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Volume 5 Issue 46…Dedicated to the Dialogue on Race…November 22, 2002
MARTA Sucks.Com
By John Burl Smith
Declaring "The Northern Arc is dead," Jeff Anderson, Co-Chairman of the Northern Arc Task Force, predicted revisions in the Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) 25-year transportation improvement plan. Carrying all four counties the Northern Arc is designed to cross, Governor-elect Sonny Perdue made it clear during the campaign that he opposed Roy Barnes' concept and financial approach to sprawl. South DeKalb residents opposed the ARC 25-year plan from its inception and protested its implementation before the ink dried.
The ARC plan is only the latest "rock in the windshield" for DeKalb citizens. Transportation had meant bumpy roads for DeKalb and Fulton Counties, but with the Metro Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) and its one-cent sales tax, bumps became potholes. Promising South DeKalb a train to gain passage, MARTA continually passed over South DeKalb to pursue northward expansion. Finally, in 1998 MARTA agreed to build an I-20 South DeKalb rail line. Unfortunately, then Governor-elect Roy Barnes' first act put South DeKalb in a deeper transportation rut by taking that train and giving it to Douglas and Cobb Counties to help their economic development. Neither county pays the one-cent MARTA sales tax.
Adding insult to injury, Barnes pushed a bill through the legislature to extend the MARTA tax, which is only levied on DeKalb and Fulton residents, until 2047. Then, the DeKalb transportation rut turned into a chasm of inequality. Barnes proposed taking over MARTA, making it the anchor of the newly created Georgia Regional Transportation Authority (GRTA). Through GRTA, Barnes took over MARTA, a publicly owned utility, and got control of all federal transportation funds for rapid transit coming to Georgia.
Specifically, Barnes' plan for financing the Northern Arc meant using the MARTA one-cent tax base for federal matching funds and underwriting bonds. Also, GRTA uses MARTA's revenue as matching funds to qualify for public transportation dollars going to the other 13 counties surrounding DeKalb and Fulton. Not only did Barnes steal South DeKalb's train, his plan forces DeKalb and Fulton Counties' citizens to fund bus service for Clayton, Cobb and Gwinnett Counties, which have never paid the MARTA one-cent sales tax.
DeKalb residents, many of whom voted for Perdue, support his Northern Arc position. However, we hope his pledge to review it will result in dismantling the Barnes inspired ARC 25-year plan. There is no equity in this plan for South DeKalb residents, who desperately need an I-20 train to aid its economic development. Not only will the I-20 train help South DeKalb, but also Rockdale County and the new Stonecrest Mall area will benefit greatly. This is the perfect juncture to correct Roy Barnes' egregious GRTA plan. His takeover of MARTA is illegal and is headed to court, if it is not reversed. By law DeKalb and Fulton own MARTA. By law, the state of Georgia cannot give MARTA any money. Therefore, by what illegal authority did Georgia take control of MARTA without compensating its owners? MARTA Sucks.Com Other Essays by John Burl Smith
Disgruntled wants to know:
From investigations into semen stains on a dress to everything in between, the media roved all over former President Bill Clinton. While he deserved strict scrutiny, the current White House occupant, his adviser Carl Rove, VP Dick Cheney and other appointees' warrant close examination. Filled with oil, gas, petrochemicals and eugenics stocks, their portfolios and policies scream conflicts of interest. When will the media cease to be in bed with this administration and act like the free press that hounded Clinton?Disgruntled feels:
Bankrupted Bonanza! Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani's name is being floated for the chairmanship of bankrupt telecom giant WorldCom. Ironically, his name would give the company something it does not possess, i.e., credibility, on emerging debt-free and free of its shareholder obligations after its Chapter 11 reorganization. Think about it! The marriage of Giuliani and WorldCom would be poetic. 9-11 saved Giuliani's bankrupt leadership of New York City, and bankruptcy forgave WorldCom's malfeasance. Wedding the two is a bankrupted bonanza available only to the wealthy! Disgruntled Homepage
By John Burl Smith
Campaign 2002 produced a new species - Dumbocrats. Distinguishable from Democrats, they have an elephant's front and a "Jack" ass. Dumbocrats evolved with the "war on terrorism." Their genesis began during the 1948 election. Hybrids, they were spawned by the Democratic Party's weak and timid response to black demands for civil rights. Candidate Harry S. Truman made bold statements in support of civil rights, but once elected, he showed blacks the back door. Dé jà vu 2000, his betrayal left a nasty taste in black voters' mouths.
However, it was the Democrats' belligerent opposition to the 1954 US Supreme Court decision in Brown v Board of Education of Topeka that soured the milk for slave descendants. In bed with Dixiecrats and trying to out-Republican the Republicans, Democrat Adlai Stevenson betrayed, then deserted, blacks in 1952 and 1956. Blacks responded by voting for the real Republican, Dwight D. Eisenhower in both elections.
In the late 1950s, like a young King Arthur, John F. Kennedy torched a beacon that still glimmers across the hollow of four decades of Democratic backsliding. Rejecting the Republicans' vision of endless wars, death and destruction to insure US survival, "Jack" Kennedy spoke of human possibilities. Rather than military domination, Kennedy envisioned investing in the promise of people, as a national resource to make the world safe for democracy. Articulating that vision, Kennedy elevated Americans' consciousness to a higher concern for children, poor families, disabled individuals and the working poor. Answering his call, young blacks, minorities, immigrants and women joined his effort to build a "great society."
Unable to turn the nation around at the ballot box, conservatives turned to assassination. The FBI made dissenters the target of Co-Intel-Pro, unleashing a wave of repression against liberals, civil rights, black power and other political activists. Under George Bush II and homeland security, Dumbocrats seek cover from Republican ridicule as "liberals." They deserted their liberal base to stand "shoulder-to-shoulder" with the President, a "compassionate conservative." 2002 showed Democrats clearly that white men vote Republican. If Democrats hope to challenge Republicans for political power in the US, they must rebuild their credibility with Kennedy's 1960s coalition of young blacks, minorities, immigrants, women and the poor.
Republicans win elections when Democrats are intimidated and run away from supporting the "Poor People Campaign." Comparing and contrasting the results of election 2002 with Bush facing frontrunners Al Gore, Joe Lieberman, Richard Gephardt or Tom Daschle in 2004, the prospects are dismal. All stomped the campaign trail for Democrats, and Bush trounced them. Led by "Scarecrows, Tin Men and Cowardly Lions," Dumbocrats tried to appeal to white men and lost big time. For Election 2002, many young blacks, minorities, immigrants, women and the working poor simply stayed home and demonstrated how many votes Dumbocrats lose when campaigning to white men on TV. If Democrats want our support, they must recognize, the head has to match the rest of the body. We are not Dumbocrats. Politics Y2K2
Other Essays by John Burl Smith
The Dark Knight-Batman/White Ninja/Zorro is reward conscious. On his six-weeks' report, he made the honor roll. Filled with pride in his academic prowess and the confidence that accompanies success, the Dark One/Ninja/Zorro beamed, "So, what do I get?"
Mellon & the Meltdown
Multimillionaire and aluminum king, Andrew William Mellon (1855-1937), as USA Treasury Secretary (1921-1931), reduced the national debt by $9 billion. A friend of big business in government, he was widely hailed as the greatest treasury secretary since Alexander Hamilton. He mainly presided over tax cuts, which he divided among the wealthy to give them the incentive to earn more money. Under Mellon, the rich became richer, while incomes of poorer people advanced little, if any.
Business thrived during most of Mellon's tenure. Tax cuts for the wealthy and the rulings of courts, which frowned on trade associations, helped stimulate mergers and acquisitions. Holding companies consumed 5,000 public utilities, and 8,000 mining and manufacturing companies disappeared into combinations. Stock prices rose so fast they ceased to have much relation to corporate earnings. The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) became a casino, where speculators won often.
After Herbert Hoover's 1929 inauguration, the meltdown began. Signs before then were ignored. Too little of the profits from increased production went to farmers, other producers of raw materials and workers. Too much went into building new plants. So long as the capital expansion continued, new investments stimulated the economy, but the investments created more plant space than could be profitably utilized. By 1929, factories produced more goods than consumers could afford. Construction declined; business inventories rose and industrial production and wholesale prices fell.
On October 21,1929, stocks tumbled. Briefly, J.P. Morgan & Co. and other bankers staved off disaster. But, on October 29, 16 million shares were sold. Total losses for October reached $16 billion. The market declined until stocks had lost over 40% in value.
Though it did not cause the depression, the market's collapse exacerbated it. Deflation replaced inflation, and the crash ushered in a period of pessimism. After a decade of optimism, businessmen retrenched; the more they did, the worse economic conditions became.
By cutting taxes for the rich, the government added to the income inequality. High tariffs discouraged trade. Failure to break up or regulate big business encouraged concentrations and resulted in rigidly high prices. Speculation went unchecked. The securities market lacked supervision and nothing was done to restore the purchasing power of farmers and workers.
Faced with depression, the government focused on balancing the budget and maintaining the gold standard; both measures proved more deflationary. A "leave-it-alone liquidationist," Mellon felt a cycle of bankruptcy and deflation was healthy for the economy.
From 1932 to 1933, Mellon was US ambassador to Great Britain. He founded the Mellon Institute of Industrial Research. His vast art collection formed the basis of the National Gallery of Art. Other Bits of History
US Juvenile Justice: Night v. Day
In 2000, a study conducted by the National Council on Crime and Juvenile Delinquency found pervasive racial bias in the US juvenile justice system. Underwritten by the US Department of Justice and a number of notable charitable organizations, including the Rockefeller, Ford, MacArthur and Annie E. Casey Foundations, the report used federal and state arrest records and court data. Its findings confirm the conclusions of dozens of other reports documenting the night v. day racial disparities in the USA justice system.
In general, the report found that minority youth are treated harsher than white youth at every stage in the US criminal justice system. Black youth were 48 times more likely than white youth to be sent to juvenile prison and receive longer sentences for drug-related offenses. While 71% of youth arrested are white, 60% of youth send to prison are black. In 1997, of the 7,400 young people sent to prison, three-quarters were minorities.
State and federal governments have enacted laws that allow children as young as 14 to be tried as adults for criminal offenses. School shootings by white youth in middle class suburban and rural areas prompted enactment of these laws. Like night and day, these laws disproportionately impact black and immigrant youth.
Accused of killing Ronnie Green, Jr. at age eleven, Nathaniel Abraham is the poster child for the treatment accorded black children in the criminal justice system. At 13, he was convicted in adult court of second-degree murder; a Michigan judge sentenced him to a juvenile facility; prosecutors sought a harsher penalty including time after he turned 21 in an adult prison. In a case involving white youth, a Florida judge threw out the second-degree murder conviction of Derek and Alex King and allowed them to plead guilty to third-degree murder and arson for killing their father. Hood Notes Homepage
On Deflationary Gap
by Dot
United Airlines is one of a handful of companies that make up the US airline industry. Hemorrhaging millions of dollars a day, United cut thousands of jobs on Monday. Traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), its stock price rose 19 %. In the current climate of economic uncertainty, this is a common occurrence
The US is a mature capitalist economy. As such, the classical laissez-faire competition assumptions about the market forces of supply and demand establishing full employment equilibrium are nonsense. Dominated by oligopolies, like the airline and energy industries, the US economy is experiencing a deflationary gap, which is marked by inadequate demand for the goods produced and an unwillingness of businesses to reduce prices.
Much like the period leading up to the 1929 stock market crash, big business investments and stock speculation were the rave during the 1990s. When the NASDAQ crashed and NYSE stock prices declined, the government cut taxes to stimulate the economy. Unfortunately, like the tax cuts leading up to the 1929 crash, these cuts basically benefitted wealthy Americans.
In response to a downturn in the economy, businesses in mature capitalist economies lay off workers rather than reduce prices. Given the productivity of the US workforce, output has remained high, even though businesses are under-utilizing plant and equipment. Inventories are high, because there is insufficient demand for the goods produced. Even with more tax cuts, such as eliminating the double taxation of dividends or providing business investment incentives, these supply side recommendations will fail to stimulate the economy, because the problem is insufficient demand.
To increase consumer spending, a cut in the payroll tax, a rebate for low income families and the creation of public works jobs aimed at improving the nation's infrastructure, such as schools, bridges, hospitals and highways, will do more to stimulate the economy than any of the proposed supply-side remedies. Left alone, businesses in mature capitalist economies lay off workers rather than reduce prices. With each round of layoffs, stock prices may rise in the short run. Eventually there must be corporate earnings, which require a healthy demand for goods and services, to placate NASDAQ and NYSE speculators and improve the economy. DISHing It Up Hot Homepage
Mortgage Interest Rates
On November 7, the Federal Reserve lowered the discount rate, which is the rate charged on loans to member banks, to 1.25 percent from 1.75 percent. The .50 percent reduction surprised many Wall Street investors and signaled the Fed's concern about the health of the US economy and the pace of its recovery. Many lay persons assumed the Fed move would translate into lower credit card and mortgage interest rates. However, this has not been the case. In response to the Fed move, stocks rose from their August lows; bond prices fell, sending bond interest rates higher. So, instead of falling, mortgage interest rates this week are higher than they were in early October.
Predatory lenders in both the credit card and home mortgage markets still charge some borrowers double-digit interest. Even on Veteran Administration (VA) home loans, interest rates can be as high as ten percent. Veterans are being sent advertisements in the mail claiming interest rates as low as 5˝%. However, veterans attempting to refinance their home loans through one such advertiser at www.varefinance.com found they are being charged two points (2%) plus closing costs that amounts to 3 percent of the loan balance. Total interest on the loan is more than 10%.
While the predators assure the borrower of no out-of-pocket expenses, since points and closing cost are added to the principal, you are being robbed of equity. Refinancing your VA loan should be a hassle free process accomplished through your current lender. Do not pay points and high closing costs to refinance a VA loan. If points, closing cost plus the interest rate are more than 7% today, you are paying too much! News You Use Homepage
Thanksgiving Note
As part of The DISH tradition, we are again boycotting the things that are part and parcel of the traditional American Thanksgiving. While we are certainly thankful and give thanks for many things from our health to your support and encouragement, we are boycotting Thanksgiving turkeys, ham, meat, in general, as well as the gluttony that is such an integral part of the USA 'stuff yourself' holiday celebration. We encourage you to denounce the piggery and join the many others who will spend this Thanksgiving volunteering at homeless centers and shelters across the country.
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