Stephen Views the News May 17, 2009
http://stephenviewsthenews.blogspot.com/
* The conservative agenda ~ or lack thereof – Today a Washington Post article was titled, “Gay-Marriage Issue Awaits Court Pick, Same-Sex Unions Supplant Abortion As Social Priority for Conservatives.” Despite no evidence that same-sex marriage has a negative influence on the institution of marriage or the fabric of our society the conservative movement has hitched their Trojan horses to this empty wagon. Imagine the benefits to the American people if the full force of the conservative movement, be they social or anti-social conservatives, actually advocated for meaningful issues that include:
~ Affordable, quality healthcare for all citizens (as is the case in most industrialized nations)
~ Energy and environmental policies that protect the air and water essential to human existence and the food supply to sustain that existence
~ Responsible inspection of imported and domestic food and products
~ Workers rights that assure fair wages and reasonable and safe working conditions
~ Limitations on interest rates that have now reached levels that qualify as usury and were at one time outlawed in America
~ Public financing of elections so that special interests do not override the real interests of the people
Perhaps God should be recruited to the policy-setting committee for the conservative agenda. Rumor has it that She cares about the actual well-being of people.
* Romancing a Sheep – Religious-right leader Pat Robertson says, “The ‘ultimate conclusion’ of legalizing same-sex marriage would be the legalization of polygamy, bestiality, child molestation and pedophilia.” As the religious-right apprehensively watches its relevancy wane, its inflammatory rhetoric increases in intensity and absurdity. Appropriate responses to such nonsense would be “Nah” and “Baa.”
* Ignorance is bliss ~ or, just ignorant – John McCain has returned to the Sunday talk show punditocracy. These days he is weighing in on the military’s policy of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT). If one is in the armed forces and is gay, just don’t admit to it and you are permitted to face a Taliban sniper or the possibility that the family jewels will be blown off by an al Qaeda operative or Sunni insurgent. McCain says that the policy is working. A fair question would be, “What are the results of inserting one’s head in the sand on this issue?”
From ThinkProgress.org: Since 1994, DADT has resulted in the discharge of more than 13,000 military personnel across the services, including approximately 800 with skills deemed “mission critical,” such as pilots, combat engineers, and linguists. According to a 2005 report from the Government Accountability Office, “the cost of discharging and replacing service members fired because of their sexual orientation during the policy’s first 10 years totaled at least $190.5 million — roughly $20,000 per discharged service member.
With war on two fronts and a military extremely over-extended Senator McCain says that the system is working. At a time when the strategic goals in Iraq and Afghanistan critically require personnel with Arabic language capabilities many have been dismissed. At a time when many military personnel have received deployment to combat zones four and five times because of a shortage of trained soldiers, this has resulted in very high numbers of military personnel with stress disorders. McCain would have us believe the system is working. Appropriate responses to such nonsense would be “Nah” and “Baa.”
* Seeing the obvious ~ when it is right in front of you – “Census data from the Mexican government indicate an extraordinary decline in the number of Mexican immigrants going to the United States.” I guess one could say that the U.S. government’s effort to stem the flow of illegal immigrants across our borders is finally working. Nah and baa. “If jobs are available, people come,” said Jeffrey S. Passel, senior demographer at the Pew Hispanic Center, a nonpartisan research group in Washington. “If jobs are not available, people don’t come.” The recession is proving more effective in reducing illegal immigration than incompetent and malfeasant U.S. policy.
Something we have always known is that the attraction for people to enter our country illegally was the availability of jobs. Something we have known all along is that it is illegal to employ undocumented workers. Something we have known all along is that said law was not enforced. Why? One reasonable guess would be that politically influential farmers, food processors, manufacturers, builders, landscapers… convinced the powers that be to look the other way. There was too much profit to be relinquished if they could not use these immigrants who work for low wages, no benefits, no worker rights and protections. Now that the not-so-secret “secret” is out, how will this affect enforcement of existing law and the formulation of new laws going forward? The answer depends upon the balance of power in this country between the special interests and the interests of the American people.
* “Power always thinks it had a great soul and vast views beyond the comprehension of the weak, and that it is doing God's service when violating all His laws.”
John Adams (1735 – 1826) second President of the U.S. (1797 – 1801)
I grew up in the midwest in a family in which politics was rarely discussed. Nebraska -- mother was from farm country near Sioux City, Iowa. Except for my father, who I think admired FDR for his efforts in alleviating the suffering of the great depression, most of the Nebraska farmers were confirmed Republicans. (Still are, it appears)
I voted that way, too, until the Vietnam war and some university friends pointed out the folly of my thinking. My last GOP vote was for Ike, and I don't much regret it -- he was fine president. Also, the Democratic party was dominated by a southern faction determined to keep Jim Crow in place -- that disgusted me.
My point is that it took a chance encounter at a party, and someone willing to break through the trivial party chatter to wake me up. That shouldn't be the case -- we need to reach across to others and discuss issues, and learn to do it in a dispassionate way. We surely can come together if we are willing to reconsider our own biasses, listen to others, and keep our focus on the common needs of all our citizens.
With Barack in office, I really can hope that a new era is dawning, in which we can discuss the real issues confronting our nation, and the state of California in particular. I'm concerned about many issues, and just can't decide on any particular priority -- Barack is right that liberal progress must proceed on many fronts at once. I'm pleased that he has the wisdom, intelligence and energy to keep on top of them all.
I maintain a web page with a dozen or so essays that I've written, along with a few others from various media articles -- see below. See especially my comments about no child left behind -- George Bush's well-meaning, but terrible educational testing policies. As a university teacher, that strikes home, as I see the results of our educational system in the students that I'm training in computer engineering.
http://www.wbarrett.us/index.html
Yebahca
Stephen Views the News April 21, 2009
Tea and Torture on a Spring Day
* The prestidigitation of the political right – There was much ado about very little with last week’s tax day Tea-Bagging protests about taxes and an assortment of sometimes hate-filled accusations. Although it was billed as a populist movement of significant proportions it was neither populist nor populous.
The event was repeatedly promoted by FOX News. While some consider FOX News a news station what it has demonstrated over the last 10 years is that it is the public relations arm of the Republican Party. FOX silence was telling on the subject of federal spending during the years that Bush and Republicans blew through the Clinton budget surplus and proceeded to build huge deficits. Who were the other movers and shakers behind Tea-Bagging?
Americans for Prosperity – a right wing think tank funded by billionaire David Koch. Koch Industries was fined $35 million dollars in 2000 for oil spills resulting from eroded and broken pipelines. “During the 1990s, the firm's faulty pipelines were responsible for more than 300 oil spills in five states, prompting a penalty of $35 million. In 1996, a flawed pipeline caused an explosion outside of Dallas in which two teenagers were killed. In a lawsuit related to the deaths, a trial court returned a judgment of $376.69 million against the company. Now there is a populist face to put on your tea bag tag.
The Independence Institute – This very conservative think tank is funded by the Coors Foundation’s Castle Rock Foundation both of whom advocate for the wealthy interests and their privileged needs. Just because they supply beer to the masses does not mean they are interested in the masses beyond the purchase of the next six-pack.
FreedomWorks – An organization that supports and promotes the interests of lobbyist Dick Armey. Those interests include Bristol-Myers Squibb, the insurance industry, and oil interests. Armey opposes health reform that would cut into the profits of branded drugs, works for deregulated life insurance reform and supports the status quo reliance on fossil fuels. Not to go unnoticed, none of these issues are in the interests of the American people.
The funders of the Tea-Bagging movement are to populism what the Republican Party was to the religious right. It is the illusion of representing the interests of a broad segment of the citizenry while in fact representing the interests of a select few. White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs had the appropriate response to the Tea-Bagging magical mystery tour. “The president, he stressed, had just recently passed a ‘tax cut that covers the most people in the history of this country’…The president promised significant tax relief for working families of this country, and in the first month of the administration delivered that to the American people.”
What are the facts concerning U.S. tax policy? A report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities: “Federal Tax Burdens for Most Near Their Lowest Levels in Decades” concludes: Overall Federal Tax Burdens Are Low by Historical Standards; Federal Individual Income Tax Burdens Have Fallen Significantly; and Tax Burdens Have Dropped Most Sharply for the Highest-Income Households. I would suggest that this is what the Tea-Bagging rallies were about. It involved the wealthiest of society protecting their privileged tax concessions which they manipulated through congress in recent decades. And the sly shysters at FOX carried their water. What is being touted as a grassroots movement is little more than an assroots movement ensconced in deception and illusion.
John Perr at Crooks and Liars compiled a list of 10 Republican Tax Day Lies. They are listed below and the link provides fuller explanations:
1. President Obama will raise taxes on small businesses.
2. The estate tax devastates small businesses and family farms.
3. 40% of Americans pay no taxes.
4. Tax cuts always increase revenue.
5. The GOP is the party of fiscal discipline.
6. Ronald Reagan was the greatest tax cutter of all time.
7. FDR caused the Great Depression, or at least made it worse.
8. Obama's cap-and-trade plan will cost each American family $3,100 a year.
9. Obama's tax proposals will undermine charitable giving.
10. The rich pay too much in taxes already.
* The Torture Memos –Obama’s release of Bush’s Justice Department torture memos showed courage and at the same time focused attention once again on some of the moral and legal issues these memos engender. It required courage to go against the national security community, some of his advisors and the bulk of the political right. These memos broke laws and their release exposes the shrewd but amoral reasoning used by the Bush appointees who concocted these “justifications.” And make no mistake! U.S. laws and international laws were broken, as pointed out by constitutional lawyer Glenn Greenwald at Salon.com. How many times in the last two decades have we heard conservatives lecture about the rule of law, at least until the law is an inconvenient truth? Our laws, including international treaties, exist apart from political party or political perspective. They exist regardless of issue or circumstance.
My ambiguity about the CIA interrogators empowered by these memos uncomfortably surfaced when Obama said that CIA operatives would not be prosecuted for committing torture. This is a difficult subject to embrace from either side. From one standpoint if one thought that they were following the law they should be free of prosecution. And yet, the Nuremburg trials concluded that this was not a satisfactory defense. This is not an attempt to equate the widespread inhuman acts of the Nazi regime against innocent and defenseless people to what occurred at Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib and secret prison sites. It is a question of where one draws the line. It is my strong feeling that the line must not be subject to situational ethics. It is also a matter that these operatives were burdened with directives that stemmed from the Bush administration’s strained attempts to circumvent the law. It is interesting that when Obama said that CIA personnel involved in these interrogations would not be prosecuted there was no mention of a pass for the people that designed and authorized these programs. Perhaps there will be consequences but in either case we are at least addressing this difficult and challenging subject. Democracy and morality are not always easy and the fact that we question our actions in an open forum only adds gravitas to the proud claims we proclaim as a nation.
* Quotes of the Week:
~ Richard Armitage, second in command at the State Department under George W. Bush, said in an interview (about the torture of detainees), "I hope, had I known about it at the time I was serving, I would've had the courage to resign,"
~ “The image of the United States of America throughout the world (committing torture) is a recruiting tool for Islamic extremists.” John McCain 4/20/09
* “The healthy man does not torture others - generally it is the tortured who turn into torturers”Carl Gustav Jung (1875 – 1961) Swiss psychiatrist
The Senate is expected to vote on Senator John McCain's alternative budget today, as well as a number of proposed amendments. These amendments, and these votes, are where a large portion of the budget battle will be fought. Senate GOP leaders have said that they will use the amendment process to try to alter the budget rather than presenting their own, comprehensive alternative. Yesterday the Senate defeated a proposed Republican amendment that would have enacted a spending freeze on all non-defense discretionary spending in 2010, a move that would deeply undercut the effects of the President's recent stimulus package. John McCain's suggested alternative would make deeps cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, while extending the Bush tax cuts for the rich.
If you haven't already done so, there is still time to call your representatives and let them know that you support the President's budget plan, and ask them to vote against any last minute amendments that would weaken it.
As OFA Director Mitch Stewart explained in a message to supporters recently, this budget represents an historic opportunity to create jobs, restore our economy, and invest in our future. We can't let this important moment slip away.
September 15, 2008: the date John McCain, while on the campaign trail in Jacksonville, Florida, declared “the fundamentals of our economy are strong”, providing the American public with direct evidence that he is disturbingly out of touch with the tenets of basic economics. Yet all forty Republican senators unflinchingly fell in line to support his anemic, ill-conceived alternative plan based on the failed strategies of the past. Apparently his 26 years in Washington left him without the perspective to understand that the policies he supports created the economic crisis of epic proportions we are experiencing. He still appears to be in the mindset of Phil Gramm, McCain’s former economic advisor who six months ago dismissed the economic distress signals that portended our current economic deflationary spiral as the baseless cries of “a nation of whiners”.
At $421 Billion, McCain’s plan was roughly half that of the Democrats' in scale. Rehashing the Republican mantra of tax cuts and military spending, the McCain plan was comprised mainly of cutting the bottom two income tax brackets and on lowering corporate income taxes. Its feeble spending provisions would have provided money to repair and replace military equipment worn out in Iraq and Afghanistan, and extended unemployment benefits. Thankfully, and due to the Democratic majority in the Senate, the alternative bill was defeated, 57 to 40, strictly upon party lines.
What can the Republicans be thinking? Doesn’t the fact that we have entered into this nightmarish catch-22 of a devastated economy as the result of eight years of laize faire, tax cutting, and military spending government policies? Doesn’t anybody remember the fiasco of McCain’s pick of Phil Gramm for economic advice, his self-admission of economic ineptitude, and his claims that the economy was sound even as we were tumbling into an economic crisis of breathtaking scale? Don’t any of these Senators and Congresspeople want to look beyond their wounded feelings of loss from the November election, or their perception of powerlessness, or whatever is driving their… robotic behavior, and actually open their minds to help the nation and the world?
From my perspective, we have done everything we can not to paint Republicans into a corner. We have allowed them to be part of the conversation with dignity and respect. I am determined that we not allow their intractable response (with the exceptions of Senators Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine, Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania) to derail our hope of reforming the divisiveness and partisan bickering in Washington we have suffered for the last eight years. However, we obviously have a long way to go.
I am so proud of how President Obama has handled this difficult beginning to his administration.
The Republicans have made an incredibly potent maneuver in the choice of Michael Steele to head the RNC. Placing a black Republican in such a position of power and prominence in the wake of the Barack Obama victory signals a return to politics after a brief excursion in the lane of emotionalism and racial unity.
The Republicans are not fooled by the overwhelming black support of the Barack victory, nor are they willing to believe that the movement has reached its zenith just because a black man has been elected president. This party is looking beyond the ebony mirage to tap the resources of pleuralism within the black community and the American public at large. The Steele move seems to be aimed at diluting the accumulated energy of the African- American constituency still caught up in the rush of the Obama ascension.
Add to this timely move, the recent jabs thrown by the defeated John McCain in regard to the upcoming Senate consideration of the bailout bill. Senator McCain is positioning himself as the point man to take the momentum away from Barack Obama and give the Republicans a voice with which to stand against the rushing tide of Obamanism which seeks to create a bipartisan unity in government. The potential losers in this chess match are the victims of this ailing economy who must wait for political horseplay to run its course before getting much needed relief.
A decisive overturn of the Democratic majority in the mid-term elections; a highly visible Black RNC chairman, and a Democratic Party caught off guard in 2012 spells darkness for the Obama sunrise. As I mentioned earlier, 2008 is not sufficient to establish the success of Barack Obama as a black American president. Defeat in 2012 will erase a lot of the meaning from the victory of 2008. Winning in 2012 is more important than winning in 2008 in many ways.
The Repubilcans are on the move as should be obvious to anyone smelling the coffee. I only hope that concerned Democrats, undistracted by the pressing concerns of running this country and saving it from complete economic collapse on their watch, will set their sights not just on mid term elections but on 2012. It is not too early. Soon enough, it may be too late.
The Audacity of An Ambition: The Political Economy of Obama’s Electoral Victory*
On November 4th, 2008, Americans went to the polls and made a statement to the rest of the world by electing Barack Obama the first African American to be the President of the United States of America. While there are many factors that contributed to this historic win, one single factor and issue which dominated the entire fall campaign was the economy. There is no doubt that when Americans realized on September the 15th, at the height of the financial meltdown, that there is a need for a bold decision to reverse the looming economic disaster, they did what came naturally to them and voted their pockets. The economic situation, the loss of real estate values and pension savings coupled with increasing rate of unemployment contributed in no means measure to the election of Barack Obama. In a free market environment and the world leading capitalist economy, the election was simply more about the economy. Barack Obama for months hammers on why the country was in economic stupor. From expensive wars overseas, to inept policies and perceived incompetence of the Republican administration, he was able to convince Americans to look beyond him and revisit their economic dire straits and ask themselves if they can afford another four more years of the same. That was a very convincing and we now know, successful sale. It worked because at any other time and with a different strategy, it might have been difficult for candidate Obama to close the deal. However there were other contributing factors as well. As President-elect Obama prepares to ascend the Presidential seat and the most powerful office in the world on January 20th 2009, we must also note that, although we may have seen his win as an historic achievement, we must nevertheless recognize that, he did it in a very unique way. First, Barack Obama stood on the shoulder of giants and this must not be lost on all of us. As a French analyst put it on Charlie Rose on the night of the election, “Rosa Park sat for Martin Luther King Jr to match, for Barack Obama to run and for America to fly”. We have just witnessed the culmination of a gradual and lengthy process of democratic consolidation on a path toward that perfect union. Obama ran as an American and his background is very much American in nature and his campaign led by David Axelrod and David Plouffe, were able to put together an excellent exercise, which reassured all Americans that , yes it can be done. Once they accepted the notion of Barack Obama as a competent American, his skin color remain just what it is and the dream’s “content of his character” became the issue. And once he was able to scale that hurdle, there was no doubt about America’s readiness to make history and elect him the next President. It has taken over 220 plus years for Americans to achieve this landmark but it is a signal to the rest of the world that, it can be done. If Obama could win in the United States of America surely, ethnic, racial or any differences any where in the world, becomes less of a determining factor if, and when a viable, competent and truly national candidate emerges in the future. Obama was not an African -American candidate, he was an American candidate for the Presidency. It took Reverend Wright for him to even address the race question and after that, it was never addressed again by his campaign. Barack Obama’s personality also contributed to his success at the polls. He is perceived as an intelligent, cool and dynamic individual. And by the time questions about Reverend Wright, Bill Ayers and others were raised, it fails to undermine his candidacy. This was because for months on end, he and his campaign were able to drum it into the American psychic, that candidate Obama is above them. Charismatic leadership, ability to communicate and to inspire and to raise people’s hope remains an important ingredient for leadership and Obama possess it all. He used it well and as we found out words do matter. Since that evening four years ago, at the democratic convention, when he introduced him self to America that: There is no red America and no blue America but a United States of America, he laid the foundation and the recipe for his success. The audacity to aspire, run and play on the tuff of the Republicans couple with buying into Howard Dean’s 50- state strategy worked perfectly well for his campaign. For several election cycles, democrats have always limited themselves to their blue states and then hope to win but this time Barack Obama went for all the marbles in all the states and it paid off. This was a winning strategy that will reshape the way Presidential politics will be played in the future. We also have new generation of voters. These new voters were not only the under 30s years of age, who were post racial in their world view but also new registrants who want to be part of history. These new voters came out in drove to cast their votes on the day of the election. When you combine this with the energy of the Barack Obama’s grass-root organization and mobilization, which doomed the Clinton machine earlier in the year, it was a tall order to expect the Republican Party to win. The Republicans also helped Obama by nominating their best candidate capable of winning this election cycle but fails to support him enthusiastically. This forced Senator McCain to gamble and play safe to rally the base, by selecting Governor Sarah Palin. The choice was palliative at best with little lasting effect. In fact about 19% of them voted for Barack Obama in the end. The choice of Palin combined with the newness of Obama on the national stage initially kept the race within reach, at least until the financial melt down. And then it was down hill from then. Obama also had the heavy financial advantage. The fact that he was able to raise over 160million dollars in the last month before the election alone makes the task even more difficult for McCain as it was for Mrs Clinton earlier during the primary. The effective use of the internet and the effect of the grass root fundraising capabilities help made it happened. The implication for the future is two fold: From now on, more and more Americans will able to support their candidates through small donations, the way millions supported Obama or we will see another campaign reforms which will force a limited financial options on the candidates for the most powerful office in the world. From the Republican enabling factor, with the financial meltdown, President Bush’s problems to Barack Obama‘s charisma, his campaign strategy, the financial advantage and the time for change, the election of Mr Obama became inevitable. Obama has a lot of people to thank too. From Booker T Washington to W E B.Dubois, to Martin Luther King Jr, to Rosa Park, To Malcolm X, to Louis Farrakhan (even if one disagrees with him, his mere existence helps one to appreciate the other alternative-Obama) and to Jesse Jackson. There are many others to thank as well, the list include those who have blazed trails in their respective professions such Cornel West, Louis Henry Gates, Oprah Winfrey, Michael Jordan, Tiger Wood, Wills Smith, Michael Jackson, Bob Johnson and thousand others. These people while excelling in their professions have proved somehow to America that, yes it can be done.. The next step is for all, to now dream of this possibility. From Women, to Hispanic Americans, to Asian American and Native American, from Americans in the remote towns of Maine to the suburbs of California, Americans can now hope and yes it can be done. And to all of us in Africa, Latin America and Asia and of course in Europe, we can do it and this world can surely be a better place if we can put our differences and aim beyond our fears and limitations. Democracy is also the winner because however long it may take, everybody wins in the end and that is why we must give kudos to Jesse Jackson for inspiring us to ”keep hope alive”.
*Bamidele A Ojo.PhD .Professor of Political Science .African Studies Program.School of Political & International Studies.Fairleigh Dickinson University. Nj.
** Watch out for: Obama and African Leadership: Time for Tough Love
(It is time for a responsible and accountable leadership on the continent of Africa and a for an American President to make that call which will no longer be seen as neo imperialist because a son of Africa is now the one making it.President Barack Obama should start calling these leaders to order. It is time for re-liberation of the African people. It is time to bring our two worlds and the rest of the world together. It is time for real American leadership that inspires all on behalf of all.
I wrote this on September 15th.
I must ask how so many people can be thrilled by the prospect Sarah Palin as our vice president. We all know that John McCain is over 70. Although Americans have longer life spans these days, John McCain is at greater risk for death during the presidency than many of his peers because of his less-than-stellar health.
