Friday, December 26, 2008

Who’s Afraid of a Green Stimulus? (6:34 pm)

This year’s Christmas controversy was sparked by a Washington Post story about the allocation of stimulus money that ran on Tuesday, pitting green projects against more traditional infrastructure works. “‘Green’ Jobs Compete for Stimulus Aid - Obama Weighs Them Vs. Traditional Projects,” the headline reads. According to the article, an internal struggle is taking place within the Obama administration over whether the planned economic stimulus should focus on short-term “traditional” infrastructure projects that promise to stimulate the economy quickly instead of long-term green projects that will revolutionize the economy.

“Senior aides in the new administration and the congressional leadership privately predict that they will be able to please both camps but suggest that there have been delays in identifying enough of the environmentally friendly projects to reach a dollar level that will truly jump-start the economy.”

As green bloggers have been noting over the past two days, the WaPo story doesn’t have much substance to back up the claim of an “internal struggle.” Instead the story gives voice to those that are opposed to allocating stimulus money to green projects, like Blue Dog co-chair Rep. Baron Hill (D-Ind.), casting a cloud of skepticism over the ability of green jobs to stimulate the economy.

Whereas the WaPo story suggests that spending quickly and spending wisely are mutually exclusive, the Center for American Progress has put together what Joe Romm calls a “not-especially-controversial summary list of near-term opportunities for driving new smart energy investments.” The list includes 17 “shovel-ready” green projects that would create jobs immediately. Opponents of allocating stimulus aid to “green-collar” jobs say that we need to invest in our crumbling infrastructure, but that should include more than just roads and bridges. Rebuilding green water and energy infrastructure, to name a few, will create jobs and economic growth in the future as well.

posted by Mark Boyer | 1 comment

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Inaugural Dissonance (3:52 pm)

So, let me get this straight: Obama has chosen individuals who were instrumental in the achievements of the civil rights movement to participate in his Inaugural ceremony as well as the virulently anti-gay minister Rick Warren - a man who mobilized his flock to vote ‘yes’ on Prop 8 and deny equal rights for LGBT. What am I missing here?

Aretha Franklin and Dr. Rick Warren, an evangelical minister of the Saddleback Church, are among the select group of people who will participate in Barack Obama’s inaugural swearing-in ceremony on Jan. 20…

In honoring the civil rights movement, Mr. Obama has asked the Rev. Dr. Joseph E. Lowery, dean of the civil rights movement and co-founder with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, to deliver the benediction.

posted by Jarrett | 4 comments

Ron Carey: 1936-2008 (2:38 pm)

Boy, was I horribly, stupidly wrong last week: Any week that sees the death of a union-hero like Ron Carey is most definitely not a good week for labor.

Over at The Nation, Steve Early and Rand Wilson have written an eloquent and powerful remembrance of Carey and the fight he and other dissident unionists led against the Teamsters’ old guard. They also point to this memorial site where Carey’s fellow members of Teamsters for a Democratic Union share their reminiscences of the man, which provide a real sense of how courageous and inspiring Carey was.

posted by Brian Cook | start the discussion

Weekly Pulse: Public Health Insurance Would Be Too Good, Republicans Warn (1:20 pm)

A common thread is emerging in the right wing response to healthcare reform. Its opponents aren’t claiming that public healthcare will be bad. Rather, they are terrified that the new system will be so good that no citizen would buy expensive private insurance—or vote for politicians who wanted to take public insurance away.

The Obama team is sending clear signals that healthcare reform is a core economic issue, and the health insurance industry is becoming increasingly anxious by the future administration’s determination to bring healthcare costs under control. Some Americans are seeing their healthcare premiums rising at four times the rate of inflation, if they have insurance at all. Healthcare reform is a pocketbook issue for all of us, according to the Obama team.

In tough economic times it might be tempting to postpone healthcare reforms, but Obama is adamant that delay would be a false economy.

In the American Prospect, Joanne Kenen and Sarah Axeen support claims about the high cost of doing nothing:

A recent report by the New America Foundation’s health-policy program estimates that the cost of doing nothing about health care, including poor health and shorter lifespan of the uninsured, is well above $200 billion a year and rising. That’s enough to cover the uninsured and still have some left over for other public-health needs.

If healthcare costs continue to rise at their current rates, it will cost $24,000/yr to insure a family of four by 2016, an 84% increase from today. At these rates, half of American households would have to spend at least 45% percent of their income to be insured.

In the Nation, Willa Thompson describes how a bicycle crash made her appreciate the connection between healthcare and politics. Thompson was 21 years old when she suffered major injuries after a collision with a truck. Luckily, she was covered by her parents’ medical insurance until she turned 22. She later realized that if she had been just a few months older when the accident happened, she wouldn’t have been able to pay for her medical care.

We all agree that something needs to be... read more

posted by Lindsay Beyerstein | 3 comments

Republic Windows and Doors Revolt Not Over (10:41 am)

Republic Windows & Doors employees could claim a major and legitimate victory last week, winning severance and vacation pay and temporary health benefits. But that $1.75 million deal is really just a happy ending to the story’s first act. The workers have no jobs. The factory has filed for bankruptcy. The workers’ victory should celebrated, but let’s not fool ourselves into thinking any of the underlying causes of their unrest have gone away.

Richard Gillman, owner of Republic Windows & Doors, has in effect moved production to Iowa through a separate company managed by his wife. The Iowa plant is non-union, apparently.

All of this is by way of noting the great work In These Times contributing editor Kari Lydersen is doing over at MobyLives, Melville House Publishing’s blog. Lydersen has been blogging about the “Revolt on Goose Island” since Dec. 9th, and she shows no sign of letting up. Which is valuable, because too many people think this story is over because the factory occupation ended with workers’ demands being met. Not really.

She’s posted great interviews with the striking workers, and coverage of the fundraiser workers held at the UE Local Sunday (to supplement severance pay and try to keep the factory open). Choice quote:

“The fight doesn’t end with us being paid, this is the start of a movement,” declared [UE Local 1110 president Armando] Robles during the fundraiser. “The government and banks are allowing our jobs to be sent to China. Here they pay $8 an hour, so they send the jobs to Mexico, where they pay $8 a day. Then they send the jobs to China, where they pay eight cents an hour. This country is called a super power, but the way things are going it will end up as a third world country.”

Lydersen’s most recent post begins with this wonderfully hyberbolic quote from Kim Bobo, who I saw leading the rally outside the factory on Tuesday the 9th:

“In the religious community we say Satan is alive and well and takes many forms,” declared Bobo, a slender animated woman in a purple blouse... read more

posted by Jeremy Gantz | 1 comment

Weekly Audit: A Year of Bad Decisions (9:52 am)

As Congress finally winds down what House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank, D-Mass., refers to as “the session that will not die,” most of us have already contracted cases of outrage exhaustion from the barrage of Wall Street-related absurdities that the government has embroiled itself in over the past year.

But do not despair! David Sirota penned two pieces this week vindicating progressive critics of the current regime, one for Salon.com and another for the Campaign for America’s Future, detailing how recent reports from government agencies themselves have revealed the administration’s utter failure to craft a responsible financial rescue package. With the incompetence obvious to everyone, Sirota hopes that, “Maybe, just maybe, our humiliated rulers will start listening,” noting that progressives were right all along about meaningless CEO pay limits and oversight mechanisms in the $700 billion bailout, and overblown rhetoric from Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.

The oratorical frenzy surrounding too-big-to-fail Wall Street titans and last-ditch government bailouts has also made it easy to forget that the financial sector actually does desperately need some downsizing, as Joshua Holland reports for AlterNet.

Not only is the financial sector burdened with mountains of worthless debt instruments, it has created broader economic inefficiencies over the past decade by gobbling up a disproportionate share of the total economy. Holland presents a host of frightening statistics about the conditions leading up to the current recession, noting an 11% surge in poverty between 2000 and 2007, lower median household incomes and sluggish job growth. Almost everybody except the financiers, it seems, was hurting, and the global economy will not recover from its economic slide until the financial sector owns up to the losses inherent in its chimerical expansion.

But financial policy failures have not been limited to bad rulemaking and pro-Wall Street philosophy. Even basic anti-fraud protections that have been on the books since the 1930s are not being enforced effectively, as evidenced by the massive fraud scheme allegedly perpetrated by fund manager Bernard Madoff. The Securities and Exchange Commission received several warnings about Madoff’s business practices dating back to at least 1999, according to The... read more

posted by Zach Carter | start the discussion

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

The Dope on Duncan (1:01 pm)

Totally out of my league in assessing Obama’s choice of Chicago Public School CEO Arne Duncan for Secretary of Education, but I do know where to turn to for those who aren’t: Chicago’s own Catalyst. And their take is that Duncan’s record at CPS has been modest; some improvements overall, but few at the schools in most dire need. A taste:

Duncan’s oft-stated goal was to create the “best urban school district in the nation.” Yet here, as elsewhere, high schools have made little progress.

Overall high school graduation rates improved under Duncan (up to 55 percent from 47 percent), as did college-going rates (up to 50 percent from 44 percent).

Also improved is the district’s accountability around making sure students go to college. Duncan created the Office of Post-secondary Education and charged it with tracking students after they graduate. CPS is one of the few urban districts that partners with the National Student Clearinghouse, a data warehouse, so it can keep tabs on its graduates. And this past year, Duncan personally pushed principals to get more students to fill out financial aid eligibility forms.

But even with these modest improvements, fewer than a third of the students who were freshmen in 2003 and graduated four years later enrolled in college.

Individual schools, particularly neighborhood high schools like Marshall in the impoverished West Garfield Park community, have not done much better under Duncan’s leadership. Marshall’s graduation rate, for instance, is 40 percent, up only four points; and its college-going rate actually declined 4 points to 31 percent.

Meanwhile, districtwide high school test scores remain stagnant—only 31 percent of juniors meet state standards—leading many to question whether CPS graduates can succeed in college or in the job market. All but two of the 10 lowest performing high schools in 2001 lost ground by 2008.

posted by Brian Cook | start the discussion

Monday, December 15, 2008

Stupidity Without End (2:52 pm)

I swear, this whole Blago scandal is starting to feel like staring into an abyss. Check this from today’s NY Times:

Mr. Blagojevich, 52, rarely turns up for work at his official state office in Chicago, former employees say, is unapologetically late to almost everything, and can treat employees with disdain, cursing and erupting in fury for failings as mundane as neglecting to have at hand at all times his preferred black Paul Mitchell hairbrush. He calls the brush “the football,” an allusion to the “nuclear football,” or the bomb codes never to be out of reach of a president.

Almost rendered speechless by this, but let’s reach to Shakespeare: Blago could be confined in a nuthouse, and count himself a king of infinite crazy.