Our Long National Nightmare Is Over

Today we witnessed history being made as Barack Hussein Obama was sworn-in as the 44th President of the United States of America.

After taking the oath of office, he addressed the nation:

This Is Your Land

A revival of the American Spirit was evident on The Mall in Washington, D.C. today as tens of thousands gathered for a concert celebrating the upcoming inauguration of Barack Hussein Obama as the 44th President of the United States. Legendary folk singer Pete Seeger led the crowd in a spirited rendition of "This Is Your Land".

California Leads The Way

The Golden State of California is proving once again to be a trendsetter, which we've long come to expect from the nation's most populous state which also features what's usually touted as the world's fifth-largest economy.

From the San Jose Mercury News:

Cash Drying Up, California Is About To Delay Tax Refunds, Slash Aid To The Needy

By Mike Zapler
Mercury News

SACRAMENTO — California's budget meltdown is about to hit home for millions of taxpayers awaiting their refunds and people who depend on the social safety net to survive, a top state finance official warned Friday.

Controller John Chiang, who is responsible for managing the state's cash flow, plans to delay $3.7 billion in payments starting next month in response to lawmakers' failure to fix a projected $40 billion deficit through mid-2010.

Among those who won't get paid on time: taxpayers who file their returns early and are awaiting refunds; families who depend on welfare and aid for the aged, blind and disabled; and programs that serve developmentally disabled and mentally ill patients.

"Delaying payments will hurt real families, many of whom are just hanging on in these very, very tight and difficult times," Chiang said. "Taxpayers who expected to use their refunds to purchase a car, to make food payments, to pay off their credit card bills, will have to wait. That is something we should not be doing."

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Sadly, the state that gave us Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan also led the way in converting our nation to a culture of deadbeats and thugs. No one wants to pay for anything (Proposition 13), "three strikes and you're out" (Proposition 184), and civil rights are stripped (Proposition 8), are all examples of how California's vaunted liberalism is bogus.

Its public education system is failing, its healthcare system a travesty, its economy favors the wealthy and has long exploited poor immigrants and minorities, and even its law enforcement institutions have long been recognized as brutal.

Celebrating the Bush Legacy

A Party Of Whiners

New York Times columnist and Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman does a great job of dissecting the GOP and offering a diagnosis for its recovery in a column that appears in today's Times.

As the new Democratic majority prepares to take power, Republicans have become, as Phil Gramm might put it, a party of whiners.

Some of the whining almost defies belief. Did Alberto Gonzales, the former attorney general, really say, “I consider myself a casualty, one of the many casualties of the war on terror”? Did Rush Limbaugh really suggest that the financial crisis was the result of a conspiracy, masterminded by that evil genius Chuck Schumer?

Krugman traces the ills of the Republican Party to its "Southern Strategy", which has left it with nothing more than a strong, but limited base in the "Old Confederacy." And he parses no words in identifying the strategy as being race based.

Where did this hostility to government come from? In 1981 Lee Atwater, the famed Republican political consultant, explained the evolution of the G.O.P.’s “Southern strategy,” which originally focused on opposition to the Voting Rights Act but eventually took a more coded form: “You’re getting so abstract now you’re talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you’re talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is blacks get hurt worse than whites.” In other words, government is the problem because it takes your money and gives it to Those People.

Serving such a narrow constituency, the Republican Party, Krugman asserts, lacks the power to effectively obstruct the Obama administration's initiatives. He concludes:

Mr. Obama therefore has room to be bold. If Republicans try a 1993-style strategy of attacking him for promoting big government, they’ll learn two things: not only has the financial crisis discredited their economic theories, the racial subtext of anti-government rhetoric doesn’t play the way it used to.

Will the Republicans eventually stage a comeback? Yes, of course. But barring some huge missteps by Mr. Obama, that will not happen until they stop whining and look at what really went wrong. And when they do, they will discover that they need to get in touch with the real “real America,” a country that is more diverse, more tolerant, and more demanding of effective government than is dreamt of in their political philosophy.

As We Begin The New Year, Let's Be Joyous

After eight long years of the Bush administration, marked by failure, incompetence, and corruption, we're finally poised to steer the nation in a new direction.

As we proceed, let us not forget the broken promises and outright lies that defined the two terms Bush served in office.

I Know Why Obama Picked Warren. But Why?!

The Washington Post's Jonathan Capehart tackles the controversy surrounding President-elect Obama's selection of the Rev. Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at is inaugural by reflecting upon the opinions expressed by his colleagues Richard Cohen and E.J. Dionne, Jr. and engaging in a discussion of the issue on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" program.

From Capehart's blog entry on the Washington Post website:

I have been vexed into paralysis by President-elect Obama's selection of evangelical pastor Rick Warren to lead the invocation at his inauguration next month. Sure, I understand politically why Obama chose to give such an honor to Warren. A terrific explanation came from E.J. Dionne today.....

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And because symbols matter, I personally found the choice offensive. That's why Richard Cohen's column today was so soothing.

From MSNBC:

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Jon Stewart vs. Mike Huckabee on Gay Marriage

Quite a civil and illuminating conversation between Comedy Central's Jon Stewart and Fox News commentator and former GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee on the topic of gay marriage.

Stewart calmly, but thoroughly shreds Huckabee's arguments justifying a ban on gay marriage, leaving the former governor with nothing more to support his position than the fact that a majority of Americans agree with him.

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Mike Huckabee Pt. 2

Barack Obama Interview
John McCain Interview

Sarah Palin Video
Funny Election Video

A Sign Of What's To Come

Employees at a Chicago window manufacturer have peacefully occupied a factory shut down due to the plunging demand by the housing industry. Aside from the distress of being laid off just weeks before Christmas, employees are angered by the failure of Republic Windows and Doors to abide by federal and Illinois laws that require advance notice of a business closing.

From the Chicago Tribune:

Idled Workers Occupy Factory In Chicago

By RUPA SHENOY | Associated Press Writer

CHICAGO - Workers laid off from their jobs at a factory have occupied the building and are demanding assurances they'll get severance and vacation pay that they say they are owed.

About 200 employees of Republic Windows and Doors began their sit-in Friday, the last scheduled day of the plant's operation. On Saturday, about 50 workers could be seen through a window sitting on chairs and pallets on the factory floor. Reporters were asked to stay out of the plant's work area. ...continue reading

From NBC Chicago:

Bleak Employment Numbers Indicate Recession Is Worsening

With nearly 2 million jobs lost so far this year the prospect for any kind of economic recovery is bleak. Consumer demand for goods and services has plunged, corporate investment has tanked, the housing market is in a shambles, and automakers have been humbled into begging taxpayers for a bailout.

From the New York Times:

Workers Give Up
By David Leonhardt

How bad was today’s jobs report? The unemployment rate rose to 6.7 percent, its highest level since 1993 — and that understated the weakness in the labor market.

According to the Labor Department, the number of unemployed workers rose by 251,000 in November. But the number of people who were outside of the labor force — that is, neither working nor looking for work — rose by much more: 637,000. These people aren’t counted as unemployed in the government’s statistics, because they are not looking for work. Many of them, presumably, have stopped looking for work because they didn’t think they could find a good job. ...continue reading

Significantly, the loss of jobs has affected men, more than women, due largely to the heavy concentration of women in the healthcare field, education, and other social services.



From economist Dr. Mark Perry:

According to today's BLS report, the U.S. economy has lost 2.352 million jobs in the last year (Nov. 2007 to Nov. 2008). Further analysis shows that 82% of the job losses (1.932 million) were jobs held by males, and only 18% of jobs losses (430,000) were jobs held by females (see top chart above). Further, the November unemployment rate for men is 7.2% vs. only 6% for women, and the gap in jobless rates between men and women has been increasing for the last six months (see bottom chart above).

What's going on?

According to this May 2008 BusinessWeek article:

Men have the misfortune of being concentrated in the two sectors that are doing the worst: manufacturing (70% male) and construction (88% male). Women are concentrated in sectors that are still growing, such as education and health care (77% female). ...continue reading

President-elect Obama's desire to provide economic stimulus by investing heavily in infrastructure should provide a boost to employment in the construction and manufacturing sectors. In addition, it's been reported that he wants to provide some relief to states in the form of increased Medicaid funding and education funding, which would likely aid women.

And The Band Plays On

I learned last evening that Joe, a friend of nearly three decades, finally succumbed to AIDS after waging a valiant battle against the disease for over two decades.

I hadn't been aware that his health was in decline, having not spoken to him since July, but from what I gather, even those closest to him were kept unaware of the seriousness of his deteriorating condition, not at all surprising given Joe's penchant for privacy and stoicism in the face of tragedy.

His sudden death has profoundly impacted me - much more so than I'd have imagined. We haven't been particularly close these past few years, largely because of a geographic separation. After his loss of his life-partner a dozen years ago, he returned to his home state, finding his adopted city of New York oppressive, laden with cursed memories of joy lost.

I don't believe he found returning home to be all that comforting, yet it was recognizable, largely unchanged from his boyhood. He knew what to expect, and found some solace in the predictability of the community - a normalcy, a consistency with which he had learned to cope.

And make no mistake - coping in New York is a challenge in the best of circumstances. For many gay men who flocked to the city during the 1970s and 1980s AIDS made the city unbearable. There really is no way to adjust to the loss of so many friends and associates.

I can recall during the late 1980s and early 1990s attending at least one memorial service per week, a litany of depressing endings so persistent and encompassing that it became dehumanizing. Gratefully, the pace of death over the past decade has slowed considerably due to improved treatment. It's been over a year since the last time I learned of the death of a friend due to AIDS, a respite that has lulled me into a sense of complacency about the seriousness of the epidemic.

Yet, in recent months I've read extensively of a resurgence of infections in the gay community, which some attribute to a sense that the disease is no longer a death sentence, but rather, a treatable illness not unlike diabetes. Joe's passing is a potent reminder of the foolishness of such assumptions, and how important it is that we continue to educate young people about the dangers of the disease and its ultimately lethal consequences.

It's at moments such as these that I wish I possessed the eloquence to offer some profound insight, or at least a modicum of inspiration. Sadly, the talent eludes me, but I welcome contributions from others and offer a reminder:

How did a few failed banks add up to a financial meltdown?

Nobel Prize winning economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman explains how a few failed banks caused an historic financial meltdown at a Zocalo Public Square lecture.

Barbara Walter's Interview of Barack Obama

What's So Funny About Peace, Love and Understanding?

Can The Financial Markets Be Saved?

Saving the financial markets has been at the top of the agenda of the Bush administration for the past couple of months, with literally trillions of dollars in taxpayer guarantees being used to support beleaguered Wall Street. But for millions of Americans, the real problem is the plunge in the value of their homes, which represent their largest asset and have been used to supplement their incomes during years of declining wages.

The crisis facing homeowners is real, and according to McClatchy News:

Housing Is Bad Enough, But Wait - It'll Get Worse

By Kevin G. Hall

WASHINGTON — If you think the housing slump can't get much worse, Martin Feldstein thinks that both home prices and the broader economy can — and very likely will — get a whole lot worse.

The Harvard University professor and former chief economic adviser to Ronald Reagan isn't part of the crowd that continually forecasts doom. For two decades, he's headed the National Bureau of Economic Research, which officially determines when U.S. recessions begin and end.

So when he spoke on Monday night at the annual dinner of the National Economists Club, a gathering of like-minded wonks, Feldstein's grim calculations were noteworthy.

"There are now 12 million homes in the United States with a loan-to-value ratio greater than 100 percent. That's one mortgage in four. The aggregate amount of that is some $2 trillion," said Feldstein. "If you look at the median (midpoint) loan-to-value ratio in that 12 million group of underwater mortgages — mortgages with negative equity — the median loan-to-value ratio is 120 percent." ...continue reading

Inside the Transition: Melody Barnes

An introduction to Melody Barnes, President-elect Obama's Director-designate of the Domestic Policy Council:

Obama and Bush Working to Calm Volatile Market

From the New York Times:

Obama and Bush Working to Calm Volatile Market

CHICAGO — President-elect Barack Obama sought to seize the reins of the economic crisis Monday as he and his new economic team worked closely with President Bush to inject confidence into the trembling financial markets, which rallied and erased most of last week’s losses.

The coordination between Mr. Obama and Mr. Bush was taking place among aides, as well as in direct talks about the rescue plan for Citigroup and unresolved details of the overall Treasury bailout plan. The president said his successor would be informed of every “big decision” that was made, adding, “It’s important for the American people to know that there is close cooperation.”

To calm anxious markets, the Federal Reserve and the Treasury plan to announce a major lending program on Tuesday to jump-start frozen loan markets, administration officials said. The Treasury had signaled earlier this month that it was considering such an action for consumer loans, but the action to be announced will broaden the program to include business debt. ....continue reading

Proposition 8 Exposing Dissent Within Mormon Church

Not all Mormons are opposed to same-gender marriages, nor all they all homophobic. As this article in the Boston Globe illuminates, there is considerable dissent within the church over its public support for Proposition 8, which changed California's Constitution in order to prohibit same-gender marriages.

Gay-Marriage Debate Roils, Unites Mormons

This has been a stormy year for Mormons in the United States. First, there was the candidacy of Mitt Romney for president, which brought to the surface a deep strain of anti-Mormonism in American culture. Then, there was the raid on a group of schismatic polygamists in Texas, which reminded America of Mormonism's uncomfortable history. And now, there is a wave of protest, rolling across the country from west to east, in which some gay rights advocates have targeted Mormons because of their church's support for a successful California referendum to overturn same-sex marriage.

Ironically, the protests appear to be helping repair a rift within Mormonism caused by the election. The church's outspoken support for Proposition 8 exposed an unusual level of disagreement in the ordinarily harmonious Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as the Internet facilitated grass-roots organizing by the minority of Mormons who support same-sex marriage. But a smattering of anti-Mormon acts since Election Day - the burning of a Book of Mormon, a mailing of packets of white powder to Mormon sites, and some anti-Mormon invective expressed on signs and in sloganeering - has helped rally a denomination with a long history of persecution.

...continue reading

One group of Mormons, "Hotter Than Saints", while not openly taking a position on Proposition 8, has nevertheless earned the reprobation of church leaders for its homo-erotic calendar, "Men On A Mission", which features 12 shirtless young men offered as "12 Reasons To Believe In God". A video promoting the calendar is below.

The Mother Of All Bailouts!

Federal regulators have agreed to bailout Citigroup, one of the world's largest banking companies by infusing it with $20 billion in new capital and assuming the liability for $300 billion in risky loans, largely extended in the form of residential and commercial mortgages.

From the New York Times:

U.S. Approves Plan To Help Citigroup Weather Losses

By ERIC DASH

Federal regulators approved a radical plan to stabilize Citigroup in an arrangement in which the government could soak up billions of dollars in losses at the struggling bank, the government announced late Sunday night.

The complex plan calls for the government to back about $306 billion in loans and securities and directly invest about $20 billion in the company. The plan, emerging after a harrowing week in the financial markets, is the government’s third effort in three months to contain the deepening economic crisis and may set the precedent for other multibillion-dollar financial rescues.

Citigroup executives presented a plan to federal officials on Friday evening after a weeklong plunge in the company’s share price threatened to engulf other big banks. In tense, round-the-clock negotiations that stretched until almost midnight on Sunday, it became clear that the crisis of confidence had to be defused now or the financial markets could plunge further.

Whether this latest rescue plan will help calm the markets is uncertain, given the stress in the financial system caused by losses at Citigroup and other banks. Each previous government effort initially seemed to reassure investors, leading to optimism that the banking system had steadied. But those hopes faded as the economic outlook worsened, raising worries that more bank loans were turning sour. ...continue reading

Details of the plan can be found here.

Should Detroit Automakers Be Allowed To Fail?

There are many arguments in favor of allowing Detroit's "Big Three" automakers to fail, forcing them either into Chapter 11 (reorganiation) or Chapter 7 (liquidation) bankruptcy. No one can deny that GM, Ford and Chrysler have been environmentally irresponsible, promoting gas guzzling SUVs instead of investing in new, fuel efficient technologies so desired in today's market place driven by high gasoline prices.

Yet Detroit cannot be blamed for feeding America's fuel gluttony, anymore than McDonald's or Burger King can be held totally accountable for Americans' insatiable appetite for ever larger portions of unhealthy food. An American truism is that "bigger is better", whether it be cars, meals, homes, television screens, or the size of the local supermarket.

Nor can the United Auto Workers be held entirely to blame for the automakers' current financial straits. While it's true that union employee health benefits add an estimated $1,700 to the cost of each vehicle manufactured by the "Big Three", that's a cost imposed by our society's refusal to provide government funded, universal health care, a benefit enjoyed by workers in most other industrialized countries. Relieved of the cost of health care benefits, Detroits' automakers would earn roughly $900 per vehicle manufactured, as opposed to its current per vehicle loss of $800.

Former U.S. Senator and Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham makes a good case for saving Detroit in a column in today's New York Times:

For Detroit, Chapter 11 Would Be The Final Chapter

MANY commentators and members of Congress have declared that the best hope for the Big Three auto companies is to declare bankruptcy. Airlines have gone through bankruptcy and adjusted, after all, so why can’t carmakers?

This comparison is appealing, but flawed. Almost every carmaker that has ever gone bankrupt has disappeared for good. And there is no reason to believe the Big Three would not do the same. Chapter 11 filing would almost surely lead to liquidation.

Just as financial institutions depend on the confidence of those with whom they do business (as Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers discovered), automakers depend on the confidence of car buyers. To purchase a car is to make a multiyear commitment: the buyer must have confidence that the manufacturer will survive to provide parts and service under warranty. With a declaration of bankruptcy, that confidence evaporates. Eighty percent of consumers would not even consider buying a car or truck from a bankrupt manufacturer, one recent survey indicates. So once a bankruptcy proceeding got started, the company’s revenue would plummet, leading it to hemorrhage cash to cover its high fixed costs. ...continue reading

Detroit makes its own case in the following video: