The Foundation is laid, time to build up

This week, as the Congress' healthcare plan was passed and signed into law, both sides of the aisle hoped to spin it in their favor. President Obama claimed, "this is what change looks like" in a statement after discovering the bill had been passed into law. House Speaker Pelosi used the gavel that was used to pass Medicare to pass the bill. Meanwhile on the right, Senator John McCain claimed that he would end cooperating with the other side until the 2010 election. Both sides are planning to use this bill as fodder for the upcoming


However, after taking a closer look at the healthcare bill, there is not nearly enough to cause a riot on the right, and not nearly enough to pop open a bottle and celebrate on the left. For one, it still leaves approximately 15 million Americans uninsured. The bill does nothing to curb costs for unnecessary paperwork. Also, there are still loopholes for fraud on behalf of insurance companies. In addition, without a Public Option, aka a government run alternative to private insurance, premiums will still go up.


In response to the Right's concerns, there is no federal funding for abortions in the bill. In fact, there was no such concern and in Section 1301(B)(1)(B) of the bill, it states, "Abortions, for which public funding is prohibited." In addition, there is no such thing as the death panels that would not cover certain surgeries for sick and dying, which were hailed as Eugenics by far right extremists like Sarah Palin and Churck Grassley. In truth, the proposal was to reimburse doctors through health insurance money for having a discussion for end-of-life treatment with a patient. In addition, there is no such thing as a government takeover. In fact, the final plan bears more resemblance to President Richard Nixon's attempts to overhaul the healthcare system through private insurance. There is no government alternative and in truth, there is simply tighter regulation for the private sector.


In truth, the bill does have many upsides to it. Among the most beneficial are that by 2014, insurance companies will not be able to discriminate against adults due to a pre-existing condition and discrimination against children begin immediately. College students and children can stay on their parent's healthcare plan until they are 27. Also, health insurance companies will now cover preventive care, which is decidedly cheaper than health care once somebody is sick.


That being said however, this bill should not be the end of healthcare reform. As mentioned previously, there are still 15 million Americans that will be uninsured after this bill takes effect and there is still incentives for insurance companies to raise rates on people with higher risk of getting sick, rather than just dropping them. As the late Senator Ted Kennedy once claimed, healthcare reform is a never ending process and we must continue to build upon it just like we did for previous programs.


When Social Security was first enacted in 1935, under President Franklin Roosevelt, it was a very meager program, despite accusations that Roosevelt and his cabinet was full of Reds and Commies. It was created only with the intention of helping relieve the burden off of state pension programs during the heat of the Depression. However, as time progressed on, it would go onto to help people who have been forced into early retirement due to happenings such as disability, or blindness.


In the same manner, health care reform is not a stoic thing. It is not a law chisled in stone or some holy document, it is created to help those in need and must change as the times and the needs of the people living in that time change.

Why we need a stronger stimulus and jobs bill

This week, the New York Times released a study that three of the nation's top economic research firms have confirmed that last year's Economic Recovery Act in fact worked, despite the smearing of many on the right. Moody'sEconomy.com estimated the growth between 1.6 to 1.8 million jobs. In addition, many of the Republican Congressmen who had derided the bill have in fact returned to their local districts for ribbon cutting ceremonies. However, despite these impressive results, unemployment still hovers below ten percent, which is why the Senate must pass a new jobs bill that builds on the achievements of the stimulus and cuts the failures.




Many have compared this recession to the Great Depression-some have come to call this the "Great Recession"-and in truth the government's reaction to unemployment must be met with the same type of action that Franklin Roosevelt and his team met the troubles with; the willingness to try just about anything. Many people remember that Roosevelt's administration instated the Glass-Steagall Act, and created the Civilian Conservation Corps, but many also forget that many of his ideas utterly failed. Case in point, despite its ability to give aid to states in need, the Supreme Court Ruled the National Recovery Administration unconstitutional. Also, many would also argue that Roosevelt's reticence over the national debt made him wary of creating more jobs. However, throughout his Presidency, Roosevelt and his advisors never stopped trying different methods to rebuilding the economy.



In the same respect, the necessity for jobs bills cannot be diminished and there are many fields where able-bodied Americans could be put to work. In an era where the country is trying to wean itself off of foreign oil, investing in green jobs is something that will create jobs that cannot be shipped overseas. The jobs are secure, and with simple education courses, we can put many more people to work.



In addition, there also must be further investment in community colleges and trade schools. Many people have worked certain trades in manufacturing and manual labor their whole lives only to see the jobs shipped overseas. Community colleges and trade schools are the places to invest in to help out of work blue collar workers find a new trade and be able to create a steady income for their families. It is the blue collar and middle class of this country that have helped make this country thrive in the first place.



Lastly, another area of work that is desperately in need of labor is infrastructure. The United States has not had a widespread overhaul in infrastructure since the Eisenhower Administration. However, as we have seen with disasters like the Minnesota Bridge Collapse in 2007, an infrastructure face lift is something that could benefit by employing hundreds of thousands of unemployed workers.



Of course, these are not the only areas where we could create jobs. Giving incentives for small businesses and putting tighter regulation on employment fraud are also great methods. However, if any of these ideas fail, it is up us to continue to work and try again. It is the American spirit of ingenuity that has helped the country of our grandparents persevere. Now it is our to to take hold of that mantle.

Is the Scott Brown win a Blessing in Disguise for Liberals?

Last week, many liberals were disheartened by Scott Brown winning the senate seat once occupied by Liberal Lion Ted Kennedy. The right of this country, ever moving further and further to the fringe, celebrated Brown's win as a referendum on President Barack Obama's agenda. It was one of many great disappointments for the left of this country, after the death of Kennedy, the lax healthcare reform bills and the retirement announcements of many long standing stalwarts of the Democratic party, and many hoped this would cause Obama to, like Bill Clinton in 1994, move to the right of the political spectrum. However, ironically, since the win, the President and Congress have taken bolder steps to the left since these cuts, including being stronger on financial reform, pushing back against campaign finance and creating a middle class task force.





According to many sources, Obama's Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Economic Advisor Lawrence Summers have since lost their influence after failing to achieve any type of financial reform. In turn, Paul Volcker, Chair of the Economic Recovery Board and former head of the Federal Reserve, has gained more influence. Last week, Obama called out big banks and demanded the current financial reform bill include a consumer protection committee as well as limiting mergers between banks.





Another sign of Obama moving further to the left came when in this past Saturday's weekly address, he called out the supreme court's decision to overturn a 107-year old ruling on campaign finance reform, calling it an assault on democracy. As somebody who has rarely made declarative statement, this was a shocker to hear from the President.



Finally, at the State of the Union Address, Obama demanded that Congress work to create a Middle Class task force, begin creating jobs in infrastructure and working on Climate change legislation. He demanded lifting the burdens of college student loans and working to tax bonuses of bankers. Compared to his previous joint address to Congress in September, which was filled with vagueness and non-declarative statements, this address was bolder and more dignified.


This isn't to say Obama is a full blown liberal. This past Monday, he announced plans for a spending freeze and is still adamant about the confirmation of Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's second term. However, the seeming about face could be one of the greatest examples of getting back on track in American politics.

Break up the Pit and return to Journalism

This Past September, all hell broke loose when Congressman Joe Wilson interrupted President Barack Obama's address to a joint session of Congress regarding health care by exclaiming "You Lie!" Rather than it being a feature headline and allowing Wilson to go into eventual obscurity, Wilson's outburst gained national attention. The next day, all of the major news networks were reporting on Wilson and his sentiment, ultimately killing any serious discussion on the actual issues being discussed in something as ponderous as healthcare. In November of that year, a similar storm was conjured when Tareq and Michaele Salahi crashed President Obama's first state dinner with the Prime Minister of India Manmohan Sign. The next day, once again, the mainstream media, rather than reporting the actual discussions that gave rise to the state dinner like India's increasing nuclear threat, reported on the idiotic actions of these two reality wannabes. Rather than the media choosing to focus on serious crises that are at hand, they have chosen to follow sensationalism instead of common sense and in turn are killing journalism


Former George H W Bush advisor and the progenitor of Fox News Roger Ailes has a name for this method of journalism and he calls it the "Orchestra Pit Theory." Ailes elaborated on this theory in an interview with q-and-a.org, saying "you give a journalist a picture in the electronic media, you've got a guaranteed story. Its what I used to call the 'orchestra pit theory of politics.'" He then uses this example "Two guys on a stage, one guy jumps up and says I've got the solution to the problems in the Middle East. Other guy jumps up and falls into the orchestra pit. Who's going to be on the front page? The guy laying on the bass drum."




In the same respect, the Salahis, Congressman Wilson, and the Mark Sanford and Tiger Woods affairs have all glorified orchestra pit descenders. Indeed, in this era of reality TV and celebrity tabloid insanity, it seems that more people are actually diving into the pit and in turn, compromising journalistic integrity.


As a result, the general public is more well informed on the amount of Tiger Woods' mistresses than the growing crisis of increasing troop numbers in Afghanistan; they are more cognoscente of Sarah Palin's brouhaha about death panels than if citizens will get better care instead of more care. The population's obsession with Taylor Lautner and Taylor Swift and insouciance about the tailors in Illinois losing their jobs is a stunning failure on the behalf of the mainstream media that cannot be tolerated.



It appears that the media has become a little starstruck in recent years. Rather than reporting on the benefits of regulating Goldman Sachs, they are more worried about losing their interview with the Goldman Sachs executive for their nightly special. Rather than evaluate whether or not President Obama has kept his campaign promise of not instating a mandate for healthcare, they are fearful of falling out of good graces with the White House.



This failure in the media then raises the question of what would have happened if we had a better system of journalism in times when we needed it. What would have happened if journalists had spent more time reporting Osama Bin Laden's recruiting of radical Islamists in the mountains of Afghanistan than who Bill Clinton had an affair with or not. What would have happened if somebody had blown the whistle on credit default swaps and collateralized debt obligations on Wall Street that would have a disastrous domino effect instead of not kissing the feet of Alan Greenspan and Ben Bernanke? Would they have not have happened?



The role of journalists is to speak the truth about power, not to become its mouthpiece. It is to cut through all of the distractions and give the news to the general public straight and unadulterated, without demagoguery. It is the essential ingredient to a representative democracy. Without proper journalism, democracy shall also fade away.

Myth of Reagan's Conservative Fundamentalism

Ever since Ronald Reagan left office, he has achieved a status of demigod among Republicans. Last year, twenty-eight years after Reagan left office, the Republican National convention presented a video that deified their fallen hero. RNC Chairman Michael Steele and Newt Gingrich constantly reference him as some great political sage who was a hardline conservative who never compromised on the Principles of Republicanism. However, if one takes a deeper look into Reagan's eight years in the White House they will not see so much a great Right Wing Champion but more of a disengaged pragmatist, not so much interested in achieving conservatism but doing whatever he believed worked.


Case in point, one of the greatest hallmarks that Republicans like to tout about Reagan is his tax cuts. In fact that has now become standard lip service for Republicans today who whine about Obama's supposed socialist agenda of taxing people with $1 billion in the bank. However, as explained by Joe Klein's Time article "Health Care: Do the Right Thing on Taxes," after one year on the job, and huge tax cuts that dug a hole into the deficit, Reagan implemented the largest peactime tax increase in American history with the the Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act. The act increased the nation's GDP by 1%. Reagan would go on to raise taxes ten more times during his two terms, including to save social security.

Ironically, in a 2007 MSNBC Republican Presidential Candidate debate, when asked if Mitt Romney would follow in Reagan's footsteps to save social security, Romney said he wouldn't. There were never any Tea-Party protesters or 9/12ers in front of the Reagan White House when he raised taxes. That very statement shows a key point about modern-day conservatism; they don't necessarily care about Reagan and his Presidency and judging by some statements, some of them probably don't know Reagan history at all. What they love is the idea of Reagan, which goes back to the fact that Reagan was a Hollywood actor. It didn't necessarily matter if he was a true hardline conservative or not. All that mattered was if he sold his product with the right lines given to him by Peggy Noonan.

In a sense, the image of Reagan has become very much disney-fied, where the most basic parts of his persona have become magnified into a sort of caricature. Much like how the Beatles will always be remembered for the mop tops with Rickenbacker guitars, and Clint Eastwood will always be seen with a cowboy hat and a pistol, Ronald Reagan's persona has become a similar poster, something for conservatives to salivate over

The persona of Reagan becomes nothing more than the equivalent of fashion magazine ads which force young girls to try and lose ridiculous amounts of weight in order to look like the women that are in the photos, not knowing that all this time, the photos are airbrushed and the models themselves don't look like that. In the same way, the image of Reagan has become something that all conservatives vy for by purging moderates, all the while not seeing that in truth Reagan's conservatism is not the fundamentalism that it is perceived as.

In turn, since the Republican party's defeat in last year's election, rather than looking at Reagan's common sense and at time moderation, the GOP and conservatism has started a sort of great purge, choosing not to fund moderate or centrist candidates and rather, go further to the right, in an attempt to appease the birthers, the Tea Partiers and the 9/12ers with disasrtous results. In April of 2009, after threats of losing his funds for the Republican Primary, moderate Republican icon, Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania switched sides after negotiations with Local Democrats like Ed Rendell and by Vice President Joe Biden.

In November of that same year, in a special election for New York's 23rd Congressional district, despite endorsements from the NRA, Newt Gingrich and Peter King, Republican candidate Dierdre Scozzafava was driven out of the election thanks to conservatives widely endorsing Conservative Party Candidate Doug Hoffman. As a result, Democrats took a seat that had been represented by Republicans since 1858. It appeared that night that conservatism might actually be killing Republicanism.

Yet, if Republicans want to know how they can return to winning ways, they need not look any further than results of that same election night in other areas of the nation. In New Jersey, corrupt former Goldman Sachs man and Democratic Governor John Corzine was ousted by moderate, anti-corruption opponent Chris Christie. A little more South in Virginia, despite controversy about his views on women and gays, Bob McDonnel defeated flip-flopping Creigh Deeds in the run for governor of Virgnina after running as pragmatist.

Republicans may always be enamored with Reagan and there are indeed many reasons to like him. He was a charismatic speaker, a great salesman and witnessed many great accomplishments during his presidency. However, he was far from a perfect conservative. In a recent RNC test dubbed ironically the Reagan purity test, it was found out that Reagan would have failed, a classic case of not confusing people with the facts when they have already made up their mind.

Can We afford to Stay in Afghanistan without Public Support?

This week, Afghanistan was scheduled to have a run-off election after there were claims of fraud on behalf of incumbent President Hamid Karzai in the initial election in August. However, on Sunday, Karzai's opponent, Abdullah Abdullah, who at one point was the president's foreign minister. pulled out of the race, effectively handing the election over to Karzai. All of this came off of the heels of President Obama's deliberation as to whether or not he will send more troops to Afghanistan and stories breaking that the United States CIA had funded Karzai's brother in a string of crooked political dealings. In a sense, Abdullah Abdullah's pulling out of the election may signal the devalidation of US Afghanistan General Stanley McChrystal's push for more troops to be sent to Afghanistan.



General McChrystal and General Petraeus, the Centcom leader and former top Iraq General, are proponents of Counterinsurgency, a method of warfare that encompasses using abundant military forces to essentially duplicate the methods the enemy uses.. In fact, Petraeus wrote the Counter Insurgency field manual, which has been seen as the gold standard for counterinsurgency, or COIN as it is known in military circles. The method is hailed among many high ranking politicians and officials like John McCain and Lindsey Graham, but is not without its opponents, namely Gen. Colin Powell, his former aide Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, and Vice President Joe Biden.



However, COIN is completely contingent on "winning hearts and minds" of the native people as General Petraeus would put it. In many ways, the push for more troops is very similar to Petraeus' "surge" method, which he executed in Iraq. But Afghanistan is very different than Iraq. In Afghanistan, one is dealing with the threat of Pashtuns, who are not only the main ethnicity that the Taliban recruits but are also Karzai's own ethnic group. The Pashtuns are known to be very militant whenever they feel as if Justice is being violated.



Prior to the election, it was no big secret that Karzai was a very ambitious man and it was not below him to play dirty tricks to get what he desires. While the Bush Administration hailed his arrival, many people remained wary of him both in the United States and in Afghanistan. However, in a world where justice and following the will of God is more important than liberty, it would be unfair to characterize Karzai as a diametric enemy of native Afghans. For one, just before the election, he re-instated Muslim Shar'ia as the supreme law of the nation.



Yet, in the same respect that Karzai can be revered for administering the will of God, he can also lose public support for being President without the democratic mandate from the people of Afghanistan. In turn, without a strong ally that the Afghans can trust, the US would not be able to initiate any kind of counter-insurgency, given that we have no credible allies from Muslim Afghan leadership. Without a partner, the United States basically becomes an infidel force, just like the Soviets before us and the British before them.



As a result, the only way the United States can really be seen as victors is to be able to curb Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and in Northern Pakistan in hopes of being able to catch Bin Laden. However, as long as we are a foreign force occupying a Muslim land, the United States is susceptible to attack from Taliban, who would become a perpetual thorn in our side.



While Abdullah Abdullah probably would not have gotten a fair shake in the election, it appears that it would have been better if he had stayed in the election, if anything for the purpose of the United States. Without an ally in the Afghan government that has the support of the people, the United States is now susceptible to constant battle with insurgents.

Review of the Bob Dylan Show

On October 15, 2009, me and my old pal Jay went to see the legendary Bob Dylan perform the last show of a three night stint at the equally legendary Hollywood Palladium. Dylan has been known to be a vital if somewhat elusive presence onstage. Yet he is also one of the most enduring acts from his era, a true survivor if there ever was one. Each year since 1988 he plays over one hundred shows and this year alone, Dylan has put out two albums. In April he released the Tejano Outlaw-flavored Together Through Life and just this week, he released Christmas in the Heart, an odd product considering the fact that despite his largely publicized conversion to Christianity in 1978, Dylan is widely thought to have converted back to Judaism. All of that aside, I was very excited to see one of my favorite musicians of all time.



Despite the fact that I love Hollywood, I had never been to the Palladium. Hence, I figured that it would be packed and I would have bad seats. However, as I walked in, I saw no rows of seats but rather, people converging at the front or by the bar. I couldn't believe that I would be able to see the legend from that close of a distance.



After a strong performance by opening act George Thorogood, there was a drumroll that culminated in a circus-like introduction where Dylan was hailed as "the poet laureate of rock and roll" as well as listing significant parts of his career. Finally, there he was; the man himself, plucking away at his piano, in a pink suit.



For those of you who expect Dylan to bust out his electic or acoustic guitar and do "Hard Rain's Gonna Fall," I'm sorry to dissapoint you. For the past four years, he has opted to play piano because he can't find a pianist who can play how he wants. As a result, Dylan spends most of the night behind the electric piano. On occasion, he comes out and performs sans guitar or piano with just a harmonica and only performs one or two songs on guitar. This night, he brought out the axe for a rendition of "Things Have Changed," his Oscar-winning song from the film Wonder Boys and on the slow blues tune "My Wife's Hometown" from Together Through Life.



But that is a rant for another day. Dylan began the performance, flanked by his touring band, which now features former Arc Angels guitarist Charlie Sexton, who left Dylan's band in 2002. Oddly enough, Dylan opened with "Gonna Change my Way of Thinking" from Slow Train Coming, which was one of his Christian albums. However, as the night progressed, it was clear that Dylan did not care what songs people wanted him to perform. Throughout the night, people yelled out for their favorite songs, yet Dylan adhered to nobody. If he did perform them, he did it later on.



Dylan has had a weird relationship with his fans. He loves them for allowing him to do what he does, but in the same respect, hates them for trying to box him in and in turn, box themselves in. He shows his defiance is through his re-arranging most of his songs almost to the point beyond recognition; he changes their key, throws in different lyrics at times, sings the verses in a different syllable style and often adds solos for his bandmates as well as making room for his own stellar gospel piano solos and muscular harmonica riffs. Unless you are a true Dylan devotee, it will be hard for you to recognize songs like "It's Not Dark Yet" by the beginning of the first verse, and that's the way Dylan wants it to be. He wants you to listen to what he has to say now, not what he had to say in 1967.



However, that does not diminish Dylan's performances at all. In fact, it enhances them. One never knows what they will hear when they go to a Dylan show. They may hear a Gospel version of "Blowing in the Wind" or a barroom rocking "Highway 61," with Charlie Sexton and Bob trading off solos. For that reason it is always a joyus experience to see Dylan live or get the latest bootleg.



Throughout the show, the background curtain has different settings for different songs. It's very dark for blues numbers, bluish for sad songs, and starry nights for more bluegrass songs. The most haunting part comes right before the encore when yellow light from below illuminates Dylan as he busts out his harmonica or a spine-tingling version of the Highway 61 Revisited spooker, "Ballad of a Thin Man." You feel goosebumps rising as his deadpan voice sings of a naked man, geeks and one eyed midgets all the while, Mr. Jones doesn't know what's going on.



After, Dylan leaves the stage, briefly, before he returns to perform his signature tune, "Like a Rolling Stone." He sings it a half step above the original recording, but that didn't stop everyone from trying to croon along. He introduces the band and plays a blues before closing with "All Along the Watchtower," the John Wesley Harding classic that guitar magician and noted Dylan accolyte Jimi Hendrix made famous.



Throughout the night, I look around me at the looks of the faces on fans. I see people with their mouths open. I see some dancing, and others simply humming along. They are of all ages and all walks of life. One man I met saw Dylan the year he became a Christian and saw him seven times after, who had brought his teenage daughter. I asked her what her favorite song was and she said "Tangled Up in Blue."



It was then that I realized that Dylan has become more than a rockstar to most of these people. To them, and to me, he is a national treasure; a piece of history who tells of a world that is both inside his head and in the real world. While Elvis, John Lennon, George Harrison and Jimi Hendrix, people who many thought would be around forever, have all passed on, here is Bob Dylan, still standing behind his piano, still blowing away at his harmonica. To many people, he is the perfect manifestation of America. He is a scop in the truest sense of the word. He tells of days of old, but treats the stories as if they are happening now, and tells us where he wants us to go. To compare him Elvis and the Beatles is unfair. Rather, Dylan can be canonized with Walt Whitman, Mark Twain, Henry David Thoreau and other great American poets who wrote about their times and in turn, shaped them.