Today i will begin my post with some updates on family news and personal issues and then move on to commentary on news events.The days since my last post have been difficult due to my medical issues,but on Tuesday of last week i had a pain clinic visit.This was a normal scheduled visit to access my current situation and i am happy to report that i was able to get the medicine adjustment i needed without any of the usual problems i normally encounter.The resident i saw as usual was new to me and my file,but helped me more than any of the visits in the prior four months.It is a very difficult thing to try to explain,but the chronic pain is so debilitating and it literally controls every aspect of my life.My children are on vacation this week and we had planned to take them somewhere fun,but my medical issues have put that on hold as well.They were so lookin forward to it and i am very unhappy to have to disappoint them.It becomes more and more difficult to endure my issues as i see how it negatively affects my family.The surgery planned to give me relief is such a long and complicated one that i am very reluctant to participate.It is an elective surgery that takes 10 or 12 hrs and can go wrong in many different ways.I am very sad that this is my only alternative at this point in my life.I am 43 years old and hopefully have a long life ahead of me and the thought of being worse off after the surgery is a real hard thing for me to think about.As i continue to contemplate my options it becomes very difficult for me to get my arms around it.Anyways i will continue to update as this developes and will happily accept any advice readers may have.
Things with the kids school are no closer to resolution as yet,but i am continuing my advocacy for them with the district and hopefully after this vacation week i can get the situation with Jeromy resolved.With my younger son who is in the autism spectrum,Matthew,the situation is much more complicated.The school district plans to "declassify"him and mainstream him into regular classes with no support or therapies,and my plan is to fight them with every available resource i have.He has an autism diagnosis and they cannot,in my opinion,over rule his specialist and remove his services.I plan on using whatever means i have at my disposal to ensure both my children have the best education the "system"can provide.As i learn more about what will happen as we move forward i will post more.
Today i am going to write a bit about the national news,including some personal opinions that some readers may disagree with.Please feel free to comment on what i say if you feel so inclined,as i need input to understand your point of view.The first thing i am concerned with is the financial market regulation legislation currently being debated in Washington.The committee in charge of authoring this new and unwelcomed (by Wall Street)legislation is the financial services committee on the house side Chaired by rep.Barney Frank(d.mass.).Personally the problem i have with the way this works in Washington is this:after being involved in in drafting the legislation on regulating the over the counter dirivatives market,which were a major role in the market collapse of '08,a senior aide named Peter S. Robertson,was hired by dirivatives clearinghouse to lobby against the exact legislation he helped to craft.The company who hired Robertson,IntercontinentalExchange,the worlds leading clearinghouse for dirivatives,put him in charge of opening their Washington offices.Because the House has already approved the legislation authored by Frank,he won't need to worry about breaking house rules against former staff members becoming lobbyists.He can lobby anyone in the Senate,as well as other committee's considering the derivatives part of the legislation he helped to draft.So this proves that rules in place to deter former staff or elected officials from becoming lobbyists are inadequet at best,and purposely weak at worst.The list of people who are former senior staff or actually former elected officials who are now lobbyists is staggering.I am going to point out just a few as examples of how this blatently corrupt system allows this unfair and unjust job switching to take place.The migration from Congress to these finacial services firms seems like it should be illegal for many reasons,but it's not only legal,it is fairly common practice and happens all the time.One of the authors of the Sabanes-Oxley Act of 2002,former Rep.Michael G Oxley,is now a senior advisor to the Nasdaq stock market.New York Times reporter Eric Lichtblau wrote a great column sunday the 18th about this and i gleaned much information from his reporting.Another few names of note now lobbying congress on behalf of the Financial Industy are Trent Lott and Bob Dole and Richard A.Gephardt and Dick Armey.Former Congressman Richard H.Baker,a republican from Louisiana who left Congress in '08,is now President and a registered lobbyist for Managed Funds Association.This association represents the largest trading firms in the Hedge Fund industry,and it reported spending 3.5 million last year alone to lobby federal officials on regulations for hedge funds.This current legislation being debated and touted as a solution to avert another crisis has minimal regulation of Hedge Funds and no real solutions to the risks involved in the buying and selling of securities like morgage backed securities or collaterized debt obligations.Needless to say if the former staffer of rep.Frank has at minimum advised the exchange at a very least how the legislation was worded,it will be riddled with loopholes they will exploit to avoid being affected by the new law.The way these corporations abuse the lobbying ability is really sickening.They use money to change the way they are affected by new laws by finding and paying the folks who actually are supposed to be working for the public good.They will leave their government jobs and make millions lobbying former congressional co-workers who are just as guilty as they are of putting personal private gain above the interests of our nation.I can go on and on writing names and former job titles of these folks but i don't really think it will make any difference.Until we as a nation can stand together against the corporations who are raping our nation of its natural resources and financial oportunities,we will be doomed to suffer the consequences of the actions of these faceless corporations.Since the Supreme Court is so rampantly partisan and corrupt we have no redress but to stand together against these Goliaths.As i continue to research this i will post more.
The pics are of a great score,a toy Jerry still in the box!It will have a special spot in my toy collection.until next time,thank you for reading.
spacewalker
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