1st Pinay Special Olympics envoy dines with Obama, introduces Katy Perry

from GMA News Online:
A Filipina teenager was given an opportunity to step inside the White House on Thursday (Friday in Manila) for a state dinner hosted by US President Barack Obama and wife Michelle for the participants for the Special Olympics Global Youth Activation Summit.

Brina Kei Maxino is the first Filipina to represent the Asia Pacific region at the summit and is the first teenager with Down Syndrome to have that distinction.

The year-long summit would be in preparation for the 2015 Special Olympics World Summer Games to be held in Los Angeles, California.

Not only Maxino was able to dine with the Obamas, she was also mentioned by the US president in his speech.

"Today, in more than 170 countries, Special Olympians are athletes of all kinds — skiers and speed skaters, sailors, cyclists, equestrians and judo masters. They make extraordinary contributions to their communities. And I’m proud to highlight a few of them here tonight," Obama said.

Sign the petition to direct the DOJ & FBI to investigate the death of Robert Ethan Saylor

from the White House.gov:

we petition the obama administration to:

Direct the DOJ & FBI to investigate whether civil rights violations & police brutality led to the death of Ethan Saylor.

Ethan Saylor was a 26 yr old man with Down Syndrome. In Jan 2013, watching a movie, his chaperone told him to wait in the theater while she got the car.

A theater employee called mall police since Ethan hadn't bought a 2nd ticket. 3 off-duty sheriffs responded.

They dragged Ethan from the theater, hog-tied him with 3 sets of handcuffs, held him down with their weight, ignored the health-care worker that told them she had the situation under control, & intimidated others trying to render aid. Ethan suffocated to death. His final words: "I Want my Mommy".

We ask you, as our President and as a father, to express your condolences to the Saylor family, and to direct the FBI and DOJ to investigate whether Ethan's civil rights were violated, & whether police brutality caused his death.

• Signatures needed by May 03, 2013 to reach goal of 100,000: 98,363

• Total signatures on this petition: 1,637

Created: Apr 02, 2013

Issues: Civil Rights and Liberties, Criminal Justice and Law Enforcement, Disabilities

Primer: How Will The Election Change Medicaid?

By: Phil Galewitz and Kaiser Health News

The future of Medicaid -- the state-federal workhorse of the nation's health system that provides health coverage to the poorest and sickest Americans -- hangs in the balance on Election Day.
President Barack Obama and Republican nominee Mitt Romney have vastly different approaches to the program. Medicaid is the backbone of the 2010 health law -- considered Obama's signature legislative achievement -- which, starting in 2014, expands coverage to 30 million uninsured Americans. As many as 17 million of those newly insured citizens will be on Medicaid. Romney would turn over much control of the program to states and give them new powers to tailor benefits and eligibility to their own budget needs. Romney says such a move would begin saving $100 billion per year by 2016.
The following list of "frequently asked questions" provides more details on the presidential candidates' plans for Medicaid.
Tune in to the PBS NewsHour on Monday evening for Hari Sreenivasan's full report on the role Medicaid plays in the U.S. health care system -- especially for seniors living in nursing care facilities -- and how the proposals outlined by the candidates could impact the program.
What is Medicaid?
Created in 1965, Medicaid is jointly financed by the federal government and the states. States administer the program but the federal government sets minimum income and eligibility thresholds, targeting low-income children and their parents, the elderly and people with disabilities. It also sets minimum benefits that state Medicaid plans must provide. States can build on these requirements and, as a result, eligibility rules vary widely. The program now covers about 60 million Americans, of which about half are children. Medicaid pays for nearly two-thirds of nursing home residents and about 40 percent of births.
Medicaid is an open-ended entitlement program in which the federal government matches state spending on health insurance. Match rates range from 50 percent to 73 percent, depending on a state's per capita income, with poorer states receiving higher rates. The average federal match is 57 percent.
How does President Obama's health care reform law change Medicaid?
The 2010 law eliminates varying eligibility rules and, starting in 2014, provides Medicaid coverage to everyone with incomes less than 133 percent of the federal poverty level, which today is nearly $31,000 for a family of three.
This expansion could add as many as 17 million people to Medicaid over the next decade if all states adopt the change. Most of the newly eligible would be adults without children who currently are not covered in most states.
The Supreme Court ruling which upheld the health care reform law made this expansion optional for states. Several Republican governors have already said they would not take the extra federal money to expand the program.
Under the law, the federal government pays the full cost for those newly eligible for Medicaid from 2014 to 2016, then states have to begin to contribute to the cost but no more than 10 percent by 2020. States will receive their current federal funding match rate for people currently eligible.

Ann Coulter on using the "r-word": "I was not referring to someone with Down syndrome"

from Pier Morgan's Blog CNN.com:

On Friday, the always controversial Ann Coulter refused to apologize for calling President Barack Obama "the retard" on Twitter.

A determined Piers Morgan tried his best to pull an apology from the defiant Coulter who insisted she had nothing to apologize for since her remark was not directed at the community of mentally disabled individuals who were offended by the tweet. "I was not referring to someone with Down syndrome," said Coulter. "I was referring to the president of the United States."
"I didn't call the president a Down syndrome child," continued Coulter. "I used the word retard the same way people use idiot, cretin, moron and the rest of them which were all once technical terms and I had it with the language police."
Watch the clip and listen to the interview as Coulter explains why the "r-word" is not the same as the "n-word."

by Emanuella Grinberg, CNN - News Channel 5 WPTV NBC:
Conservative commentator Ann Coulter stood by her decision to call President Barack Obama the "r word" in a tweet, and questioned whether the word is indeed offensive.
"Maybe [Vice President Joe] Biden should be upset with me calling the president a retard but not an actually disabled person," she said Friday in an interview on CNN's "Piers Morgan Tonight."
Coulter was addressing a tweet she sent following the third presidential debate between Obama and GOP nominee Mitt Romney.
"I highly approve of Romney's decision to be kind and gentle to the retard," she posted to the social networking site.
She said in the interview she chose the word "because it's a synonym for 'loser.' " She professed to have used the word since.
Among the reaction to her post were a slew of critical tweets, as well as a blog post addressed to her by Special Olympic athlete John Franklin Stephens that went viral.

"Come on Ms. Coulter, you aren't dumb and you aren't shallow. So why are you continually using a word like the R-word as an insult?" he wrote in the post. "I'm a 30 year old man with Down syndrome who has struggled with the public's perception that an intellectual disability means that I am dumb and shallow. I am not either of those things, but I do process information more slowly than the rest of you. In fact it has taken me all day to figure out how to respond to your use of the R-word last night."
Stephens appeared separately on "Piers Morgan Tonight" Friday.
"The word retard is offensive, and that I should not be a symbol for someone who is dumb and shallow," he said. "If they wanted to use me as a symbol, use me as a symbol for someone who fights adversity."
Coulter said "language police" were dictating what words should and should not be used, and denied the term was offensive at all.
"It's offensive according to whom? Moron, idiot, cretin, imbecile, these were exactly like retard, once technical terms to describe people with mental disabilities," she said. "Changing the word doesn't change the definition. I was not referring to someone with Down syndrome. I was referring to the president of the United States."
In addition, those who are offended by the word have little ground, she suggested.
"No disabled people are saying it, the spokesmen for the disabled," she said.
Pressed on whether the word bore a stigma similar to another offensive word -- the n word -- she said, "I wouldn't use the n word because it's a curse word."
Read more: http://www.wptv.com/dpp/news/national/ann-coulter-piers-morgan-cnn-interview-video-coulter-stands-by-use-of-retard-comment#ixzz2AigtZQ58



Dad demands apology from Ann Coulter for using 'retarded' as an insult

from Today by Dan Niblock:

“Retard! Retard!” It’s the shrill call of a vile black bird, a call I hear coming from the treetops and from behind dark clouds these days. I hear it, though others don’t, because I have an ear for it. Call it a gift. I received this gift four years ago, in a hospital delivery room, at the exact moment a nurse turned to me and told me that in all likelihood my newborn son had Down syndrome. He did. His name is Ozzie.

It’s a strange thing, this gift of mine. Because a word that used to zip right on past my ear without causing a ripple now leaves me feeling like I’ve had the wind knocked out of me. And it happens just about every day.

The English language is littered with the husks of words like "retard." We've invented awful slurs for every group of people imaginable. But for some reason, those other words are whispered behind backs, relegated to the shadows. "Retard" is not. This particular slur, and its many variations, fills the space on park benches between soccer moms. It's heard in movies and on TV shows and in the songs kids sing in front of grandma. It pops up in board meetings and in breakrooms and in coffee shop queues.

And online - especially online. The comments section of any web post, no matter what website or how benign the topic, always seems to tease a “retarded” comment out of a reader or two. And for the life of me I cannot understand why this is so. Because it hurts, and people know it hurts, because parents like me have told them so. Again and again.

I'm left to wonder why this word is so precious that we just can't seem to get by without it. I'm left to wonder why it still slips so easily from the mouths of celebrities and public figures. In the most recent example, conservative firebrand Ann Coulter, tip of the Republican spear, posted a tweet insinuating that President Obama is pandering to the "retarded vote."

Here’s Ann’s tweet:

“Been busy, but is Obama STILL talking about that video? I had no idea how crucial the retarded vote is in this election.”

Obama To Disability Advocates: ‘I’ve Got Your Back’

from Disability Scoop by Michelle Diament:

Some 150 disability advocates from across the country headed to the White House Friday for a day-long powwow with administration officials and they got a surprise visit — from the president himself.

The group of advocates included individuals with disabilities, their families and professionals affiliated with The Arc who were invited to meet with Obama administration officials.

The event was part of the White House Community Leaders Briefing Series, a weekly initiative designed to establish direct dialogue between local leaders and top federal officials.

President Barack Obama surprised the group by stepping in for a short, late-morning talk in the South Court Auditorium.

“I want you all to know that I’m going to keep fighting everyday for an America which lives up to our most basic values, not just for some, but for us all. But I need your help,” Obama told the group.

The president praised the advocates for speaking up last summer during a series of tough budget talks about the importance of Medicaid and said that continued advocacy of that kind is needed.

“People with disabilities deserve the chance to build a life for themselves in the communities where they choose to live,” Obama said, adding that he supports high education standards and employment opportunities for those with disabilities.

“I’ve got your back and I’m looking forward to working with you for many years to come,” he said.

In addition to Obama, the group also heard from top officials at the Justice Department and the Medicaid program, among others.

Mom's letter leads to visit with the President

from ABC News by Lauren Putrino: A young man whose mother wrote a letter to President Obama is now scheduled to meet with the president.


Jeremy Carr, 23, has Down syndrome. Carr volunteered with his mother, a Vietnam War veteran, at a road clean-up event in the spring staged by Chapter 862 of the Vietnam Veterans of America. It was one of several veterans volunteer events in which Carr has taken part.


Throughout the morning of the clean-up, he never asked to take a break, didn’t stop to talk about his beloved Pittsburgh Steelers, or his favorite WWE star John Cena, his mother said.  He didn’t even ask for anything to eat or drink.  He asked his mother only one thing several times during the day, “Mom, will President Barack Obama be proud of me for helping the soldiers?”


She reassured him he was, but that wasn’t enough for him.  Carr asked his mother to write Obama to ask him.  For a long time, Theresa Carr put off writing the  letter, she said, thinking, how could she write to the president of the United States with such a request?


But as the months passed, she told ABC News, she asked herself, “How could I not honor such a simple request from a young man who would love nothing more than to serve his country, serve his commander-in-chief?”


In early September, Theresa Carr mailed Obama a letter with her son’s question, never believing he would respond.


She was wrong.


Since his first week in office, the president has read 10 letters every day, culled from the tens of thousands of letters, emails, and faxes the White House receives daily.  And every week, he replies to 15 to 20 of them with hand-written answers.


He responded to the Carrs’ letter, however, in a speech. On Veterans Day, in an address at Arlington National Cemetery, the president said, “Jeremy, I want you to know: Yes, I am proud of you. I could not be prouder of you, and your country is proud of you.”


After the speech, the National Association of Vietnam Veterans of America arranged for Carr to meet the president next month. The group planned the visit to thank Carr for his volunteer work.

‘Glee’ Star Tapped For President’s Disability Committee

from Disability Scoop:


President Barack Obama is soliciting advice on disability issues from an actress with Down syndrome who has a regular role on Fox’s “Glee.”


Obama said he plans to appoint Lauren Potter, 21, to the President’s Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities. She is well-known for playing cheerleader Becky Jackson on the hit television show “Glee.”

The committee Potter will join is made up of 21 citizens and 13 federal representatives who are tasked with advising the president and the secretary of health and human services on issues pertaining to Americans with intellectual disabilities.

Potter rose to fame in disability circles in 2009 when she first appeared on “Glee.” The actress had recently graduated from high school when she impressed the show’s creators who decided to bring her back for additional episodes.


The notoriety from “Glee” led Potter to become involved nationally as a self-advocate, speaking out against use of the word “retard” and bullying of people with disabilities.


In addition to Potter, Obama also appointed Julie Petty to the President’s Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities. A self-advocate from Fayetteville, Ark., Petty is a past president of Self Advocates Becoming Empowered who recently testified before Congress on disability employment issues.