My name is Catherine Morgan, I'm a writer, nurse, mother, and founder of "The Political Voices of Women". This is a blog dedicated to inform and educate the voting public through articles, ideas, and links. It's also a way of giving myself a voice, rather than just sitting back and watching politics and my opinion go by.
--- I am now also at the Care2 Election Blog.
Today is March Forth For Child Care and Head Start day, and you can help make a difference by calling or emailing your members of Congress. All day today, advocates for children will be joining-in to voice their support of an increase in funding for the Head Start program. This is such an important issue, and I hope you will consider taking action to support our children.
Head Start is one of the most cost-effective programs we have in this country. We need more Head Start, and we need full day Head Start programs (much of the funding only pays for a few hours of services) so that low income working parents can take advantage of the enormous benefits Head Start offers children and families. It is a comprehensive early learning program that supports the total well-being of children.
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Further, study after study shows that quality early childhood programs like Head Start significantly reduce the incidences of teen pregnancy, juvenile crime, being held back in school, and other social ills that develop later in life. Every $1 we invest today in these programs saves taxpayers somewhere between $7 and $17 in future costs due to negative consequences of poverty.
Today, all across the country, thousands of advocates are joining together to March Forth in support of increased funding for child care and Head Start by calling or e-mailing their Members of Congress.
We are joining together because our children deserve a better and brighter future. Under the President’s budget, 200,000 low-income children and their families will lose child care assistance, and 14,000 children will lose Head Start.
Please add your voice by calling or e-mailing your Members of Congress today.
Here is how you can take action and help…
To call your representatives, use the script below and dial toll-free at 1-888-460-0813. The operator who answers the phone will ask which Senator or Representative you would like to speak to. To find out who your Senators and Representative are, search our directory before you call.
Tell the staffers who answer the phone in your representatives’ offices:
Hi, my name is (INSERT NAME.) I’m a constituent. (If you are also a parent, child care provider, community leader, etc., feel free to mention that as well.)
I am calling because I believe that child care and Head Start are essential programs for children and families. I urge Senator/ Representative (INSERT NAME) to support an increase of $874 million for child care and $1 billion for Head Start in this year’s budget.
And he cited the committee’s own calculations from last fall that showed that the money spent on the war each day is enough to enroll an additional 58,000 children in Head Start for a year,
The national Head Start program, which was a legacy of President Lyndon Johnson’s “Great Society,” offers preschool to families unable to afford a private program. We don’t know how it functions elsewhere in the country, but in Morris County, Head Start is as refreshingly bipartisan as can be. Republicans and Democrats are on its board, and Rep. Rodney P. Frelinghuysen, R-Harding, long has been a supporter.
There is an interesting dialog on the issue of Pro-Life, going on at BlogHer. Shannon has written a post titled Why I’m Pro-Life (there are already over 50 comments).
I wasn’t always pro-life.
In the early ’90’s, I was a card-carrying, sign-waving, Clinton-campaigning pro-choicer. I held to the notion that a fetus couldn’t fully be life, since it was dependent entirely on another for its existence. And I believed the notion that abortion is unfortunate, but it wasn’t any of the government’s business.
I wish I could point you to a specific point on my journey where my views shifted entirely. There was no dramatic morning where I woke up suddenly pro-life. My thoughts on the subject have meandered down many roads before winding up where they are today. I’ve been asked to tell you why I believe the way I do. — read full post at BlogHer
This is how I feel about the subject…
I’m pro-choice. And one of the things that makes me the most confused about the pro-life movement is - Their lack of outrage over the destruction of human embryos. Most people who are pro-life, are against embryonic stem cell research. But, every year 350,000 embryos are just thrown out with the trash at fertility clinics, because they can not be used for research. They can’t be used for research, because the pro-life movement considers them “life”…but yet they allow this “life” to be tossed out in the trash. It seems hypocritical to me. Why is this “life” only worth saving under certain circumstances? It’s like a mother who would want to donate a child’s organs to help save someone…Why can’t the parents of these embryos decide whether or not they are used for research?
The other issue that is confusing to me, is the lack of desire to help these children once they are born. The republican/conservative movement, is against funding for single mothers, family planning, WIC, Medicare, Medicaid, housing, education, and other programs…And when these programs are cut or eliminated (as they have been with the Bush administration), this leaves more and more children hungry, homeless, unhealthy, and uneducated. How is this justified? Shouldn’t the life of the unborn child be protected even after it is born? It seems to me this “life” should be even more important after it is born…this child now “knows” it’s alive, and it “feels” hungry, and it “suffers” without healthcare, and it “shivers” in the cold. Where is the outrage over this???
Bush Announces His Economic Stimulus Package — by Catherine Morgan (cross-posted at Care2 Election Blog)
Just yesterday I posted on the declining state of our economy, and the discussion of an economic stimulus package. Today, President Bush addressed these economic concerns in a news conference. Here is a transcript from the AP.
President Bush called on Friday for a $140 billion to $145 billion mix of tax rebates for American families and incentives for businesses to provide “a shot in the arm to keep a fundamentally strong economy healthy” and avert a deep slide into recession.
The president said the package “must be big enough to make a difference” in an economy as large as that of the United States, meaning it should be worth about 1 percent of the gross domestic product.
It will be very interesting to hear reaction from the democrats, as well as the presidential candidates, on this stimulus package. I will do a post later today on these reactions.
The economy is an important issue to voters, and the voters are getting a lot of mixed-messages about the economy. Is it good? Is it bad? Are we in a recession? Should we be spending or saving? As far as I am concerned…It doesn’t matter what you call it, but the economy is on shaky ground for many Americans. Here is a look at some of the recent news on the economy…
I Am Still Undecided on the Candidates - by Catherine Morgan (cross-posted at Care2 Election Blog)
I read an article today in The Washington Post, and it really got me thinking. Why am I still undecided on the presidential candidates? I know one thing, it’s not because I don’t know enough about them. So, why? I never really thought about why I am having so much trouble with this decision, until today. In the past I would have already come to some solid conclusions. I keep telling myself that I’m waiting for someone to say something that “seals the deal” for me, but I’m not even sure what that would be.
After reading the article by Meredith Chaiken, I began to give this issue a lot of thought. Even though I couldn’t relate to the specific reasons why Meredith was undecided, I was able to rule those reasons out for myself. And by the end of the article, I was pretty certain I knew my answer.
Basically, after the last seven years of George W. Bush, I have become very distrusting of politicians. Granted, I always had been to some degree, but it’s more than that now. Even though I didn’t vote for Bush, many others did, and they voted for him because he was “likable”…which is something I will never understand. Don’t get me wrong, I can see why people would think Bush is “likable”, I just can’t understand why anyone would use “likability” as a reason to vote for a president.
Looks are deceiving…And let’s face it, “likable” people might seem that way to your face, but not have any trouble turning around and stabbing you in the back. Don’t we all know someone like that? Words can be deceiving, and most of all - politicians can be very deceiving. This might sound crazy, but I’m actually to the point of wishing we had a debate where all the candidates are simultaneously hooked up to lie detectors. Because after Bush, the single most important thing to me in a president…is Trust. I might love every opinion a particular candidate has on the issues, but in the end if they are not being honest, none of those promises mean anything.
CHANGE is the new “buzz” word the politicians are throwing around. And yes…Change would be great. But what this country really needs is TRUST. Who can we trust?
Is Lethal Injection Cruel and Unusual Punishment? - by Catherine Morgan (cross-posted at Care2 Election Blog)
On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments on whether the method of execution used in most states violates the Constitution’s ban on “cruel and unusual punishment.”
Death penalty critics had hoped that the court would declare unconstitutional the use of a three-drug compound that has been the standard means of execution since the early 1980s. They say the use of a paralyzing drug could mask the fact that the condemned man may suffer searing pain when given a heart-stopping drug.
Let me begin by saying that I am not a proponent of the death penalty. However, I do believe that if you are going to have a “punishment” by death, the person being punished should NOT be granted a procedure that is not afforded to the most sick and dying of our own population.
Justice Antonin Scalia said states have been careful to adopt procedures that do not seek to inflict pain and should not be barred from carrying out executions even if prison officials sometimes make mistakes in administering drugs. “There is no painless requirement” in the Constitution, Scalia said. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito also indicated their support for the states’ procedures.
This is what the death row inmates are asking for…
Bush says the economy is on a solid foundation. Really? I’m a little skeptical on this one.The jobs report came out yesterday, and sent the stock market into a tail-spin…It appears I’m not the only person skeptical about Bush’s “solid foundation”.
Wall Street fell sharply Friday after the government’s much-anticipated employment report for December showed that the economy added just 18,000 jobs and that the unemployment rate climbed to 5 percent, the highest since November 2005, from 4.7 percent.
Can our economy really be on a steady foundation? Unemployment is on the rise…
The U.S. economy edged a step closer to recession in December by producing only 18,000 new jobs, its worst performance in four years, and sending the unemployment rate to a two-year high of 5 percent, the Labor Department said Friday. - read full article
Of the several trends boding ill for the U.S. economy in 2008, the most troubling is what’s going on in real estate, which is to say not much in sales and nothing upward in prices and property values. This is not just a housing or mortgage or market problem. It’s an economic problem, and the people who want your vote in 2008 had better have some ideas to address it. - read full article
Don’t expect to see the prices drop anytime soon, either. Oil experts predict price increases will continue to rise into spring.
According to the Energy Information Administration, a statistical agency of the U.S. Department of Energy, gas prices could peak close to $4 a gallon by summer.
Personally, it seems to me that our economy is in some trouble. And, I would really like to hear the presidential candidates address these issues, and let the voters know what they plan on doing to improve our economy if elected. What do you think?
The nation’s teen birth rate has risen for the first time in 14 years, according to a new government report.
The birth rate had been dropping since 1991. The decline had slowed in recent years, but government statisticians said Wednesday it jumped 3 percent from 2005 to 2006.
“It took us by surprise,” said Stephanie Ventura of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a co-author of the report. — see full article here
It seems to me that this latest report proves that abstinence-only programs are not working.
Ideology, not science, has been driving America’s response to the twin epidemics of teen pregnancy and STD/HIV infections. Funding for abstinence-only censorship programs is dramatically increasing. All told, abstinence-only programs have received over half a billion dollars in federal funds since 1997, and the Bush administration requested yet another sharp increase to $204 million for fiscal year 2007. By 2009, President Bush proposes that funding for abstinence-only programs reach $270 million.
This huge investment of taxpayer funds in abstinence-only programs conflicts with scientific and medical research: abstinence-only programs are not proven effective and may in fact result in riskier behavior by teenagers. Responsible sex education programs, on the other hand, have demonstrated positive results such as delayed initiation of sex, reduced frequency of sex, and increased contraceptive use. — read full article here
I would love to know how these programs have spent over half a billion dollars of taxpayer money teaching abstinence?
I would also like to know what the current presidential candidates will do when elected to lower the rate of teen pregnancy in this country?
Why No Healthcare Questions at GOP Debate? — by Catherine Morgan
There were exactly “zero” questions on healthcare at the CNN/YouTube Republican Debate. I find it very disappointing that there were three questions on guns and the IRA, a few on religion, and even one on sports teams…But, squeezing in a healthcare question wasn’t possible? Very disappointing.
Obviously, this is an issue that is not at all important to the Republicans. As a nurse, a mother, and a compassionate member of society…I find the lack of interest in our country’s healthcare crisis by these candidates appalling. There is no way that I will vote for any candidate that does not recognize the seriousness of this problem, or who does not at least have some desire to rectify it. Personally, I believe there are many Republicans that are “compassionately” conservative enough to agree with me.
More problems associated with vaccines, this time the controversy is with the Chicken Pox vaccine. I haven’t been silent about my distrust with the pharmaceutical industry, and most recently with the collaboration between this industry and our government…specifically the rush to make the HPV vaccine mandatory for 9 to 12 year old girls. As much as I have a problem with *some* vaccines, I have a much larger problem with our government forcing parents to vaccinate for viruses such as Chicken Pox and HPV.
I am not someone who is against childhood vaccinations, as a nurse I fully understand the necessity for vaccinating children against polio, measles, mumps, and rubella. However, vaccinating against these diseases was begun for the sole purpose of saving the lives of children, that can not be said for most of the newer vaccines (Flu, HPV, Chicken Pox, Hepatitis, etc). The sole purpose for pharmaceutical companies to develop vaccines today, is for one purpose and one purpose only…money (and a lot of it). I wont be able to go into each one in detail for this post (maybe in a future one), but here are a few statistics to just give you an idea of what I am talking about.
But now, let me talk specifically about the Chicken Pox vaccine and this latest controversy.
In Maryland parents are being threatened with fines and jail if they do not comply with vaccinating their children for chicken pox. Does anyone NOT see how insane that sounds? What the bleepidy-bleep is going on????
Speaking as one of the lucky ones, who lived through “The Great Chicken Pock Pandemic” of the 1970’s…oh wait, there was no pandemic and everyone I knew got the chicken pox and a couple days off from school, and actually lived to tell the tale. For those of us old enough to remember having the chicken pox…The memories are horrifying…the pustules, the itch, the dreaded calamine lotion. If you haven’t been through it yourself, you can not begin to imagine what we suffered with for those never ending couple of days. [My attempt as sarcasm…I know, don’t quit my day job.]
Seriously now. When my children were born (and at that time the vaccine was not yet mandatory), the pediatrician told me about it, and I decided that if my children weren’t exposed to the virus before they would be attending school, then I would consider it. [CHOICE…it’s a beautiful thing, but becoming more and more rare in our society.] My reservations had nothing to do with a possible adverse reaction to the vaccine…It was the fact that, getting chicken pox as a child is not serious, and getting the virus actually gives a life-long immunity (the vaccine does not). I also wondered why anyone would consider this vaccine, when there was already an anti-viral medication available, that reduced the severity of the symptoms and cut the duration of the illness?
US President George W. Bush speaks at a press conference in the White House briefing room in Washington, DC. Bush Wednesday warned Iran must be barred from nuclear weapons to avoid the prospect of “World War III,” and dismissed suggestions of a US-Russia rift on the crisis.(AFP/Nicholas Kamm)
Question. How much damage can one lame-duck president cause in just over a year? Answer. Just wait and see, because Bush is promising to show us.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush warned on Wednesday a nuclear-armed Iran could lead to World War III as he tried to shore up international opposition to Tehran amid Russian skepticism over its nuclear ambitions.
Bush was speaking a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has resisted Western pressure to toughen his stance over Iran’s nuclear program, made clear on a visit to Tehran that Russia would not accept any military action against Iran. — read full article
Question. Why would Bush veto a bill that would give millions of children health care? Answer. Well, why don’t we just let him tell us…
Bush said his veto pen was “one way to ensure that I am relevant; that’s one way to ensure that I am in the process. And I intend to use the veto.” — read full article
Okay, Bush’s need to feel “relevant” is more important than the health and wellness our country’s children. I wish I could say I was shocked.
