Congressional Quarterly has this piece, and it's hard to tell if the mean what they write, or if it's just some sort of cruel joke:
The Democratic Party's liberal wing will begin a hard push this week to consolidate power in the House and advance its agenda with a quiet assist from a longtime champion, Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Leaders of the Democrats' liberal faction, such as House Appropriations Chairman David R. Obey of Wisconsin, scored an early victory when Pelosi agreed to a change in House rules that will solidify their clout.
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Pelosi, of San Francisco, faces heavy pressure from liberals who believe their concerns took a back seat in the 110th Congress, when Republicans and moderate Democrats often dictated the terms on issues including the Iraq War and the electronic surveillance overhaul.
Rep. Barbara Lee , Pelosi's partner from across the bay in Oakland and the incoming chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus, said liberal leaders in the House plan to step up efforts to urge party leaders and the Obama administration to push such big liberal ideas as Obama's plan for a mandate for child health care coverage.
Yeah, I remember those heady days of just two years ago, when "liberal champion" and newly minted Speaker Nancy Pelosi took impeachment of Bush, Cheney, et. al. off the table.
And then, as if to make sure we all got the point, she had this to say about the retroactive FISA immunity bill:
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) explained that she supported the rewrite of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) because it provided civil liberties protections and a constraint on executive power, not because of the retroactive immunity it will give to telecom companies.
Pelosi said in a speech on the House floor Friday that the changes will help with gathering intelligence that's needed to keep troops safe and able to do their job.
"Good intelligence is necessary for us to know the plans of the terrorist and to defeat those plans," she said. "So we can't go without a bill. That's just simply not an option. But to have a bill we must have a bill that does not violate the Constitution of the United States and this bill does not."
Who gives a shit if the spying violated the Constitution! There are terrorists out there that hate our "freedom."
Are there any limits to that right? It's a question that has confronted the U.S. as well as Israel, and other nations -- if the end is good, are there any means that are not justified to attain that end?
I don't know the answer. But, listening to accounts of Israel's air, land, and sea assault on Gaza, suddenly a word popped into my head. It wasn't a word that I'd thought of, consciously, since I don't know when. In fact, when the word popped into my head, I had to Google it to be sure it meant what I thought.
For the month of January, Ben & Jerry's is renaming its butter pecan ice cream flavor to "Yes Pecan!" and donating the associated proceeds from scoop shop sales of the new flavor to the Common Cause Education Fund!
We're honored to be working with Ben & Jerry's to celebrate the spirit of activism and the newfound optimism that government can work for the common good.
If you support Common Cause's work on campaign finance reform, ethics, election protection, media ownership reform, net neutrality or voting rights, here's what you can do...
1. Find your local Ben & Jerry's scoop shop and get a cone of "Yes Pecan!" Proceeds will benefit our efforts to help citizens make their voices heard in the political process.
2. Join us on Facebook! Ben & Jerry's is also donating $1 for each person who signs up on our Facebook "cause" during the month of January or who donates to the Common Cause Education Fund, up to $10,000!
3. Tell your friends about these easy (and delicious!) ways to help Common Cause.
I'm off to get some ice cream. Best wishes for a happy and healthy new year.
Two stories worth note, both in part related to the economic downturn.
Marketplace, the business show on Public Radio, has this interesting (and short) story about recycling, and how an economic stimulus package can be directed to include re-use of our waste:
Barack Obama's stimulus plan is finally coming into focus. And tax cuts are big part of it -- about 40 percent. Businesses would get refunds on taxes they paid several years ago. Individuals would see a little more money in their paychecks.
But Obama still plans to do some infrastructure spending, and the recycling industry wouldn't mind seeing a little of that. With people buying less in this economy, used paper, glass and cans are stacking up in warehouses all over the country.
And then there is this from the blog BuzzFlash, which speculates that in the end, Reaganomics may in fact have proved to be victorious, as municipalities and states across the nation continue to sell or lease public works:
It became conventional political wisdom late in this most recent election that the failure of Republican candidates to connect with voters on fiscal issues was inextricably linked to the failure of Reaganomics. The imbalance of funds shunted to the wealthiest Americans had finally reached a critical point at which the whole theory became indefensible in the face of economic collapse.
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However, looking at the local level, it seems as if the nearly three decades that Reaganomics has been allowed to survive, if not thrive, have been enough to allow the trickle-down theory to come to fruition. Unfortunately, it is debt -- and not wealth --that has been trickling.
Reagan's economic target was to drown government in a cocktail of lowered government spending, deregulation and reduced tax rates. However, in order to shrink government to bathtub size, the role of private business had to expand to fill basic needs, which was totally fine with Republicans.
And as has become clear, privatization does not necessarily mean that what were once public services would be performed more efficiently nor cheaply than when they were in fact public. But it sure can be outrageous:
In December, another deal was finalized by Daley and the Chicago City Council to lease city parking meters for the next 75 years. As a result, downtown parking meter rates are expected to go as high as $6.50 an hour by 2013, making Chicago one of the most expensive places to park in in the country.
Yeah! Now if the city were doing this, with the thought of controlling the amount of vehicle traffic coming into downtown while providing additional mass transit to the same area, I would likely support it.
But to simply raise the hourly rate in order to increase the profit of the private company?
The BBCreports this morning that as a result of the Israeli incursion, Gaza is now in "a full-blown humanitarian crisis."
"After 10 days of uninterrupted military operations in the Gaza Strip, what we're dealing with is clearly and beyond doubt in my mind a full-blown and major humanitarian crisis," the ICRC's Pierre Kraehenbuhl told the BBC.
"For the people inside Gaza, the situation has become intolerable... The reports we've had during the night is that the last night has been the most intense in terms of bombardments and military operations."
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The United Nations also warned that the humanitarian crisis in Gaza would deepen as it was having difficulty getting aid into the territory.
The UN Relief and Works Agency (UNWRA) said it would be unable to bring in 80 lorries of humanitarian supplies scheduled for Tuesday after the head of the company contracted to transport the supplies lost three relatives, including one son, in attacks on Monday night.
Aid workers in Gaza are having trouble distributing existing supplies of fuel and food.
This, after three years of a full blockade of Gaza by the Isrealis. Yesterday, on Democracy Now!, Christopher Gunness, the spokesperson UNRWA had this to say:
But the fact is that although Israel did leave Gaza in 2005, it then exposed an occupied people for the first time in human history to the most stringent trade embargo in the history of trade relations. In international law, there's the concept of effective control: if you control the airspace, the land and the sea borders of a place, you occupy it. And from the UN's point of view, there is one occupied territory. So if there's one Israeli soldier occupying the West Bank, then Gaza is also occupied. I'm afraid that is how international law works. Gaza has continued to be occupied. And until the underlying cause of this, the occupation, is addressed and the strangulation, which is part of that occupation, is addressed, I fear for the people of Sderot.
This morning, the 111th Congress will come together, as newly elected and returning members of the Senate and all members of the House, new and old, will be sworn in.
Along with Mike Michaud, Chellie Pingree will begin her term, representing Maine's 1st District. Susan Collins will also be sworn in to start her third term.
Unfortunately, the day is not without dispute. Roland Burris of Illinois intends to present himself:
Roland Burris and Democratic Party leaders headed toward a symbolic showdown at the door of the U.S. Senate on Tuesday as the former Illinois attorney general presses his claim to a disputed seat.
Burris said in an interview Monday evening that he intends to try to walk onto the Senate floor to be sworn in with incoming senators when the Senate convenes Tuesday despite declarations from party leaders that they will prevent the 71-year-old, longtime politician from entering the legislative body's ornate chamber.
The imagery of authorities stopping a graying African-American man at the threshold of political power promises to be a moment of high drama in a controversy that has joined the complicated politics of race with the sensational corruption scandal swirling around Gov. Rod Blagojevich. The governor, undeterred by criminal charges that he sought to sell the Senate seat vacated by President-elect Barack Obama, picked Burris last week.
And despite being declared the victor, Sen.-elect Al Franken will not be sworn in until later this week.
This, and turnover, has led to a state of disorder in the Senate, as The Hillreports:
A flurry of historic developments, such as the election of nine freshmen, a contested race in Minnesota and a migration to the executive branch, has left the Senate in greater confusion than at any other swearing-in.
A wave of Republican retirements, including the departure of convicted Sen. Ted Stevens (Alaska), the chamber's longest-serving Republican senator, has changed the personality of the Senate considerably, say longtime Senate observers.
In any case, reports are that the Congress will immediately get to work on an economic stimulus package.
In local news, Janet Mills will be sworn in as Maine's first female Attorney General.
Congratulations to everyone that will be taking office today.
You are no doubt familiar with Poor Farmer's Almanac (which calls for a warm winter with plenty of snow this year), but may not have heard about Poor George's Almanac ("The Wisdom of Patriots, the Folly of Bush").
In response to an overheard conversation, the author wondered "if it would be possible to find enough Bush material that could be 'pinned' to most of the 365 dates in a year. Yes, the president and his administration have made some blunders over their time in office, but I wondered if there were enough of them, and were they dispersed across the calendar in such a way, that I could fill in the majority of dates with something relevant for each date. Well, glad to say (or if I want to look at it less selfishly, sad to say) this turned out not to be too much of a challenge. The almanac came together."
And I am pleased to write that readers of Turn Maine Blue can purchase any of the three calenders on offer (flat spiral bond, day planner, or wall) at a 25% discount; simply include the code JBV7GF5Y with your order. And in a generous move, the publisher has offered to split the profits with your humble editor, which helps to keep this site running (and my wife off my back!)
To view a sample page and order, follow the links below.
25% off the calendar ($17.76 list; $13.32 for Turn Maine Blue readers)
Enter code JBV7GF5Y at checkout to get this 25% discount, or;
25% off the day planner ($25.01 list price; $18.76 for Turn Maine Blue readers)
Enter code JBV7GF5Y at checkout to get the 25% discount.
On his blog this morning, regarding President-elect Obama's stimulus package, Paul Krugman writes:
Let's lay out the basics here. Other things equal, public investment is a much better way to provide economic stimulus than tax cuts, for two reasons. First, if the government spends money, that money is spent, helping support demand, whereas tax cuts may be largely saved. So public investment offers more bang for the buck. Second, public investment leaves something of value behind when the stimulus is over.
That said, there's a problem with a public-investment-only stimulus plan, namely timing. We need stimulus fast, and there's a limited supply of "shovel-ready" projects that can be started soon enough to deliver an economic boost any time soon. You can bulk up stimulus through other forms of spending, mainly aid to Americans in distress - unemployment benefits, food stamps, etc.. And you can also provide aid to state and local governments so that they don't have to cut spending - avoiding anti-stimulus is a fast way to achieve net stimulus. But everything I've heard says that even with all these things it's hard to come up with enough spending to provide all the aid the economy needs in 2009.
This in response to this report in the Wall Street Journal:
President-elect Barack Obama and congressional Democrats are crafting a plan to offer about $300 billion of tax cuts to individuals and businesses, a move aimed at attracting Republican support for an economic-stimulus package and prodding companies to create jobs.
The size of the proposed tax cuts -- which would account for about 40% of a stimulus package that could reach $775 billion over two years -- is greater than many on both sides of the aisle in Congress had anticipated. It may make it easier to win over Republicans who have stressed that any initiative should rely more heavily on tax cuts rather than spending.
In my mind, we've already tried a tax cut stimulus package in the spring of 2008, and from what I've read, many people used it to pay down debts they had (credit cards, car payments, etc.) - hardly stimulating, and certainly not a package that left any legacy for the next generation to use.
So Krugman gets it - rebuilding our infrastructure not only pumps money into our economy, but it provides jobs and leaves a foundation on which future gains can be made.
The headline at the top taken from this article from The Hill says it all:
Cheney: I would absolutely do it again
"I would absolutely do it again," Cheney said on CBS's "Face the Nation" following questions about warrantless wiretapping, the Guantanamo Bay prison and harsh interrogation techniques. "I think the loss of life, if there had been further mass casualty attacks against the United States over the last seven-and-a-half years, fully justifies it."
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"I don't believe we violated anybody's civil liberties," said Cheney, who criticized the New York Times for its "outrageous decision" to publish a story on the government's surveillance program even after being asked not to.
He also said he hoped that incoming President Obama "would avoid doing what others have done in the past, which is letting the campaign rhetoric guide his judgment in this absolutely crucial area."
Have to hand it to Cheney, he has one large sack, daring the incoming Obama administration and the 111th Congress to investigate and try him for crimes to which he is essentially admitting.
So, for the better part of two weeks, in Rockland gasoline has been priced at $1.59 a gallon - in Waldoboro, it was a little higher, and in Damariscotta this past weekend it was 20 cents more.
And then today, the price went up 10 cents a gallon, now priced at $1.69. I have no idea why it went up, nor have I seen anyone mention the increase.
So why would it go up so much in just a couple of days?
There will be one last performance of the Boar's Head and Yule Log Festival, today at 4:30. This celebration of the Epiphany is held every year at the Rockland Congregational Church, and we went to see it last night and can highly recommend it. With a case of over 100, including soloists and a choir, a brass quintet and organ, and live animals(!), it is a pageant that extends the holiday season.
From the program:
The tradition of the Festival goes back to the days of the Roman Empire nearly two thousand years ago when the boar was the first dish served at great Roman feasts. In Norman England the boar was the sovereign of the forests, a menace to all and a symbol of evil. By the 12th century, the serving of the boar's head at Christmastide had become symbolic of the triumph of Christ over Satan and was associated with Epiphany, which celebrates the manifestation of Christ to the Magi.
For more information see the website here. Call to see if tickets are still available.
I wasn't goign to write about this until I spoke to her myself, but this morning's article about Jamilla El-Shafei and her Shoes for Bush Action by Bill Nemitz has pushed my timing forward.
El-Shafei, from Kennebunk, writes this on the website calling for the action:
On Monday, January 19th on President Bush's last day in office, people will gather at 11:00am at a site near the White House (TBA) for what will be a cathartic action of hurling shoes at the White House. We will be acting in the spirit of Mutadhar Al-Zaidi, the journalist who threw his shoes at Bush during a press conference on behalf of the widows, orphans and all those killed in Iraq, and in solidarity with the Iraqi people as well as all of those who have suffered under the Bush regime.
To watch Bush leave office and not be held accountable for war crimes and impeachable offenses is like rubbing salt into the wound.
This action may not take away all of the pain suffered during the Bush regime but we will get satisfaction from the statement the act makes. The shoe hurling will be a historic marker. The visual of thousands of people hurling shoes at the White House as Bush leaves office will go around the globe and the people all over the world will let out a collective cheer. Please join us in being part of history!
In light of the Bush Legacy Project, which I wrote about here, this action will indeed provide a visual, historical marker of the last days of the Bush/Cheney regime. In this piece in today's NYTimes, Frank Rich hits the nail on the head:
The one indisputable talent of his White House was its ability to create and sell propaganda both to the public and the press. Now that bag of tricks is empty as well. Bush's first and last photo-ops in Iraq could serve as bookends to his entire tenure. On Thanksgiving weekend 2003, even as the Iraqi insurgency was spiraling, his secret trip to the war zone was a P.R. slam-dunk. The photo of the beaming commander in chief bearing a supersized decorative turkey for the troops was designed to make every front page and newscast in the country, and it did. Five years later, in what was intended as a farewell victory lap to show off Iraq's improved post-surge security, Bush was reduced to ducking shoes.
Read more of what El-Shafei has to say, and send a pair of shoes if you are inclined to do so. And for you readers lucky enough to be going to the inauguration, please stop by the event and send us your photos.
Israel sent troops into Gaza overnight, in what appears to be a planned long term occupation the semi-autonomous Palestinian area. From the Guardian, this report:
Israeli tanks and troops have launched a ground invasion to reoccupy parts of the northern Gaza strip as the military escalated its assault on the Palestinian enclave in an attempt to curb Hamas rocket attacks on Israel.
With Israel's chief military spokesman warning that the attack would take "many long days", the Israeli Cabinet also authorised the call of thousands more reservists. As Israeli tanks and infantry crossed into northern Gaza reports began to emerge of fighting between Hamas and Israeli troops. The invasion comes after Hamas warned Israeli forces entering Gaza faced a "black destiny" and vowed that they would be defeated.
Gaza is an incredibly crowded urban area, basically a refugee camp that has existed for four generations. Any fighting there will be intense, and will limit Israel's overwhelming technical military superiority. That said, the Palestinians will bear the brunt of the casualties.
While the launching of rockets by Hamas and others into Israel in order to kill civilians and terrorzie the nation is not acceptable, nor is the absolute blockade imposed by the Israelis on Gaza. Again, from the Guardian:
As diplomatic pressure for a truce gained momentum, the exiled leader of Hamas, Khaled Meshaal, rejected a ceasefire in Gaza until Israel agrees to end its three-year blockade of the territory which has caused economic collapse and widespread hardship.
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President George Bush said in his weekly radio address that Hamas must take the initiative to end the fighting by halting its rocket fire into Israel.
"Another one-way ceasefire that leads to rocket attacks on Israel is not acceptable," he said. "There must be monitoring mechanisms in place to help ensure the smuggling of weapons to terrorist groups in Gaza comes to an end... I urge all parties to pressure Hamas to turn away from terror and to support legitimate Palestinian leaders working for peace."
But Meshaal said Hamas would not agree to a truce until Israel stops its attacks and lifts the blockade of Gaza.
"Our demand is clear - that aggression should end immediately. The siege must be ended and the crossings must all be opened," he said. "We will not break, we will not surrender or give in to your conditions."
While it is not surprising that Bush or any member of his administration would mention the blockade, it is unacceptable that the article in the New York Times fails to mentions the actions by the Israelis.
I suggest for less biased reporting on this, that you monitor the British newspapers or the BBC.
In this week's address, President-elect Barack Obama calls explains why it is so important that his proposed economic stimulus package:
It is important to note that the first two items that he highlights are developing renewable energy and making public buildings more energy efficient (conservation? conservation???), and also "rebuilding our crumbling roads, bridges, and schools."
and more:
This plan must be designed in a new way - we can't just fall into the old Washington habit of throwing money at the problem. We must make strategic investments that will serve as a down payment on our long-term economic future. We must demand vigorous oversight and strict accountability for achieving results. And we must restore fiscal responsibility and make the tough choices so that as the economy recovers, the deficit starts to come down.
Obama thinks we can do this. Unfortunately, we'll first need to overcome opposition from the far right that will fight to block his plan. A minor roadblock, I'm sure.
Rep.-elect Chellie Pingree is ready to begin her new job in Washington, D.C., the PPHreports:
As a freshly minted member of Congress, the Democrat from North Haven has spent most of the two months since Election Day trying to absorb the nuts and bolts of her new position. She has gone to workshops and orientations on everything from hiring office workers to finding a parking spot.
She says that once she takes the oath of office on Tuesday, she will be eager to make the transition from hiring her staff and choosing office decor to tackling the economy and other issues facing her constituents.
"It's going to be a very exciting day, and I can't think of a more challenging or exciting time to be working on solving some of our problems," said Pingree, who will bring three family members -- including her 4-year-old grandson -- to the swearing-in ceremony.
She said she expects that the House will immediately wade into a debate about economic stimulus packages, so President-elect Obama can have a plan to consider after his inauguration on Jan. 20.
Pingree will find other voices calling for a stimulus package akin to the WPA from the 1930's, as the NYTimesnotes that the U.S. steel industry has seen its orders disappear:
The steel industry, having entered the recession in the best of health, is emerging as a leading indicator of what lies ahead. As steel production goes - and it is now in collapse - so will go the national economy.
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The industry itself is turning to government for orders that, until the September collapse, had come from manufacturers and builders. Its executives are waiting anxiously for details of President-elect Barack Obama's stimulus plan, and adding their voices to pleas for a huge public investment program - up to $1 trillion over two years - intended to lift demand for steel to build highways, bridges, electric power grids, schools, hospitals, water treatment plants and rapid transit.
"What we are asking," said Daniel R. DiMicco, chairman and chief executive of the Nucor Corporation, a giant steel maker, "is that our government deal with the worst economic slowdown in our lifetime through a recovery program that has in every provision a 'buy America' clause."
Economists in the Obama camp said the president-elect's proposals to Congress will include significant infrastructure spending that draws on heavy industry.
But to temper this a bit, The Hill has this report on some of the "shovel ready" projects that transportation departments around the country have put forth:
New roads and bridges translate into more cars on the road, however. That means more dependence on foreign oil and increased levels of greenhouse gases, according to critics.
"The stuff we're seeing is more of the same," said Robert Puentes, who runs the Metropolitan Policy Program at the Brookings Institution.
Puentes and other members of a new coalition, Transportation for America, have put together a counteroffer they say will meet both goals of creating jobs and protecting the environment. Unlike the lists put forward by state transportation officials, Transportation for America's is heavy on transit programs and more bike and walk paths. It also pays for maintenance and repair of roads and bridges already built.
The group had been preparing to take on an entrenched highway lobby in a new transportation bill, which Congress takes up every five years or so and was set again to start debating in 2009. With members discussing infrastructure spending on the order of what President Eisenhower dedicated to create the Interstate Highway System in the 1950s in the first place, green transportation advocates are ramping up their lobbying efforts to convince Congress to rethink over a half-century of transportation policy in the next month.
Indeed, the times provide an opportunity that cannot be missed, as it was in the late 1970's. Rebuilding America's Infrastructure cannot be more of the same, but needs direction and vision, with more than just words about our future, but plans and action to get us there.
I look forward to reading Rep. Pingree's views on this.
The handover of the Green Zone from U.S. to Iraqi control Thursday presented such a powerful symbol of the waning American presence in Iraq that it would have been nearly impossible for both sides not to mark it with a formal ceremony.
They did, but the ceremony wasn't much. A podium was set up in the middle of a dirty street. Five small balloons and some tinsel decorated a seating area. The American ambassador and the top commander of U.S. troops didn't show up. Neither did Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
Maliki instead attended an unannounced event where he watched what might have been one of the most stirring signs of the new Iraq: the raising of the Iraqi flag over what just a day earlier had been the U.S. Embassy. The decision to keep reporters away from this ceremony hinted at the unease and uncertainty both sides feel about the transition.
Former Sen. Claiborne Pell, who served Rhode Island in the upper chamber for six terms, died Thursday at his home in Newport. He was 90 years old.
During his long tenure in the Senate, Pell served as chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee before his retirement after the 1996 elections. In 1995, Pell had been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease.
Pell was best known for legislation allowing millions of low-income students to attend colleges under grants that bear his name. The Pell Grant program was established in 1972.
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There will be one last performance of the Boar's Head and Yule Log Festival, today at 4:30. This celebration of the Epiphany is held every year at the Rockland Congregational Church, and we went to see it last night and can highly recommend it. With a case of over 100, including soloists and a choir, a brass quintet and organ, and live animals(!), it is a pageant that extends the holiday season.