February 2012
8 posts
5 tags
The archbishop, lobbying, and the IRS
Today’s (2/28/12) Daily Local editorial “It was fundraisers, not politics that saved the Catholic schools” raises some important questions for all churches and organizations of any faith in this highly politicized season of extensive debates in Harrisburg and campaigns for all State House and some State Senate districts. The editorial says, in part:
Just when you think you’re...
4 tags
For or against big government, or both?
Here’s what, after years of trying, I don’t understand: why do people who are “against big government” favor things like:
The US forbidding states to legalize marijuana or euthanasia?
The feds intervening in the economy?
Increasing military spending?
Government spying on Americans?
While we’re pondering that, according to Michael D. Shear, “Rising Gas...
5 tags
What Santorum thinks of Democrats
The American political system, as it has grown up over the centuries, is predicated on some respect for people of differing backgrounds and views. For many years, Washington was functional that way, with some alliances and cooperation from both sides.
In talking to voters, I’ve always felt that people whose opinions seem pretty far out to me maybe haven’t done their homework, or have...
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"Remember the Maine": on not making assumptions
114 years ago today, February 15, the US was carried into a war by an explosion and an assumption: the battleship Maine exploded in the harbor of Havana, and people assumed the Spanish did it. From Wikipedia:
“USS Maine (ACR-1) was the United States Navy’s second commissioned pre-dreadnought battleship,[a][1] although she was originally classified as an armored cruiser. She is best...
7 tags
Foreign languages and cultural literacy
I can’t resist reproducing this letter from The Economist, Jan. 28:
The American civility war
SIR – America’s protracted love affair with anti-intellectualism has found its latest expression during the Republican presidential nomination contest (“Mitt Romney marches on”, January 14th). Jon Huntsman elicited groans from the Republican audience at a debate for, of all things, speaking...
4 tags
"When The Bankers Plotted To Overthrow FDR"
As I’m sure you know, West Chester’s most famed contributions to our country have been Bayard Rustin, Samuel Barber, and Smedley Darlington Butler.
You can see Butler’s name engraved on the 1960’s court house addition, now numbered 10 North High St. and being turned into an office building. I hope the outside decorations and inscriptions will survive.
“Smedley...
2 tags
Bayard Rustin exhibit at CCHS
Bayard Rustin, one of the civil rights movement’s greatest heroes and a native of West Chester, is honored by a current exhibit at the Chester County Historical Society:
225 N. High Street West Chester, PA 19380, (610) 692-4800 Wednesday through Saturday, 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Here is the official description of the exhibit:
Bayard Rustin’s Local Roots
Bayard Rustin (March 17,...
4 tags
What do the "severely conservative" care about?
What are the big issues facing the country and the world today? Name three and please keep them in mind.
Although I don’t like to use words that call others’ intelligence into question, I am looking at the capaciously-titled article “At CPAC, Santorum Surges Despite Idiotic Claims; Romney Poses as ‘Severe’ Conservative; Gingrich Makes War on GOP,” by Adele...
January 2012
12 posts
5 tags
The powerful firm syndrome
Casinos are in the news today; see “The Man Behind Gingrich’s Money” in the New York Times. That man is casino magnate Sheldon Adelson—a fascinating example of how private interests influence our public and political life and even foreign policy today. Deploring such influences is one of the rare things that the TEA Party and the Occupy Movement may agree on. Examples:...
3 tags
John Tyler’s grandchildren and the sense of...
I just couldn’t resist sharing this historical tidbit from OurCampaigns.com, 1/25/12:
Former President John Tyler’s (1790-1862) grandchildren still alive
Former President John Tyler, born 221 years ago, still has two living grandchildren. The one-term president isn’t a well-known historical figure; he’s probably best remembered for helping to push through the annexation of...
5 tags
Vouchers are already here, under another name
I’ve been thinking about charter schools and school vouchers for a long time. Many have said that vouchers are the slippery slope to privatization of the public schools, from which charter schools are already draining funds. I share the same fear. But the more I learn, the less simple it seems. Let’s remember that charters are public schools too, in the sense that they are paid for...
3 tags
Redistricting: If the Missouri Supreme Court can...
…perhaps the PA Supreme Court can too! We’ll find out when eleven petitions from Chesco and other locations are argued tomorrow in Harrisburg. This article shows that the Missouri impasse revolves around the same point as the PA petition: how to attain compactness of districts without splitting other political units except when absolutely necessary: “Missouri: Court Rejects State...
1 tag
When the current round of gerrymandering could...
I thought you’d be interested in the announcement of a forum I found in my files, below.
Two years ago, people could predict the partisan redistricting that we have just been subjected to, unless redistricting were turned over to someone other than the majority party in Harrisburg. Reform didn’t prevail.
The next reform opportunity will be for the 2021 redistricting… unless...
4 tags
Bayard Rustin, PBS, and CCHS
In case you missed hearing the PBS radio special today (Mon. Jan. 16) on West Chester’s greatest contribution to civil rights, Bayard Rustin, you can still hear it at State of the Reunion. Here is the introductory online text:
Bayard Rustin – Who Is This Man?
A New Black History Month Special from State of the Re:Union
August 28th, 1963 will forever be tied to Martin Luther King Jr.’s...
4 tags
Which is better: the Mafia or Bain Capital?
Today I heard two interesting business facts, and it’s hard not to connect them.
On NPR’s Marketplace program, I noted this mention and found it online:
“The mafia is Italy’s biggest bank” by Kai Ryssdal, 1/11/12
“This final note today, the Cosa Nostra edition. A report out in Italy earlier this week says the mafia is that country’s biggest bank. ...
5 tags
West Chester appeals split between 156th and 160th...
As explained in “The latest on redistricting” (Nov. 29), the Harrisburg plan to redistrict PA House districts splits East Bradford, Westtown, West Chester in Chesco and Upper Chichester in Delco. Just in the 156th and 160th districts, that’s four municipalities split for manifest political purposes in violation of the state constitution.
Residents of the Borough of West Chester,...
2 tags
Why Voting Rights Matter
To show why so many of us react with such outrage to current proposals in Harrisburg to require government-issued photo ID for all voters at all elections—which is widely regarded as a nationally-planned political ploy to make it harder for Democratic-leaning constituencies to vote in November, 2012—I wanted to share this excerpt from “Our Favorite Books of 2011,” in the...
3 tags
From Iowamania to Chescomania?
We’ve been hearing for months about the Iowa Republican caucus. I’m so glad it’s over. I just don’t get the big deal. It’s a good state marketing ploy—but what else? The candidates don’t even get any convention votes out of it, just some bragging rights. Rick Santorum, who five years ago gave up his seat (unwillingly, that is) to Bob Casey by the...
7 tags
Redistricting and the Republican sense of humor
Who ever said Republicans have no sense of humor?
Tom Houghton, member of the PA state house of representatives from 2009-10, long ago announced he was planning to run against Dominic Pileggi in the 9th PA senate district. What a surprise: Tom’s home town of London Grove is no longer in the 9th! The 9th now begins in the next town to the east, New Garden. And who was the leading force on...
2 tags
"Pay Zero Taxes in 2012 — Use This Simple...
How to start the new year: by evading taxes.
At the risk of advertising a profit-making ideological scheme, I thought this email from the far right-wing organization NewsMax was worth sharing, for what it confirms about the differing priorities of the 1% and of the 99%:
Dear Tax Payer, 47% of those earning $250,000 (or more) paid zero taxes during one recent year. Now if these individuals...
December 2011
4 posts
7 tags
Imbalance between rich and poor: the constancy of...
A friend forwarded a quote that seems appropriate to the year and the season—and to Congress’s sudden breakthrough of generosity to the American worker (unless that is mere political interest, but perish such an unworthy thought!):
“An imbalance between rich and poor is the oldest and most fatal ailment of all republics” — Plutarch
This quote has its place in...
3 tags
Solving 2 Republican problems at once
Never say I discriminate with my free advice!
In the Iowa primary, it has become apparent that the candidate with the most money to spend—whether personal money, campaign money, money from “independent” PACs, or money from unidentifiable friends, relatives, and corporations—can afford to buy the most negative ads and will therefore win the Republican caucuses.
And money...
3 tags
O who hath caused this?
Canadian singer Loreena McKennitt’s first CD, Elemental (1985), includes a poem, which she ironically entitles “Lullaby,” by the English poet, painter, mystic, and social revolutionary William Blake (1757-1827).
You can buy the CD on her site or listen to “Lullaby” here. Her framing music and Blake’s contrasting words, spoken by Scottish-Canadian actor...
4 tags
Susan Estrich and the Occupy Movement
Susan Estrich’s column today, “Evicted Occupiers did not win friends” (Daily Local News, 12/3/11), is not one of her more impressive efforts. As it happens, I had breakfast with her once, together with a group of college students. She was quite personable; she even gave students her email and offered to give advice to those planning to enter law and government, her own fields....
November 2011
10 posts
6 tags
The latest on redistricting
Tomorrow, November 30, is the last day to send a note of protest to the Redistricting Committee’s web site. Every note counts (and is supposed to be copied for all the commissioners)! If your computer can deal with files in .wmv (mine can’t), you can also watch the hearings there. The delegation representing West Chester, East Bradford, and West Chester University gave its testimony to...
2 tags
"West Chester must not be broken into two House...
Tomorrow is the day that a delegation reflecting views from West Chester, East Bradford, West Chester University, and Westtown will be speaking at a hearing of the state Redistricting Commission. I wish them luck in getting the redistricting plan improved!
Here is my online comment on the 11/20/11 Daily Local News editorial “West Chester must not be broken into two House districts”:...
4 tags
Protesting redistricting
I sent the following protest note via the Redistricting Committee’s web site: I hereby oppose the current reapportionment plan for the 156th PA House district, which divides the Chester County county seat by moving about 7,500 West Chester residents (including myself) from a district (the 156th) where we are a few blocks from the district office to a district (the 160th) where we are 25...
3 tags
Who cares about $513,010,518?
Who cares about $513,010,518? That’s real money even to the top 1%; it also happens to be the proposed Chesco budget for 2012. I wasn’t going to blog about this evening’s county budget hearing at all, because it was so short and quiet, but then I realized that’s part of the story right there. I left home a bit early, parked for free in the parking garage, went to the wrong...
5 tags
Redistricting 102: splitting West Chester and East...
As I mentioned yesterday in “Redistricting 101,” Harrisburg has slated the 156th PA House district for a new look that cuts across municipal boundaries in West Chester, East Bradford, Westtown, and Upper Chichester (Delco)—even though the state constitution says: “Unless absolutely necessary no county, city, incorporated town, borough, township or ward shall be divided in...
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Redistricting 101 and the case of West Chester
Back in August, I wrote in “Redistricting: politics as usual vs. the public interest and democracy” that:
“Politically-oriented people are anxiously awaiting the results of the changes in electoral districts required by the 2010 census. This can affect all districts which are required to be roughly equal in population, notably for Congress and state legislature, and ultimately...
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Election day, WCASD, the write-in candidates, and...
The fall general election is mercifully over, and as usual the well-financed and well-organized Republicans won all countywide offices (except the one Commissioner seat that by law is not allowed to go to a Republican). I’m going to focus on the 6 seats on the West Chester Area School Board that were up for election. It is clear that the Republican slate won most, but perhaps not all, of...
2 tags
"Telling Americans to Vote, or Else"
That was a timely article in yesterday’s New York Times: “Telling Americans to Vote, or Else” by William A. Galston.
You’d think there are already enough “or else’s” to turn out the voters every time:
• Decline of local budgets and services
• The jobs and home ownership crises
• Disappearing pensions and threats to current or future Social Security and...
4 tags
Who is Russ Phifer's opponent?
Russ Phifer has run an unusually vigorous campaign for Chester County Recorder of Deeds (ROD).
Notably, he got a lot of attention for his charge that prior Recorders of Deeds (who are now the two Republican commissioners) allowed a “back door” password to cost the county hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost revenue. (That even resonated beyond the County; see “Chester...
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8 of the 14 school board candidates in DLN/WCHE...
If you missed this event, you have another chance with the same cast of candidates tomorrow eve: Wednesday, November 2, 7:00 pm: PTOC Debate with WCASD candidates at East High School, 450 Ellis Lane, south off Paoli Pike east of West Chester. Opening statements. Candidates (6 write-ins, Democrat Wayne Burton, Independent Ted Diehl) have lots of kids (some in the WCASD schools), lots of...
October 2011
10 posts
3 tags
West Chester Area School board forum: what was...
Continuing my candidate observation rounds, today with abut 75 others I attended the League of Women Voters forum with the eight West Chester Area School Board candidates who are on the Nov. 8 ballot. The six write-in candidates, who are campaigning very hard, were not invited, because they are, well, write-ins. But exercising their right of free speech, some of them and supporters talked with...
7 tags
Roiling the surface of Chesco politics and a 2009...
Political life is pretty placid around here. Candidates don’t usually get really tough on the issues or on each other.
Some recent exceptions, in chronologically reverse order, are:
September 2011: Recorder of Deeds candidate Russ Phifer’s public denunciation of substantial loss of income to the County by letting some users login with a free password to access databases while others...
4 tags
Commissioner debate: what they did and didn't say
I went to the debate last evening at the nice new Daily Local Community Media Lab. hope the room will get lots of use and it occurs to me that it would be an excellent venue to inform the public through interviews with serving county personnel. The Daily Local has already published its report by Jeremy Gerrard, “Taxes, services and questions of balance“—a title that sums the...
4 tags
DA debate: what they said and what they didn't
I went to this afternoon’s District Attorney candidate debate, sponsored by the League of Women Voters in the ChesCo Library in Exton. Very interesting, and the room was pretty full, around 150 people, I’d guess. Both candidates, I thought, showed a good degree of competence and verbal ability (as one expects from experienced lawyers, of course). Although metaphors prove nothing, I...
3 tags
Public education in danger per 10/21/11 discussion
Friday eve I attended a 2+-hour discussion in East Goshen with 4 real experts on public education. It was organized by the League of Women Voters of Chester County; there should have been a lot more that the 30 or so people in the audience. As speaker Larry Feinberg said, parents tend to think of education as a utility: they send their children to school the way they switch on a light or open a...
4 tags
Occupy Cantor & the Jon M. Huntsmans
The ironies are too rich to resist. Eric Cantor, Republican congressman and House Majority Leader, friend of bank bailouts, enemy of Main Street assistance, raising the minimum wage, and labor unions, is speaking today on “income inequality” at Penn’s Wharton School of Business.
Occupy Philly is planning a march from City Hall followed by an “Occupy Cantor” rally...
3 tags
Economy ahead, people behind
I know I shouldn’t do this—selective quoting. I encourage you to read the entire article, “As Its Economy Sprints Ahead, China’s People Are Left Behind” by David Barboza in today’s New York Times, 10/10/11.
At least I don’t plan to mislead you by taking quotes out of context or changing their order. All I want to do is point your attention to some interesting...
4 tags
Doctor Zhivago, science, and "truth"
One of my hobbies is making associations between ideas or events that may not, at first, seem to be associated (the same imaginative leap that, in my view, underlies much visual art and poetry). What could a Russian novel written at the height of the Cold War possibly say to us about our own public discourse today? Boris Pasternak’s Doctor Zhivago, first published in Italy in 1957, is a...
4 tags
The redistribution of wealth and the current slump
As has now penetrated the media, a lot of Americans are not happy with the corporate-financial domination of our lives today and the decline of the non-rich.
The Tea Partisans seemed to be raising those issues when they started up in 2009, but now that they are pretty much managed by the Koch Brothers and former and current political figures, and now that they have a real power base inside the...
4 tags
Effects of government spending on the economy
A couple of years ago I read that $1,000,000 spent on education creates eight times as many jobs as $1,000,000 spent on the military.
I unfortunately can’t find the source, but the converse is pretty obvious: when the US and the states cut back on education funding and schools fire employees, that adds to unemployment. Then the government pays more unemployment benefits and collects less...
September 2011
9 posts
7 tags
Russ Phifer charges abuse of County's ChescoPIN...
Yesterday morning I was at the Commissioners meeting where environmental health and safety specialist Russ Phifer charged that for ten years the County has been giving away data services on which it should have collected at least $500,000. He and other subscribers have been paying for access that, apparently, hundreds of others have been using for free. You can read the story online under the...
3 tags
West Nields St. garage update: neighbors keep...
About 25 members of the public and about half of Borough Council and the Mayor attended last evening’s “South New Street Parking Facility - Neighborhood Meeting” at Borough Hall. They now seem to be calling it “South New Street” in stead of “West Nields” and “parking facility” instead of “garage” to sound less alarming to the...
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Economics and common sense
I am a neophyte in economics. So, it seems, unfortunately, are economists. The problem is that predicting economic trends depends on factors like “consumption” and “consumer confidence,” and who can predict those? Economists, like historians, try to measure and explain things after the fact, but don’t seem to have anything useful to do or say about the future. ...
7 tags
Proposed PA Mini Electoral College and the...
The Electoral College is unfair, because it violates the fundamental principle that individuals’ votes should carry equal weight and that the majority wins. This bad system was the price the Founders had to pay to get the southern states and smaller states on board in 1787. They also established the selection of US senators by state legislatures, which we got rid of in 1913, though some...
3 tags
Rustin in the Washington Post
I just came across, and wanted to share, the article “Bayard Rustin, organizer of the March on Washington, was crucial to the movement” by Steve Hendrix, Washington Post, 8/17/11, including an evocation of his formative years in West Chester:
“…Rustin began a lifelong, one-man march for dignity in his teen years in West Chester, Pa., where he was born in 1912. He was...
3 tags
Bayard Rustin and an informative note from...
Recently I was happy to have a letter published in the New Yorker, whose text is as follows:
Re: Back on the Bus: A letter in response to Calvin Trillin’s article (July 25, 2011) August 15, 2011
I greatly enjoyed Calvin Trillin’s reflections about covering the 1961 Freedom Rides (“Back on the Bus,” July 25th). Although numerous fiftieth-anniversary celebrations are now commemorating...