Breaking Radio Silence

It's been a while since I've had anything to day at the time when I had time to type it. I get great blog ideas while driving, but after seeing Gashwin's adventures in blogging via Jott, opted not to try that. Besides, the Jott would probably pick up the talk radio I tend to listen to whilst driving about our fair city.

We've had an election since I last posted. I opted not to blog the election - my friends pretty much knew my concerns about the Democratic Candidate. I never wanted to be a one issue (abortion) voter, but it seems to have happened. Bitter experience and the cynicism of my no-longer-ingenue status tells me that few promises related to tax cuts, tax increases, great new health or retirement or jobs-for-all plans will happen the way a victorious candidate promised. I hear the same old arguments in debates:

• "My plan will cut your income taxes by 30% and give you a free puppy, while my opponent's plan will merely lower your taxes by 25%"
• "Oh, yea? Well, we've also lowered the tax on puppy food by 13% and will be mandating that all employers supply workers with two puppies."

I don't want a puppy and I know that the Congressional grandstanding (many, many hearings so each congressman can get camera face-time) will delay my eventual 5% tax cut and my $100 tax credit to be used only for fish food.

1916 Successful Campaign motto: Woodrow Wilson: He kept us out of war.

So, the presidency comes down, for me, to two things he can do that no one else can:

1. Nominate Supremes
2. Nominate/Appoint Cabinet Secretaries who then appoint, without
   oversight, under-secretaries, department heads, etc.

If you don't know, the real work of government is done much lower down the chain than the level that incurs campaign debt.

This brings me to my vote: FOCA scares the bejeebers out of me. It purports to offer freedom for reproductive choices to women, but looks as if it will repeal critical amendments that protected the occupational freedom of choice for health care providers.

I am very concerned about the diminishing capacity of public health nurses in our state to refuse to prescribe/dispense Plan B to clients. Just because a client requests a therapy, doesn't mean that any provider anywhere is obligated to offer it to her. I know that reasonable people can argue over whether Plan B is [always] an abortifacient. Reading the company's material identifies 3 possible mechanisms of action. One of these, making the uterine lining inhospitable for implantation of the fertilized egg, answers any questions I might have had. As I continue to argue for freedom of choice for our staff, I have relied on the Hyde-Weldon amendment, etc. Protections that may go away, as may many of our staff. Clients can get Plan B lots of places -- they can't get newborn home visits or free school shots or TB testing or even STD treatment from those places.

So, my exercise of my franchise became making my tiny voice heard about FOCA. Let's hope that the many layers of civil servants, hold-overs from several administrations, write guidelines and funding rules less draconian than what is being discussed.

Picture source.