Three Little Words
February 8, 2009
by Mary Lyon
“I screwed up.”
Sounds like a simple, ordinary, and harmless little thing to admit, unless of course you’re the President of the United States. We haven’t heard the likes of this in at least eight years. No wonder everybody in the media is almost literally erupting about it. They can’t believe their ears. Seems THAT is a little misplaced, too. By about eight years and a whole lot of Texas Two-Steppin’ around the truth, both inconvenient and uncomfortable.
In just a few days in office, President Obama has made it stunningly clear that the infantile, cowardly, deceitful, and recklessly incompetent (almost to the point of pride) Bush/Republican Way of doing things is OVER. With those three little words, “I screwed up,” he’s already provided us a new template of what a REAL president, a REAL man, a REAL adult, does when something goes wrong on his or her watch. As one TV commentator put it – “he manned up.” The last time I got to thinking about this, I wondered what I myself was going to do now that the changes had happened. Seems everyone’s grappling with that, now. We’re just not used to this.
The “loyal opposition” certainly doesn’t know what to do – they’re even more in the dark than I am. In a previous column, I ruminated about not being sure, anymore, how to behave in this new political climate. President Obama had set a new tone for political ops, one of reaching out, blissful and productive bipartisanship, open hands versus clenched fists. The GOP, in seems, only gets part of this – the part with the clenched fists. Read more
The Bush Administration Must Be Prosecuted (and why it will not happen)
January 17, 2009
by Anthony Wade
David Corn once wrote that George W. Bush doesn’t just lie, he mugs the truth. He assaults it. He violates it. The same can be said for the law. Bush has spent the past eight years ignoring, exploiting, and violating the law. He doesn’t just break the law, he mugs it. The amazing thing is he does it broad daylight and often brags about it. Last night he came before the American people and smirked at them about breaking the law; or as he called it – “making the tough decisions.” This is the reality disconnect Bush has always had as President. When faced with the reality that he is breaking the law, he merely renames it – recasts it in a light that makes him look like he had to because of his job. Water boarding and torturing people as policy becomes a “tough decision” he just had to make. Hey – you may disagree with me but you must agree that I made the tough decisions… Read more
Blago and Burris vs. The Senate - Former attorney-general warms his hands on a chunk of plutonium
December 31, 2008
by Bryan Zepp Jamieson
The main problem the Democrats face right now is that Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich’s nomination of Roland Burris, a former Attorney General for the State of Illinois, is perfectly valid. Blago, while about as radioactive as a politician can get short of trying to pick up a vice cop in a public toilet, hasn’t been convicted or even indicted, and isn’t presently being impeached. The present Attorney General of Illinois, Lisa Madigan, tried to get the state Supreme Court to rule that Blago could be restrained from appointing a successor to Obama’s Senate seat, to no avail. The court collectively shrugged, noting that since no criminality was involved, it was out of their jurisdiction.
Until he’s impeached and/or convicted of something, he’s still the governor with all the powers and prerogatives of his office.
But he’s radioactive. The Senate Democrats already said they would reject any appointment he made to the Senate, since the accusations made against him have hopelessly tainted the process. In the eyes of the law, he may be pure as the driven snow, but politically, he stinks worse than Bigfoot on a NY garbage barge. Read more
Reframing Greed to Make It a Virtue
December 29, 2008
by Jerry Lobdill
I recently wrote an essay condemning the Mayor and City Council of Fort Worth, Texas as partners with the gas drilling industry in the rape of the electorate of the city. In that essay I said,
“When confronted with these issues by concerned citizens the City Council behaved as if they had never been told of them, and yet in every case they defended the promoters of greed and profit over safety and health and refused to declare a moratorium while appropriate studies and investigations are conducted.”
One of my chosen reviewers, an ally in the gas wars, took issue with my use of the word, greed. Now, I need to tell you a little about this fellow so you will know where he is coming from. He is a man of about 60 years of age, a lawyer who until a few years ago was a chief executive of a major pipeline company. He is steeped in the philosophy of mainstream business, that is, he subscribes to the notion that you either have totally unfettered capitalism or you have socialism, and socialism is a very dirty word that connotes communism, dictators, and the absence of freedom. This notion is an article of faith that is inculcated into every business person to such an extent that they cannot explain where or when they first came to believe it. It is at the core of their belief system. Read more
Bernie Madoff - True American Folk Hero
December 22, 2008
by John Kelley
While most folks on the bottom get the shaft, Bernie Madoff made it big. Madoff started his firm with $5,000 in 1960 at 21 years old. He supposedly earned it from installing sprinklers and working as a life guard, a pretty daunting task at 1960 wages even in Long Island. Bernie has now admitted to swindling rich folks out of $50 billion. Now if any of these people had any idea of how hard it would have been to save $5,000 in 1960 at those kind of jobs they never would have invested with him to start with.
Because he makes the rich look foolish, he is not in jail. Madoff is now grounded by the court, the con goes on. He can only go out of his $5 million dollar Manhattan home from 7am until 9pm and is restricted to Connecticut, southern New York State and the city. He did have to turn in his passport, and can no longer visit his two estates on Long Island, or the one in Palm Beach, or the one in France. That was because he couldn’t find four friends to co-sign for his bail. Read more
The Battle Ahead
December 1, 2008
by Lorenzo A. Canizares
Most people outside of the United States have no idea of the immensity of the problems left behind by the Bush/Cheney administration. They have no idea that one of our main and most difficult problems is the ideological legacy being left behind by the departing administration. This ideological legacy is going to make it difficult for many to understand what needs to be done for the benefit of our society.
The victory by Barack Obama signifies that most Americans understand that we need change. But, still 47% voted for McCain/Palin. Then we have many that voted for Obama not understanding what achieving this change will take.
The scene of what happened on Black Friday at the Wal-Mart in Valley Stream, NY is a reflection of the mentality that we have here in our nation that needs to be addressed if we want to move forward as a nation. Among the many immediate tasks that Obama has been left with, he needs to address the mindset of our people.
Since the Reagan years our people have continuously been told that success in life meant to take care of #1. Any concept of officially helping others has been subverted, to the point that it became almost anti-American to be socially conscious. The stigma of being liberal-minded became something to be avoided. The L word became a curse. The right-wing had won the battle of perception. The Labor Movement, the main engine of collective action, began to rapidly decline in its influence, the Greed Machine re-assembled, and “progressives” began to accept playing the game according to the rules set by the right-wing think tanks as seen during the Bush presidency where the dismantling of America’s industrial power became consolidated.
The height of this mentality came about right after 9/11 when we were told that “we should go to the Mall and shop.” Suddenly we had discovered that our main philosophical tenet could be reduced to the term “Consumerism.” We suddenly found out our economy has been geared to satisfy this way of making large amounts of money.
This needs to be understood in its global context. Having goods is not per se a negative thing. The purpose of a good political system is to make life more comfortable for those that live in it. What went wrong is a consumer-driven society with few regulations to protect its consumers.
In the other hand, many of us became easy prey through what Neal Peirce calls “hyper-individualism.” He describes it as “lifestyle choices such as picking a gas-guzzling SUV to reach a suburban McMansion so big you rarely visit all the rooms; headphones and solo video games in place of group activities, disdaining civic life or responsibilities, chronically shopping ‘til you drop, needlessly running up credit card balances, and economically consistently wanting , more, more, more.”
People’s minds have been molded to consume more, and through this urge then come the monetary gains from the fix. In the end those people like any other addict ended up hitting a wall.
There is no doubt the Obama campaign showed an increment of a collective mentality. Obama has not yet provided an ideological blueprint for this collective action to lead us anywhere. But, he is providing the practical approach that leads us to understand the power of doing things for the common good.
Everybody agrees that the economy needs a stimulant. There are those that will confine the stimulus to benefit the wealthy through a multitude of excuses. Obama has repeatedly indicated that he will follow the Roosevelt model, at its best, of spending capital on tangible assets. That is, instead of just giving monies to financial institutions or stimulus checks to individual taxpayers, rather invest that money in public works that will produce many jobs with decent income that will help the nation overcome its stagnation. Nobel Prize winner in economics, Paul Krugman, states those jobs as building roads, repairing bridges and developing new technologies. Most of us use roads or went to schools constructed through Roosevelt’s WPA.
The American people are justified in being afraid of losing their jobs. Today, the real unemployment figure is 12% (That is counting those workers that have disappeared from the unemployment rolls). Many of our jobs are tied to health-care benefits. Losing our jobs is a double-whammy. Universal health-care, especially through single-payer, is a battle cry for justice and common sense.
Obama, through his judicious appointments and consistent stands, has won the respect of the vast majority of Americans. He is in a unique position to be able to use the bully pulpit to inculcate in Americans the need to look at their well-being as being tied to the common good.
Most Americans are very good people. Just provide US the chance to prove it.
It Seems Sarah Palin Will Be on the National Scene for a While
November 17, 2008
by Sharon Kyle
Sarah Palin draws the media like a magnet. Whether we like it or not, judging from the amount of press she got this week, it appears she’ll remain on the national scene for as long as America and the rest of the world continue to tune in or click, searching for “Sarah Palin”-related stories.
This sustained interest in Palin appears to be coming from both the Left and the Right, although its unlikely the two sides are interested for the same reason. The Left’s interest is probably driven by a need to understand how a person with so little knowledge could have been chosen as a vice-presidential candidate, or maybe we’re just waiting for the gaffes that are sure to come. Read more
Election 2008: Spotlight on Minnesota
November 16, 2008
by Joan Brunwasser
Mark Halvorson is the director and co-founder of Citizens for Election Integrity Minnesota (CEIMN). In 2004, he traveled to Ohio to observe the recount. CEIMN was founded in the wake of what happened there, its goal to ensure that votes are counted accurately. They seek “to [restore] the integrity of our electoral system through the implementation of:
The national spotlight is on Minnesota right now because of the closeness of the Coleman/Franken Senate race. At this point, a little over 200 votes separate the two candidates. If Franken prevails, he could bring the Democrats a bit closer to a filibuster-proof Senate, so a lot is at stake. A statewide recount was automatically triggered by the close contest.
While we await that recount that begins November 19, a post-election audit is being conducted at this very moment. Minnesota is one of only 16 states that mandate this, and it was first used in place in 2006. The state is comprised of 4,123 precincts and 87 counties. 200 public-minded, democracy-loving, citizen volunteers are among those observing roughly 5% of the ballots from a minimum of 202 precincts across the state.
The audit takes about ten days. Each of the 2.9 million ballots cast in last week’s election will be examined and tallied by hand. Since Minnesota state law mandates paper ballots, touch-screen machines play no role here. The audit looks at three races only: President, US Senate, and US Representative. If the audit shows a discrepancy from the machine tallies of Election Day of over .05%, more precincts will be audited.
Halvorson explains how it works:
There are three escalation stages in the audit law. If a discrepancy occurs in just one precinct, greater than 0.5% compared to the election day tally, then three more precincts are audited. If a discrepancy is found in just one of these then a county-wide count will occur, and if a discrepancy in one precinct occurs in the county-wide count, then it will require a race-wide count.
Parenthetically, he adds “In 2006, no counties were required to escalate due to the accuracy of the machines.”
On the other hand, I would point out that even a small discrepancy can make a huge difference when spread across the state. It all adds up. Bob Sternberg wrote in Tuesday’s Star Tribune: “If that discrepancy rate [.00056, in 2006] occurred statewide in the current Senate race, it could potentially change more than 1,600 votes — eight times the margin that currently separates Franken and Coleman.”
http://www.ceimn.org/Franken_Coleman_Minnesota_Senate_Ritchie_election_recount_audit
When I asked Halvorson about this, he replied that because we can’t know whom the discrepancies will favor, and because there are actually three candidates as well as several write-ins, for the time being, this race is literally too close to call.
This manual audit will wrap up tomorrow, with its official report expected sometime next week. We can ascertain the accuracy of all of the different vendors’ optical scanners used across the state. Halvorson points out: “This oversight in the law [also] gives us a rare opportunity to compare the audit alongside a recount.” Just how rare are Minnesota recounts? Almost as rare as hens’ teeth. Except for a judicial race several months ago, the last Minnesota recount was back in 1962 when it took 139 days to determine the winner of the governor’s race.
Halvorson is quietly confident they are up to the task. He proudly points to Minnesota’s history of solid election administration: paper ballots as the official ballot of record, an enlightened Secretary of State, key legislators like Bill Hilty – author of the manual audit law, same day registration, a recount law, and even a partial discretionary recount law.
Collectivism vs Individualism - Some Thoughts
November 11, 2008
by John Kelley
The primary political struggles throughout history are about striking the balance between individual and collective interests. When it comes to economic and political policy the two extremes are the central planning of totalitarian communism and the “free market conservative” position of no regulation of economics at all. As is typical in this country, the argument is somewhat nebulous.
While the Democrats tend to believe in more government regulation of essential industries services people basic needs and more freedom regarding personal behavior, Republicans tend to focus on controlling people’s personal behavior and giving individuals and corporations untrammeled ability to impose their economic and political will on others in the name of personal freedom. Any attempt to limit this ability to exploit, repress or subjugate and balance it with the collective good, is quickly declared an imposition on personal freedom and property rights, and of course soviet style socialism. Read more
Open Letter to President Elect Obama about Science
November 11, 2008
Dear President Elect Obama,
I am nearing 71 years of age. I am a retired physicist and chemical engineer. I grew up in what was a golden era for America, a period in which there was widespread prosperity, with work and opportunity for all, when public education was its finest, and when anyone with ability could go to college and pull themselves up by their bootstraps to become an educated member of society and make a contribution beyond the taxes they paid. Read more
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Bob's Bail Out Plan by bobl-tlm
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How Do You Like Deregulation Now? graphic politics by Dicky Neely
