If politics is going to be reduced to bumper stickers, let's make bumper stickers

I'm sure you've heard of the case of Lauren Rainey, the 13 year-old girl in Alabama whose life is being put at risk by the intention of the state Medicaid authority to cut her off from assistance because - if you can grasp the "logic" of this - she's not getting worse.

Lauren is a dwarf who breathes through an artificial airway. She is deaf, has an enlarged heart, scoliosis and other bone abnormalities. She is hooked up to an oxygen machine and a humidifier mister - and her airway has to be suctioned several times every hour.

Medicaid now provides help 10 hours a day to give her exhausted mother some rest and relief.

Do you see what is so bizarre about the logic being applied by the state? They're treating this as if it's some kind of infection or a broken limb - something where once the patient has been stabilized, the intervention can be withdrawn and the patient can recover. In Lauren's case, she is getting no worse because of the intervention: It's the intervention itself that is keeping her from getting worse. And withdrawing it will produce the very worsening of her condition that they are saying isn't happening which is why they can remove the intervention! Just absotively nuts.

Apparently, Governor Bob Riley's office has been getting an earful from a variety of sources and they really don't like it, poor babies. People are still being urged to contact the state to let them know what they think about the decision.

State Capitol
600 Dexter Avenue
Montgomery, Alabama 36130
Switchboard: 334-242-7100
Fax: 334-353-0004
http://www.governor.state.al.us/contact/contact_form.aspx

This also raises something else, something that I intend to make my watchword, my catchphrase, for dealing with the right. This is the email I sent to the guv:

Re: Lauren Rainey

You have been quoted as saying all the publicity surrounding her case has done is to "frighten a child" and impugn the state's responsiveness because there are "a variety of different programs." So far, no program that would serve to substitute for the care she is losing has been specified.

As a fellow American, I'm sure you appreciate the value of straight talk, so I put it to you: Either name the programs and show how they will serve her case or admit there aren't any such and maintain her current care.

In other words: Put up or shut up.

That's it: Put up or shut up. That's going to be my response to every claim, every accusation, every wild tale, presented by the right. All of them. Prove it. Back it up. No anecdotes. No "everybody knows." No "you can look it up" crap, demanding that we do the work to try to prove your case for you, no - you said it, you prove it. And if you can't, stick it.

Put up or shut up. Makes a good bumper sticker.