Category: Politics

No comments

Save the branches

  By Libraries, Philadelphia

Mayor Nutter recently announced that eleven branch libraries will be closed, not temporary but permanently, due to the budget crisis. Thirty six branch library staff members will be laid off as will 25 staff members of the central library. The library is taking, as a percentage of its budget, a larger reduction (of about 20%) than any other city agency. I believe this reduction is a serious mistake and am working with the Friends of the Free Library to build opposition to these cutbacks. Why are these library reductions so unconscionable? 1. Library branches are critical to education in Philadelphia. We live in a city in which elementary schools do not have libraries. Indeed, only one high school library, at Central, meets the states minimum requirements. 2. Library branches are one of the most important places our kids go after school. Our kids find not only books and magazines and… Continue reading

No comments

The Election and the Future of Progressive Politics

  By Health Care, Labor, US

Soon after the clock ticks 8:00 in California we will see a solid, and perhaps extraordinary, victory for Democrats from top to bottom, from the Presidency to Senate to the House and maybe even down to the State House in Pennsylvania. Those of us who have worked long and hard and hoped for a revival of progressive politics in America will celebrate this victory tonight and for weeks to come. But while this election victory is critical, what we do with our that victory will most determine what kind of future there is for progressive politics and our country. Continue reading

No comments

Another outrageous McCain robo-call–and what it shows about the campaign

  By Politics, US

I just this moment got a call from the McCain campaign. (I once signed up with the Bush campaign in 2000 so I can see what they were saying. I’ve been paying for that ever since.) So the new word is that Obama’s share the wealth tax plans “threaten your social security and medicare” beause Obama wants to use tax money meant for social security and medicare for other purposes. Not only is this a out and out lie, Obama has, at least in the past, called for increasing the upper limit on social security taxes as a way of strengthing the system. I have to say I’m tired of “objective journalists” who conclude that the two campaigns are both stretching the truth. Obama has gone a bit far once or twice in picking on something McCain said and running with it. But the McCain campaign has simply lied, again… Continue reading

No comments

How you and the Obama campaign can turn the PA House of Representatives bluer

  By Pennsylvania, Politics, US

I’ve been following the Pennsylvania polling quite closely, but not primarily because I’m concerned about the Presidential election. If we all keep doing our jobs, Obama is going to win Pennsylvania. What’s really intriguing me however is how well Obama is doing in the suburban counties around Philadelphia. According to the Quinnipiac poll released at the beginning of the week, Obama is up 57-39 in Montgomery, Delaware, Chester, and Bucks counties. That is putting us into the realm in which Obama could have long coattail for candidates down ballot, including those running for State Representative. Continue reading

No comments

The word on the street: no street money

  By Elections and Voting, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Ward politics

The word on the street is that there is going to be no money on the street from the Obama campaign. No one knows for sure. But ward leaders are worried. This would be an innovation in Pennsylvania politics…and in my view, a really dumb one. Continue reading

No comments

How We Won Health Care Reform in Pennsylvania: A Bizarro Fantasy

  By Health Care, Humor, Pennsylvania

Reposted from YPP on Tue, 10/21/2008 – 12:13am. I was in the audience at a taping of a program on WHYY TV on health care reform tonight. And now I know how we managed to get PA ABC, Governor Rendell’s program to insure another quarter of million people, through the Senate. Continue reading

No comments

Why buying into banks makes sense

  By Politics, US

Originally posted at YPP I always thought the initial plan to buy toxic securities was second best to actually capitalizing banks. The initial plan puts us in a dilemma: Continue reading

No comments

Nine percent of Americans are satisfied with the direction of the country tonight

  By US

Originally posted at YPP I haven’t had to write an essay examination question in about a year and a half. But I want to write one today. Nine percent of Americans are satisfied with the direction of the country tonight. Who are they and why are they satisfied? Extra-credit: How will they affect the Presidential election? Continue reading

No comments

So that’s what the Middle East looks like to everyone else

  By International politics, Middle East

I hope everyone read the long article in the Times on Sunday about the history of the conflict leading up to the war in Georgia. It is worth understanding how this war began. But I especially hope strong partisans on both the Israeli and Palestinian sides of that conflict read it. For I suspect that their initial reaction will be like mine: both sides are responsible for this mess and both ought to be acting a whole lot more sensibly. Its is hard not to sympathize with the Georgians with the Russian Bear next door, until you see what the Georgians have been doing to their minorities and how they are provoking the Russians. That’s more or less the way I look at the Israel-Paletinian conflict these days. I’m still a supporter of Israel’s right to exist. (And I wrote my first published article calling for a Palestinian state in… Continue reading

No comments

GOP health care plan copies Chairman Mao

  By Health Care, Pennsylvania

Published in the Morning Call, June 23, 2008 In 1965, Communist China was one of the poorest countries of the world. Chairman Mao Tse-Tung created a program—widely known as the Barefoot Doctors program—to provide health care for his impoverished people.  The Barefoot Doctors, who had a minimal level of medical training, offered basic primary care to people for whom no other medical care was available. Continue reading