The Man is always trying to keep us gimps down. Case in point: a British man can’t use his all-terrain wheelchair on public roads because government officials have classified it as a tank. Little do they know that they will be seeing many more of these “tanks” once the revolution is in full swing. One can only imagine what those dull bureaucrats will think of the giant robots we’re currently constructing at an undisclosed location in the British countryside. They are most certainly not street legal. Admittedly, we should have been more discrete about showing off our military hardware, but we didn’t think anyone would actually figure out their true purpose.

I must speak to my minions. It may be time to accelerate our plans.

While I was working on matters related to health care reform, House Republicans made good on their campaign promise to repeal the Affordable Care Act. As expected, Republicans didn’t offer any alternative bill to replace the current law and made only vague assurances that they would study the issue further in committee. I’d be stunned if the House even bothers to pass any sort of substantive health care bill in the next couple years. As I’ve said many times before, most conservatives have no interest in addressing issues related to health care access (other than to tinker around the edges of the problem by offering false solutions such as letting people buy insurance across state lines).

Today’s vote is little more than an exercise in symbolism as the repeal bill won’t get past the Senate, much less the President. The real battle will come over the regulations and funding related to the ACA’s implementation. It will require both sides to pore over spreadsheets and pages of the Federal Register, activities which are far less sexy than mugging for the cameras on the House floor. Republicans are going to have to become nerds if they hope to slow or stop implementation of the law. And that doesn’t seem consistent with the dumbed-down philosophy of governance they so regularly espouse.

Someone decided that it would be a good idea to take pictures of bloggers in the process of, well, blogging. The photos are actually pretty good, but that probably has much to do with the dramatic lighting and the general attractiveness of the subjects. I’m pretty sure I don’t look nearly as sexy in the glow of my computer screen. My desk also isn’t terribly photogenic, what with all the tchotchkes and piles of old mail cluttering it up. You’ll also never catch me blogging without a shirt on. Ever. 

Since it’s unlikely I’ll ever be featured in a photo spread of sexy bloggers, you’ll just have to imagine me looking intently thoughtful as i compose these posts. 

Cuts in health care and human services are likely to be part of any solution to the state budget crisis. But as the Star Tribune points out, Minnesotans with disabilities are already coping with previous cuts to personal care services. Those cuts were enacted a couple years ago after after a legislative audit revealed some instances of fraudulent billing in the personal care attendant program. The actual incidence of PCA fraud was relatively low, but it was enough to get the attention of both the media and legislators. Now, the Republican-controlled Legislature is promising to closely examine the budget allocation of every state-funded service.

The PCA program is one of the bigger pieces of the human services budget pie, which makes it a ripe target for budget hawks. It’s not clear, however, that PCA services can be cut further without seriously jeopardizing the health and independence of people with disabilities. The disability community in Minnesota is more politically active than in most states, but I’m not sure how receptive legislators will be to their advocacy efforts. Stories like the one  in the Strib undoubtedly help put a human face on the abstract talk of public finances and I expect to see more of this in the coming months. Still, I will be quite surprised if PCA services (and the private duty nursing services I use) emerge untouched in the coming budget battle.

All the fuss surrounding the iPhone coming to Verizon strikes me as overblown. I’ve used AT&T for a couple years and only a handful of calls have dropped on me, but I’m also not a heavy phone user. The tech industry is by nature prone to hyperbole, but does this news really warrant so much free press for both Verizon and Apple? As much as I like reading tech news, I can do without some of the “news” that is little more than disguised press releases.