his goal, in his own words – to bleed America through irrational, wildly expensive wars that will tilt thousands more fanatical young men from Islamism to full-blown jihadism. So who would you want in the White House? The guy who will wean the US off Middle Eastern oil and the wars and tyrannies it supports to get it – or his opponent? Bin Laden is a monster, but he is not an imbecile. He knows that his endorsement is a kiss of death. The man he publicly praises is the man he wants to lose. Kerry failed to expose Bin Laden's trick; Obama must do it as soon as the tape hits the air.

Beyond this, there could be a 4 November surprise: the Republicans may try to steal the election. Again. They loudly claim to be concerned about voter fraud, even though a New York University study recently found that it "is more likely an individual will be struck by lightning than that he will impersonate another voter at the polls". But in the name of this paltry risk, they are effectively stripping millions of people – overwhelmingly black and Democrats – of their vote.

Their first vote-stripping tactic is to require elaborate voter identification that black people disproportionately lack. For example, in Indiana – a crucial swing state – Republicans have passed a law requiring voters to bring an official government document bearing their photograph to the polling station. But a study by the University of Wisconsin found that 53 per cent of black adults didn't have a passport or driving licence, compared to 15 per cent of white people. So they can't vote unless they travel for hours (often without a car) to a sparse government registry and queue for half a day to get the correct documentation. The former political director of the Texas Republican Party, Royal Masset, explains: "Requiring photo IDs could cause enough of a drop-off in legitimate Democratic voting to add 3 per cent to the Republican vote." Their second tactic is to strip the electoral rolls of black names. In almost all US states, criminals lose their vote for life. This is shocking in itself – it disenfranchises a quarter of all black men in Kentucky, for one. But many states have a sloppy process where they simply scrub anyone with the same name as a criminal off the list. So if there is a criminal called "Chris Wayne" in a county, every black man called "Chris Wayne" loses their vote. That's a lot of Democrats. In Florida in 2000, black voters made up 13 per cent of the electorate yet they were 26 per cent of the people wrongly disenfranchised.

When a judge ordered the release of the paperwork, he found out why. The team under Florida governor, Jeb Bush, had ordered that black criminal names had to go – but Hispanic names were not to be touched. Black Floridians overwhelmingly vote Democrat, while Hispanics lean towards the Republicans. The Bush team said this was "absolutely unintentional" and "a coincidence".

This time, the Republicans have added another group to strip from the rolls. James Carabelli, a Republican Party chairman in Michigan, says: "We have a list of foreclosed homes and will make sure people aren't voting from those addresses." These voters are supposed to register from their new addresses – but many are out of time, or too stressed to do it. So the Republicans have launched a national "voter challenge campaign" against honest people who have lost their homes. They know that 60 per cent of sub-prime mortgages went to black voters, and virtually everyone who lost their home is angry with the Republicans.

If these acts of electoral sabotage go ahead on November 4 and tilt the election to McCain, Obama needs to learn from Al Gore's mistake. As the recent HBO film Recount shows, Gore was consensual and statesmanlike – in the middle of a knife fight. He sent urbane professors to make his case, while the Republicans drummed up mobs that physically stopped the vote-counts in Palm Beach County while the clock ticked. If the need comes, Obama needs to call fraud by its real name – and fight.

I hope I'm being too cynical. I hope I'm wrong. But it would be wise to fasten your seatbelts: it's going to be a bumpy month.

You and I are well aware, when businesses (large and small) fail or claim bankruptcy, they ultimately close down and send their workers home with little or no benefits.  As painful and awful as that would be for all involved, I think the failed organizations in this case need to fail, shut their doors and send their workers home. 

The next step of my plan is to give the banks, credit unions and lending organizations, the very ones who have treaded water in these turbulent times, a chance to come forward.   Give them the chance to acquire these loans (without guarantee), at a fraction of the cost, or even at no cost at all.  I am willing to give some of my tax payer dollars as a bonus, not a subsidy, to those brave companies who take on a little more risk.  Ultimately, the risk should be spread amongst many to lessen the blow. 

These banks would have their roots based in America with the majority of their investors originating on American soil.  It is precisely these organizations who would have the best chance to turn around the current financial crisis.  If they happen to bite off more than they can chew, and cannot keep themselves from utter failure, then they are done, outta here, caput.  Please, bring in the next candidate. 

This way you reward success and not failure.

In addition to letting the surviving banks acquire loans, I propose we give individuals (like you and I) the opportunity to buy the homes involved in the crisis at a price freeze of ten cents on the dollar.  Thus, a $100,000 home could be bought for $10,000.  My husband and I believe we could potentially buy ten houses, and do our part to strengthen the economy.  The previous home owner can stay and rent from us, (with a fair rent to cover mortgage payments, repairs, plus a small income for our efforts.)  However, if the tenants refuse to pay, they will be asked to leave. 

When we buy these homes, the understanding is if your home is already in foreclosure, and you have gone back on your original word to pay the note it is so sorry Charlie, but you no longer qualify to own the home. 

You are now a renter, which is what you should have done in the first place.  If you cannot pay your rent, then we will find someone who can.  Eviction laws should be loosened in these instances, so the new homeowners can take action quickly.

If the government must insist on some kind of bailout money, it should go to the financially responsible new owners to help fix up the homes, increase the property values and reward those who take an interest in improving the neighborhood.  Some of the government funds can be put toward programs to educate the ones losing their ownership status.

I can hear the naysayers out there who tell me to give the original homeowners the first chance to buy back the home at ten cents on the dollar, but this would be a foolish choice.  These people are a considerable credit risk.  They should be encouraged to rent a home or apartment, make their payments on time for at least seven years, to learn fiscal responsibility and to come back with their credit application at that time.  Then we can talk. 

Additionally, because nobody wants to be homeless, the new home buyers and investors should be encouraged to charge fair rent, as long as, the renters are responsible.  The government could even offer the failed home owners a small, one time only stipend to help them get into a low rent apartment.  

If any kind of socialist action needs to be taken, it should be that it is unlawful to start whining about making these people homeless.  Additionally, no one will be allowed to use that idea to gain some type of emotional sympathy to overturn the free market.  That is exactly what got us here in the first place. 

It should be a nationally accepted idea that we did not make them homeless, they made themselves homeless.