With the nation’s attention diverted by the drama over the debt ceiling, Republicans in the House of Representatives are loading up an appropriations bill with 39 ways — and counting — to significantly curtail environmental regulation.
Republicans have loaded a House appropriations bill with provisions to severely curtail environmental oversight.
Sent from my iPhone
The clock is ticking. Last minute talks in Congress and the Administration to develop a deficit reduction strategy have turned out two major proposals:the Reid plan and the Boehner plan. Both plans could result in devastating cuts to Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security after six months of passing. With the fate of our country hanging in the balance, should the burden of this financial crisis fall on the backs of struggling seniors and people with disabilities? Time is running out for lawmakers to reach a decision on where our country will go from here, and who will foot the bill. With the pressure building, we must make sure that Medicaid is not left behind. Call 866-324-0787 today to tell lawmakers that you oppose Boehner and Reid's proposed cuts to vital services for people with disabilities. On this 21stanniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, we must fight to protect the ADA's promise of equal opportunity and equal access. Don't sit on the sidelines. This fight needs you.
Sent from my iPhone
Check out this article:
Pit bull puppy saves vet from suicide
The announcers are still your neighbors. They don’t know precisely how to pronounce “The Heifetz Institute” but they give it their best. They do know how to pronounce Winnipesaukee. They report with equal earnestness about Brownie Brewster’s victory in a kid’s athletic contest and the exploits of the Red Sox. It’s the earnest quality in their delivery that is so affecting. Local radio isn’t fully sanitized for your ingestion. Here’s to the Rotary annual lobster boil.
SK
During a heat wave this is the place to be.
This blog ardently supports the efforts of the National Federation of the Blind to protest sub-minimum wages for people with disabilities.
Blind Americans To Protest Subminimum Wages
(National Federation of the Blind)
July 20, 2011
BALTIMORE, MARYLAND–The National Federation of the Blind, the oldest and largest nationwide organization of blind people, announced today that its members will conduct informational protests across the United States to raise awareness about the practice of paying wages below the federal minimum wage to Americans with disabilities.
The protests will take place at the district office locations of United States Senators serving on the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (the HELP Committee). The HELP Committee is currently considering legislation — the Workforce Investment Act — which would reauthorize the payment of subminimum wages to disabled workers.
Dr. Marc Maurer, President of the National Federation of the Blind, said: “Unequal pay for equal work on the basis of disability is unfair, discriminatory, and immoral. The senators who serve on the HELP Committee must decide whether they stand for the outrageous exploitation of disabled workers, or for true equality for Americans with disabilities.”
On Wednesday, August 3, the HELP Committee will vote on the Workforce Investment Act, which contains language reauthorizing the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended. The Rehabilitation Act is supposed to provide services to disabled Americans so that they can obtain competitive employment, but Title V, Section 511 of the proposed Rehabilitation Act language references Section 14(c) of the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act, which allows certain entities holding special wage certificates to pay workers with disabilities less than the federal minimum wage.
Entire press release:
Blind Americans to Protest Subminimum Wages
http://www.nfb.org/NewsBot.asp?MODE=VIEW&ID=826
Sent from my iPhone
Wild turkeys! Enough to make the Neanderthal dog’s nose fall in love all over again!
Sent from my iPhone
I don't know what came over me. I clicked on a British website devoted to theology. Soon I was listening to an infantilizing lecture about God's plan, which as near as I could tell was and is all about remaining hidden from human beings because we are small. I tried to turn off the podcast but the button wouldn't work. Click. Click. And all the while this treacle voice telling me how tiny we are. Tiny and undeserving. So I did what all inestimable creatures must do: I went out into the world. I walked around. When I came back the podcast was over. But the voice lingered in memory. Tiny. Tiny. The colonizing Bishop. So sweet and so cold!
S.K.
By Andrea Scarpino
After watching the US women’s soccer team battle Japan through 90 minutes of World Cup finals play; after watching 30 minutes of tense overtime; after watching the US lose in penalty kicks; after their disappointment; after Japan’s jubilation; finally, I remembered Title IX.
Title IX, which amended the earlier Civil Rights Act of 1964, was enacted in 1972. While it has broader implications for education than sports participation, it’s often associated with women’s sports and the advancement of women in sporting arenas. All of the US players in this World Cup grew up with Title IX protection, meaning that their access to and participation in sports was, in theory at least, guaranteed by US Law.
And all of the women in this World Cup were fiercely athletic. They ran for hours on end, strategized with one another, pushed and shoved and tripped opponents when they needed to. They jumped crazy high, moved their bodies in crazy shapes. They got injured. They cried. They showed that all that is a part of the game, of pushing a woman’s body harder and longer than people would have thought possible even fifty years ago. Even twenty years ago, when the first Women’s World Cup was played.
Take Abby Wambach. Broad shouldered. Inches taller than most other players. Intense. She runs at the ball with her head, runs full-speed at other players. She looks fearless. Take Hope Solo. Stunningly attractive, long-haired—in many ways, stereotypically feminine. And tall. Muscular. Stunningly tough. I’ve read that she suffers from near-constant shoulder pain, and yet, she throws the ball over her head like it’s no big deal. Dives to the ground without flinching. She looks fearless.
I’m not an athlete in any sense of the word. When my friends were playing sports growing up, I was medically exempt from gym class, a person with disabilities struggling to walk without pain. But in my early 30s, I realized that I could push my body to run for hours, do incredibly hard yoga, weight lift. I realized that exercise made me feel good, physically and mentally, realized that “You’re strong” is an incredible compliment.
And my participation in athletics, while trivial compared to most, is also a product of Title IX. Because of Title IX’s success, it’s more societally acceptable for women to be athletic and strong, to get sweaty and grass-stained, fall to the ground. To be muscular. To scream across a field at one another. Because of Title IX’s success, I can choose from a plethora of sports bras and sports tanks, a plethora of shoes in my size. I can enter myself in marathons officially (only 40 years ago, women were denied entry in the famous Boston Marathon). I can be vocal about exercise. I can watch a group of women unabashedly announce their desire to win. Unabashedly play to win. And even when they come in second place, I can stand amazed at their accomplishment.
Poet and essayist Andrea Scarpino is a frequent contributor to POTB. You can visit her at:
Planet of the Blind 