PBMom's Blog

I know it is the middle of the month, but my caregiving duties have caused me to get behind. 

Hats off to all the caregivers out there, whether they are taking care of their children with disabilities and chronic illnesses, or their own spouses, parents, grandparents, etc.   If you speak to those people, they never feel like their road has been paved with a burden.  They care for their loved ones with great love and compassion.  It is a life of service.  It is a life of finding the blessings in the face of challenge. 

If you know of someone who is a caregiver, think about doing something thoughtful for them this month.  Here are some suggestions:

1.  Call the caregiver and let them know what time you'll be bringing dinner.  Bring food in disposable containers so they don't have to worry about returning items. 

2.  Offer to babysit for a few hours.  It doesn't matter if they stay at home and perhaps take a nap or go out, perhaps attend church for the first time in months.  It will refresh them and put gas in their tank for a long time to come. 

3.  Listen.  Sometimes we just need to vent and not have someone judge us or offer us solutions.  Avoid cliches. 

4.  Help them celebrate special occasions by just showing up.  Your presence is the gift. 

5.  Bring lunch in.  Caregiving long-term can be a lonely road.  Isolation is the biggest enemy. 

6.  Don't provide phony encouragement.  Allow a family to feel sad, to prepare for the worst if need be. 

7.  Go with the person if they have a doctor appointment where they expect bad news. 

8.  Invite the family over to be part of your family, even if it is a simple BBQ. 

http://tinyurl.com/68vs46

I've never really done a music review before so please be gentle with me.  As many of you already know, I love David Cook.  Tonight right after midnight, fan club members got to hear a release of his CD. 

The CD starts off with songs like Declaration (10), Heroes (8), Light On (which has been out for a few weeks, a 10), Come Back to Me (10), Life on the Moon (8).

Then we move into a different sound, a harder rock, blues-type song in Ba-ba-sol, which I decided was worthy of an 8 because it sounds different, but not too much different.

One more rock-like song, Mr. Sensitive, I also give an 8. 

Then come about four lighter rock songs -- Lie (8), I Did It For You (8), my personal favorite of this group, Avalanche (score 10), because of the lyrics, and back down to an 8 with Permanent.

A Daily Anthem started bringing things up again (8). 

Then you had a very out-of-place song, "The Time of My Life."   I think the CD ended better on A Daily Anthem, but I understand why they put it in there. 

Although it doesn't have wide extremes like Chris Daughtry's debut  of Daughtry, if you like David Cook and like the way he sings, you won't be disappointed in getting it.  It is out on Tuesday, November 18, 2008.

To give you a contrast, I had to turn off Taylor Hicks CD because it was so bad even though I liked him over Katherine as an entertainer.  If Chris couldn't get it then Taylor was the better choice.  But Chris grossly outsold Taylor so it matters not. 

Enjoy!  Leave comments here about how you liked it. 

The CD is going to be hot, but then, so is David Cook.

Payments by drugmakers to Vermont physicians between July 2002 and June 2004 totaled more than $4.9 million, much more than the $2.7 million that was previously reported by Public Citizen in an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) in March 2007. The payment details were hidden by 21 drugmakers that designated the data as trade secrets, according to Public Citizen, which says it obtained the data through ligitation and released an updated analysis including the newly obtained data. The new material was published in a letter November 4, 2008 to JAMA and is a follow up to Public Citizen's testimony last year before the Senate Commitee on Aging. Public Citizen, the advocacy group, sued the Vermont attorney general and the drugmakers to unseal info about the payments. In their statement on November 4, Public Citizen says these comprised 43 percent of all payments (9,182 of 21,409) and 56 percent of all dollars ($2.72 million of $4.90 million) paid to doctors in the state. Among the drugmakers involved were Abbott Labs, AstraZeneca, Sanofi-Aventis, Bayer, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Roche, Lilly, Merck and Glaxo. One of the key findings is that Vermont physicians received $3.2 million in payments over $100 from drugmakers, 86% of all such payments to health care providers. Public Citizen maintains these strongly suggest frequent violations of professional guidelines issued by the American Medical Association and PhRMA, both of which prohibit many gifts from exceeding $100. "Patients should be able to find out which drug and medical device companies are paying their doctors and how much," Peter Lurie, deputy director of Public Citizen's Health Ressearch Group, in the statement. "If doctors and drug companies don't feel comfortable about making the relationships public, they ought to reconsider the relationship itself." Consider this -- This is just one state. Take into account the demographics of other states and the diseases that are most prevalent at various locations. It's more money paid to doctors et. al than one could possibly imagine.

Dan A said as a former drug rep with big pharma, "I never had a limit on who I bought in the ten years I was involved with this vocation. In fact, I received larger raises per year that directly and specifically correlated with the amount of money I gave to prescribers. The more I spent from my employer to physicians, the more I made.  This is common in all big pharma companies."

Considering how small Vermont is, I would love to know what the totals are for Texas. 

On Thursday, Senator Dan Patrick will be meeting with the community about issues related to autism spectrum disorders.  Education is on the forefront of people's minds in Texas, with school districts now engaging in the silent cleansing of our children from public schools.  (Nod to Dianna Pharr for the "silent cleasning" comment).  Senator Dan Patrick is a passionate supporter of school choice for our children, and in recent testimony as a member of the Texas Senate Education Committee, said he would fight until his dying breath for parents to have a choice.  We need general education parents to get on board to help us accomplish this.  Here are the details:

"Government was never meant to be a spectator sport."

So…    join us for a Legislative Advocacy Workshop & Town Hall Meeting with Senator Dan Patrick on Autism/Disability Issues.  This is your opportunity to be in the starting line-up of the 81st Legislative Session that will begin in Austin in January 2009.

     Date:  Thursday evening, November 6th, from 6:30pm until 9:00pm
     Location:  Graceview Baptist Church, 25510 Tomball Parkway, Tomball, TX  77375
     Contact:  NHC-ASA, Michelle M. Guppy,  NorthwestHoustonChapterASA@yahoo.com or 281-686-0103
     This is a free event brought to you by NHC-ASA;  but you must pre-register to attend.

About the presenters:

Colleen Horton will be discussing the many Legislative Agenda items for the upcoming Legislative Session. She will share how parents can be effective Partners in the Policymaking process.  Colleen Horton is the Public Policy Director for the Texas Center for Disability Studies at the University of Texas in Austin. 

Jeff Sell is the Vice-President of Public Policy, Advocacy and Legal Affairs, for the Autism Society of America.  He will give opening remarks on behalf of the ASA’s Legislative Agenda, and serve as moderator for the Town Hall meeting.

Senator Dan Patrick represents District 7 which includes the following school districts:  Aldine, Cy-Fair, Houston, Humble, Katy, Klein, Spring Branch, Spring, Tomball, Waller.  You can read about the Senator’s many accomplishments and committees served on by going to his webpage. http://www.senate.state.tx.us/75r/senate/members/dist7
/dist7.htm

Town Hall Meeting Guidelines:
* We will pre-choose testimonies/questions from parents, professionals, educators, administrators, and organizations….   
* All testimonies and questions must be sent to us by November 4th.  You will be notified by e-mail if you are chosen to read your testimony or ask your question.  Each person will have a maximum of three minutes to speak.  All other testimonies and questions not chosen to be shared that night, will be put in a binder to give to Senator Dan Patrick. 
We encourage everyone to submit their testimony or question even if you cannot attend the event!

* We want questions/testimonies representing many perspectives… but only as they relate to Autism or Disability Issues in the State of Texas or as they relate to Special Education Services.

 Registration procedure:  

Please register by e-mail prior to November 4th so that we may have adequate seating!
Send an e-mail to:  NorthwestHoustonChapterASA@yahoo.com

 In the subject line put "Town Hall Meeting".

 The body of your word document or e-mail should have at the top:

* Your full name - and whether you are a parent, professional, agency, organization, educator, administrator

* Your address and zip code

* Your e-mail address for confirmation if you are chosen to share your question or testimony.

*  In the body of the e-mail or word document - type out your question or testimony for Senator Dan Patrick as you would read it that night.  Please remember you have a maximum of three minutes to read it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~

Childcare provided by:  The JOY Ministry – a Disability Ministry of Graceview Baptist Church.
 If you need childcare to attend, please contact Tonya Magagh at Respite4All@yahoo.com or call Denise Briley at 281-351-4979.  Childcare is limited and you must RSVP as soon as possible.  Pizza and beverages will be provided for children, however if your child is on a special diet, please bring their food.  Childcare is limited and on a reservation-only basis.  Not at the door requests please….

The presidents of our generation have enjoyed just having regular dogs and/or cats in the White House, but our presidents of previous generations have had some interesting "First Pets."

Pygmy hippo, antelope, wallaby, bear, tigers/lions:  Calvin Coolidge

Alligator:  John Quincy Adams

Elephant:  James Buchanan

Zebra, coyote, hyena, bear, tigers/lions:  Theodore Roosevelt

Bear:  Thomas Jefferson

Tigers/lions:  Martin Van Buren

I heard President-Elect Obama say in his acceptance speech say that his daughters have earned their new puppy.  Might I suggest:

The golden retriever!!!!

This was pretty cute.  Found this on one of the pet sites I get emails from.  Why Dogs and Cats are Better Than Kids.  There are about 33 on the list, but here are the ones I liked most. 

1.  Eat less.

2.  Don't ask for money all the time.

3.  Easier to train

4.  Normally come when called.

5.  They do not answer back.

6.  They don't become embarrassed to be seen with you when they reach adolescence. 

7.  Get the same meal every night and are grateful.

8.  At night, you can lock them in their kennel and no one will call Child Protective Services on you.

9.  If they get pregnant, you can sell their children.

10.  They don't need electronic gadgets.  A tennis ball will do just fine and a pair of socks is even better.

So now it's your turn.  Add to the list. 

I was listening to the news tonight and had to do a double take when I heard this -- there was a fire at a nuclear missile silo that went undetected for five days. 

I thought certainly I must have misheard, misunderstood. 

Yesterday, the Associated Press did a story about a fire that occurred on May 23 at a Minuteman III missile silo that burned itself out after an hour or two.  However, the Air Force didn't know a fire had occurred until May 28 when the repair crew went to the launch site because a trouble signal indicated a wiring problem. 

They would not confirm, of course, whether the missile was armed with a nuclear warhead at the time of the fire.  When they say things like that, I take it to be a yes, otherwise they would say, the warhead was not armed and there was no danger at any time. 

The battery chargers at all US missle launch sites have been replaced. 

The fire was extensive enough to have caused $1 million worth of damage.  The report that was finally released on Thursday said the Air Force "found flaws in the technical orders for assembling battery charger parts, inspection procedures, and modifications of the launch complex ventilation system. "  The AP said, "It was also critical of the presence of flammable materials." 

The AP report says that the launch site is about 40 miles east of Cheyenne, WO and 100 miles NE of Denver.  The mayor of Cheyenne first learned about the problem on Thursday. 

The AP report also reminded its readers of a string of missteps involving the nation's nuclear arsenal.  In 2006, four electrical fuses for ballastic missile warheads were mistakenly shipped to Taiwan, and in 2007, a B-52 bomber was mistakenly armed with six nuclear-tipped missles when it flew between Air Force bases in North Dakota and Louisiana.

Something about the words "fire" and "nuclear missile silo" just leave me feeling...terrified. 

It also reminds me of the words "radioactive nuclear waster" on a "train or truck" headed to "Yucca Mountain" for disposal that is a disaster waiting to happen once that begins. 

What a great blog to write before heading off to bed.  Sweet dreams, America.

From the article:  "Judging from the jersey, this mid-western Eva Peron is a fan of the St. Louis Blues, a team that has a legitimate beef with Sara Palin. You see, not long after she was roundly booed in Philadelphia by Flyer fans when she showed up to "drop the puck" in a game against the New York Rangers, Palin continued her ill-fated tour of hockey arenas in St. Louis. There, Blues goalie Manny Legace slipped on a carpet laid out for Palin's entry onto the ice, was injured, gave up two goals in the first period, then left the game."

I couldn't stop laughing.  Politics doesn't have to be all serious all the time.

There are some antipsychotic drugs that are leaving children and the elderly ill having received them as treatment of conditions they didn't even have.  State legislators are now fighting back.

Zyprexa use has grown as much as 12-fold since 2000 with a corresponding growth in side effects like weight gain, blood sugar changes, and cholesterol problems. 

In March of 2008, Alaska won $15 million as a settlement from Eli Lilly to recoup medical costs generated by Medicaid patients who developed diabetes while taking Zyprexa. 

Last year, Bristol-Myers Squibb settled a federal suit for $515 million charging that it illegally hawked the drug Abilify to children and the eldery, bilking taxpayers. 

Now Idaho, Washington, Montana, Connecticut, California, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Utah, West Virginia, Arkansas, and Texas are taking the pharmaceutical companies to court over its antipsychotic prescription marathon that has left the poor and mentally ill in even worse health and children and elderly patients in "chemical straightjackets" for conditions they didn't have.

The drugs are:  Zyprexa, Risperdal, Seroquel, Abilify, and Geodon.

Although these drugs were developed to treat schizophrenia and later approved for bipolar disorder (Risperdal is also approved for autism-related irritability in children), pharmaceutical companies wasted no time in marketing them for non-FDA-approved uses like ADHD, conduct disorders, dementia, sleep disorders, depression, simple mood swings, "netting $8,000 a year per person, usually from state coffers."

When these antipsychotics debuted in the 1990's they seemed to lack the side effects thorazine and Haldol caused.  But soon further "clinical testing" also known as "selling it to the public while the patent is hot" revealed they caused the same side effects and more -- increased mortality in elderly patients, suicide risk, high blood sugar, diabetes, and blood disorders.  In fact, Seroquel and Abilify have not just one black box warning but two. 

A NIMH study of 119 children ages 8 to 19 with psychotic symptoms published in September found that Risperdal and Zyprexa were no more effective than Moban, but caused such obesity that a safety panel ordered the children off the drugs.  In just 8 weeks, children on Risperdal gained 9 pounds while those on Zyprexa gained 13; children on Moban gained less than a pound. 

But it gets worse.  A study of Seroquel in Feb 19, 2005 issue of the British Medical Journal found the drug ineffective in relieving agitation in Alzheimer's patients, a non-FDA-approved use that JP Morgan analysts say represent 29% of all Seroquel sales.  Ah, where are the regulators???? and was associated with "significantly greater cognitive decline than the placebo." 

Eli Lilly's Zyprexa led to a black box warning after they discovered on their own there was an elevated stroke risk and numbers of death in five of its Zyprexa clinical trials.  This in turn led to a letter to doctors in 2004 that the FDA imposed black box warnings of "increased mortality in elderly patients with dementia" on the above named antipsychotics in 2005 after reviewing 17 clinical studies with four different drugs.  

Dr. David Graham testified last year at a congressional hearing, "But the fact is, is that it increases mortality perhaps by 100 percent.  It double mortality.  So I did a back-of-the-envelope calculation on this, and you have probably got 15,000 elderly people in nursing homes dying each year from the off-label use of antipsychotic medications....with every pill that gets dispensed in a nursing home, the drug company is laughing all the way to the bank." 

A third of the nation's estimated 2.5 million nursing home patients have taken these antipsychotics and the overall atypical antipsychotic tab for Medicare and Medicaid including children in the US is $2 billion a year, according to the New York Times.

And yet....

In 12 states, the pharmaceutical industry has actually written the guidelines that specify atypicals for schizophrenia and discourage older drugs.  Two dozen states have hired the Lilly-backed Comprehensive Neuroscience to show them how to lower their drug costs (not even joking here).

If there was ever an industry that needed better regulation...let's add an overhaul of how pharmaceutical companies are profitting at the expense of our lives. 

Go get 'em Texas (for them to recoup their costs).  But how do you replace the life of the loved one that was devastated, or worse, the death of a loved one, because of this reckless behavior that the FDA continues to allow happen.  Time for an agency overhaul, too.  I think that is the ultimate goal of pharmaceutical companies -- treat one symptom, but create a whole new set of problems (like high blood sugar) so doctors will have to prescribe to you yet another one of their drugs to cure that, which will make something else go wrong....

Who is the real John McCain when it comes to the issue of abortion?  When he was running in 1999, he was the pro choice candidate who was not in favor of repealing Roe v Wade.   I believe he knew he would not win the Republican ticket with this record, so he flip flopped.  I offer two videos for your viewing.  One is from Fox News, and one is from a group who still doesn't believe him. 

Here is my little Patrick in his first costume.  He hated it.

On the chat the other day we were talking about Halloween costumes, and if you could get dressed to look like any of our Fox 26 news and crew, who would you like to dress up as?  Let's say we had Mission Impossible masks that allowed you to look exactly like them.  Which one would you choose and why?  I thought Melissa Wilson should dress up as Mike Barajas for the day.  But who would YOU like to impersonate for a day?

Shellstar:  Here you go.   This is probably part 1 of maybe 4.  But I figured I should get something out to you as downpayment on my promise to you.  These are some of the reasons why I voted for Obama:

Votes I agree with:

Yes      Unintended Pregnancy Amendment

Yes      Limited on Farm Subsidies

Yes      Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Bill of 2007

Yes      Transit Security Amendment

Yes      Defense Department FY 2007 Authorization Bill

Yes      Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act 2006

Yes      Influenza Vaccine Injury Compensation Amendment

No       Sugarcane Growers Funding Amendment (which would have helped Hawaii)

Yes      Department Deparment FY 2006 Appropriations Bill

Yes      Commerce, Justice, Science Appropriations Bill FY 2006

Yes     Defense Department FY 2006 Authorization Bill

Yes     Foreign Operations FY2006 Appropriations Bill (which included, I might add, this law that was added in:  Prohibits the use of funds to pay for the performance of abortions as a method of family planning, to motivate or coerce any individual to practice abortion, or perform involuntary sterilizations

Yes      Agriculture, Rural Development, FDA Appropriations Act

Yes      After School Funding Amendment

No       Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Funding Amendment

Yes      Transportation, Treasury, HUD, Judiciary, Appropriation

Yes      Agriculture, Rural Development, FDA Appropriations Act

Yes      Interior Department FY 2006 Appropriations Bill

Yes      Foreign Operations FY2006 Appropriations Bill

Yes      Increase the Number of Detention Beds Amendment

Yes      Homeland Security Department FY 2006 Appropriations Act

Yes      Air Cargo Security Programs Implementation Amendment

Yes      Energy and Water Appropriations bill FY 2006  (this gave money for clean coal technology which McCain says Obama never supported, so McCain was obviously wrong)

Yes      Interior Department FY 2006 Appropriations Bill

Yes      Amtrak Reauthorization

Yes      Medicare Bill

Yes      Iraq and Afghanistan War Funding, Unemployment Benefits Extension, and GI Bill (McCain was a “NV” meaning he was either Not Voting, Excused, Absent, or Present)

Yes      GI Bill and Other Domestic Provisions.  Again McCain was a NV on this.

Yes      Concurrent Budget Resolution (important issues in this vote; McCain was an NV on this)

Yes      Earmark Moratorium (against earmarks)

Yes      Restriction of Federal Assistance Based on Compliance with Federal Immigration Laws (important one -- To create a reserve fund to ensure that Federal assistance does not go to sanctuary cities that ignore the immigration laws of the United States and create safe havens for illegal aliens and potential terrorists.  McCain was an NV on this one, too.  And he complains Obama votes “present”???

Yes      Supplemental Appropriations for the Department of Defense and Timeline for Withdrawal from Iraq (Another NV for John McCain).

No       Emergency Supplemental Appropriations for the Department of Defense (no timeline on this one.  Again NV for John McCain)

Yes      State Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) Reauthorization  (John McCain voted no on this one). 

Yes      Energy Act of 2007 (McCain an NV on this one, too)

Yes      Alternative Energy Subsidies (McCain NV on this one, too)

Yes      Congressional Budget for 2008 (McCain voted no)

Yes      Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Bill of 2007 with Iraq Withdrawal Timeline (McCain an NV on this one)

Yes      Education Funding Amendment  Important because S Amdt 3071 to S Con Res 83: To increase funding for Title I grants and reduce debt by closing corporate tax loopholes.   McCain voted no.

Yes      Reinstate Pay-As-You-Go through 2011 Amendment (McCain also voted yes)

Yes      Temporary Tax on Crude Oil Amendment (Important:  S Amdt 2626 to S 2020: To impose a temporary windfall profits tax on crude oil and to use the proceeds of the tax collected to fund programs under the Low-Income Energy Assistance Act of 1981 through a trust fund.  (McCain voted no – Palin however, gave windfall profits to her residents of her states). 

Yes      Tax Rate Amendment -- S Amdt 2610 to S 2020: To reinstate for millionaires a top individual income tax rate of 39.6 percent, the pre-May 2003 rates of tax on capital gains and dividends, and to repeal the reduction and termination of the phase out of personal exemptions and overall limitation on itemized deductions, until the Federal budget deficit is eliminated.  McCain voted no.

Yes      Medicare Prescription Drug Amendment (McCain also voted yes)

No       Budget Reconciliation bill (because it had an amendment in there about drilling in Anwar)

No       Budget FY2006 Appropriations Resolution (because it maintains the President's tax cuts through 2010.  McCain voted yes)

Yes      Education Amendment (Note:  This would close $10.8 billion in corporate tax loopholes)  McCain voted no.

.

Yes      Perkins Vocational Education Program Amendment (McCain voted no)

Yes      Homeland Security Grant Program Amendment (Important:  S Amdt 220 to S Con Res 18: To protect the American people from terrorist attacks by restoring $565 million in cuts to vital first-responder programs in the Department of Homeland Security, including the State Homeland Security Grant program, by providing $150 million for port security grants and by providing $140 million for 1,000 new border patrol agents.  (McCain voted no)

Yes      Native American Funding Amendment (McCain voted no)

Yes      Tax Subsidy for Domestic Companies Amendment.  S AMDT 210 to S Con Res 18: To repeal the tax subsidy for certain domestic companies which move manufacturing operations and American jobs offshore.  McCain voted no. 

Ones I have mixed feelings about

Yes      Labor, HHS, Education, FY 2006 Appropriations bill (This bill increased funding to special education, however, it also appropriated $8.16 billion for the development and distribution of an influenza vaccine and $10 million for national abstinence education campaign (which has been proven doesn’t work)

Yes      Defense Department FY2006 Appropriations bill (Agree with this part - Reaffirms that torture of prisoners of war and detainees is against United States policies and international law and prohibits cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of any individual in the custody or physical control of the U.S. government, regardless of geographic location.  However, disagree with this spending:  $3.91 billion for activities relating to the avian flu.

Yes      Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program Amendment  (Local utility programs have programs to help low-income people with their energy bills provided by people who wish to give to that program.

Yes      Legislative Branch Appropriations Act, 2006:  Didn’t like this:  - $1.1 billion for the salaries and expenses of the House of Representatives.  $785.55 million for the salaries and expenses of the Senate- $428.48 million for the Architect of the Capitol

Yes      Interior Department FY 2006 Appropriations Bill.  This included:  Waves environmental laws in order to complete the 14-mile border fence between the US and Mexico near San Diego.  I don’t believe the wall should be built.  Waste of time and money. 

Where I totally disagree:

No       US Agency for International Development Amendment

Yes      Second Economic Package

From the liberal comedy media.  Please note I'm putting this in the "entertainment" section because it is for entertainment purposes only.   The job of Mayor of Wasilla sounds very exciting.  Rated PG

Sarah Palin finally rolled out what she thinks needs to be done for Special Needs families across America. They were neither earth-shattering nor maverick concepts.

In short, she wants to shift billions of dollars to programs with children with special needs.  Sounds good up front and if you don't understand the special education world, you might buy into it all because frankly, we're quite a desperate for someone to really want to help us.  

The plan's major points are these:  School choice (state and federal funding follow the child to school of the parents' choosing); full funding of IDEA, increase in early identification, parental support, early services for birth to 3 years; increased role and funding to National Institutes of Health to look for cures; strength vocational and rehabilitation laws to be based upon outcomes.

What was missing:  Full funding of No Child Left Behind which is not in any way associated with IDEA.  

I am a huge fan of school choice.  I support Senator Florence Shapiro and Senator Dan Patrick in their tireless efforts in helping us.  They are my heroes here in this state, as is Eddie Lucio.  Yet even in this heavily Republican state, vouchers don’t seem to get passed year after year.  I also believe in teacher choice.  But it is hard to make choices when 1) they won’t allow you into the classrooms to observe what might be the best choice for your child and 2) the school districts are moving away from the “program” label, our district by the special education director and supported by a firm she hired to back her at a cost of Conroe ISD taxpayers of more than $100,000 a year (Stetson & Associates – check their check registers on line – they only have the previous month’s check register, but I’ve been saving each month to my hard drive for two years now).  You should also check out how much they pay Feldman and Rogers, the private law firm who is hired to fight parents of kids with special needs (despite our school district having an in-house lawyer, Carrie Galatas).  

Palin says, "We've got a $3 trillion budget, and Congress spends some $18 billion a year on earmarks for political pet projects.  That's more than the shortfall to fully fund the IDEA.  And where does a lot of that earmark money end up?  It goes to projects having little or nothing to do with the public good."  

She calls on $45 billion over five years to meet her proposal to fully fund IDEA. 

John McCain has already pledged in the third presidential debate speech:  “OK, what -- what would I cut? I would have, first of all, across-the-board spending freeze, OK?” 

He also says he will stop the earmarks in Washington, so if McCain is elected, these earmarks supposedly will no longer exist, so I'm a little confused.  He is going to take the money of what the old earmarks are based on to move it to this?  I'm not exactly clear on this.  He also said that the ending the use of earmarks – special funding requests placed into bills by lawmakers for back-home projects – would be a tool for balancing the budget.  Or will it come out of other federal programs.  You can’t have an across-the-board spending freeze and propose this kind of program.  Or is this an earmark of his own that he will scoop up for every earmark for others?  

But I have a really GREAT idea for Sarah Palin!  Why doesn't she return the $750 million in earmarks she took as governor of Alaska and give it back to the government for funding of all of this?  Even just 16% of what she took would cover her plan.  What a great gesture that would be!  That would be truly maverick type of behavior.  Then you truly can be the candidate who is "against earmarks" and do something meaningful for parents with kids with disabilities at the same time.  That would actually gain her "hero" status in my eyes. 

Let's say IDEA gets fully funded by either McCain or Obama who has been also promising this.  Now you are going to have to deal with the political machines that have become our school districts.  Each district has a different way of calculating the funding of each child.  For example, Florida assigns a point system for the level of care for that child.  Depending on that point system, that is the amount that follows the child to a private school.  Some states have autism scholarship programs that fund up to $36,000 for a parent to move their child to another school.  You are going to have to put into some kind of law that says, "Parents can move their children to other schools if they feel the school is not doing their job without precondition."  Because right now, with IDEA as it is, parents have to go to due process.  The parents have the burden of proof to show that the school district isn't providing their child with a free-appropriate public education.  95% of the cases in Texas are found in favor of the school districts.  Why?  Because all of the “independent” hearing officers are in some way tied to either being school districts' private firm lawyers or having been involved with TEA, the same TEA who is being investigated for criminal charges.  They are in league with lobbyists, etc.  Some school administrators have been recommended to their positions by the private law firms, as well.  They don't care about the teachers.  They don't care about the students, most especially special needs students.  They want us gone, but they want to keep our money.  You are going to get quite a fight from them.  They have the money from us, the taxpayers, that keep the cash-cows going to the private law firms.  

So the law is going to need to be changed and that will require both House and the Senate.  Then if we are lucky enough for it to pass, then we go down to the basic local levels, the parents would have to hire attorneys, get to the IHO level, get to the 5th district court level which has a horrible record for finding in favor of people with disabilities, and after that, you get Supreme Court.  Will Ms. Palin’s plan cover the legal expenses parents will have to face if we have to prove no progress has been made?  I’m doubting it.   And ultimately the Supreme Court will have that decision to make. 

Gov Palin, as vice president, you cannot pass legislation.  You have to sit at the Senate meetings and break a tie.  That is your only involvement.  You think you’ll be able to get into Senate sessions and brainstorm, but from what I’ve read, they stop talking when people like you come in because there has to be separation of legislative branch and executive branch.  Don’t you watch CSPAN and see how thrilled Dick Cheney looks sitting there?  I think you will go insane.  However, Dick Cheney did exert way more authority as VP than he should have and we need to make sure we aren’t watching some horror flick like Cheney Returns to see you abusing that office after you’ve already were found that you abused your position as Governor.  

If you are interested in reading more about this tangled web, someone in Eanes ISD has connected some of the dots that will make you pretty dizzy:    http://tinyurl.com/6xvwdr

The amount of money that is following the child has to be what the school district is actually spending on the child, and not just what federal and state taxes are including. (Listen to the teacher/mother of a child with autism who came from Florida with her own money to testify to the Senate Committee of Education on August 18th about how Florida works.  With every state doing their own thing and with laws already on the books, I wonder if this plan will help or hurt those already in existence.  In Texas anything is better than what we have, but if you just increase IDEA funding without changing some laws, Texas schools will have more seminars on “How to Use Special Education Money To Decorate Your Teacher’s Lounge”, one of the topics at a parasite lawyer conference offered to school district personnel.  Perhaps the new topic will be “You’re Getting Full Funding From Sarah Palin – Here’s The Way to Pay for That New Library or Roof.”  

Special education in Alaska is no picnic basket either.  There are many due process hearings.  There are still 300 children in institutions versus home and community services.  And she didn’t do anything to help special needs family.  So I have to judge her, based on Shellstar’s theories, based on the record that is on the books, not the ideals she’d like to run on.  

Let's look at the next proposal -- funding NIH to find cures.  Again Obama has suggested this long ago and supported legislation to do just this.  I suggest giving that money to private groups, universities in the way of grants -- because no cure is going to come from the government, especially on the issues of autism, because they refuse to look at vaccines and mercury/aluminum/live virus link as the possible causes.  

Although early identification is necessary for a better outcome (I agree with her on that), because she hasn’t been in the trenches yet, she doesn’t understand that it doesn’t matter what diagnoses you bring to your school district.  The new tactic being taught to schools by their private law firms is this:  Don’t allow a child with autism into your special education department.  Test them, yes, as is required by federal law, but then disagree with the parents’, because all you are responsible to do under IDEA is “consider” the information provided by the parent, not accept it.  So the new trend is not to offer help at all.  They’ll stick them into regular education classrooms without assistance, so those particular parents would be out of luck until Palin’s plan.  Don’t believe me?  Look at Greg Groogan’s report on another youngster in Conroe ISD who obviously has autism, being raised by his grandparents.  http://tinyurl.com/55ya6z alin only signed the legislation in Alaska that increased funding for intensive needs students.  Mike Hawker, the Republican who worked very hard on that bill, should get the credit for that.  He said she had NOTHING to do with the legislation other than to sign it.  Their special education funding is actually lumped in with "gifted and talented/vocational ed/bilingual/special education.  This is straight from Eric Fry, Information Officer, Alaska Dept of Education & Early Development, who has kindly provided all the necessary information to set straight what the situation is with the Alaska funding for special needs kids: 

 The "special needs" document shows that money for special education in general went up as money for the schools in general went up. The author of the document refers to "block grants" because he was looking for an easy-to-understand phrase. In fact, we don't literally give a grant. We add 20 percent to school districts' funding to account for the extra costs of spec ed, voc ed, bilingual ed, and gifted ed. They can spend any part of their budget on spec ed, as needed.  The "intensive needs" funding refers to extra money for kids with severe disabilities. It went up considerably this year and will go up a lot in the next two years. The "special schools" document should clear up any lingering questions or confusion.  These are the actual budget amounts.  If you noticed the lump amount for special education actually went down for FY07 to FY08.

  FY06 Special needs       $157,801,815 (includes money for spec ed, voc ed, bilingual, gifted) Intensive needs        45,008,850  (severely disabled)

               FY06 Total           $202,810,665

FY07  Special needs       $172,215,141 (special ed, voc ed, bilingual, gifted)

            Intensive needs        44,142,900 

FY07                Total           $219,358,041

FY08 Special needs       $169,740,668  (special ed, voc ed, bilingual, gifted)

           Intensive needs        50,679,600

             FY08 Total           $220,420,268

Shellstar wants me to vote based on record and not promises.  Palin’s record says she cannot be trusted for families with special needs.  So the promises cannot be taken into consideration since she has no record of actually doing it.  Therefore, using Shellstar as a guide, I must regret Palin’s plan because she has no record of actually helping special needs kids while mayor or Governor.   

McCain has never been a great supporter of our community based on his voting record.  So I must go on that and not on promises in the future, using Shellstar’s logic.  

I don’t know much about the vocational and rehab laws since we are just moving into that stage for Patrick, so I will reserve comment in that area.  

The plan doesn’t differ much from what Obama has been recommending for months now, although he has the record of supporting more bills that help our families.  He thinks charter schools are good, too, and I bet you, if we were to sit down with him and tell him what is happening in Texas with our school districts, he might understand why we want vouchers not just for kids with autism but for kids with all disabilities, at a fair amount that would help parents get coverage at these very expensive private facilities.  I do know he would listen to us and he would think about it and see what he could do.  

So the only earth that was shaking on Friday for me after reading this was the continued celebration of my 16th wedding anniversary.   I watched as Governor Palin took her first baby step into the world of real advocacy, the kind of step where she got her toes wet seeing how the water was going to feel, where she has these naïve thoughts and her mind hasn’t been jaded by everything that is out here hurting our kids.  Perhaps she should lose that $750 million earmarks so it would allow her not to sink to the bottom of the water.  We need an advocate who is not afraid to be tested by trial through fire or full body conversion.