God created the universe in six days. The right wingers are complaining that Obama, after a smashing campaign victory, has not solved the problems of this little planet
in all of 100 days.
God started with a clean slate. When he finished he had only two people to deal with.
Obama inherited a collapsed world economy, and a nation brought down from the most exalted status to wallowing in a depression and a continuing down hill slide.
The critics who are responsible for this failure took eight years to bring it about.
Now they want Obama to continue their failed policies as the prescription to reverse the depression in only 100 days. And Obama has 6 plus billion diverse people to contend with because this crisis is worldwide.
The selfish interests of the haves who are secure enough to weather the depression are well represented in Congress. The economic lives of the former middle class are in immediate jeopardy. Who but Obama is their champion?
If the well off think that "beggar thy neighbor" will leave them safe they ignore the tides of history. When the "downs" hit bottom they turn on the "ups".
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Thursday, April 23, 2009
WHAT'S A LITTLE TORTURE BETWEEN ENEMIES?
The release of the Bush administration's torture memos has also released a torrent of right wing outrage, and left wing hypocrisy. The outrage should be coming from the average American citizen, who was taught in grammar school that ours is a constitutional democracy, based on three independent branches, to assure checks
and balances among them. The President is not an absolute monarch.
Because of its critical role as the protector of equal justice for all, and the defender of the Constitution the Justice Department must be free of domination and control by the executive, and must hold the government to its obligations under international treaties and agreements to which it is a signatory.
In the aftermath of 9/11 President Bush, influenced by Rove, Rumsfeld and Cheney, enlarged the powers of the presidency, and used the compliant Attorney General and Justice Department attorneys to ratify his actions. Congress, intimidated by the tragedy, and wishing to appear staunch in protecting the nation, abandoned its independence and meekly acceded. The results were illegal wire taps, a stampede to war, torture, rendition, and illegal arrest and incarceration of American citizens.
As shabby as that behavior has been, the most disturbing aspect is the apathy of the public to this rape of the Constitution. The fact that they have not been seized and put into handcuffs blinds them to the gradual stealthy theft of their liberties.
Perhaps a national TV program like Treasure Hunt, offering a million dollar prize to anyone who finds a BRAVE and WISE Representative or Senator might stir some attention.
Wake up America. Get a voice. Meekness is a twin to Weakness.
and balances among them. The President is not an absolute monarch.
Because of its critical role as the protector of equal justice for all, and the defender of the Constitution the Justice Department must be free of domination and control by the executive, and must hold the government to its obligations under international treaties and agreements to which it is a signatory.
In the aftermath of 9/11 President Bush, influenced by Rove, Rumsfeld and Cheney, enlarged the powers of the presidency, and used the compliant Attorney General and Justice Department attorneys to ratify his actions. Congress, intimidated by the tragedy, and wishing to appear staunch in protecting the nation, abandoned its independence and meekly acceded. The results were illegal wire taps, a stampede to war, torture, rendition, and illegal arrest and incarceration of American citizens.
As shabby as that behavior has been, the most disturbing aspect is the apathy of the public to this rape of the Constitution. The fact that they have not been seized and put into handcuffs blinds them to the gradual stealthy theft of their liberties.
Perhaps a national TV program like Treasure Hunt, offering a million dollar prize to anyone who finds a BRAVE and WISE Representative or Senator might stir some attention.
Wake up America. Get a voice. Meekness is a twin to Weakness.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Education, does it cost or pay?
A provocative column by Thomas Friedman in the N. Y. Times of April 22 deals with the
economic damage to the United States by our failing educational system. He quantifies the loss of GDP in the multi billions. The fault he says lies with our schools, teachers, principals and administrators. I would trace it to what happened to the child before entering school.
Education begins in the home. How a child will learn in school, his attitude toward attending, his respect or lack thereof for his teachers will have been molded by his parents and peers in his pre-school years. If a child has been raised in a broken, or single parent home; if the parents have little education of their own; if they struggle for economic survival and have little time or interest to devote to stimulating a desire to learn, the child will have no incentive to accept the limits on freedom that come with compulsory schooling. If the street culture in which he grows up denigrates nerds and learning, his need for acceptance will lead him to do the same. School will be a nuisance to be suffered because of the truant officer; a prison from which to escape at the earliest possible moment. If he can't keep up, frustration will lead him into disruptive, anti-social behavior. That child will be on a course to failure. How can we turn that widely prevalent situation around?
If learning begins in the home, during the pre-school years, can we change the attitudes in the home? That will require involving the parents, by innovative means. It will require incentives---monetary, home care assistance, and participation by community leaders and role models. Above all it will need us to accept the goal as worth the effort, and demand volunteer public service from many of us.
Are we up to it?
economic damage to the United States by our failing educational system. He quantifies the loss of GDP in the multi billions. The fault he says lies with our schools, teachers, principals and administrators. I would trace it to what happened to the child before entering school.
Education begins in the home. How a child will learn in school, his attitude toward attending, his respect or lack thereof for his teachers will have been molded by his parents and peers in his pre-school years. If a child has been raised in a broken, or single parent home; if the parents have little education of their own; if they struggle for economic survival and have little time or interest to devote to stimulating a desire to learn, the child will have no incentive to accept the limits on freedom that come with compulsory schooling. If the street culture in which he grows up denigrates nerds and learning, his need for acceptance will lead him to do the same. School will be a nuisance to be suffered because of the truant officer; a prison from which to escape at the earliest possible moment. If he can't keep up, frustration will lead him into disruptive, anti-social behavior. That child will be on a course to failure. How can we turn that widely prevalent situation around?
If learning begins in the home, during the pre-school years, can we change the attitudes in the home? That will require involving the parents, by innovative means. It will require incentives---monetary, home care assistance, and participation by community leaders and role models. Above all it will need us to accept the goal as worth the effort, and demand volunteer public service from many of us.
Are we up to it?
Sunday, April 19, 2009
WHO IS FOR THE NATION?
The Old World and the New now have one thing in common---a fetid financial failure.
And as we try to construct a life boat, a vessel that will keep us afloat until we come up with a solution, the people who most need to cooperate if they are to survive, are putting perceived self interest before the common good. That is a guarantee that we will all sink.
The international banking system is no longer made up of individual nation central banks.
Ours is a global, interwoven and interdependent system. Failure in one country triggers decline and possible collapse in others. The capital structure of a single nation’s banks now includes stockholders and investments from many other nations.
The United States is coming out of an era of unilateralism, based on hubris that our economic power compels other nations to dance to our tune. The change in our fortunes
has given the others the confidence that they can play their own music, and they are!
So we can’t expect them to follow our prescription for the malady that affects us all.
Which means the cure must begin here. Teamwork, for the good of all, is now more important than pushing parochial interests for the good of a political party.
What can we make of the Republican party determined to say no to everything Obama is trying to do? Are TEA PARTY protests against taxes a substitute for policy? Will the economy recover if more jobs are lost, unemployment checks stop coming, food stamps are cancelled, more homes are foreclosed? If we abolish ALL taxes on people earning more that $250,000 per year will their savings trickle down to create more jobs, rescue failing companies, keep people in their homes, and restore health to sick banks?
To the party that prides itself as the party of Lincoln I say Come On, get off your
sore loser backside and come up with positive ideas to help the nation recover. Compete on the field of ideas, not fear and rancor. The country needs you as partners in progress.
GET WITH IT.
And as we try to construct a life boat, a vessel that will keep us afloat until we come up with a solution, the people who most need to cooperate if they are to survive, are putting perceived self interest before the common good. That is a guarantee that we will all sink.
The international banking system is no longer made up of individual nation central banks.
Ours is a global, interwoven and interdependent system. Failure in one country triggers decline and possible collapse in others. The capital structure of a single nation’s banks now includes stockholders and investments from many other nations.
The United States is coming out of an era of unilateralism, based on hubris that our economic power compels other nations to dance to our tune. The change in our fortunes
has given the others the confidence that they can play their own music, and they are!
So we can’t expect them to follow our prescription for the malady that affects us all.
Which means the cure must begin here. Teamwork, for the good of all, is now more important than pushing parochial interests for the good of a political party.
What can we make of the Republican party determined to say no to everything Obama is trying to do? Are TEA PARTY protests against taxes a substitute for policy? Will the economy recover if more jobs are lost, unemployment checks stop coming, food stamps are cancelled, more homes are foreclosed? If we abolish ALL taxes on people earning more that $250,000 per year will their savings trickle down to create more jobs, rescue failing companies, keep people in their homes, and restore health to sick banks?
To the party that prides itself as the party of Lincoln I say Come On, get off your
sore loser backside and come up with positive ideas to help the nation recover. Compete on the field of ideas, not fear and rancor. The country needs you as partners in progress.
GET WITH IT.
Saturday, April 4, 2009
Welcome to the New World dis-ORDER
Our President and first lady acquitted themselves famously at the G-20 and subsequent meetings. To the diplomats of the world they were such a refreshing change, they were treated as Rock Stars.
The same cannot be said of the policy initiatives the President put on the table.
He asked for the other countries, the EU, Russia, China and India in particular, to open their treasuries and spend enough to stimulate their economies in significant
scale. The US can't bail out the world as it once could. We are no longer in a commanding position to lead the world to our will, and our faltering economy can't exert enough leverage to have a dominant impact on that of the others. The best he came away with was a non-enforceable commitment (read that intention) to contribute a trillion plus to the IMF for aid to underdeveloped countries.
This is not to diminish the value, to our influence and international image, of the
close personal relationships the President was able to forge with the other world leaders. The office now enjoys new respect abroad. Obama's obvious intellect and open mindedness has made him a force to be reckoned with.
The outcome on the foreign policy front was negligible. The rest of the world never approved of our Iraq venture. They did initially support our action in Afghanistan. When we diverted from there to Iraq, we lost them. They are not coming back to help--once burned.....
We have shed the pariah image. Hopefully that will open a path to cooperative efforts to revive the economy. I call it a good beginning.
The same cannot be said of the policy initiatives the President put on the table.
He asked for the other countries, the EU, Russia, China and India in particular, to open their treasuries and spend enough to stimulate their economies in significant
scale. The US can't bail out the world as it once could. We are no longer in a commanding position to lead the world to our will, and our faltering economy can't exert enough leverage to have a dominant impact on that of the others. The best he came away with was a non-enforceable commitment (read that intention) to contribute a trillion plus to the IMF for aid to underdeveloped countries.
This is not to diminish the value, to our influence and international image, of the
close personal relationships the President was able to forge with the other world leaders. The office now enjoys new respect abroad. Obama's obvious intellect and open mindedness has made him a force to be reckoned with.
The outcome on the foreign policy front was negligible. The rest of the world never approved of our Iraq venture. They did initially support our action in Afghanistan. When we diverted from there to Iraq, we lost them. They are not coming back to help--once burned.....
We have shed the pariah image. Hopefully that will open a path to cooperative efforts to revive the economy. I call it a good beginning.
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