Sure, I Remember

I spoke to one of my sisters back in western PA last week, and she said it was snowing. She asked me if I remember snow. Barely. A storm is coming in tonight here but we get rain and maybe sleet, and on rare occasions, a thirty second snowstorm. Nothing like the above, which I well remember. This photo is by Pittsburgh Post Gazette photographer Bill Wade, and it was taken some years ago fairly close to where my other sister lives. And to where we all grew up. Nothing like the silence in the newly fallen snow. (Before the back tires start screaming all over town.)

Hooverville, D.C.

If you thought yesterday's post was a little over the top, you should read this memo--or "action alert"--circulated to congressional Republicans on Wednesday, confirming that the reason Senate Republicans opposed the funds to prevent a cascade of catastrophe to the U.S. economy, was union-busting, plain and simple.

The motivation in the memo is pure partisan politics. That doesn't mean there isn't more to it as well. For example, 18 Republicans voted against the $14 billion for two automakers, with all kinds of oversight and strings attached, who also voted FOR the $700 billion bailout of Wall Street financial institutions, with no real oversight or strings attached.

And now we learn that the Federal Reserve is refusing to tell the media, even under the Freedom of Information Act, which institutions they gave some TWO TRILLION DOLLARS to.

Interesting that Republicans and Herbert Hoover were linked twice on Friday. A bit weird that it was by a Republican Senator and the current VP, Dick Cheney.

Bush avoided a market meltdown Friday by announcing that the executive branch will find a way to rescue GM and Chrysler, although no plan has yet been announced. GM announced "temporary" plant closings and layoffs. The media finally woke up to the danger all this represents, at least to some extent.

Will We Remember December 11?

Just a few days after the governor of Illinois was arrested for, among other things, intending to sell a U.S. Senate seat, we have seen something even worse: Senate Republicans were willing to put millions of Americans out of work and destroy the economic future of their country because they hate the union movement.

That's the long and the short of it. Because of the intransigence of these few men, the bridge loan to two of the Big Three U.S. car manufacturers that was negotiated by Democrats and the Republican administration, and which the House of Representatives passed, failed to gain the 60 votes in the Senate necessary to proceed on Thursday night, ending this session of Congress. Even though the United Autoworkers union partially capitulated to their extortionate demands.

So if you're reading this Friday morning and wondering why the stock market is falling off a cliff, now you know. About the only thing left to rescue the market and the economy is Secretary of Treasury Paulsen using some of the $350 billion bailout money already voted--with no such objection by Republicans, because the money has been going to big banks and financial institutions, where executives rake in tens of millions in bonuses. There is one report that this is being considered. It had better happen quickly on Friday.

The most active Republican Senators in opposition are from states that host foreign carmakers, with weak or nonexistent unions. Their statements indicating that General Motors and perhaps Chrysler should go into bankruptcy are sheer hypocrisy, as well as delusional. There is no possible chapter 11 for General Motors, financial analysts say, because no bank has the funds to protect them. And when GM goes, so go the others, and so goes the nation. Bankruptcy means liquidation, with devastating consequences, not only to this already devastated economy, but to the future possibilities of recovery.

America needs industrial capacity and skilled industrial workers. America needs unions, especially now, when the few rich have a dangerously high percentage of total wealth, and the working middle class has so little that millions are struggling to survive, even when they have jobs.

But these irresponsible, callous and stupid men are willing to turn a Great Recession into a Great Depression, just in time for Christmas. If allowed to stop this rescue, they will have done more damage to this country than terrorists could even dream of. And December 11, 2008 will be a day that lives in infamy.

Moon Over Mount Olympus

Now we've got one--an excellent photo from this year's conjunction of the Moon, Jupiter and Venus, taken earlier this month by Vangelis Tsintsifas on Mount Olympus in Greece. By now, the Moon is moving towards full (on Friday) and because it's particular close this month, it is particularly big and bright. We had a clear night here Tuesday night and the Moon was gorgeous. Check it out.

It's Always the Top Story

It was supposed to be the Obama story of the day, but something else came up. PE Obama and VPE Joe Biden met with Al Gore, before Gore travels to the climate talks in Poland, and before Obama announces his Cabinet appointments to Energy and Environmental Protection.

In the brief press meet afterwards, Obama reinterated his support for making the Climate Crisis an urgent priority. “"All three of us are in agreement that the time for delay is over, the time for denial is over. We all believe what the scientists have been telling us for years now, that this is a matter of urgency and national security, and it has to be dealt with in a serious way,” Mr. Obama said. “That is what I intend my administration to do.”

But nobody paid much attention to this, because something else came up. And something else always does. That's a major problem for confronting this crisis with the breadth and depth and intensity it requires. Speaking of Mr. Obama, pre-eminent U.S. Climate Crisis scientist (and second only to Gore as the chief target of the Climate Crisis deniers) James Hansen wrote recently, "The challenge he faces is unprecedented. I refer not to the inherited economic morass, as threatening as it is. The human toll due to past failures and excesses may prove to be great, yet economic recessions, even depressions, come and go. Now our planet itself is in peril. Not simply the Earth, but the fate of all its species, including humanity. The situation calls not for hand-wringing, but rather informed action."

That puts it in perspective, but it is this perspective that is most difficult to attain and hold. It's too big, too outside everyday life, everyday issues, and the kinds of things we're used to chattering with our media enablers. So there's always something else.

Perhaps the good news is that there are other reasons for doing many of the things we need to do to address the Climate Crisis--reasons and actions perhaps easier to grasp and build support for. Like building a green economy, including fuel-efficient and alternative fuel vehicles, a more efficient and greener electrical grid. Or smaller scale changes that add up--weatherizing, redesigning, replacing wasteful technologies. All of these are already proposed are parts of the Obama economic recovery.

Al Gore endorsed this approach in an oped last month: "Here is the good news: the bold steps that are needed to solve the climate crisis are exactly the same steps that ought to be taken in order to solve the economic crisis and the energy security crisis. "

These efforts will change more than the economy. They may begin the kind of changes we need to make to respond to what's here as well as what's coming. Our communities as well as our nation will change. That's inevitable. But now we have a chance to change constructively instead of reacting with fear.

Part of the economic change we need--addressing the needs of the poor and middle class as well as the desires of the rich--must also be part of how we address the Climate Crisis and related environmental issues.

One of those calling for change on this basis is Oakland, CA activist and lawyer Van Jones. I've been meaning to blog on this interview in Sentient Times since it came out in August, but...there was always something else. In this interview--worth reading in its entirety--Jones identifies the social and racial aspect of the problem, as what he calls "eco-apartheid":

“Eco-apartheid” is a situation in which you have ecological haves and have-nots. In other words, if you are in the San Francisco Bay Area, and you visit Marin County, you’ll find hybrid vehicles, solar panels, organic food, organic everything. If you then get in your car and drive twenty minutes, you’ll be in west Oakland, where people are literally choking on the fumes of the last century’s pollution-based technologies. That’s eco-apartheid, and it’s morally wrong, because we should deliver clean jobs and health benefits not just to the wealthy, but also to the people who need them most. Eco-apartheid doesn’t work on a practical level either, because you can’t have a sustainable economy when only 20 percent of the people can afford to pay for hybrids, solar panels, and organic cuisine, while the other 80 percent are still driving pollution-based vehicles to the same pollution-based jobs and struggling to make purchases at Wal-Mart."

Other activists--particularly Native American activists, pointing to the preponderance of toxic waste dumps and other dangerous sites on tribal lands--have long raised the issues of environmental justice. But Jones is adding a very practical addenda, another spin to Obama's contention that we need a society where the wealth is more evenly distributed: without that, we won't get to a greener country, or to adequately addressing the Climate Crisis:

"For the sustainable economy to be successful, it has to be a full-participation economy. Right now it is a niche economy, a lifestyle economy... It is easy for the eco-elites in Massachusetts or northern California to wrap themselves in the trappings of sustainability and think that the problem has been solved, but the people who clean their houses are going back to neighborhoods that may be fifty years in the past in terms of their ecological sustainability. As we move toward a sustainable economy, if we do not take care to minimize the pain and maximize the gain for the poor, they will join forces with the polluters to derail the green revolution..."

All this is only part of what needs to be done. Bill McKibben outlines some other general areas, such as some kind of carbon tax, and American support--American leadership-- for international Climate Crisis measures. (McKibben argues elsewhere that the solution Tom Friedman suggests in his latest best seller won't work--that America leads by the example of its own green economy which other nations will emulate-- because there just isn't time for it to work. Everybody has to get at this now or it will be too late.)

We can make progress addressing the Climate Crisis incrementally by a kind of "plus" philosophy: i.e. the green economy is good for the economy, for the middle class, for energy independence, plus it helps save the planet. Or as Obama said Tuesday: “We have the opportunity now to create jobs all across this country, to re-power America, to redesign how we use energy, to think about how we are increasing efficiency, to make our economy stronger, make us more safe, reduce our dependence on foreign oil, and make us competitive for decades to come, even as we are saving the planet.”

We can make progress saving the planet by doing something else. But we're also going to have to take actions because they address the Climate Crisis that confronts the world, and that inevitably means taking actions with the world.

All of us will be forced to confront Climate Crisis realities sooner or later. And when that time comes, we will be talking about nothing else. Way before then we'd best understand that local CC problems have global causes. The planet: it's always the top story.

Two Faces of the Economy

While Merrill Lynch CEO John Thain demanded a $10 million bonus--count'em, John, that's ten big ones--for doing his bit in the financial meltdown which his company survived with federal bailout millions, these Chicago workers are living in their abandoned factory to get the money they're owed, amounting to a crucial few thousands. See post below. Thain photo from Business Week; workers from NY Times.

Class Warfare

"It's class warfare!" Such has been the right wing/Wall St. Republican chant, the battle cry which in the 08 campaign became the bleat. Sheer cynicism for the party of projection, as they waged pitiless class warfare against the poor and the middle class since the 1980s.

Now Barack Obama has won the argument: that historically, everyone does better when everyone does better--the rich prosper in a more sustainable fashion when the middle class is big and strong. But Obama isn't President yet, and class warfare is flaring.

It's gone underground with Bush's burrowing of ideologues in the federal government, and in his last pathetic power grab, his imposing of anti-union bias and other aggressions against workers in the Big Three bridge loans, perhaps including his own appointment of a "car czar" to micro-manage federal involvement regardless of what the Obama administration wants to do.

But it's way out in the open in two news stories. On the one hand, there's Merrill Lynch chief executive John Thain, who didn't let his company's failure softened by federal bailout millions stop him from asking for a $10 million bonus for himself. When the request became public, the firm's compensation committee reportedly denied it.

On the other hand there's the Chicago employees of Republic Windows and Doors whose money was stolen by their company when it suddenly closed the factory. They are union employees, and they refused to be dissed. They occupied the factory, and spread the word. These things don't always attract attention, but this one did:

Chicago workers in the third day of a sit-in on the floor of their former workplace peered through the windows of a door Sunday, amazed by a mix of supporters, politicians and journalists who packed a foyer outside.

"We never expected this," said Melvin Maclin, a factory employee and vice president of the local union that represents the workers. "We expected to go to jail."

The 200 workers demanding severance and vacation pay have become a national symbol for thousands of employees laid off nationwide as the economy continues to sour. They occupied the plant of their former employer, Republic Windows and Doors, after the company abruptly fired them last week. "

Chicago has rallied to their side--and this time they've got an additional warrior. When asked about it at a press conference Sunday, PE Barack Obama said : “The workers who are asking for the benefits and payments that they have earned... I think they’re absolutely right, and understand that what’s happening to them is reflective of what’s happening across this economy.”

Union, company and bank officials met Monday and will meet again Tuesday to resolve the Chicago situation. But it needs more than a symbolic victory. Class warfare against the working class and the middle class must end.

Happy Monday

Going Forward Together

On December 7, 1941, elements of the Japanese military attacked U.S. ships at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. At the request of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the U.S. declared war the next day, effectively entering World War II around the world. One internal consequence was the imprisonment of some Japanese American families in internment camps.

Sixty-seven years later, today, December 7, 2008, President-Elect Barack Obama will appoint U.S. General Eric Shinseki as Secretary of Veterans Affairs. Shinseki is Japanese American. He is the first Obama appointee of cabinet rank to be of Asian descent. Both he and the President-elect who appointed him were born in Hawaii.

He will be responsible for U.S. military veterans. His numerous charges with the most pressing problems are veterans of Iraq. Shinseki is best known as the General who told Rumsfeld and other Bushites that they would need far more troops for a far longer time than they had planned to take and hold Iraq. For that he was fired.

And among his charges are a very small number of veterans of World War II.

Is this a great country or what? The land of reconciliation, as well as irony. And of looking forward.

Economic Recovery, Part One

In his Saturday radio/YouTube address, PE Barack Obama outlined the economic recovery program he will propose: "We won’t do it the old Washington way. We won’t just throw money at the problem. We’ll measure progress by the reforms we make and the results we achieve – by the jobs we create, by the energy we save, by whether America is more competitive in the world."

"First, we will launch a massive effort to make public buildings more energy-efficient. Our government now pays the highest energy bill in the world... That won’t just save you, the American taxpayer, billions of dollars each year. It will put people back to work."

"Second, we will create millions of jobs by making the single largest new investment in our national infrastructure since the creation of the federal highway system in the 1950s. We’ll invest your precious tax dollars in new and smarter ways, and we’ll set a simple rule – use it or lose it. If a state doesn’t act quickly to invest in roads and bridges in their communities, they’ll lose the money."

"Third, my economic recovery plan will launch the most sweeping effort to modernize and upgrade school buildings that this country has ever seen...As we renew our schools and highways, we’ll also renew our information superhighway... because that’s how we’ll strengthen America’s competitiveness in the world."

"...we must also ensure that our hospitals are connected to each other through the internet. That is why the economic recovery plan I’m proposing will help modernize our health care system – and that won’t just save jobs, it will save lives. We will make sure that every doctor’s office and hospital in this country is using cutting edge technology and electronic medical records so that we can cut red tape, prevent medical mistakes, and help save billions of dollars each year.

"These are a few parts of the economic recovery plan that I will be rolling out in the coming weeks. When Congress reconvenes in January, I look forward to working with them to pass a plan immediately. We need to act with the urgency this moment demands to save or create at least two and a half million jobs so that the nearly two million Americans who’ve lost them know that they have a future. And that’s exactly what I intend to do as President of the United States."

Full transcript here.

Barack the World

"I will not exaggerate the importance of a single personality, but Obama has become a global symbol like none I can recall in my lifetime... Were his administration to demonstrate in its day-to-day conduct a genuine understanding of other countries' perspectives and an empathy for the aspirations of people around the world, it could change America's reputation in lasting ways.

This is a rare moment in history. A more responsive America, better attuned to the rest of the world, could help create a new set of ideas and institutions—an architecture of peace for the 21st century that would bring stability, prosperity and dignity to the lives of billions of people. Ten years from now, the world will have moved on; the rising powers will have become unwilling to accept an agenda conceived in Washington or London or Brussels. But at this time and for this man, there is a unique opportunity to use American power to reshape the world. This is his moment. He should seize it."

---Fareed Zakaria, Newsweek

The Great Recession: Two Quotes

"The 533,000 jobs lost last month, the worst job loss in 34 years, is more than a dramatic reflection of the growing economic crisis we face. Each of those lost jobs represents a personal crisis for a family somewhere in America... There are no quick or easy fixes to this crisis, which has been many years in the making, and it’s likely to get worse before it gets better. But now is the time to respond with urgent resolve to put people back to work and get our economy moving again.

At the same time, this painful crisis also provides us with an opportunity to transform our economy to improve the lives of ordinary people by rebuilding roads and modernizing schools for our children, investing in clean energy solutions to break our dependence on imported oil, and making an early down payment on the long-term reforms that will grow and strengthen our economy for all Americans for years to come."

--PE Barack Obama

"Policy makers must recognize this deterioration and craft their responses accordingly. Our job market is now shedding jobs at a truly alarming rate, a rate measurably worse than past recessions. We face an emergency that certainly equals those in the financial markets in recent months. The American workforce is too big to fail."

--Jared Bernstein, economic advisor to VPE Joe Biden.

The conjunction of Venus, Jupiter and the crescent moon was visible here now and again, in and out of clouds. I tried a photo at dusk but the moon was a blur. I haven't seen any really good photos on the web yet either, but there's this one from a similar conjunction in 2005.

The Change Starts Here

So where's the change? That's the prattle, some sincere no doubt, some the usual self-serving, time-filling contrived drama the media feels it needs. PE Obama is appointing all these folks who've been around for awhile, doing stuff in the area of what they've been appointed to do. Where's the change in that?

Okay, so this is not a problem for most people who like to see clearly qualified people appointed to important jobs. CNN's poll shows 75% of the public approves of PE Obama's cabinet and other appointments. They're so thrilled with the appointment of Hillary that her approval rating is the highest it's been in ten years.

But for those who are worried, there are a lot of signs and signals about the change to come (beginning when they all take office, which is not until late next month.) The change doesn't have to look big right now to eventually be big.

For instance, in her brief remarks at the announcement of her appointment as Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton mentioned several important issues and said: “America cannot solve these crises without the world and the world cannot solve them without America."

After eight years of Bushite unilateralism, of the refusal of the U.S. to take part in global negotiations and treaties on such essential issues as the Climate Crisis and nuclear proliferation, Hillary's statement is positively revolutionary.

She went on to spell out a little of what it means: “By electing Obama our next president, the American people have demanded not just a new direction at home, but a new effort to renew America’s standing in the world as a force for positive change.”

That's change we can believe in, change we need...and change we voted for.

While Robert Gates was a Bush appointee at Defense, he's an advocate for closing Guantanamo, and said he will carry out Obama's intention to end the Iraq war and bring the troops home.

Then there's Susan Rice, appointed as the US Ambassador to the UN (which Obama restored to full Cabinet department rank) who is an advocate for strong responses to genocide, particularly now in Darfur. Darfur has a powerful advocate! Change I can believe in, believe me!

Several articles about the entire national security team make the point that it represents a big change from primary reliance on military force and, to put it more bluntly, bullying, to more balance with diplomacy and aid, so-called "soft power." In the best of these I've seen, Marc Ambinder calls it "smart power."

Smart! Pretty big change there!

Eric Holder, appointed Attorney-General, made a point of talking about restoring Constitutional guarantees and traditional American positions (read: no torture.) More change!

Wednesday, Bill Richardson was named Commerce Secretary, and he talked about how "you open markets and minds with partnerships, innovation and hard work." For those who worry he got short-changed, his vision of the job includes international commerce, and he's on board on the overarching issues of addressing the Climate Crisis and creating the Green Deal economy: he mentioned "innovation" and technology several times, as well as clean energy jobs and--here's a word of change: "manufacturing."

You might say that some of this "change" is changing back, and that's true--but it's no less needed, and it's unfortunately no less change. But it's all change for the future. Manufacturing yes, but as Obama makes clear vis a vis the auto industry, manfacturing new kinds of stuff in new ways--the sustainable, clean energy economy of the future. Infrastructure yes, but not just roads and bridges--weatherizing homes, rebuilding the electrical grid, expanding broadband.

Finally, as Obama himself said, the big change is him. He's already showing that he's bringing intelligence to the presidency that's a huge change. So far nothing has knocked him off stride. The terrorist attack in India? Obama has been saying that a key to problems in that whole part of the world is solving the dispute between India and Pakistan over Kashmir. And that turns out to be implicated in that attack.

Joint Chiefs, governors, Republicans-- they're all impressed with what he says, but also with how he listens.

He's already said how important addressing the Climate Crisis will be, that Guantanamo must be closed, the troops brought home from Iraq, etc. He's told the governors that he's going to help the states deal with their crises, with money for infrastructure, but also for the Green Deal. He's indicated that he wants universal health care as part of the economic recovery and rebuilding.

And the American people are behind him. There's another change. He's saying he will do what he always said he would do. Because it's change he believes in.

Tonight's the Night

A conjunction of Venus and Jupiter near the crescent moon (like this one, photographed in 1998) happens tonight in the southwestern sky. Details on this free sky show are here and here.

The Unhealthy Care System

Monday all eyes will be on foreign affairs, as President-Elect Barack Obama introduces members of his National Security team, including several Cabinet secretaries. The New York Times quotes a foreign policy advisor suggesting that Obama will be seeking "a rebalancing" of how the U.S. conducts itself in the world, emphasizing a sustainable policy that returns diplomacy and material assistance to the mix, as well as military power.

But an article in the Washington Post on Sunday about a primary domestic issue shouldn't escape significant notice. It's about the U.S. health care system, and it begins: "Talk to the chief executives of America's preeminent health-care institutions, and you might be surprised by what you hear: When it comes to medical care, the United States isn't getting its money's worth. Not even close."

"Our health-care system is fraught with waste," says Gary Kaplan, chairman of Seattle's cutting-edge Virginia Mason Medical Center. As much as half of the $2.3 trillion spent today does nothing to improve health, he says.

The article goes on to assert: "Yet among physicians, insurers, academics and corporate executives from across the ideological spectrum, there is remarkably broad consensus on what ought to be done."

Those familiar with the issue, especially if they have been listening to what Barack Obama said during the campaign, probably won't be surprised by the prescription for efficiency, preventive care, an emphasis on primary care, etc. But it is significant that (1) health care officials are saying it themselves, and (2) these quotes are appearing in Washington's establishment newspaper.

Health care is very likely to be an important component in the Obama proposals to change the economy. This is only a preview. But a very good indication that something might really get done this time. Because it is change we need.

Happy Thanksgiving 2008

The incoming First Family helps distribute food in Chicago, and visit with schoolchildren. Here are excerpts of a NY Daily News article about it, provided--along with these photos--by Al Rodgers (check out the rest of them): Clearly, those lining up for food hadn't been told they had an importangt guest helping out. this day. Many of them lit up; some shrieked with delight and hugged one or more of the Obamas. One elderly woman bowed; all seemed very appreciative. One and all were greeted with handshakes, hugs, and hearty "Happy Thanksgivings."
The daughters behaved like troopers for a half hour or so before the cold caught up with them, and they retired for a few minutes to warm up.
One sixty-something neighborhood resident named Daryel Namdan was asked how it felt to have Obama there. "It makes me feel very special," he said, before choking up.
Father Matt Eyerman of Saint Columbanus said the church feeds 450 to 500 every week. They start lining up at 5 a.m. to make sure they get a ticket to assure them food.
An Obama aide said the family has been to this particular food bank before and has pitched in here or elsewhere at least two other years.

Gratitude 2008

Last Thanksgiving, my post began by citing a recent poll that said "Americans enter the holiday season in a dark mood, with economic worries, security fears and a lack of confidence in government fueling growing pessimism."

When viewing the economy, the mood this year must be even darker. I sense real fear for what may happen in the upcoming shopping season and immediately afterwards-- fearing especially that this year will take the irony out of the name "Black Friday," given in recent years to the day after Thanksgiving, traditionally the biggest shopping day of the main shopping season of the year.

But forboding is not necessarily pessimism, and one of the major things Americans can be grateful for is our new President. Barack Obama won the presidency with a larger popular vote margin--now over 9 million votes--than any non-incumbent candidate ever. This is going to be a difficult year but we are going to be building a new future, and that's reason for optimism. Because we already have hope.

So it seems especially appropriate to also repeat more from last year's post-- some quotations from an article by Joanna Macy, called "Gratitude," originally published in the Buddhist magazine, Shambhala Sun:

"We have received an inestimable gift. To be alive in this beautiful, self-organizing universe--to participate in the dance of life with senses to perceive it, lungs that breathe it, organs that draw nourishment from it--it is a wonder beyond words. It is an extraordinary privilege to be accorded a human life, with self-reflexive consciousness that brings awareness of our own actions and the ability to make choices. It lets us choose to take part in the healing of our world."

"Gratitude for the gift of life is the primary wellspring of all religions, the hallmark of the mystic, the source of all true art. Yet we so easily take this gift for granted. That is why so many spiritual traditions begin with thanksgiving, to remind us that for all our woes and worries, our existence itself is an unearned benefaction, which we could never of ourselves create.

"That our world is in crisis--to the point where survival of conscious life on Earth is in question---in no way diminishes the value of this gift; on the contrary. To us is granted the privilege of being on hand: to take part, if we choose, in the Great Turning to a just and sustainable society. We can let life work through us, enlisting all our strength, wisdom and courage, so that life itself can continue."

"The great open secret of gratitude is that it is not dependent on external circumstance. It's like a setting or a channel that we can switch to at any moment, no matter what's going on around us. It helps us connect to our basic right to be here, like the breath does. It's a stance of the soul...."

"There are hard things to face in our world today, if we want to be of use. Gratitude, when it is real, offers no blinders. On the contrary, in the face of devastation and tragedy, it can ground us, especially when we're scared. It can hold us steady for the work to be done."

Happy Thanksgiving, America. (And, a little late, to Canada, too.)

A Tragedy Still Alive

A family in Dallas contemplates the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on its 45th anniversary, November 22. It looks like none of them had yet been born.

Getting Started Now

President-Elect Obama announces a two year plan to create 2.5 million new jobs. "These aren’t just steps to pull ourselves out of this immediate crisis; these are the long-term investments in our economic future that have been ignored for far too long...It is time to act. As the next President of the United States, I will." Full text of this short message at American Dash.

This Buddha's For You

This Buddhist temple in Thailand is built, inside and out, entirely of recycled beer bottles.

As General Motors Goes...

By Wednesday's end, Congress looked poised not to act on any measures to secure the nation's failing big car companies, which sent Wall Street plunging downward again.

Meanwhile Paul Krugman and others warned that the failure of one of these companies--General Motors seems the most vulnerable--could lead to a cascading catastrophe: and as General Motors goes, so goes the nation.

There are competing plans for quickly dispersing some $25 billion, but the Bush administration won't act on its own, and Congress apparently won't either. Some argue for letting these companies go bankrupt, or for a bankruptcy plan tailored to these companies so they can reorganize with the least pain all around. Others (like Barney Frank) argue that everything bankruptcy permits can be done without it--while the downside of bankruptcy is penalizing workers and stalling out car sales even further.

Once again, the warnings are very dire--especially that GM could fail and the cascade could begin before Obama and the new Congress take office, so that he may inherit not a bad recession but an onrushing Depression.

There's a certain apocalypse fatigue involved, as well as a suspicion of the boy who cried wolf. However, as a book about how the American steel industry collapsed noted in its title, in that old story, the wolf finally came.

But if crossing the point of no return on a major longterm blow to the American economy and America's place in the world doesn't focus enough minds in Washington, maybe this will:

China would maybe like to buy an American car company or two. Like General Motors.

The Climate Crisis President: "Delay is No Longer An Option"

Okay, it's another video of Barack Obama at a desk with that same brown background, but this one is VERY IMPORTANT. In three minutes he has changed U.S. policy on the Climate Crisis in the strongest possible way.

The Earth-Saving Story You Probably Missed

It's not an earth-shattering story, with or without the Daily Show animation. Instead it may be an earth-saving story. It was Tuesday's most important story, and just about everybody missed it.

The Global Climate Summit of five U.S. governors convened in California, and got an immediate surprise: a taped video statement by the President-Elect. The San Francisco Chronicle put it this way: In his first speech on global warming since winning the election, President-elect Barack Obama promised Tuesday to set stringent limits on greenhouse gases, saying the need is too urgent for delay.

Many observers had expected Obama to avoid tackling such a complex, contentious issue early in his administration. But in videotaped comments to the Governors' Global Climate Summit in Beverly Hills on Tuesday, he called for immediate action.

"Now is the time to confront this challenge once and for all," Obama said. "Delay is no longer an option. Denial is no longer an acceptable response. The stakes are too high, the consequences too serious." He repeated his campaign promise to create a system that limits carbon dioxide emissions and forces companies to pay for the right to emit the gas. Using the money collected from that system, Obama plans to invest $15 billion each year in alternative energy. That investment - in solar, wind and nuclear power, as well as advanced coal technology - will create jobs at a time of economic turmoil, he said.

"It will ... help us transform our industries and steer our country out of this economic crisis by generating 5 million new green jobs that pay well and can't be outsourced," Obama said.

Many people listening to Obama's speech Tuesday had waited years to hear it."

There was yet another indication Tuesday that the Obama administration is going to take the Climate Crisis seriously and urgently: it was reported that Obama will appoint Peter Orszag as his Budget Director. Orszag, currently the budget director of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, will be a crucial voice in setting budget priorities. But he is not just a numbers man. He has expertise on several crucial issues, including health care and the Climate Crisis.

Orszag lectured recently on climate change at Wellesley College. (His slides are posted on his blog--did he borrow any from Al?) For those who predict--or worry--that faced with looming deficits, Obama won't invest aggressively in addressing the Climate Crisis and starting work on a Green Deal economy, here are Orszag's words from this lecture: "Reducing the risks associated with climate change requires trading off up-front costs in exchange for long-term benefits." The lecture goes on to suggest ideas for reducing short-term costs, without sacrificing long-term benefits. But stating the principle first is very important.

Avatar, Baby

I don't usually do "weird news" here, but I clipped this story a few weeks ago and it still says something about the strange new world we're entering, as cyberspace meets real space, and both are real life.

A 43-year old woman in Japan, a piano teacher, was a devoted player in an interactive game called "Maple Story," with its virtual world, where she had met and married a 33 year old man, an office worker in another Japanese city. That is, her avatar married his avatar within that virtual world. As part of their online marriage, they exchanged log-in information.

Then one day the teacher logged on to find that he had divorced her. "Without a word of warning," she said. "That made me so angry." Angry enough for her to use his ID and password to get access to his avatar-- and to destroy it. In revenge for the virtual divorce, she committed virtual murder.

Enter the police. The real world police. They arrested her, and transported her 620 miles to another city, where the office worker lived and where, in their terms, the crime was committed. She was jailed, on suspicion of illegally accessing a computer and manipulating electronic data.

The office worker victim had apparently also been upset to find his avatar dead, and called the police.

The AP story I saw (in a real newspaper, so I have no online link) said she hadn't actually been charged yet, but the penalty for a conviction was up to five years in prison. Her real self, in a real prison, for five real years.

A Willingness to Try Things

Someday I'll learn digital video editing but the best I can do is post this chunk of President-Elect Obama's interview on 60 Minutes that includes several sections I found especially important. It picks up as he finishes talking about the financial crisis, then about executive orders, Iraq, Osama bin Laden, and then with a mention of a book on FDR, into the heart of his approach to what he's going to do, especially on the economy. He believes the American people want him to act, with "a willingness to try things," and the test isn't where ideas come from, or who proposed them or what ideology supports them, but whether they work.

It reminds me of something Will Rogers said as FDR was being inaugurated: "If he burned down the Capitol, we would cheer and say, 'Well, we at least got a fire started somehow.'" Things aren't anywhere near as bad as they were in 1932, but Obama understands that he was elected to do something--and precisely what he does matters less than the scale of it. He promised change. That's what he was elected to bring.

Hope, Fear and 60 Minutes

It seems that millions of Americans are awaiting Barack Obama's presidency with great anticipation. His 60 Minutes interview had a big audience--bigger than that program has had before in this century. He continues to get high approval ratings, and more than three-quarters of those surveyed by CNN are confident he will make the right choices for his Cabinet. The interest in his Inauguration is high, with upwards of a million people expected in Washington to witness it in some fashion. Update: DC officials said Tuesday they expect up to four million people for the Inauguration.

But in all this hope there is also fear, and some of it is ugly, and may be dangerous. Hundreds of incidents, most of them racial, have been recorded by police and other agencies across the country, including cross-burnings, vandalism and children chanting assassination.

This reactionary wave may be temporary. But even if these post-election reactions settle down, for other reasons we're in for a bumpy ride, for some months at least. The full impact of the economic crisis hasn't hit most people and most places yet. Many businesses will try to hang on through the holiday shopping season but with retail continuing to slide, by January there are apt to be more corporate bankruptcies and business failures, with more lost jobs. There's going to be a lot more anxiety and fear.

The best antidote is what we saw on 60 Minutes: a new President who speaks clearly, persuasively, and from the heart. Who is ready to act, and to keep trying things until something works. The more Barack Obama is seen and heard, the more confidence Americans will have. And the ignorant and misguided will either realize their fears are groundless, or they will simply find no support. While we must be vigilant to the real possibility of ugliness and even violence, we can't let it rule us.

In the coming weeks we will see a new administration unfold, and we will be called to participate in the great work ahead. We will all have our disappointments and disagreements. But Obama made it clear on 60 Minutes that he intends to do what he's promised in the campaign. What's been interesting to me is how consistent he's been in what he's said. We just hear and absorb more of it each time.

After 60 Minutes on Sunday, Margaret suggested that my grandmother would have approved of what we saw. It was an interesting remark, partly because Margaret never met my grandmother, who emigrated from Italy as a young wife and mother in the 1920s. But I had told Margaret that 60 Minutes was one of the few TV shows she always watched (along with Lawrence Welk and Family Feud)--only my grandmother called it "the clock."

But I think Margaret is right. The interplay between Barack and Michelle, and between Barack and the interviewer (Steve Croft), as well as what he had to say and how he said it, would probably have impressed her. She was wary of black people, but a nice suit and good manners went a long with her. I'm sure she looked for honesty in a candidate, and she was predisposed to Democrats. (Of course, that he left the campaign to visit his ailing grandmother would have won her vote and her heart right there.) But what usually sold her was intelligence. I can hear what she would say about Obama: "He's smart."

More Hopeful Than Ever

President-elect Barack Obama in a YouTube version of the Democratic party weekly radio address, of about 3 minutes. He calls for Congress to immediately pass unemployment benefits extension, and again promises, "If Congress does not pass an immediate plan that gives the economy the boost it needs, I will make it my first order of business as President." He says that the change we need will require sacrifice and a renewed sense of service and community. "I am more hopeful than ever...We rise or fall as one nation, one people..."

Father of His Country

I've mentioned before the fascination children seem to have with Obama, and I've posted campaign photos of him with children before. But now that he's President-elect, he has become even more of a father figure, to even more children. It's a role that suits him. In the first photo he's with his two daughters and (I assume) their friends, and we've seen many pictures recently in which he is holding on to his Chicago life as a father. The other photos are from the campaign--apart from the baby-kissing tradition, there is a visible affection. Anyway, I thought I'd post these before I archive my campaign photos.

Getting Stuff Done

The transition to an Obama administration is well underway. Despite the rumors, the trial balloons and the media misapprehensions, some elements are coming clear.

The transition and the Obama administration are serious about ethics. In his press briefing Tuesday, transition chief John Podesta announced the new ethics policy, "which he called the most comprehensive and restrictive ever. Registered lobbyists can only serve if they deregister and can't serve on policy teams that relate to the subjects on which they lobbied. And transition staffers can't lobby for a year after they leave the transition service. Noting that some lobbyists have objected to this - a lot of expertise might be lost and a lot of good people might be bypassed, he said, simply, "So be it."

Podesta also said that "the American people will see a transition of government that is efficient, that is organized, that is bipartisan and more open and transparent than others before."

Although no decisions on what Bush executive orders will be reversed, Podesta confirmed that Obama is reviewing them all, in order to decide which ones he will reverse. But he is on record concerning at least one: "The president-elect has said, for example, that he intends to quickly reverse the Bush administration's decision last December to deny California the authority to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from automobiles. "Effectively tackling global warming demands bold and innovative solutions, and given the failure of this administration to act, California should be allowed to pioneer," Obama said in January.

The transition itself seems designed to make decisions on appointments with thoroughness and deliberation--so we may not hear of any Cabinet appointments until after Thanksgiving, for example--but careful groundwork is being formed to get this officials up and running once their appointments are made, by expediting confirmations and bureaucratic necessities.

But what will they be transitioning to? Obama has been clear on the need to "get stuff done" immediately, and in certain instances, to get it done--or at least started--even before he takes office. He is urging Congress to consider an economic stimulus package in its upcoming "lame duck" session. He is advocating for government rescue of the U.S. automakers, although not without conditions: Mr. Obama has signaled to the automakers and the unions that his support for short-term aid now, and long-term assistance once he takes office, is contingent on their willingness to agree to transform their industry to make cleaner, more energy-efficient vehicles.

Since the election, everyone has an opinion on what Obama should and must do. He has been counselled by Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman to think and act big and bold, and by a Washington Post analyst to settle for a modest agenda.

The word coming from those involved in the transition strongly suggests that Obama is thinking big--and fast: Obama plans to challenge Congress to begin work on all four of his top four priorities — the economy, energy, health care and education, billing them all as “reforms” that will help struggling middle-class families.

Team Obama is also creating the structure to make good on his promise of greater opportunities for wider participation. Building on the campaign's Internet efforts, to communicate with millions, directly via the web. This huge army of supporters can counter the influence of paid lobbyists by themselves communicating directly with members of Congress to push the Obama agenda.

But such communication is two-way, and even though the Washington Post article about it considers this a "downside," it is clear from Obama's past statements that he welcomes the exchange of information and opinions, and especially the informed involvement of Americans in their government. These plans look towards fostering the community-building and the sense of "we" mentioned in a comment by cousin Lemuel.

In the midst of a growing global economic crisis, it is important (as Obama says) for the U.S. government to start taking action immediately. But he's also made it clear, directly in his first press conference, that if they don't act before he is inaugurated, he intends to start getting stuff done on January 20.