Cat in a Bag Part II
NEW YORK – Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin is banning reporters from her first meetings with world leaders, allowing access only to photographers and a television crew.
The rest of the story is here. If reporters are barred from the meeting, why bother to film it? A photo-op, perhaps, taking no chances on an embarrassing mis-speak.
Breaking Out of the Nursing Home
One of my most memorable patients is a woman I’ll call Victoria, who is almost completely paralyzed. She can use her hands a little, but can’t turn in bed. She needs complete care by a nurse’s aid several times a day, every day. Her body is failing, but her mind is intact, and she knows her rights.
“They won’t get me back in a nursing home.�
I don’t know if I agree with her decision to get care at home, but I think she demonstrates what is possible. If she can manage with her extreme disability, what reason is there to force her to live in a nursing home when she doesn’t want to? What excuse is there for this?
PLANT CITY, Fla. – Charles Todd Lee spent a lifetime going backstage at concerts, following politicians on the campaign trail and capturing iconic shots of everyone from Martin Luther King Jr. to Mick Jagger to Mickey Mantle. Today, he enjoys such freedom only in his dreams.
The 67-year-old photographer has been confined to a nursing home for five years, the victim of a stroke that paralyzed his left side. And he’s angry…
Lee is among the Medicaid recipients across Florida challenging the nightmare of the old and disabled: to be forced from comfort and familiarity into a nursing home.
They say the state is illegally forcing them to live in nursing homes when they should be able to live where they choose. Advocates charge that nursing homes, afraid of losing money, have successfully pressured politicians to make qualifying for community care more difficult. They have filed a federal lawsuit seeking class-action status on behalf of nearly 8,500 institutionalized Floridians…
Americans who qualify for Medicaid and get sick or disabled enough to require substantial care typically have little problem gaining admission to a nursing home. But obtaining Medicaid-supported services at home, such as visits from an aide, is substantially harder and often involves a long waiting list, even though it may cost the government less.
Did you read that last line? ‘Even though it may cost the government less’.
I’m not intending to criticize nursing homes. I’ve worked in several, and they’ve improved a great deal in the last twenty years. For some people a nursing home is the best option, and many use nursing homes for short-term rehabilitation or respite.
But Charles Todd Lee, paralyzed on the left side, able to give an interview, sounds far less disabled than Victoria. What the heck is he doing in a nursing home? Against his will?
When decisions are made about Medicaid spending, a share goes to nursing homes and a share to home care. Neither is cheap, but home care is usually less expensive. Home care is underfunded in Rhode Island, making it difficult to recruit and retain good workers who are the foundation of the whole system.
I think we are doing better than Florida, but maintaining home care as a real option will require support from the state and advocacy from consumers.
Cat in a Bag
Our nation has suffered such distress lately over the invasion of animal metaphors in political speech that I tried to find a kinder, gentler, purring animal. Except when it bites, scratches, or hacks up hairballs on your floor.
Palin Calling for an End to Investigation She Requested
GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin shifted her tactics for the second time in three weeks on the “Troopergate” investigation, this time calling to end the very investigation that she herself called for and the one the McCain campaign had said was the only proper venue for a probe.
Palin’s Attorney General, who initially launched an internal probe into Palin, even before the legislature began theirs, is now asking the legislators to withdraw their subpoenas of Palin aides and Palin’s husband.
We’ve had eight years of secrecy, cronyism and ‘trust us’. We can’t afford four more.
Dreaming Fox News
Fox News was on this morning. They said the Federal Reserve was putting up $100,000 to buy the Kramden’s mortgage.
“This isn’t an unsecured loan,� said Ben Bernanke. “We’re taking the house as collateral. It’s our guiding principle to let the markets regulate themselves and let people and institutions take responsibility for their choices, but this is a special case.�
“The Kramden’s house is situated on a lot that borders a block ravaged by foreclosure. A vacancy here will invite vandalism and demoralize the remaining homeowners. The whole neighborhood could crash. Additionally, the Kramdens have ten children.�
“Ten children!� cried Brit Hume, wiping a tear from the corner of his eye. “What a beautiful thing!�
“Yes�, choked Greta Van Susteren, “Sarah Palin mailed the family a box of frozen mooseburgers in solidarity.�
“God– she’d make an awesome Fox newscaster, she should have her own show.â€? They beamed for a moment.
We have Alice Kramden on camera now–
“Ralph wanted to be here but he’s driving the bus today. We just want everyone to know that we don’t consider this a handout. For the last two years we have been paying interest only on our mortgage. With the 11% interest rate we will be paying now we hope that we will have enough of the principle paid off to get a conventional loan in five years. And we want to thank Sarah for the mooseburgers, we were going to give Spot to the pound because we couldn’t afford to feed him.�
Then the story switched to a kid who had put most of her tuition on credit cards and was living in a cardboard box while still attending classes. Before she could speak I was jolted by a screeching alarm. I woke up and remembered that I never watch Fox News, so I put on my glasses, and got up to get a cup of coffee.
Maybe He Wanted It to be a Surprise
President Bush, remember him? After Black Monday he was expected to put his foot down, and tell the nation that there was no more funny money being printed up to bail out the stock market. They were going to have to take their losses like us peasants. But something caused a U-turn…
WASHINGTON (AP) — With little explanation, President Bush on Tuesday scrapped a statement he planned to give on the tumultuous financial markets, abandoning any press coverage of his meeting with key economic advisers as more developments roiled Wall Street.
As announced by the White House, Bush was scheduled to make comments to a pool of reporters after huddling with a key financial working group led by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. Its members include Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and other key government figures in the field of commerce.
Yet after the session began, the White House told the press never mind. Spokesman Tony Fratto said only: “We decided it would be best to limit public comment about markets today.” He declined to offer any explanation about why limiting Bush comment would be best, or why on this particular day.
Well, that was yesterday. Today I am thrilled to find out that my tax dollars have bought me a 1/3,000,000 interest in AIG. I can’t wait for the dividends to start rolling in. Happy days are here again.
Something Beautiful
Nice story in today’s Providence Journal about recognizing something precious in our midst every day. Pleasant Valley Parkway is a tiny green space tucked away behind Chalkstone Avenue with its own stream.
It emerges from under Academy Avenue to meander on its own through a grassy, tree-lined median between the lanes of Pleasant Valley Parkway, giving it a look that justifies the road’s name. It curves east after a few hundred yards, into a concrete channel built for it in the 1930s. Then it goes straight to a culvert under Davis Park, behind Roger Williams Hospital, where it vanishes until reappearing momentarily before joining the waters of the Woon-asquatucket River on their way to Waterplace Park, Narragansett Bay and, eventually, the Atlantic Ocean.
This year that anonymous stream will be getting a name: Pleasant Valley Stream.
It won’t be the only one. Six other streams in the watershed of the Woonasquatucket River — five in Smithfield, one in North Smithfield — and Pleasant Valley Stream have been nominated for naming by the Woonasquatucket River Watershed Council.
Nothing changed but perception. That’s everything. Read the rest of the story here.
Lipstick on a Typo
To the McCain camp — nobody’s perfect, so let’s stop playing ‘gotcha’ and focus on the issues.
When Senator McCain delivered a speech this morning on the upheaval on Wall Street, he referred to several federal agencies and regulators that he pledged to reform to better serve both investors and the public. But in listing the organizations, he didn’t get all of the names right.
He referred twice to the Securities Investor Protection Corporation, a government-mandated non-profit entity that restores funds to investors with assets in bankrupt or failing brokerage firms, according to its Web site. The acronym is SIPC, but Mr. McCain reversed the letters and both times read the initials aloud as “S-P-I-C.”
For Mr. McCain, the slip is doubly unfortunate coming just one day after he issued a statement in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month.
We have less than five weeks to pick a president. The candidates are all sleep-deprived and stressed. What we really need to know is what they will do if elected, because our future depends on it. Fiscal policy and international relations are less sexy than slips and gaffes, but if we care about our country we’ll study up, and get out and vote in November.
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