One of my favorite torrent sites, btefnet, went down the other day after the MPAA threatened to go after sites distributing television programs. I’m going to have to find another source for my weekly fixes of Lost and Dr. Who. I’m not too worried. Some other site will spring up soon, most likely in a former East Bloc country that MPAA lawyers can’t easily touch. Meanwhile, I need to check out the last episode of Enterprise to see if it’s as bad as I think it will be.
By the way, you really should see the film Crash. It’s a compelling set of interlocking stories set against the backdrop of multicultural Los Angeles. Kind of like Magnolia, but without the “it’s raining frogs” weirdness.

I’m going to a Civics retreat tonight at a YMCA camp just across the Wisconsin border. I’m not sure how much time we’ll actually be spending outside, though. Temperatures won’t rise much above 50 today and tomorrow, and that’s if we’re lucky. Summer comes in fits and starts around here, which can be aggravating. But it might be nice to get out of the city and actually see the stars, for a change. I haven’t set foot (or wheel, if you prefer) in Wisconsin for a few years, so this will be a sort of prelude to my trip to Green Bay in June.

Missouri’s governor recently signed legislation that will cut nearly 100,000 people from the state’s Medicaid rolls (see NPR coverage here; editorial here). The cuts will limit Medicaid coverage to those who are living under 75% of the federal poverty guidelines, or about $587/month. Coverage for items such as wheelchairs, crutches, and oxygen will be eliminated for adults. It eliminated Missouri’s Medicaid buy-in program, which allowed people with disabilities to hold jobs and still receive Medicaid services. And plans are in the works to completely eliminate Medicaid in Missouri by 2008. Yet the governor still insists his state’s Medicaid coverage is “very generous.” For better or worse, Missouri has transformed itself into a laboratory for purposes of examining the effects of deep health care cuts. Some disability advocates are already planning on suing the state on Olmstead grounds. Olmstead was a Supreme Court decision stating that the ADA requires people to be served in the least restrictive environment. If Missouri’s Medicaid cuts force people into nursing homes, that could be an Olmstead violation. The state’s Republicans seem convinced that cutting Medicaid was necessary to keep taxes low and grow the economy. But I’ve wondered if they have considered this: if Missouri completely eliminates Medicaid, they will lose out on hundreds of millions in federal matching dollars. They may also be jeopardizing the jobs of thousands of people in the health care industry who currently serve Medicaid enrollees.
I also find it interesting that the blind are exempted from many of these cuts. That’s sure to lead to some nasty recriminations within the disability community.
The people of Missouri are about to find out just how compassionate their conservative leaders really are. I guess they can console themselves with the fact that their state is free from the scourge of gay marriage. If that sounds callous, it’s intended. They knew the ideologies of the people they elected. Now they can deal with the consequences.

Yeesh. I had to do a complete reinstall of MT and now my sidebar is on the left. How do I move it to the right? I know it has something to do with the stylesheet, but it’s late and I’m flummoxed. Katja, any tips?

Figured out what was going on with the site. I’m running low on disk space and that was causing the template to load improperly. I’ve temporarily solved the problem by freeing up some disk space, but I’m going to have to hit up my hosting company for more storage.