Are We Really Going To Make This Mistake Again? October 29, 2010March 19, 2017 AFOP (UP 32% IN 7 WEEKS) One of AFOP’s competitors (symbol OCLR) reported a disappointing quarter yesterday. AFOP shares held up fine, but OCLR and another of its competitors got killed. Aristides’s Chris Brown reports that he sold some on this news. “It seems like there is definitely a bit of a slowdown in optical networking, but certain companies are doing better than others. OCLR has had flat revenue for the last 4 years, so clearly it is no AFOP, which has had very healthy revenue growth. I didn’t want 4% of the fund in a company whose peers just dropped 25-50% from their highs, so I’ve whittled down the AFOP to about 2.5% of the fund. Still seems like a very good company trading cheap to me, but I would think that at some point, sector concerns may eventually outweigh the valuation, at least for the next 3-6 months or so. When I recommended this 7 weeks ago, the risk-reward was very skewed towards reward; now with all of these sector concerns, who knows? My feelings won’t be hurt if you and your readers take profits on half their position. I’m keeping some; it’s cheap enough and the company is quality enough that I want to see how this plays out.” PERFECT V. GOOD Allan: “I am tiring of your support for the Dems. Just so you know, I have been mostly a staunch democratic supporter although I live in Illinois where the only difference between most Democrats and Republicans is who pays them off. It’s pay to play here in Illinois and I think that’s the way in works in Washington as well. While you and Tom Friedman think our legislatures have passed meaningful financial regulation, I think it has mostly been a charade. I also have to wonder about Obama’s campaign message of changing how Washington works by hiring Geitner, Rubin and Summers to run economic policy. These guys were the ultimate insiders with long standing Wall Street connections. Wonder is the wrong term. Shock and disappointment is more like it. I know that he had Paul Volcker on his staff but he was only window dressing. He was advocating for a return of Glass-Steagall type laws. Indeed, the banks run the place, along with Big Pharma and Health Care. I could go on about Health Care but I will keep it short. Max Baucus’ right hand advisor during the health care legislation process was a former executive with WellPoint. Whose interests were near and dear to her heart? The average American? I frankly do not see much difference between the two parties on matters of economics. Republican or democrat will vote along with the industries that pay them off. I won’t be voting republican or democrat. I’ll vote for the Green Party.” ☞ I hear your frustration and share a good deal of it. But the Green Party – with best of intentions – destroyed the world. Well-meaning people (including 97,488 of them in Florida) gave us Bush instead of Gore, which gave us the right wing Court that gave us Citizens United that is giving corporate money even more influence. (The Green Party also gave us the war in Iraq, the near-Depression, and delayed the stem cell breakthroughs that might otherwise have come in time to save a loved one’s life.) All this with best intentions. Are we really going to make this mistake again? Democrats in Congress share your views to a far greater degree than Republicans. Not so solidly that 60 votes are possible without substantial compromise; but at least we get most of our folks voting for the things we want, and get some of those things – whereas the other side votes NO in near perfect lockstep. I beg you not to let the perfect be the enemy of the good. EDUCATION Michael Fabricant: “Yesterday’s link to the Tom Friedman column is much appreciated, but the real story is the study that Friedman discusses, “Rising Above the Gathering Storm.” Whether you agree or disagree with everything else he has done so far, this election and the next should overwhelmingly favor our President for what he believes about education and his willingness and ability to be a driving force in making it better. Education alone. The President is making education important again. So why doesn’t anybody know about the hope he has brought to education reform? Because it’s not sexy. It doesn’t command ratings. The 24-hour news cycle is hurting our country. But even more damaging can be the demagogues and pundits that prevail on the internet, TV and airwaves, because too many folks can simply follow someone that spoon feeds what they already want to hear and only reinforces their often misinformed beliefs. Rather than reporting actual facts and challenging someone to come to a reasonable conclusion on matters of significance and importance.” ☞ Here are some quotes Michael collected from “The Gathering Storm” study: “When I compare our high schools to what I see when I’m traveling abroad, I’m terrified for our workforce of tomorrow.” – Bill Gates, Founder, Microsoft Corp. “If you don’t solve (the K-12 education problem), nothing else is going to matter all that much.” – Alan Greenspan, former Chairman, Federal Reserve “ . . . we need young people—a smart kid coming out of school—instead of wanting to be an investment banker, we need them to decide they want to be an engineer, they want to be a scientist, they want to be a doctor or teacher.” – President Barack Obama “If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.” – Thomas Jefferson
Is Tom Friedman An Elitist? October 28, 2010March 19, 2017 Fred Campbell: “I think you’re off base with the elitism discussions you’ve been having. I don’t think someone is begrudged because she attended an Ivy League school and is doing well. I think the problem is that the ‘elite’ seem to talk down to the rest of us. Obama says we aren’t voting Democrat because we don’t understand, Krugman says we’re idiots for voting Republican (not literally but subtly), and others on talk shows and op-eds are saying similar things (Pelosi, Biden, Maureen Dowd). You are dangerously treading in that territory yourself as many of your recent columns indicate you can’t imagine why anyone would vote Republican.” ☞ No one should be talked down to. On that you’re dead right. It’s both offensive and counterproductive. But I don’t entirely buy your premise. I don’t hear the President or Vice President or Paul Krugman often talking down to people; I hear them making impassioned arguments. And I hear and share their frustration when people have been misled. Take Iraq. It is deeply frustrating that 70% of the folks who voted to reelect Bush believed Iraq attacked us on 9/11. But they didn’t believe that because they are stupid; they believed it because they were deliberately misled. To the extent we fail to frame it that way, we diminish the power of our argument. Take taxes. It is deeply frustrating that so many people thought the Bush tax cuts were good policy, “the vast majority of which” would go to people “at the bottom end of the economic ladder” – which was demonstrably false. They didn’t think this because they are stupid, they believed it because they were deliberately misled. (Even more frustrating: they never seemed to get angry at having been misled. Instead, they are blaming Obama for the disastrous economic mess Bush left him.) Take the deficits and National Debt. Reagan/Bush/Bush ran it up from under $1 trillion and 30% of GDP to over $10 trillion and 100% of GDP. These are just facts. It is deeply frustrating that a great many people have been misled into believing that the $1.4 trillion deficit Bush handed Obama was somehow Obama’s doing – and/or that in our current perilous economic situation it would be smart to roll back the government stimulus so we can extend tax cuts on income above $250,000. How do you get people to give more credence to Joe the Plumber than to Nobel-prize winning economist Paul Krugman without the subtext being, well, he’s a plumber and the other guy’s a Nobel-prize-winning economist? (I sure wouldn’t want Paul Krugman fixing my sink.) To the extent I and others let exasperation or frustration cross the line from spirited debate to sarcasm or belittlement, we err. It’s fine, it seems to me, to belittle a bad idea; a big mistake to belittle one’s audience. I hope I don’t do that – not least because I happen to have a truly wonderful audience. (Maybe it’s worse to suggest Sarah Palin isn’t competent to lead the world than to suggest Barack Obama pals around with terrorists and is Hitleresque – even though the former would seem to be less offensive – because one is obviously true, and, thus, hurtful, and the other is just ridiculous.) TOM FRIEDMAN And speaking of mocking bad ideas, don’t miss Tom Friedman’s latest column, snarky sarcasm notwithstanding. (“Let’s have more tax cuts, unlinked to any specific spending cuts and while we’re still fighting two wars – because that worked so well during the Bush years to make our economy strong and our deficit small. Let’s immediately cut government spending, instead of phasing cuts in gradually, while we’re still mired in a recession – because that worked so well in the Great Depression. Let’s roll back financial regulation – because we’ve learned from experience that Wall Street can police itself and average Americans will never have to bail it out.”) RARE EARTH I’m not suggesting our Borealis ship will ever come in. We are now 11 years into this. But press releases like this one at least keep it fun. THE PRESIDENT AND THE GAY BLOGGER These were the right questions to have asked, it seems to me, and thoughtful, straightforward answers. If you have gay friends who are angry with the President, please loop them in.
No, Elite, 30 Seconds October 27, 2010March 19, 2017 THE PARTY THAT CAN’T SEE BEYOND ITS NOs Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell was asked what his party will do if it retakes power. It was an open-ended question, not multiple choice. (Create jobs? Trim the Deficit? Restore bipartisanship?) He was admirably candid: MCCONNELL: The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president. That’s been the goal these last two years: do their best to assure nothing good is accomplished that could lead to his reelection. And that’s the vision for the next two. ELITISM Peter Kaczowka: ‘I went to Dartmouth on full scholarship, a merit student. Bush and McCain were ‘legacy’ students, got into schools their daddies attended. It’s a form of affirmative action for the well-off and generally white. Suffused with the entitlement of their birth, they mostly get bad grades, usually a good predictor of future performance. A ‘C’ for the Bush Presidency would be generous. Had I known an Ivy League school and good grades made me inferior, I would not have bothered. I mistakenly thought that ‘elite’ was good, as in ‘an elite fighting force.’ Thanks to James yesterday for clearing that up for me.’ ☞ See? It’s hard not to get snarky when discussing this. To me it’s as simple as wanting my football team to have the most talented quarterback, companies I own shares in to have the ablest CEOs, the gal who transplants my liver to be world class in her skill. And I assume Bush/McCain/Palin supporters feel the same way but would argue that the job of President or Senator doesn’t require exceptional intelligence and knowledge. How complicated could the world’s problems really be? Common sense trumps all. And I agree: common sense does trump all. But as between a leader with common sense and amazing intellectual firepower, like Clinton and Obama, or a leader with common sense who can’t name the President of Pakistan (neither could I, but I was not fit to be president, either) or who can’t distinguish between North and South Korea (that one I knew) . . . I’d go with the former. And that holds for Senator and Governor and any other high office, too – because in answer to my snarky question (how complicated could the world’s problems really be?) I’d say, with all the sincerity I can muster: very complicated. And the fate of mankind rests on our getting the next few decades right. Or as nearly right as possible. As I said yesterday, I’m sorry, but I have a lot more faith in Bill Clinton’s and Barack Obama’s judgment than in John McCain’s judgment (look who he chose to lead the world in the event of his incapacitation) or Sarah Palin’s judgment. That may be elitist, but to me it’s also just common sense. EXTRA CREDIT You know those annoying kids who not only did their homework but then dipped into the optional ‘additional reading’ because they were actually interested in the topic? (I was not one of them.) For them, I offer this recent examination of elitism in the Washington Post. ‘If working hard, climbing the education ladder and graduating from a good university only wins you opprobrium,’ Anne Applebaum concludes, ‘then you might not bother. Or if you do bother, then you certainly won’t go into politics, where your kind is no longer welcome. We will then have a different sort of elite in charge of the country — and a different set of reasons to dislike them, too.’ WHY JERRY BROWN WILL BE THE NEXT GOVERNOR OF CALIFORNIA Note: the woman in this 30-second spot is his opponent.
Warlike, Snarky, and Holding My EMIS October 26, 2010March 19, 2017 ARE WE A WARLIKE PEOPLE? Certainly not. But our $700 billion annual military expenditure – nearly as much as every other nation’s combined – works outs to roughly $10,000 a year for each American family of four. Not that we pay it all. Much of it we borrow from the Chinese (or the Social Security Trust fund or our children, depending on how you want to spin it). By contrast, our annual non-military foreign aid budget is roughly $25 billion, a more modest $300 for each family of four. Is it possible that by cutting the former by 25% and quadrupling the latter, we’d gain more friends and a safer world for ourselves and our children? And still have $100 billion change left in our pocket each year? SNARKY FOOTNOTE James: “You wrote: “Or else they simply connect better with the Bushes of the world (a C student) and McCains (third from the bottom of his class of 897) and Palins (a D in economics) than they connect with snobby Rhodes Scholars (Bill Clinton) and Harvard Law Review editors (Barack Obama) who urge us to vote Democrat and keep America moving forward. Even a footnote like this will come off as snarky and elitist to some…” No more snarky and elitist than usual. Smart guys scare the hell out of me, the smart guys gave us the Bay of Pigs and Vietnam, derivatives and adjustable rate mortgages. The smart guys repealed Glass-Steagall, gave us ‘too big to fail,’ and trillion-dollar bailouts to the Wall Street masters. God save us all from the smart guys. I get it: you Democrats are smart and the Republicans dumb, but you had better remember that there are a lot more C and D students out there than Rhodes scholars. Us independents have a hard time figuring out which of the two poor excuses for a party are going to screw us less.” ☞ James is right: Smart guys too often do make terrible misjudgments. But so do not-so-smart guys. Given that there are lots of smart, well educated people at virtually all points on the political/ideological spectrum, most definitely including Republicans, shouldn’t we prefer a smart, well educated leader to a less smart and/or poorly educated one? A leader who’s traveled the world and knows its history to one unaware of the difference between North and South Korea? As for the rest of James’s post, I reject the notion that by taking the middleman out of the federally-guaranteed student loan business to lower college costs . . . or that by forcing health insurers to pay out at least 85% of premiums to cover health care and not rescind your coverage when you get sick . . . . . . or that by clamping down on credit card company abuses and establishing a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau . . . or that by establishing a minimum wage and the social safety net and the Family & Medical Leave Act . . . . . . or that by supporting civil rights and equal rights and women’s rights . . . or that by seeking as large a stimulus package as possible to put people to work renewing our infrastructure and keep them at work teaching our kids and patrolling our streets . . . . . . or that by raising taxes on the best off as Clinton did and Obama hopes to do in order to reverse the massive buildup of multi-trillion-dollar Republican National Debt . . . . . . the Democratic Party is “a lame excuse for a party” trying to “screw” you. That the Republican Party has opposed all these things (and more – stem cell research, anyone?) may give some an easy time “figuring out which of the two poor excuses for a party is going to screw us less” (as James puts it). Smarg: “Eight years of Bush administration policies and two years of ‘make this President fail’ has made it extremely easy for me to cast my vote in all future elections. I will always simply vote straight Democratic Party ticket. It won’t matter who is running any more. Your dog as the Democratic candidate? Straight ticket. Your long dead uncle? Same thing. Thanks, Republicans. You have made my life so much more simple.” ☞ Someday, Republican priorities and leadership will return to the moderate, sensible Lincoln-Eisenhower-Nixon-Ford-Javits-Weld-Bloomberg center, which had a lot to contribute. So “all future elections” is obviously hyperbole. But the next couple? I’m with Smarg. IF WE’RE SO SMART, HOW COME HALF THE COUNTRY DISAGREES? That so many disagree could simply mean that we’re wrong. Or it could mean that Karl Rove, et al, have done a masterful job making people think that the $1.4 trillion 2009 deficit that Obama inherited (set in 2008, before he took office, covering the months October 2008 through September 2009) was Obama’s doing . . . . . . and that the near Depression that eight years of Bush tax policy and deregulation left us (the first six of which featured Republican control of Congress) was Obama’s doing. The simple truth is that, after decades of (mostly delightful) self-indulgence, living beyond our means – and running our National Debt up from 30% of GDP when Reagan/Bush took over to 100% of GDP when the second Bush handed it off to Obama – we have a couple of challenging decades ahead of us. With smart priorities – education, health care, and energy, being the mega-challenges the President has targeted from the start – and with responsible regulation – and if we borrow for the things we need to do, like renew infrastructure, rather than borrow to extend tax cuts and fight ill-advised wars – we will do just fine. I’m sorry: my money is on Barack Obama’s vision, not Sarah Palin’s. EMIS Still a rank speculation, but up 15% or so since first suggested here in August. Guru’s latest thinking is that it still has a reasonable shot at a tenfold gain from here. But not a bet to take with money you can’t truly afford to lose because even if the odds of a ten-bagger were 50/50 (and they may be worse!), you’d still lose your money half the time.
Reasons to Vote Republican And Hold AFOP October 25, 2010March 19, 2017 According to this CBS Sunday Morning commentary yesterday, 80% of all the growth in our collective income from 1980 to 2005 “went to the people who needed it least – the richest 1%.” The remaining 20% went to the bottom 99%. And the prevailing Republican view has been that these richest 1% deserve the biggest tax breaks. Even in times of war. The wars themselves can be financed by borrowing from the Chinese (or from the Social Security Trust Fund or from our children, depending on how you want to spin it). That Joe plumbers earning $30,000 and $130,000 a year are eager to sacrifice so much for folks making $3 million and $13 million a year is something relatively new. I don’t remember hearing a huge outcry in the Fifties among the middle class that the top federal tax bracket under Eisenhower was 90% But there it is and here we are. If YOU want to defer infrastructure repair and lay off teachers and cops in order to keep income above $250,000 taxed at the lowest rates in 80 years . . . vote Republican. If YOU want your grandparents to pay an extra $4,000 a year for their prescription drugs (“the doughnut hole”) in order to keep income above $250,000 taxed at the lowest rates in 80 years . . . vote Republican. If YOU want the cost of college to go back up in order to keep income above $250,000 taxed at the lowest rates in 80 years . . . vote Republican. (And, a corollary . . . if YOU want to roll back safety, environmental, and consumer regulation, and think Obama was too tough on BP . . . vote Republican.) There’s no need for ominous music here. And this is not a debating trick. The Republican positions are clear. They plainly state that they want to repeal the infrastructure component of the stimulus package (which was already too small). They refuse to allow extension of the tax cuts on income below $250,000 unless we also borrow $700 billion over the next decade to extend the cuts on income above $250,000. They filibuster to prevent establishment of a Bipartisan Deficit Reduction Commission (which had been their own idea until Obama signed on to it). They hope to cripple or defund the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau; wish we could abolish the minimum wage; oppose equal pay for women and equal rights for gays. About half the country seems to share these priorities.* If that’s you, vote Republican. *Or else they simply connect better with the Bushes of the world (a C student) and McCains (third from the bottom of his class of 897) and Palins (a D in economics) than they connect with snobby Rhodes Scholars (Bill Clinton) and Harvard Law Review editors (Barack Obama) who urge us to vote Democrat and keep America moving forward. Even a footnote like this will come off as snarky and elitist to some, helping to drive them to vote against their own self interest. But look: the country – and our species – face seriously complex challenges. Popularity and the common touch are important; but brilliance, rigorous education, and a long-term vision should also be prerequisites. And once we have a leader like that (as we did with Clinton and do with Obama), it hurts our future to work so hard at demonizing him. And trying to make him fail. AFOP(D) Alliance Fiber Optic Products lost the D from its symbol a few weeks ago but reported good earnings last week. The stock closed Friday at $10.02, up 25% since Aristides’s Chris Brown suggested it here last month. “It is probably trading at just over 5x forward earnings if you back out the $43 million in cash on the balance sheet,” he now advises me. “For a company that has consistently grown revenues over time, that still seems cheap.” So I hold on.
I Voted Yesterday October 22, 2010March 19, 2017 HAVE THEY NO SHAME? Don George: “I just heard Neal Boortz on my car radio (talk radio host similar to Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh) preparing his audience that when the Republicans take over, they have to be patient, because the Republicans will not be able to make the changes to get the country back in only two years. Two years just wasn’t a fair enough time to judge what the Republicans can do he told his listeners, so they have to continue to support the Republicans for several elections to give them a chance. I guess there is no shame in this business.” ☞ Just like the Republicans’ handing Obama a $1.2 trillion 2009 budget deficit and an economy on the verge of Depression – and then blaming him and Democrats for the sky-rocketing debt and terrible unemployment. The truth is that for 30 years the Democrats have been the party of (at least relative) fiscal responsibility. The Democrats instituted “PAYGO” – where Congress has to find revenue sources or spending cuts to pay for new programs – and the Republicans ditched it. The Democrats handed George W. Bush a surplus and urged that we “Save Social Security First” – which is to say, shore up our balance sheet – but the Republicans wrecked our balance sheet with tax cuts the best-off didn’t need and a hugely expensive war of choice that was falsely sold as a war of last resort that would cost less than $200 billion at the outside. And it’s not all fixed after 21 months? I VOTED YESTERDAY And what a great feeling it was. Click here to see whether your state offers early voting as well.* THE PRESIDENT TELLS LGBT KIDS: “IT GETS BETTER” Look what Dan Savage started. He deserves a huge shout-out, as do the thousands who’ve made their own videos, all the way up to the Secretary of State and, now, here, the President of the United States. *Florida voters: vote YES on Amendments 5 and 6, for fair redistricting!
Not Nothing October 21, 2010March 19, 2017 It’s remarkable how poorly we’ve done highlighting the accomplishments of the last 21 months – but that does not mean they weren’t real, or that it’s not crucial that we keep moving forward. From the Washington Post: . . . Reasonable people can debate whether the stimulus was big enough or whether Dems could have passed a more comprehensive health reform law. But you would have thought few would debate that this Congress is one of the most ambitious and productive in decades in terms of the sheer number and scale of successful legislative initiatives. Yet despite passing an enormous stimulus that many credit with rescuing us from disaster, passing health reform after a half century of failure, rescuing the auto industry, and successfully completing the biggest overhaul of Wall Street regulations since the Great Depresssion, only one third of Democrats think this Congress has achieved more than other recent ones. . . . And from an unattributed email hurtling around the Internet: While the President may not be all we hoped for, consider the alternative…… I still believe in voting, I hope all our friends do. A return to the policies of the Bush years or worse is beyond unacceptable. Facts behind Obama’s accomplishments. Please consider carefully prior to 11/2/2010. Remember, many of these accomplishments are only achieved with a Democratic majority: 1. Signed an Executive Order on government contracting to fight waste and abuse: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/economy in_government_contracting 2. Signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, restoring basic protections against pay discrimination for women and other workers: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtKAKlurRAY 3. Renewed dialogue with NATO and other allies and partners on strategic issues: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/09/04/04/Afghanistan-and-NATO 4. Announced a plan to responsibly end the war in Iraq: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/28/washington/28troops.html 5. Provided funding to families of fallen soldiers have expenses covered to be on hand when the body arrives at Dover AFB: http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/18/pentagon-will-help-families 6. Ended media blackout on war casualties and the return of fallen soldiers to Dover AFB: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7986203.stm 7. Signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act: http://www.recovery.gov/About/Pages/The_Act.aspx 8. Launched Recovery.gov <http://Recovery.gov> to track spending from the Recovery Act, an unprecedented step to provide transparency and accountability through technology: http://www.recovery.gov/Pages/home.aspx 9. Announced the “Making Home Affordable” home refinancing plan: http://www.makinghomeaffordable.gov 10. Launched a $15 billion plan to boost lending to small businesses: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Remarks-by-the-President-to-small-business-owners 11. Invested heavily in education both as a way to provide jobs now and lay the foundation for long-term prosperity: http://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/education <http://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/education> 12. Provided the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) with more than $1.4 billion to improve services to America’s Veterans: http://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/veterans <http://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/veterans> 13. Signed an Executive Order establishing the White House Office of Urban Affairs: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/02/AR2009070201410.html 14. Limited lobbyist’s access to the White House: http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/20/obama-outlines-lobbying-restrictions 15. Issued an Presidential Memorandum to restore scientific integrity in government decision-making: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Memorandum-for-the-Heads-of-Executive-Departments-and-Agencies-3-9-09 16. Answered questions at the first online town hall from the White House that were submitted and voted on transparently by the public at WhiteHouse.gov <http://WhiteHouse.gov> : http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5h2uzQs2_XBgeHotRBvNhY7DR572g 17. Established a central portal for Americans to find service opportunities: http://www.serve.gov 18. Launched Business.gov <http://Business.gov> – enabling conversation and online collaboration between small business owners, government representatives and industry experts in discussion forums relevant to starting and managing a business: http://www.business.gov 19. Appointed the first ever Federal Chief Information Officer to provide management and oversight over federal IT spending: http://www.cio.gov 20. Signed the Children’s Health Insurance Reauthorization Act on February 4, 2009, which provides quality health care to 11 million kids – 4 million who were previously uninsured: http://themiddleclass.org/bill/children039s-health-insurance-program-reauthorization-act-2009 21. Issued an Executive Order repealing the Bush-Era restrictions on embryonic stem cell research: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/mar/09/obama-administration-stem-cell-funding 22. Signed the Christopher and Dana Reeve Paralysis Act, the first piece of comprehensive legislation aimed at improving the lives of Americans living with paralysis: http://www.christopherreeve.org/site/c.ddJFKRNoFiG/b.4442889/k.EC4B/Christopher_and_Dana_Reeve_Paralysis_Act.htm 23. Announced creation of a Joint Virtual Lifetime Electronic Record for members of the U.S. Armed Forces to improve quality of medical care: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/09/04/09/The-Care-They-Were-Promised-and-the-Benefits-That-They-Have-Earned 24. Ended the previous stop-loss policy that kept soldiers in Iraq/Afghanistan longer than their enlistment date: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/19/washington/19gates.html 25. Committed to phasing out the expensive F-22 war plane and other outdates weapons systems, which weren’t even used or needed in Iraq/Afghanistan: http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/04/06/gates.budget.cuts 26. Provided federal support for stem-cell and new biomedical research: http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1908954,00.html 27. Provided new federal funding for science and research labs: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/18/science/18sfstimulus.html 28. Played a lead role in G-20 Summit that produced a $1.1 trillion deal to combat the global financial crisis: http://www.g20.org 29. Signed the Weapons Systems Acquisition Reform Act to stop fraud and wasteful spending in the defense procurement and contracting system: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weapon_Systems_Acquisition_Reform_Act_of_2009 30. Ordered the closure of the prison at Guantanamo Bay and a review of our detention and interrogation policy, and prohibited the use of torture: http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/01/22/guantanamo.order/index.html 31. Appointed Special Envoys for Climate Change, Southwest Asia, the Middle East, Sudan, and a Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan: http://www.america.gov/st/peacesec-english/2009/January/20090122175146idybeekcm1.328677e-02.html 32. Empowered states to enact federal fuel efficiency standards above federal standards: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/26/us/politics/26calif.html 33. Increased infrastructure spending (roads, bridges, power plants) after years of neglect: http://www.usnews.com/articles/news/stimulus/2009/01/08/poll-americans-strongly-back-increase-in-infrastructure-spending.html 34. Increased minority access to capital: http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/promise/16/increase-minority-access-to-capital 35. Developed a comprehensive new strategy on Afghanistan and Pakistan that will help defeat Al Qaeda and authorized the deployment of more than 21,000 troops to Afghanistan: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/27/AR2009032700836.html 36. Signed the Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act which gives the federal government more tools to investigate and prosecute fraud, from lending to the financial system, and creates a bipartisan Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission to investigate the financial practices that brought us to this point: http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2009/05/obama-signs-hou.html 37. Signed the Helping Families Save Their Homes Act, expanding on the Making Home Affordable Program to help millions of Americans avoid preventable foreclosures, providing $2.2 billion to help combat homelessness, and helping to stabilize the housing market for everybody: http://www.zillow.com/blog/mortgage/2009/05/21/president-obama-signs-helping-families-save-their-homes-act 38. Increased, for the first time in more than a decade, the fuel economy standards for Model Year 2011 for cars and trucks so they will get better mileage, saving drivers money and spurring companies to develop more innovative products: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0509/22650.html 39. Issued a Presidential Memorandum to the Department of Energy to implement more aggressive efficiency standards for common household appliances, like dishwashers and refrigerators. Through this step, over the next three decades, we’ll save twice the amount of energy produced by all the coal-fired power plants in America in any given year: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/ApplianceEfficiencyStandards 40. Unveiled a program on Earth Day 2009 to develop the renewable energy projects on the waters of our Outer Continental Shelf that produce electricity from wind, wave, and ocean currents. These regulations will enable, for the first time ever, the nation to tap into our ocean’s vast sustainable resources to generate clean energy in an environmentally sound and safe manner: http://www.earthday.org 41. Announced a new U.S.-Mexico border initiative: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Administration-Officials-Announce-US-Mexico-Border-Security-Policy-A-Comprehensive-Response-and-Commitment 42. Concluded cyberspace policy review: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Statement-by-the-Press-Secretary-on-Conclusion-of-the-Cyberspace-Review 43. Announced a strategy to address the international nuclear threat: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Remarks-By-President-Barack-Obama-In-Prague-As-Delivered 44. Established a new “U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue”: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Statement-On-Bilateral-Meeting-With-President-Hu-Of-China 45. Announced new policy steps towards Cuba: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/05/world/americas/05cuba.html 46. Increased minority access to capital: http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/promise/16/increase-minority-access-to-capital 47. Issued a Presidential Memorandum on the Freedom of Information Act instructing the Attorney General to issue new guidelines to the government implementing those same principles of openness and transparency in the processing of FOIA requests: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Freedom_of_Information_Act 48. Funded the design of a new Smithsonian National Museum of African American History scheduled to open on the National Mall in 2015: http://www.facebook.com/NMAAHC 49. The Executive Order on Presidential Records brings those principles to presidential records by giving the American people greater access to these historic documents, severely curtailing the ability to use executive privilege to shield those documents: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Presidential_Records 50. Signed the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act, a hallmark piece of legislation: http://www.democrats.org/a/2009/04/edward_m_kenned.php 51. Signed the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility, and Disclosure (CARD) Act to protect Americans from unfair and deceptive credit card practices: http://www.newsunfiltered.com/archives/2010/02/pew_finds_credi.html 52. Signed an Executive Order establishing a White House Council on Women and Girls to provide a coordinated Federal response to the challenges confronted by women and girls and to ensure that all Cabinet and Cabinet-level agencies consider how their policies and programs impact women and families: http://parenting.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/11/obamas-council-on-women-and-girls 53. Launched a U.S. financial and banking rescue plan: http://www.america.gov/st/econ-english/2009/February/20090210163128saikceinawz0.7537805.html 54. Ordered secret detention facilities in Eastern Europe and elsewhere to be closed: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_site 55. Ended the previous policy; the US now has a no torture policy and is in compliance with the Geneva Convention standards: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geneva_Accord 56. Launched U.S. Auto industry rescue plan: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-03/31/content_11102980.htm 57. Provided better body armor to our troops: http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2004-03-26-body-armor_x.htm 58. Authorized cutting the missile defense program by $1.4 billion in 2010: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=62548 59. Restarted the nuclear nonproliferation talks and building back up the nuclear inspection infrastructure/protocols: http://articles.latimes.com/2009/sep/25/world/fg-obama-nuclear25 60. Reengaged in the treaties/agreements to protect the Antarctic: http://jonbowermaster.com/blog/2009/04/obama-calls-for-limits-on-antarctic-tourism 61. Reengaged in the agreements/talks on global warming and greenhouse gas emissions, and addressed the U.N. Climate Change Conference: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZ-SMqh7q3o <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZ-SMqh7q3o> 62. Supported the first steps of a legally-binding treaty to reduce mercury emissions worldwide: http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/feb2009/2009-02-16-02.asp 63. Visited more countries and met with more world leaders than any president in his first six months in office: http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2009/nov/19/chain-email/chain-e-mail-claims-obama-has-visited-more-countri 64. Managed several natural disasters successfully, including severe winter ice storms and flooding in several states: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drlsi3Ng4jw 65. Provided new car tax credit: http://www.soundmoneymatters.com/new-car-tax-credit 66. Provided attractive tax write-offs for those who buy hybrid automobiles: http://www.hybridcars.com/federal-incentives.html 67. Purchased fuel efficient American-made fleet of vehicles for the federal government: http://blogs.edmunds.com/greencaradvisor/2009/06/gsa-buys-210-million-worth-of-fuel-efficient-vehicles-from-us-carmakers.html 68. Endorsed Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act of 2009 that would close offshore tax havens: http://www.financialtaskforce.org/2009/10/27/the-foreign-account-tax-compliance-act-of-2009 69. Nominated Sonia Sotomayor to Supreme Court. She was confirmed and becomes the first Hispanic Supreme Court justice: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/06/sotomayor-confirmed-by-fu_n_253146.html 70. Helped reverse a downward spiral of the stock market. On January 19, 2009, the last day of President Bush’s presidency, the Dow closed at 8,218.22. Today, the Dow closed at 10,309.24 [today: 11,107.97]: http://stockcharts.com/charts/historical/djia1900.html 71. Earned an unprecedented success rate of 96.7% on winning congressional votes on issues where he took a position. He did even better than legendary arm-twister Lyndon Johnson who had a 93% success rate in 1965: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122436116 72. Provided affordable, high-quality child care to working families: http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/promise/244/provide-affordable-high-quality-child-care 73. Restored America’s reputation as a global leader that will do the “right thing” in world affairs: http://pewglobal.org/docs/?DocID=12 74. Issued an executive order to create the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform: http://money.cnn.com/2010/02/18/news/economy/obama_debt_commission/index.htm 75. Increased funding for student loans and pell grants for 2010 students: http://www.ourfuture.org/report/2009031325/obama-s-budget-supporting-students-not-banks <http://www.ourfuture.org/report/2009031325/obama-s-budget-supporting-students-not-banks> 76. Negotiated deal with Swiss banks to permit US government to gain access to records of tax evaders and criminals: http://www.law.com/jsp/law/international/LawArticleIntl.jsp?id=1202433002570 77. Provided tax credit to workers thus cutting taxes for 95% of America’s working families: http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2008/sep/18/barack-obama/a-credit-for-workers-cuts-taxes-for-middle-class 78. Cracked down on companies that deny sick pay, vacation and health insurance to workers by abusing the employee classification of independent contractor. Such companies also avoid paying Social Security, Medicare and unemployment insurance taxes for those workers: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/18/business/18workers.html 79. Signed the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act that made it a federal crime to assault an individual because of his or her sexual orientation or gender identity: http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/10/28/hate.crimes/index.html 80. Appointed the first Special Assistant to the President for Disability Policy: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Vice-President-Joe-Biden-Announces-Kareem-Dale-As-Special-Assistant-to-the-Preside 81. Signed the Veterans Health Care Budget Reform and Transparency Act authorizing advance appropriations for the Department of Veterans Affairs by providing two-fiscal year budget authority thus enabling better medical care for veterans. Endorsed by the American Legion, American Veterans, Blinded Veter…ans Association, Disabled American Veterans, Jewish War Veterans, Military Officers Association, Military Order of the Purple Heart, Paralyzed Veterans of America and Vietnam Veterans of America: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Remarks-by-the-President-at-Signing-of-the-Veterans-Health-Care-Budget-Reform-and-Transparency-Act 82. Held impromptu press conference to urge Congress to investigate Anthem Blue Cross and other corporate health insurance companies that raise premiums in high amounts without explanation. Rep. Henry Waxman launches probe. In this case, Anthem Blue Cross wanted to raise premiums 39%. They have now put the increase on hold for two months (as of February 2010). Legislation preventing such increases pending: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100218/hl_nm/us_usa_healthcare_insurers 83. Designated $1.5 billion from the Troubled Asset Relief Program to fund programs at local housing finance agencies in the states hardest hit by the housing crisis: California, Florida, Nevada, Arizona and Michigan. The MBA forecasts that foreclosures will peak in the last quarter of 2010: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35476054/ns/business-stocks_and_economy 84. Protected 300,000 education jobs, such as teachers, principals, librarians, and counselors through the Recovery Act that would have otherwise been lost: http://www2.ed.gov/news/pressreleases/2010/02/02012010a.html 85. Extended discounted COBRA health coverage for the nation’s unemployed from 9 months to 15 months. Workers laid off between September 1, 2008 and February 28, 2010 qualify: http://bucks.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/23/how-to-get-extended-cobra-health-coverage-subsidies 86. Extended unemployment benefits for 2,000,000 unemployed Americans by 20 weeks. At the time the bill was signed 7,000 unemployed Americans were losing their unemployment benefits each day: http://money.cnn.com/2009/11/05/news/economy/Extending_unemployment_benefits/index.htm 87. Eliminated federal funding for abstinence-only education which was significantly increased during the Bush Administration to $176 million annually: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jul/20/bush-teen-pregnancy-cdc-report 88. Rescinded the Global Gag Rule: http://www.guttmacher.org/media/inthenews/2009/01/23/index.html 89. Appointed the most diverse Cabinet in history including more women appointees than any other incoming president: http://www.diversityinc.com/content/1757/article/6319 90. Committed to no permanent military bases in Iraq through the Defense Authorization Act. For your reference: http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/promise/132/no-permanent-bases-in-iraq 91. Provided tax credits to first-time home buyers through the Worker, Homeownership, and Business Assistance Act of 2009 to revitalize the U.S. housing market: http://www.federalhousingtaxcredit.com 92. Provided the Department of Veterans Affairs the largest spending increase in 30 years to improve medical facilities and national cemeteries, and to assist states in acquiring or constructing state nursing homes and extended care facilities: http://www1.va.gov/opa/pressrel/pressrelease.cfm?id=1671 93. Strengthened the Endangered Species Act: http://www.stopextinction.org/media/releases/89-release-president-obama-restores-endangered-species-protections.html 94. Empowered states that legalized medical marijuana to regulate themselves. Fourteen states have allowed some use of marijuana for medical purposes: Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maryland, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Maryland, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/19/new-medical-marijuana-pol_n_325426.html 95. Enhanced earth mapping: http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/promise/345/enhance-earth-mapping 96. Increased funding for national parks and forests in 2010, and plans to do it again for FY 2011: http://www.defenders.org/newsroom/press_releases_folder/2010/02_01_2010_obamas_budget_includes_key_funding_for_land_and_water.php 97. Changed failing war strategy in Afghanistan: http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/12/01/obama.afghanistan/index.html 98. Allocated special funding to the Labor Department to provide green job training to veterans: http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/promise/466/create-a-green-vet-initiative-to-promote-environ 99. Allocated funding to states and the Department of Homeland Security to save thousands of police or firefighter jobs from being cut during the recession: http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/promise/188/increase-funding-for-local-emergency-planning 100. Created and sustained 2.1 million jobs and stimulated the economy 3.5% [as of December 31, 2009] through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN2311303720100223 ☞ It’s hardly everything. But especially given the unprecedented obstructionism of the opposition, it’s not nothing, either.
Watch This (and This!) October 20, 2010March 19, 2017 TWO MINUTES UNDER OATH This is not the Republican who dresses up like a Nazi . . . or the Republican who mocks Justice Sotomayor’s name (and calls Secretary Chu “Secretary Chow Mein”) . . . or the one who says she’d be honest with Hitler if she were hiding Jews in the attic but lied about her educational record. No, this is the Republican running to be Governor of Florida. Sure, the clips are spliced together without full context. But if you prefer, by all means download the unedited two-hour deposition here. THE CLINTON TAPES Carl Silkett: “Wow! I finally got around to watching the clips of the extended Daily Show interview as you suggested a while back, and I was blown away! What a shame that the rest of America is not hearing the story told that way!” [Watch for yourself! – A.T.] As much as I hate to say it, I’m afraid that I’m back to the point where I think it is hopeless, and that maybe the best option is to move to Canada or Australia or something. It’s really frustrating, and yet I really can’t bring myself to blame Obama or anyone else on the Democratic side. When our Supreme Court turned the election financing over to the corporations, that doomed us ultimately to Third World status, I’m quite sure. Sorry, but despite the emails and phone calls from the DNC, I just can’t bring myself to try to contribute enough compete against the major corporations!” ☞ The DNC is actually out-raising the RNC, even though we don’t take federal PAC or lobbyist money and they do. But you’re right: unless and until one of “our” billionaires rides to the rescue, the right-wing donors anonymously funding their effort are outspending labor unions and progressive donors seven or ten to one. Still, it is hardly “hopeless.” We have a lot going for us. The two top things are the issues (a lot of people don’t see going backwards as the solution to our problems; don’t want to borrow $700 billion over 10 years to extend the Bush tax cuts on income over $250,000) – and you . . . and millions of others . . . who can employ the OFA tools (or this app, if you have an iPhone) to knock on neighbor’s doors, make calls, and in other ways help turn out the vote. I think we may do better than people expect. Join the effort!
Healthy Progress Toward Open Service October 19, 2010March 19, 2017 HEALTH CARE Here’s a key thing people don’t seem to get about the health care bill: it’s more than paid for. Over the long run, the many pilot programs in the bill may lead to improved quality and efficiency that will. And that’s really important. Free preventive care may more than pay for itself in lowered medical bills. And that’s really important. And future tweaks to the bill (including, I hope, medical malpractice courts of the type Philip K. Howard has proposed) may build on the great start this bill makes, which would be important, too. But even leaving all that aside, it’s more than paid for. To those who intuitively know you can’t provide 30 million uninsured coverage at no cost . . . that you can’t close the prescription drug doughnut hole at no cost . . . that you can’t remove the lifetime cap on benefits or accept people with preexisting conditions at no cost – all true – I say: what you may be forgetting is that these costs are more than met by the added 3.8% tax on investment income (and the 0.9% tax on ordinary income) above the first $250,000. Some will argue that it’s unfair or un-American to ask those with more than $250,000 a year in income to chip in for this. Just how progressive our tax system should be is a judgment call. But I would argue that taking the capital gains rate back to a level significantly below the 28% it was in Ronald Reagan’s second term is neither unfair nor un-American. After decades of growth in the gap between the rich and everybody else – decades in which the rich got phenomenally richer as the rest of America for the most part found it harder and harder to make ends meet – it’s not unreasonable to shift things back a little in favor of the middle class. PROGRESS Phyllis Overstreet: “My significant other was laid off by a sizable Georgia Engineering firm from his Civil CAD job (he’d held for over 20 years) in October, 2008. He starts work this coming Monday with a local firm here in SC that has a contract with the county for a fiber optics stimulus project. It takes so long for these government contracts to go through the hoops, even the ‘shovel-ready’ ones. I just wonder how many folks who are getting these jobs are even able to connect them back to the stimulus act? And I also wonder how many will be like my co-worker, who groused about ‘having’ to keep his kids on his insurance since ‘Obama’ changed the rules and raised the age of children’s coverage to 26. When I asked who twisted his arm and ‘made’ him keep the kids covered, he just stared at me then walked off.” APPEALING “DON’T ASK/DON’T TELL” Steve G.: “I understand the point about how the legal system works, but I don’t think it’s clear at all that a lawyer – public or private – has an obligation to defend a legal position that he considers to be in violation of the Constitution. Does the President think DADT is just a matter of politics? I guess Gay rights aren’t so important after the votes have been counted. Apparently Ahnold Schwarzenegger didn’t feel the need to defend discrimination against Gays. I know, he’s not running for anything, but would Obama have acted differently if he, too, were a lame duck? If so, how is it that you still defend him?” ☞ Steve is too cynical. The President is absolutely committed to getting this done – right. Watch this Rachel Maddow interview with former Clinton U.S. Solicitor General Walter Dellinger for more on the legal nuances. And if you really want an in-depth analysis, listen to yesterday’s recorded National LGBT Bar Association conference call in which three eminent pro-equality legal scholars conclude that the Administration is probably doing the right thing by appealing. As for Arnold, it’s great that he’s chosen not to appeal California’s marriage-equality ruling, but there’s a big difference between that situation and this: Arnold twice vetoed marriage equality passed by his state legislature. Obama is trying to get his legislature (Congress) to pass repeal so he can sign it. The House already has. There’s good reason to think the Senate will before the end of the year.
Progress October 18, 2010March 19, 2017 Movies! The Facebook movie (“The Social Network”) sure is fun. “Wall Street Money Never Sleeps,” too. “WAITING FOR SUPERMAN” This documentary examines the current public school system. It builds slowly, but will have you totally absorbed by the end, more alarmed than ever about – and more determined than ever to see improvements in – our K-12 educational system. In that improvement, or lack of same, lies our future. “INSIDE JOB” And this one is about Wall Street and the terrible decisions and lack of regulation that led us to the mess we’re in now. It is devastating, important, completely absorbing – and in places probably too harsh. (For example, it dismisses the Dodd-Frank financial reform bill as largely worthless, which I think is far from the truth.) It skewers all the people you would expect, and even some you might not, like some of the nation’s leading business schools. PROGRESS This site, plugged Friday, is so good, I wanted to be plug it again. It shows what we’ve been doing to get the economy moving forward.* *This, despite relentless Republican attempts to kill the stimulus bill . . . to kill small business assistance . . . to kill tax cuts for 98% of us unless we borrow a further $700 billion over the next ten years to retain them, as well, for the top 2%. (And by the way? Even the top 2% – even billionaires – would still get to keep the ill-advised Bush tax cuts on the first $250,000 of their income. Desperate times call for desperate measures – like asking the best off to allow some of their Bush tax cuts to expire.) Brad: “So I clicked on that ‘Progress’ link. It told me that: ‘225,000 – Number of jobs created or saved through June in Texas because of the Recovery Act.’ Great. So why can’t I get one of those jobs? I had a similar reaction to your post about Georgia Works – you sort of gave the impression that most of the work was done by the job seekers, in creating the positions they wanted. Not to take anything away from them, but if the state of Georgia hadn’t been willing to fund them, all their wishing would’ve been for naught. (And most states are having budget problems right now, as I’m sure you know.) This is depressing. I need to cheer up with a good graphic novel: unemployedman.com.” ☞ I thank my lucky stars I’m not in Brad’s predicament, as so many are. It’s a nightmare out there. But we need people to see that CUTTING the stimulus money and CUTTING spending to cut taxes for the rich – the Republican plan – will make it worse, not better. BULLIES Joel Grow: “Hey! Our straight bullies are just as mean as your closeted gay bullies any day of the week!” ☞ LOL. My point Friday was: they may not be as straight as you think. George Mokray: “Watched the Joel Burns speech to the Fort Worth City Council. Strong and important stuff. I’m not gay but I’ve been bullied. This campaign (thank you Dan Savage) could do more for the concept of civility in our culture than anything else I’ve ever seen.” Marge Wright: “Of all the ‘It Gets Better’ videos Dan Savage inspired, this is my favorite: the soaring positive energy and strength bring me to tears every time.”