Bravo Obama and The Governor of Virginia

The contrast between President Obama and the Governor of Virginia was fascinating. While the president was articulate,forceful and very specific,witty and realistic, the new Governor of Virginia seemed out of the Robert Redford movie The Candidate-right out of central casting. Every line was out of a Conservative script. Nothing was related to any specific issue. It was as if he had a string behind his neck and talking about the smaller role of government,about states rights, about the government taking over health care, about the government bailout,about the government,about the government causing high unemployment. Cut to the tearfully smiling wife; cut to the tearful beautiful teenage daughter (at least he didn't offer his daughter out for dates). After a while I couldn't watch it anymore. The governor spoke in rebuttal without apparently listening to the speech. There is no Republican health care plan. Does he not know that medicare, Medicaid, the health care of congress and the VA are the most efficient health care delivery system? Doesn't he know that states are hemorrhaging in debt and laying off essential workers? Doesn't he know that the auto industry as we know it would have coll aped without the government bailout? What would that have done to employment in his state? Doesn't he know that unemployment would be closer to higher double digits without the government bailout? Doesn't he know that without the bailout (which the president noted that no one really likes) kept the US from the Greater Depression and a greater foreclosure rate? (Cut to the smile and the script-cut to rousing crowd cheers).
What bizarro world are these guy living in? It was the reckless behavior bordering on anarchy of the Bush years reading from the same script that got us into this mess. This is psychotic..not politics.

Obama and the myth of a balanced budget.

Suddenly President Obama is concerned about a balanced budget and a need to rein in spending.Just what happened to him the great intellect with a sense of history and his sense of connection with FDR vs Hoover? With unemployment at technically 10% and much higher actually, this is a crazy plan of action. First where are you going to cut? What programs are going to be removed? If people don't have jobs, they don't spend and consumer spending is what fuels the economy. The private sector is creating enough jobs at this point and local governments are being starved as well. Government spending is the only thing that fuels the economy. There is no inflation at this point.Virtually no lending is being done and banks still haven't learned their lessons.
The deficit was caused by conducting a war without a tax increase and due to the Bush tax cuts that benefit ted a small part of the population. These are issues repeated here ad infinitum. Revenues were depleted intentionally (Remember Clinton left office with a balanced budget) I just wish the President would stop defending what he has been forced to do to clean up the mess he inherited. I wish the President and the Democratic Party would just stop defending. Defending from my therapist's/therapy days is buying into someone else's idea that you did something that needs defending. (I would like to see Obama act more like my favorite character of Agent Gibbs on NCIS-vs Oliver in Love Story)
Everyone complains about the size of government and that programs need to be cut. Yet when you ask someone,a Republican senator and especially the Tea Party people just what would they cut, you don't get an answer. Farm subsidies, their social security, their medicare, education grants,school lunch programs, food stamps, FEMA, disaster relief,FDA protection, veterans benefits,infrastructure repairs,military bases in their communities. (Ask the people in Minnesota about the dangers of bridge disrepair) The cutting back on government spending is what made the great depression worse. The economy needs to be fueled by programs such as public works and rebuilding energy efficient rails and green jobs that would be the greatest investment "in our children's future"-Ever notice that everyone is concerned about "our children's future" in the short run, but really screws it up long term? This is the worst time to be cutting back on spending. The talk of "earmarks" is also a joke' Earmarks make up 1% of a $3trillion plus budget. This is basically nothing and each request eg help for mass transit is considered essential by the group who had lobbied for it.
Infrastructure repair puts people to work and puts money back into the system. Every dollar of public works money is multiplied. People out of work don't pay taxes, and cut their spending.
The idea of being concerned about balancing the budget is theoretically a nice idea in different economic times-such as during the Clinton years. The reality of today's times makes the concerns about a balanced budget is totally insane. It also makes me wonder about the political philosophy of the man elected with such hope. There are times when I am just not sure what he stands for. The only thing that matters now is jobs.

Republicans As Populists- Democrats as Elitists?

The greatest myth is being perpetuated by the Republicans is that they are populists and the Democrats have done little to disuade the public otherwise. Republican tax cuts benefitted the top 1% of the population-which created the biggest budget deficit in history. The Republicans plan of deregulation of financial institutions led to the greatest global crisis since the great depression. Republican's started an unnecessary war in Iraq without raises taxes-the first time in history that a war was conducted without raising taxes. The soldiers of the war in Iraq were from a small part of the population. No draft..no shared sacrifice. No one at risk from the elites of our country. Republicans are for the elimination of the estate tax which effects less than 1% of the population. The party of "no" made it very clear that they are against the expantion of health care for 39,000,ooo Americans when 45,000 die each year for lack of health care.
While Republican decry that Democrats are tax and spend, Republicans are spend and not tax. This is populist? Now the Roberts Court (basically an extension of the Republican Party as Gore v Bush has shown) just overturned a 60 year ban on corporate spending on campaigns. Where are the Democrats on this? What are they doing to pull the curtain on what is really happening? Where is the fight by President Obama to stop trying to negotiate with people who have shown that they would like to see him fail no matter what the cost?
Where is the courage by the Democrats to let the Republicans fillibuster and let Americans know that they stand for nothing? Where is the courage to stand for something and at least if you lose,lose on principle. Rachel Maddow made a great point last night. Policies and politics are two different things but are intertwined. Politics is about winning elections (which is a lesson Al Gore forgot-another story) and policies is about governing and getting things done. If you have good policies, that wins elections. Democrats have to remember that they have a majority-a huge majority. This is not the time to withdraw and say poor me. In a democracy its 50 plus 1 to get things done. As all of us know growing up, the only way to deal with the school yard bully is to stand up and fight back.
Its time for Democrats to not worry about the next election and their jobs. If they don't do their job now, it won't matter anyway. Republican's as populists and Democrats as elitists? How did this happen?

An Amoral Victory in Massachusetts

Senator-elect Brown's victory in Massachusetts should not be seen as a moral victory for Republicans. The victory should not be seen as a "demoralizing" loss for Democrats. The only moral issue here is that in spite of who controls congress 45,000Americans die each year due to a lack of health insurance. This is not about a bunch of silly boys and girls making rules in a club like the Little Rascals. Its about savable lives.It is about needless human suffering. Its not about 59 or 41 its about 45,000 lives a year-some one's mother,father,daughter or son.
Just one other thought here about a moral victory-Senator Brown voted for the health care plan that insures health care for everyone in Massachusetts and now he is going to obstruct health care for everyone else?

Ricky Nelson Democrats

I hope the Democratic Party learned a lesson with the loss of the Senate seat in Massachusetts,(I don't want to call it the "Kennedy Seat" because I don't believe in royalty). The lesson I hope they learn is the lesson of the Ricky Nelson song "The Garden Party" where he sings "you can't please everyone, so you've got to please yourself". The Democratic Party tried to be everything to everyone for the sake of a filibuster proof health care bill. By worrying about the threat of a filibuster, they formulated a bill that went against their own principles of being populists,by putting women's reproductive rights at risk, by basically selling out to the insurance companies and by not pushing for a public option. There was ambivalence to the issue of doing away with the exemption of anti-trust status for the insurance companies as well. (Of course the multi-million dollar lobbying by the insurance companies framing the message with their adds also skewed the process.)
By trying to please Ben Nelson,Blanche Lincoln,and Joe Lieberman the promise of Obama and the promise of real health care reform was lost. The goal of 60 votes distorted the whole legislative process.(Medicare was passed by just one vote by the way) The result was worse than the threat. Its important for the Democrats to not lick their wounds now but to develope a health care bill with competition for the insurance companys,dealing with the issue of pre-existing conditions, and cost containment-which the current bill does.
First its important to keep the message simple: expansion of medicare for those 55-65; no denial of coverage for pre-existing conditions and the doing away of the exemption of insurance companies from anti-trust laws. Its also important that the Democrats not be afraid of the reconsiliation process so that the issue of majority rules does not get distorted as it has with the blackmail of the fillibuster.
Working with the republicans or Blue-dog Democrats has proven to be a waste of time due to their obstructionist attitude about changing the status quo. Compromise I heard once is the art of neither party getting what they want. The art of leadership is having a position,a specific agenda and sticking with it and leading from a position of moral and political authority and standing for something. As Ricky would say "you've got to please yourself".

Red States and Red Faced....

People in red states continue to kick themselves in the head while others pick their pockets and distract them. They don't have jobs, don't have health care yet it seems like their main concern is that the gay couple next door can't get married.

both political parties are dysfunctional

Over the last few days we've had the revelation from the Democratic Party that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said about President Obama that "the country was ready to embrace a black presidential candidate especially one like Obama-a light skinned African-American with no Negro dialect unless he wanted to have one." It is debatable that this is actually a political reality and not a racist comment-even though there has been a call for Mr.Reid to resign.
Michael Steele has become the embattled Chairman of The Republican National Committee because of a book tour he has started on a book the Republican Party never knew about. Mr.Steele has also lied about the events of the book,including when it was written (he claims it was before he became RNC chair-even though he talks about events since the appointment) and basically has threatened party leaders to fire him.
On the most recent Bill Moyer's Journal,Mother Jones writers David Korn and Kevin Drum discussed the insidious nature of the role of big money in the political process-especially in the banking industry where after the recent bailouts,its back to business as usual with bankers getting multi-million dollar bonuses.One of the problems covered on the program was the failure of the media to cover the issues of corporate greed and the role of money in politics. If the issue isn't covered it doesn't become one of great concern to most Americans. For example, how much coverage has there been by Britain to tax the bonuses of large bailout corporate executives at 50%? How much coverage has such a similar proposal to tax the corporate bonuses by Congressman Dennis Kucinish gotten? If you are not a political observer,there is no sense of immediacy, no chance of a sense of outcry. What is covered are the tea baggers who make a lot noise-which is dramatic and thus makes headlines. A proposal to address a specific issue does not.
The frustration of Mr.Moyer,Korn and Drum at the insidious nature of money in the political process was evident during this program. Is it any wonder that the infections of money and trivialities in both parties prevent anything from getting done? Is it any wonder, that even after teetering on the brink of another depression that its back to business as usual?

Enabling Sexual Addiction

Would a TV show about a family enabling an alcoholic in the presence of a child be considered funny? Probably not, but apparently the enabling of a sex addict in the presence of a child is and its very popular and very profitable. Isn't this what Two and A Half Men is about?

Re-thinking US global policy.

I have been thinking about the commitments the United States has all over the world-all the bases we have in so many countries. We have been in Korea for over 60 years worrying about a communist take over of South Korea. I wonder if its time to re-think this strategy. Just what would happen if we just pulled out. The conditions have changed since the 1950's. The threat of a communist take over was that of the looming presense of China. This was also our worry in Viet Nam that the domino theory would lead to southeast asia being in communist hands. Well after the fall of Saigon, Viet Nam is now a US trading partner and is actually a US travelers destination. We are trading with our former adversaries.
China has become an economic power and is more of a threat to us monitarily. China with its devalued currency and with their ownership of almost $800 billions of US debt (44% of total foreign US debt)practically own us. It is hardly in China's global interests to see a rough shod rogue North Korea. Is an unstable North Korea in China's economic/military best interests Of course North Korea's leader is corrupt and is someone who has kept his own country impoverished while building up a nuclear arsenal of his own. To me this is the greater threat than a North Korean invasion of the South. Just how much of a deterance is a 60 year old border when the threat is nuclear? Just what would be the consequences of such a move in this global chess game?

Gilbert Arenas-A culture of violence

Gallows laughter as shown in pictures of Gilbert Arenas and his mostly Black team ates as Arenas pretended to shoot them, is not funny. Gallows laughter does not fit the situation-its a distortion of what is actually happening. Imagine having someone say that they are fine and shaking their head while saying it. Its a mixed,confusing inappropriate reaction. It is also deadly.
2500 Black youth between the ages of 15-24 each year die from guns-as compared to 950 per year for Hispanics and 600 each year for whites. This is an epidemic and nothing to laugh about.An epidemic that has been with us for many years There are so many ways to approach this..the availability of guns,the drug wars, but the one that hits me the most is that I have seen many Gilbert Arenas as children when I worked in the NYC school system.
I would see the youngest of children in elementary schools, not walk but strut their way through hall ways. I would see children emulating what they saw on TV often with scowls on their faces and with open shoe laces the way prisoners are depicted on television. Some may say that this is a style-maybe not. I remember some boys talking about "bitches" and "ho's". The misogyny and glorification of violence was rapent in song lyrics.
In one school we tried to increase the awareness of children in regard to these messages. we would ask the children "how many of your mothers,grandmothers,sisters, aunts,teachers were bitches and whores;? They children would look at me kind of confused. I would ask how many? This is what is in the music and the violence and the mixed messages of buying the music that is so harmful to their communities and their friends and neighbors. "If its bad..why do you buy it?" Buying something that advocates violence. A deadly mixed message-that many adults can't interpret-for the young is almost impossible.
There were many times when students would act out and when reprimanded by school officials (race and ethnicity didn't matter) and a student would say "I'm going to fuck you up man". School staff would shake our heads wondering where would these kids get this from? Sadly, we knew-from what passed as current cultureal norms poisoning children.
There is going to be public outcries about what happened with Gilbert Arenas. Al Sharpton rightfully said the other day that if the situation had involved a white player the outrage and public response would have been different and that gun play with two Black men was somehow more acceptable. What makes this situation so frustrating is that for many years writers such as Bob Herbert, Bill Cosby Stanley Crouch and Juan Williams have written about just these issues. The articles are re-runs of work they published years before. There will be an outcry..a boycott-here and there but to know avail-violence sells-hate sells and as someone once said "people will keep making crap as long as people buy it." Just what is the cost benefit of just one child's life? Apparently not enough.
When people shake their heads and start asking how did the situation wiht Gilbert Arenas arise and how did someone have such a cavelier attitude about guns? The answer is very simple: we all saw it coming, we shake our heads "no" but say "yes: , and did nothing.

Superman Comics and Reading Today: I Can't Give Them Away

For over thirty years I have been a social worker. For most of them I was a school social worker with the last few years working for the committee on special education. Families and children would come to our office waiting for evaluations or placement of children in special education settings.
The families would wait in the lobby of the building. Many sat there with Ipods, video games, cell phones, all kinds of contraptions. What I noticed as well was that few were reading. As a big believer in the value of comic books, I would go to local comic books stores,telling the owners that I was a school social worker in predominantly poor area and could they spare some comics and posters. The stores in Forest Hills and Kew Gardens were very generous and gave me lots of stuff-I was also in the process making my own collection smaller.
I would go to the lobby and tried to engage the children into disengaging from their electronic devices and offered them comics-for nothing. I told them that the comics were for free. I showed them that many of the comics were older than they were..some as old as their parents. More times than not, I was met with blank stares. I said "here-Superman, Batman, Spiderman,Justice League". Nothing. I told them that it would be a fun way to learn and that's how I learned when I was their age. I told them of the great Superman/Batman stuff. Again-nothing. I thought the kids would find it fun that an adult knew so much about comics. Didn't work.
The electronic..the gadgets-the phones-made the comics seem uninteresting. I couldn't believe it. I would look at the parents who would look at me and shrug. I just stood there with what I considered jewels-these treasures of fun and learning. I couldn't give them away. I stood there remembering comics and my childhood. I couldn't give them away.

Reading and Superman Comics.

Superman/DC comics have played an important role in my life. I remember getting my first 10 cent Superman comic from a cousin. He took me and my dad to the corner candy store in Boro Park. I fell in love with the character of Superman and pretended to read the words. I think that the TV show with George Reeves had an influence on my putting the printed word and the sounds together.(I also remember mourning the apparent suicide of George Reeves and the bad jokes people made about him thinking that he was Superman) I read with my father and somehow I actually started to read. I think that I was the only kid in first grade who could actually spell "invulnerable" and 'indestructible"
Reading comics actually helped my vocabulary. My mom started a deal with me-that I could get a new comic if I looked up ten words in the dictionary from the comics. My vocabulary and reading levels were pretty good. Batman,Flash,Green Lantern and The Justice League of America became part of my life as well. One closet in our house became my comic book closet. From Flash comics I actually learned about physics-about what happens when some thing moves very fast like actually defying gravity or what happens when molecules move and vibrate at super speeds. (eg being able to pass through solids-similar to when you see a piece of straw passing into a tree from the strenght of a hurricane) I recently reread one of the first new Barry Allan/Flash comics (Barry Allan was a police scientist) and couldn't believe the level of science inside a comic book. It read like text.
Green Lantern was like a Zen master. Nothing was impossible-you were only limited by your creativity, will power and the management of your fears and doubts. There were guardians of the universe that guided the Green Lantern Corp. The guardians were emotionally detached in many ways. The conflict between them and Hal Jordan..earth's Green Lantern was of the balance between intellect, a still inner world with passion. This also had an impact on my learning.
As a nine year old I wrote a letter to Justice League of America about an issue of JLA where Superman was teamed with Wonder Woman. I thought that they made a good couple and suggested they should get married-the romantic side of me was developing as well. The letter was printed in Justice League number 3 1961. I have a beat up copy of this issue. My love of comics and learning about loss from Batman also continued my education)
A few months after my letter was published, I was in an accident which cost me part of a finger. (These were the days long befor micro-surgery-which made this seemingly minor event a big deal. The surgeon tried to reattach my finge. When that didn't work they tried to reattach a part of it, via a skin graft. Needless to say, this was a rough experience for a little boy)
My parents,(two Polish survivors) in a moment of sheer enligtenment-) ,decided to call DC comics,and tell them about what had happened to me. Whoever answered the phone told them to bring me down for a visit-that day. DC was located at 575 Lexingon Avenue at that time-an address I will never forget. When I got there the first thing I saw was a huge oil painting of Superman and a room filled with comics. One gentleman led me around as my parents lovingly watched. The scared little boy was now in comic book heaven. I was introduced to comic book icons Julius Schwartz and artist Carmine Infantino. As soon as I heard their names I said 'you're the editor of Justice League and you draw Flash". I can still hear the giggles of the people around me. I spoke to one of the editors of Superman and pointed out about 5 or 6 mistakes in the last issue. It was the faces of my parents now that had the color of crimson and not Superman.
As the day continued the amazingly kind people at DC treated me and my parents for lunch but fed me in many ways as well. They gave me original Superman art works and slides of new characters called The Metal Men-again a comic that taught about science,about the qualities of different metals..how lead protects from radioactivity, the pliabilty of gold, how mercury is liquid at room temperature,etc..the characters personalities were a combination of their human traits and those in nature..good story telling)
For this day,I don't even remembering looking at my hand,the sling or thinking at all about the sight of what happened to my finger) I just remember the joy of that day and the kindness of people who made comics. What I remember as well was how the comics were never dummied down to kids my age and how they stimulated my reading in a lot of areas.

Iran as a nuclear threat-what do we do..

I remember the Cuban Missile Crisis very vividly. We were worried about Armageddon,we had shelter drills,where we went underneath our tables and for me it was for the purpose of kissing our collective asses good bye. I remember one day not having a jacket with me and thinking "oh oh now I'm going to get it." What I remember most was the decision to actually have a blockage of Cuba. Nothing goes in-nothing comes in.
To this day I am not sure of the effectiveness of this or was it that Nikita Khrusheve having the political courage to back off on his threats basically saving the world from nuclear annihilation. The superpower battle for many years stabilized the world. (Who would have thought of this time as "the good old days"?
The next true nuclear threat came in 1981 when Israel under Operation Opera,made a surprise air strike on Iraqi's nuclear reactor in Osink (the reactor was bought from our NATO ally France who had developed a relationship with Iraq in order to have greater access to its oil. (Its amazing how oil imports effects short term global policy) Israel believed that its very existance was threatened and felt that it had no choice but to protect itself. There was no Khrusheve to negotiate with this time. While many condemned Isreal at the time, the world breathed a sigh of relief at the diminished threat of a nuclear ready Iraq.
We now turn our attention to today towards another nuclear threat in an even more unstable middle east -this time from Iran. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sees no apparent threat to his own people because basically he is not concerned for the wellbeing of his people-thus no restraint on his part. Seems to me that the world is faced with several choices as depicted in the last two crisis.
Israel has not ruled out attacking Iran if it feels threatened and many have called for the US to make such an attack on Iran. While I understand the value of diplomacy, I wonder about its limits and at what point do you say "enough". I am not sure if we are there yet, but again,how do you negotiate with someone with no apparent conscience or politically motivated self destruction. I find myself thinking of Kennedy's strategy of the sea blockage of Cuba and its role in forcing Russia's hand.
I believe that it is failed strategy for things being all or nothing: diplomacy or attack with nothing in between. Would an air and sea blockage of Iran force Ahmadineyad's hand and would the UN buy into this strategy so that it is not seen as another US intrusion in the middle east? We cannot be seen as "occupiers". The world community has be behind this; if not it will be a failed strategy from the start.The rules and consequences are increibly different today due to the threat just one nuclear warhead being in the hands of terrorists. The instability of a nuclear Pakistan is yet another issue beyond my comprehension.
I find myself thinking about being under my classroom desk as an 11 year old. I remember my parents putting food in our basement and people building bomb shelters. I remeber writing in my school newspaper about those scary days of October. Those days feel safer and less threatening as I write about another nuclear threat today.