D. T. Hill Sounds Off....

By Kleinheider Posted on March 29, 2009 at 12:00 pm

Even during Earth Hour. President of the Tennessee Center For Policy Research Drew Johnson takes a Saturday drive by Al Gore’s during the time most environmentalists went dark:

I pulled up to Al’s house, located in the posh Belle Meade section of Nashville, at 8:48pm – right in the middle of Earth Hour. I found that the main spotlights that usually illuminate his 9,000 square foot mansion were dark, but several of the lights inside the house were on.

In fact, most of the windows were lit by the familiar blue-ish hue indicating that floor lamps and ceiling fixtures were off, but TV screens and computer monitors were hard at work. (In other words, his house looked the way most houses look about 1:45am when their inhabitants are distractedly watching “Cheaters” or “Chelsea Lately” reruns.)

The kicker, though, were the dozen or so floodlights grandly highlighting several trees and illuminating the driveway entrance of Gore’s mansion.

I [kid] you not, my friends, the savior of the environment couldn’t be bothered to turn off the gaudy lights that show off his goofy trees.

http://politics.nashvillepost.com/2009/03/29/al-gore-will-leave-the-lights-on-for-ya/

Open letter to President Obama on Disability in America

March 22, 2009

Remember that stirring, conversation-altering speech you made on race in America, back during the campaign? We need another speech just like it from you today -- one on disability in our culture and the need to break fully from long-held stereotypes that turn up most often in our language, but that manifest themselves in ways that make it nearly impossible for people with disabilities to share fully in life's best experiences.

This speech will be harder for you to write and deliver, because as far as I know your family is not directly impacted by disability -- physical or developmental. But that makes it all the more important that you craft a message that transcends personal experience and makes it part of our collective, cultural experience.

Every one is suffering today, in little ways and in big ways. But, as is always the case, when society suffers, people with disabilities suffer disproportionately. Programs are cut, funding is slashed, and priorities shift to the seemingly more urgent. The justification is easy to accept because we understand that crisis demands deep and painful sacrifice. In my own community, not only have tenured, experienced teachers received pink slips, but so has the instructional aide who makes it possible for my very bright and articulate seven year old son to be successful in a mainstream classroom. He has Down syndrome. The Regional Center for Orange County, a nonprofit that coordinates care and resources -- particularly critical early intervention services -- is threatened with closing its doors, leaving families to navigate the confusing and bureaucratic maze of health care, support services, early intervention, and educational placement alone. Hundreds of examples like this are playing out in communities around the country, putting hard working families to the test. My family is being put to the test.

People with disabilities -- particularly children -- work so hard every day just to get through the day in our society and emerge intact. The effort they put forth to fit in, to meet expectations, to overcome the challenges that their bodies and minds make seemingly insurmountable, is extraordinarily hard work. I know.

I’ve used a wheelchair since the age of 8, when a spinal tumor rendered me paraplegic. The unique perspective of being an adult with a (physical) disability, parenting a child with a (developmental) disability is not lost on me, and most days I find it an advantage. I understand the medical jargon and am comfortable coordinating my child’s care. Though I didn’t grow up with IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) ensuring my right to a “free, appropriate public education in the least restrictive environment,” I watched it become law and understand how to apply it to guarantee that my son has the opportunity to reach his fullest potential. There is so much wrong with the system that we have to navigate to get to the place where our child is best served. Regardless of how prepared or savvy we are, it is a fight. But that’s another soapbox for another day.

Sometimes the 37 years of experience I have had navigating our society as a person with a disability still isn’t enough. Recently, I learned that another parent in my child’s first grade class spent the first part of the school year complaining about having my son in the class – about all of the problems she perceived there would be. Distracted teachers, maybe behavior disruptions? Who knows exactly what she was afraid of, but I do know that she was speaking from a place of ignorance bred by inexperience. I heard about it from one of my best friends, who happened to be on the receiving end of her complaints and had the chance to turn it around (or at least open her eyes) by asking her what she would have done in our shoes; what she would have wanted for her child. I want to focus on the goodness of my friend and I don’t think it’s a coincidence that she’s the one to whom the other parent voiced her complaints. But I keep coming back to the complaints – how, in this day and age, can anyone question or deny the right to another person to be all that they can be? It’s an “us” and “them” mentality that I just can’t get past.

I'm waiting for that speech, President Obama. So are 55 million other Americans and their families. Not because you owe us an apology (you already did that). But because you are a highly intelligent and articulate person who has the world stage and an opportunity take a verbal blunder and transform into a challenge -- a challenge to our society to no longer cling to those outdated, insensitive, unproductive stereotypes that made it so easy for you to compare your own bowling skills to a person's with a developmental disability. We know you have a massive challenge before you every day. We know, because we do, too.

remember when Pam Anderson said she was going to boycott Mars because of their treatment of animals. HEY PAM THAT IS A SNICKERS BAR IN YOUR HAND. Mars makes it. Typically protester only protest when the press is around and when it is good for them.

I HAVE MADE THE BIG TIME!!!

Obama adviser: White males need not apply
Robert Reich tells House panel stimulus package should emphasize 'social return' over worker skill.
A top economic adviser to President Obama has told a congressional panel the billions of dollars in the proposed economic stimulus plan should be allocated with social issues in mind, to make sure the money doesn't go to just "white male construction workers

" or the highly skilled.

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=86827

I wish that I would have studied government a little more while in school. Especially the 10th amendment. If you sit back and look at where Obama won the election, it was with states with large electoral's however; there were a larger number of states that were conservative than liberal. So what is going to happen in 4 years?

Text of Amendment: The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

When the Tenth Amendment was originally proposed, the Bill of Rights did not apply to the states; it applied only to federal law. States had their own constitutions and their own bills of rights. Some states also had slavery, which was protected under the Tenth Amendment. The American Civil War made it clear that this wasn't a workable system, so the Fourteenth Amendment extended the Bill of Rights and made it applicable to both state and federal law.
So far, eight states have introduced resolutions declaring state sovereignty under the Ninth and Tenth Amendment to the Constitution, including Arizona, Hawaii, Montana, Michigan, Missouri, New Hampshire, Oklahoma and Washington. Analysts expect that in addition, another 20 states may see similar measures introduced this year, including Alaska, Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Nevada, Maine and Pennsylvania.

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?pageId=88218

With everything that is going on in the world, CNN has a story on how to get toned arms like Ms. Obama. Remember, we are a notion of fat slobs, we do not give a crap about her arms. I think that CNN should focus on steroids in baseball, oh wait the government is doing that....
http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/02/26/toning.obama.arms/index.html

http://www.cnbc.com/id/29434104

Remember if you are an over achiever, you will be punished. All of you who thought, " I don't make enough money for Obama to tax me", well guess again. He can not pay for this with raising your taxes. Remember, elections have consequences.

Raising the marginal tax rate on successful earners, capital, dividends, and all the private funds is a function of Obama’s left-wing social vision, and a repudiation of his economic-recovery statements.
Study after study over the past several decades has shown how countries that spend more produce less, while nations that tax less produce more. Obama is doing it wrong on both counts.

Oh wait a minute, that is not Obama...........That is that other socialist leader.......