Showing posts with label kennedy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label kennedy. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 11, 2016
Good Enough for Me and Anonymous D
Just to reveal the kinds of things Anonymous D and I talk about in private, I thought I would share the discussion we had after last Sunday's very disturbing Presidential Debate. I edited very lightly. If the original tapes surface of this or any of our private conversations, from any time, anywhere, they won't be anything near as shocking as the Donald's:
Saturday, November 23, 2013
Monday, May 20, 2013
Dreamers of the Not So Impossible
It happened late at night after little kids were all in bed. The next morning on the way to school, we were all talking about it. There was a lot of fascination with the fact that football star Rosey Grier had jumped on the killer and taken the gun away from him.
Miss Taylor came in for the second half of the school year. I have no idea why the teachers switched off. If I knew at the time, this ten-year-old little boy forgot long ago. She was young, maybe a brand-new teacher. And it was 1968.
At the end of one school day, and I'm not sure which day after his death as school would soon be out for the summer and that was our main interest, Miss Taylor used her serious voice to tell the class that she had a tribute to Senator Kennedy. She said something about this being important. She held the sheet music and read the lyrics:
Tuesday, January 8, 2013
Presidential Power & the People
Found it! I wanted to post a book report on this during the Happy Holy Days break but I couldn't find the darn book. I looked all over the house and tried to think whether I had left it at work, or on the bus, or even in Vegas on my last work trip. Then I found it, of course, in my library. But I'm not really the one to blame for the disorganization. My college boy moved in their during the break and a queen-size air mattress pretty much filled the room and covered the bottom shelf where the book was.
The author is Richard Striner, the guy I heard on that NPR program about Lincoln and Slavery with the racist caller. We exchanged friendly e-mails and I looked on History Book Club to see if any of his books were offered as I had a lot of points saved up. The one I found was Lincoln's Way: How Six Great Presidents Created American Power (Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham, Maryland 2010). The reference to "power" was a little disconcerting as Lincoln was a war president and the others listed, Teddy Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower, and Kennedy, were either war presidents or presidents who had fought in wars.
Thursday, November 3, 2011
Serving the United States in the Hour of Our Nation's Need
When colleague of mine retired a few years ago, I inherited his files (and his work) and found a framed poster from the days back when his career began. I put it up on the wall in my office:
Our Role in the New Frontier
Let every public servant know, whether his post is high or low, that a man's rank and reputation in this Administration will be determined by the size of the job he does, and not by the size of his staff, his office or his budget. Let it be clear that this Administration recognizes the value of daring and dissent--that we greet healthy controversy as the hallmark of healthy change. Let the public service be a proud and lively career. And let every man and woman who works in any area of our national government, in any branch, at any level, be able to say with pride and honor in future years: "I served the United States Government in the hour of our nation's need."
John F. Kennedy
President of the United States
From his State of the Union Message
January 30, 1961
Sunday, January 23, 2011
State of the Union
My prognostications for what the President will say in the SOTU this Tuesday. Crow will be eaten to the extent I am wrong.
Beginning and main theme follows off of the "can't we all just get along" speech from Tucson. He will have the heroic intern who saved Rep. Giffords's life sitting with the First Lady. The point of Rep. Giffords is not that the crazy guy may have shot her because of Sarah or Rush (or Glenn), the point is that she is one of the best examples of a moderate compromiser - a passionate moderate, if you will. The President will play of this theme - not the blame game. And our hearts go out to those lost and to Rep. Giffords's continued miraculous recovery!
The thing we can all get along on is his new challenge in the style of Kennedy's "we're going to the moon in this decade" speech (and we did!). That challenge is a new commitment to education and innovation for JOBS in order to remain competitive in the new global economy. This is one area where he might get some room to compromise with the new Republican Congress. Education Reform is one of the few areas the Republicans and the President may be able to work on together and with public support. The President may have some specific trick up his sleeve in the form of an exciting national goal, but I haven't figured that part out yet. He needs to win the public and likely will. Then Congress has to do something to at least appear to go along. And they lose if they don't actually accomplish something on the goal.
He will also address debt reduction and he has the upper hand in solid proposals from his Debt Commission (with no help from the Republicans in the last Congress), the most positive of which he will promote even if nothing gets done much in this Congress because the Republicans have a very different agenda in what they would like to accomplish in dismantling the federal government. The President will come out strong on shared sacrifice at the same time he attempts to promote and protect the social safety net of Social Security and Medicare. He will push Defense Sec. Gates's military cuts (or at least "slowing of the growth"). He will tout his freeze on federal pay having thrown us slightly under the bus in the place of the Republicans wanting much harsher measures in their desire to get rid of as many of us as possible. This will all eventually stalemate and we'll see what happens down the road with the federal debt limit and the need for a budget or further continuing resolution by March. There are ways to work this out without destroying Social Security, Medicare, or the government of, by and for the people. And if we have to, we can do it after 2012.
Some of the Members of Congress will sit together. Justice Alito will be a no show or at least much more stoic. No one will yell, "You lie!" If the Congress does behave and sit together, and they just might in the wake of Tucson, that will be to the credit of the President as it will in part fulfill his campaign of a "change" in the way we do things. If they don't sit together, and remain nasty, it still works to the President's advantage because people think they ought to get along better. And the President will remain above it all, as he should.
Buyers' remorse on the Republican Congress is already setting in. Wait until 2012 with the Dem base coming back along with the youth vote and minorities that sat out 2010 to some extent. There's no room for the Republicans to grow and they're going to have a tough couple of years working with tea party set and traditionalists in Congress. The President is in a very good position (and I don't think he tacked to the right as much as most everybody is saying - I read his books!). I mean, imagine if the Republicans had not taken Congress. The small but loud group of Americans that absolutely will not accept this President would be even louder. For now they are quiet because most of their issues and conflicts are with the Republican-controlled House. The only way the President loses reelection is if the economy tanks further and we face the real threat of some right-wing populist like St. Sarah (shudder) or even the Newt. Even if the Republicans make it worse hoping for that result to retake control of the Presidency and cut more taxes (!), I still think this President is a smart guy who wants to do right for the country, is willing to compromise to accomplish what he can, and that may just be enough to eke it out if there is further economic or other disaster. If the economy does pick up well and unemployment drops somewhat, reelection is a cake walk.
Beginning and main theme follows off of the "can't we all just get along" speech from Tucson. He will have the heroic intern who saved Rep. Giffords's life sitting with the First Lady. The point of Rep. Giffords is not that the crazy guy may have shot her because of Sarah or Rush (or Glenn), the point is that she is one of the best examples of a moderate compromiser - a passionate moderate, if you will. The President will play of this theme - not the blame game. And our hearts go out to those lost and to Rep. Giffords's continued miraculous recovery!
The thing we can all get along on is his new challenge in the style of Kennedy's "we're going to the moon in this decade" speech (and we did!). That challenge is a new commitment to education and innovation for JOBS in order to remain competitive in the new global economy. This is one area where he might get some room to compromise with the new Republican Congress. Education Reform is one of the few areas the Republicans and the President may be able to work on together and with public support. The President may have some specific trick up his sleeve in the form of an exciting national goal, but I haven't figured that part out yet. He needs to win the public and likely will. Then Congress has to do something to at least appear to go along. And they lose if they don't actually accomplish something on the goal.
He will also address debt reduction and he has the upper hand in solid proposals from his Debt Commission (with no help from the Republicans in the last Congress), the most positive of which he will promote even if nothing gets done much in this Congress because the Republicans have a very different agenda in what they would like to accomplish in dismantling the federal government. The President will come out strong on shared sacrifice at the same time he attempts to promote and protect the social safety net of Social Security and Medicare. He will push Defense Sec. Gates's military cuts (or at least "slowing of the growth"). He will tout his freeze on federal pay having thrown us slightly under the bus in the place of the Republicans wanting much harsher measures in their desire to get rid of as many of us as possible. This will all eventually stalemate and we'll see what happens down the road with the federal debt limit and the need for a budget or further continuing resolution by March. There are ways to work this out without destroying Social Security, Medicare, or the government of, by and for the people. And if we have to, we can do it after 2012.
Some of the Members of Congress will sit together. Justice Alito will be a no show or at least much more stoic. No one will yell, "You lie!" If the Congress does behave and sit together, and they just might in the wake of Tucson, that will be to the credit of the President as it will in part fulfill his campaign of a "change" in the way we do things. If they don't sit together, and remain nasty, it still works to the President's advantage because people think they ought to get along better. And the President will remain above it all, as he should.
Buyers' remorse on the Republican Congress is already setting in. Wait until 2012 with the Dem base coming back along with the youth vote and minorities that sat out 2010 to some extent. There's no room for the Republicans to grow and they're going to have a tough couple of years working with tea party set and traditionalists in Congress. The President is in a very good position (and I don't think he tacked to the right as much as most everybody is saying - I read his books!). I mean, imagine if the Republicans had not taken Congress. The small but loud group of Americans that absolutely will not accept this President would be even louder. For now they are quiet because most of their issues and conflicts are with the Republican-controlled House. The only way the President loses reelection is if the economy tanks further and we face the real threat of some right-wing populist like St. Sarah (shudder) or even the Newt. Even if the Republicans make it worse hoping for that result to retake control of the Presidency and cut more taxes (!), I still think this President is a smart guy who wants to do right for the country, is willing to compromise to accomplish what he can, and that may just be enough to eke it out if there is further economic or other disaster. If the economy does pick up well and unemployment drops somewhat, reelection is a cake walk.
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