pardon me

In his column in today's paper, Frank Rich essentially agrees with my position that Scooter Libby will certainly be pardoned sometime after election day 2008. There is no reason to think that President Bush will err on the side of the Rule of Law thereby allowing Libby to serve his debt to society. But the Rule of Law is the citizenry's protection against the capriciousness of rulers. Far too often President Bush has used Fear itself to coerce the result he desires instead of allowing the processes of the democracy. The Republic is ill served when leaders the law into their own hands--a pardon is nothing if not vigilantism. Although Libby's crime was against the Institution of the Judiciary, the subtext is deeply political. The President will give Libby a get-out-jail card because political calculations are more important to him than upholding the principles of due process and the rule of law. That the President will wait until December 2008 to pardon merely Libby betrays the White House lack of principle.

An Inconvenient Truth

When asked whether he would watch "An Inconvenient Truth" President Bush said he had no intention to do so because there was a "fundamental debate" about whether global warming was "manmade or natural." It was a willfully ignorant statement in contradiction of scientific consensus. Now the White says, "President Bush has consistently acknowledged climate change is occurring and humans are contributing to the problem." The White House revisionism is a reaction to a report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change which said that there is a 90 percent certainty that greenhouse gases are heating up the planet.

We should have started years ago working to stabilize carbon-dioxide in the atmosphere, but it is certainly progress to have the Administration's head out of the sand. The difficulty is now with climate-change legislation. Only toothless bills have much of a chance getting past a republican filibuster in the Senate. The best bill right now is sponsored by McCain, Lieberman, and Obama. It has no chance of passing, but Congress should embrace truly meaningful action and force a White House to veto or a Senate filibuster as a way to raise public awareness for 2008 elections.

Record Trade Deficit

The week the Census Bureau reports that for the fifth consecutive year the United States ran a record trade deficit. The 2006 trade deficit reached a new high last year of $763,300,000,000 which is a 6.5% increase from 2005. Although the deficit is increasing, so too are exports. The Bush Administration argues that because exports are (also) increasing, the trade deficit is acceptable. Democrats in Congress are calling for opening more international markets for U.S. goods while protecting markets in the United States. French Prime Minister Chirac has called on the U.S. to stop subsidizing cotton growers so that African cotton growers can compete with U.S. companies. What do you think is the correct balance of trade protections and open international markets? What are the implications for the U.S. economy? Security? Industry and job?

SOTU answers Iraq questions

President Bush waited more than thirty minutes into the SOTU to mention in the elephant in the room—Iraq. Probably a good oratory strategy since the “surge” and the President’s larger Iraq plan needed further explanation and I with anxious anticipation to hear a clear and honest account of the administration’s plan for Iraq. It was not worth the wait. President Bush added nothing to the discourse on Iraq. In fact, he only further muddled the situation.

Bush seems intent on viewing the world in black and white—he shows little interest in nuance even when the situation in Iraq obviously demands a sophisticated response. He seems not to understand the mess in Iraq and continues to insist that it is simply a battle between Good and Evil. In the SOTU Bush says "[t]he Shia and Sunni extremists are different faces of the same totalitarian threat.” "Whatever slogans they chant ... they have the same wicked purpose. They want to kill Americans, kill democracy in the Middle East and gain the weapons to kill on an even more horrific scale." The escalating violence in Iraq is more complicated than the armies of Freedom battling the forces of Tyranny. Does Bush really believe that the Shiites and Sunnis are the same? And that totalitarian best describes their sameness? Does he distinguish the small minority of al-Qaida in Iraq from Shiites and Sunnis?

I must conclude that the President does not fully comprehend the situation in Iraq and that he is unwilling to honestly examine the dire complexities of the war.

Day of Silence for housing

A “Day of Silence” is being held today, Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2007, to protest federal funding cuts that will cripple public housing authorities across the U.S. Due to the ballooning federal deficit, federal funding for low-income housing has been cut drastically this year. While a permanent budget still has not been passed, there is no indication that any of those cuts will be rescinded. As a result, public housing authorities are being forced to make deep budget cuts, reduce staff and cut back on services. The long-term consequences are a reduction in the availability of housing for those who can least afford it, cuts in services that can help low-income families achieve self-sufficiency, and an increase in urban blight as existing properties are unable to be properly maintained and repaired.

The danger ahead for our nation’s poorest seniors and families is real. Housing authorities are considering a host of options to continue to finance housing operations. These include selling housing units, raising rents, eliminating social services and laying off thousands of people who provide those services to seniors and families. Today housing agencies are making ends meet with only 76.4 cents of every dollar appropriated with no relief in sight this budget cycle and dim prospects for the near future. Ultimately fewer poor families and senior citizens will be able to live in federally subsidized housing.

Today public policy and social action come together, as public housing authorities throughout the nation participate in a national "Day of Silence" in order to raise awareness of this funding crisis. For one day only, many housing authorities will not be answering phones or returning calls (except for emergencies). Instead, callers will get a voice mail message, telling them that public housing agencies around the nation are observing a national day of silence today in order to focus attention on the critical funding cuts proposed for the nation's public housing program. Such cuts will impact the ability of housing authorities to respond to calls for service. Callers will then be asked to contact members of Congress to ask them to support full funding for public housing and given the number for the US House of Representatives.