Twenty disabled activists for ADAPT, a disability rights organizatoin, await processing after arrest at Senator McCain's Washington Office this week.
AP Story via CBS News
At least 20 disabled activists, most of them in wheelchairs, were arrested outside Sen. John McCain's offices Tuesday after being refused a meeting with the GOP presidential nominee-to-be over a bill to expand Medicaid coverage to more people who want in-home care.
Cassie James, an Organizer with ADAPT of Pennsylvania, says:
"I don't get it, Sen. McCain's website says 'There is no cause greater than protection of human dignity.' We were at his office asking him to partner with us to protect OUR human dignity by supporting legislation that allows all older and disabled Americans to live in their own homes instead of being forced into nursing homes where all dignity and personal privacy are lost. This is not rocket science; it's basic human and civil rights!"
More below the fold.
A bipartisan Senate bill, S.799 or Community Choice Act of 2007, amends the Social Security Act to allow those who are disabled to elect to have their Medicaid coverage for nursing home costs to be directed to home based or community based care instead, so that they may be allowed to stay at home instead of an institutional setting. It has been stuck in committee since July, 2007.
Sponsored by Senators Tom Harkin, (D-IA), and Arlen Specter, (R-PA), with cosponsors including Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. John McCain has, thus far, chosen not to cosponsor the bill.
The bill has 20 cosponsors in the Senate, along with 92 cosponsors on the House version of the bill, H.R. 1621, sponsored by Danny K. Davis (D-IL)
The bill also allows for additional grant money for states that participate in the program.
Capitol Police Sgt. Kimberly Schneider said about 20 people from the group were arrested outside McCain's office in the Russell Senate Office Building on Tuesday and charged with unlawful assembly.
McCain's Senate chief of staff said the protesters turned down an offer to meet immediately with McCain's aides. Mark Busey said he didn't know McCain's position on the legislation but would ask. The chances are slim, however, that the senator himself would be meeting with members of the group.
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DNC Chairman Howard Dean: "Arrests Show McCain Out of Touch With Americans With Disabilities" in a press release today.
"At a time when John McCain is on the campaign trail talking about health care choices, he refuses to explain why he opposes a bill that would let Americans with disabilities choose how and where to live, work and receive care. I am proud to lead a Party that supports the fundamental right of every single American to make his or her own choices about where to live and work. Apparently John McCain and his staff would rather let activists get arrested outside his office than explain his position on this critical issue. John McCain is either profoundly out of touch with the needs and challenges confronting Americans with disabilities or just doesn't care. Either way, he's the wrong choice for Americas future."
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According to a press release on the ADAPT website, this isn't the first time members of ADAPT have been arrested for advocating for the Community Choice Act of 2007. In September 2007, 55 members were arrested at the American Medical Association headquarters in Chicago.
ADAPT had four demands for the AMA including:
* Endorse the Community Choice Act (S. 799, H.R. 1621) which is federal
legislation that would give people eligible for nursing home and/or
institutional placement a choice to choose community services instead;
* Work with ADAPT to develop an action plan that assures that people with
disabilities and seniors get REAL CHOICE in long-term care
services/supports so they are able to live in the legally required "most
integrated setting," and provide the AMA membership with continuing
medical education programs about community-based alternatives to
institutionalization;
* Develop an AMA ethics policy requiring doctors to disclose to their
patients any financial interest they have in a nursing facility when they
are discussing long-term care with those patients, and to not refer any
patient to a nursing home in which the doctor has a financial interest;
* Require that AMA Board of Trustees and leadership divest themselves of
all financial interests in nursing facilities, etc.
99 members were arrested in Washinton, D.C. in April 2007 when they took over a hearing room in the Rayburn House Office Building, as well as the offices of Rep. John Dingell (D-MI), and Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) and filling the Rayburn House driveway to try to force hearings on the CCA.
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No response from Senator McCain on the situation, or whether he plans to cosponsor the bill.
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Update [2008-5-1 23:0:32 by second gen]:
The AP is only reporting 20 arrested, as though this were a small gathering, but from a presser at the ADAPT website, 40 were arrested of 250 members at the McCain office, and a few blocks away, 250 more were stuck in a standoff at the RNC.
About 250 ADAPT activists filled Sen. McCain's office in the Russell Senate Building and the halls just outside the office. A few blocks away another 250 ADAPT activists stormed the offices of the Republican National Committee (RNC), with 5 wheelchairs gaining entry, and the remainder blocking all the doors and driveways. There was a nine hour standoff into the night, during which the RNC staff refused access to the bathroom for the ADAPT members who were in the building. The main ADAPT demand was that the RNC assist to schedule a meeting with Sen. McCain where ADAPT representatives could talk about support for the Community Choice Act. The RNC staff repeatedly stated that they did not have the power to call their candidate's campaign staff to ask for such a meeting.
"I find it very hard to believe that the organization that raises so much
of the funding for the presidential campaign can't talk to its own
candidate," said Randy Alexander, Tennessee ADAPT Organizer, who was
trapped inside the RNC building for nine hours and not allowed to use a
bathroom. "We weren't asking them to guarantee a meeting, just to pick up
the phone, call Sen. McCain, and try to get a meeting set up. Any person
on the street could make that call, yet they said they didn't have the
power to do that."
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[UPDATED] Contact info for Capitol Police: (h/t David Kroning)
The United States Capitol Police
The officer quoted in the article speaking for the Capitol Police was Police Sgt. Kimberly Schneider.
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Update [2008-5-2 0:33:23 by second gen]:
While we're on the subject, in today's Townhall meeting in Des Moines, a participant asked John McCain if it was true that he called his wife a.... Well, let's go to the video:
Transcript:
Q: This question goes to mental health and mental health care. Previously, I've been married to a woman that was verbally abusive to me. Is it true that you called your wife a (expletive)?
McCain: Now, now. You don't want to... Um, you know that's the great thing about town hall meetings, sir, but we really don't, there's people here who don't respect that kind of language. So I'll move on to the next questioner in the back.
OH! SNAP!
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From Huffinton Post, we learn that the participant was escorted out by Des Moines police. I guess, since he didn't have a disability, there was no point in actually having him arrested, only people with disabilities are dangerous.
Clive businessman Marty Parrish was escorted from Sen. John McCain's town hall meeting by Des Moines police and members of the Secret Service after asking McCain if he had called his wife Cindy an expletive in 1992.
Parrish, an ordained Baptist minister who holds a master's degree in political science, was questioned by Secret Service agents before being released. He was not charged in the incident. Parrish asked whether McCain called his wife Cindy an expletive related to the female anatomy, as has been alleged in the book "The Real McCain," written by Dem strategist Cliff Schecter.
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This doesn't really have anything much to do with the disability activists who were arrested at McCain's office this week, but it sure goes to show what kind of person McCain is....