Erick's Brockway Family Space

Where do you go with this?

h/t to Amy who is righteously outraged…

You've stormed the beaches of Normandy. You saw guys you went to Boot Camp with, been through Basic Infantry School with. Ate chow, pulled them out of the dumps when they got "the letter" from their girl, saw them mowed down when the ramp dropped on the Higgins boats before they even fired a shot.

You climbed Mount Suribachi and planted the flag, floated over Berlin like a balloon in a B-17 like a sitting duck waiting for the black cloud with your name on it.

You froze at the Chosin Reservoir, drowned in your own sweat while dodging bullets in Battle of Ia Drang.

Your grandkids write you today from Iraq and Afghanistan, they use different words but they describe the same things you lived through years ago. The baton has been passed, you did your duty.

Now, sadly, as you approach your twilight years there's one last duty to consider. This comes down from the top.

You have a decision to make. Your government needs to distribute its dwindling resources carefully; therefore they'd like you to consider ending your life early;

The VA's unofficial living will, an end-of-life planning document called "Your Life, Your Choices," [.pdf download] is being circulated throughout their hospitals and nursing homes across the country. In the beginning, it was given to any debilitated or aging veterans, but since last month the VA has instructed that it is to be given to all patients along with counseling from the healthcare practitioner.

While suggesting that someone write a living will may not be immoral, "Your Life, Your Choices" is written in such a way as to steer the patients toward death, full of leading questions and statements about the suffering patients would undergo as well as the burden they would place on their family if they remained alive.

There is a section titled "What Makes Your Life Worth Living," in which various conditions are listed and the patient is to check a box with answers of "difficult, but acceptable," "worth living, but just barely," or "not worth living." To their credit, there is also a box for "can't answer now." Some of the conditions listed are that the patient "can only get around in a wheelchair" and "spend all day at home." The former is insulting to anyone confined to a wheelchair and the latter describes my state when I was unemployed.

It gets worse. There are 3 conditions that are listed to make the patients feel guilty if they choose life, stating that the patient "caused severe emotional burden for my family," "can no longer contribute to my family's well being" and is "a severe financial burden on my family." The intent of those statements is to make it clear to patients that choosing life is selfish and would hurt the ones they love.

Is this a croc of s**t or what?

It's beyond the pale after all you gave for your country that the VA at the direction of the CinC would even consider pushing crap like this on vets;

"Your Life, Your Choices" presents end-of-life choices in a way aimed at steering users toward predetermined conclusions, much like a political "push poll." For example, a worksheet on page 21 lists various scenarios and asks users to then decide whether their own life would be "not worth living."

The circumstances listed include ones common among the elderly and disabled: living in a nursing home, being in a wheelchair and not being able to "shake the blues." There is a section which provocatively asks, "Have you ever heard anyone say, 'If I'm a vegetable, pull the plug'?" There also are guilt-inducing scenarios such as "I can no longer contribute to my family's well being," "I am a severe financial burden on my family" and that the vet's situation "causes severe emotional burden for my family."

[snip]

This hurry-up-and-die message is clear and unconscionable. Worse, a July 2009 VA directive instructs its primary care physicians to raise advance care planning with all VA patients and to refer them to "Your Life, Your Choices." Not just those of advanced age and debilitated condition—all patients. America's 24 million veterans deserve better.

You duty, as I see it, is to keep track of your brothers in arms and make sure the VA isn't pushing this crap on them. It's bloody hard enough dealing with life these days as it is, with investments dwindling and the country looking more and more like it's circling the toilet bowl, without this kind of garbage.

You remember the tenets of small unit leadership? If you were an LPO or an NCO and still keep touch with some of the guys, give 'em a call and see how they're doing. They're still your people.

You may know someone from the Legion hall or VFW who stopped showing up recently, check up on them, just to say "Hi" if nothing else.

We stuck together through some harsh times overseas, and today unfortunately there are harsh times ahead as well.

There's a country to take back.

"Illegitimi non carborundum" via @VladimirRS

Today, the "scoop" on Drudge is; "NYT: DEMS PLAN TO GO IT ALONE ON HEATHCARE... DEVELOPING..."

This isn't exactly news though, is it?

From June 22, 2009 CNBC;

Democrats May Go It Alone on Healthcare Overhaul

Topics:Politics & Government

Sectors:Health Care Equipment and Services | Health Care | Pharmaceuticals and Biotechnology

Democrats generally are standing behind their position that a health care system overhaul must include a government-sponsored plan that would be available to middle-class workers and their families.

A key Democrat, New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, said this option now seems even more of a necessity in view of unsuccessful behind-the-scenes attempts to get a deal with Republicans on nonprofit co-ops as an alternative to a public plan.

From Fox News, same day;

WASHINGTON -- Emboldened by polls that show the American public backing a government health insurance plan, Democrats are moving to make it a politically defining issue in the debate over the future of medical care.

Behind-the-scenes attempts to get a deal with Republicans on nonprofit co-ops as an alternative to a public plan have led only to frustration, complains a key Democrat. He and his colleagues may have to go it alone, said Sen. Charles Schumer.

The co-ops were seen as perhaps the last hope for compromise on a contentious issue that threatens any remaining prospects of bipartisan support for President Barack Obama's sweeping plan to remake the health care system.

CS Monitor, April 29;

Democrats' message to GOP in budget plan: We don't need you

Though Democrats are asking for bipartisan support, the resolution passed Wednesday suggests they are prepared to go it alone on healthcare and education reform.

Am I missing something? The Democrats have been saying this all along.

Am I surprised? Nooo

Well after the stunning defeat of all but one of the California Props, Assembly Speaker Karen Bass and Senate Speaker pro tem Darryl Steinberg both found microphones and spewed what boiled down to "We got the message loud and clear, the people don't want to be bothered with more special elections and making decisions for Sacramento, they want us to get to work and do what we have to do."

Looking for something in print to link to, but so far just have their voices on local radio, I'll update later.

What they seem to think is the Props failed not because people were fed up and got out and voted against the tax hike extension, but were too tired to get out and vote for it. They seem to be too used to a half-wit voter base that they need to optimistically call "half-full brained" and will soak up whatever they are told.

They fail once again to recognize that the voter did in fact speak, and loudly at that. The Teaparties didn't clue them in, and a defeat in the polls didn't either.

As Neil Stevens writes referring to the words of California Assemblyman Chuck DeVore;

Should 1A fail, DeVore thinks we'll face one of two actions by the Democrats. One option would be to cut popular government programs like police, fire, medical, and schools, hoping to burn down the state and blame it on Republicans. The other would be to pass an illegal tax increase with only a simple majority instead of the Constitutionally-required two-thirds majority. Either option will devastate our already-lagging state economy. The Assemblyman thinks we'll be the second-last state to recover from this economic slowdown (I assume the last being Michigan under its equally-horrible Democrat Governor Granholm).

We have now turned the calendar back to December 18, 2008.

On a lighter note, various California newspaper editorial types got up this morning seeing red;

HEADLINE: "You did it! Uh, so what now?"

TEXT: Good morning, California voters. Do you feel better, now that you've gotten that out of your system?

You wanted to show the state's politicians just how mad you are at them. And you did. Boy, did you ever. ...

... you're sick and tired of all this political mumbo-jumbo. So you showed those politicians who's in charge. You. You're now officially in charge of a state that will be something like $25 billion in the hole for the fiscal year beginning July 1.

So, now that you've put those irksome politicians in their place, maybe it's time to think about this: Since you're in charge, exactly what do you intend to do about that pesky $25 billion hole in the budget?

Oops, the comment section went wild at the Sacramento Bee, as did the subscription desk as well. The editorial slap at voters didn't live long however, and was replaced by this instead, a much more mild piece feebly swinging at Sac legislators instead. More here.

As Chris Reed said, "Heads will roll"!

First threaten teacher layoffs, then firefighters

Well, the day is here as the May special election draws near, the day to threaten state firefighter layoffs if the various Propositions don't pass.

Neil Stevens gave an awesome brief on the various Props and why they should be defeated on May 19, 2009 so I won't get into that here.

Monday Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger issued what can only be deemed a threat to cut more than 1,700 state firefighting jobs if he doesn't get his way on the 19^th.

Schwarzenegger's proposal involves slashing $80.8 million from Cal Fire's spending plan - a 10 percent reduction - by eliminating 602 full-time positions and 1,100 seasonal firefighting positions. The cuts would be part of a series of deep cuts to the state budget.

Cal Fire, the state's fire agency, has about 5,000 full-time firefighters. At the peak of last year's fire season, more than 2,700 wild fires ravaged the state and the agency hired extra help: 3,000 seasonal firefighters.

The plan would also shutter 11 conservation camps and 20 single-engine stations throughout California.

This is Phase 2 of the "Kids will starve and fires will rage" strategy that pops up among Democrat lawmakers everywhere, particularly in California.

Phase 3, which I can't wait to be clobbered with, is "Criminals statewide will be released from jails to roam the streets if these Propositions do not pass". Usually this comes from various local Sheriffs in the state such as Sheriff Lee Baca of LA County when the state budget threatens to affect local revenues.

Now of course this is a state prison's issue, so I fully expect it to come within a day or two.

As we are only in Phase 2, coincidentally a fire broke out in Santa Barbara County today, and if Arnold is on his game he should be showing up near there to say "Yousee dis is why ve need da money for Kalifoornia und de brave firefighters and tings like dat to prevent da tragedy of da lost homes und so forth".

One first responder to the coming Proposition vote coming has been Jon Coupal, president of Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association WHICH WAS THE GROUP BEHIND Prop 13 back in the 70s.

Coupal argued that "…rather than targeting public safety, the governor should find 'waste, fraud and abuse' in the state…" and a "blatant scare tactic."

According to the story in the SF Chronicle;

Prop. 1A limits spending and creates a rainy day fund; Prop. 1B guarantees education funding in future years; Prop. 1C allows the state to borrow against future lottery sales; Props. 1D and 1E shift taxes collected for children and mental health programs to other programs; Prop. 1F freezes lawmakers' pay during tough budget years.

If voters reject Props. 1C, 1D and 1E, the state would immediately see a $5.84 billion shortfall in the new fiscal year that begins July 1 - and the governor would call for cuts as he's outlined for the firefighters.

The commercial blitz has already started, now we now look for it to get more intense in the days ahead.

Union rules are so convoluted now the worst stay on like the flu

I'm shocked! Shocked, I say! Not by the following, but by the fact this not only appeared in the LA Times, but they actually researched it!

One of the many things that came up during the ongoing California budget fiasco was the state using the old ploy "If we don't get this passed we'll have to lay off 3,000 teachers statewide!" to try to scare the populace into pressuring legislators to accept the Democrat legislators demands (which essentially echoed the teacher's union demands).

With the scare tactic being used, some were questioning how exactly the pink slips would be issued. Would it go by seniority, or by teacher performance?

The union argued that no accurate measure of teacher effectiveness exists; therefore seniority would be the only way to go, if layoffs were to happen at all.

Others (like me) preferred that stagnant, entrenched teachers who really don't care about anything except a paycheck and getting the kids out the door at the end of the day would be the first purged. How that was accomplished we didn't care, just do it. Granted, it is a mess trying to prove a teacher is as described above under the current system rules, but after so many years of declining test scores and drop-out rates through the roof…

Anyway, looking at what it would take to actually remove a teacher who performed or even acted badly was, to my amazement, the Los Angeles Times.

The eighth-grade boy held out his wrists for teacher Carlos Polanco to see.

He had just explained to Polanco and his history classmates at Virgil Middle School in Koreatown why he had been absent: He had been in the hospital after an attempt at suicide.

Polanco looked at the cuts and said they "were weak," according to witness accounts in documents filed with the state. "Carve deeper next time," he was said to have told the boy.

"Look," Polanco allegedly said, "you can't even kill yourself."

The boy's classmates joined in, with one advising how to cut a main artery, according to the witnesses.

"See," Polanco was quoted as saying, "even he knows how to commit suicide better than you."

The Los Angeles school board, citing Polanco's poor judgment, voted to fire him.

But Polanco, who contended that he had been misunderstood, kept his job. A little-known review commission overruled the board, saying that although the teacher had made the statements, he had meant no harm.

Not only are the rules for dismissing a teacher for any reason so complex it can takes years, most schools don't have the lawyers it would take to even decipher what the rules are or where to start.

Other things the Times found were;

* Building a case for dismissal is so time-consuming, costly and draining for principals and administrators that many say they don't make the effort except in the most egregious cases. The vast majority of firings stem from blatant misconduct, including sexual abuse, other immoral or illegal behavior, insubordination or repeated violation of rules such as showing up on time.

* Although districts generally press ahead with only the strongest cases, even these get knocked down more than a third of the time by the specially convened review panels, which have the discretion to restore teachers' jobs even when grounds for dismissal are proved.

* Jettisoning a teacher solely because he or she can't teach is rare. In 80% of the dismissals that were upheld, classroom performance was not even a factor.

When teaching is at issue, years of effort -- and thousands of dollars -- sometimes go into rehabilitating the teacher as students suffer. Over the three years before he was fired, one struggling math teacher in Stockton was observed 13 times by school officials, failed three year-end evaluations, was offered a more desirable assignment and joined a mentoring program as most of his ninth-grade students flunked his courses.

As a case winds its way through the system, legal costs can soar into the six figures.

I knew months ago it would end up being something like this, but still I sit here shocked. I assumed teachers and administration were just covering for each other with the union jumping in and out as necessary to complicate things, but as it turns out it's not only that but they've managed to entrench the whole thing in contracts and rules that make it nearly impossible to get rid of really bad teachers.

Not one day later, same paper LA Unified officials are trying to get the state to enact new legislation to make it easier to fire tenured teachers. The union of course promises to fight anything resembling this, and the hopeless majorities Democrats are so beholden to the unions for contributions the follow up article appears to be more damage control than actual possibility;

Reacting to a Times story published Sunday about the cumbersome process for removing substandard tenured teachers in California's public schools, L.A. Unified Supt. Ramon C. Cortines said the system is a "sacred cow, and I do think it should be overhauled."

And farther down;

State Sen. Gloria Romero (D-Los Angeles), who last week opposed any hasty action on L.A. Unified's part, said Sunday she believes the system needs reform. The state should allow the education code to expire and rewrite it, she said.

But the L.A. Unified resolutions were introduced too late in the legislative cycle to be considered this year and were politically motivated, she said.

"Quite frankly, it's a stunt to make LAUSD look good and Sacramento look bad," she said.

More like I figured, a stunt and nothing will change unless it's hammered at daily by the blogosphere, parents, and the minority conservatives in state and local government.

Meanwhile, 24 is on and I throw up my hands and dive for the remote.