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Volume 7 Issue 42…Dedicated to the
Dialogue on Race…October 22, 2004
Newspaper
By Anu Jagannath
Every morning I wake up,
To find a newspaper on my doorstep,
I take a sip of my coffee,
And begin to read the world's potpourri.
Local and world news dominate first few
pages,
Photographs and opinions follow in
successive stages,
Death and destruction every where around,
People wounded, burned and drowned.
Weather and sports come next,
Followed by stock performance of the
techs,
Trends show economic slowdown,
Down town is becoming a ghost town.
Comics and horoscopes brighten my day,
Crossword and games take my woes away,
A bright smile and positive attitude
I begin my day,
Hoping to succeed as I put the paper away.
Cheap Tricks
For some time now, scientists that rely on government statistics,
such as the unemployment rate and the consumer price index (CPI), have
questioned their accuracy. Some conservative
estimates that use the labor force participation rate show a more realistic
unemployment rate tops 7 percent.
Likewise, the CPI is calculated to disguise the negative impact of a
sustained rise in energy and food prices on average wage earners.
The CPI and the unemployment rate are just two statistics
manipulated to reflect positively on the current administration. These cheap tricks cannot change the fact
that a majority of US families are worse off under Bush administration fiscal
and monetary policies. The recent
decision by the US Civil Rights Commission to postpone releasing its review of
Bush's civil rights record suggests its social policy is equally dismal.
Examples of the deteriorating economic situation abound. Real incomes are declining and a growing
number of families have no healthcare.
On Monday, the dollar fell against the euro and Japanese yen again. The US trade deficit rose to a record $166 billion,
while the US budget deficit exceeded $400 billion. Coupled with news that foreigners are less willing to finance US
debt, Congress wants Beijing to revalue its currency to ease the US trade
deficit. Even if China graciously
consents, this trick will not improve the US federal debt situation.
A few billion dollars shy of breaching the federal statutory $7.4
trillion debit limit, US treasury secretary John Snow announced an accounting
gimmick to stave off bankruptcy a few weeks.
Snow stopped contributing to a federal employee retirement fund to avoid
running out of cash and possibly defaulting on US debt. The Republican controlled Congress did not
want to raise the debt limit so close to the November 2 election. So, it left Washington and Snow to perform
this cheap trick.
In 2002 and 2003, Congress increased the debt limit by $450 and
$984 billion, respectively. House
Republicans are considering a measure to raise it $690 billion more. If passed, the Bush administration would
have raised the debt well over $2 trillion, more than all presidents from
George Washington to Ronald Reagan.
And, that particular feat is no cheap trick.
Comments
from the Bat Cave
Things are rarely as they seem based on what people say. The Dark Knight-Batman/White Ninja/Zorro
knows this as well as anyone.
Invariably, when asked how things are going, he responds
"fine," "great," or gives some other one syllabi expression
that means okay. When queried for this
week's comments, the Dark One/Ninja/Zorro said, "It's a gray and rainy
day."
Roger Brooke Taney (1777-1864)
Born the second son of Catholic parents on March 17, 1777 in
Calvert County, Maryland, Roger Brooke Taney was destined under the laws of
primogeniture not to inherit his father's extensive land and slave
holdings. Instead of inherited wealth,
Taney pursued and achieved immense success in law and politics. He succeeded John Marshall, becoming the
fifth chief justice of the United States Supreme Court.
A graduate of Dickinson College in Pennsylvania (1795), Taney was
admitted to the Maryland bar and elected to the Maryland House of Delegates in
1799. After a single term (1799-1800),
Taney became the state's leader of the Federalist Party.
Disillusioned with Federalists' opposition to the war of 1812,
Taney left the party. Elected to the
Maryland senate (1816), he supported Andrew Jackson in the 1824 presidential
election. Jackson received more
Electoral College votes than his opponent. However, since neither candidate
received a majority, the race was thrown into the House of Representatives, which
chose John Quincy Adams over Jackson, who called this dubious outcome a
"corrupt bargain."
In 1827, Taney became Maryland's state attorney general. Taney supported Jackson in the bitterly
contested 1828 presidential election.
On June 21, 1831, Jackson appointed Taney to his cabinet as US Attorney
General. A states' rights advocate
opposed to moneyed interests, he advised Jackson to veto a bill renewing the
charter of the second Bank of the United States.
On September 23, 1833, Taney became treasury secretary by recess
appointment the same day Jackson fired his previous treasury secretary. Taney moved swiftly to remove all federal
funds from the bank. Angry over Taney's maneuvers, the Senate defeated his nominations
for treasury secretary in 1834 and associate justice of the Supreme Court the
following year. However, on December
28, 1835, Jackson appointed Taney to succeed John Marshall as chief justice of
the US Supreme Court. Despite violent
opposition to his appointment, Taney was confirmed on March 15, 1836.
Opposed to centralized power, Taney's opinions tended to favor
states' rights. By the time he became
chief justice, slavery was the most pervasive national issue. The Taney Court (1836-1864) made a number of
important decisions on commerce and corporations, but these were overshadowed
by the Dred Scott decision, which helped bring on the Civil War.
In Dred Scott v Sandford (1857), Taney wrote the opinion, which
declared the Missouri Compromise (1820) unconstitutional on the ground that it
was beyond the competence of Congress to ban slavery anywhere. Taney opined on the history of slavery and
ruled that slaves could never be US citizens.
Deemed vastly inferior to the white man, slaves were non-persons,
merchandise to be bought and sold for profit with "no rights which the
white man was bound to respect."
Taney died
in Washington, D.C. on October 12, 1864.
The subject of scorn and ridicule, Senator Charles Sumner's declared his
name would be "hooted down the pages of history." (Sources: Encyclopedia Americana, www.newadvent.org and www.pbs.org)
Robin Hood Needed
Like US households, states are feeling the pinch of reduced
revenues. With a weak economy, declines
in manufacturing, outsourcing and low wage jobs, state tax revenues have
declined. Coupled with funding "No
Child Left Behind," homeland security and other under-funded federal
initiatives, state budgets must be cut.
Unfortunately, states like Georgia and Mississippi are taking the
paths of least resistance to bring revenues and spending into balance. Serious cuts in spending are being made in
programs that generally benefit groups with the least amount of political
clout, i.e., poor children, the disabled and elderly people.
To keep a campaign promise, Mississippi's Republican Governor
Haley Barbour tried to reduce state spending on the backs of Medicaid
recipients. The state legislature
passed a bill ending coverage for thousands of Mississippians. State attorney general Jim Hood sued Barbour
to have the coverage restored.
In Georgia, the Community Health Board, which did not vote on
proposed Medicaid cuts at a public hearing last month, recently approved $327
million in cuts. If signed by Georgia's
Republican Governor Sonny Perdue, healthcare for thousands of poor children and
services for the elderly and disabled will be reduced or eliminated. Whether or not Georgia's indigent, elderly
and disabled have a champion in state attorney general Thurbert Baker remains
to be seen. Georgia needs a Robin Hood, like Mississippi's Jim Hood, to fight
for those least able to fend for themselves.
By John Burl Smith
George W. Bush's response to Bob Schieffer's question about
overturning Roe v Wade (1973) was another flip-flop. Bush's response, "I will not have a litmus test. I will pick
judges who will strictly interpret the Constitution," is a litmus
test. Antonin Scalia's favorite
expression "blindingly clear" precisely describes Bush's answer. Scalia demonstrated why he is Bush's model
Supreme Court justice in his dissenting opinion in Planned Parenthood v Casey (1992). "Abortion is not a right protected by
the Constitution because (1) the Constitution says absolutely nothing about it,
and (2) the longstanding traditions of American society have permitted it to be
legally proscribed."
The question Schieffer asked is not about what the Constitution
says literally but what justices believe it says. The best example of this is Bush's reference to Dred Scott and
the 1857 decision regarding the Missouri Compromise (1820). The Constitution, at that time, "had
absolutely no mention" of slaves or slavery. It referred only to "others" in Article 1 Section 2,
the basis for the Electoral College. A
concession to slave owners whose states claimed the right to define slaves as
property, Dred Scott challenged that right once on "free soil." Bush's avowed preference for judges that
strictly construct the Constitution, like Scalia, is a litmus test for justices
that will interpret the Constitution today as Roger B. Taney did in returning
Dred Scott to slavery.
Bush and conservatives call judges that rule against states' rights
"judicial activists." They
know the 3/5 Compromise was never repealed and believe freeing slaves was
unconstitutional. Further, the 13th,
14th and 15th Amendments are seen as illegal infringements on states'
rights. Yet, the 5-4 decision in Bush v
Gore is the clearest example of "judicial activism." Otherwise strict construction judges used
the 14th Amendment's "equal protection clause" to stop the counting
of legal votes to select Bush as president.
Consequently, Bush wants judges that will interpret the Constitution
like those that killed freedom of choice for Dred Scott.
"The Constitution says absolutely nothing about" women's
rights, like slaves, they were included as "others." Today, words like abortion, affirmative
action and Roe v Wade are subsumed under the rubric "choice" or a
woman's right to choose. Bush's demand
for strict construction judges, like the Patriot Act, is a smokescreen or code
to limit freedom of choice.
Bush's aim is to roll back civil rights gains made after Brown v
Board of Education (1954), which overturned Plessy v Ferguson (1896), a ruling
that upheld the Dred Scott decision.
Bush is not abhorred by the Dred Scott decision. In reality, he wants judges that will
interpret the Constitution to reestablish Taney's argument in the Scott
decision and kill the hope of freedom his challenge represented in 1857, as
well as today. Dred is not dead. The
lack of choice for those covered by "others" in the 3/5 Compromise of
Article 1 Section 2 of the US Constitution is what Bush means when he uses the
term "strict construction."
Disgruntled says: In the final presidential
debate, George W. Bush was asked if he believed homosexuality was a matter of
choice. He said, "I don't
know" and proceeded to cite talking points for a constitutional ban on gay
marriages. Senator John Kerry said he
believed that, if asked, Vice President Cheney's lesbian daughter would say she
is who God made her. For several days,
rather than deal with an amalgam of problems more pressing than sexual
orientation, mainstream media gave Lynn Cheney, the angry mom whose early
fiction includes a lesbian love scene, Dick, the upset dad, and others fora to
lambaste Kerry for being "a bad man" for using an opponent's child
for partisan political purposes. All
manner of people, except Mary, were asked to voice their opinions about Kerry's
comments. For the record, Mary Cheney
is well past twenty-one, out of the closet and living with her lesbian
lover. A seasoned campaigner, she gives
speeches expressing a certain pride in how her family has rallied to her side
in response to her homosexuality.
Instead of being a hypocrite, Mary may cast her vote for Kerry!
Disgruntled feels:
Spendthrift! After spending millions in
campaign contributions painting their Democratic opponent as a flip-flopper,
the Bush/Cheney team now claims John Kerry's Senate record shows he is a
consistent big government-big spending liberal, a wastrel of tax dollars. Like shifting desert sands, the Bush
administration has changed its reasons for war in Iraq and squandered the
federal budget surplus. With deficits
projected as far as the eye can see, the US is fiscally adrift. A spendthrift, Bush has no plan to right
this ship, so the nation is drowning in a sea of red ink.
Disgruntled wants to know: Last week, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan spoke. His remarks made the news because he claimed
the historically high oil prices were unlikely to cause economic disruptions
like those experienced during the 1970s Arab oil embargo. No economist worth his salt would discount
the economic impact of a sustained rise in the price of a key component in the
production process. Predictably, within
days of Greenspan's doublespeak, the Fed announced the rise in oil prices had
begun to slow US economic growth. A
political hack, Greenspan has lost his credibility. There was a time the world listened when he spoke. Now, he is a joke. His lost credibility is emblematic of what has happened to the US
in four years under the Bush administration.
Reelection is a referendum on the incumbent. In assessing Bush's record, the relevant question is: Are you
better off?
By John Burl Smith
Dr. Duane Alexander, Director of the National Institute of Child Health
and Human Development at the National Institute of Health, found
"adolescent birth rates dropped to a record low in 2002, " a
favorable development considering a host of socioeconomic factors. For example, according to Dr. Alexander,
"Teen childbearing poses real problems for both mothers and infants. Teen mothers are much less likely to finish
high school or to graduate from college than girls their age. Similarly, infants born to teens have an
increased risk of blindness, deafness, mental retardation, mental illness,
cerebral palsy and low birth weight, which increases an infant's changes for
dying during infancy."
These comments are contained in the US government's 8th annual
monitoring report on the well-being of US children and youth published for
America's Children in Brief: Key National Indicators of Well-Being 2004, which
is online at www.childstats.gov.
Among other things, this report showed mortality rates for infants who
died before their first birthday went from a record low 6.8 per 1000 in 2001 to
7 in 1000 in 2002. Low birth weight
(below 5.5 lbs) rose from 7.7 in 2001 to 7.8 in 2002. Low birth weight, a risk factor for infant death, was highest
among blacks at 13.4%.
Economic security indicators in this report revealed children
under age 18 who were related to the householder and living in poverty
increased from 15.8% in 2001 to 16.3% in 2002.
Children living with female householders with no husband present, 40%
lived in poverty, compared to 9% of children living in married-couple
families. Black children had a 32%
poverty rate, while Hispanic children were at 28%, compared to white children
at 9% in 2002.
Glen Stassen, the Lewis B. Smedes Professor of Christian Ethics at
Fuller Theological Seminary, and co-author of Kingdom Ethics: Following Jesus
in Contemporary Context, found that when Bush took office, abortions were at a
24-year low, declining 17.4% during the 1990s. A pro-life advocate, Stassen anticipated a further decline under
a pro-life president. However, his study of the impact of Bush's policies on
abortion rates over the last 4 years showed the opposite occurred in several
states in 2001 and 2002. Kentucky's
abortion rate increased by 3.2%; Michigan's by 11.3% and Pennsylvania's by
1.9%. Eight other states increases by
14.6%.
According to Stassen, 52,000 more abortions occurred in the US in
2002 than would have been expected under Bush.
Two-thirds of the women that had abortions say they could not afford a
child. Over the past 3 years,
unemployment has been relatively high, average real incomes have significantly
declined, while the minimum wage has not changed in seven (7) years. Mothers feared additional childcare and
another mouth to feed on less income.
Half the woman who aborted said they do not have a reliable mate. In these 16 states, there were 16,392 fewer
marriages in 2002 than in 2001 and 7,869 more abortions. Finally, women worry about health care for
themselves and their children. There
are 5.2 million more people without health insurance since Bush took office and
women of childbearing age are overly represented in this population.
Researchers believe access to abortions is a major factor in
declining birth rates, especially among those in lower middle class and poorer
populations. Limiting access to
abortion forces families, single females and males to make childbearing choices
that they cannot afford. The decision to
give birth should be a planned one.
Unplanned parenthood dooms families to struggle with many problems
outlined above. These families pay the
price for Bush's fight to end a woman's right to choose. Bush's pro-life "compassionate
conservatism" is rhetoric without responsibility, because of cuts in
prenatal care and assistance to families and single mothers once the child is
born.
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