Arden’s Day: Your Vote Counts!

This is a cross-post from my daughter’s blog, Arden’s Day.

 

On August 1st 2007 HR 3162 came to a vote.  HR 3162 or the “Children’s Health and Medicare Protection (CHAMP) Act of 2007” included among other things a one-year, $150 million extension of the Special Diabetes Program (SDP).

The JDRF was requesting of a 5-year extension and an increase from $150 to $200 million per year which didn’t come to pass.  I try not to mix my political feelings with our support of diabetes research because we meet passionate supporters of diabetes research everyday of both leanings.  I never thought that they’re political affiliation could hurt the cause… until I saw the August 1st vote tally.

The bill passed, narrowly, 225 to 204.  When I looked into how my representatives voted I found this.  Final Vote Results for Roll Call 787.  Of the 225 Yeas 5 were Republicans.  So now I see that my support of diabetes research can not exclude party affiliation.  It is not my intention to offend anyone but if you are supporting Republican candidates this vote tally really should serve as an eye opener for you.  

My Congressman, Chris Smith (R) voted nay.  I called and emailed his office asking him for support.  I explained the drudgery of my day and the consequence to Arden’s life due to juvenile diabetes.  I received no response but more importantly I received no representation.  Ask yourself who is being represented when he votes against funding research that targets wiping out a massive disease.  

In the days that followed the vote Smith Reintroduced the “Unborn Child Pain Awareness Act”.  He is apparently concerned with the welfare of your fetus but stops caring about them after they are born.  He’s for Cord Blood Therapy and supports Autism but somehow voted against (CHAMP).  For me, that kind of inconstancy calls his intentions into question.

I’ll be honest and tell you that I haven’t read HR 3162.  I supported it blindly because it included money for a disease that my daughter has.  I’ll defend the 204 people that voted against it by saying that maybe they’re was a troublesome rider attached.  But if that was the case they should have found a better way to deal with their concerns other then voting against this bill.  It is unconscionable to play politics with our children’s lives.  

I urge you to look into how your representation voted and adjust your support accordingly.  Our children don’t have time to play politics, they need a cure today.  

Since we can’t count on our government to properly support diabetes research we’ll have to do it ourselves.  Arden will be walking on October 28 to raise awareness and funds for Juvenile Diabetes.  By donating you’re helping find a cure and when it’s found you’ll know you were part of rescuing Arden and countless others from this horrible disease.  Please donate as much as you can to the JDRF through Arden’s Walk.  Do it for Arden, do it because it’s kind or do it for the tax deduction… as long as you do it!  

 

  

Today’s Tidbits…..August 20th, 2007

Where is everyone? Bueller? Bueller? Hello…..

A few little items for your enjoyment:

Turns out Rudy spent more time watching the Yankees than he did at Ground Zero. Article here.

In the no shame department, Petraeus is the latest to play politics with 9/11. Oh, and, by the way, Petraeus isn’t even writing the report.

Keith Olbermann’s ratings are up over 75% since last year, and they are giving his show a shot as the lead in to the ridiculously popular Sunday Night Football this weekend on NBC.

Anybody watch the debate? I’ve watched almost all of them, and they each leave me hoping more and more that Albert Arnold Gore will get into the race. I have issues with each of them, and just can’t get as excited yet because my hope still is that Gore gets in. Check out this great diary on Daily Kos. For the real gore afficionados out there, check out The Gore Hub.

The Bush administration doesn’t care about your children.

and finally, a good friend of mine has started a wonderful blog about his daughter and her life with Diabetes. Please check it out and pass it on to your friends…. Arden’s Day

A few interesting articles……starting with a reminder about Bush’s DUI…and ending with a Gore item.

Nobody should think that this is Alberto Gonzalez’s first brush with the truth. His deceit goes back decades. Literally. Guess who helped GWB hide his DUI? Yep, you guessed it, Alberto “Absurd” Gonzalez. A good synopsis of all the issues involving Secretary Absurd are here….

Remember right around the 2006 elections the fracas between Howard Dean and the Democratic party’s traditionalists like Carville and Begala? Remember how they kept saying that Dean’s 50 state strategy was a disaster, and how he lost the Dems about 30 additional seats because he chose to devote resources to the 50 state strategy instead of more 30 second ads? Well, turns out, Dean was right. Read this great article about how some of the reddest states are at least turning Purple.

Fred Thompson is a giant Flop. F-L-O-P, Flop. Floppy Thompson. These are Hunter Duncan-esque Numbers.

And, lastly, the GOP is nervous as hell about 2008. Very, very nervous.

and, of course, one little Gore item….. from Laurie David:

“I don’t personally believe that everyone is in the race yet…. I’m going to wait and see what happens…. I’m waiting until October…. There isn’t a day that goes by where he doesn’t think about running.”

Olbermann, again….

Pure poetry:

Let’s hope Cheney doesn’t do anything cute tomorrow while Bush is getting his colon examined.

Olbermann hits a home run, why can’t Democrats sound like this?

See for yourself.

An actual Conservative/Progressive Debate

The other night on The Daily Show Jon Stewart interviewed former Ambassador John Bolton in a very revealing 9 minutes. It’s really worth the time to download.

While there is a lot to talk about here, and I hope others add to this, I want to start with one of the central tenets of Bolton’s philosophy outlined in this show. He believes that the Executive Branch needs to be filled with ideological twins of whoever is holding the office. By his rationale, “The point of electing the president as head of the Executive Branch is to give the people the chance to to dictate the direction the entire Executive Branch is headed.”

While this is a wonderfully phrased response, what he actually means and what the question really amounts to is “do you believe that the purpose of the Executive Branch is to lead the people in an ideological driven direction or should it be led in a direction that is best for the nation regardless of ideology. By Bolton’s logic any president can and should lead the country in the ideological direction that he has been elected to convey, but the way I see it, is that the President is in charge of the nation, both supporters and dissenters, and subsequently must do his best to lead the country towards to common good, not the ideological good.

Stewart does a wonderful job saying that Lincoln surrounded himself with people who passionately disagreed with his policies and Bolton is wrong to say that it is untrue. Read Doris Kearns Goodwin’s Book, Team of Rivals. Surrounding oneself with people who echo your beliefs leads to a) incompetence (see Michael “Brownie” Brown), b) people who represent organizations they disapprove of (Bolton) or c) both (Gonzales). Stewart is absolutely right that it is like naming Captain Ahab the head of the Save the Whales Club. Nothing gets done for the common good.

I hope you enjoy this debate. Two different sets of ideals being articulated, and please comment on what I haven’t mentioned.

Remember this guy?

The media has been back-paging a lot of this story, but I get the feeling it’s about to explode. Yesterday, Ari Fleischer revealed that he was involved (although he says accidentally) in outing Valerie Plame to multiple press people:

Fleischer also testified that while on a White House trip to Uganda on July 11, 2003, on the side of the road, he told NBC’s David Gregory and Time magazine’s John Dickerson, “If you want to know who sent ambassador Wilson to Niger, it was his wife, she works there” at the CIA.

He added “[Never] in my wildest dreams would I have thought that information was classified.”

Today, we’ll hear from the un-esteemed Judith Miller of Ahmed Chalabi fame.

From MSNBC:

On June 23, 2003 at a meeting with Libby in his office at the Old Executive Office Building, Libby, according to prosecutors, talked to Miller about press coverage dealing with pre-war intelligence about Iraq. Libby, according to the government, complained to Miller that he thought the CIA was leaking to the press unfairly, putting the White House on the defensive.

This story is about to explode. I only wish the muppet was on trial for outing Plame, not just for lying about it.

Thoughts?

Cheney Hates Wolf Blitzer

It’s very sad that the best analysis of this administration often comes in the form of satire. Jon Stewart/Stephen Colbert have been the only people I’ve heard who discredited the Bush Administration when they ask for “another plan” in Iraq by mentioning umm…the Iraq Study Group? Where news fails, fake news steps in.

This interview between Blitzer and Cheney was really something to behold. But the only thing being discussed on the MSM (and I’m gracefully including you Faux News) is one question Blitzer asked about Mary Cheney. Jon Stewart a) analyzes the interview for 10 minutes b) notes that when the GOP platform and the president have sponsored cruel and inhumane family policies, that question is fair and c) splices past and recent videos to show administration lies (why don’t others do this???)

The right will often flippantly brush aside both the youth vote and the gravitas of the Daily Show et al… but they may be the only ones shining a light on what is happening in the political world.

Decision of committee by one

The New York Times has a good article in today’s paper, the entirety of which can be found here, in regard to the decision made by Bush on whether he should send more troops and how many.

Although the article makes it seem like much thought and process was gone into the decision, it still seems that regardless of what people advised, Bush went his own way. Where the Generals maintained that they didn’t need anymore troops without political and economic change and the Vice President and Senator McCain clamoring for more troops, Bush picked a number seemingly out of thin air.

This “my way or the highway” leadership has continued from a guy who financially ruined the Texas Rangers through a similar management style. Little did we know that it was a harbinger of things to come.

Bush Addresses Nation…Nation Watches “Armed and Famous”

President Bush addressed the Nation at 9pm tonight. The Full Text can be found here

First of all, I believe that most of America didn’t watch this because American’s are far too depressed with the situation in Iraq and have no faith in the president. But for those who did give up their valuable Friday Night Lights viewing time to watch this speech, what did they get?

They have done everything we have asked them to do. Where mistakes have been made, the responsibility rests with me.

This is the closest he came to apology or admitting failure. He believes with all his heart that he is fighting people who hate “freedom” not U.S. foreign policy, and that while things aren’t peachy, we will win because we are “right.” His delusions get worse…

Succeeding in Iraq also requires defending its territorial integrity – and stabilizing the region in the face of the extremist challenge. This begins with addressing Iran and Syria. These two regimes are allowing terrorists and insurgents to use their territory to move in and out of Iraq. Iran is providing material support for attacks on American troops. We will disrupt the attacks on our forces. We will interrupt the flow of support from Iran and Syria. And we will seek out and destroy the networks providing advanced weaponry and training to our enemies in Iraq.

The war in Iraq is just the beginning. While the 20,000 troop escalation (in fact just making 20,000 troops already there more miserable) we can now await President Bush making provocating steps toward Iran and Syria. This war will cross borders into Syria and Iran and (not that we have many Islamic friends in the region anymore) we can count on completely alienating about a billion Muslims worldwide. But forget that. How about a military that our generals say is already stretched too thin that we are now (at least speaking the language) of adding theatres to this war.

Acting on the good advice of Senator Joe Lieberman and other key members of Congress, we will form a new, bipartisan working group that will help us come together across party lines to win the war on terror. This group will meet regularly with me and my Administration, and it will help strengthen our relationship with Congress. We can begin by working together to increase the size of the active Army and Marine Corps, so that America has the Armed Forces we need for the 21st century. We also need to examine ways to mobilize talented American civilians to deploy overseas – where they can help build democratic institutions in communities and nations recovering from war and tyranny.

Oh Joe. Joe Boy. The only individual named in the speech is the esteemed Independent from Connecticut who just loves the War. I don’t even want to start with the fact that it can’t be bipartisan talks since Lieberman isn’t a Democrat. Essentially Mr. Bush is saying that he too knows that his ONLY support in Congress comes from Joe, John Mcmaniac, and Lindsey “Whatever John Says” Graham. This administration has no experience and no intention of listening to alternative ideas, and the mention of Joe is simply a naming of Bush’s remaining contingency.

What are your thoughts on the speech, its effectiveness, and the response?