Monday, July 29, 2013

JULY 25, 2013

The controversy over the National Security Agency's spying on Americans continues.  The House of Representatives voted down a proposal to restrict how the NSA collects our telephone records.  217 to 205 is a close vote;  probably not the last look at this issue.


In a Washington Post-ABC News poll 74% said NSA surveillance of phone calls and the internet restricted some Americans' privacy rights.
 49% thought it restricted their own privacy rights.

But did Edward Snowden
's disclosures harm natonal security?   27% said yes, somewhat, 22% said a great deal, 37% said no, and 13% had no opinion.  I wonder where they've been.

Is this spying making the U.S. safer from terrorism?
 42% said yes, 47% said not much difference, and 5% said less safe.

The debate goes on.
 Is your phone ringing?

JULY 26, 2013

     Some scary words are back in the headlines--budget shutdown, budget showdown, etc.

     The constitutional tools for such a mess are there.
 To become law a bill must pass the House and Senate and be signed by the president.  The Senate and the president are Democratic.  The House is Republican.  Just the other day it passed a bill with no money for food stamps.  Can you imagine President Obama going along with that?  Neither can I.

      But the young, very ideological Republicans in the House want to fight.
 Maybe they think they'll win;  I don't.  They are a lot more conservative than the country, I think.  Most Americans, I think, want to keep food stamps, don't want to make Medicare a voucher program, and so on.

     But somebody has to compromise or nothing passes.
 Stories from the White House this week say Obama is toughening his stand.  The Republicans seem unlikely to embrace moderation.

     Interesting times a
re coming.

 

Monday, July 22, 2013

Fwd: JULY 20, 2013

    Working as a reporter, I was often sent to work on a story in a city I had written about during the urban riots of the 1960s.  I would often think, wow, what a good comeback Pittsburgh or Chicago or wherever it was had made.  Landing in Detroit, I never thought that.  The decline started then, they say, but every time I returned there I would think it had gotten worse.

     I don't know why.
 Sure, a lot of Americans bought foreign cars but you still saw Fords and Chevys on the streets.  The Washington Post notes that Detroit was the country's fourth largest city in the 1950s with a population of some two million.  Now it's about 700,000.

     Why are people leaving?
 That's easy.  80,000 buildings are abandoned or blighted;  40% of the street lights, broken;  unemployment, above 18%.  There are more bad numbers, but you get the idea.

     Can it be saved?
 I hope so.  But who knows?  People have talked about selling the airport, selling works of art in the museum, which sounds a bit farfetched.

     I hope Detroit can come back, that the Lions and the Tigers will stay in a recovering city. 
 It will be a tough rescue, no doubt about that.

Monday, July 15, 2013

JULY 12, 2013

     I remember once, when I was fairly new here in Washington, hearing then Senate majority leader Lyndon Johnson, a Democrat, tell a colleague, in a stage whisper you could have heard half a mile away, "Caleb, change your vote!"  Caleb, a Republican, did.  The bill passed and life went on. The Congress worked faily well then.  It works less well now, and is contemplating some changes which could make things even worse.

     Senate majority leader Harry Reid has said he'll try to get rid of the filibuster, the Senate rule which allows one senator, or a few, to talk and talk and
well, you get the idea. Southern segregationist senators filibustered the 1964 civil rights bill, which changed the country greatly for the better, for something like two months.  Eventually it passed.  Good happened.

     The House this week passed a farm
bill which contained no money for food stamps. You can argue about the food stamp program but there's no doubt a lot of people need it. The Republicans' opposition to it was based more on politics than on merit. If they like the result, we'll see more of it.

     I remember
Everett Dirksen, back during that 1960s civil rights debate, shutting down that filibuster, quoting Goethe, "Nothing is more powerful than an idea whose time has come." Partisan warfare based on parliamentary rules, though, can make you wonder about that.

JULY 14, 2013

     Abortion, an emotional issue which hasn't been in the news much in recent years, is headed back to the front pages. That's because a number of state legislatures have acted or will be acting, on proposals to restrict it.

     The Texas Senate passed some restrictions this weekend. They would ban abortions after twenty weeks and require physicians who do them to have admitting privi
leges at a nearby hospital. Abortions would have to be done in fully equipped surgical centers. A spokesman for Planned Parenthood, which supports legalized abortion, said it was "evaluating legal options" to challenge the Texas law.

     It's an issue that courts will decide.
  The Washington Post notes that in three states--Arizona, Georgia, and Idaho--judges have struck down bans on abortions after twenty weeks as unconstituional.  Will Texas?  Who knows?

     The only certain thing is that the issue is back. Lots of work for lawyers lies ahead.

 

 

JULY 12, 2013


     I remember once, when I was fairly new here in Washington, hearing then Senate majority leader Lyndon Johnson, a Democrat, tell a colleague, in a stage whisper you could have heard half a mile away, "Caleb, change your vote!"  Caleb, a Republican, did.  The bill passed and life went on. The Congress worked faily well then.  It works less well now, and is contemplating some changes which could make things even worse.

     Senate majority leader Harry Reid has said he'll try to get rid of the filibuster, the Senate rule which allows one senator, or a few, to talk and talk and
well, you get the idea. Southern segregationist senators filibustered the 1964 civil rights bill, which changed the country greatly for the better, for something like two months.  Eventually it passed.  Good happened.

     The House this week passed a farm
bill which contained no money for food stamps. You can argue about the food stamp program but there's no doubt a lot of people need it. The Republicans' opposition to it was based more on politics than on merit. If they like the result, we'll see more of it.

     I remember
Everett Dirksen, back during that 1960s civil rights debate, shutting down that filibuster, quoting Goethe, "Nothing is more powerful than an idea whose time has come." Partisan warfare bassed on parliamentary rules, though, can make you wonder about that.

 

 

Thursday, July 11, 2013

JULY 10, 2013

     Every once in a while--no, maybe more often than that--we get an example of how stunningly inefficient the U.S. military can be.  Today's is on the front page--where else--of the Washington Post, headlined "For critics of military spending, a monument."

     It describes a 64,000 square foot building in Afghanistan, windowless, two stories, spacious offices, the story says, air conditioning.  It cost $34 million.  But--big but--the Post says the military has no plans to ever use it.  Ever.  Of course we're trying to leave there anyway but…

   The Post says the building--folly, whatever you choose to call it--has come to symbolize "the staggering cost of Pentagon mismanagement."
No argument here.

     I don't think this is as  shameful as NSA agents lying to us about tapping our phones and all tha but it does represent childish, immature planning.  Or maybe not any planning at all.

    Any good managers around?  Your government needs you.


Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Fwd: JULY 9, 2013


 

 


     
The news is full these days about troubles in other countries--Syria, Egypt and so on.  One question always seems to be, what should the U.S. do to help?  Most of the time, the wisest answer might be--nothing.

     I don't mean to sound like some 1930s
isolationist who closed his eyes while Adolf Hitler conquered Europe, but the issues in today's trouble spots seem domestic;  they're trying to straighten out their own houses, not move into anyone else's.

     If a little money can help, fine.
 Or a little advice, well, sure, though it's hard to imagine anyone taking it.  But sending our military men and women to right someone else's alleged wrong--let's just not.

     If it's clear that someone else means us harm then
, of course, we act.  But otherwise, let's just wish them a peaceful summer and walk on by.

    
    

     

 

 


Thursday, July 4, 2013

JULY 3, 2013

    I always enjoy Wimbledon. the British tennis tournament.  It's fun to watch even on TV, though not as much as when, living in London years ago, I used to go.


     Pretty people in interesting leisure clothes your grandparents might have worn, British summer food--hey you can't knock strawberries and cream, can you?  

     And of course
there's the tennis match itself. This year, it's been all upsets. Rafael Nadal, a top seed, out the first day;  Roger Federer, once the world's best but a little older now, left early;  Serena Williams, whom we all thought unbeatable, got beaten.  American sportswriters were lamenting the decline of American men--no Agassis, no Samprases these days.  British sportswriters complain of a much longer drought--this British tournament was last won by a British man, Fred Perry, back in 1938.

     That may be changing.
 A Brit named Andy Murray just survived a gruelling quarterfinal and is into the semis.  He's not only a Brit, he's a Scot, and they hardly play the game at all.  My late father, whose folks came from there, would have been very pleased.

 

JULY 2, 2013

     It's kind of a comedy...where will Edward Snowden threaten to go next?  Or it could be a comedy...how many countries will he ask to let him live in them?  Good fun for us all.

    
My computer says he has so far sought a home, or at least an asylum, in many including China, Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela, India, and Ecuador.

     I don't know if they all want a famous leaker, but China is large, varied, very pretty in places
and has some terrific food, though we reporters weren't always sure what everything was.  Cuba's nice with good food, good people.  I was having a good time there--I think the Pope was going to visit--when all us reporters were ordered back to Washingon and spent the flight home trading rumorsReally?  A White House intern? First name Monica? Well, those were the tumultuous Clinton years.

     Probably, Mr. Leaker, you're getting tired of whatever holding facility you're in in Moscow--th
ose are never much fun--and want to go somewhere.  I'd pick a small place--maybe Ecuador--which doesn't have much stuff to leak.

    
Or are you afraid your job skills will grow rusty?  Hard to know.