There But For The Grace Of God Go We

In the beginning of May, my wife went to her primary physician. The appointment was to address some of the routine things that can happen to a person as they get older.

Or so we thought.

During the appointment, the doctor ordered X-rays of my wife's chest due to my wife having a lot of congestion.

The Friday before last, the doctor called and told us that the X-rays showed a spot on one of her lungs.

As the doctor gave us the name and number to an oncologist, my mind was reeling.  My wife had cancer twice in the mid-1990s, but had beat it both times.  She is also about the age my mother was when she was diagnosed with cancer.

We called the oncologist and got an appointment for the first thing Monday morning.  That was the longest weekend of my life as I tried to keep my imagination from getting carried away.

I'll spare the gentle reader the details of the whirlwind of scheduling appointments, more tests and more scans, and the nonverbal language of the oncologist giving the tell that she was already thinking of treatment options.

The big news was that the tumor was thankfully not cancer.

As I spent the weekend waiting for Monday and then spent the beginning of the week waiting as my wife was poked and prodded and dyed and had all sorts of tests and scans done, I did a lot of thinking.  What else is there to do in a hospital waiting area?

The most frequent thought I had was how glad I was to have a job with relatively decent benefits.  If not for the insurance, my wife might not have had the X-rays done, the spot might not have been found.  I silently thanked by union brothers and sisters who had fought so hard to get us these things and appreciated them all the more.

For without the insurance through my job, we might have had to go with Badger Care, like many of the poor, the working poor and Walmart employees (but I repeat myself).  But with the way that Scott Walker has been screwing up by the numbers with first Badger Care and now with Walkercare, odds are my wife wouldn't have any resources that way.

She might have been able to access free screenings, like those offered at Planned Parenthood, but Walker and his Teapubligoons went after them and made sure that they couldn't help the poor either.  After all, who would want to save a life or anything?

Another frequent thought was that of gratitude to the Milwaukee County Board, led by Supervisor Marina Dimitrijevic.  I realize that this might sound odd, but there is a very solid reason for it.

When the county was going through the crafting of the 2013 budget. one of the major issues that Milwaukee County Executive Emperor Chris Abele and the County Board were at odds was that regarding employee benefits.

Abele wanted to give workers a 3% raise, but completely eliminate the health savings account and raise employee contributions to 29%.  The Board restored the HSA and cut the contribution to 25%.  They also cut the raise to 1.5%.  It was the same amount of money either way, but the Board's method offered a greater potential of savings as well as balanced it a little better for the workers (although we took a hit either way - losing over another thousand in take home pay).

Because the Board's version won out at the end, I was able to focus on supporting my wife instead of trying to find money we don't have or finding a bankruptcy attorney or having to give up everything just get her the care she needed.

As I wrote above, we were most fortunate that the scare was just that - only a scare.  Even with the "Cadillac" insurance we have, if it had been anything more than a scare, it would have sent us over our own personal fiscal cliff.

Yet, even though we are one major illness from bankruptcy, we are one of the "lucky ones."

There are tens of thousands of Wisconsinites that are not receiving the necessary and proper health care and have nowhere to turn now.  And the only reason for this is the greed and malfeasance of Walker, his Teapubligoons in the legislature and their corporate overlords.

Until these wrongs are righted, I am rededicating myself to the fight, not just for health care, but for all the evils that Walker and his ilk have visited upon our once great state.  I hope that the gentle reader will remember what we are fighting for and once again pick up the fight as well.

I would also be remiss if I ended this without giving a large shout out of thanks to all of our family, friends and coworkers who gave us an overwhelming amount of emotional support during this scare.

Quote of the Day

As I had figured, it looks like the Republicans will be having a gubernatorial primary as well.

The first challenger that wants to restore some sense of honor and integrity to the Republicans is a chap out of New Glarus.  Blue cheddar's got the skinny on this fellow, Patrick O'Brien, who also gives us the quote of the day:

 ”I thought he was running as a brown bag Republican,” O’Brien said. “What we were getting was a brown shirt Republican.”

Reminds me of another great quote from a ultra-conservative, my father:

"A conservative tyrant is just as bad as a liberal tyrant."

Davis Throws His Own Mother Under The Charter School Bus

In the latest Walkergate update, I pointed out that Brett Davis was getting a lot of support from the education profiteers:

Davis looked like someone who would fit in well with Walker's extremist agenda. He supported slashing school funding, which was in line with what education profiteers want and what Walker's attempting to do. The Wisconsin Democracy Campaign shows that groups like All Children Matter, Wisconsin Club for Growth and Coalition for American's Families put in undisclosed amounts of money to run issue ads. One Wisconsin Now reported that the financial backers of All Children Matter gave Davis $13,000.

This whole thing is slimier than I realized at the time.

One of these financiers behind All Children Matter include the same Swift Boater that just gave Scott Walker a huge check.

Even worse, Davis is willing to throw his own mother, who works as a public school teacher in Monroe, WI.

Nice to see that Davis thinks lucre is thicker than blood.

How Much Trouble Is Walker In?

Two bad omens regarding Scott Walker's chance to finish even one term as governor came out yesterday.

One, the most recent poll shows that 58% of the people are in support of the recall and would vote against. him.

Two, and this is a bit more anecdotal, is that my ultra conservative father eagerly signed my recall petition.  (His neighbors, who also signed, nearly fell out of their chairs when they heard this news.  No one who knows my father would've expected this.)  His quote as he signed it was "A conservative tyrant is just as bad as a liberal tyrant."

Mr. Walker, you'd best start packing.  You only have the sheeples and the the people who invested a lot of money in buying you the governor's seat still supporting you.

Senator Darling: You've Failed Us!

I'm damn glad to see this as for two reasons:



One, it's about time they counter the false Wisconsin Club for Growth of Koch's Bank Account's false accusations on who's really to blame.

Two, that's one of my little #wiunion sisters in there. Way to go, Kati!

Is There Anyone Or Anything Walker Won't Sell Out On?

Unless you've been living in a cave (or a mansion in Pakistan) or only get your news from talk radio and Faux News, you're probably aware that Scott Walker has been selling out everything and anything he can, from workers' rights to voters' rights to public safety to the environment.

Bruce Murphy, of Milwaukee Magazine, takes note that Walker is selling out the poor and his promise to not raise taxes:

Figures from the non-partisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau show that 77 percent of those who qualify for the EITC make so little money they pay no state income taxes. But Walker seized on this to argue he was not increasing taxes, merely taking away money that is given to taxpayers by other taxpayers.

One sign of how radical a measure this is comes from the critical response of Todd Berry, president of the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance, which routinely praises any move that cuts government spending. “I think it’s good tax policy and good social policy because it rewards work rather than discouraging it,” he said of the EITC. “I would have looked for savings somewhere else. “

Nearly as bad is Walker’s decision to reduce the amount of the Homestead Tax Credit by $8.1 million. This measure, too, was seen as a way to help low-income homeowners and renters, helping buffer the latter from increases in rent by landlords.  To claim the credit last year, filers had to have household income of less than $24,680. Most taxpayers aren’t eligible. Only 247,000 people claimed the credit in 2010; the average credit awarded was $520.

My retired father takes advantage of the Homestead Credit. When he found out about this, who prides himself on being a neocon, said he wants to sign a Walker recall petitions as soon as they come out.

If Walker is so bad, that my dad and I agree on the fact that he is bad for the state and needs to be outed, that speaks volumes in itself.

The Greatest Is Love

When I got married, like a majority of couples, we had a reading of 1 Corinthians 13:4-7,13:

Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous;

love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly;

it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered,

does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth;

bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never fails...But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.

Tomorrow will be our eleventh anniversary.

And seeing how love conquers all, the politics, furlough days, the social problems and all that noise can wait.

I am taking the weekend off to celebrate the most wonderful, most beautiful and sweetest woman in the world.

Have a good weekend and enjoy the nice weather.

Eleven Years Ago Today

It was eleven years ago, on this day, on this date, and at the time of this posting, that my mother succumbed to cancer after a four year battle.

One of the few wishes she made before passing was that at her funeral, we made sure that her favorite hymn, "Amazing Grace," was played. Her favorite version of this hymn was done by the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards. But the funeral director said that they didn't have it, but would play it if we found the CD. It took a couple hours of panicked shopping, but we found the CD and had it played at her service:



I wrote about my mom a couple of years ago. And yes, Ma, I still remember.

Welcome to the World, Ellison Henry!

My dear friend and colleague at Milwaukee County First, Jason Haas and his beautiful wife, Stacie, are the proud parents of Ellison Henry Haas, who came into this world this afternoon.

It's a little disappointing that Jason backed off of the name "Helmut" at the last minute.

I would like to wish the Haas Family the warmest congratulations from mrs. capper and I.

Mazel Tov!

Furlo-ugh, Day 11, The Halfway Point

Yes, you lucky devils, today is my eleventh furlo-ugh day of the year. After this one, I am halfway to meeting the arbitrary quota set forth by Scott Walker in order to fill some of the hole in his illegal budget and to bolster his campaign.

As those at home who are keeping score are well aware, instead of filling the hole, he is only deepening it. For every day that I am forced off, the county loses about $700 in revenue since they cannot bill for hours I am not working.

Delaying services and deepening the debt...that's the Walker plan for you.

On the bright side of things, my wife starts her new job today. To make it even sweeter, it's an union job.

Happy Mother's Day

To all the mother's out there, as well as the single fathers.

Congratulations, RP!

The Reasonable Progressive has a new mini-me. Congrats to her and her family.

Condolences To James

James Rowen, a man I much admire, has had a terrible loss in his life.

My condolences, thought and prayers go out to Jim, his family and his brother's family.

Daddy's Little Girl

'Nuff said

Ten Years

Ten years ago, I became the luckiest man alive. Ten years later, and we are still newlyweds on our honeymoon.

And it's still good.

I will be around, but no on the Intertubes for the weekend, as I celebrate the only thing that really matters. Sounds like it will be good time to put in the fireplace video, make some cocoa and snuggle.

Have a good weekend.

It's All Relative

This was sitting in my email box when I got home tonight. It appears that Mark Neumann's brother, whose company filed for bankruptcy, might be causing Mark's campaign some problems already:

The truth is that while Mark Neumann was not a share holder in his brother’s company he has a significant financial interest in it.

Records show that from 2001-2007, Mark Neumann and his brother Ken exchanged more than $30 million worth of property. The last major pre-bankruptcy financial transaction between the brothers took place on July 17, 2007 when Ken Neumann sold $2.292 million worth of property to Mark Neumann’s firm.

Finally, according to federal bankruptcy documents, Mark Neumann was listed as a creditor to his brother’s bankrupt company.

I also learned from some birdies that Scott Walker and his brother-in-law might be having an issue soon with county trees getting cut down and being transported to Illinois to be sold for a nice sum of money. I am still trying to confirm that rumor.

Aren't relatives grand?

Family Bonding Done Wrong

It'd good to be involved in your kids' lives, but not in this manner:

A Montana woman charged with driving around her 16-year-old son and six others while they broke into cars in April has changed her plea.

Lisa Dilley pleaded guilty Thursday in District Court to accountability to theft.

Court records say Dilley drove a group of teens around while they stole more than $3,600 worth of items from vehicles. Dilley's husband called police the next morning after finding a pile of items in his back yard that he suspected had been stolen, including a set of golf clubs and power tools

Darlene Ann Liebenthal

Darlene Ann Liebenthal

October 9, 1943 -- August 29,1999

The rose was her favorite flower. This is the poem that was on her memorial card and on the wall of the chapel her funeral was in.

Ten years, and I still miss her.

"THE ROSE STILL GROWS BEYOND THE WALL"

Near a shady wall a rose once grew,
Budded and blossomed in God's free light,
Watered and fed by morning dew,
Shedding its sweetness day and night.

As it grew and blossomed fair and tall,
Slowly rising to loftier height,
It came to a crevice in the wall,
Through which there shone a beam of light.

Onward it crept with added strength,
With never a thought of fear or pride,
It followed the light through the crevice's length,
And unfolded itself on the other side.

The light, the dew, the broadening view
Were found the same as they were before;
And it lost itself in beauties new,
Breathing its fragrance more and more.

Shall claim of death cause us to grieve,
And make our courage faint or fail?
Nay! Let us faith and hope receive:
The rose still grows beyond the wall.

Scattering fragrance far and wide,
Just as it did in days of yore,
Just as it did on the other side,
Just as it will for evermore.

by A. L. Frink

Suffer Fools, We Got A Buck To Make

I have mentioned it a number of times lately, but this coming Saturday is the tenth anniversary of my mother's death. She died from cancer, which was allowed to spread and grow while her insurance company continued to deny the claims. For whatever reason, she has been on my mind a lot lately. She usually is, but with the combination of taking on bold, new ventures, the approaching anniversary, and all the debate of health care reform has increased the frequency of those thoughts.

Last week, I saw Patrick McIlheran have a number of posts (I thought he was supposed to be cut back - what happened to that?), like this one, regarding health care reform, spreading the usual inane and insane lies and misinformation regarding death panels and the such.

I've seen numerous other members of the conservative Posse Comatose echoing similar fear mongering, like this drivel from Aaron Rodriguez.

Too bad for these disingenuous liars and fear-mongerers that this sort of thing has been going on for much longer than since Obama has been president.

When my mother was spending her last days in the hospital, they asked my father if they could move her to a hospice. However, she never stabilized enough for the move. The day before she died, she called me, and I could tell something was wrong. Well, more wrong actually. She told me that it hurt to breathe. Can you imagine what kind of hell that is, knowing that there is no relief, except through dying?

I called my dad and my fiancee (now wife) and I met him at the hospital. We called for the doctor immediately and ordered him to give her morphine. The doctor told us that if we put her on enough morphine to kill the pain, it would shorten her life. There was no choice. Seeing her suffer was too much. If we allowed that to go on, just so she could live a few more hours or days would have made us less than human and unChristian.

It was the last time I got to speak to her, but at least she was out of pain.

Six years later, my grandfather, just before his 92nd birthday, started a series of medical emergencies which consisted of heart attacks, MRSA infections, and multiple trips between the hospital, the nursing home and the assisted living center.

When the hospital social worker called me to tell me that they were going to move Grandpa back to the nursing home where he received terrible care (another story for another time), I told that they were not going to do that, and demanded a meeting with the doctor.

If nothing else, my professional career and my experiences with my mother's passing made me into a damn effective advocate. I met with the doctor that afternoon and confirmed my worst suspicions. I told the social worker and the doctor that I wanted him moved to a specific hospice, and would not budge on that issue.

That meeting was on a Friday. The following Wednesday, he was in the hospice. By Friday, he stopped eating. By Saturday, he was only having moments of lucidity as his body started to shut down and his brain became starved for oxygen. By Sunday, when we were finally able to get someone to give him last rites, he was all but unconscious. His last words were singing a hymn in Italian, when he heard the nearby church's bells ringing. He passed away the next Wednesday at two o'clock in the morning.

Even though it broke my heart to make that decision, my grandfather had the foresight to have an advance directive, which I was honoring. I realize now, that if I had not pushed the issue, he would have gone back to the nursing home, and died there, without the dignity and peace he had while in the hospice.

For these fear-mongering fools to tell us that the health care reform is bad is just insulting. There is no way that they can justify having people suffer, so that the insurance companies, the pharmaceutical companies, and the big box medical providers can milk the system for all its worth.

All the right wingers are doing is a shameful, lowly attack on people's deepest fears, just to try to regain control of the government, so that they can go back to gouging us and giving everything to their rich friends.

Shortly after my mom passed, my wife and I had our advanced directives drawn up and filed. I do not want to go through this again if, God forbid, something happened to my wife. Nor do I want to put my wife through that if something happened to me. That is calling being considerate, planning ahead and being smart. Apparently, those are also the things that the conservatives are most afraid of.

Why I Support Health Care Reform

There has been a lot of noise flying around the Great Cheeseball regarding health care reform. This has spilled over into organized demonstrations by the sheep following Big Insurance and Big Pharma into thinking equal coverage for everyone at a lower price is a bad thing.

The right wingers have themselves whipped up into the largest case of mass hysteria, the likes of which have never been seen before. Some of the idiotic talking points they keep trying to make include "Do you want a bureaucrat rationing your health care?" and "They will make all the old people commit suicide" and other such drivel that a normally rational person would not even think about twice.

Jay Bullock has done a laudable job of highlighting the flat out lies that the right would have us believe. But it was this specific time of the year, and a post by Michael Mathias, pointing out that the family of a little boy severely burned in an accident had to hold a fund raiser to pay for the medical bills, that triggered me to write about this issue in more depth.

Later this month my family and I will be marking the tenth anniversary of my mother's passing.
She was diagnosed a few years earlier with breast cancer and uterine cancer. She underwent two major surgeries, a radical mastectomy and a hysterectomy, in short order. The oncologist then wanted to follow a standard procedure of chemotherapy and radiation for her chest, followed by another round of chemo and radiation for her abdomen. Due to the strong dosage of medicine, it was standard practice to do a bone marrow draw from the patient, freeze the sample, and then re-inject it after the treatment regimen was done to help speed the recovery and healing process.

This treatment was delayed by more than six months as she fought the insurance company to authorize the bone marrow transplant. Even though the procedure was recognized as the common course of treatment, and had been done for many years with great success, the insurance company called the procedure "experimental" and would not cover it. They only changed their mind when my father's employer advised us to contact the state ombudsman.

By the time that they finally authorized the procedure, she was very sick again, and the treatment didn't work as well as it should have. She had two episodes of recurrence of the cancer before she succumbed to it. I still remember holding her as she cried in frustration every time the insurance company gave her a run around and denied the claim.

I believe that if my mother was allowed health care coverage that did not put profit before people, and did not balk at an established treatment procedure, she might have lived.

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When my mom died, I was "adopted" by her two best friends, Valerie and Sharon. A couple of years before my mom died, Sharon suffered from a brain aneurysm. Fortunately, the city paramedics got to her in time and she suffered no lingering effects from it. However, her insurance decided that they could not cover her anymore and dropped her from her husband's policy, which he got through his job.

They went to find new coverage, but either the insurance companies rejected her due to a "pre-existing condition" or they would want to charge as high as $1,500 per month for her coverage. She eventually qualified for Badger Care and started receiving medical attention again. But by the time she did get coverage, it was too late. She was immediately diagnosed with cancer that was already mastestizing and she died about a year later.

As with my mother, if Sharon had coverage where profit did not proceed people, she could have had affordable health insurance, and her cancer might have been discovered earlier, giving her a better chance at survival.

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The weekend after next, my wife and I will be going up north. However, it won't be to relax, do yard work, or anything else. We are going for the sole purpose of attending a fund raiser for a friend of ours, (a different) Sharon.

Sharon and her husband, Pete, own a small diner in Rosholt. They also have a contract with Portage County to provide the meals for their meals on wheels program. Pete is covered by the VA for his health care needs. However, they could not afford decent insurance for her. Earlier this year, Sharon was diagnosed with small cell lung cancer.

She has undergone severe and multiple rounds of chemotherapy and radiation simultaneously, leaving her in a terribly weakened state and unable to work.

If Sharon could have had affordable health care to her, she would not have to rely on the kindness of her friends and family to spare what they can to help alleviate her costs.

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I realize that these are anecdotal examples, and could be met by some horror story from another type of system, but I have buried loved ones due to the crappy health care insurance system we have now. But these are just three examples from my personal life, and I could give you another half a dozen without thinking too hard about it. I do not consider myself to be particularly unfortunate, so I would find it easy to believe that most people could share similar stories.

The issue isn't the doctors or the hospitals or the clinics, per se. It is about people being greedy and putting their own profits before the greater good. But it is the people that profit so largely from people's illnesses that are funding the groups like the misnamed Americans for Prosperity, who are organizing these so-called rallies, trying to prevent true reform from happening. The exude their misinformation and outright lies in a fear and smear campaign that would make Karl Rove proud, and those that are so willing to distrust anything that has to do with a Democrat, a liberal, or a black President, are more than willing to glom onto these falsehoods in order to preserve their own skewed sense of reality.

I don't think that anyone would argue that the United States has some of the best doctors, hospitals and technology in the entire world. But what good does all that quality equipment, facilities and personnel do for someone that cannot afford to access it?