Carlene

Would you mind posting that here? I don't recall that I've ever said all Republicans were "filthy rich" or even moderately rich. I have asked posters "are you sure you have enough money to vote Republican?". That's not the same thing. I have known plenty of Republicans who weren't "rich", and some Democrats who were. However, traditionally, and in general, the GOP has historically been known, by the legislation it has promoted and enacted, to favor big business and the wealthy. The Democratic party has traditionally, historically been known as the party of the working class and the disenfranchised. There are lots of exceptions to these broad generalizations, of course. It was Democratic President Bill Clinton who accomplished welfare reform, for example.

Amen, Alexandra! Imagine how "proud" we are in these parts to have him referred to as a Texan....NOT!!!!!!!

Thomas P. McCormack is actually an advocate of AIDS/HIV victims. He wrote the AIDS BENEFITS HANDBOOK (Yale University Press) and handled Medicaid eligibility policy at the federal Department of Health and Human Services. He has done benefits advocacy for several AIDS and disability groups and now serves as policy consultant for the Title II Community AIDS National Network.

In 2003, the Texas Legislature passed and Rick Perry signed HB 2292, which made several structural changes to Children’s Health Insurance Program. The bill increased premiums, changed the income requirements for coverage, reduced the plan’s coverage period, and made several cuts to benefits that were later restored. (University Wire, Jun. 7, 2006) CHIP enrollment then decreased by 275,000. Enrollment numbers from Jul. 2003 to Oct. 2006 dropped by 213,695, from 509,182 to 300,685. Child enrollment in Medicaid has dropped from 1,826,599 in Jul. 2003 to 1,760,000 in Mar. 2006. (University Wire, Jun. 7, 2006; San Antonio Express-News, Mar. 4, 2006; Dallas Morning News, Oct. 6, 2006; Texas Dept. of Health and Human Services, CHIP Enrollment, 2003-2006; Medicaid Enrollment, HHS, 2003-2005; Medical News, Mar. 13, 2006) Are you saying that the families of over a quarter of a million children suddenly became so prosperous after HB 2292 was passed that they no longer needed subsidized health care? By the way, you didn't cite the source of your stats.

:funnypost: That may be the funniest thing I have read all day.

Heavens NO!!!! I come from a whole family of teachers!!! They would flog me within an inch of my life!!! I have NEVER said that teachers were overpaid, or that teaching was easy, or that the credentials were easily obtained. Anyone who thinks that was me needs to go back and re-read the thread.

Sunta....you BAD girl. You are starting a thread that is sure to end up with me getting my knuckles rapped (again). By the way....I couldn't agree with you more.

Leatha... Everyone gets an equal opportunity to "have their say" on here. As for disputing facts, I think that's the whole purpose of a debate, isn't it? I said people should not post inaccurate info and then get angry at those of us who cite factual sources that make them look foolish. If you don't have the time (or inclination) to look up sources, then qualify your post as an opinion. How unreasonable is that? I like to think of LBT as a family, or at least a place where family gathers. It's inevitable that we will have personality issues, disagreements, drama, and angst all over the place. All families do. But for the most part, we all make an effort to get along. No name-calling. No ugly shouting matches. No sleeping with each other's boyfriends/husbands. When I'm angry, I say so. When I'm wrong, I apologize. I love the give and take of our familial conversations - rants and raves included. I'm sorry you don't find them all that enjoyable. May I suggest that you place those people you feel "dominate the conversation" on "Ignore"? Maybe that would make the whole thing more fun for you.

Which questions do you feel are "no longer applicable to this century"?

I agree. The Independents and disgruntled Republicans are going to re-elect Rick Perry. He must be loving it!

Good question, Mandy. Personally, I would not trust the boyfriend as far as I could throw him. He may be telling the truth about her not being at his place, being upset with her for ditching school, etc or he may not. Remember that the more he seems to be on your side, the more information you will share with him, thereby tipping them off to whatever your own plans are. What's the age of majority in Canada? In the US it's 18. After that, you can kiss parental authority goodbye. Your only leverage becomes "my house...my rules". Good luck with THAT, since she has a standing invite to move in with the BF. I would concentrate, for now, on getting her graduated from high school. After that, it's up to her. You can't make her go to college. If you bribe her to go, you are just going to drive yourself nuts trying to police her attendance, grades, etc. Make sure she is using reliable birth control. A pregnancy is a huge complication, no matter what. Good luck...

You got that right!

You're right....they absolutely do. I just could not resist posting a quote from Rick Perry himself, stating that we are 16th in the nation AFTER A COST OF LIVING ADJUSTMENT. People....unless you can back up your "facts", please reconsider pushing that "submit reply" button. You get angry at the rest of us if we make you look foolish, but it's really something you do to yourselves.

What do you think, guys? Was George Orwell a philosopher? Throughout recorded time ... there have been three kinds of people in the world, the High, the Middle, and the Low. They have been subdivided in many ways, they have borne countless different names, and their relative numbers, as well as their attitude towards one another, have varied from age to age: but the essential structure of society has never altered. Even after enormous upheavals and seemingly irrevocable changes, the same pattern has always reasserted itself, just as a gyroscope will always return to equilibrium, however far it is pushed one way or the other. The aims of these three groups are entirely irreconcilable. - George Orwell

Perhaps this explains why people need a college education so much more today than they did a century ago. This is the eighth-grade final exam from 1895 from Salina, Kansas. It was taken from the original document on file at the Smoky Valley Genealogical Society and library in Salina, Kansas and reprinted by the Salina Journal. 8th Grade Final Examination Grammar (Time, I hour) Give nine rules for the use of Capital Letters. Name the Parts of Speech and define those that have no modifications. Define VerseStanzaParagraph. What are the Principal Parts of a verb? Give Principal Parts of dolielayrun. Define Case. Illustrate each Case. What is Punctuation? Give rules for principal marks of Punctuation. through 10. Write a composition of about 150 words and show therein that you understand the practical use of the rules of grammar. Arithmetic (Time, 1.25 hours) Name and define the Fundamental Rules of Arithmetic. A wagon box is 2 ft deep, 10 ft long, and 3 ft wide. How many bushels of wheat will it hold? If a load of wheat weighs 3,942 pounds, what is it worth at 50¢ per bu, deducting 1,050 pounds for tare? District No 33 has a valuation of $35,000. What is the necessary levy to carry on a school 7 months at $50 per month, and have $104 for incidentals? Find cost of 6,720 pounds of coal at $6.00 per ton. Find the interest on $512.60 for 8 months 18 days at 7%. What is the cost of 40 boards 12 inches wide and 16 feet long at 20¢ per inch? Find bank discount on $300 for 90 days (no grace) at 10%. What is the cost of a square farm at $15 per acre, the distance around which is 640 rods? Write a Bank Check, a Promissory Note, and a Receipt. US History (Time, 45 minutes) Give the epochs into which US History is divided. Give an account of the discovery of America by Columbus. Relate the causes and results of the Revolutionary War. Show the territorial growth of the United States. Tell what you can of the history of Kansas. Describe three of the most prominent battles of the Rebellion. Who were the following: MorseWhitneyFultonBellLincolnPennHowe? Name events connected with the following dates: 16071620180018491865? Orthography (Time, one hour) What is meant by the following: alphabetphonetic orthographyetymologysyllabication? What are elementary sounds? How classified? What are the following, and give examples of each: trigraphsubvocalsdiphthongcognate letterslinguals? Give four substitutes for caret 'u'. Give two rules for spelling words with final 'e'. Name two exceptions under each rule. Give two uses of silent letters in spelling. Illustrate each. Define the following prefixes and use in connection with a word: bidismispresemipostnonintermonosuper. Mark diacritically and divide into syllables the following, and name the sign that indicates the sound: cardballmercysiroddcellrisebloodfarelast. Use the following correctly in sentences: cite, site, sightfane, fain, feignvane, vain, veinraze, raise, rays. Write 10 words frequently mispronounced and indicate pronunciation by use of diacritical marks and by syllabication. Geography (Time, one hour) What is climate? Upon what does climate depend? How do you account for the extremes of climate in Kansas? Of what use are rivers? Of what use is the ocean? Describe the mountains of North America. Name and describe the following: MonroviaOdessaDenverManitobaHeclaYukonSt HelenaJuan FernandezAspinwallOrinoco. Name and locate the principal trade centers of the US. Name all the republics of Europe and give the capital of each. Why is the Atlantic Coast colder than the Pacific in the same latitude? Describe the process by which the Water of the ocean returns to the sources of rivers. Describe the movements of the earth. Give inclination of the earth. Source: Anderson Valley Advertiser 3 May 2000

If Airlines Sold Paint Customer (CU): Hi, how much is your paint? Clerk (CL). Well, sir, that all depends. CU. Depends on what? CL: Actually, a lot of things. CU: How about giving me an average price? CL: Wow, that's too hard a question. The lowest price is $9 a gallon, and we have 150 different prices up to $200 a gallon. CU: What's the difference in the paint? CL: Oh, there isn't any difference, it's all the same paint. CU: Well, then, I'd like some of that $9 paint. CL: Well, first I need to ask you a few questions. When do you intend to use it? CU: I want to paint tomorrow, on my day off. CL: Sir, the paint for tomorrow is the $200 paint. CU: What? When would I have to paint in order to get the $9 version? CL: That would be in three weeks, but you will also have to agree to start painting before Friday of that week and continue painting until at least Sunday. CU: You've got to be kidding! CL: Sir, we don't kid around here. Of course I'll have to check to see if we have any of that paint available before I can sell it to you. CU: What do you mean, check to see if you can sell it to me? You have shelves full of the stuff, I can see it right there. CL: Just because you can see it doesn't mean that we have it. It may be the same paint, but we sell only a certain number of gallons on any given weekend. Oh, and by the way, the price just went up to $12. CU: You mean the price went up while we were talking? CL: Yes, sir. You see, we change prices and rules thousands of times a day, and since you haven't actually walked out of the store with your paint yet, we just decided to change. Unless you want the same thing to happen again, I would suggest that you get on with your purchase. How many gallons do you want? CU: I don't know exactly. Maybe five gallons. Maybe I should buy six gallons just to make sure I have enough. CL: Oh, no, sir, you can't do that. If you buy the paint and then don't use it, you will be liable for penalties and possible confiscation of the paint you already have. CU: What? CL: That's right. We can sell you enough paint to do your kitchen, bathroom, hall and north bedroom, but if you stop painting before you do the bedroom, you will be in violation of our tariffs. CU: But what does it matter to you whether I use all the paint? I already paid for it! CL: Sir, there's no point in getting upset; that's just the way it is. We make plans based upon the idea that you will use all the paint, and when you don't, it just causes us all sorts of problems. CU: This is crazy! I suppose something terrible will happen if I don't keep painting until after Saturday night? CL: Yes, sir, it will. CU: Well, that does it! I'm going somewhere else to buy my paint. CL: That won't do you any good, sir. We all have the same rules. And thanks for painting with our airlines.

From Gov. Rick Perry's Speech to the Texas Public Policy Foundation…Jan 29, 2004 In fact, when you compare teacher salaries in Texas to the rest of the nation, and include a cost-of-living adjustment, we're 16th in the nation.

No....the narrow-minded morons. Do you think we should file a class action lawsuit?

I have never found two better tools of discipline than car keys and a cell phone. For everyone who is holding out and thinks 13 is too young to for a cell phone....let me just say that it cost us $10.00 a month to add Cheyenne to our plan and it has been worth 10 times that. She will do ANYTHING to keep from getting her cell phone taken away! Parenting by bribery and intimidation. Oh well....whatever works!

Texas---In 2003 Gov. Perry pushed through most of a 6% biennial cut in the Medicaid budget ($1.5 billion, counting in lost federal matching funds). The state has barebones eligibility coverage to begin with: Only SSI recipients, nursing home and home and community-based waiver cases under $1656 monthly, parents under 133% of the TANF level and children under 200% of poverty are covered; and only parents and children whose original incomes are too high—but not childless disabled or aged---can spend down to get Medicaid. On June 2, 2003, the legislature enacted the Governor’s budget to ---among other cuts--- eliminate CHIP coverage of prostheses, physical therapy and private duty nursing; tighten CHIP asset eligibility rules; impose $10 to $20 copays for CHIP doctor visits and prescriptions; raise CHIP enrollment premiums to prohibitive levels; count income for CHIP more strictly; impose a 90 day waiting period for newly-eligible CHIP patients; reduce Medicaid home health coverage for the aged and disabled; end the Medicaid medically needy spend down for families and children (the childless aged and disabled never could spend down in Texas); reduce the pregnant women’s Medicaid income level enough to drop 8,300 women monthly; and terminate Medicaid coverage of eyeglasses, hearing aids, chiropractic services, podiatry and some mental health care for adults. Even though all this caused over 100,000 children to lose health coverage by January, 2004, in March the Medicaid agency proposed additional cuts, including limits of $5,000 for liquid assets and $15,000 for a car’s value (with 2nd cars worth up to about $4600 allowed) for CHIP. By March 28, 2004, premiums for over 25,000 of the remaining 325,000 CHIP patients were late and the state threatened to remove them from the rolls. In June, 2004, a federal judge permanently enjoined enforcement of the state’s so-called “personal responsibility” law that denied Medicaid to parents who abuse drugs or alcohol or whose children are truant or miss immunizations or medical or dental checkups. About the same time, news reports said that Texas CHIP had, in the first quarter, already consumed two-thirds of its annual drug budget, even with the cutbacks, and the Health and Human Services Commissioner conceded that Medicaid and CHP still faced a $575 million annual shortfall. At the same time the state health department proposed raising the pregnant women’s Medicaid level back up to 185% from 158%, which would cover at least 8,000 more women monthly. In August, 2004, Governor Perry said he’d consider a delay in dropping children whose parents have become delinquent in paying newly-imposed or -raised premiums from S-CHIP. Source: State Medicaid Eligibility Cutbacks & Exclusions-Proposed & Recently-Enacted, 2001-04* By Thomas P. McCormack [draft # 19 August 13, 2004; please discard any earlier version] * State eligibility policy decisions listed are for Medicaid optional coverage groups or liberalized rules authorized by Sections 1902(a)(10), 1902®(2), 1905, 1931 and 1115 (including coverage expansion, HIFA and Pharmacy Plus waivers); for the State Children’s’ Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and its waivers authorized under title XXI; and for state-funds-only pharmacy, medical assistance, health and health insurance subsidy programs.

In the future, please don't call me a liar. I didn't say that Rick Perry "took away" the CHPS program. But he was single-handedly responsible for making it much,much more difficult to qualify and many children who used to get glasses and dental coverage under traditional Medicaid no longer receive them. As for campaign ads....I heard one this morning. It was Rick Perry's wife, talking about how he had "kept his promises to Texans", and how much he "cares about school children". How true is that? In some poor school districts, children have to share eyeglasses because they lost their Medicaid coverage, courtesy of Rick Perry.

That won't work (even if we had the extra room), but I suspect you already knew that. My husband would have to divorce me first, since you can't have a "domestic partner" unless you are both "free to marry". I don't get to designate a DP, since I'm not the employee/retiree. Only one per employee number...LOL

Where did you get your information regarding teachers' salaries in Texas????? My DIL is a teacher (HEB ISD) and her salary does not compare with what other states pay. As for Rick Perry being "pretty good for the state of Texas"....my question would be: good for WHO? Certainly not school children, people who like to camp in state parks, the low-income, elderly, etc. Rick Perry is best buds with oil companies, utility companies, and the very rich. He said he would not "waste" any more money on education, yet he is "all for" a repeal of the business tax (which hasn't even been enacted yet). Rick Perry left millions of dollars in matching federal funds on the table and chose instead to cut back on health care for children. Rick Perry STOLE money from DESIGNATED programs (special license plate fees, energy aid funds for the poor, etc) and added it to the general fund, so that he could then cut taxes to corporations and businesses, based on a state budget surplus. Those, my friend, are NOT LIES....they are FACTS.

I do have one quarrel with domestic partnerships, though it is a purely personal one. In our case, I feel that same sex households are given better, broader treatment. The company from which my DH retired provides identical benefits to a same-sex "domestic partner" as it does a spouse. Two guys (or two girls) only have to sign a piece of paper stating they have lived together in a "spouse-like" relationship for 6 months or more and that if same-sex marriages becomes legal, they will get married. If the DP of the employee/retiree has children from a previous relationship, they are also eligible for benefits, whether they live with the couple or not. And the employee/retiree can change DPs every 6 months, in case the relationship doesn't work out. We have a granddaughter who lives with us and has for some years now. She has no other home. She sees her mother perhaps twice a month, and her father even less. But we do not have court-ordered custody of her (we do have Power of Attorney), and therefore my DH's company will not allow us to add her to our health insurance plan - even though we are willing to pay the additional premiums. I think this is somewhat biased and unfair, inasmuch as DPs are not required to provide similar documentation. I have argued my case with them, but to no avail. We should have asked my DH's union to go to bat for us before he retired, but unfortunately, we didn't.

Which airline are you retired from TOM? For some reason, I thought it was AMR, which, thankfully, does not require that females wear dresses/skirts, even in first class. They have followed the rest of the world into the 21st century and now allow us to wear slacks.