You Can Leave Your Shoes On

Who knew the international sign of disgust was to fling your footwear at the object of your disdain? As everyone knows by now, an Iraqi journalist offered that very critique of the blessedly departing colonial moron during a press event.

The present incarnation of the City Council, while not departing, is winding down its first year. This seems a good time to reflect on its progress to date.

The first significant decision of the Council was to choose Jeff Gahan as its president. That decision carried two major ramifications which unfolded over the course of the year. First was the shelving of the redistricting plan. A newly drawn Council District map would have had no effect on the current representation on the council, but could have yielded a different roster going into the elections of 2011. Although this issue appears dead, its reappearance should shock no one.

The second major plot point owing to Gahan's position was the smoking ordinance. That ordinance represented a principled stand on an issue about which there should be no debate. That there was debate can not be denied. The outcome of this issue was determined by a Mayoral veto. That decision could have proven an insurmountable obstacle to the necessary cooperation between any Mayor and any Council. It did not, and I am grateful for that. I will not make a categorical statement on future smoking legislation, but I'd be disinclined to revisit the issue in any form, any time, for any reason.

The issue which I feel is central to so many of our problems can be wrapped up in a package called code enforcement. The city, any city, can not sustain itself when housing stock deteriorates to the point it discourages people and families from seriously considering living in it.
Areas of New Albany have reached that point now and the question is, do those poorly maintained neighborhoods outweigh the well maintained areas. Does the potential resident, with no emotional background to influence their settling here, assess the city as a whole, and is that good or bad? Do these people see a city with some neighborhoods that could stand some improvement or do they see a city which has turned its back on certain areas? Can we expect sustainable prosperity if that is how the city is seen? Every city has good parts and bad parts. In a small community, such as New Albany, the fortunes of both parts are more closely tied together. That shared destiny should be one of our assets as a small city. As part of government, I see our responsibility to improve the substandard areas through any means available and to bring additional amenities which might make the city more livable. New amenities are a tall order in these austere times, but we should continue to try.

Enforcing extant ordinances is well within our capabilities. Failure to make a meaningful effort in that pursuit amounts to dereliction of duties. The Mayor has taken some advice from the Council committee formed to look at housing code enforcement. That committee cannot take credit for the results the Mayor will surely realize when he focuses the administration's attention to the issue, which he has scheduled to do early in January. It is past time when this issue must be addressed straight on. Nothing less than the future of the City depends on it.

My wife, one of her granddaughters, and I were in Bloomington Saturday. No surprise, but Bloomington offered a truly festive downtown replete with lights and plenty of people. What fiscal hocus pocus do they possess which eludes us? We saw something more surprising as we returned home through Salem. That magnet of prosperity had also adorned itself for the holidays with lights and presented, again, a festive downtown. It was too late for many to be out on the streets but when they were out they would see a town square of which they could be proud. With no dismissal of anyone's efforts in New Albany intended, I would suggest that our downtown looks drab in comparison. Several stores are nicely decorated for the season, with the new Winery exceptionally so.

To be sure, New Albany's problems can't be solved with lights and tinsel. We can find hope in the fact that several businesses have moved to downtown or have made substantial progress toward doing so. The YMCA is by far the most tangible sign of renewal. It is such a huge step forward, it is like JFK said of America, "we have tossed our cap over the wall of space." His meaning was that we were committted to the space race and would have no way to proceed but forward. The YMCA tosses our cap over the wall of downtown revitalization. Our task now is to smooth the path for anyone venturous enough to follow an entrepreneurial motivation to set up new business downtown. Luckily, unlike Louisville, New Albany will not find itself dancing a quarter billion dollar tune to the likes of the Cordish Group in pusuit of revival. It is unfathomable in light of the continual activity at the Y, that some in our community stood in opposition to this project. Thankfully, we have moved on.

My first step out of the gate this year was a stumble. I attempted to pass an ordinance early on giving the Council the authority to charter boards and commissions comprised of citizens. It turns out the Council already possessed such authority, and the proposed ordinance would have added an unneccesary item to the code book. That ordinance remains on the table and will be withdrawn at this year's final meeting. In its place, during January, a specific ordinance to establish a Chestnut Restoration Project will be introduced in its place. The purpose of this will be to reintroduce chestnut trees, albeit a blight resistant variety, into our floral census. These trees were nearly driven to extinction by a blight during the 1940-50s. Anyone with a negative view of trees is on alert to marshall their forces now. Bets anyone?

Some rumblings on the horizon suggest that the Pater Noster may soon depart from the Council's opening routine. I don't believe the civic arena is an appropriate venue for prayer. The prayer intoned at Council meetings is coerced and, therefore, stripped of its spiritual essence. I believe a more appropriate offering for that time slot would be a "civic prayer". That is, a short speech or presentation by local grade school students who would give a half minute or a minute on whatever topic they choose. It should be an honor to be chosen, and it would give students a chance to hone their public speaking and research skills. If my recollection of grade school is accurate, a half minute to a minute would feel like a lifetime under the circumstances.

Regardless of how people view the action or inaction of the Council, I can say that each member I have interacted with has the city's interests at heart. Each member has a certain role to fill and each member is open to input from citizens. While no one will satisfy all of our citizens all of the time, on balance I have been pleasantly surprised with the Council, especially under the trying fiscal situation we face. I think it has been a pretty good start. I think that start will provide a good base for progress in the next year. Of course I'm biased, but if I were sitting in the audience or assessing the Council's performance from home, I'd leave my shoes on, at least for now.

Important Event Thursday, November 20--Not the City Council

Below is a press release for an upcoming presentation on single-payer health coverage. The speaker is a leader in Hoosiers for a Commonsense Health Plan (HCHP).

HCHP's immediate goal is to build a consensus for HR-676 which has good support in Congress but needs still broader support to become law.

Now that Indiana is a blue state, the time is right to get Hoosier lawmakers on board with one of President-elect Obama's campaign goals. HR-676 is the best means of reaching that goal.

I'd like to attend, but I'll be at a City Council meeting harvesting some of Grover Norquist's bounty.


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NEW ALBANY, In --- A forum on national health care featuring one of the nation's experts on health care insurance will be held at 7 p.m. Thursday Nov. 20 at Indiana University Southeast. Dr. Rob Stone of Bloomington, IN, one of the founders of Hoosiers for Commonsense Health Plan (HCHP), will be the speaker. There will be a public discussion following the powerpoint presentation.
The event will take place on the second floor of the IUS library on Grantline Rd. Sponsors are the Southern Indiana branch of HCHP and the IUS Department of Sociology. The event is free.
A spokesman for HCHP said that the forum will tie into one of the key planks of President-elect Barack Obama's platform on health issues. Questions on the problems of health insurance for post-college students, for those who are not covered by employee plans and for Medicare patients in need of supplement insurance will be answered.

It Still Feels Great

The actual real America is everywhere. It is the America that has been in shell shock since the aftermath of 9/11, when our government wielded a brutal attack by terrorists as a club to ratchet up our fears, betray our deepest constitutional values and turn Americans against one another in the name of “patriotism.” What we started to remember the morning after Election Day was what we had forgotten over the past eight years, as our abusive relationship with the Bush administration and its press enablers dragged on: That’s not who we are.

In case you missed this excellent column by Frank Rich, I think it sums up Tuesday's results brilliantly.

____________________________________
November 9, 2008
Op-Ed Columnist
It Still Felt Good the Morning After
By FRANK RICH
ON the morning after a black man won the White House, America’s tears of catharsis gave way to unadulterated joy.
Our nation was still in the same ditch it had been the day before, but the atmosphere was giddy. We felt good not only because we had breached a racial barrier as old as the Republic. Dawn also brought the realization that we were at last emerging from an abusive relationship with our country’s 21st-century leaders. The festive scenes of liberation that Dick Cheney had once imagined for Iraq were finally taking place — in cities all over America.
For eight years, we’ve been told by those in power that we are small, bigoted and stupid — easily divided and easily frightened. This was the toxic catechism of Bush-Rove politics. It was the soiled banner picked up by the sad McCain campaign, and it was often abetted by an amen corner in the dominant news media. We heard this slander of America so often that we all started to believe it, liberals most certainly included. If I had a dollar for every Democrat who told me there was no way that Americans would ever turn against the war in Iraq or definitively reject Bush governance or elect a black man named Barack Hussein Obama president, I could almost start to recoup my 401(k). Few wanted to take yes for an answer.
So let’s be blunt. Almost every assumption about America that was taken as a given by our political culture on Tuesday morning was proved wrong by Tuesday night.
The most conspicuous clichés to fall, of course, were the twin suppositions that a decisive number of white Americans wouldn’t vote for a black presidential candidate — and that they were lying to pollsters about their rampant racism. But the polls were accurate. There was no “Bradley effect.” A higher percentage of white men voted for Obama than any Democrat since Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton included.
Obama also won all four of those hunting-and-Hillary-loving Rust Belt states that became 2008’s obsession among slumming upper-middle-class white journalists: Pennsylvania and Michigan by double digits, as well as Ohio and even Indiana, which has gone Democratic only once (1964) since 1936. The solid Republican South, led by Virginia and North Carolina, started to turn blue as well. While there are still bigots in America, they are in unambiguous retreat.
And what about all those terrified Jews who reportedly abandoned their progressive heritage to buy into the smears libeling Obama as an Israel-hating terrorist? Obama drew a larger percentage of Jews nationally (78) than Kerry had (74) and — mazel tov, Sarah Silverman! — won Florida.
Let’s defend Hispanic-Americans, too, while we’re at it. In one of the more notorious observations of the campaign year, a Clinton pollster, Sergio Bendixen, told The New Yorker in January that “the Hispanic voter — and I want to say this very carefully — has not shown a lot of willingness or affinity to support black candidates.” Let us say very carefully that a black presidential candidate won Latinos — the fastest-growing demographic in the electorate — 67 percent to 31 (up from Kerry’s 53-to-44 edge and Gore’s 62-to-35).
Young voters also triumphed over the condescension of the experts. “Are they going to show up?” Cokie Roberts of ABC News asked in February. “Probably not. They never have before. By the time November comes, they’ll be tired.” In fact they turned up in larger numbers than in 2004, and their disproportionate Democratic margin made a serious difference, as did their hard work on the ground. They’re not the ones who need Geritol.
The same commentators who dismissed every conceivable American demographic as racist, lazy or both got Sarah Palin wrong too. When she made her debut in St. Paul, the punditocracy was nearly uniform in declaring her selection a brilliant coup. There hadn’t been so much instant over-the-top praise by the press for a cynical political stunt since President Bush “landed” a jet on the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln in that short-lived triumph “Mission Accomplished.”
The rave reviews for Palin were completely disingenuous. Anyone paying attention (with the possible exception of John McCain) could see she was woefully ill-equipped to serve half-a-heartbeat away from the presidency. The conservatives Peggy Noonan and Mike Murphy said so on MSNBC when they didn’t know their mikes were on. But, hey, she was a dazzling TV presence, the thinking went, so surely doltish Americans would rally around her anyway. “She killed!” cheered Noonan about the vice-presidential debate, revising her opinion upward and marveling at Palin’s gift for talking “over the heads of the media straight to the people.” Many talking heads thought she tied or beat Joe Biden.
The people, however, were reaching a less charitable conclusion and were well ahead of the Beltway curve in fleeing Palin. Only after polls confirmed that she was costing McCain votes did conventional wisdom in Washington finally change, demoting her from Republican savior to scapegoat overnight.
But Palin’s appeal wasn’t overestimated only because of her kitschy “American Idol” star quality. Her fierce embrace of the old Karl Rove wedge politics, the divisive pitting of the “real America” against the secular “other” America, was also regarded as a sure-fire winner. The second most persistent assumption by both pundits and the McCain campaign this year — after the likely triumph of racism — was that the culture war battlegrounds from 2000 and 2004 would remain intact.
This is true in exactly one instance: gay civil rights. Though Rove’s promised “permanent Republican majority” lies in humiliating ruins, his and Bush’s one secure legacy will be their demagogic exploitation of homophobia. The success of the four state initiatives banning either same-sex marriage or same-sex adoptions was the sole retro trend on Tuesday. And Obama, who largely soft-pedaled the issue this year, was little help. In California, where other races split more or less evenly on a same-sex marriage ban, some 70 percent of black voters contributed to its narrow victory.
That lagging indicator aside, nearly every other result on Tuesday suggests that while the right wants to keep fighting the old boomer culture wars, no one else does. Three state initiatives restricting abortion failed. Bill Ayers proved a lame villain, scaring no one. Americans do not want to revisit Vietnam (including in Iraq). For all the attention paid by the news media and McCain-Palin to rancorous remembrances of things past, I sometimes wondered whether most Americans thought the Weather Underground was a reunion band and the Hanoi Hilton a chain hotel. Socialism, the evil empire and even Ronald Reagan may be half-forgotten blurs too.
If there were any doubts the 1960s are over, they were put to rest Tuesday night when our new first family won the hearts of the world as it emerged on that vast blue stage to join the celebration in Chicago’s Grant Park. The bloody skirmishes that took place on that same spot during the Democratic convention 40 years ago — young vs. old, students vs. cops, white vs. black — seemed as remote as the moon. This is another America — hardly a perfect or prejudice-free America, but a union that can change and does, aspiring to perfection even if it can never achieve it.
Still, change may come slowly to the undying myths bequeathed to us by the Bush decade. “Don’t think for a minute that power concedes,” Obama is fond of saying. Neither does groupthink. We now keep hearing, for instance, that America is “a center-right nation” — apparently because the percentages of Americans who call themselves conservative (34), moderate (44) and liberal (22) remain virtually unchanged from four years ago. But if we’ve learned anything this year, surely it’s that labels are overrated. Those same polls find that more and more self-described conservatives no longer consider themselves Republicans. Americans now say they favor government doing more (51 percent), not less (43) — an 11-point swing since 2004 — and they still overwhelmingly reject the Iraq war. That’s a centrist country tilting center-left, and that’s the majority who voted for Obama.
The post-Bush-Rove Republican Party is in the minority because it has driven away women, the young, suburbanites, black Americans, Latino-Americans, Asian-Americans, educated Americans, gay Americans and, increasingly, working-class Americans. Who’s left? The only states where the G.O.P. increased its percentage of the presidential vote relative to the Democrats were West Virginia, Tennessee, Louisiana and Arkansas. Even the North Carolina county where Palin expressed her delight at being in the “real America” went for Obama by more than 18 percentage points.
The actual real America is everywhere. It is the America that has been in shell shock since the aftermath of 9/11, when our government wielded a brutal attack by terrorists as a club to ratchet up our fears, betray our deepest constitutional values and turn Americans against one another in the name of “patriotism.” What we started to remember the morning after Election Day was what we had forgotten over the past eight years, as our abusive relationship with the Bush administration and its press enablers dragged on: That’s not who we are.
So even as we celebrated our first black president, we looked around and rediscovered the nation that had elected him. “We are the ones we’ve been waiting for,” Obama said in February, and indeed millions of such Americans were here all along, waiting for a leader. This was the week that they reclaimed their country.



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GET UP

In what I take as a standard close to his stump speech, Joe Biden recounts the words his father spoke, "when you get knocked down, Champ, Get up. Just get up". Notice there's no further advice. He didn't say get up and do this, or do that. Just, get up. Once you're back on your feet you can start to plan for the next steps and the steps beyond that.

The nation finds itself knocked down now after eight long years of the Bush administration. The list of Bush failings is long and the effects of those failings may be long-lasting. The nation, (and the Democratic leadership bears much of the blame), shirked its responsibility to invoke the Constitutional remedy of impeachment against Bush for his perfidy. The fact is, the nation was taken to war for reasons other than necessity; we attacked a country which may have had ill-intent, but was not responsible for the September 11 terrorist attack. Almost 4,300 American soldiers have been killed in Iraq, over 30,000 have been maimed for life, and literally uncounted Iraqis have died for this lie. As part of the series of events this lie caused, the bulwark of our liberties, the U.S. Constitution, was diluted, as personal freedoms were set aside in the cause of fear. Economically, the underpinnings of our system were placed in jeopardy, again the war caused much of this, as ten billion dollars a month was poured onto the sands of Iraq. Mercenaries now carry much of the weight of "defending" our nation, and they make out like bandits. Clinton passed on to his successor a balanced budget, this could have set the course to paying down the national debt (which had mushroomed under Reagan, Bush I, and actually declined a bit under Clinton), instead Bush II drove it the other way, into science fiction territory, where it now promises to hit Ten Trillion Dollars under his watch. While the numbers are beyond a normal person's grasp, the effect of those unimaginable numbers is real indeed as those things which make an average citizen's life better are sacrificed to pay debt service. The wealth of a vital society is lost to this debt, things such as: a dependable infrastructure, available and affordable healthcare, clean environment, a thriving middle class. One item which continues to grow, and has an unlimited claim on our financial resources is the military budget, which only makes sense in the climate of fear Bush has built; his only success. Now, to the fear of others, can be added the fear of losing defense-related jobs in the new economic reality.

Thankfully, the Bush regime is on its way out.

Thankfully, the Obama administration is on the way in.

We still have much work to do. And it starts with the advice Joe Biden's father gave him, "Get up."

Get up and show that racism is a relic of the past. Get up and offer a hand of acceptance to people regardless of their race, their gender or who they love. Get up and recognize that our nation may now be looked upon by other nations as an example of good. Get up and believe that we, of average means, now have a stake in the nation's future. Get up and believe that good jobs, with good futures will once again be available as the economy retools for green jobs and a sustainable future. Get up and plan for our children's future with hope that it will be better than our present. Get up and realize that the nightmare of the Bush junta is over. Get up and hope. Get up and Vote. Get up and vote for Barack Obama.

Get up and take back our country.

GET UP.

Hey, What's the Deal With That Elephant on Your Couch?

A New Albany resident was recently quoted, in the Chicago Tribune, to say he would not vote for Barack Obama "mainly because he's black." His candor has highlighted an obvious subtext for this presidential election. I don't believe most people are blatantly racist, but racism still flows through our society and every so often it percolates to the surface. Our antique dealer happened to bring it out into the open. For that ingenuosness, he is being held up as a poster child for atavistic rubes, hicks and lowlifes. If John McCain had a crack at him, perhaps he'd call him Joe the Antique Dealer.

This man's essential Joe-ness, spread throughout the land, is the reason why the presidential race has maintained some semblance of a real contest. On paper, Barack Obama outclasses McCain in organization, ideas, inspiration, character and vision for the country. McCain carries the genuine banner of failure, a handoff from the generally recognized holder of the title "Worst President in the History of the United States". He also carries the counterfeit banner of Maverick.

* Obama lives in a stable marriage. McCain dumped his wife when an automobile accident left her scarred and less attractive than she had been on their wedding day.

* Obama and his wife, in just the last several years, paid off their student loans. Cindy McCain recently ran up a $750,000 (that's correct, seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars) bill on her American Express account IN ONE MONTH. Her daughter, the piker (not a Palin child) ran up a $150,000 Amex bill.

* Obama had an outrageous pastor and served on a board with a sixties radical. McCain's vice, Sarah Palin, spoke to an Alaskan secessionist group which did and still does advocate the violent expulsion of the U.S. government from Alaska, Palin's husband was a member of the Alaska Independence Party; the motive of the group is to retain all the vast wealth of the state for the Alaskans themselves.

Many more of these couplets could be laid out to show the superiority of Obama over McCain, and yet the race remains tight. The wild woman from Minnesota had to be brought back to earth by McCain himself because she thought Obama was "an Arab". Some of Joe the Antique Dealer's less reserved brethren have shouted such bon mots as "traitor", "terrorist" and "kill him" when Obama's name is mentioned at McCain/Palin rallies. Why is it so hard to believe that a hapless antique dealer in New Albany, Indiana would be moved to say that he isn't voting for Obama, "mainly because he's black"? Would it be better if he weren't voting for him because he's a "terrorist", or a "traitor"? Is he not measurably more civilized then the dimwit who shouted "kill him", or the poetic dimwit who shouted "off with his head"?

The McCain campaign has set its sights on winning the presidency in the worst way. The campaign finds it necessary to distract, dissemble and divide in order to peel away voters whose interests are more naturally aligned with Democratic orthodoxy, from Obama and leave them in play for McCain. They can't do it on qualifications. They need a wedge. Obama, by his very existence, offers the biggest, meanest, most heinous wedge in the American electoral repertoire: his race; unfortunately, none dare speak the name openly. Better to be a stupid hick who confuses Obama and Osama, better to label, as Michelle Bachman did, liberals as un-American than to say you aren't going to vote for Obama because he's black. The modern-day Republican playbook has been discussed in Thomas Frank's "What's the Matter With Kansas?" Frank points out that on issue after issue Democrats offer real solutions of real benefit to the Joe's of the world and yet, at the national level especially, Republicans continue to rack up victories because, on gut-level, visceral issues such as abortion and gay marriage, voters say "they share my values"; translation: they are more like me. The reality is that the candidate who lives by the wedge issue almost never delivers the voter from the supposed plague the wedge signifies.

How many times have we heard that "my grandfather came here and he made it without any affirmative action", or words to that effect? How many times have we heard hateful words thrown out to describe people not like ourselves? How do we even decide which non-shared trait will be the one deserving our mocking, derision or hate? I'm sure Joe the Antique Dealer's prejudice does not actually reflect hatred of black people. I say that having never met the man. And yet the sentiment that he won't vote for Obama because, "mainly he's black" offend. They offend the ear, they offend people he has never met, they offend the very concept of this nation.

But wait, the very concept of this nation is founded on inequality. The Constitution allowed slavery. Black slaves were counted as "three fifths" of a white citizen when doling out congressional seats. The Civil War was our crucible from which a new nation of equality was supposed to emerge. Look around. It didn't happen. This presidential race is the most potent ammunition we have to push racism further out on the fringe of society. Obama's presidency will be many things, but one of them will be a lesson that we have wasted far too many lives through bigotry and narrow horizons. I hope Joe the Antique Dealer is open to learning.

Faith, Love and...

Indiana sits in an unusual position for this historic election. Its votes are being courted by both parties, and both parties have a viable chance of carrying the state, thus winning Indiana's 11 electoral votes.

While I did not start out as a supporter of Barack Obama, (I held out hope for Al Gore entering the race for an inordinate period of time, even after I had begun to support Obama), I feel his election and the change it promises for this nation is critical. On one level, Obama's election offers some absolution for our nation's Original Sin, slavery. As Lincoln said in his Second Innaugural Address, that we were engaged in the Civil War to unwind the divine plan which might dictate that the war "continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword".

De facto slavery has vanished from the land thanks to the sacrifices of our forefathers. Today the slave master is replaced by corporate hucksters who sell the American Dream, but deliver instead a lifetime of involuntary servitude to debt dealers, health insurance peddlars, fearmongering agents of the Military Industrial Complex Eisenhower warned against, and an unhealthy alliance of commercial interests that add up to serial rapists of the environment.

Despite the plague these parties represent to our nation, as a white American I can take smug comfort in the fact that I am better off financially than the vast majority of black Americans; these citizens made a huge mistake: being born black. The disparities between the two dominant races of our land are striking. Whites, live longer, earn more, have more education, accumulate more wealth, have better access to health coverage and suffer less per capita illness, than Blacks.

Enter, Barack Obama. This man represents the true embodiment of the American Dream. He has played the hand he was dealt and turned it into an example for us all. Regardless of how the election turns out, he has placed racism further out on the fringe of our society. My attention to race is likely a reflection my age. I barely remember legal segregation but I see the continued shadow of inequality today in the disparities mentioned above and as I drive through "black" sections of Louisville and witness who rides the bus and who owns and drives the cars. Those younger than I, came into awareness during a time when race was less an overt factor. Perhaps for them, my observations tend toward fogeyism. But the state of the economy now has knocked us all down, or likely will, a peg. Those farther down the economic ladder are disproportionately affected by the downturn.

Obama's policies offer a brighter day by focusing on a retooling of the economy with an emphasis on green industries. The steps toward a green economy are ones that will, as a matter of course, lead to local jobs spread across the land. A reasonable prescription for economic revival would be a Keynesian infusion of government ivestment into our long-neglected infrastructure. As a nation, are we more likely to find sustainable prosperity in laying track for new railroads to connect cities or tax-cut trickles? Obama is more likely to opt for sustainability. McCain is more likely to funnel money into the building of a fortress and call it economic stimulus.

These are perilous economic times, and God knows I don't have the answers to our problems. Barack Obama has offered some suggestions of how we might get out of this mess. As he has offered solutions, McCain and his on-deck have slung mud. Obama wants a moritorium on forclosures. McCain wants to conjure the cloak of otherness and place it on Obama. Obama offers a break from the policies of Bushism. McCain is simply the third act of the same ridiculous play we've been watching for what seems like the past century or two. Obama has vision and offers a plausible chance of implementing that vision. McCain, deep in his soul, may have the capacity to dream a vision, but his soul was sold back in 2000 in some heinous pact with Bush which resulted in Karl Rove, author of the 2000 attacks against McCain in South Carolina, now joining the McCain campaign to question Obama's legitimacy.

Obama offers hope: Hope for a move into a more colorblind tomorrow, Hope for a return to a world stage where the U.S. can be a force for good rather than simply a force for force, Hope for universal medical coverage that equals the rest of the developed world in its inclusiveness and affordability, Hope for a rebirth of American ingenuity built on the priciples of sustainability, Hope for a foreign policy based on truth not lies, Hope for an economy that recognizes capitalism flows from democracy rather than democracy flowing from capitalism, Hope for government of the people, by the people and for the people, rather than government of the corporation, by the corporation and for the corporation, Hope for a restored balance on the Supreme Court, Hope for a return of constitutional principles abrogated by the Bush regime. Obama offers hope of a brighter tomorrow free of the shadow of fear which is really the only thing Bush has ever brought us.

If you can see the hope Obama offers, don't think you need to wait until Election Day, November 4, between the hours of 6 AM and 6 PM to cast your vote. The best laid plans etc. etc...

You can go to the Floyd County Clerk's office on the second floor of the City/County Building Monday through Friday 8 AM- 4 PM, two Saturdays will also offer early voting, October 25 and November 1, Saturday hours are from 9 AM -3 PM.

This election is too important to pass up. No one has an excuse to miss voting. If you miss it, you're just hopeless.

When Life Hands You Lemons...

With a meteorological snap of the fingers last Sunday, New Albany found itself challenged and changed. What I believe to be the single most significant architectural feature of our city, St. Mary's church, has been de-steepled, hopefully this abasement is only temporary.

The wind blew the dust off another more troubling weakness in our civic infrastructure: vivid recognition and willing acceptance of limitations. In some instances this could be called fear: fear of the unknown, fear of other people getting what is mine, fear of other people simply getting something I don't have, fear of other people's dreams eclipsing or supplanting my own limited vision of the what can be, fear of change.

Two issues come to mind when thinking of this creeping paralysis of fear: repairing Spring Street Hill and dealing with the new reality confronting the Baptist Tabernacle building.

I received an anonymous correspondence from somebody who apparently thinks it is foolish to repair Spring Street Hill. Quoting from this correspondent's letter,

"What are the Council's and this England administration's priorities?

Two-way streets? Spring Street Hill?

What the hell is wrong with this England Administration and Council?"

I walked through much of the city during the primary and general election campaign. While walking through Silver Hills, one issue received nearly unanimous support, repairing Spring Street Hill. Yes, it's an expensive project but it's one that simply must be done. I am by no means wealthy, but if I lose one or two of my front teeth, I will find the money somehow, someway, to get those teeth fixed. Likewise, a viable city can not simply write off parts of its infrastructure if it wants to be seen, or perhaps more importantly, if it wants to see itself , as viable. Perhaps the anonymous writer sees Silver Hills residents as "others" not entitled to claim what the rest of us take for granted, such as easy access by police and fire departments during emergencies. The writer may also take a less forceful view of dentistry than I.

The Mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg, was on one of the Sunday morning talk shows today. He said New York went through a spell in the late Seventies when leaders just threw up their hands and basically gave up; grafitti was not cleaned up, streets weren't paved, maintenance was deferred. He said decisions prior to his election, perhaps Giuliani's, recognized that the failure on the part of the city to uphold its end of the bargain, turned people away from the city, something like, "if the city doesn't care about keeping itself up, why should I want to try to set up a business there?" Anticipating the anonymous writer's response presaged by this quote, "Don't you realize we are not Jeffersonville, Louisville, Clarksville or Madison or any other city?", we're not New York. But, human nature is not bounded by geographic lines: people don't want to invest, not money, not time, not hope, in a city that has given up hope in itself. Failure to fix Spring Street Hill would have been a loud and clear statement that we had given up hope.

The second issue, the Baptist Tabernacle, shares many of the same contours of the Spring Street Hill debate. As most people know, the Baptist Tabernacle on Fourth Street was purchased by the city earlier in the year. It has been largely untouched awaiting a clear choice of what its use, beyond the laudible and defensible one of an example of the city's commitment to preservation, should be. Last Sunday's storm ripped the roof, original wood decking, rafters and shingles, completely off the intact brick walls. Reports say the plaster inside and the Dedication Stone are also intact. I have maintained that the building would make an oustanding, if small, City Hall. The second floor would be an unrivaled meeting hall. The first floor would make good office space.

One problem with the building before the storm damage is the fact that it would not fully alleviate the ovedrcrowded conditions facing city offices, which is a major impetus for a move from the current City County Building. The storm also damaged the metal building next door to the Tabernacle, about ten feet distant. If this property were acquired and a new City Hall built on that parcel, the combination of the new building and the restored Baptist Tabernacle would make a fully functional and inspiring building-complex in which to conduct city business. It would also direct the nearly $150,000 in yearly rent toward a city-owned asset. And it would form a clearly defined eastern boundary to the downtown section of the city. This would help transition from the commercial activities downtown to the residential nature of the surrounding streets.

The desire to move out of the City-County building is real and has been expressed by members of the Council and the Administration. These are difficult times and plenty of arguments can be expressed to wait for a better time to make this move. The condition of the Tabernacle itself can be seen as reason to abandon the project. But as a contractor I spoke with on the site of the Tabernacle said, "It's a good building, it just needs a new roof." The building is insured and the best use of the insurance settlement should be to replace the roof and commence the move toward construction of a new City Hall complex incorporating this historic jewel as the meeting room for city government.

Meeting Announcement

The next meeting of the committee on Rental Registration and Code Enforcement is being held Wednesday September 10, at 6:00PM.

It will be in the third floor assembly room in the City County Building.

It's Alright

Since Zimmy was, implausibly, here Saturday night, it seemed like a good time to listen to one of his best.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bjqYPH7rAo

Rental Registration

The committee formed to address the issue of rental registration and code enforcement will hold it's first meeting this Saturday morning, August 23, at 10:00 A.M. in the Elsa Strassweg Auditorium in the Library.

This meeting is expected to be brief. It is intended to simply outline where the committee is headed.

Those interested are welcome, and encouraged to attend.

Smoking Ordinance

"Why do they snipe at me because I have cancer? It's a respectable disease. It's not as if I had a dose of the clap."

--Humphrey Bogart

As we approach the vote next Thursday on the smoking ordinance I am moved to respond to some of the thoughts in the ether.

Roger Baylor, one of the exemplars of local public opinion, has chosen sides in the smoking debate. He chooses to couch the issue in a frame of all or nothing. New Albany Confidential's co-editor takes, basically, the same tack. That is their prerogative. I find no fault with their positions.

I see only two exceptions. One is a tobacco store such as Kaiser Tobacco or one of the outlet-type stores. The other is a private club with no employees; under that configuraton I can see only one in New Albany, the Culbertson West Club. Owners Carl Holiday and Steve Goodman are the staff. Is there another such club in New Albany?

Hugh Bir is the face I see when I contemplate the gravity of the vote before me. Hugh runs an establishment he refers to himself as, a "honkeytonk". His business is a smoky, funky joint. I don't think he would quibble with that characterization.

Baylor and Gillenwater opine unremittingly about the lack of progress in New Albany, rightly so. Baylor has something on his blog's masthead about a sleepy river town awakening, grudgingly, to the 21st Century.

Fellows, the 21st century is here, and it's smoke free.

I won't pull on people's heartstrings with a rollcall of people from my family who have died because of tobacco. It's no longer than most people's list. But the list is real and it has people on it that I loved or my wife loved. Make no mistake, the people for whom this ordinance is intended are loved by someone. The people for whom this ordinance is intended may not have a platform from which to express their feelings or wishes. They may not have the thought within them that they will benefit from this action. But I took an oath which I interpret to, among other things, protect the health of the citizens of New Albany. Meddlesome? Heavy handed? Maybe, but who's to argue the opposite side that unregulated smoking is a boon to health? Who's to speak for the nearly minimum wage worker, who needs a not-so-great job just to keep his or her head above water, if not the elected officials of their own city?

What's to become of that same worker if the "draconian" measures we contemplate result in the bar closing? Again, I think of Hugh's place. Will his patrons abandon the pursuit of pleasure on a Friday or Saturday night simply because they must step outside to light up? It's difficult to legislate against something and then hope for cooperation from those subject to the unwanted regulation. I'm reminded of a scene from the movie version of "Cold Mountain". Rene Zellwinger's character says, "They call this war a cloud over the land. But they made the weather and then they stand in the rain and say, 'Shit. It's raining.'" And yet I think we can lift most of the regulations that may make outdoor dining and drinking difficult to implement for independent bar and restaurant owners. If you come into an unfamiliar city do you not first seek out the places featuring outdoor dining? Doesn't that tell you something about what people want? And isn't that, at least, a starting place for an accommodation of bar worker's health and the public good?

I am chairman of the committee to look at rental property registration and subsequent code enforcement. This committe has not met, and will not meet, until after August 21. It is my intention to draft an ordinance that will result in dwellings in the city of New Albany that are safe and which complement the efforts of the entire community to be a workable, walkable, healthy city that is a reflection of the direction the nation should be taking in light of the environmental circumstances in which we find ourselves. It is disheartening to have an effort which has not yet begun, be stigmatized as a type of Original Sin by the failure of past City Councils who may have dodged the issue or been beholden to special interests. This Original Sin is then used, in a post hoc ergo propter hoc fashion to denigrate the sincere efforts of the current council to serve, to the best of its abilities, the interests of the health and well-being of this city's populace.

The vote on the smoking ordinance is the toughest vote I've cast since joining the City Council, and I don't see it as an expression of "diversionary, hypocritical, elitist bunk." as some have called it. I see it, rather, as the first step this body has taken toward moving New Albany forward in this still-new century.

08-08-08

As the eyes of the world turn toward Wal-Mart's backroom, before the first chant of "USA! USA! USA!" is heard, it seems like a good time to look at some of the moral gymnastics we practice in pursuit of low prices. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpz102bDzH4

Plastic-scene Epoch

Careful with that planet, Eugene.

http://www.poconorecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080506/MULTIMEDIA02/80505016

Welcome News

Last week Randy Stumler announced he was heading for the Azores. His adventurous move created two openings. An outstanding candidate has stepped forward to announce that she would like to fill one of the vacancies.

Suellen Wilkinson has decided to seek Stumler's unexpired term on the Floyd County Council. For those who know Ms. Wilkinson this is wonderful news. For those who don't know her, let me offer why it is, in fact, wonderful news.

Ms. Wilkinson has lived in New Albany for 19 years. During 16 of those years she worked at the Floyd County Museum, now known as the Carnegie Center for Art and History. She was instrumental in raising it to the level it holds today as one of the shining examples of what New Albany is capable of achieving when its citizens work together for the common good. She was at various times the Director of Development and the Director of Business Operations. She has been involved in many of the good efforts of our community. Her resume also includes volunteer contributions of work with the Arts Council of Southern Indiana, Leadership Southern Indiana, the Library Board, and the Board of Directors for Rauch Industries. Although she is now retired, she can still be found many days at the Carnegie Center.

Prior to moving to New Albany Ms. Wilkinson held several key positions in government in her home state of Wisconsin. She was on the Governor's staff and the Attorney General's staff. She was the state Chair of the Wisconsin Democratic Party.

All of these positions highlight her ability which would be a welcome asset on the County Council. Her involvement in the community gives her strong background knowledge of the most capable and committed people in our midst. The high regard shown toward the Carnegie Center stands as a testament to her work there. It bears mention, of course, that the Carnegie Center depends on the contribution of time and effort from its entire staff under the direction of Sally Newkirk, but Ms. Wilkinson is the subject at hand, and her effectiveness with the Center is one of the important qualifiers for her service on the County Council.

The balance of Randy Stumler's County Council term will be filled by a caucus vote to be held August 5. It is critical that in filling this unexpired term we look toward who is best qualified to stand for election in the fall. Ted Heavrin has already secured a spot on the November ballot. The person named to fill out Stumler's term will be, in essence, the Democratic Party's farm team. This short period of time is that person's brief opportunity to get known in the wider community. Unabashedly, I think Suellen Wilkinson is highly qualified and well suited to assume the duties of a County Council representative. I think we are fortunate that people of her caliber and qualification are willing to serve in this position. As a Democrat, I don't think we could find a stronger candidate to complete the slate we offer to the voters in November.

Bon Voyage, Mr. Chairman

Floyd County Democratic Party Chairman and County Councilman Randy Stumler is resigning both of those positions this week. He is accepting what he calls a, " once in a lifetime opportunity."

Randy has accepted a post with the Department of Defense to teach dependents of military and diplomatic personnel. He and his family will depart in August for the Azores. If you know anything about the Azores, you'll wonder, "why would anybody leave New Albany for that place?"http://www.fotosearch.com/ICN001/f0000964/ (click on Azores in Keywords)

This truly is the opportunity of a lifetime for Randy, Karen and the children. I'm sure they will make the most of it. There's a wide, beautiful world just beyond our self-imposed limits. Bon voyage to the Traveling Stumlers. Be safe. Carpe diem.

Livin's Easy?

YouTube - Mungo Jerry - In the summertime

Meme Me Up Scotty

Perhaps it's because I see nothing on the horizon that threatens controversy, since the discussion of a nascent smoking ordinance surely won't ruffle any feathers. Or perhaps it's because I just can't stand the implications of the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling striking down the D.C. handgun law. But whatever the inner current, I'd like to make a modest proposal which has plenty of obvious local effect but little chance for local birthing.

The National Rifle Association has become the recognized voice for all in the U.S. who own guns or hunt. Find a gun owner or a committed shooting hobbyist and I'm not sure they would assign such high position to this organization but the media are sure willing to make the assumption that the NRA offers the definitive view of the place of firearms in our country. It's kind of like the Beef Council's opinion of "what's for dinner", but the media in its varied forms is not known for discernment.

My modest proposal is an odds-on loser with the NRA. I don't, however, think I've seen this particular trial balloon aloft. I think only infrequently about guns, and then mostly the thought that I don't want one launching a lead projectile in my direction. (I don't see the need to hurl lead in the direction of other living creatures either since we've long established that protein can be harvested from many other sources, nuts, cheese, Krogers to name a few. But truly that's another topic for another day.)

My proposal is simply this: a license for firearms users and stiff, hefty, onerous fines and sentences for those caught in possession of a firearm and no license.

The NRA wants nothing to do with gun registration. It wants nothing which could lead to confiscation of firearms; this is the scenario that ends in someone's cold dead fingers being pried from the barrel of a gun. Is it possible the NRA could stomach licensing of firearms users?

The license would be issued to those without felony records, who have no history of serious mental illness, and who have completed a gun safety course offered by qualified instructors.
This would place the use of a deadly instrument into the hands of those at least nominally and minimally qualified to do so; similar to the licensing of operators of automobiles. Those caught in possession of a firearm of any kind, but without a license would face a fine and/or sentence, possibly including forfeiture of the gun.

Since this in no way states that the owner of a license is also the owner of a gun, it could not be construed as registration of firearms. It could prevent the purchase of guns at gun shows if a purchase is attempted by an unlicensed buyer.

Of course the standard refrain could often be true here. A criminal would likely not have a license for the gun used in a crime. So what? At least law abiding citizens would have to prove they are nominally competent to own a gun. That's an improvement over what we have now. And it might prevent some of the needlessly tragic accidental shootings of children by children as the parents are better educated about safety. It might possibly have prevented an incident such as the shooting last week in Henderson, Kentucky, which was carried out by a man with mental illness.

Licensing of gun users seems like a sensible response to the obvious danger posed by the proliferation of guns in America. This proliferation suggests a climate not too unlike the Wild West. The NRA's response to the Supreme Court case, on the other hand, is just plain nuts. The NRA has filed suit against the Public Housing Authority in San Francisco to disallow a gun ban within public housing property.

If the NRA gets its way, its theory goes, more people will be armed and those who pull a gun are thereby more likely to be shot down by their fellow citizens, thus insuring safety for the residents of public housing. And they wonder why people call them "gun nuts".

...everyone you meet

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqP3wT5lpa4

The Bleat Goes On

As has been widely and sheepishly reported by the cable yackers, Rush Limbaugh is conducting "Operation Chaos". This brilliant plan, as its "commander" Limbaugh states, has as its goal the disruption of the Democratic primary process. He claims to be directing his Dittoheads to keep the primary process going as long as possible in order to cause internal bleeding within the Democratic Party.

This strategem has even received a nod of validation from the upper ranks of punditry. It has been seriously discussed by the likes of NBC's Tim Russert as a factor in Hillary Clinton's continued strength. I believe Fat Head is being given way too much credit and credence.

At any rate, the Master of the A.M. dial has issued new orders. He said yesterday,"I now believe he (Obama) would be the weakest of the Democrat(sic) nominees. I now urge the Democrat(sic) superdelegates to make your mind up and publicly go for Obama."

In a related item, Limbaugh then went on to urge the Sun to rise tomorrow, along with a call for the continued application of the Law of Gravity.

Harking back to the evil nemesis of Maxwell Smart, the other KAOS, isn't it way past time to put Limbaugh under the "Cone of Silence"?

Derby Day Politics

Baron Hill at Riverview Towers, Saturday May 3, 2008
Lee Hamilton at Riverview Towers May 3, 2008


The past and present Ninth District Congressmen spoke Saturday, near post time, on behalf of Barack Obama's presidential campaign.
Was it raucus? No.
Was it a packed house? No.
Was it inspiring? Yes.

The crowd was mainly comprised of the elderly residents of Riverview Towers. Frankly, many of them came for the pizza provided by the Obama campaign. They got that, to be sure, but they also got an impassioned plea from both men on the significance of the Obama campaign for America.

Hill spoke first and then introduced Hamilton. Hill talked about the psychological barrier that had kept humans from running a mile in a time faster than four minutes. That barrier came down on May 6, 1954 as Roger Bannister beat the clock. Hill said we, as a nation, could not conceive of a black man having an honest chance of winning the presidency until recently. That psychological barrier is coming down, win or lose, because Obama is in the race. He is elevating the level of the debate by running a positive campaign. His very presence in the race brings the hope of transformational change.

Hamilton spoke also about the hope of real transforming change. As he put it, it's time for a new generation to start leading this country. It is time, he said, to leave behind the back room deals and lobbyist-driven legislation. Neither he nor Hill glossed over the difficulty of playing the game with new rules. Neither said it is a certainty that it can be done. But both said it is imperative that we try, and now, because our stature in the world has been so terribly damaged by Bush and Cheney.

The inspiring thing about the day's event was the fact that Hamilton and Hill but especially Hamilton came out on Derby Day to address a relatively sparse and slightly less than entusiastic crowd. This was an opportunity to phone it in; say something about making sure you get out to vote Tuesday, tell your friends to vote and isn't this a great country we live in? Hamilton could have done that but he didn't. The former Representative with 34 years under his belt spoke with conviction and passion about how the eyes of the world are on, and will be on, Indiana Tuesday. Will we let the opportunity to chart a new course pass us by? Will we show the world that we want to continue on the same path we've been following or that we want to join the rest of the world and somehow make amends for the disasters that Bush has wrought?

Hamilton closed his remarks by pointing out that one man in the back of the room had nodded out and another had spent much of the time checking his watch. It easy to figure why they were not too engaged. After all, it's time for new hands to take the wheel.

I am disappointed in the turn the Democratic campaign has taken and, frankly, I feel that Senator Clinton and or her operatives are to blame for it. Not the Jeremiah Wright mess; that was a self-inflicted wound. What is most disturbing for me is the tone struck by the Clinton camp through the incessant harping on the remark a few weeks ago that Pennsylvanians were "bitter". (I addressed that point in a post here titled "Bitter. Who's Bitter?")

Now we have the goofy suggestion that the U.S. take a summer vacation from gasoline taxes. That is precisely the kind of pandering which results in cynicism about the political system. Don't worry about global warming. Don't try to think about why we've allowed ourselves to be tied to an unsustainable transportation system. And by the way, don't think about the fact that the Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid and the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi both say they won't bring the proposal up for a vote. And don't think about the fact that most economists think it's a goofy idea.

Today, on This Week With George Stephanopoulos, Sen. Clinton was in Indianapolis taking questions from an audience. She derided Sen. Obama's opposition to the gas tax holiday, in what must be a newly settled-on wedgeword for the campaign "elite" and its many variants, for being a dealer in "elite opinion". The irony in that is rich. Who is the real elitist Sen. Clinton, when the "common man" is assumed to be too unsophisticated, or thick-headed to realize that a temporary tax break on fuel is only an election gimmick? (kind of like the election-time pledge that Republicans will return us to the days of strong moral values and illegal abortions, when in reality they only want to deliver tax cuts for the real elites)

I'll grant that because of the economic situation we are in, some may be desparate and may see hope in that illusory savings. But the true holder of the elitist label should be Bush Inc., not fellow Democrat Barack Obama. Senator Clinton knows this, and her continued flailing attacks threaten the ultimate goal in November: preventing a third Bush term under John McCain.

Channeling Jack Powers

Green Mouse says: Look for an addition to the Obama super-delegate ledger tonight in Bloomington, thanks to a high profile hoosier.

With the latest Wright eruption behind him, does anyone else sense a momemtum shift back towards Obama?

Obama is criticized for not quitting the church when Jeremiah Wright uttered his hot rhetoric. Who has a count on the number of Catholics who left the Church in response to actual behavior from reprehensible members of the cloth, as well as the cover up by the hierarchy?

What office is Jeremiah Wright seeking? Perhaps he'll agree to debate Mrs. Clinton.

Senator Durbin in New Albany Friday for Barack

The senior senator from Illinois will be in town Friday for a town hall meeting on behalf of that state's junior senator's presidential campaign.

Dick Durbin, one of the Democrats who opposed Bush's war in Iraq from the start, will speak at the Obama headquarters. Senator Durbin will be at the Parthenon at 11:30 AM this Friday, April 18.

This is an opportunity to meet one of the Senate's most distinguished members. It is also an opportunity to show your support for Barack Obama's presidential campaign.

Stop by the headquarters, or call Megan Maher at (317)503-9772 for additional information .

Bitter? Who's Bitter?

As one who is not put off by the idea that the President of the United States of America, the most powerful office in the history of the human race, should be just a cut above the rest of us, I guess I'm buying into the "elitist" view. The recent flap over Barack Obama's comment that Pennsylvanians are "bitter", however, to me, illustrates the danger posed by a shallow news media.

Perhaps Obama used a poor choice of words which may have rubbed people the wrong way when he said these bitter voters "cling" to religion. "Rallied to defend" may have worked better in reference to Ohio voters, who in 2004 came out in droves to protect that state against gay marriage because it offended God's plan of marriage. Whatever word you choose, fundamentalist voters were exhorted to come to the polls to vote down the amendment and since they were in a voting booth anyhow, they might as well go ahead and vote for president; two birds one stone.

That linkage of deeply held religious views and craven political motive was taken from the playbook of Carl Rove,incidentally, the son of a gay man. Is it possible that our nation has to be split like a Spanish dubloon to help exorcise his inner turmoil? Or, is it simply Machiavellian S.O.P.?

Whatever the reason, recent political history has shown that many people vote against their secular interests in defense against perceived attacks of their cultural or religious beliefs. That was the essence of Thomas Frank's 2005 book, "What's the Matter With Kansas?"

Our nation was founded on the notion that an ideal is more valuable than "our lives, our fortunes our sacred honor". When speaking philosophically, is it really a stretch to say that people "cling" to their religion or their right to own guns? Is such a construction truly an example of elitism or is it, rather, a display of desperation by a candidate who's on the ropes and a news media trying to fill a page or a 24 hour news cycle?

Below are lyrics from Bruce Sprinsteen's 2001 ballad "Youngstown". I think they express the sense of alienation and betrayal felt by many of our fellow Americans. Some might call it bitterness.


Here in north east Ohio
Back in eighteen-o-three
James and Danny Heaton
Found the ore that was linin' yellow creek
They built a blast furnace
Here along the shore
And they made the cannon balls
That helped the union win the war
Here in Youngstown
Here in Youngstown
My sweet Jenny, I'm sinkin' down
Here darlin' in Youngstown
Well my daddy worked the furnaces
Kept 'em hotter than hell
I come home from 'Nam worked my way to scarfer
A job that'd suit the devil as well
Taconite, coke and limestone
Fed my children and made my pay
Then smokestacks reachin' like the arms of god
Into a beautiful sky of soot and clay
Here in Youngstown
Here in Youngstown
My sweet Jenny, I'm sinkin' down
Here darlin' in Youngstown
Well my daddy come on the 0hio works
When he come home from world war two
Now the yards just scrap and rubble
He said, "Them big boys did what Hitler couldn't do
"These mills they built the tanks and bombs
That won this country's wars
We sent our sons to Korea and Vietnam
Now we're wondering what they were dyin' for
Here in Youngstown
Here in Youngstown
My sweet Jenny, I'm sinkin' down
Here darlin' in Youngstown
From the Monongaleh valley
To the Mesabi iron range
To the coal mines of Appalacchia
The story's always the same
Seven-hundred tons of metal a day
Now sir you tell me the world's changed
Once I made you rich enough
Rich enough to forget my name
In Youngstown
In Youngstown
My sweet Jenny, I'm sinkin' down
Here darlin' in Youngstown
When I die I don't want no part of heaven
I would not do heavens work well
I pray the devil comes and takes me
To stand in the fiery furnaces of hell

Copyright © Bruce Springsteen (ASCAP)

"Elections" Have Consequences

Remember: They Are Liars By William Rivers Pitt
t r u t h o u t Columnist
Tuesday 08 April 2008
___________________________

No one is such a liar as the indignant man.- Friedrich Nietzsche
George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, Condoleezza Rice, along with a slew of administration underlings and a revolving-door cavalcade of brass hats from the Pentagon, have been making claims regarding Iraq for many years now.
They claimed Iraq was in possession of 26,000 liters of anthrax, "enough to kill several million people," according to a page on the White House web site titled Disarm Saddam Hussein.
They lied.
They claimed Iraq was in possession of 38,000 liters of botulinum toxin.
They lied.
They claimed Iraq was in possession of 500 tons, which equals 1,000,000 pounds, of sarin, mustard and VX nerve agent.
They lied.
They claimed Iraq was in possession of nearly 30,000 munitions capable of delivering these agents.
They lied.
They claimed Iraq was in possession of several mobile biological weapons labs.
They lied.
They claimed Iraq was operating an "advanced" nuclear weapons program.
They lied.
They claimed Iraq had been seeking "significant quantities" of uranium from Africa for use in this "advanced" nuclear weapons program.
They lied.
They claimed Iraq attempted to purchase high-strength aluminum tubes "suitable for nuclear weapons."
They lied.
They claimed America needed to invade, overthrow and occupy Iraq in order to remove this menace from our world. "It would take just one vial, one canister, one crate slipped into this country," went the White House line, "to bring a day of horror like none we have ever known."
They lied.
"Simply stated," said Dick Cheney in August of 2002, "there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction."
Liar.
"Right now," said George W. Bush in September of 2002, "Iraq is expanding and improving facilities that were used for the production of nuclear weapons."
Liar.
"We know for a fact," said White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer in January of 2003, "that there are weapons there."
Liar.
"We know that Saddam Hussein is determined to keep his weapons of mass destruction," said Colin Powell in February of 2003, "is determined to make more."
Liar.
"We know where they are," said Donald Rumsfeld in March of 2003. "They are in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad, and east, south, west and north somewhat."
Liar.
"The Iraqi people understand what this crisis is about," said Paul Wolfowitz in March of 2003. "Like the people of France in the 1940s, they view us as their hoped-for liberator."
Liar.
"No one ever said that we knew precisely where all of these agents were," said Condoleezza Rice in June of 2003, "where they were stored."
Liar.
"I have absolute confidence that there are weapons of mass destruction inside this country," said Gen. Tommy Franks in April of 2003. "Whether we will turn out, at the end of the day, to find them in one of the 2,000 or 3,000 sites we already know about or whether contact with one of these officials who we may come in contact with will tell us, 'Oh, well, there's actually another site,' and we'll find it there, I'm not sure."
Wrong.
"Before the war," said Gen. Michael Hagee in May of 2003, "there's no doubt in my mind that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, biological and chemical. I expected them to be found. I still expect them to be found."
Wrong.
"Given time," said Gen. Richard Myers in May of 2003, "given the number of prisoners now that we're interrogating, I'm confident that we're going to find weapons of mass destruction."
Wrong.
"Do I think we're going to find something? Yeah, I kind of do," said Maj. Gen. Keith Dayton in May of 2003, "because I think there's a lot of information out there."
Wrong.
Gen. David Petraeus, commander of US forces in Iraq, is about to give testimony before the Senate regarding the current state of affairs in that battle-savaged country. He is a political general, one of many America has seen and heard over the last five years, one who would leap nude from the Capitol dome before telling the real truth about matters in Iraq ... or who would speak using words fed to him by liars, and thus be wrong.
Remember: they lie. They all lie, from the top man down to the bottom. If their lips are moving, a lie is unfolding. If they say water is wet, get into the shower to make sure.
They lie.
Period.
End of file.


Gonder's note: Remember their lies have now cost 4,026 dead U.S. soldiers, at least 30,000 maimed and wounded and untold numbers of Iraqi citizens killed.

Question for the Little Mind: How do you sleep at night?

Making the Rounds Progressively

Just as people host progressive dinners, New Albany is offering a Progressive Thursday.

At 6:00PM tomorrow, the Obama headquarters will hold its official grand opening. This will be an opportunity to see the campaign headquarters at the Parthenon (corner of Main and Bank Streets) and meet the staff and other Obama supporters. That is Stop One-a on the Progressive evening's rounds.

Stop One-b is a scheduling conflict; the opening of the Clinton headquarters also on Main Street.

Obama supporters need to keep uppermost in their minds that Clinton supporters are also Democrats who want to see a blessed end to the Bush junta and all that it has meant for this nation. Clinton supporters need to keep the same thing in mind regarding Obama supporters. United we stand divided we fail.

Stop Two is Rich O's (3312 Plaza Drive) for a free showing of Michael Moore's movie "Sicko". The event starts at 7:00, with the movie starting at 7:30. Seating is limited so the earlier you arrive the better.

______________________________

In case anyone missed this: Good Indiana news for Obama today as Lee Hamilton announced his support for Barack.

Just What the Doctor Ordered

Hoosiers for a Commonsense Health Plan will offer a free showing of Michael Moore's "Sicko" this Thursday at Rich O's Public House 3312 Plaza Drive.

The movie will be shown at 7:30 PM in the Prost room. Seating is limited, and is available on a first come, first served basis. It is suggested you arrive about 6:30.

Since the venue is being provided gratis by the proprietor of Rich O's, you can thank him by buying beer and pizza. Consider it your investment in bringing healthcare to the last major industrialized nation on earth lacking such a basic human right.

The group's purpose is to give political leaders the confidence that H.R. 676, a national single payer health plan, truly represents the will of the people. H.R. 676 is co-sponsored by Louisville's John Yarmuth and others but our representative, Baron Hill, has not signed on yet. You can help him find the strength. For more information about the single payer plan, check http://www.hchp.info/

Also, since this is April Fool's Day, don't be fooled by last week's LEO Magazine. LEO's announcement of the movie said a showing of Roger Moore's "Sicko" would be shown. So far as I know, Roger Moore has retired, and Michael Moore as 007 just doesn't work for me.

It's Official

The Obama headquaters is up and running, although not yet on all cylinders.

There may be an opening event at a later date, but the headquarters is now staffed and, I am certain, receptive to offers of help from willing volunteers.

Now is the best time to make contact and begin the push toward victory in Indiana.

The staff currently consists of Allen Wood and Meghan Maher, but I'll bet there's room for you.

Obama Campaign H.Q. Coming to New Albany

The Obama campaign is coming to New Albany.

The campaign headquarters will open in a few days at the Parthenon. Owners Carl Holiday and Steve Goodman gave the go ahead today. They made the gracious offer even though the property is for sale. The space will only be needed through the primary. If Senator Obama is successful in winning the nomination, it is likely the headquarters will operate out of Democratic headquarters.

As of now, the organization is still coming together. But, for those supporting Obama, it should be just a few days until you will have a place to gather and get involved in this vitally important effort to take back America.

With the start of the campaign here, can the candidate be far behind?

May the Road Come Up to Meet You

And top 'o the mornin' to you Mr. O' Bama; sure'n you'll have my vote in May, and with fate's gentle kiss, in November too. Always happy to root for a lad o' the old sod.

Good Job, Carl

The City of New Albany is the new owner of the Baptist Tabernacle building on Fourth Street.

The City, ably represented by Carl Malysz, was the successful bidder for the building in a sheriff's sale held at 10:00 AM today.

As stated earlier and shown below, I think this is an excellent move by and for the City. It may or may nor be used for the purpose I suggested, but it is now safe from potential misuse had it fallen into certain parties' hands. I am not referring to the main other bidder, a valuable and venerable local business.

There will now be ample time to consider the many possible uses for this wonderful structure.

Good job, Carl.

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Tuesday, April 3, 2007

Worth a Look
Anyone who has attended City Council meetings can attest to the fact that the council chamber is an inadequate venue for those meetings. The City-County Building itself is overcrowded. In order to insure the satisfactory delivery of services the public expects, it is time to look for additional space for both a meeting room, and as a means of relieving the general space constraints at the City-County Building. Some have even suggested that an entirely new government center be built.While the construction of a new government center would be a costly project, there is a more modest step which could go a long way toward solving the space problem at the City-County Building. This more modest step has the added virtues of preserving a historically significant building, while also consolidating government buildings into a campus.The Baptist Tabernacle on Fourth Street between Spring and Market Streets is currently for sale by a motivated seller. I visited with him briefly today. He said he has heard various proposals for alternate uses of the old church constructed in 1879. Most of these have been for restaurants or other entertainment uses. A better use would be as the main meeting room for official gatherings.The structure has a striking facade that would make an impressive governmental building. It has the added benefit of facing into the large parking lot of the new fire house (the fire house faces Spring Street) which would create a kind of a governmental complex. The interior of the church has been drastically altered; the old floor was removed and a new floor installed, cutting roughly in half, the air space of the church's congregational room. The installation of the new floor caused three-quarters of the window area to be bricked in. Reclaiming this building for governent use would be a strong statement in favor of historic preservation. It could also help lend support to revitalization efforts along Market and Spring streets.The most daring reclamation effort would remove the existing floor, and replace it with a floor at the original elevation. This would provide truly impressive space with a ceiling height of about 32 feet. Less daring, but perhaps more practical, would be reclamation within the current layout of the building. That scheme would provide twice the floor space with a still impressive upper floor and a ceiling height of about 16-18 feet.In either case the public would be able to attend meetings in a commodious setting. They would be able to use existing city-owned parking spaces in the lot behind the fire house. And some of the overcrowding of the City-County Building could be alleviated as the current City Council room could be converted to office space.
Posted by John Gonder at 12:06 AM 4 comments Links to this post
Sunday

Time's a Wastin

Television pundits have passed through the giddy stage contemplating a brokered convention for the Democrats and have now entered the second round of Hillary-Inevitability. The first round ended when Obama began to cash in on the palpable hunger for change which the sane feel as a natural reaction to the Bush regime. This hunger pushed Obama ahead of Clinton as a more plausible bearer of the change banner.

I came late to the Obama party. I held out hope for a hat tossed in the ring, or at least a wink or a nod form Al Gore. When it became apparent that he would, in fact, sit this one out, I decided to go with Obama, and said so here.

I was resigned to the fact that Clinton was the likely winner even though I was troubled by the primogeniture-ish feel of a continuation of the Bush-Clinton-Bush-Clinton power sharing arrangement in place now since 1981, and promised to continue to 2017 if Clinton were victorious; that's 36 years for those scoring at home. Obama showed some surprising strength and this seemed to spook the Clinton camp and throw it off stride. The result was not a recognition of the need for real change but rather a reveal of low down tactics that could prove to be a scorched earth policy.

Victory in the Fall is still even-money. But it is quite possible that Clinton's tactics will drive down Democratic participation making it less likely that a tidal wave of Democratic House and Senate seats will result from a Presidential win. The result would be more gridlock and more capitulation to a radical minority.

Mrs. Clinton needs to remember that even though she greatly admires John McCain and thinks he's more qualified to be President than Barack Obama, in the event that she is nominated but dosen't win, a lot of things she supposedly values are on the line. The game of chicken she is playing with Obama now threatens not only a continuation of rule through minority maneuvering but more importantly, it threatens to place Supreme Court appointments in the hands of a so-called moderate with something to pay back or prove to conservatives. The effect of those appointments, likely between two and four, could make the mangling of the Constitution under Bush look absolutely Bush league.

My advice to Obama:
the best way to get this thing nailed down NOW is to call Al Gore and plead with him to join Obama as his running mate. That is a recipe for a landslide of epic proportion. Gore can go on about his business trying to save the planet from Global Warming and still remain a heartbeat away from the presidency. After all, look what Cheney was able to do for the military industrial complex from his second row seat.
My advice to Gore:
put your pride in a lockbox and call Barack. Your country needs you, both.

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What follows is not original. It points out the fact that Clinton is playing with fire and someone responsible needs her put down the kerosine.

Breaking the Final Rule By Gary Hart The Huffington Post

Friday 07 March 2008
It will come as a surprise to many people that there are rules in politics. Most of those rules are unwritten and are based on common understandings, acceptable practices, and the best interest of the political party a candidate seeks to lead. One of those rules is this: Do not provide ammunition to the opposition party that can be used to destroy your party's nominee. This is a hyper-truth where the presidential contest is concerned.

By saying that only she and John McCain are qualified to lead the country, particularly in times of crisis, Hillary Clinton has broken that rule, severely damaged the Democratic candidate who may well be the party's nominee, and, perhaps most ominously, revealed the unlimited lengths to which she will go to achieve power. She has essentially said that the Democratic party deserves to lose unless it nominates her.
(emphasis added)

As a veteran of red telephone ads and "where's the beef" cleverness, I am keenly aware that sharp elbows get thrown by those trailing in the fourth quarter (and sometimes even earlier). "Politics ain't beanbag," is the old slogan. But that does not mean that it must also be rule-or-ruin, me-first-and-only-me, my way or the highway. That is not politics. That is raw, unrestrained ambition for power that cannot accept the will of the voters.

Senator Obama is right to say the issue is judgment not years in Washington. If Mrs. Clinton loses the nomination, her failure will be traced to the date she voted to empower George W. Bush to invade Iraq. That is not the kind of judgment, or wisdom, required by the leader answering the phone in the night. For her now to claim that Senator Obama is not qualified to answer the crisis phone is the height of irony if not chutzpah, and calls into question whether her primary loyalty is to the Democratic party and the nation or to her own ambition.
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Twitch and Shout

In the old Pink Panther movies Inspector Jacques Clouseau, played by Peter Sellers, had the uncanny knack of bumbling to a successful resolution of whatever case he was on. His farcical approach stood in contrast to his antagonist, Inspector Dreyfus, who was more or less a by-the-book crimefighter. Throughout the movie, Inspector Dreyfus, succumbing to Clouseau's manic assault would begin to crack. It started with a twitch and often ended in an insane asylum.

Fidel Castro gave his two week notice today. He's spent and is turning the revolution over to his younger brother Raul. Rumor has it he's got his eye on a nice piece of beachfront property in Miami.

I've thought the embargo against Cuba a national disgrace for a long time. It's an indefensible relic of the Cold War if not the Monroe Doctrine. The news of Castro's retirement made me think of Inspector Dreyfus. I believe I even twitched. Not because Fidel threw in the towel,(incidentally, it was not too long ago that one of Castro's doctors had pronounced him such a fine physical specimen that he would probably survive to the age of 144, likely something to do with the sea air) but rather, because our own Commandant Bush said, now Cuba might enjoy "free and fair elections". Cuba, as we all know, lays a mere 90 miles from the scene of the crime where the Arsenal of Freedom abandoned the concept of "free and fair elections". This is the place where ancient Jews, including many Holocaust survivors, passed up the opportunity to vote for then-Democrat Joe Liebermann and instead cast their butterfly ballot for Pat Buchanan. This is the place where paid Republican Thugs rushed the county clerk's office to show "outrage" at a possible recount of votes. This is the place where Bush flew in his pajamas (I saw it on TV) to inveigh against the heathens who would allow Terri Schiavo to die. I'm reminded of the line from the movie Chinatown and think the Bush version might be, "Forget about it Jake. It's Florida". Bush invokes virtue. I twitch.

Another twitch-inducer is the orgiastic pursuit of property tax avoidance by certain elements of our community.

News Flash....No one likes to pay taxes.

But...
No one likes to live in a city saddled with rising costs and shrinking services
No one wants to give up essential services like police and fire
No one wants to live in a city where the first question is often the last question as well ,"how much does it cost?"
No one wants the future of their children circumscribed by the fearfulness and penury of our day
No one should enjoy the harvest of savings in our day, while salting the fields of their day.

The anti-taxers seem unable to grasp the concept of the Civic Compact which states that we will provide a City that meets not only our needs and broadens our horizons but builds the infrastructure to pass that on to future generations.

It is only by happenstance that we live now. We are like pebbles dropped into a river. The anti taxers don't seem to care if the stream dries up after they hit the surface. The only way we can truly value the now is to build for the future, which we won't see. That is the only way we have what we have today. We owe no less to the future. Some see running the city as a business, some see it as tending our small corner of civilization.

Two more twitchers from the day's news:
1) A fevered group of Hoosiers worries that we must quickly move toward a Constitutional amendment classifying same-sex marriage as illegal. If quick action is not taken, the amendment may have to languish until 2012. What element of privacy escapes these people's purview?
2) From the Courier-Journal headlines: Smoking Ban Shows Dramatic Results...in the level of unhealthy particulate matter in the air of selected venues. I spoke to my cousin in Minneapolis the other day, she was nonplussed that smoking is still allowed in restaurants and bars here. New Albany will get there some day. Until then, Smoke Gets in My Eyes, and I twitch.

Finally, driving is becoming more hazardous around here. I'm driven to twitching as I see the numerous billboards featuring those creepy androgynes with the doe eyes.

February 21, City Council Meeting

Prior to the February 21, 2008 City Council meeting an informational presentation on Tax Increment Financing will be offered. The meeting will also offer some time to discuss some of the changes in tax abatements.

The meeting is for the benefit of the City Council members. It is open to the public, however, it is not intended to feature public participation.

The meeting will be held in the third floor Assembly Room. It begins at 6:00 PM.

Johnny We Hardly Knew Ye

John Wilcox has resigned from Mayor England's administration. He says he is simply tired and wants to enjoy the retirement he set aside to join England's team. He was the campaign manager during the primary and general election. The proof of his effectiveness is shown by the results of the election. Although he didn't say it directly, I believe John was somewhat reluctant to enter the fray full time. I think the England team has lost a valuable member.

Mayor England is now presented with an opportunity to reshape his team and continue to move forward with an active agenda for the city. Should he replace John Wilcox with another person with the title of Deputy Mayor? Or, should he let that title reside exclusively with Carl Malysz? My opinion is that John's share of the title should be retired and not be re-filled.

Regardless of who comes in to fill Wilcox's position, it should be someone with a wealth of experience in city government. If that is not the direction the Mayor wishes to go, perhaps he'd like someone from outside government, the person should, at least, have the ability to function on an equal basis with the heads of various departments in the City, and that means he or she will need to have experience.

Mayor Garner was rightly faulted for some of his early appointments. Now that events have opened the way for Mayor England to again add defininition to his administration it is my hope that he makes the most of that opportunity.

Ask Not For the Bridge Tolls

Sunday's Courier-Journal featured an editorial titled "Bridges aren't free". The editorial's final paragraph said it all: "No one likes tolls, but no one likes other financing options, either. And the fact is you can't get a $4.1 billion project for free. Kentucky needs that project." (italics added)

What caught my attention is the fact that even though tolls are as popular as a skunk at a _______(fill in your social event of choice), the editorial board couldn't bring itself to even consider the elegant alternative to bridge tolls offered by the 8664 plan.

As most everyone knows, the Ohio River Bridges Project (ORBP) is expected to cost over four billion dollars. On the other hand, the East End Only Bridge Option To Which We First Agreed So Many Years Ago Before River Fields Extorted An Uneeded Second Bridge Into And Through The Downtown Area Of Jeffersonville Just For Spite And As A Gambit To Block The Bridge They Didn't Want In The First Place Because They Are NIMBYS (EEOBOTWWFASMYABRFEAUSBIATTDAOJJFSAAAGTBTBTDWITFPBTAN) or EEO for short, would cost just over two billion dollars. For some reason the Courier has decided to pattern its intransigence on the ORBP after Jerry Abramson's intransigence on the Arena project, which means, essentially: My Way or My Way, take your pick.

New Albany could truly gain from the 8664 plan because the elimination of the section of I-64 between Portland and I-65 would be morphed into surface streets. This alteration could tie both sides of the river along that stretch together. Some of the large population of the Portland area could find it more convenient to shop in downtown New Albany rather than going to downtown Louisville or to shopping malls in the east end. The prospect of the historic Portland neighborhood minus the hideous scar of I-64 separating it from the river, could lead to a revival of that oldest section of Louisville. That revival could lead to improvement in mass transit options which would affect both sides of the river and more closely unite us regionally.

The primary environmental benefits of 8664 would at first seem to be aesthetic, as the barrier separating people from our greatest natural feature, the river, came down. But those benefits would fall in prominence as the revivified neighborhoods returned to a more people-oriented scale. Like New Albany, the Portland section of Louisville has a wonderful inventory of historic homes and an infrastructure built with people in mind rather the car. If the leaders on our side of the river could recognize the benefit of aligning our city more closely with our near-neighbors just across the Sherman Minton bridge, they would embrace 8664 and do their part to avoid the need for bridge tolls.