not sure what i think
27 October 2008
25 October 2008
oh sara, my sara
oh sara palin, sara palin. i've held my tongue for so long. there have been so many things that i've wanted to talk with you about.
i've wanted to talk to you about making sure that the christ, and the principle's by which he lived - loving your neighbors, not bearing false witness, taking care of the less fortunate - is present in your christianity. and not because i'm a better christian - far from it - but because it's a little disingenuous to tout your christianity from one side of your mouth and espouse things that are very un-christlike from the other side.
i've wanted to talk to you about femininity - about the fact that with every wink when you don't know an answer, every "come hither" hair flip when you're way out of your league serves to destroy the ground work laid by generations of women before you. because the fact is that we can be strong and feminine at the same time - alluring, beautiful, competent women. so give the cute wink and flip your hair, but please BE PREPARED, DO YOUR HOMEWORK, KNOW THE ANSWERS ... (unfortunately, i think that you're going to have to do a lot of the research yourself because the mccain campaign doesn't seem all that interested in helping you; rather i'm afraid that they're just happy to capitalize on the wink, the hair flip, the fancy pageant walkin' ...)
and that - allowing the mccain campaign to write things for your delivery without you doing your due diligence to fact check and make sure that they are actually plausible - brings me to what finally pushed me over the edge ... your first major policy address. yesterday, you chose to talk about educating kids with disabilities - something you care about deeply and the cause to which i've dedicated my life. i have a lot of concerns with your pronouncements. briefly -
1) while parents know their children better than professionals, i do not believe that all parents have the professional knowledge necessary to make all service delivery decisions for their child with a disability. that's why the system is designed the way it is - parents and professionals working together to build a program that makes sense. would you assert that a parent alone is in the best position to make medical decisions for their children? that a parent with no medical training should unilaterally decide the course of treatment for their child with cancer?
2) be clear that full federal funding of special education amounts to 40% of the EXCESS cost of educating a child with a disability.
3) be clear that assigning funding to a child will still not always cover the cost of educating a child with a disability in the school of the parents choice - just like vouchers have fallen way short of allowing recipients to access the most prestigious, and generally most expensive programs.
4) research costs money (something your running mate has not historically supported) and research requires stem cells.
so sara, believe what you will, tout what you want, but know that the special education lobby (parents, researchers, state agencies, advocacy organizations, lawyers, lawyers and more lawyers) is voracious and they will be waiting at your doorstep on day one to hold you accountable. good luck!
(by the way - i'm listening to john mccain right now and education is NOT on his list of federal programs that will escape his spending freeze. might i suggest a bake sale ...)
i've wanted to talk to you about making sure that the christ, and the principle's by which he lived - loving your neighbors, not bearing false witness, taking care of the less fortunate - is present in your christianity. and not because i'm a better christian - far from it - but because it's a little disingenuous to tout your christianity from one side of your mouth and espouse things that are very un-christlike from the other side.
i've wanted to talk to you about femininity - about the fact that with every wink when you don't know an answer, every "come hither" hair flip when you're way out of your league serves to destroy the ground work laid by generations of women before you. because the fact is that we can be strong and feminine at the same time - alluring, beautiful, competent women. so give the cute wink and flip your hair, but please BE PREPARED, DO YOUR HOMEWORK, KNOW THE ANSWERS ... (unfortunately, i think that you're going to have to do a lot of the research yourself because the mccain campaign doesn't seem all that interested in helping you; rather i'm afraid that they're just happy to capitalize on the wink, the hair flip, the fancy pageant walkin' ...)
and that - allowing the mccain campaign to write things for your delivery without you doing your due diligence to fact check and make sure that they are actually plausible - brings me to what finally pushed me over the edge ... your first major policy address. yesterday, you chose to talk about educating kids with disabilities - something you care about deeply and the cause to which i've dedicated my life. i have a lot of concerns with your pronouncements. briefly -
1) while parents know their children better than professionals, i do not believe that all parents have the professional knowledge necessary to make all service delivery decisions for their child with a disability. that's why the system is designed the way it is - parents and professionals working together to build a program that makes sense. would you assert that a parent alone is in the best position to make medical decisions for their children? that a parent with no medical training should unilaterally decide the course of treatment for their child with cancer?
2) be clear that full federal funding of special education amounts to 40% of the EXCESS cost of educating a child with a disability.
3) be clear that assigning funding to a child will still not always cover the cost of educating a child with a disability in the school of the parents choice - just like vouchers have fallen way short of allowing recipients to access the most prestigious, and generally most expensive programs.
4) research costs money (something your running mate has not historically supported) and research requires stem cells.
so sara, believe what you will, tout what you want, but know that the special education lobby (parents, researchers, state agencies, advocacy organizations, lawyers, lawyers and more lawyers) is voracious and they will be waiting at your doorstep on day one to hold you accountable. good luck!
(by the way - i'm listening to john mccain right now and education is NOT on his list of federal programs that will escape his spending freeze. might i suggest a bake sale ...)
22 October 2008
19 October 2008
no, for real - it's called CRACKER COUNTRY
there's a place in florida where you can go to "relive florida's rural past." Cracker Country, as it's called, has to be one of the world's best puns - EVER.
i can just hear it now -
announcer: john mccain - you just won the 2008 presidential election! what are you going to do now?
john mccain: I'M GOING TO CRACKER COUNTRY!!!!!
i can just hear it now -
announcer: john mccain - you just won the 2008 presidential election! what are you going to do now?
john mccain: I'M GOING TO CRACKER COUNTRY!!!!!
11 October 2008
returning
it's been almost a year since my boss and friend lost her valiant battle with cancer. today a group of us honored her wish and returned her to the sea. while walking down the beach, the same beach that she visited just two weeks before she passed, a friend found a rock inscribed with the word "love" in all capital letters. just a few yards later, we found a shell with the same inscription. someone even remarked that it looked like her handwriting?! weird ...
*the flipflops are her's, adopted by me
*the flipflops are her's, adopted by me05 October 2008
welcome to cincinnati, KENTUCKY
okay, i've never pretended to be any sort of geography wiz, but i know that cincinnati is in ohio. at least i THOUGHT it was in ohio until last thursday. that's when i had a layover in cincinnati on my way to syracuse. (yes i flew west to go almost due north and yes, what could have been an hour flight took six hours from door-to-door. that's federal bureaucratic efficiency for you!) i disembarked and headed to my next gate. on the way, i noticed that everything said "kentucky." rightfully, i was a little confused seeing that my ticket said "cincinnati" and remember that's in OHIO. turns out that cincinnati IS in ohio, but the cincinnati, ohio airport is in kentucky. go figure.
03 October 2008
oh dear god ...
... now i've heard it all! i'm up here visiting my parents in what is most politely described as a conservative stronghold. rush limbaugh for breakfast on at least two radio stations, frequent ads for the nra, and more mccain yard signs than i'm willing to count - gives you an idea of what i'm dealing with. well that's all "liberal" banter compared to what i heard tonight. tonight, i was informed that barack obama may, in fact, be an operative placed in the united states by some nefarious source. and this wasn't just a fleeting thought. this man was actually able to articulate a well-developed theory beginning with - who had even heard of barack obama before 2006. i tried to tell him that he was well known to the people of chicago and had even established a state-wide presence in the illinois senate. he would have none of it. he told me that the pictures from that time were probably doctored. to that i countered - "well, using that logic i could easily argue that john mccain was never really a prisoner of war." he told me that was nonsense because we have all seen the pictures. you now see why i disengaged and didn't even attempt to sway his thinking. oh the "315!"
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