Republicans Stand in the Way!

It’s really quite sad that the Republicans have been so hateful to this President; for, I believe, President Barack H. Obama has been a good and important president in one of the terrible and muddy periods in American history.
by Charlie Leck

Consider the situation during the 2008 election race between John McCain (Republican) and Barack Obama (Democrat). The nation was falling into a deep financial abyss. The housing scandal developed late in the campaign and the two candidates actually had to call a “time-out” in the election battle so they could rush to Washington to consult with President George W. Bush about what was happening to the economy. Remember?

The United States of America was teetering on the edge of a dangerous cliff, about to fall into one of the deepest financial depressions in its history. The housing bubble had burst completely and several of the largest banks and financial lenders in the nation were facing total collapse. President Bush told the two candidates that he was going to take serious and unprecedented action in order to soften the disaster about to take place – that he was calling on Congress to bail out several of these banks. Both candidates left the White House with an agreement to support the President. There was a distinct possibility that they might not have much of a nation to govern if they didn’t.

The stimulus program initiated by President Bush was not serious and extensive enough. When President Obama stepped into office he had to act more aggressively against the dark and pervasive recession that gripped the nation. He did, in spite of constant and strong Republican opposition.

This morning, looking back, the NY Times said of the President’s action:

“The stimulus could have done more good had it been bigger and more carefully constructed. But put simply, it prevented a second recession that could have turned into a depression. It created or saved an average of 1.6 million jobs a year for four years…. It raised the nation’s economic output by 2 to 3 percent from 2009 to 2011. It prevented a significant increase in poverty – without it, 5.3 million additional people would have become poor in 2010.”

And, it is important to remember, the President’s actions would have been more extensive and successful had the Republican Party not fought those actions, tooth and nail, and forced the President to seriously cut back those actions if he wanted to get legislation through the majority of the Republican Party.

Yet, today we hear the Republicans crying that the President should have done more.

If one measures honestly and rationally the actions of this President while in office, to this point, one must conclude that the President saved the nation from total chaos. And all the while he was doing all of this, he had to deal with an irrational and unneeded war in Iraq that had been started by his predecessor. Add to that the significant problems and expenses also created by another foolish and illogical war in Afghanistan.

No president has ever faced such an opposition and such an unfriendly Congress. None!

Against all odds, this President gave America a health plan that, in twenty years, we will realize is historic and vitally important to both our health and economy. Medical costs in America, as a Time Magazine article in 2012 so carefully pointed out, were out of control. The plan Obama just barely managed to squeak by Republicans will save America from what could have been another economic disaster. [I wrote about that Time Magazine article in a blog last year.]

In arguing today to give the President more freedom to govern, the NY Times boldly states…

“Government spending worked, helping millions of people who never realized it. And it can work again, whenever lawmakers agree that putting people to work is more important than winning ideological fights.”

Again, the Republican Party stands in the way of bringing greater economic relief and economic strength by refusing to play the role of the loyal opposition and instead declaring itself an enemy of the President.

Why is it that a number of Republicans could not abide watching this President succeed? They couldn’t allow it! They wouldn’t allow it – not this President, mind you – not this President! I am so afraid of the answer to that question. Deeply afraid for my country!

UPDATE:
I don't usually allow anonymous comments. I think one who wants to take a strong position ought to have the courage to do so under (or over) his name. However, I did publish a comment here that is remarkably far from accurate in so many ways, but does show the passion and hysteria of the current far-right and only provides more evidence for my thesis that the Republican Party has gone loopy with the dominance of the far right so evident in the GOP today. The same fellow, I am quite sure, also commented the other day, but in such a personally insulting and gravely inaccurate way (and anonymously) that I refused to publish his drivel. 

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Like a Chicken Running Around…

“They are running around like chickens with their heads cut off,” my old man used to like to say. Right now he could easily say that about the Republican Party.
by Charlie Leck

Will the American people look at the Republican Party realistically? Here is a party that refused to take action on tax reform even though it considers it one of the most important issues in the nation. Why? They don’t want to act because they don’t want to upset the already fractious political party.

For the same reason, the Republicans don’t want to go near a new immigration policy, which for years they have contended needs rehabilitation.

Basically, the Republican Party has decided not to legislate in any significant way between now and Election Day in November. This, they have reasoned, is the safe thing to do. This way they won’t upset any apple carts or incur the wrath of the American people.

Nor will the Republican Party have any noteworthy conversations (a.k.a. debates) about any significant or controversial issues.

Now listen-up folks! This is your modern day Republican Party! Do they make you proud? I do not believe that this party has had so few confident and approving followers in its history. Highly respected polls show that less than 20 percent of all Americans have “confidence in congressional Republicans.”

As the Speaker of the House, John Boehner, said to his fellow Republicans: “We are not going to make ourselves the story!”

This does not exactly make current Republicans candidates for “Profiles in Courage.”

“Geez, Louise,” as my old man would have said, “what yellow bellied cowards!”

But, then, this is not your father’s Republican Party. This is not a party of leadership. This party is only interested in electoral survival.

Economic conditions – providing significant jobs in big numbers – is considered the number one concern of American voters at this particular time; however, Republicans are avoiding any kind of cooperation with Democrats that might improve the economy before the coming election. If this statement, which I have just made, is true, then Republicans should hang their collective heads in absolute shame. Voters in November will make up their minds about whether this statement is actually true.

Here’s where I think the Republicans have screwed up. They are going to lose more of the immigrant vote, more of the senior vote, and more of the non-politically associated vote.

The general rule in a non-presidential election year is that the party not in control of the White House will be big winners. This year could well be an exception to that general rule; and the Republicans will have only themselves to blame.

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If I Were a Young Man…

“If I were a young man - yubby dibby, dibby dibby dibby dibby dum.
All day long I’d biddy, biddy burn.
If I were a young man…
If I were a biddy biddy young
angry, diddle, daidle, daidle man.”
by Charlie Leck

If I were young again and looking for a fight with the establishment, I’d find it, sure enough, in the recent news stories about the extremely wide gap in the success of educating black kids compared to white kids in Minneapolis. As Vince Lombardi, the legendary football coach, might have said: “What the hell is goin’ on here?”

There’s no need to plan a trip to Mississippi to stir up folks and call for action and fairness. We got enough troubles “right here in River City.”

In this great city on the Mississippi there is something wrong with what we’re doing in education. The story is constant and we’re being hit with it again and again in the local newspaper; and good for them! We need to have this story told and we need to be hit over the head with it until we get the guts and energy to fix this despicable problem.

We’ve got to get this inequality thing figured out. Until we do, there is going to remain a major division between the races – with non-whites making up the majority of the lower-income and poverty statistics and whites making up an overwhelming majority of the upper-income and middle-class portions of our society. And that just ain’t fair!

This morning’s newspaper tells the story again and it’s enough to make your back curl upward and your blood boil. Only one in three black students in Minneapolis graduates on time. “Four out of five black students are not proficient in reading…”

These are the things pointed out in an article by Steve Brandt in this morning’s StarTribune (Black students face long odds in Minneapolis). Where are the civil rights workers? Where are the protesters? Where are the volunteers? Where are the fund raisers?

I remember when I went to Mississippi in the summer of 1964 to work on the Voter Registration Project, white folks down there would look me in the eye and ask why I didn’t fix the problems “you got where you come from?”

Well, I’m here to say, right now, that they’re damned right!

As Harold said as an opening to his famous song in The Music Man…

“Well, either you’re closing your eyes
To a situation you do not wish to acknowledge
Or you are not aware of the caliber of disaster indicated…

Well , ya got trouble, my friend, right here,
I say trouble right here in River City…

People:
Trouble, oh we got trouble,
Right here in River City!
With a capital ‘T’”…

In fact, black students, Latino students and Native American students all lag far behind white students in the Minneapolis school system.

Read the danged article! If it doesn’t make you angry and make you stand up and shout that “I’m damned angry and I’m not gonna take this anymore!” – then somethin’ is wrong with ya! Hear?

I have a daughter who put in a number of years with Teach for America (TFA) and as a TFA alum she’s coming back to Minneapolis on Friday for a weekend conference. I hope the conference is on this issue, but if it isn’t I’m going to get some advice from her about what I – one old, white man – can do to help turn this situation around.

You, too! Come on now! Somehow we can all get involved in this thing and get it turned right around!

My friend, Sam Stern is a great example – and his example makes me feel ashamed. He has just taken one kid and devoted himself to this young black student and determined that this kid is not going to fall through the cracks like other kids do. Sam is going to make sure that his young friend can read properly and that he knows how to interact with “the system” and use it to his advantage.

Gad-dang, guys like Sam Stern should be getting the Presidential Medal of Freedom for what they do and those of us who do nothing ought to get slapped-upside-the-head!

Here’s where it starts! Go to the paper and read this story. One, an awful lot like it, ran last week, too. I shouldn’t have to draw pictures for you! You know what it means. It means we’re gonna keep havin’ places like they have on the north side of Minneapolis where there is poverty, hunger, homelessness, high crime rates and we can rest assured that it is going to keep happening generation after generation UNLESS someone figures out how to stop it!

You’ve got to figure it out for yourself, I guess, because it doesn’t sound like the big educational experts are figuring it out after all these years of spending money. Maybe we need hundreds or thousands of volunteers to step in like Sam Stern has and say: “No sir! Not this kid! It ain’t gonna happen to him ‘cause I’m gonna make sure it doesn’t!”

Sam, my man, I think you’re a great guy. I admire you as much as I admire anyone in the world and I'm damned proud of what you’re doing. How do we get a few more thousand men and women to do the same thing so, kid by kid, we can change the situation? You hear about how all these people get wound up and stirred into action on Facebook and Twitter and all those on-line places, so how do we get ‘em stirred up here in Minneapolis?

“We got trouble! Trouble with a capital-T and it’s right here in River City!”

“Despite years of attention, the gap persists. For black students it widens after kindergarten…”

“…Further, a close look at the district’s numbers reveals a surprising fact: Poverty makes almost no difference for an American-born black student in his or her chances of graduating on time in Minneapolis schools."

“White students in poverty graduate in four years at a higher rate than black students who are not poor, according to district data.”

“…The achievement gap has been in the news since the 1980s, but didn’t leap into public consciousness until the 2002 No Child Left Behind law forced schools to separate test scores for different racial groups.”

Minneapolis is one of the great cities in the nation. I love this city and I love to brag about it (and I do in so many ways), but this is a nagging problem that has been with us for far too long and it is now time to do something about it. If you live in or near Minneapolis, this problem could use your help.

I'm gonna find out what I can do and then I’ll do it! I’m old and I’m tired, but I’ve got to help!

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Baseball On My Mind

It’s far from spring here in Minnesota, but spring fever begins for me when the ball players start showing up at their respective spring training facilities.
by Charlie Leck

Ball players started arriving at their respective spring training facilities over the weekend. It always heightens my mood when I realize the boys of summer are gathering to get ready for another baseball season. I have a sneaky-good feeling about the Minnesota Twins this year. I think we’re going to see some new, young, energetic and exciting ball players join the team. Joe Mauer moves to first base and he’ll excel there and at bat. My prediction is that the Twins will win more than they’ll lose this year.

My predicted baseball surprise of the year this year? KC Royals will go to the World Series. Detroit, Chicago and Minnesota will fight for second place in the division. Next season (2015)? The Twins will win it all.

So, for a couple days, put aside all the political news and the Washington in-fighting and let’s concentrate our national pastime – baseball!

Right now the snow is falling like crazy here on our pretty patch in Minnesota. Go Twins!

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An Unexplainable Love for Israel

I have an unexplainable devotion and loyalty to Israel. If you ask me why that is, my answer would be complex and would reveal more emotional ties and vagaries than rational explanation.

by Charlie Leck

I’d begin with the holocaust and the suffering of Europe’s Jews in the mid-twentieth century. Such loss of life and fortune! Such destruction of families! Such injustice! Such barbarism! The Jewish people deserved (deserve) a safe haven and Israel (the nation state of the Jewish people) appears to be that place of refuge.

A column in today’s New York Times, Israel’s Big Question, by Thomas L. Friedman, is remarkably good and clear. It will be helpful to any of you who, like I, are struggling with an understanding of just what it is Israel wants and can realistically have.

I find I’m always coming down on the side of Israel – of the Jewish people. I cannot clearly state my reasoning, however. There was a Jewish uncle who I admired greatly, liked and trusted without reservation. Married to my grandfather’s sister, he was one of the kindest men I ever knew. It caused me to have a raised antenna when it came to questions of Jewry and Jewish life. I cannot remember details of the early 40s and the years after the holocaust, but I can dimly remember how my family surrounded Uncle Arthur with its love, sympathies and support. The dimensions of the Nazi evils were far beyond the scope of a small child to understand, but I knew there was something incredibly nasty going on and that comprehension lasted well into the post-war years and into the creation of the nation state for the Jewish people.

My rather intense study of Old Testament scripture, as a young man, also pushes me more toward a solution in Israel that favors the Jewish people. Somehow such an extension would be an expression of the rewards of God upon his faithful people. Of course, that argument doesn’t hold up in court or in the real world of God’s various people.

Yet 1+1 only equals 2 if 1 is really 1 and not .56… yes?

That such a state was created is amazing. How fair it was, when now looked at it through more mature lenses, is another question. To treat the Jews mercifully and kindly and to establish a homeland for them meant that someone (some people) had to suffer. One’s sympathies as an adult are more understanding of complexity; and our sympathies begin to get divided as we begin to understand reality.

And always religion and faith seem to get in the way!

Yet, the situation remains one of the most complex and difficult in the history of the modern world. Mr. Friedman’s column has a clarity about it that will be helpful to you – as it was to me. I recommend it.

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Presidencies in the Future

How are we going to deal with future presidents of the nation – no matter the party? Has a new standard been set by the way Republicans have treated President Obama?
by Charlie Leck

I am extraordinarily sad about the way the opposition party has treated President Obama during the last five-plus years. In my lifetime I have not seen the likes of it – not even when President Clinton was going through his lowest stage during the Lewinski affair investigation; or when it became clear that President Nixon had condoned criminal behavior. There was a tradition that the opposition party would at least extend some semblance of respect to the office of the president.

I am an Obama man and, therefore, I am deeply mystified by this behavior within the Republican Party and its odd-extension-organization, the Tea Party. The Republicans, because of their mysterious and strong dislike of President Obama, have put the nation through six of the worst years in our nation’s history (I’m not kidding about this and I’ve thought it through carefully!).

Bouncing out of the deep depression that we fell into during the presidency of George W. Bush, our economy had the opportunity to roar and fire-up and soar to the benefit of each and every American. The Republican Party and the Tea Party, however, would not allow this – not during the time that President Obama was in the White House!

Remember how adamant the Republicans were about making sure that President Obama was a “one-term-president.” They were crazed about this and it came out time and time again in their speeches during Obama’s first term. Congresswoman Michel Bachmann made it the center-point of her last two terms and her effort to win a presidential endorsement. She was dedicated to a campaign that would not allow President Obama to win a second term.

Republicans were willing to let the nation languor in a deep depression rather than see Obama get any credit for our economic recovery.

I have been intrigued with presidential politics since the second term of Dwight David Eisenhower. What was unmistakable to me was the degree of respect that the opposition party always showed to the OFFICE of the presidency – if not to the president himself! It was an American tradition.

The first stutter I saw in this sense of respect for the office was brought about by the intriguing Watergate scandal during Richard Nixon’s presidency. It is the first time I can remember “the people” thinking about the president with exceptional disrespect.

“I am not a crook,” President Nixon said loudly to the American people. The people looked at each other in embarrassment. They understood the need for respect. This was, of course, the office of the most powerful and important government leader in the free-world.

The people wore the same embarrassment when it became clear that President Clinton had used one of his office interns as a sexual play thing.

The opposition party has treated President Obama as if he were guilty of misbehavior that is even worse than that of those two presidents. It is absolutely outrageous.

Is there a reason for this terrible behavior by the Republican Party and its affiliate, the Tea Party? It is a bit scary to ask that question. An even more important question is this: Has a new, low standard been set for the way an opposition party will relate to the President of the United States?

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A Brief Note for the Memoirs

Baseball News: The great Pittsburgh Pirate power hitter, Ralph Kiner, has died at the age of 91.
by Charlie Leck

I just want to acknowledge my great respect for Ralph Kiner, the incredible baseball player of my youth and a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame. He died yesterday (Thursday) at his home in Rancho Mirage, California, at 91 years of age.

Kiner may have become the king of the home run hitters had his career not been cut short by injury. From 1946 to 1955 he hit a total of 369 home runs. He averaged more home runs per year (for a career) than any slugger in baseball. He led the National League in home runs every year during his first seven seasons. He racked up 1,015 RBIs (runs batted in) in ten seasons – an average of more than 100 per year. Incredible!

The first major league home run I ever saw was hit by Ralph Kiner in the Polo Grounds. My old man had taken me to see that game. I was overjoyed by the sight of the first major league park I had ever visited and I had no chips in that particular game between the Giants and the Pirates because my baseball loyalties were elsewhere. I’ll never forget the sight of the ball climbing off Kiner’s bat and powering its way deep into the left field stands at the famous old ballpark. We were sitting high up in the stands and it was a thrill for me to watch the big man trot around the bases.

I needed to pay this moment of respect to the great slugger and wave out into the stars just in case he might be watching. Slugger, you have triumphed over everything! Good night to you!

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Disregard that Earlier Blog

The magnificent George Washington Bridge that spans the Hudson Riverbetween New Jersey and New York City. My maternal grandfather, FrankSvejda, was a bridge painter for the City of New York and this bridge waspainted by a brush-in-hand back in those days. He would tell me stories about goingup the long, sweeping piping and holding on to the cables as he went.“When we finished painting it,” he told me, “we’d go back to the other endand start again.”

Ooops! I do believe I misspoke about Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey. He’s just another one of those hacks that NJ keeps producing.
by Charlie Leck

Back in December (Friday, the 13th), I wrote here that Chris Christie is the likely Republican candidate for the White House in 2016. Oh, boy! Now, the big guy has gone and proverbially shot himself in the foot and it looks like he’s not going to heal up. Christie is getting that wounded foot deeper and deeper into NJ mud and further and further into his mouth; and he may not be able to get it out.

David Wildstein, a former high school classmate of the governor’s and the number two man at the NJ Port Authority, came out with a statement in the last few days that stated very clearly that the Governor Christie knew about those highway lane closings leading to the George Washington Bridge “as they were happening!”

Of course, the Governor has denied that and launched counter-attacks against Mr. Wildstein. It’s another wild-ass shot that may hit the Governor in his other foot or someplace even worse.

Remember, only back in December, Governor Christie released a whole bunch of glowing comments about Mr. Wildstein – the same Wildstein who has now insisted that “evidence exists” that shows Governor Christie knew precisely about the lane closings plan.

I wonder if y’all will allow me to retract my blog of 13 December 2013 and let me rethink the matter of who it might be who will run for U.S. President among the Republicans in the next election. The door is wide open again to all suitors and a number of them are very happy because Christie was much too moderate for most of them.

As for Christie, he’s looking dumber and dumber as time goes by here. If this had happened in any other state, I wouldn’t believe it. In NJ, however, we’re used to it.

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