A Witness To History

Someday, I will be telling my children, "I was there when..."

All during the day yesterday, from when I awoke, to waiting in line in the early morning to vote at the Mahoney Recreation Center, to listening to the radio on the way home from work and then watching the returns on the election coverage provided by PBS, I felt that I was a part of and a witness to history being made. Last night, I stayed awake while most had already gone to bed. After the announcement of victory had been made, I had to hear President Elect Barack Obama's speech as it was given live. I only wish I could have been in Grant Park to feel the elctricty that must have been in the air.

As I worte earlier this year, Barack Obama gave me a sense of hope that we desperately needed as a country. The opening comments of his speech last night spoke directly to what I believe:

If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible; who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time; who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.

Who ever you voted for yesterday, I pray that everyone can believe in yesterday's answer.

Someday, when my children are learning US history in high school, I will be giving them a little bit of extra credit homework of my own. I want them to read these two speeches by Barack Obama. I believe that at least one of them will be tought in history classes fifty or one hundred years from now.

A More Perfect Union - March 18, 2008
Yes, We Can - November 4, 2008

I look forward to teaching my children about yesterday. Teaching them about the dream of our forefathers, why we are all so lucky to be citizens of such a great republic, and that my vote yesterday was to pass along my hopes and dreams to them as they grow up in this world that we are all creating for them.

Yesterday gave me my answer. Yes, we are all in this together.

I'm Mad As Hell!

"I don’t have to tell you things are bad, everybody knows things are bad: It’s a depression! Everybody’s out of work, or scared of losing their job; the dollar buys a nickel’s worth; banks are going bust; shop-keepers keep a gun under the counter; punks are running wild in the street; nobody anywhere seems to know what to do and there’s no end to it! We know the air is unfit to breathe and our food is unfit to eat. We sit watching our TVs whilst some local newscaster tells us that “today we had fifteen homicides and sixty-three violent crimes” as if that’s the way it’s supposed to be! We know things are bad, worse than bad: they’re crazy! It’s like everything everywhere is going crazy, so we don’t go out anymore! We sit in the house and slowly the world we’re living in is getting smaller and all we say is “please, at least leave us alone in our living-rooms - let me have my toaster and my TV and my steel-belted radials and I won’t say anything! Just leave us alone!” Well I’m not going to leave you alone. I want you to get mad! I don’t want you to protest, I don’t want you to riot, I don’t want you to write to your congressman because I wouldn’t know what to tell you to write, I don’t know what to do about the depression and the inflation and the Russians and the crime in the street – all I know is that first you’ve got to get mad! You’ve got to say “I’m a human being goddammit! My life has value!” So, I want you to get up now, I want all of you to get up out of your chairs! I want you to get up right now, and go to the window, open it, and stick your head out and yell “I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore!"

-From the character Howard Beale in the 1976 film Network.

Journalism vs. Bloggers

From Tim O'Riley's blog on August 18th:

What journalists do, which many bloggers have yet to learn, is to consult multiple sources and do fact checking before blurting out a story. But what bloggers do, which journalists have yet to learn, is to wear their biases on their sleeve, rather than pretending they don’t exist.

I couldn't agree more.

Economic Policies For the Working Class

During my research on a recent subject, I found an organization called the Economic Policy Institute. In their own words they are "a nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank that seeks to broaden the public debate about strategies to achieve a prosperous and fair economy." They have a noble mission statement, "To inform people and empower them to seek solutions that will ensure broadly shared prosperity and opportunity." After reading some of their publications, I felt some vindication in my personal philosophy of what I like to call "responsible capitalism." A free market with a conscience and without rampant greed, or "moral hazard" as the Federal Reserve Board likes to call it.

Now, before all the conservatives out there start sniffing, yes, the EPI seems to be left side of center, and they do have a number of labor union representatives as part of their board of directors as well as liberal university egg-heads. BUT, yes, that's a big but, that is just their board. Their researchers and economist on the other hand are graduates and Ph.D's from places like MIT, Columbia, Yale, Princeton, Georgia Tech., and other places that give you really expensive pieces of paper after four, six or eight years of school. Their facts and research are rather interesting and explain a great deal on why I feel like I'm on a hamster wheel getting no where fast.

I highly recommend reading the following:

1.) How Much More Can Consumers Be Squeezed by Stagnant Income, Skyrocketing Household Costs, and Falling Home Prices?
Testimony given by Dr. Jared Bernstein, Senior Economist for the Economic Policy Institute, to the Joint Economic Committee of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives.

2.) A Plan to Revive the American Economy
If I was to give this a title, I would call it The New Deal for the New Century
Part of the EPI's Agenda for Shared Prosperity.

It is obviously part of the progressive movement, but unless you are part of the top 1% of America's wage earners, as most of all of us are not in a town with deep working class roots, why wouldn't you support this?

Lessons Learned for Spruce Street Enterprise Zone?

An interesting read for all those involved with the Spruce Street Revitalization Zone, a.k.a an Enterprise Zone.

Why Enterprise Zones Have Fallen On The Skids -- Courant.com

It Only Took Ten Months

My impression of Carnac The Magnificent:

Carnac holds an envelope to his forehead.

"It will be repealed in a five to four party line vote."

Carnac rips the envelope, blows in it, extracts a piece of paper and reads it.

"What will happen to the Living Wage Ordinance when it comes before the Manchester Board of Directors?"

Ed McMahon: "You are correct sir. Hey-oooooooo!"

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I'm surprised that the Living Wage Ordinance has lasted this long with the new GOP majority. Maybe I'm seeing more than that's there, but the vote in April with the LWO exception for Vision Technical Molding and Advance Mold is looking like the set-up and this next BOD meeting will be the knock-out punch for the LWO.

Director Peak, I can agree that it may be "an inefficient policy," as you were quoted in the Journal Inquirer, some government policy is inefficient or ineffective at best. I have one question, how do you expect people to afford to live in this state? If someone needs to make at least $18 per hour to afford a modest, two bedroom apartment in our area, how is someone going to even afford slumlord's apartment on a minimum wage of $7.65 per hour? I guess we will have to ask the Supportive Housing chairman, David Blackwell, to start planning for more low-income and supportive apartments around town.

Mayor Spadaccini thinks that this ordinance isn't fair to companies like Cigna, a company who made net profits of $1.12 billion in 2007 and $1.16 billion in 2006. (Figures from Google Finance) Mr. Mayor, how fair is it going to be to have people this winter who are going to have a hard time paying their rent, keeping their family warm with out of control energy cost, and feed their family with food prices going up at their current rate? This almost sounds like a twisted GIECO commercial: "Hey, were sticking it to the working class, but at least were saving a bunch of money on our town insurance."

Instead of repealing the ordinance, why not get both parties together and fix the so-called inefficiencies in the ordinance. The LWO isn't a magic bullet to solve the problems of the working class; however, it is a statement by the citizens Manchester that if you want to do business with us, you have to be a fair company and pay your employees enough to just barely survive in the state of Connecticut.

Director Beckman is always stating, sometimes very passionately, about the importance of his conscience when it comes to issues in town. I have a question for you Director Beckman to weight in your conscience. What is more important: repealing on ordinance that will primarily benefit the profits of a large corporation, or having a person being able to support their family with a decent wage?

Manchester Budget Tied To Incorrect Inflation Figures?

RECESSION, YEAR 8 - Yahoo! News

I read this during lunch today, and there is one point in it that made me think about Manchester.

The official inflation rate of two to three percent is a lie, and it has been for years. Presidents Reagan and Clinton ordered the Bureau of Labor Standards to change the way it calculates the Consumer Price Index. Previously they compared the prices of the same items from one year to the next. Now, in order to cheat senior citizens out of cost-of-living increases on their Social Security payments, the government uses a "substitutions" analysis. "The consumer price index assumes that if prices get too high, consumers will start buying cheaper products," reports The San Diego Union-Tribune. For instance, if steak gets too expensive, they will switch to ground beef.

Steve Reed, an economist [with] the Bureau of Labor Standards, freely admits the change makes inflation looks lower than it is. He also admits its motivation: "Even if the CPI was one percentage point higher, it could cost the government hundreds of millions of dollars."

John Williams, an economic consultant who publishes the monthly newsletter "Shadow Government Statistics," calculates that "inflation is actually running at an annualized rate of 9.95 percent." Inflation has been rising since 2002.

If the actual rate of inflation is running at close to 10%, how is the Manchester GOP going to maintain services with only 3% budget increases?

Oh, one more thing: how many of you have changed from Steak to Ground Beef so far? At this rate, we might have to switch to dog food.