Monthly Archives: January 2010

(Community Matters) Rebuilding our economy is the #1 priority. Infrastructure is crumbling and too many honest, hard-working Americans must earn money to keep their homes, their cars and feed their children – I’m not talking about the crooks who lied on their mortgage applications or the foolhardy who borrowed three times against paper profits. The government must help Americans when there’s systemic unemployment created by a failed and gamed economy.  It isn’t partisan; it’s American.

It’s not 15% or 25% unemployment as it might have been without the economic recovery act, and 10% is still way too high. Even signs of recovery are too anemic.  It was good to remind us that Bush inherited a budget surplus and spent us into a trillion dollar deficit while cutting taxes in the middle of two wars.  And, that’s not a buy; it’s Obama’s baby now (our baby now), and we gotta fix it or be tossed out on our asses.

I emailed my cousin this morning about the extraordinary progress underway at the agency level.  I’ve now had a chance to hear directly from the secretaries of energy and the EPA (the latter called the administrator) as well as top deputies at education and energy.  These people blow me away.  They aren’t waiting for legislation to pass, they’ve hired the very best & brightest, and have started enforcing laws, judiciously spending their budgets, and are already making huge differences in improving America’s economy and Americans’ lives.

Good things are underway, and a hell of a lot more needs to be done – today.  Rescue, rebuild, restore must be substantive and immediate.  Our citizens are tired of political rhetoric and partisan bullshit.

“Obama didn’t sound like a president buffeted and beleaguered by the political fates. He sounded determined, patient, forceful, good-humored, at times even mischievous.” -the Most Rev. Eugene Robinson

(Community Matters) Finally met Honey, officially known as Alan Rudy, Kirk’s dad.  He and Stephanie (already my buddy from door to door in Grand Rapids during the election) in for today’s Torch of Liberty Dinner.  Steven, Zac and I joined them, Amy & Ellie for dinner and State of the Union watching.  good gosh, I think (actually I know) I just invited ourselves over.  My presumptuousness even embarrasses me sometimes – well, kinda, sorta, okay – not really.

(Community Matters) It was a terrific trip.  DNC meetings for our national finance committee and national advisory board.  Heard from lots of folks.  We asked for a meeting reflecting accountability for spend and how we’re responding to electorates’ priorities and sensitivities.  I went keenly attuned to the investment of our donors’ monies and the promises we made them as we raised, as well as the promises of the Administration & those of us who worked to elect him to the electorate.

I came away impressed by the thought and reflection, by the articulation of lessons learned – not only in MA but in NJ and VA as well.  I don’t mean to suggest the left will be any more pleased than the pragmatic middle of our party from the president’s speech tonight – obviously, I haven’t read it. Since early 2008, I’ve noted that the President is a pragmatic man.  He’s always promised a keen focus on the middle class, on healthcare, on energy/climate control, on rescuing our economy and on education.

Has it been foolhardy to spend so much political capital in the first year on rescuing the economy, insuring children (s-chip), establishing a strategy & spend on two wars, hiring thousands of top level people, rebuilding America’s standing in the world, and fighting for healthcare?  I think not.  Have we handled healthcare correctly, many say not.  And, yet we’ve gotten further than any previous administration in 60 years – though, admittedly, close doesn’t count.  It’s not over by a long shot.

Have we lost perspective of Americans’ demand for more focus on the deficit and spending?  I guess there are initiatives being announced to address this.

Down to 59 in the Senate – I’ve already said on here, I’d prefer 58.  Let’s thank Senator Liebermann for his chairmanship this last year and move forward with a new one.  Fifty nine (or fifty eight) – these are incredible numbers.  I think we’re better off with a little competition and the need to strike some consensus.  If Republicans decide they only want to obstruct, pull the trigger – do away with the filibuster using the same rules they proposed.

As far as all the Wall Street bankers screaming that the populist rhetoric is not what we promised while running:  You are spending hundreds of millions on an army of mercenaries (lobbyists) to kill all proposed regulatory reform and consumer protections.  You are jacking up credit card and banking fees.  You are still borrowing at the Fed window, relying on gov’t guarantees for money market accounts & commercial paper lines, and paying yourselves obscene amounts of money.  If this were pre-revolutionary France, you’d have already lost your heads.   Until you negotiate in good faith and call off your mercenaries, you cannot complain with any integrity.

photo: http://www.solarnavigator.net

(Community Matters) Partners in Health executive director Ophelia Dahl after arriving in Haiti on Friday:

Haiti’s catastrophe will forever divide its history into before earthquake and after.

Dust has not settled. Flying towards pap you could see a thick layer of smog lingering above the city. The air is acrid, stings the eyes and makes you cough.  The airport is its own world. A spread of tents large and small, containers, supplies, boxes, vehicles, bicycles, and people wandering about in and out of uniform.

We bumped into Jens, the UN engineer who had worked with us on the bridge we helped build in Boucan Carre, who was the last person to be pulled out alive from the UN meeting building. He had been under rubble for 6-8 days. Needless to say he looked like a walking skeleton and sounded very jittery. He simply said, “I had a lot of luck”. Continue reading →

(Community Matters) It’d been four years since I’ve seen Thais Austin – she looks great and is as engaged in community as ever.  Obviously, DC agrees with her.  Pleased to hear she and Ted Smith have become running buddies.

Tour of the Kennedy Center with friends late afternoon.  Can’t believe I’ve never seen a performance there.  Radically impressive, if needs-an-update, site, especially in context of DC’s dearth of performance art spaces prior.  Exquisite 60s design and build.  Extraordinary gifts of lights, art, stage curtains, marble and everything else from the world’s countries.

Dinner with Haylie Rudy last night, yeah – and her daddy too – and two dear family friends.  Total treat, get to be with the extended Rudy family on Thursday/Friday.  getting excited about ADL Torch of Liberty Dinner honoring Amy & Kirk – early bird preview: not available for a bit

(photo: President’s box at Eisenhower Theatre)

(Community Matters) Skull caps, hoodies and low-rise pants – not expecting a Starbucks manager to emerge from the back dressed this way.  Because I was having trouble signing onto their wireless, I asked for help and the barista called for the manager.  I’m immediately struck that this is awkward dress for a manager but only for a second and my mind moved on.

A few minutes later, an African American female customer totally dressed him down – ranted at him for being inappropriately dressed.  Told him to pull up his pants and take off the hoodie & cap.  He wasn’t gracious or accepting of her advice, saying he was off the clock – which appears not to be the case

(Community Matters) Very interesting proposition – perhaps we should to be focused on helping elect the Republican members of the State Board of Education

(Community Matters) Frank Rich has certainly gained the voice for progressives.

It was not a referendum on Barack Obama, who in every poll remains one of the most popular politicians in America. It was not a rejection of universal health care, which Massachusetts mandated 2006. It was not a harbinger of a resurgent G.O.P., whose numbers remain in the toilet. Brown had the good sense not to identify himself as a Republican in either his campaign advertising or his victory speech.   [Yet, the administration has major challenges]

The president is no longer seen as a savior but as a captive of the interests who ginned up the mess and still profit, hugely, from it. He not only refused to signal his health care imperatives early on but even now he, like Congressional Democrats, has failed to explain clearly why and how reform relates to economic recovery.  His two principal economic policy makers [Gheitner & Sumners] are useless, if not counterproductive, surrogates.

Not stated but perhaps implied, healthcare shouldn’t be as high a priority in today’s economic environment (yes, saw the polling).  Healthcare is our 1964 civil rights act.  I’d rather see the president sign it into law and lose reelection than not finally provide coverage for 30mm to 40mm.  The most developed country in the world should provide some basic level of healthcare to all its citizens – no, emergency rooms are not effective healthcare.  And, it would help increase American manufacturing competitiveness.

LBJ signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 knowing he was signing away the south to the Republicans for the next generation.  We need leadership that isn’t afraid to be tossed out of office for doing the right thing.  I remain convinced this is our president.  I am unconvinced that the extraordinary bubble that has locked in around him, that the lieutenaunts who have gained power aren’t now drunk.

(Community Matters) The return of David Plouffe is a super sign.  A review of the D political operation an imperative – our spends & political strategies in VA, NJ, MA and on OFA especially.

I’m also wondering who made these calls and how.  We need accountability for results and expenditure of dollars raised from donors all around the country.  Where we’ve promised net positive investments, are we on track to accomplish such?  We came into power less interested in promoting (ie., preserving) our own power than producing results – healthcare at the top of the list.  Covering 30mm – 40mm uninsured should not be up for compromise.  Most of the people I know didn’t invest their souls, time, treasure & /or votes to preserve future D majorities.

(Community Matters) In DC for meetings starting Monday.  Early arrival to spend time with my friends the Cramers – Sonya, Reid, Dio & Gabel

Walking through Takoma Park, a home cooked meal, lots of political conversation (natch) and a game of scrabble.  Reid’s head of research for the New America Foundation.  Of course the political events of this week even more dramatic inside the Beltway then elsewhere.  Everyone here has been waiting for passage of healthcare, also so they can move forward on other agendas.  Add MA and the S. Ct ruling – not a good week.

(Community Matters) The Austonian was hopping last night with guests celebrating its opening.  Terry Mitchell (the building’s developer) tells me residents will start moving in this June.

Zac, Luke & Terry

The views are spectacular and the amenities unprecedented in Austin.

(Community Matters) Update from Susan Sayers of Partners in Health (@PiH_org):

The PIH team has now established 24 functional operating rooms (ORs) throughout Haiti, providing round-the-clock surgery and medical care to earthquake survivors.  Twelve of these ORs are at the central University Hospital in Port-au-Prince (HUEH), which was nearly uninhabitable at this time last week.

We have also had great success assembling surgical teams, transporting them to Haiti, and putting them immediately to work. At last count, more than 150 surgeons, nurses, anesthetists and other specialists had arrived, allowing our ORs to run at full capacity 24 hours a day. But our team in Haiti continues to report a great need for additional medicines (antibiotics, anesthesia and narcotics), medical equipment (anesthesia machines and x-rays), medical supplies (IVs, tubing, irrigating saline), and water. Continue reading →