Monthly Archives: May 2011

(Community Matters) Excellent NYT piece this am

I can’t overemphasize the good friend analogy in Pres Obama’s approach. Think about it. With our dearest friends and family members, sometimes we’re compelled to say what they need to hear rather than what they want to hear. It’s not always easy and of course it risks fractures. Hopefully, based on unambiguous love & support, our friends or family members will trust we are speaking/acting with their best interests in mind.

With acquaintances and people you don’t even really know, of course you often just nod, sometimes even pretending to agree even when you don’t – inappropriate or unnecessary to offer an opinion or correct someone. Pres Obama is treating Israel as a very good friend, a best friend – as the country is to the USA.

First, inclusion of language about the 1967 borders is not new  – it’s just new since the last, most failed among them peace talks. Second, Pres Obama didn’t suggest the 1967 borders, he suggested these borders adjusted by land swaps. The latter is huge, huge, huge – an opportunity for both sides to accomplish objectives of security and society. I’ve traveled in the West Bank twice (the last time well within Palestinian ruled territory), there’s plenty of parcels both sides would like to swap.

Last, the State of Israel in its current form is unsustainable – its occupation of the West Bank & the millions of Palestinians (were it not to ensure its security it certainly wouldn’t be occupying these lands – it’s costly and dangerous, financially, politically and to its faith) and Arab population growth within Israel’s proper borders threaten its legitimacy as a Jewish state. Right or wrong, it risks losing the PR war around the world and even among a majority within the US electorate. It must negotiate a resolution to the West Bank to ensure its continued international legitimacy – and the Palestinians must show they unambiguously support a Jewish state as well as its right to defend its people and borders.

(Community Matters) Admittedly, I’m a Krugman groupie – not to mention an unapologetic fan of fairies

by the way, this notion that lenders shouldn’t lose money is a false assumption. It isn’t as if many of today’s lenders aren’t predatory by historical standards and that systems haven’t been exploited resulting in our ensuring them and their investors against downside without rights for any of the upside – further incentivizing risky and bad decisions. I don’t know enough about the details of Icelanders’ refusal to approve their government’s payback for their bank bail out but I do like that the citizens aren’t rolling over.

(Community Matters) Steven and I are staying at the Millenium Hilton, since his client is nearby. I haven’t stayed around Wall Street for years, so kinda enjoying this.

The network of walkways and escalators through buildings & over roads downtown & thru Battery Park remind me of Hong Kong.

pic of World Trade Center rebuild

(Community Matters) A friend emailed me about Koch’s unhappiness with Pres O b/c of middle east speech and reference to 1967 boundaries.

My response: Yeah. Lots of blowback on that one. It was the right thing to say. If folks hear the nuance about swapping parcels it’s not as challenging to those appropriately worried about Israeli security; Pres O absolutely emphasized priority of Israel’s security. Of course, nuance often lost in polispeak. ADL has endorsed the speech, J street too. He’s speaking to AIPAC today; we’re hoping for similar.

The Pres wants to be a true friend to Israel, one that speaks the truth, even when tough, with the long term best interest in mind – as opposed to a friend who just agrees to everything (in my mind w/ less regard for long term best interests).

Posted from my blackberry

update – NYT on Pres’ AIPAC speech

Huff Post on Thurs’ speech – Kirk Rudy quoted

(Community Matters) Wow, we were sitting in our living room talking, catching up after Steven being on the West Coast all week . . .

. . . always thought we would go together

(Community Matters) This is why I get so exercised by those who speak only of our need to cut spending. Some fiscally irresponsible lawmakers cut taxes and intentionally left the wars off the books so we’d be exactly here

I’m not against cutting spending – but I’m also not for placating irresponsible and hypocritical legislators who preach deficit reduction while promoting additional tax decreases, maintaining rich tax loopholes for their corporate patrons and cutting services to women, children and families.

Huff Post article

(Community Matters) ADL Applauds President Obama’s Strong Outline Of Principles For U.S. Policy In Middle East- press release here

(Community Matters) Reading a couple of Facebook comments about President Obama’s call for the 1967 Israeli borders as the starting negotiating point for a Palestinian state (as well as specific assurances for Israeli security), I am surprised at the either the lack of awareness or misleading comments.

Israel has annexed most of the West Bank immediately west of Jerusalem, while dividing into unsustainable parcels much of the rest.  (And let’s remember, most of Jerusalem, aka East Jerusalem, is outside the 1967 borders as well.) The Israeli government often avoids talking about the 1967 border, instead simply referring to the West Bank.  Though areas of the West Bank annexed into Jerusalem are no longer counted as the West Bank and are not included in calculations of percentages of land to be or not to be “unoccupied.”

Also, when the Israeli government says it is willing to return 80% of the occupied West Bank (remember, not including what they’ve annexed into Jerusalem) much of the excluded 20% includes West Bank sources of water plus the most farmable lands along the Jordan.

Absolutely, there must be assurances for Israeli security. And, the 1967 borders alone do not provide for such – especially in light of the indefensible lobbing of missiles from Gaza at civilians. While the cement wall serving as a border disturbs many, its success preventing suicide bombing of children, women and men is indisputable.  And, in many of my visits with Israelis, most are happy to trade land for assured peace.

be sure to read: Friendship

and blowback

(Community Matters) Randi held a press conference today explaining her reasons for staying the race.

Why I think her reelection is critical: (and disclaimer, I don’t know Kathy Tovo. I hear she’s a nice woman; I believe that’s true. She’s a long time community volunteer/leader who has given much time & treasure to our city. So, in no way is this personal. It’s philosophical.) Among her closest supporters is an elite group of city hall insiders who believe they know better than the rest of us. We dealt with a couple of these leaders in our neighborhood association. Their default position was to oppose home owners’ requests and variances for their properties – instead of listening and understanding whether or not the proposal maintained or eroded the character of our neighborhood. They even default objected to VMU status for commercial properties on Guadalupe. They sought to impose historical zoning on neighbors’ homes against the home owners’ wishes, even against the wishes of almost every other neighbor in our subdivision. And, they have a sizable number of supporters on the zoning, planning and historical commissions who believe it is good policy to rule against homeowners and other neighbors and in favor of the vision of an elite few – sorta a neighborhood association model without neighborliness.

Some among Kathy’s closest supporters are outright against growth (don’t mind being on the record against growth) – either not understanding or caring that this means fewer jobs for Austinites now and in the future.  Many believe small businesses should be required to pay a minimum of $16/hour to employees (hey, who doesn’t wish they could?). I want our city leaders to prioritize new jobs, maintain Austin’s unique local character, prioritize building infrastructure for the city’s future, to protect our environment and to realize most of us want more – not less – fire, EMS and police protection.   I suppose some voters will be surprised to learn Randi is also a neighborhood & social activist – has been since way before running for city council; she’s always cared about neighborhoods, social services, affordability, schools and economic development. These objectives aren’t mutually exclusive, though admittedly finding the balance is hard, an inexact science.  AND . . . many of these Tovo supporters I write about are acquaintances of mine, some are good friends. I know their intentions are honorable; I just believe parts of their vision for Austin and some of how they propose to achieve it are wrong for our city and will result in a decreased quality of life for too many Austinities – probably not for them, probably not for me & Steven, but that’s not who I worry about in these elections.

Randi made the following remarks today at City Hall:

I’m extremely gratified to be joined by so many good friends and supporters. The last few days have been more exciting and more energizing than any time during this entire campaign – or even during my first campaign, three years ago.

I’ve literally been inundated with hundreds of phone calls and emails since Saturday from people urging me to stay in this race.

This is not about personalities, it’s about priorities.

I want to say that again, because it’s important: This is not about personalities, it’s about priorities.

Specifically, it’s about the enormous differences between me and my opponent when it comes to some big decisions that are critical to Austin’s future.

Continue reading →

(Community Matters) David Plouffe is one of the most engaging and confidence building men I know. He’s also one of those brilliant guys from whom you can feel and hear the hard drive and mother board in overdrive.

from Mike Allen’s Playbook: TWITTER AS THE NEW DIAL GROUP — TIME magazine “White House Memo: To spread the Gospel of Barack, the White House doubles down on social media — He’s back: Plouffe … is looking for new ways to pierce the media clutter,” by Michael Scherer: “When Barack Obama traveled to Texas this month to talk immigration, David Plouffe, his top message guru, decided to stay home and watch Twitter instead. While Obama spoke, Plouffe sat before two flat-screen televisions in the White House complex. One showed live footage of Obama in El Paso. The other flickered with a lightning-quick vertical ticker tape of people tweeting with the #immigration hashtag, reacting line by line to the President in real time. ‘I find it useful,’ Plouffe says, ‘to see what’s penetrating.’

“When Obama went off script to joke that Republicans would soon demand a border moat filled with alligators, a blur of Twitter messages showed people sending the quote to friends and followers, signaling a messaging victory of sorts. ‘It’s kind of the next evolution,’ Plouffe explains. ‘Remember back in 2008, you’d have the presidential debate, and then most of the networks would have some sort of dial going up and down. That seems very Jurassic Park-like compared to this.’ … Plouffe, who served as Obama’s 2008 campaign manager, is an engineer, more interested in data, numbers and quantifiable metrics than in storytelling. He uses the word cume as a verb – meaning ‘to build up a cumulative audience’ – and describes other people as ‘influence hubs.'” http://ti.me/jrh9O5

(Community Matters) Nick Espinosa dumped glitter on Newt Gingrich and his wife, Callista, during a book-signing event in Minneapolis.

Vodpod videos no longer available.

(Community Matters) She’s definitely in for the runoff – too much is at stake. Huge differences between the candidates and for the future of Austin, too much not to allow voters to decide.

“Despite the view of some political pundits, I am confident that we can compete effectively and win the run-off election.  The turnout on May 14th was just 7% — the lowest turnout in decades.  The final margin between myself and my opponent on Election Day was just over 4,000 votes — less than 1/2 of 1% of Austin’s population.  That margin is too small, and the differences of opinion between myself and my opponent too big, for me and my supporters to quit this race.”

The cost of the election pales in comparison to the millions Randi’s opponent would cost Austin.