Senate GOP kills disabilities act

Grinch lives.

"Former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) made a rare Senate appearance this morning, sitting in a wheelchair just off the floor so that members would have to see him as they entered the chamber. Why? Because they were poised to vote on ratification of the U.N. Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities, and Dole hoped to send a message.

It didn't work. The Senate killed the treaty this afternoon, with a final vote of 61 to 38, which seems like a lopsided majority, but which fell short of the two-thirds necessary for ratification. Eight Republicans broke ranks and joined Democrats in support of the treaty, but the clear majority of the Senate GOP voted to block it.

The U.N. Convention on the Rights of Persons With Disabilities, for those who've forgotten, is a human rights treaty negotiated by the George H.W. Bush administration, which has been ratified by 126 nations, including China, Russia, Iran, Cuba, Syria, and Saudi Arabia.

But most Senate Republicans saw it as a threat to American "sovereignty," even though the treaty wouldn't have required the United States to change its laws. When the Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved the treaty with bipartisan support in July, Chairman John Kerry (D-Mass.) explained the proposal simply "raises the [international] standard to our level without requiring us to go further."

In other words, we wouldn't actually have to do anything except say we like the treaty -- and then wait for other signatories around the world to catch up to the United States' Americans with Disabilities Act.

The treaty was endorsed by Dole, John McCain, and Dick Lugar, among other prominent Republican figures, but it didn't matter. The GOP's right-wing base, led in part by Rick Santorum, raised hysterical fears about the treaty, and most Senate Republicans took their cues from the party's activists, not the party's elder statesmen."

So, if you are a disabled person in a country where you still cant access certain places in your wheelchair, 38 Republican United States Senators want to wish you a very Merry Christmas. 

Comments

[KS]

silly comment , Bobby Hill - I suggest you learn to comprehend before you spew irrelevant and silly comments like above.

Who cares about that, furthermore who cares about the UN ? I don't except that I want them to keep their noses out of our business. Learn to connect the dots, son.

"And we should have signed on to the Kyoto treaty as well. So what's the point? Whether it be Bush or the Republicans in the Senate, the right seems to hate doing good in the world.

The Senate voted 96-0, against it TS, so I don't know what you are talking about and your comment is silly and meaningless. You bore me.

[TS]

http://www.undispatch.com/senate-vote-on-un-disability-treaty

UPDATE: Well that was dispiriting. In a 61-38 vote, the US Senate failed to ratify the UN Convention on Persons with Disabilities. Only a handful of Republicans joined Democrats in supporting ratification, so the measure fell 5 votes short of ratification.

This one was all Republicans. Channel Kyoto all you want but take responsibility for this one.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/longterm/climate/stories/clim121197b.htm

"... Kerry said a delay in formal approval of the treaty need not impede compliance with its goals, noting that the United States often has gone along with treaties before they were ratified. He and Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (D-Conn.), who also supports the treaty, said in Kyoto that they are confident strong U.S. public support for action on global warming will help them eventually push the pact through the Senate.

"The people are ahead of the politicians on this one," Lieberman said."

Yes, it failed and Republicans and Democrats alike should be ashamed. Still, it was the Republicans who killed it completely. Read the the whole article if you can process that many words.

[KS]

The US Senate voted down by 96-0 on renewing the Kyoto Treaty. No you are running from that.

Yes, you are restating the article and we have all read it and weighed in. Wake up, TS.

You are so yesterday.

[TS]

Right Wingers Rewrite History on Kyoto

As usual, it's too complex for simple minds.

BTW, it was 95 and not 96. Get your numbers right.

[Preston]

the GOP has no use for bob dole, they dismissed bob dole like Safeway discards out of date lettuce.

[KS]

I am a bleeding heart conservative but know that the GOP needs rebranding.

Bob Dole was a loser in the Presidential election to Bill Clinton in 1996 - a bit of a mismatch, so he, McCain and Romney will all be accorded similar places in the ash heap of history, as it has happened to Dukakis, Gore and Kerry, even the NYTimes, the WAPO and HuffPo and CNN, ABC,CBS and NBC/MSNBC all like them more than the GOP also rans.

[KS]

As usual, it's too complex for simple minds.

BTW, it was 95 and not 96. Get your numbers right.

Posted by: TS | December 09, 2012 at 06:29 PM

95/96 - a shutout by any standard. You are BW's version of Bagdad Boob when it comes to rewriting history. Taking the SP plunge, they wonder where you hide out.

[Bobby Hill]

The only thing they wonder about on Sound Politics is if each will "win" the insult contest. Rags is ahead, by the way.

[Gusto]

I see SP locks down threads when things don't go their way, just like FOX news. Full of Shit

[KS]

Congrats T-S on all of the young impressionable students' minds that she has had the opportunity to "dumb down". That should be on your epitaph - that doesn't phase you, does it ?

SP locks down threads when there is real spam, not dissenting comments like you want to believe. Gusto must be a regular MSNBC viewer, judging by his hate on Fox comment and lack of curiosity.

[One who knows]

KS what do you consider, exactly, to be spam on SP? Every thread is one long name calling diatribe. My IP has been blocked like forever because apparently something I said offended the powers that be. Hard to know what it was, judging by the thick layers of ad hominems on there.

[GOPer]

Join the club. Except I've been banned here for who knows why. That is except sparky.

[nameless]

the end of the year looms large as the GOP hurdles itself into a hole which the tea baggers dig for them.

[One who knows]

Hey GOoPer, if you are banned why is your post showing here. I think you're confused.

sparkuy why is the GOoPer banned?

[KS]

Every thread is one long name calling diatribe. My IP has been blocked like forever because apparently something I said offended the powers that be. Hard to know what it was, judging by the thick layers of ad hominems on there.

Posted by: One who knows | December 12, 2012 at 11:42 AM

You must have said something pretty vile then. Sounds like you need to have Harry Belafonte as your spokesmouth - his latest message;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1YsjlSVB4I&feature=player_embedded

[One who knows]

So KS you agree SP is vile. Thank you!

[T-S]

Well, this continues to be the most interesting thread. I wondered, too. why Gopper was complaining about being banned when he's been posting pretty regularly. Something unconnected about that.

Anyway, the latest interesting article about education and fake crises: “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste,” has become a popular mantra of the ruling class. Of course, these are not the people who usually experience the brunt of a crisis.

But a pervasive narrative in the mainstream media is that Americans are a people beset by near-continuous crisis, whether it’s the fake crisis of a looming “fiscal cliff” or a real crisis like Frankenstorm Sandy that still has many Northeasterners inexplicably living in the dark in unheated homes.

Arguably no sector of American society has been cast with the narrative of crisis as much as public education. And the fever pitch is about to go higher.

... Now imagine the scenario when what happened in Kentucky begins rolling out across the country — as state after state implements the bright, shiny new tests and watches in horror as scores drop off “The Proficiency Cliff.” How tempting it will be for major media outlets across the country to cast this as a “crisis” in education?

In fact, some people are betting good money on that happening.

Business Loves A Crisis

This past summer, about 100 private equity investors gathered at the posh University Club in New York City to hear about big money-making opportunities on the horizon.

As reported in Huffington Post, Rob Lytle of The Parthenon Group, a “strategic advisor of choice for CEOs and business leaders worldwide” according to its website, was there to reveal the ripening profit potentials in the public education arena — a $500+ billion market –due to the roll-out of new assessments aligned to the Common Core.

According to the reporter, Lytle told the audience, if the tests are “as rigorous as advertised, a huge number of schools will suddenly look really bad, their students testing way behind in reading and math. They’ll want help, quick. And private, for-profit vendors selling lesson plans, educational software and student assessments will be right there to provide it.”

Recall that states were strongly urged to adopt the new standards when they applied for the U.S.Department of Education’s Race to the Top grant program and for waivers to the onerous No Child Left Behind mandates. Now 46 states are implementing the standards and at least one form or another of the tests that are aligned to the standards. The intent of the standards and tests is to ensure that students are on a pathway to becoming “career and college ready” (CCR) by the time they graduate high school.

So how is this a business opportunity?

Find out by clicking on the link. America is all about marketing. We have no social network or democratically-organized rule of law. We are all about the dollar sign. Everything else is irrelevant.

[KS]

So KS you agree SP is vile. Thank you!

Posted by: One who knows | December 13, 2012 at 12:19 PM

You don't read well. SP is fine. Stop whining about it and write to them about it if what you said is true.
I never saw a thread from your screenname, so I think you are really fibbing.