BruceMcF receives Karita Hummer's Silver Pen Award for Transport Stimulus: You're Doing It Wrong

Transport Stimulus: You're Doing It Wrong (+) by: BruceMcF, Repeat Recipient of Karita Hummer's Silver Pen Award Kudos to BruceMcF for this article of such great import at this juncture in our land, when we need jobs, fair commerce, and environmental value in all things economic! Bruce, as always is thorough with his guidance and advice on infrastructure. Thank you, Bruce! cross-posted from Progressive Blue: http://www.eenrblog.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=3406 Sat Jan 17, 2009 at 20:53:58 PM EST [subscribe]

(on transportation and the economy... - promoted by poligirl) Burning the Midnight Oil for Energy Independence (crosspost links at the blog) There is this big emphasis on "shovel ready projects" in the Stimulus Bill ... but now that the details are coming out, we can see that in transport, its just a load of horseshit used as an excuse for supporting business as usual. The headline numbers are $30b highway spending, $10b for public transport and rail: Transit Capital Assistance, $15.9b in shovel ready projects, $6b in funding Amtrak, more than $10b in capital backlog, $0.8b in funding Fixed Guideway Infrastructure Investment, $50b capital backlog, $2b in funding Capital Investment Grants, $2.4b in already approved projects, $1b in funding I got a "shovel-ready" project for you ... shoveling out the bullshit from the Bush Administration Department of Transport and replacing the pandering to the oil companies with a concern for America's Economic Future.

BruceMcF :: Transport Stimulus: You're Doing It Wrong

The Details, Wherein The Devil Lies Take the following details, wherein the devil always lies. Under the summary description, "$10 billion for transit and rail to reduce traffic congestion and gas consumption" ... which is fishy right there, since everybody knows there are more than $10b in deferred maintenance to get passenger and freight rail in this country, and more than $10b in freight bottlenecks, many of which have been "studied" to death (since Yet Another Study is much cheaper than funding capital works) ... and we see the following specifics (emphases added): Capital Assistance to States-Intercity Passenger Rail Service Recovery Funding: $300 million The Capital Assistance to States-Intercity Passenger Rail Service program provides grants on a discretionary basis to states to fund necessary capital improvements to improve intercity passenger rail service. Over the last 10 years, ridership on intercity routes that benefit from state support has grown by 73 percent. Grants under this program are awarded to the most meritorious projects as measured against statutory criteria. The FY 2008 grants demonstrated the demand of this program. Applications were greatly oversubscribed even though applications were required within 90 days of the start of this new program. AASHTO has estimated intercity passenger rail corridor investment needs during the 2007-2012 timeframe as totaling $18.502 billion. No detail on the number of "shovel ready" projects, but AASHTO annual investment needs estimated at roughly $3b annually, allocation of 10% of that. Amtrak Capital Grants Recovery Funding: $800 million The National Railroad Passenger Corporation (Amtrak) provides intercity passenger rail service over a system of approximately 20,000 miles in 46 states. It also owns and maintains the most intensively used segment of railroad in the U.S., the Washington, D.C. - New York City - Boston, Northeast Corridor (NEC), which is an integral part of the intercity passenger transportation system in the most densely populated section of the U.S. The NEC carries a majority of air/ rail trips between Washington and NYC. The NEC also hosts commuter and freight rail systems serving the major cities of the Northeast. Amtrak has been consistently undercapitalized during its 37 year existence, and its infrastructure is aging. Recent estimates by the Department of Transportation's Inspector General of Amtrak's capital backlog, just on the NEC, exceeded $10 billion. As a result of aging infrastructure both the speed and capacity of NEC rail passenger operations are limited. A backlog in excess of $10b, funding of under 8% of that. Transit Capital Assistance Recovery Funding: $6.000 billion These funds will be used to purchase buses and equipment needed to provide additional public transportation service and to make improvements to intermodal and transit facilities. The Department of Transportation's 2006 Conditions and Performance Report indicated there is an annual investment gap of $3.2 billion to maintain our transit systems and an annual gap of $9.2 billion to begin to improve our transit systems. In addition, a January 2009 survey of the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) identified 787 ready-to-go transit projects totaling $15.9 billion. Funds will be distributed through the existing urban and rural transit formulas. $5.4 billion will be distributed to urban communities and $600 million will be distributed to transit agencies that serve rural communities. It is estimated that over 165,000 jobs will be created by this investment. $15.9b ready to go projects, funding at 38% of that. Fixed Guideway Infrastructure Investment Recovery Funding: $2.000 billion These funds will be used for capital projects to modernize or improve existing fixed guideway systems, including purchase and rehabilitation of rolling stock, track, line equipment, structures, signals and communications, power equipment and substations, passenger stations and terminals, security equipment and systems, maintenance facilities and equipment, operational support equipment including computer hardware and software, system extensions, and preventive maintenance. Funds will be distributed through the existing fixed guideway formula. It is estimated that the state-of-good-repair capital backlog for existing fixed guideway systems is nearly $50 billion. Capital backlog of $50b, funding at 4% of that. Capital Investment Grants Recovery Funding: $1.000 billion These funds will be used for light rail lines, rapid rail (heavy rail), commuter rail, automated fixed guideway system, or bus-way/high occupancy vehicle (HOV) facilities. These projects help relieve congestion in major metropolitan areas and reduce the carbon footprint caused by automobile travel. Funds will be distributed on a discretionary basis and will assist the advancement of full funding grant agreement projects that are already in construction as well as final design projects that are nearly ready to begin construction. The Federal Transit Administration has documented more than $2.4 billion in pre-approved funding that could be advanced to 19 projects across the country to construct New Starts and Small Starts projects. It is estimated that this investment will create nearly 35,000 new jobs. $2.4b in pre-approved projects (but, it would seem, not yet funded), funding at 42% of that ... and that's just what the Bush Dept. of Transport has identified. "More Asphalt" Sure Is The Change Someone Can Believe In Now, for comparison, what is the ratio of funding to "shovel ready" projects for highways? Highway Infrastructure Investment Recovery Funding: $30 billion The Department of Transportation's 2006 Conditions and Performance Report indicated there is an annual investment gap of $8.5 billion to maintain our current systems and an annual gap of $61.4 billion to improve highway and bridges. ... Twice last year, the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) surveyed State transportation departments and reported on the number and dollar value of additional highway projects that each State could undertake quickly if supplemental Federal funds were made available. The results of AASHTO's December 2008 survey showed that all 50 States combined had over 5,100 projects totaling more than $64 billion that could be under contract within 180 days after enactment of Federal economic recovery legislation. These projects would include resurfacing and pavement preservation projects, traffic signal system upgrades, bridge projects, and intelligent transportation systems. In other words, roughly 42% of the annual funding gap and roughly 50% of identified shovel ready projects. (Appropriations Committee Report on Recovery Bill (pdf), pp. 69-71) The Appropriations Committee can natter on all it wants about the glories of roadworks, but this country passed our peak oil production about forty years ago and is now addicted to petroleum imports for more than half of our petroleum needs, while a much larger part of the operating costs of the rail and bus transport system are the wages of the people working on the system. Those non-highway appropriations have a strategic defense imperative, and a long term economic development imperative, in addition to transport benefits that outweigh the benefits of yet another roadwork project, and yet are underfunded compared to highway construction. We are spending $2.4b on the chimera of "clean coal", just to buy protective cover for the real sustainable energy spending ... and there is just $1.1b on regional rail transport. Even worse, there is $0.0b on improvements in regional freight rail transport. And the 100% federal funding allowed under the stimulus plan would allow us to make short term investments with long-term benefits all across the country ... this is not just a matter of the Northeast Corridor and California. For example, there is a massive freight logjam in Chicago. As the Metropolitan Planning Council notes: A new state capital plan would mean new investments in metropolitan Chicago 's freight rail system. Trains currently crawl through the region at average speeds of 12 mph and frequently block traffic at hundreds of intersections in the south and southwest suburbs alone. Modernizing our freight rail network not only would reduce delays for train commuters, drivers and transporters but also would accommodate commuter rail and spur economic opportunities in adjacent communities. The entire region would benefit from much-needed freight capital expenditures. Investing in freight rail throughways in Chicago is an investment in the productivity of our national economy. And there are "shovel ready" projects. And Stimulus Funding? $0.0b, because we rely on State Departments of Transport with their heavy highway bias to come up with projects, so urgent national transport priorities are set on the back burner to pander to entrenched constituencies to entrenched state bureaucracies. What in the Hell Happened to Changed We Can Believe In? I want to stress that this is not a general whinge about the stimulus. The Energy Infrastructure part of the stimulus is excellent and the sustainable energy production part of the stimulus is OK ... far too much to the chimeras of clean coal and liquid biofuels, but on the balance, from what little I can tell, OK. But for the Transport part of the stimulus ... WTF? Well, its no surprise ... this is one last "surprise in the punchbowl" from the Bush Department of Transportation. From the California HSR blog: Rep. Jim Oberstar, chair of the House Transportation Committee and passionate rail advocate, has been rather outspoken in his anger about the underfunding of transit in the proposal. He explains what may have happened to make the stimulus plan so weak: Basically CBO got numbers from the Bush administration DOT that said it was not possible to spend money on these projects within 90 days, meaning they're not "shovel ready". Oberstar explains that's BS and it's ridiculous to be taking numbers from the Bush folks at DOT that are getting ready to high-tail it out of town. He's really mad about this and I know he's going to fight to get more spending on infrastructure. Take this fight to your Congressperson ... phone, mail ... you known the drill. We can't afford let the Bush Department of Transport get away with one last act of sabotage against our nation's Energy Independence and, of course, the global climate as a whole.

Obama sings out, "Free at Last", rejoicing in Atlanta

A confluence of events, forces and streams; a confluence in my lifetime! KH

In his speech at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, on MLK Commemoration Day, President-Elect Barack Obama virtually sings, "Free at Last". How joyful, a sound, it is on this anniversary of the birthdate of Martin Luther King. How fresh the speech! What a wonderful confluence it is to have MLK Day and Obama's inauguration tomorrow be side by side! God bless us all!

Karita Hummer

As reprinted from Progressive Blue,

http://www.eenrblog.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=3413

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

In a sense we have come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds." But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check - a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quick sands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.

We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. They have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.

As we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied, as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating "For Whites Only". We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.

Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.

I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with a new meaning, "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring."

And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!

Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado!

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California!

But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee!

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

http://www.usconstitution.net/...

Progressive Economics 101: A Living Wage by jamess receives KH Silver Pen Award

Progressive Economics 101: A Living Wage jamess is a recipient of Karita Hummer's Silver Pen Award for this very informative and helpful piece. cross-posted from Progressive Blue Blog http://www.eenrblog.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=3403 by: jamess Sat Jan 17, 2009 at 00:10:14 AM EST

"We stand for a living wage. Wages are subnormal if they fail to provide a living for those who devote their time and energy to industrial occupations. The monetary equivalent of a living wage varies according to local conditions, but must include: enough to secure the elements of a normal standard of living-- a standard high enough to make morality possible, to provide for education and recreation, to care for immature members of the family, to maintain the family during periods of sickness, and to permit of reasonable saving for old age." (emphasis added) Source: Theodore Roosevelt Nomination Acceptance Speech, 1912 -- Social and Industrial Justice to the Wage-Workers Teddy Roosevelt was one heck of a Progressive Republican! (Progressives today maybe, should revisit his "Square Deal", eh?)

Where There is a Will... There Will be a Living Wage http://www.youtube.com/watch?v... from voiceless workers (barely surviving on minimum wages): "We're sitting there thinking, 'you appreciate us' but all you're doing is giving us more work, more work -- NO Money; Where's the Appreciation? We want to SEE the Appreciation -- not just hear about it. ... is like [were] the 'Invisible People': 'Come on, Do your job, Disappear'. That's what I think they want from us: DO your Job, Disappear -- We don't want to see you. We don't want to hear you. We don't want to know you exist. Just do what we want you to do, and disappear " Thom Hartmann - Wal-Mart And The Living Wage - Jan 16, 2009 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v... Wal-mart Worker Sarah, just explained how she had to go to a Food Bank this year -- just to be able to "afford a Christmas" for her kids. Even though she works Full-time, she still can not "afford" to buy the Health Insurance "Benefit" that Wal-mart "offers" to sell to its employees. Sarah has had to rely on other forms of public assistance too, like food stamps, just to make ends meet ... Thom Hartmann: You know what this means, that the tax-payers of the United States are subsidizing Wal-mart, basically. They're providing Wal-mart with a cheap labor pool, by providing these subsidies. And yet on the other hand if we were to say 'OK were going do away with all these social safety net programs' -- which is what the conservatives want -- then you would really be in desperate straits, not to say you're not already. (emphasis added) Thom continues with the Hartmann "Living Wage" rant: It's just like Republican President Teddy Roosevelt argued for: "if somebody going to work a 40 hours a week they should be able to, Put their kids through school, they should be able to have and keep their home, they should be able to take a vacation, they should be able to cover 100% of their medical expenses, without any problems, and they should be able to set aside enough, that they will be able to retire with grace and dignity. THAT is the American Dream ... The American Dream IS having a Living Wage. (and I'm telling ya, 28 years of Republican have stolen it from us!)" (emphasis added) A Living Wage, besides bringing great benefits to those of us who might get one someday, a Living Wage is very likely to be the key to the kick-starting that "Demand-Side" Economic Engine too! Happy Workers ... spend money ... CNBC Clip: Former Secretary of Labor, Robert Reich making a great argument for Demand Side solutions. (Sorry for the neocon Norquist's counterpoints -- when will those Supply-siders just "disappear" themselves?) That link goes to the CNBC segment: Markets, Economy & Taxes - Thurs. Jan. 15, 2009 Discussing the markets, the economy and taxes with Robert Reich, former labor secretary and UC Berkeley professor, and Grover Norquist, of Americans for Tax Reform Here is the take-away point from Robert Reich segment (at least the one I walked away with) [Time Mark: 4:40]: Kudlow: "... Robert Reich, what do you think of the stimulus package?" Robert Reich: "Well I think its the only option we have. Tax cuts did not work. Supply-side Economics has proven itself to be absolutely fallacious. The Fed has tried to do everything it can possibly do, to increase the Money Supply, reduce Interest Rates, that hasn't work. I think were going back to Richard Nixon in a way when he said: 'Were all Keynesian now', and we are going to have to spend our way out of this. But seriously Larry, and Mr Norquist ... I think that the issue here, really is the GAP between the Productive Capacity of the Economy, which is quite high, relative to what the DEMAND for the Goods and Services in the Economy is, and that's pretty, pretty low. Now that Gap, unless it is overcome, that shortcoming, is going to lead to more job losses, and a negative, vicious cycle. SO the Govt has GOT to spend in order to get us back to us back NEAR our Production Capacity." (emphasis added) Soooo ... unless "we raise Demand to meet what were capable of producing as a Nation", we will stay mired in that "downward spiral" of dwindling sales, more job layoffs, and even less Demand for products -- the Economic Demand that is needed, to ultimately turn things around ... someday. What is the quickest way to "Raise Demand" in an Economy? How about giving Workers a "Living Wage", and a boost in their sense of confidence and security, too! (BTW this method of "boosting Demand" lasts much longer than the short term boosts, gained by momentary Tax Cuts. ... Just ask Teddy R.) Or just ask Secretary Reich for his estimates on the the dire straits of ignoring of the Demand-Side of the Equation: Robert Reich gave his estimates in a recent blog-entry "Stimulus Plan: The Need and Size": "In my judgment, this will require a stimulus of about 6 and a half percent of gross domestic product, or a total of some $900 billion, spread over two years. That's my estimate for the shortfall in private demand. But the federal government should stand ready to spend larger sums if necessary to get the economy back on track toward full capacity. The danger is not that the government will do too much; the danger is that it will do too little, too late. Without such action, I estimate that another 3 million jobs will be lost in 2009, unemployment will rise to 10 percent of the workforce by the end of this year, and under-employment - including people working part-time who would rather be working full time, and those too discouraged even to look for work - will reach 15 percent. Without federal action, next year could be even worse." (emphasis added) http://www.counterpunch.org/wh... If People, like Sarah, and all the other full time Wal-mart workers, don't have enough money to pay their bills, and support their families, EXACTLY WHO is going to buy all those Goods and Services, that Corporate America is SO keen on Cranking out, year after year? Without a "Living Wage" for ALL Workers, how can an Economy ever reach that optimal goal of "running on All Cylinders"? SO How do we siphon some of that "Productive Capacity", anyways, so that Companies can "afford" to pay a "Living Wage"? How about tapping some of those "renewal resources," which have the Productive Potential, of never running out? (Click for Larger Image) Yet the Earth's capacity to grow food and forests, and to produce energy from sources such as switch grass and algae, is far greater than our total supply of nonrenewable resources. Enough sunlight strikes the Earth's surface in one day to power civilization for a year. And virtually every material we need - from plastic composites that are stronger and lighter than steel to filaments that conduct light pulses - can be derived from plants. It's all ours for the growing if we are willing to make the needed cultural adjustments, such as voluntary population reduction and investments in sustainable systems. (emphasis added) Source: SFGate -- Go green: Earth's future depends on it, Philip S. Wenz -- Jan 16, 2009 Afterall, All that Future potential is STILL just waiting to be Built! (and designed, and invented, and marketed) Hopefully those building it this time, will get paid, the true value of what their work is worth! Corporate CEO's need to realize: "Without Workers there IS No Bottom Line!" Without a strong Demand for all those Goods and Services, there is "No Rising Tide, to lift all Boats" ...

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Join Rabbi Michael Lerner's effort to solve the Israel-Palestinian Conflict

Cross-posted from Progressive Blue: http://www.eenrblog.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=3377 Join Rabbi Michael Lerner's effort to solve the Israel-Palestinian Conflict by: Karita Hummer Sat Jan 10, 2009 at 02:15:49 AM EST

(a plan for peace... - promoted by poligirl) Rabbi Michael Lerner has been working tirelessly for many, many years to resolve the conflict between Israel and Palestine. There many people of good will who have advocated for a peaceful resolution. Joined by Sister Joan Chittister and Cornel West, on the Board of the Network for Spiritual Progressives, Rabbi Lerner is earnestly imploring Obama to step up to the plate as quickly as possible and is organizing an ad campaign to try to bring attention to his urgent request. He wants to put the ad in major newspapers in the country, and he is asking for our signatures and our donations to help him do so. It seems that Rabbi Lerner's group tried instead to get an OpEd Piece in the New York Times and Washington Post, but they were turned down. I believe you will be impressed with the ad and its suggestion for an international conference to solve the Israel/Palestine conflict. You will notice in the ad that Rabbi Lerner proposes a win/win solution with the needs of both states addressed justly. Can there be anything more urgent or more heartbreaking than the bombardment of Gaza? More below...

It is my strong opinion that Israel has once again been emboldened by the Bush Administration's approach to terrorism - with quite devastating consequences. Heed Rabbi Lerner and go to his site to sign the ad and consider donating as well. I did, and I hope and pray that it will do some good. Go and join the effort for a solution to one of the world's most intractable problems, a source of so many other problems: http://www.spiritualprogressiv... Network of Spiritual Progressives: Text of Gaza Peace Ad Text of Gaza Peace Ad Monday, January 05 2009 @ 03:04 PM (View web-friendly version here) Cease-Fire Now in Gaza! President-elect Obama: It's Time to End the Violence in the Middle East -- Once and For All Convene an International Middle East Peace Conference to facilitate a lasting and just settlement for all parties. The world's attention is focused on the Middle East for a fleeting moment. Let's seize this opportunity to insist on an end to this struggle in all its dimensions. A Call for Lasting Peace President-elect Obama: Please call for an immediate CEASE-FIRE in GAZA and for an International Peace Conference to implement a fair and lasting solution to all aspects of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The solution must also address the conflict between Israel and other states in the region. Their provocations will continue until the international community stops the violence once and for all and creates conditions of security so that peace and reconciliation forces in each country may flourish. Such a solution would be based on the following conditions: a. The creation of an economically and politically viable Palestinian state (roughly on the pre-1967 borders, with minor border modifications mutually agreed upon between Israel and Palestine). b. The withdrawal of Israel from the Golan Heights, and simultaneously the full and unequivocal recognition by Palestinians and the State of Palestine and all surrounding Arab states of the right of Israel to exist as a Jewish state (e.g. celebrating Jewish holidays and the Sabbath in the same way that Christmas gets official sanction as a state holiday in the United States). Israel must offer full and equal rights to all of its non-Jewish citizens. Preferential treatment for Jews should exist only with regard to immigration, and that must be phased out when anti-Semitism in the world has disappeared. The same preferential treatment for Palestinians should exist in the Palestinian state as long as they face discrimination or reduced rights or threats to their safety in other parts of the world. c. An international consortium to provide generous reparations for Palestinians who have lost homes or property from 1947 to the present, and generous reparations for Jewish refugees from Arab states from 1947-1967. d. A long-term international peacekeeping force to separate Hezbollah and Israel in southern Lebanon and northern Israel, to ensure demilitarization of the Golan Heights, to protect Israel and Palestine from each other, to police the borders and the corridor that will need to be established linking Gaza with the West Bank, and to protect both Israel and Palestine from other forces in the region that might seek to control or destroy either state. In addition, treaty agreements must be made with the United States and other Western states to protect both Israel and Palestine from any assault by other countries (e.g. Iran, Pakistan, China, or Russia). e. The quick imposition of robust sanctions against any party that refuses to sign or violates these agreements. All parts of this plan should be paid for not only by Israel and the G-8 countries, but also by the Arab oil oligarchies, and by diversion of the funds that would otherwise be going from Syria and Iran to fund Hezbollah and Hamas. It would be in the interests of Israel, the Palestinians, the Arab states, the Jewish people, the U.S. and the world if this solution could be imposed on the parties now. It breaks our hearts to see the suffering of the Israeli people, the Palestinian people, the Lebanese people and others in the region when we know how unnecessary it is. The basic issues can be resolved. No matter how maximalist the fantasies are on each side about eliminating their perceived enemies, and how enticing they seem when people feel powerless in any other way to stop the violence and oppression, the truth is that the majority of the people on all sides of the struggle would embrace peace if they thought it could be established in ways that provided for genuine security from military assault and terrorism for everyone, real justice for Palestinians, and acknowledgment of the wrongs that have been done to each side as a first step in healing the humiliations and huge psychic wounds suffered by Arabs and Jews throughout their histories. A New Spirit of Openheartedness and Reconciliation We know that no political solution can work without a change in consciousness that minimally includes an open-heartedness and willingness to recognize the humanity of the Other, as well as repentance and atonement for the long history of insensitivity and cruelty each side has shown toward the other side. All sides must take immediate steps to stop the discourse of violence. Each must stop the demeaning of the other in their media, their religious institutions, and their school textbooks and educational systems. They should implement this by creating a joint authority with each other and with moral leaders in the international community. The joint authority must be able to supervise and, if necessary, replace those in positions of power in Jewish, Islamic, and Arab societies who continue to use the public institutions of the society to spread hatred or nurture anger at the other. Once the other parts of a lasting peace have been set in place, we call upon the parties to this struggle to launch a Truth and Reconciliation Commission, following the model used in South Africa. We Affirm the Sacredness of All Human Beings This may well be the last chance we in the advanced industrial societies have to avert international catastrophe (either environmental or nuclear). To do so, our way of dealing with the world must model something else besides brute military might, economic self-interest, and indifference to the well-being of others. If not now, when? It is time to overcome national chauvinism and arrogance. Instead we must build ethical and spiritual solidarity among the people of the world. Our well-being depends on the well-being of everyone else on the planet. So we need to build and strengthen those international institutions that can foster this sense of solidarity, which is the necessary foundation for global peace, social and economic justice, and ecological repair of the planet. A Global Marshall Plan The self-described "realistic" version of global politics asserts that we live in a world in which our safety can only be achieved through domination because others are always seeking to dominate us first. Of course, when we act on this assumption, it becomes self-fulfilling. We propose, instead, a strategy of generosity-to act on the assumption that people have an enormous capacity for goodness and generosity (without negating the truth that certain conditions promote fear, anger, and hatred, which sometimes are expressed in horribly destructive ways). For the United States and other G-8 countries, we call for a Domestic and Global Marshall Plan: for each of the next twenty years, the United States and other G-8 countries should dedicate between 1 percent and 2 percent of their Gross Domestic Product to eliminating hunger, homelessness, poverty, inadequate health care, and inadequate education across the world. We've developed the details of a Global Marshall Plan at www.spiritualprogressives.org. This plan provides for the careful monitoring and apportionment of funds to ensure that care reaches the people for whom it is intended. But what is critical is the spirit in which this plan is carried out-not as an attempt to manipulate others to enhance Western economic or political power, but as a genuine expression of human caring about each other. The first focus of this Global Marshall Plan would be to eliminate poverty and suffering in the Middle East (though when applied there, we insist that the Arab and Muslim oil oligarchies join the G-8 in the funding of this plan). The only protection that we in the advanced industrial countries of the world can ever really have for our lives is to spread a spirit of love so powerful and genuine that it becomes capable of reducing the anger that has understandably developed against the powerful and the wealthy of the world. Similarly, Israel's security would be greatly enhanced if the money spent on enforcing an occupation and protecting West Bank settlements went instead toward building a prosperous Palestinian economy. The "cynical realists" claim that others are entrenched in their hatefulness, and that war is the only way to confront them. This kind of thinking has led to five thousand years of people fighting wars in order to "end all wars"-and it has not worked. It's time now to try a new strategy of generosity, both economic generosity and generosity of spirit. As stated above, there will first have to be a transitional period in which real military protections are available to people on all sides of the struggle. But by beginning now to simultaneously commit our economic resources and change the way that we talk about those whom we previously designated as "enemies," we can begin the long process of thawing out angers that have existed for many generations. Precisely at this moment, when our global economic meltdown requires a fundamental rethinking of how we've organized our global economy, we can now shift the funds from military spending and other wasteful production toward building a sustainable global reality-and that requires global economic justice. Nothing can redeem the deaths and suffering that all sides have faced in this struggle for the past 120 years. But this very moment could also be the time in which the human race realizes the futility of violence and comes together not only to impose a lasting solution for the Middle East, but also to recognize that our own well-being depends on the well-being of everyone else on the planet. The International Middle East Peace Conference should be structured to achieve this end. In short, it should have an explicit psychological and spiritual dimension and a visionary agenda. Unrealistic? Not at all. What has proved unrealistic time and again-whether we are talking about U.S. policy in Vietnam and Iraq or Israeli and Arab policies in the Middle East-is the fantasy that one more war will put an end to wars. The path to peace must be a path of peace. Signed by: Rabbi Michael Lerner, Sr. Joan Chittister and Prof. Cornell West, Co-chairs, The Network of Spiritual Progressives (NSP) info@spiritualprogressives.org and many more, including myself, just now. And many other religious leaders, scholars, academics, cultural leaders, poets, writers, philanthropists, social change activists, and citizens of the world. You can add your name to this list at www.tikkun.org/PeaceAd * Yes, add my name to the list of signatories of the ad Get this message published in other media to help get the attention of the incoming Obama administration. I have enclosed a check (or am sending you my credit card info plus email and home phone) made out to TIKKUN for: * $5,000 $1,000 $500 $300 $100 $75 $75 Other $ ________________ You can also sign this ad and donate money online at www.tikkun.org/PeaceAd Name ____________________________________ Organization/Affiliation __________________________ Address __________________________________ City/State/Zip __________________________________ Email ____________________________________ Phone ________________________________________ * MC Visa Amex Credit Card No._______________________________Exp. date ____________ Security Code (required)_________ (Last 3 digits on reverse of MasterCard or Visa; last 4 digits on front right side of American Express) Please make checks payable to TIKKUN and return this form to: Tikkun 2342 Shattuck Ave, Suite 1200 Berkeley, CA 94704 Get Involved. We need your Support! The Tikkun Community and our interfaith project The Network of Spiritual Progressives have developed a strategy to counter the Strategy of Domination. Please JOIN the Tikkun Community's Network of Spiritual Progressives at www.spiritualprogressives.org, become active with us, and donate to help us hire staff to expand our work throughout the United States. And please help us get the urgent message of this ad to President-elect Obama, Congress and the media-by joining our organization (we need your talents, your skills, your ability to influence political leaders or to raise money, your vision, your smarts and your energy to build a world in which love conquers fear), and by signing and/or donating to help put our message in other media in the United States, Palestine, and Israel. You can do so by filling out the form on this ad, or by going to www.tikkun.org/PeaceAd. http://www.spiritualprogressiv... Karita Hummer Member, Network for Spiritual Progressives (NSP) Visit NSP to view all the work of this pretty amazing group. (Link also below...) http://www.spiritualprogressiv...

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On Coalition building between DFH's and 'mainstream" farmers, by Bruce McF receives Karita Hummer's Silver Pen Award

Recipient of Karita Hummer's Silver Pen Award: Cross-posted from Progressive Blue: http://www.eenrblog.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=3329 On Coalition building between DFH's and 'mainstream" farmers. by: BruceMcF Mon Dec 29, 2008 at 15:26:21 PM EST

Burning the Midnight Oil for the Next American Revolution We do not have a progressive populist movement in this country. We do not have an effective change coalition in this country. And the first implies the second, since successful progressive populism has been a component of all of our effective change coalitions for over a century. To fend off the possible semantic quibble ... yes, by an effective change coalition, I do mean to say change going forward. We have, obviously, had effective reactionary coalitions without a progressive populist component! In sketching out the potential membership for an effective change coalition, I have previously identified farmers. And so I take special interest when Stranded Wind at the Daily Kos adopts a provocative and potentially quite divisive framing for discussion of organic farming "versus" sustainable production of chemical fertilizer such as ammonia (NH3) derived fertilizers produced with the harvest of sustainable, renewable electric power: On one side of the field we have the hemp clothes and Birkenstocks set flinging organic tomatoes. The other side has Monsanto's minions, flinging GMO hand grenades with one hand and trying to lasso producers with the other. The official federal referee of the USDA would like to help but their rules are the province of misguided ideologues and sociopathic transnational corporations. Stuck in the middle is the puzzled farmer, who just wants a fair price for the work he does and some protection for when things go badly. They'd happily plow the earthly remains of all three of the above groups into the soil if it would increase yields and get unsolicited opinions out of their business. A reaction, after the fold ...

The substantive policy position in the piece is quite sound ... as we pursue a more sustainable and Energy Independent farming economy, we should also be aiming for decentralized production of key feedstocks, since the centralization of the current system leaves us exposed to substantial risk. However, there is mixed in the echoes of the "US agriculture feeding the world": First, let's stick a wrench in the complaints of the organic foods crowd. Yes, it would be better if we were more careful with our soil and if we had less chemicals in our food, but we feed six and a half billion with the current system. We're going back to the solar maximum for this planet and that is going to be ugly enough without some Great Leap Forward approach, which would starve more than are already going to face that fate given our fossil fuel depletion and the tight coupling between this and our existing fertilizer sources. This "US agriculture feeding the world", which features heavily in Monsanto and ADM advertising on Sunday morning political talk shows, has long been used as the cover story for the dumping of subsidized cereal grains that has devastated the local farming capacity of large numbers of low-income nations ... which means, of course, in driving subsistence farmers into mega-cities, ensure a market for the heavily subsidized cereal grains. Obviously, that income stream does not stick in the hands of the "mainstream" farmer ... it just passes through on its way to Monsanto and ADM. So a bit more care is needed regarding who "we" are when talking about US farm policy. "We" don't feed 6b people with our system ... even if you extent "our" system to mean the EU/US/Oceania agro-industry mono-cropping, then it certainly feeds well over a billion, but nowhere near 6 billion ... not unless you include feedlot animals in the count. And "our" system has two big redundancies built in. The first redundancy is the insistence on growing perfectly good food and then feeding it to animals, rather than using animals to convert plant production that is not edible for humans into a supplement for the crops we raise directly for humans. The second redundancy is the productive potential of low income nations that is held off the market by the practice of dumping US/EU staple grains in low income nations in order to ensure a broader market. We could be on track for a famine ... but famines are not about food production, they are about food distribution. Recall that Ireland was a net food exporter in each year of the Irish Potato Famine ... beef and butter and grain production was not affected, but beef and butter and grain was headed for the more lucrative markets in England. Over and above that, it is a mistake in advocacy strategy to accept a framing of sustainable-produced chemical fertilizers versus organic farming techniques ... let alone to spread it. In high income nations, we should be making soil husbandry payments for all farming methods that restore and rehabilitate soils, and if that means subsidizing a bunch of dirty fucking hippies, so be it. But that does not require imposing organic farming techniques, its simply a competitive advantage of organic farming techniques if we introduce a difference in income between soil establishment and soil mining. And at the same time, certification for marketing of organic produce requires compliance with something that the market for organic produce recognizes as organic production ... but certification for soil husbandry payments would be in terms of objective measures of the health and retention of the soil, and while it may well include maintaining fertilizer practices that do not lead to excessive fertilizer run-off in the watersheds, the income system would not require production that can be certified as organic production. And it should be obvious that fertilizer levels that maximize protein content in grains for use as animal feeds, where the majority of the protein will be dumped into the watershed, which results in collapse of riverine and coastal fish stocks, is not a net win in terms of total protein available for human consumption. Shifting farm income support from subsidy for staple grains to fee for service in soil husbandry opens up organic farming operations to participation, but would include any farmer that adopts sound whole-system soil husbandry. Since there is no necessary conflict between the needs of "mainstream" farmers, those sharing their watershed, consumers, and dirty fucking hippy organic farmers, the debating point on the extent to which organic farming can carry the load is a side track diversion from a reform of our farm policy. Controversy and debates are good for getting hits and high comment counts online, but the focus needs to be on finding common ground to build a large enough change coalition large enough so that the controversy and debate is between the change coalition and the entrenched opposition to reform. ... Older than Kosciuszko Driven back to Alice Springs Endless storm and struggle Marks the spirit of the age High up in the homelands Celebration 'cross the land Builds up like a cyclone Now the fires begin to rage ...

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Write Kareem: the courageous blogger in prison in Egypt by: Karita Hummer Cross-posted from Progressive Blue: http://www.eenrblog.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=3317&view=print Thu Dec 25, 2008 at 14:50:30 PM EST

(another Action Item for your holiday! Stand up and make some noise! :D - promoted by poligirl) Fellow bloggers, listen up this Christmas Day, one of our own, a fellow blogger, Kareem Amer, is in prison in Egypt for his blogging activity. Write him today in solidarity. Abdul Kareem Nabeel Suleiman was charged and found guilty of the following: (1) Spreading data and malicious rumors that disrupt public security; (2) Defaming the President of Egypt; (3) Incitement to overthrow the regime upon hatred and contempt; (4) Incitement to hate "Islam" and breach of the public peace standards; (5) Highlighting inappropriate aspects that harm the reputation of Egypt and spreading them to the public. He is serving a four year sentence essentially for his free thinking/blogging. You may already know this story of Kareem, known as Kareem Amer, the name he had used as a blogger. Ihad never known of his story. Did you? I just found this story today, as I looked for Human Rights E Cards to send to some of my Social Activist friends, which led me to the Free Kareem site: http://www.freekareem.org/ More below...

Kareem's is an amazing and very brave story. View it at: http://www.freekareem.org/kare... But, perhaps, his own description of himself, says it best: I am down to earth Law student; I look forward to help humanity against all form of discriminations... I am looking forward to open up my own human rights activists Law firm, which will include other lawyers who share the same views. Our main goal is to defend the rights of Muslim and Arabic women against all form of discrimination and to stop violent crimes committed on a daily basis in these countries. http://www.freekareem.org/kare... Show your solidarity this Christmas Day. Write Kareem at: http://www.freekareem.org/writ... Karita Hummer, Advocate for Human Rights here and in the world.

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Cabinet Choices do say a lot

Cross-posted from Progressive Blue: http://www.eenrblog.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=3207 Cabinet Choices do say a lot by: Karita Hummer Wed Dec 03, 2008 at 20:53:44 PM EST [edit diary]

Obama has said vision begins with him and his team will implement it. This consoles me a little, but not a lot. He can't be everywhere at all times, and I should think we would want his Secretaries to be initiating policy recommendations for him to undertake. He simply can't know everything, nor initiate everything. That would be an impossible job. Whenever I have hired someone, I have looked for people who have shared my passion and vision. Saying this, I hope President-Elect Obama will still consider the idea of a Poverty Czar, to deal with global and domestic poverty, and I suggest that person be John Edwards. Then, I think we would have a true Unity Cabinet, with all of them, strong, with their own ideas, implementing a broad vision under the direction of a strong president able to integrate the best ideas of all of them. That means who Obama selects matters. If Obama does not choose to have a Poverty Czar, or name Edwards to it, then I would hope as a bare minimum, he would select John Edwards as Secretary of Labor and Robert F. Kennedy as Secretary of Interior or Secretary of Energy. Passion should count most in the selection of a Candidate for the Cabinet. John Edwards and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. have the kind of passionate commitment that would send a strong signal to the country about the place of workers and environment in the Administration's priorities. Progressive Heroes should matter! Karita Hummer

Karita Hummer :: Cabinet Choices do say a lot