Ditch Mitch

Those of us who live in Kentucky frequently feel that our vote makes little difference in national races since we are locked in a Southern very red state.  But we vote in each election and hope to see incremental change.  (We once again have a Democratic Governor, thankfully.)

This year it is unlikely that Kentucky will go for Obama.  Still, Kentucky is a critical state this year if an Obama Presidency is to be successful.  For the first time in my memory, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is vulnerable.  The most recent Blue Grass Poll showed McConnell in a statistical dead heat with his opponent, Bruce Lundsford.

In the last congressional session Mitch McConnell led Senate Republicans in 104 filibusters!  And that is with a Republican President.  It is hard to overestimate how much of an obstructionist McConnell with be with at Democrat in the White House.  This race should be receiving national attention but is getting very little ink as far as I can see.  The most powerful Republican Senator can be defeated next week.

If you live in Kentucky, please be sure to vote.  If you live in another state and can spare a few bucks, please donate to the Lundsford campaign.  http://www.bruce2008.com/

Defeating Mitch McConnell is an essential part of any real change in Washington!

Homelessness on the Rise for Families with Children

USA Today reports on the shocking rise in the number of families who are homeless.  The article quotes Philip Mangano, Executive Director of the Washington based U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness. (see article below) 

 

Philip Mangano created the term “chronically homeless” and is the key architect in directing severely limited Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) resources for homeless programs to those that will serve this population.  By his definition families with children are excluded from programs targeting the chronically homeless who, by his definition, are single without children.  His U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness also has consistently fought any effort by advocates to expand the Department of HUD’s definition of homelessness to be more consistent with other Federal agencies.

 

These policies can only exacerbate the serious problems facing homeless families and the organizations attempt to assist them.  Advocates who have compromised with the Interagency Council on Homelessness and supported these policies, however reluctantly, must now face the long term consequences of the politics of expediency.

 

Homeless numbers 'alarming'

 

By Wendy Koch, USA TODAY

More families with children are becoming homeless as they face mounting economic pressures, including mortgage foreclosures, according to a USA TODAY survey of a dozen of the largest cities in the nation.

Local authorities say the number of families seeking help has risen in Atlanta, Boston, Denver, Minneapolis, New York, Phoenix, Portland, Seattle and Washington.

"Everywhere I go, I hear there is an increase" in the need for housing aid, especially for families, says Philip Mangano, executive director of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, which coordinates federal programs. He says the main causes are job losses and foreclosures.

Other factors have been higher food and fuel prices hitting families with "no cushion," says Nan Roman of the National Alliance to End Homelessness.

Many mayors have 10-year plans to end homelessness and had reported progress until this year. The most recent official count, in January 2007, found 671,888 people living on U.S. streets or in shelters, down 12% from January 2005.

"We saw family homelessness began to increase last winter," says Sally Erickson, Portland's homeless program manager. "There's definitely a spike in the last six months." The number of requests for emergency shelter doubled from fiscal year 2007 to fiscal 2008, which ended in June.

Darlene Newsom, who runs United Methodist Outreach Ministries' New Day Centers, which provide shelter programs for families in Phoenix, says the number of requests is "alarming." She says families who never sought help before are calling.

Los Angeles says it has no 2008 data. Miami reports no major change. Chicago has not had a surge in requests, but more come from renters evicted because of landlords' foreclosure, says Nancy Radner of the Chicago Alliance to End Homelessness.

USA TODAY found:

• In New York City, 2,747 families applied for shelter in September 2008, up from 2,087 in September 2007.

• In Hennepin County, including Minneapolis, 880 families were in shelters from January through August 2008, up from 698 in that period last year. At least 10% this year came from foreclosed properties where most had been renters, says Cathy ten Broeke, county coordinator to end homelessness.

Dennis Culhane, a University of Pennsylvania professor of social policy, expects foreclosures to cause a "big increase" in homeless families.

Mangano says a new federal law gives communities $3.9 billion to buy foreclosed properties or provide services to the homeless.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-10-21-homeless_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip

Keith Olbermann interview with Barack Obama

As I watched Barack Obama's interview with MSNBC's Keith Olbermann tonight with friends I found myself screaming at the TV, "say it, damn it, say the word!  Say LIE!!"  I was so frustrated by the coolness, the apparent inability to express any righteous anger, the consistent "on message" answers.  So, thinking perhaps my friends and I are old, jaded and out of it, I called my son and asked him to watch the 10:00 PM re-run of the interview (he was at work during the original airing) and give us his opinion, thinking maybe I needed the 30ish response and that it would be different from my own.  Hah!! Not so!  Jonathan responded with nearly the exact reactions I had. 

I do think Obama needs to be careful so he doesn't come off as "an angry young black man" going after a old white man or worse, a white woman.  I think that Biden and both Clintons have to come out swinging so Obama can avoid any racial blow back.  But he's got to get past the "I'm too cool to get angry or show an emotional" reaction to the Republicans LIES.

Jonathan’s take on the interview:

It seemed to me that Olbermann was trying very hard to get Obama to show some grit. I appreciate trying to be dignified and not resort to mud slinging. But honestly! The Dems are all apparently being handled by people who caution them not to seem too liberal. He needs to embrace being a liberal, stop buying into the bullshit that liberal is a "bad word" so he can energize his base and show the undecideds that he's NOT a conservative or Republican. Obama's big message is "if you want the same thing we've had for the last 8 years vote McCain, if you want change vote me"??? I mean, that's great for those of us who are already fed up with Republicans but he has had our vote regardless. Reiterating "McCain voted w/ Bush 90% of the time" isn't enough. We/He needs to work on turning it around to demonize conservatism and make people embarassed to vote for Republicans. He absolutely needs to, if you'll forgive the unintentional racial reference, call a spade a spade. McCain and Palin are LYING!!! they're not "not telling the truth" or "misrepresenting facts" they are LYING!!! He has got to stop letting the conservatives choose the language of this election. 

I'm frustrated, and I think Olberman was frustrated, that Obama wouldn't answer a direct question. He kept repeating talking points. I know he's afraid of answering a question directly due to the media and the Republican spin machine, but the passive "wimp" was what Kerry was labeled as. Maybe we can print up t-shirts, WWBCD... What Would Bill Clinton Do... if I remember my history he was not afraid to respond to dirty Republican tactics. The truth is great but you have to get the truth out there when the bad guys are busy spreading lies.

I'm watching the Dems fuck up a wet dream (again) and it's getting on my nerves. I think Obama would make a good president, certainly better than McCain and I'm very pleased by the choice of Biden as a VP, but if they don't change the way this campaign is being run we're all going to be moving to foreign countries. Thankfully I'm brushing up my language skills.

VPs And Do We Care

I’ve been an ardent supporter of Barack Obama for years now. While early in the current campaign I felt it wasn’t the right time for an African American candidate at the top of the ticket for the White House and hoped Obama would be the Vice Presidential choice, he and his wife won me over quite easily with their optimism, inspiring rhetoric and savvy political strategy.

His message of change and the idea of passing leadership on to a new generation resonates with me. Because I am so committed to Obama I was not particularly concerned about who he picked as a running mate. I didn’t think much about the reported short list of three candidates one way or another. I wasn’t inspired by any of the three but didn’t think I cared one way or another.

So it was a great surprise to me to feel quite disappointed in the idea of an Obama/Biden ticket. I’ve been trying to figure out why. I’ve read about Joe Biden’s political history, his voting record and his personal history. There is nothing there to object to and a great deal to like. In addition, his foreign policy work is impressive and he brings a great deal of expertise to the ticket. Six terms as a Democratic Senator and very little to be critical of. Not a reason to be disappointed.

A friend pointed out that Biden had been extremely critical of Obama early in the race. The fact that Obama would chose as his running mate a man who has been a critic but who has lots of experience in an area of his own weakness says a lot about Obama and leads me to believe he must believe strongly that Biden is best for the job. A reason to feel good about his choice.

There is very little to indicate that the choice of a running mate has had much effect on past Presidential races. The last example of a race in which it was actually a factor is the Kennedy/Johnson race in 1960 when Johnson was able to deliver Texas and put Kennedy over the top. Forty-eight years later it would seem to be another reason not to care.

But I do care. A lot, apparently. Joseph Biden is a good choice on so many levels. He brings strengths that Obama needs, he is known for his impressive skills as an orator and will be a great “bad cop” as the campaign goes forward. So of course I’ll support the ticket, of course I’ll vote for Obama/Biden and be glad to be voting for them instead of simply against John McCain.

Still. I think that by choosing the “right” man to balance the ticket and to win the votes of the middle, the voters who are skeptical of his experience, Obama weakened his ability to claim that his administration will exemplify be a new kind of politics. And that is why his choice disappoints me. I wonder how all those excited young voters that Obama has won over will react to a 65 year old, six term Senator who is the definition of politics as usual. With the polls indicating the race is nearly a dead heat, perhaps a more exciting choice would have cost him the White House. Perhaps this it the best practical choice in the real world of politics. But I wanted a new day, a new way of looking at the world, a fresh generation of leadership. Perhaps insisting on that would mean a McCain White House. The horror of that should give us all pause.

So I support the new Obama/Biden ticket. But I think I’ll just keep my Obama 2008 bumper sticker and not bother replacing it with an Obama/Biden sticker. And after tonight I’ll put aside my frustration and stop whining. There is an election to win!!

Shut Up and Sing

I’ve long be a fan of the Dixie Chicks having all of their CDs plus a much loved DVD of their Top of the World concert. I wanted to see the documentary Shut Up and Sing but didn’t catch it when it was at the local art theater. Tonight I watched it and was terribly moved by seeing the whole story. I knew about most of it from news accounts and actually bought the Top of the Word DVD in support of them when the CD burnings started. But even so, I didn’t really understand just how amazing these women are.

I was so pleased when they released Taking the Long Way and could hardly believe that they had managed to write an entire CD of their own songs based on their life experiences and that it was actually better than their previous wonderful work on Top of the World.

If you haven’t seen the documentary I highly recommend it. You don’t have to be a fan of the Chicks to appreciate their story and their bravery. Let’s hope they continue to speak out against senseless violence while writing and performing their very relevant brand of music that is now far out of the country music box in which they were trapped earlier in their careers.

Note: I was not able to rent this documentary at my local Blockbuster but was able to check it out at my library. If you are like me you will probably want to buy a copy after you see it. Or you can watch if for free on the web at http://freedocumentaries.org/film.php?id=163 Enjoy!

Politics, it's not pretty

A friend emailed me a column and asked for my thoughts. You can read the article by following the link. My take on the column follows:

Would You Like Change With That? - Doug Henwood

http://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Obama.html

To say I was not impressed with this piece would be a bit of an understatement. I will say up front that I support Obama in the Democratic primary so you can take my opinion with a gain of salt if you like. And I will admit that I think the very title of the column, Would You Like Change With That? An Analysis of Obamamania, did little to contribute to any expectation of a balanced piece. If you support Obama you are indulging in some kind of mania? I don’t think so!

Henwood’s first charge is that Obama is inspiring. So at least we can agree on one point. He then goes on to the oft repeated claim that Obama’s inspirational rhetoric are empty promises and basically meaningless. He looks to Obama’s voting record to try and demonstrate this. But anyone who has been paying the least attention to this race knows that the differences between Clinton and Obama on issues of policy are minuet.

Clinton and Obama both have voting records and it is hard to find all that much difference based on how they voted on various issues. And most people who actually look at a candidates voting record should understand that any given vote may or may not reflect the candidates support or opposition to the issue supposedly being voted on. Without knowing what amendments were added to bill, whose support would be lost on a bigger issue and myriad other things that make up the bigger political picture a vote on a single issue is easy to misrepresent.

So the only way to judge a candidate is by their overall voting record and policy positions, not by any one vote. Based on their overall records I could and will happily vote for either Clinton or Obama, whoever wins the primary.

What Henwood seems to miss is that I will be voting in the Kentucky primary for Obama precisely because he takes nearly the same positions as Clinton on issues important to me but that he also has the added ability to inspire me and so many others. Inspiration may be the deciding factor in this election and its importance, in my opinion, is tremendous. Remember George the Senior deriding, “that inspiration thing?”

This single item that I find most disturbing in this column is having a middle 50s white man suggesting that somehow Obama’s racial politics are suspect. Hey, Henwood, you are of the wrong generation and are the wrong color for this, it’s obviously way over your head!

As a 57 year old gay white man, I can demonstrate even if I am not able to articulate it terribly well. I live in a society where homophobia is pervasive and have endured hetrosexism since I was old enough to understand that I was “different.” While intellectually I know progress has been made over the last 40 years, homophobia still exists everywhere. From my perspective it still feels like it did in the 60s when I was a teenager.

My son, born of an early marriage before I came out, is 30 years old and is also gay. The world he lives in and his perception of it is totally different than mine. He expects that he will be able to marry some day, he expects to be accepted at work and in the community, he expects that he will be treated fairly even in a world he knows is homophobic. His is the new generation we can look to with hope and pride precisely because they understand that we are changing, even if too slowly, as a people and a nation.

We need Obama to inspire a new generation of voters. We need Obama to provide a younger generation’s perspective on our world and how its leaders should approach issues that my generation has failed to overcome.

What we don’t need are people on the left like Henwood attacking our greatest hope.

Spring

Spring has officially arrived and for once, the first two days of spring were beautiful! Sunny and warm following deep snow and days of heavy, constant rain. Lots of flooding and high water with total ground saturation, any more rain in the next few days will simply run off so hopefully the flood waters will have a chance to subside before more rain.

Spring in Kentucky can be so beautiful, I hope the weather cooperates and we don’t have any hard freezes that might destroy the pear, dogwood and magnolia blossoms. Crocuses are blooming and buds are forming on the daffodils. It will be so good to open the windows! And the Derby is only weeks away.