Day 21... Dear Mr. President...You took a chance, it paid off!

Day 21

Dear Mr. President,

Congratulations... you proved the Republicans were wrong on the bailout money for the auto industry. You took a chance in spite of the naysayers saying it was a waste of taxpayers money. They were wrong and you were right. Both GM and Chrysler have not only paid back the bailout money with interest, but also paid it well ahead of schedule. The thousands of jobs you saved by having faith in the American autoworker have not gone unappreciated.

We have three people in our family that work in auto sales and the auto aftermarket, and although each has had a significant reduction in salaries, they each still have their jobs. If you had not stepped up to the plate and saved the automakers with the bailout funds, our relatives would surely be out of a job, and for that we are grateful, and we thank you.

I know you don't receive many letters thanking you, and in fact, I have sent many letters critical to your stance on various issues, but when you get something right, it's only fair to give you the kudos that you deserve.

I know that you make reasoned decisions on everything, based on the extensive information you have at your disposal... information that the average American does not have access too. So while I often question your reasons for taking action one way or the other, I have to trust that you are acting in behalf of all of us, and for the common good. I just wish you would be a little more forthcoming on some of your reasons for your actions.

For instance... siding with the Republicans to extend the Bush tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans. I'm still scratching my head about that one. I have however, decided that it must be a long-term goal to 'hang it around the Republicans necks' in the next election cycle. The same scenario could play well with tax breaks and subsidies for the oil companies.

I have to believe this because otherwise it just doesn't make any sense as to why you would save the struggling auto industry, but continue to reward those that surely do not deserve or need to be rewarded. So on this, I'm going to give you the benefit of doubt, and hope that when you are re-elected that you will in fact, fix this egregious inequity.

Thank you again for taking a chance, and saving the American Auto Industry.

Most Respectfully,

Marcia Reimers

The Gadfly Granny

Day 20... Dear Mr. President... Sex changes for prisoners?

Day 20

Dear Mr. President,

Today I have some questions about the health services provided to Federal Prisoners.

In 2009 we had approximately 211,000 Federal Inmates nationwide, and we spent $736 million dollars on their medical care. That comes out to $3,412,146.50 per inmate. Currently we have 215,700 prisoners, but I don’t have the 2010 medical costs yet.

Now I realize that each inmate didn’t require the same medical attention… some required more, and some less, but that’s an exorbitant amount to spend on people that have been convicted of crimes that necessitate their incarceration. In short, they are in prison to protect society from whatever criminal activity they chose.

The Federal Prison system has a recidivism rate of approximately 40%, which clearly shows we are not rehabilitating them in a meaningful way, but while they are in prison they are treated for whatever ailment they came in with, or may have contracted while incarcerated. I can fully understand inmates receiving thorough examinations to detect diseases that can spread to others including prison staff, and officers, so this cost is a necessity and a real health issue.

What I cannot understand is the report from the Federal Bureau of Prisons Health Services – National Formulary, issued in 2010. The BOP formulary is a list of medications that are considered by the organization’s professional staff to ensure high quality cost-effective drug therapy for the population served.

There are millions of Americans that cannot afford, nor are the ensured, high quality low cost drug therapy… quite the opposite. And yet the drugs recommended for inmates include many ‘designer’ drugs advertized heavily on TV. Some of those include Restasis, Celebrex, Plavix, Catapres, used for opiate detox, and insomnia medications, Ambien, Lunesta, and Sonata. 

But I have to tell you, the real mind blower was on Page 26, and this is directly out of the report.

Hormones to maintain secondary sexual characteristics

1.Institution Clinical Director concurrence that hormonal therapy is medically

    indicated and safe.

2.Confirmation of legitimate prescribing prior to incarceration.

3.Psychiatric diagnostic evaluation and treatment plan.

That’s right Mr. President, injections for prisoners who want to change their sex. That would be fine with me if they were paying for it, but they’re not… We Are!  I said it yesterday, and I’ll say it again… We need to overhaul our Federal Prison System…NOW!

Most Respectfully,

Marcia Reimers

The Gadfly Granny

Day19... Dear Mr. President... The real crime here is...

Day 19

Dear Mr. President,

In today’s issue of the Sacramento Bee, there was a heart-wrenching story written by Loretta Kalb, about a formerly homeless couple getting married. This was not a story about homelessness, but a story about our failure to provide adequate access to health-care, and about ordinary citizens joining together to bring a little happiness to a very special couple.

Heart–wrenching because Tammie Day, just 42 years old is dying of the cancer she was diagnosed with 5 years ago. One could naturally ask, why would such a young person be dying of cancer when she lives in an area with excellent cancer treatment facilities like UC Davis Medical Center? The answer is because she was homeless, and the homeless have to jump through hoops just to access the meager county medical services. That, in of itself, is not the problem… the problem is how do the homeless coordinate their care, how do they get to appointments, how do they keep in touch with their doctors, and how do they handle the inevitable ‘sickness’ that is associated with cancer treatments when they are forced to move from one location to another on a regular basis? The answer is they don’t, and that is why Tammie Day is dying.

Thanks to some wonderful people from Mars Hill Community Church, members were able to provide a special day for Tammie and Larry Carmack. Church member Felicia Woodard planned the wedding and organized the supporters and volunteers that provided lunch, entertainment, and a honeymoon night stay at Embassy Suites in Sacramento.

But the real tragedy of this story goes unreported. In the 5 years that Tammie has been living with cancer, we have a parade of Federal Prisoners going in and out of UC Davis Cancer Treatment Center getting the best care money can buy. You may ask how I know this? Because I was a cancer patient at UC Davis myself, and I asked the two, not one but two guards, what they were doing there. They replied that they were escorting and guarding a prisoner while he got his radiation treatments.

Only in America do our criminals get this kind of care. We have millions of Americans that cannot afford insurance, do not have access to this type of medical care, and yet we can afford to spend the taxpayers money on criminals? How and why do we allow this? And please don’t give that old song and dance about “civil liberties.” When are the liberties of law abiding citizens going to come before those who choose to break our laws?

My plea to you today Mr. President… we need to revamp our priorities, we need to stop wasting precious dollars in the Federal Prison System, and invest more in schools, our children, and people that live their lives within our set of established laws.

Most Respectfully,

Marcia Reimers

The Gadfly Granny

Day18... Dear Mr. President... We all survived, now lets move on.

Day 18

Dear Mr. President,

Today is Sunday the 22^nd and from all accounts we survived yet another doomsday prediction. I’m sure the spin for the failure to “rapture” believers in Christ will be to say that there weren’t enough ‘true believers,’ and that the faithful need to convert some more of us sinners.  And Harold Camping will continue to collect money from gullible and guileless people that are desperate to find an final solution to their problems.

Even though I do not believe in organized religion, and find most if not all of them to be controlling and judgmental, I do believe in hope and even an occasional prayer. I prefer to believe in my own self-determination as to how my life if going to proceed, and if I don’t like the direction it’s going, I have no one to blame but myself.

All too often we want to blame others for our mistakes and short-comings, but what do we do about the things that are out of our control? We elect our representatives and send them to Washington with the hope and understanding that they will work in our behalf and for the greater good of the people. Lately that has just not been happening. Our politicians seem to have one goal, and one goal only, and that’s to get re-elected.

We elected you, Mr. President, based on your campaign promises, and the most important of those promises was to end the wars and bring our troops home to their families. Now I realize that once you get into office that the things you promise are much easier said than done, and that we, the people, are not privy to all of the information that you have. But some steps could, and should have been taken to move us in the right direction, like closing Guantanamo Bay. Move the detainees to a new location and shut the damn place down… how hard could that be? It is, after all, what you promised you would do.

So once again Mr. President, I’m asking that you begin to take the necessary steps to fulfill your promise to the American people. Not just those of us who voted for you, but all of us, because every dollar spent on these wars is another dollar that fails to help the very people you pledged to protect and defend.

It’s time to stop the hemorrhaging of the taxpayers money on ever expanding wars, and foreign aid to countries that are not actually our allies. Bring our men and women home to their families, and keep our tax dollars at home to fix the multitude of problems we have in our own country. To do less is too break yet another promise… beginning to take even baby steps in the right direction could mean the difference in your re-election prospects.

Most Respectfully,

Marcia Reimers

The Gadfly Granny

Day17... Dear Mr. President... Are you really listening?

Day 17

Dear Mr. President,

I’ve watched the video about what happens to all the mail that you receive, on the White House website. It shows the huge truck backing up to unload all the letters, huge stacks of letters separated by categories, and a table full of people reading the letters and deciding which ten they feel are worthy of your attention.

All of this is well and good, but the video does not address the letters that are sent via email. According to the video you receive over 100,000 emails, 65,000 paper letters, 25,000 faxes, and who knows how many phone calls. So what happens to the emails? The website has the “Contact Us” button to click which takes you to a page that has you fill out a form with required fields asking for first name, last name, email, zip code, subject and message. Then there is the field that tests whether you are a human, with two encrypted words to type exactly as shown. Once this is complete you may then send your message.

On the same site there is a link for people to share their “feedback” about the video, and this link takes you to the same exact form you use for “Contact Us” with exactly the same requirements. Why would you ask for feedback on this specific video and then lump those replies in with the 100,000 other emails you receive in a day? Are you really interested in our feedback regarding this video, or is this a placebo to make us think you actually care?

Then there are the category choices, of which you must choose one. Issue on ‘Policy’ the choices are: Afghanistan & Iraq, Civil Rights, Economy, Education, Energy, Environment, Home Land Security, Housing, Immigration, Job Creation, Technology, Seniors, Taxes, Transportation and Veterans. Non-Policy issues are: Help with a Federal Agency, The Administration, First Family, and Other. This is my 17^th letter and once again I will need to choose ‘Other’ because most of my letters don’t fit the categories I have to choose from.

I’d like to suggest some additional categories, for instance; Hunger in America, Child Abuse, Teachers, Homelessness, The Mortgage Fiasco, Fraud on Wall Street, Schools in America, and so many other areas that are affecting ordinary citizens in this country. The “Other” button just isn’t cutting it. Maybe you don’t want to hear about these issues because you consider them “State” or “Local” issues, but I want you to know that everything that happens in Washington, every vote that protects the wealthy, every vote to send our tax dollars overseas, and every vote that slashes benefits for the most vulnerable, affect all of us!

Please consider revamping the ‘site that gives us access’ and really make it something that we can relate to, and those of us who email you need to know that those letters are given equal weight to the ones that are mailed.

Most Respectfully,

Marcia Reimers

The Gadfly Granny

Day16... Dear Mr. President... The Apocalypse, Yikes!

Day 16

Dear Mr. President,

America… the land of opportunity, and home to the most unlikely, and off the wall, entrepreneurs. Is this country great, or what? The buzz today is all about Harold Camping’s prediction that the world will begin to end tomorrow, May 21, 2011, with earthquakes that will spread across the planet.

The best part of this “Rapture” is not the people who blindly follow a delusional old man believing they will instantly ascend to heaven, but the people smart enough to profit from it. I’m quite sure the 2,200 billboards plastered with his message were not ‘gifts’ given to Camping to help him spread his word.

A printer was paid to print them, people were paid to put them up, and the owners of these billboards charge a hefty price for this type of advertizing space. The same goes for the vans plastered with his message that have been crisscrossing the country for two years. And then there are the inevitable T-shirts, and coffee mugs. But my personal favorite for thinking outside the box is the group that for an upfront fee, will guarantee to pick up and care for your pet, should you suddenly be “raptured” up to heaven.

The GOP is always telling us that it’s the ‘rich’ who provide jobs and keep this economy going, and that’s why they need the tax cuts and tax brakes. In reality it’s ordinary people, that without even trying, like Camping… provide the most opportunities for entrepreneurs.

You have to feel sorry for the people that are duped by this Rapture-obsessed, delusional evangelical radio show host. I wonder how much of their money he took in donations to ‘spread his word’? He looks to me like he’s led a pretty comfortable life, with the help of his ‘followers’.

Meanwhile the rest of us go about our daily routine of getting the kids off to school, going to work, and living today the best we can. To do otherwise would really be cataclysmic… the world would truly ‘stop’ if everyone just stayed home and waited to be saved. But the reality is we can only save ourselves through hard work and putting one foot in front of the other and moving forward each and every day.

But Camping is right about one thing… the world will begin to end tomorrow, as it does each and every day, just as we do from the moment we are born, we are heading toward death. It’s called the circle of life, and there’s nothing biblical about it.  In the meantime, I’m going to spend today eating nothing but dessert. How about you Mr. President… can I interest you in a brownie?

Respectfully,

Marcia Reimers

The Gadfly Granny

Day15... Dear Mr. President

Day 15

Dear Mr. President

We hear a lot of rhetoric about this country’s children, but every time we turn around our politicians are voting to slash services that benefit our children, including their education which is supposed to prepare them to be contributing members of society. How can we call ourselves a “compassionate” nation when we can’t even educate or protect our own children?

Our two party system is not working, as evidenced by the abject failure of our elected officials to pass ‘anything’ that promotes “the general welfare of the people,” let alone the welfare of our children.

Going into the next election you have an opportunity to turn that around and start a ‘grassroots movement’ using your vast network of influential ‘friends’ and volunteer workers. Here is what I propose as an alternative to a “third” party, which has only produced an even more radical arm of the GOP… the Tea Party nut jobs.

Think of what this country could look like in the future if we elected politicians based on the following mission statement. If you, Mr. President, got your people involved in this movement, it would give a whole new meaning to “ObamaCare”.

I believe that the First Lady would agree.

C.A.R.E.

Children’s Advocates for Representation in Elections

Mission Statement

As a nationwide coalition of non-partisan voters, devoted to supporting candidates and issues relevant to the healthy development and protection of children, Children’s Advocates for Representation in Elections will become a voice for all children in America through the power of the vote. Children cannot vote for themselves, therefore, this coalition of voters affirms as its mission: 

To recruit voters aged 18 to 80+ years, neighborhood by neighborhood, state by state, to vote on behalf of children.

To propose, prepare, and lobby for a comprehensive nationwide children’s agenda. To work for improvement in existing and to create new legislation pertaining to, but not limited to the health, education, welfare, and protection of children in America.

To form committees in every state of the nation to serve as “watchdogs” over elected officials and to investigate candidates’ and politicians’ positions on issues relating to the protection and enhancement of children. To investigate and publish the voting records of candidates and politicians on issues relating to the well being of children. To propose a slate of qualified candidates who have proved themselves to be strong proponents of a children’s agenda. To promote and support only those candidates, regardless of ethnicity, gender, or political party affiliation, whose philosophy and voting record reflect the needs of children and the mission of CARE.

To keep CARE members informed and aware of the activities of the organization and the results of its work on behalf of children.

The infant mortality rate in the US is a disgrace, child abuse is unconscionable, children being tried as adults starts younger and younger, and the number of homeless children is appalling. If only we could elect politicians who ‘CARE’.

Most Respectfully,

Marcia Reimers

The Gadfly Granny