Tag Archives: Obama

Memo to Survivors & Providers: Shine the Light!

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If I have learned one thing I have learned that the New York State Department of Health hates publicity. They hate it when their actions are brought into the light of day. And so, given their reluctance to change their clearly punitive behavior towards brain injury survivors, their loved ones and, not incidentally, those who provide services to same across the state, I am urging all of the aforementioned to openly share their stories. Don’t embellish and certainly don’t lie. Simply state the facts of the matter as you honestly know them. The facts speak for themselves.

In yesterday’s Fair Hearing it was crystal clear that the DOH, represented by RRDSs from the Capitol Region, were looking for any excuse to deny my request for white noise machines and a life alert (see preceding blog post). Not only was the tone of their stance, voiced primarily by RRDS Maria Relyea, venomous, it was rooted in a willingness to change the rules at a moment’s notice simply to wound the survivor, in this case me.

Across the state the DOH is looking to jettison people off the traumatic brain injury waiver or, if not that, cutting their services so drastically life becomes even harder for the survivors. I can tell you that living life with a brain injury is not so easy a task in the best of circumstances.

A DOH Trap for Providers

The DOH has also set what might be called a trap for providers. If they don’t tell the provider outright they can’t support their client at a Fair Hearing, they’ll tighten the purse strings by telling the provider if they do appear at the Fair Hearing on behalf of the participant they won’t get paid. A nasty form of manipulation. What’s the trap? Some providers are playing the you need to subpoena us to appear with the participant card. If they are subpoenaed they’re paid, and they should be. However, by playing hat card they walk full length into the DOH’s penchant for accusing providers of being in it for the money. So while the urge to play the subpoena card is understandable, strategically it is a blunder, albeit an understandable one.

Shine the Light

What providers and all others should do when encountering this behavior is  publicize it. Let local, state and national media know. Start a blog, start a web page, or post it on the web page you have. It’s okay to be afraid but don’t let it scare you.

Whatever your political walk of life, there can be no arguing that President Obama was right when he said, “Sunlight is the best disinfectant.”  And if there is anything the behavior of the DOH needs when it comes to the facts just mentioned, it’s a hefty dose of disinfectant.

Shine the light.

Yes On Health Care Reform (Duh)

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Here are the combatants.  In this corner we have President Obama and a large majority of the Americans, doctors and other health care professionals. In the other corner we have the insurance and drug companies along with a spate of self-serving Republicans and Democrats whose love of power outweighs their love of the American people.

More than 30 million uninsured Americans would receive healthcare benefits if the reform passes, and insurance companies could no longer deny coverage because someone has an existing medical condition.  In the recent healthcare summit, Tennessee Senator Lamar Alexander said the health care reform question was too complicated to be resolved and other Republican senators out and out said the country can’t afford to cover the 30 million plus uninsured Americans, which, in case you were wondering, includes our children!

Too complicated? Are you kidding me? We’ve tackled all kinds of complex and dicey situations in this country and if health care reform is too hard for Senator Alexander to understand, perhaps the poor fellow should retire, sit on a grassy hill somewhere, and blow bubbles.

There are self-absorbed twits on both sides of the aisle and the majority of Americans are sick of it (pun intended).

There are American men, women and children dying every year because of the health care system which is run by the insurance companies and the drug companies who don’t give a rat’s ass about your health, just their profits. It’s that simple.

It would be an American tragedy to see the efforts of a truly good president wasted by greed on both sides of the aisle.

Call your members of congress and your senators and tell them a no vote on health care reform will force you to vote against them and urge everyone you know to vote against them.

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AMERICA: A NATION AT RISK

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If Senator Barack Obama selects Senator Hillary Clinton for vice-president, his credibility as an agent of change dies on the spot. I believe most Americans are beginning to realize our democracy is at risk.

The bow of America’s ship must turn towards the democracy fought for by the founding fathers. America’s bow must turn towards a democracy that my grandfather fought for in World War I and my father fought for in World War II. With Clinton or McCain anywhere near the helm, this will not happen.

At this moment in our history, Senator Barack Obama is our country’s best and only hope in the presidential race. More than once I have listened to him and found myself daring to believe I may be witnessing greatness. The kind of greatness rooted in what America is supposed to be. The kind of greatness that is not rooted in any political party. If should not select Senator Clinton as his vice-presidential running mate. She has waged a campaign riddled with incidents of dishonesty and dishonor. Raise your hands if you’ve ever mistaken an eight-year-old girl reading poetry for sniper fire. She has twice raised the specter of Robert F. Kennedy’s assassinaton in June 1968 as a reason for her to stay in the race.

I believe Senator Obama may possess the depth of vision and capacity for change along with the ability to bring people together that this country, a country I love, so desperately needs and deserves. But, if he selects Senator Clinton for the VP post, I will stand corrected, heartbroken and nearly convinced that our days as a democracy are numbered. After all, George Bush and Dick Cheney are dictators in mind and, increasingly, in action.

Bush and Cheney have approved torture, tossed aside the legal system that served humanity perfectly well in prosecuting the Nazis. Have we all forgotten the 1945 Nuremberg trials?

Moreover, there are stains on the hands of many from both sides of the aisle for enabling the Bush and Cheney agenda.

If you think saying Bush and Cheney behave like dictators is a stretch, consider the following. They have approved torture, ignored the country’s constitution, knowingly sent young men and women to die based on falsehoods they helped design, rigged the system so their oil company buddies receive record profits, andirect their staff and the Department of Justice to ignore congressional supeonas. How are these actions any different from actions taken by past and present dictators?

The American people are sick to death of both the Republicans and the Democrats. Why? Because by and large the American people are Americans first, which is something they rightfully expect from there leaders. The American people are angry over the deep wounds Bush and Cheney have inflicted on all that is great about America. Bush and Cheney should ponder the words some have attributed to Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto after the attack on Pearl Harbor, “I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.”

I hope and pray the ever increasing support for Senator Obama that comes from Americans of all political persuasions reflects a giant that is, thankfully, wide-awake.

CLINTON, DISINGENUOUS? SO WHAT ELSE IS NEW?

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The Democratic National Committee decided that the Florida and Michigan primaries will not count because each state moved their primaries up in the schedule. Because of this, Senator Hillary Clinton and Senator Barack O’Bama did not campaign in either state. When each state held it’s primary, Clinton came out on top. The Associated Press reports that Clinton now wants the delegates from each state to count, never mind what the Democrat National Committee, which includes her fellow New York State Senator Charles Schumer, decided.

Clinton now says, “It’s a mistake for the Democratic Party to punish these two states,” she said. “I don’t see how a Democratic nominee goes forward alienating two of the most important states.”

Spare me. If Senator Clinton, or Senator Obama, for that matter, felt the DNC’s decision was wrong, the time to speak was then, not now, when you are behind in the delegate count, and are willing to twist any reality and bend any rule to win. Any member of the human race who thinks Clinton would be saying this if Obama had won the Florida and Michigan primaries lives in a fantasy world far more than twice removed from Mother Earth.

When the idea primary do-overs for both states is raised, which would afford each candidate the chance to campaign in both and interact with the public, the Clinton campaign does a sloppy, stumbling soft-shoe and moans about inconvenience and cost.

I think the DNC was dead wrong to punish Florida and Michigan because they moved their primaries up. I think both states were unfairly punished. The DNC decision was, at best, dictatorial. But for Clinton to poo-poo the idea of do-overs, which, to my mind is the only reasonable choice on the table, and suddenly don some pseudo conscience and pretend she is offended by the DNC’s decision is both offensive and disingenuous. So what else is new?

THE NY TIMES WRONG ON CLINTON

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A New York Times editorial this week endorsing Senator Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary is appalling for what it does say and what it does not say.

I had to re-read one sentence a few times simply to make sure I “heard” it right. “On the major issues, there is no real gulf separating the two.” Did the Times really just say that? Did the Times really just say there is no real gulf separating Clinton and Obama on the major issues? Are they kidding? From day one Obama has consistently been against the war. Clinton, on the other hand, voted for the war and recently angered many by voting for a Bush-backed resolution that pushes my country closer to war with Iran. Obama has been steadfast in his opposition to the war and his opposition to needlessly escalating matters with Iran. No real gulf separating them? Well, I can’t think any gulf wider than supporting a war and opposing a war. But hey, that’s just me.

The Times editorial does not address the increasingly despicable behavior of former President Bill Clinton in Senator Clinton’s campaign, a campaign that is sending a powerful signal that electing Senator Clinton would essentially be electing a married couple to the presidency. Moreover, if Senator Clinton can’t reign in the former president in her campaign, what will happen if they return to the White House?

Some of Clinton’s key supporters and staff can be incredibly sleazy. And while Senator Clinton distances herself from their seedy and divisive proclamations, her inability or unwillingness to stop them raises another question: if you can’t restrain some of your key supporters and staff members, what will happen if you’re in the White House?

Andrew Young is reported to have said “Bill is every bit as black as Barack. He’s probably gone with more black women than Barack.” Not only is that a despicable thing to say (Young later said he was joking – fat chance), but why on earth should that statement make anyone want to vote for Senator Clinton?

And then, of course, there is the typical Clintonian spin (lying, folks) of being the ones who injected race as in issue into the campaign and now whine that Obama started it.

Obama is right when he says the country is sick of divisiveness. Obama is right when he says the American people are sick of fear being used on them as a kind of political crowd control. Obama is right when he says we need to stop thinking in terms of red states and blue states and get back to thinking in terms of the United States.

There is nothing uniting about the Clintons. And every time I find myself thinking we won’t be dumb enough to fall for their blatant character assassination of Obama and elect them to the White House, I remind myself that we elected George W. Bush – and you can’t get any dumber than that.

The New York Times support for Senator Clinton is support for a dual presidency, which is something the founding fathers would frown on. As for Senator Obama’s lack of experience, consider this for a moment: James Buchanan, considered by scholars to be one of the three worst American presidents, had more than 20 years in congress under his belt along with four years as secretary of state before being elected to the presidency. Abraham Lincoln had only two years in the House of Representatives.

To my mind it is the person’s character, not the length of their employ that makes the difference. And when it comes to character, Obama comes out on top, hands down. He has my vote.