elbales: (can of wup ass)
So this is a thing and I have just left this comment:

I am writing to oppose the creation of the category "Medical Improvement Likely" for SSI recipients. This proposed change is certain to harm the most vulnerable members of society. The SSA is planning to change beneficiaries' status based not on medical evidence but on a "predictive model" that hasn't even been explained. How will the SSA decide that recovery is "likely" rather than "possible"?

Most seniors on SSI are likely to decline in health, and the stress of more frequent audits is especially difficult for seniors with age-related cognitive impairments. If Step 5 seniors lose their benefits, they're very unlikely to be able to find work that can support them. The situation is similar for people with stress-related and/or mental health conditions and for children, who already face serious challenges in growing up with disabilities. Just getting to hearings or understanding the paperwork is hard enough; doing it more often is burdensome, expensive, and stressful.

It is already extremely difficult to qualify for SSI, and increasing the frequency of audits makes for an even heavier burden for people who need help to survive. We should not be terminating the benefits of people who are entitled to them because they genuinely cannot work. Please stop this assault on the rights of disabled Americans.


Explanatory Tumblr post here and link to public comment page here. Many props to the fabulous [personal profile] siriosa for telling me about this issue.
elbales: (Hacked off!Nine)
Dear Mississippi: FAIL.


Originally posted by [livejournal.com profile] gabrielleabelle at Mississippi Personhood Amendment
Okay, so I don't usually do this, but this is an issue near and dear to me and this is getting very little no attention in the mainstream media.

Mississippi is voting on November 8th on whether to pass Amendment 26, the "Personhood Amendment". This amendment would grant fertilized eggs and fetuses personhood status.

Putting aside the contentious issue of abortion, this would effectively outlaw birth control and criminalize women who have miscarriages. This is not a good thing.

Jackson Women's Health Organization is the only place women can get abortions in the entire state, and they are trying to launch a grassroots movement against this amendment. This doesn't just apply to Mississippi, though, as Personhood USA, the group that introduced this amendment, is trying to introduce identical amendments in all 50 states.

What's more, in Mississippi, this amendment is expected to pass. It even has Mississippi Democrats, including the Attorney General, Jim Hood, backing it.

The reason I'm posting this here is because I made a meager donation to the Jackson Women's Health Organization this morning, and I received a personal email back hours later - on a Sunday - thanking me and noting that I'm one of the first "outside" people to contribute.

So if you sometimes pass on political action because you figure that enough other people will do something to make a difference, make an exception on this one. My RSS reader is near silent on this amendment. I only found out about it through a feminist blog. The mainstream media is not reporting on it.

If there is ever a time to donate or send a letter in protest, this would be it.

What to do?

- Read up on it. Wake Up, Mississippi is the home of the grassroots effort to fight this amendment. Daily Kos also has a thorough story on it.

- If you can afford it, you can donate at the site's link.

- You can contact the Democratic National Committee to see why more of our representatives aren't speaking out against this.

- Like this Facebook page to help spread awareness.


elbales: (Hacked off!Nine)
State Dept. wants to make it harder to get a passport
by EDWARD HASBROUCK on APRIL 22, 2011

If you don’t want it to get even harder for a U.S. citizen to get a passport — now required for travel even to Canada or Mexico — you only have until Monday to let the State Department know.

The U.S. Department of State is proposing a new Biographical Questionnaire for some passport applicants: The proposed new Form DS-5513 asks for all addresses since birth; lifetime employment history including employers’ and supervisors names, addresses, and telephone numbers; personal details of all siblings; mother’s address one year prior to your birth; any “religious ceremony” around the time of birth; and a variety of other information. According to the proposed form, “failure to provide the information requested may result in … the denial of your U.S. passport application.”

The State Department estimated that the average respondent would be able to compile all this information in just 45 minutes, which is obviously absurd given the amount of research that is likely to be required to even attempt to complete the form.

It seems likely that only some, not all, applicants will be required to fill out the new questionnaire, but no criteria have been made public for determining who will be subjected to these additional new written interrogatories. So if the passport examiner wants to deny your application, all they will have to do is give you the impossible new form to complete. . . .

You can submit comments to the State Dept. online at Regulations.gov until midnight Eastern time on Monday, April 25, 2011. Go here, then click the “Submit a Comment” button at the upper right of the page. If that link doesn’t work for you, it’s probably a problem with the javascript used on the Regulations.gov website. There are alternate instructions for submitting comments by email here.



WHAAAAAAAAAT.

I commented. Also I called all my reps. This is bullshit. This is not going to make one single person safer, only represent a gross violation of privacy and, should an application be denied over this bullshit, a violation of the rights of free movement and free assembly.

OH HALE NO.
 
elbales: (Hacked off!Nine)
EFF to San Francisco Entertainment Commission: Don’t Turn SF into a Police State

APRIL 11TH, 2011
News Update by Eva Galperin

The city of San Francisco has a long history of political activism and cultural diversity, which could be in danger if the San Francisco Entertainment Commission has their way. The Electronic Frontier Foundation joined civil liberties and privacy groups in criticizing a proposal from the San Francisco Entertainment Commission that would require all venues with an occupancy of over 100 people to record the faces of all patrons and employees and scan their ID’s for storage in a database which they must hand over to law enforcement on request. If adopted, these rules would pose a grave threat to the rights of freedom of association, due process, and privacy in San Francisco.


I've already shared this on my FB, but please echo it along. As I wrote there: RAAAAAAAAAAAAGE.

If you live in SF, and you are able, please consider attending the public hearing tomorrow, April 12, at 6:30 PM
in Room 400, City Hall, 1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place, San Francisco.
 
elbales: (Hacked off!Nine)
I have not been posting about politics here recently for the simple reason that Facebook makes link-sharing so very very easy. But it's hard to make commentary there, considering the character limit.

Still. I got something to say. To all the, like, five people who are reading here.

Union busting? We got it.

Debtors' prisons? We'll get right on that.

Busting poor people who carry cash? Yep, working on it.

And don't even get me started on Republican efforts to make the IRS audit you to make sure that a) that pregnancy you terminated came about through rape or incest and that b) if your pregnancy did not come about through rape or incest, you didn't use any taxpayer money to pay for it, including using tax write-offs to pay for your NONgovernment-run health insurance plan.

Yeah, you heard me.

This is the shit that Republicans are working on, when they supposedly got elected to work to create jobs in this country.

RAAAAAAGE.
 
elbales: (BAAL SMASH)
Court eases business, union election spending rule

By MARK SHERMAN, Associated Press Writer

Thursday, January 21, 2010
WASHINGTON, (AP)

The Supreme Court threw out a 63-year-old law designed to restrain the influence of big business and unions on elections Thursday, ruling that corporations may spend as freely as they like to support or oppose candidates for president and Congress. The decision could drastically alter who gives and gets hundreds of millions of dollars in this year's crucial midterm elections.

By a 5-4 vote, the court overturned two of its own decisions as well as the decades-old law that said companies and labor unions can be prohibited from using money from their general treasuries to produce and run their own campaign ads. The decision threatens similar limits imposed by 24 states.


As I just wrote in my Facebook, WHAT. WHAT. WHAT THE EVER-LIVING SHIT.

Congratulations, five conservative justices. You just gave nonliving entities which have huge checking accounts and which also already have a disproportionate influence on the governance of this country... even MORE influence. You just handed the Congress to the likes of AIG and Exxon/Mobil. I hope you're fucking proud of yourselves, you smug pieces of shit.

I wish I could go back in time to slap silly the moronic judges who declared that corporations should have the same rights as individuals.


ETA: And in fact, I am so furious about this that I left a comment at the White House website. No, Obama can't and shouldn't interfere with SCOTUS, but I had to register my opinion somewhere, and where better than at the top?
 
elbales: (BAAL SMASH)
California Governor Proposes Cutting Cal Grant Program

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of California has proposed cutting the state’s main student-grant program by about $88-million in his 2009-10 budget, including capping grants to students at public universities and phasing out a program that provides grants to 22,500 mostly nontraditional students.


BAD ARNIE, BAD. NO BISCUIT.

*horrified and fuming*

Thanks to [livejournal.com profile] litgoddess for the link.
 
elbales: (DO NOT WANT cat)
Man with large brown tarantula HANGING OUT OF HIS MOUTH OH GOD MY EYES WHERE'S THE BLEACH AUGH

*shudder*

Bizarre Foods people? THANKS A WHOLE HELL OF A LOT FOR THE BAD DREAMS.

No love,
E

*goes to find pictures of kittens*
 
elbales: (Bitch please - BSG)
In a nutshell, [livejournal.com profile] liz_marcs reports that someone from LJ Abuse has said that we, the users, are responsible for checking our links regularly to be sure we're not linking to anything prohibited by the TOS.

All of our links.

Every. Single. One.

*looks at years' worth of posts linking to all sorts of stuff*
*headdesks repeatedly*

AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH GOD how can these people be so CLUELESS?! This is completely crackhead unworkable! We're their customers and they're making the site unusable with all these ridiculous rules. No wonder people are deserting LJ in droves.
 
elbales: (Can't be serious!Rimmer)
No Human Rights In "Kid Nation"
No liability for CBS in controversial "ghost town" reality series

AUGUST 23--Parents of minors starring in "Kid Nation," the controversial new CBS reality show, signed away their rights to sue the network and the show's producers if their child died, was severely injured, or contracted a sexually transmitted disease during the program's taping. The blanket liability waivers are contained in a detailed "participant agreement" prepared by the show's producers and signed by parents. That document, a copy of which you'll find below, also gave consent to CBS and its production partners to make medical treatment decisions on the minor's behalf (including surgery), though the network made no promises about the "qualifications or credentials" of medical professionals that might treat the stars of "Kid Nation," which was originally titled "The Manhattan Project." The show, which debuts next month, features 40 children (ages 8-15) living in a New Mexico "ghost town" for 40 days without adult supervision.

This may well be the worst idea I have ever heard of. At least it's in the top ten. I mean, just, JESUS. We can't stop kids from beating the crap out of each other in school, and these morons want to put a pile of kids in their own town for a month? And the parents are going along with it? What the hell is WRONG with people! JESUS!
 

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