Interesting....

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: ADA Watch and the National Coalition for Disability Rights <
[log in to unmask]>
Date: Fri, Oct 31, 2008 at 11:19 AM
Subject: Disability Organizations Outraged by McCain-Palin Rally Attacks on
"the Disabled."
To: [log in to unmask]


 ADAWatch.org
National Coalition for Disability Rights
1701 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Suite 300
Washington, DC 20006
202-448-9928 - [log in to unmask]

*NEWS RELEASE *

*October 31, 2008*

* *

*Disability Rights Organizations Express Outrage Over Attacks at
McCain-Palin Rally *

* *

*Contacts:    *

Jim Ward, Founder and President

202-415-4753 or [log in to unmask]




Marcie Roth, Executive Director

301-717-7447 or [log in to unmask]



*(Washington, DC)* The National Coalition for Disability Rights (NCDR)
pushed back today against the McCain-Palin campaign for ridiculing the legal
rights of people with disabilities. News reports describe McCain-Palin
campaign representative Senator Kit Bond (R-Mo), joining Vice Presidential
candidate Sarah Palin at a rally in Rush Limbaugh's hometown of Cape
Girardeau, Missouri, mocking Presidential candidate Senator Barak Obama for
stating that he's looking to nominate judges who empathize with "the
disabled."



"It's Halloween and it seems that Sarah Palin's mask of support for people
with "special needs" is slipping. Despite past pandering to people with
disabilities, McCain-Palin are actually opposed to vital disability
legislation like the *Community Choice Act* and they want to appoint judges
who will further roll back the civil rights protections of the *Americans
with Disabilities Act*," declared NCDR's founder and president, Jim Ward.



NPR's Nina Totenberg has reported that McCain-Palin's and conservatives'
"most oft-mentioned prospects" for nomination to the Supreme Court include
Ohio Judge Jeffrey Sutton. Sutton was opposed by hundreds of disability
organizations when he was nominated by President Bush after successfully
weakening the ADA with states' rights arguments. As a sitting judge, he has
recently supported the execution of criminals with developmental
disabilities and has undermined the Help America Vote Act(HAVA).



Disability rights advocates are further incensed that the McCain-Palin
campaign has reframed this civil rights struggle, one founded in concepts of
equality, dignity and self-respect, as an issue of "special needs."



Disability rights advocate, Steve Gold states, "Yes we need support
services. Yes we need inclusive education. Yes we need integrated
employment. Yes we need equal rights. This not "special". These needs are
based on us, people with disabilities, equal members of our communities. We
are not inspirational nor are we "special". We are PROUD PEOPLE WITH
DISABILITIES who should push back when anyone describes us as anything but
equal members of our communities."


The* National Coalition for Disability Rights *is* *a nonpartisan nonprofit
that does *not* endorse political candidates*. * We are a coalition of
national, state and local disability, civil rights and social justice
organizations united to protect and promote the human rights of children and
adults with physical and mental disabilities.



###






-- 


Kendall

An unreasonable man (but my wife says that's redundant!)

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one
persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress
depends on the unreasonable man.

-George Bernard Shaw 1856-1950

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