Hope for the Holidays

I moved down to the Washington, DC metro area in early September. Jobless, with my fingers crossed, I was fortunate to get an offer to join the FireDogLake team. Joyous with my new employment and the mitigation of my financial anxiety, I started to look for places that I could give back to the community. A friend recommended doing some work at Martha’s Table. Their mission is to provide nutritional, educational, and community support for the homeless. Their main focus is “at risk” children and their families. When I contacted Martha’s Table three weeks before Christmas and asked what I could do to help, they put me on a waiting list. Although discouraging, it was heartwarming to hear that we live in a country where even in times of hardship for the average household there are lots of charitable souls trying to help out during the holiday season.

I waited a week to hear back from them and decided it was time to take action. My roommate and fellow alum of Roger Williams University, Sebastian Herrick and I decided to help out in the most direct way we knew how. We went to Dupont Circle, entered Krispy Kreme in Santa hats and exited with 36 glazed donuts and enough coffee for the New York Giants. We then proceeded to walk around town handing out a donut and coffee to the homeless in DC. At Union Station we were greeted by a large group of individuals who were all incredibly thankful for our warm treats, although some people were not interested.

A couple approached us outside the train station shaking cold, strapped with backpacks, and chapped lips. They had traveled from California by foot and bus in the pursuit of happiness and new beginnings. Stranded in DC with nothing but the clothes on their back and the pins that held their bags shut, they asked if we could give them some coffee. At this point I realized that two months ago I was doing the same thing, wandering around DC hoping to find my way. I am fortunate to have the support of family and friends to assist me, and although some coffee and a donut is hardly going to change their lives, it’s a small gesture that I hope these people can continue to find wherever their travels take them.

(Original Post)

Will DADT Save Lieberman?

I have had mixed feelings about Joe Lieberman since he has been in office. He has repetitively flip-flopped on issues since day one, looking after numero uno. If you recall Lieberman shifted his opinion on the health care bill after being an overall supporter. His reasoning was medicare expansion. He went as far as to propose it in previous legislation, then just before the bill comes to the floor in HR 3200, he claims he wont vote for it if it includes expansion to medicare. Anyways, as my respect for Lieberman runs about as deep as a puddle in the desert, I do commend him on his efforts with Don't Ask Don't tell.

For the second time this year the House of Reps passed the bill that would allow gays to enlist openly in the military, and it could be the second time this year that the Senate Blocks it. Shockingly enough Lieberman is doing what the President should be doing, standing up and not taking no for an answer. The excuses to not repeal DADT; the bill should be a stand alone bill, and "I am not voting on anything until the tax cut bill is resolved," are unacceptable.

Republican Senators Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Scott Brown and Olympia Snowe have all said they will vote for a stand-alone DADT repeal bill, however these same inviduals have been known to say one thing and filibuster the next, many of these republicans do not like everything in the defense authorization bill that encompasses DADT. Brown, who may hold the key vote in this, released a press statement saying, "If and when a stand-alone repeal bill comes up for a vote, he will support it." It will take Joe Lieberman standing strong to pull in the Republican votes.

Is the Senator from CT trying to just appear a savior for the LBGT community for his own good? Probably, but that doesn't make him look any less like a hero in this situation on a rule that is long past due to be repealed. Too bad our President cant muster enough courage to stand up to the GOP the way Joe is standing up to both parties here. As an aside, if this bill does finally get repealed, its a subtle sign to President Obama that its time to face Congress, as opposed to being reticent and introverted.
WATCH HERE!

Poll Finds People are For Tax Cuts. It Shall Pass.

Though Ryan Christopher WISHES it could be his last post on tax cuts, I think we are in for a blowhole of new influx. The Senate vote today is at noon and the Senate tax cut bill is expected to win by an overwhelming margin. The debate will have to move to the House when this happens. It will be rushed to a vote before the year ends in order to keep all working Americans relieved of taxes and give most unemployed a fighting chance to succeed. Politico reports this morning that 20 house Republicans will be against this bill, which means only 60 of 255 Democrats are needed for the bill to pass. Not a lot. In addition, a new Washington Post-ABC News pollshows that 69 percent of Americans support the tax compromise. Some hardcore conservative and progressive liberal constituencies may be miffed at this compromise, which may make a few votes nay. However, this compromise is important to fueling the economy. Money has been blocked from circulating, companies are holding dollars rather than hiring, and the fragile upbeat of the economy could be muted without this help. The leadership knows this and will not turn down such a political gift; this bipartisan and constituent compromise.

Hacker, Film 2010

The 1995 film Hackers, starring Angelina Jolie was a playful introduction in to what young technologically gifted minds were capable of then. In the film a teenage boy was arrested by the US Secret Service on charges of computer hacking. Hacking has really emerged itself in our headlines as of late, between the ever thriving wiki leaks, who has exposed MasterCard and many US financial shortcomings, or lapses in judgement if you will. Information is still held on many companies including financial giant, Ban of America. The much acclaimed Julian Assange and other spokespeople of wiki leaks claim to have the equivalence of 600,000 pages worth of documents leaking information about bank of America.

We have all heard quite a bit about Wikileaks, and the truth will come out when it does and some will cry, and some will open champagne, but this is not the point. In addition to Wikileaks, Gawker, a major political and popular culture blog was recently hacked into by 4chan which is the largest Enlgish speaking "image-board" website. If you ask me, 4chan is relatively childish and focuses on anime, sex related items, and has a really primitive looking template, but what do they have? Amazing hackers. The hackers had broken into and had been monitoring Gawker's administrative chats and email for 3 weeks prior to pony-trekking into each individual members emails, passwords, ans social networks.

Due to 4chans compelling success in practically shutting Gawker down, due to the fact that they were having a personal feud with each other, other sites have take precautions. LinkdIn disabled any individual passwords of those users who had a password on Gawker in case they were the same to avoid a hack of their system. Cnet news said, "The professional-networking site is taking this action to prevent any of its customers from having their LinkedIn accounts hijacked in the event that they used the same password that they used on any of the Gawker sites." My fear here is that there really is no safeguarding that we can do. If you do not want your ideas scrolled through by a group of kids battling each other in an underground gaming room, simply do not put it online. Unfortunately, none of us can bare the temptation of having others read what we think, then comment, then know what our security question answer is on our online bank account.

Supreme Court Vs. Health Care Round Three... DING

On Monday, health care reform was dealt a large blow. The requirement for Americans to purchase health insurance was found unconstitutional by U.S. District Judge Henry E. Hudson, of Virginia, on grounds that Congress is overstepping its function to uphold the commerce clause of the Constitution. Recently, the law has been challenged by the governors of various states. This could support the upcoming appeal in Florida, where the requirement was found constitutional because all Americans would at some point require health assistance, and without insurance be a liability to other taxpayers. Comments and decision on the constitutionality of the mandate in Florida are expected to be wrapped up December 16th.

Whispers here in DC find the argument to be in vain, as nobody expects the law to be rescinded, especially due to unconstitutionality, as the drafters anticipated this attack. However, what this ruling does is provide ideological support to the Conservative freight train that will continue its unstoppable course until the bill is killed or transformed into zombie legislation. We could be witnessing the first domino of a media=public opinion storm.

However, it is important to remember that the individual mandate is not integral to health care reform as a whole. Though the mandate provides a substantial source of funding, the hundreds of unquestioned initiatives that are the wheels of the bill will still roll properly. What will happen as the bill passes round three, is that the newly shifted House of Representatives will hold the moral high ground , which could trickle up to the Senate, but not the Executive branch. The law may hold strong until 2012, when we have a whole slew of new junk to deal with.

Not So DREAM Like, ACT

In order to qualify for the DREAM(Development, Relief and Education of Alien Minors) ACT one must:
- Have entered the United States before the age of 16 (i.e. 15 and younger)
- Have been present in the United States for at least five (5) consecutive years prior to enactment of the bill
- Have graduated from a United States high school, or have obtained a GED, or have been accepted into an institution of higher education (i.e. college/university)
- be between the ages of 12 and 35 at the time of application
- Have good moral character

What do you get? It gives undocumented immigrants an opportunity to enroll in the military, or college university, and be on a path to citizenship. The Center for American Progress is arguing against the conservative point of view; this creates amnesty and floods an already highly over-saturated grassy fields of the American Work Force. American Progress states that "the DREAM Act could add as many as 252,000 new scientists, engineers, and technical workers to this country’s critically thin supply. Conversely, failing to pass the bill would rob this country of a critical mass of brain power and technological innovation."

I would have to side more on the right here. Part of me wants to say "sure!" Why not allow them to pay for an education, in most likely public school systems feeding the states more income? However we already have plenty of able minded American Citizens of Hispanic, Europeans, and Asian decent! Is there reason to grant another million people amnesty? With 2.4million students graduating by the end of 2010, we will have 5 "job seekers" for every 1 position. In addition, only 44% of employers are willing to hire recent graduates even into entry level positions. What economic benefit could we gain by educating people who have not followed the steps to gain access to this country, thus relying on the Dream Act to carry them through to the large pile of 9.8% unemployment. Check out the amount of the workforce who WANTS a job column on the table above.

Senate Tax Cut Round Up

Until the house votes on this, I believe this will be my last post on the topic, unless Obama spontaneously decides to call former President George W. into the WH press conference to speak on his behalf! I just wanted to point out the vote results from yesterday, and possibly get some feedback on it. The vote actually won overwhelmingly in the Senate with 83 voting YAY! The following is a lit of those who voted NAY. Not this was not a vote on the bill but a vote for cloture, or to move the bill forward:
(15)
Bingaman (D-NM)
Brown (D-OH)
Coburn (R-OK)
DeMint (R-SC)
Ensign (R-NV)
Feingold (D-WI)
Gillibrand (D-NY)
Hagan (D-NC)
Lautenberg (D-NJ)
Leahy (D-VT)
Levin (D-MI)
Sanders (I-VT)
Sessions (R-AL)
Udall (D-CO)
Voinovich (R-OH)

Two Senators took a bold stand and just did not vote: Merkley (D-OR),Wyden (D-OR. The house is the real hurdle in this whole debate with many more audible arguments. I checked through the proposed schedule for the next couple days and it looks like the 11th order of business on Wednesday's schedule is: Possible Further Action on H.R. 4853 - Middle Class Tax Relief Act of 2010 (Sponsored by Rep. Levin / Ways and Means Committee). To be continued...

Tax Cuts Dont Change Poverty Overnight

I know we have sort of been beating this tax cut ordeal all the way through the bone, but since everyone wants to talk about it I will continue. Quite frankly I am slightly abashed that liberals are still running on this whole 'class difference.' They are simply comparing the wealthy and the extremely poor, apple and bananas to make a point. Yes, the wealthy will receive a tax cut that is larger, proportional to the income. The poor are still receiving HELP. Take a look at this article from "Off the Charts," a budget analysis center gauging the efforts of relief on the middle class and poverty line. I think this article backs up my point. The current poverty line carries over from 2009 is $21,954 for a family of four. I will argue that this is insanely low. A family of one living in a metropolitan area would not be able to eat regularly on this income. That aside, the two major result were that:

-The payroll tax cut would keep 2.4m families, and 1.2m children above the poverty line. Some might consider that low so in addition it would,

-Lessen the severity of poverty for 19.4 million Americans.

I am not sure what 'the liberals' expect. How can we make much more of a difference for the ultra-low incomes with tax cuts without making of deficit so large that we can actually see, for it has buried us alive. In addition according to the Center of American Progress, there are only 2.1m children below the poverty line. So these tax cuts are moving 50% of children above the line. In efforts to not sound too partisan here on the right, is there something that I am missing?

Muzzle the Leakers, Not the Press.

Whether you consider Julian Assange a liberal revolutionary, neoconservative hero or menace to society, detaining and extraditing Assange is an assault on what all free people must be entitled to: transparent government. The accusations Assange: the sexual assault of two Swedish women are an obviously contrived fabrication. After turning himself in when a warrant was issued for his arrest in Britain, governments seem to be having silent auctions to get them in their hands and punish him for what he's done. The secret hearings in Virginia signify this absurdity of holding Assange against makeshift treason charges, and I highly doubt the American people will stand for it. Though the issue is conflicting: revealed intel may compromise our forces and foreign relationships. However, people are already savvy to most of these leaks if they have common sense. For once, I agree with Ron Paul, "In a free society we're supposed to know the truth". Richard Cohen's wise words summarize this up quite nicely: "Punish the Leakers, Spare the Press."

Update: Ryan Christopher just linked me to this gem: a 1971 court case against the New York Times and the Washington Post under the same circumstances; endangering American soldiers and the government's ability to protect itself. Regardless of this valid truism the press serves as a watchdog to help us check overreaches from the government. Though there are dangers involved with the truth, it is a standard we must begin to live by if we would like to hold moral ground as Americans. As it should be, the Washington Post and New York times were the victors in this case, showing the power of the first Amendment. Assange should be vindicated in the same fashion, that is, if he isn't extradited to Russia first.

Julian Assange sketch on SNL

I could not resist putting up a bit of humor this morning. You have to love the wikileaks. Favorite line: "Now all special requests on airlines will be marked at middle seat, kosher meal." Followed closely by the fact that Farmville will not change, so that you can continue to get requests from creepy high school friends to join your 'crop.'

Reid the Obstinate

It is unfortunate that the draconian Don't Ask, Don't Tell (DADT) rule was not repealed last week because Senator Reid took an opportunity to immediately vote on the bill. The republicans cried foul as this vote denies them the opportunity to debate their amendments into the bill. Senator Reid did a disservice to the gay/lesbian community by trying to rush a vote on an initiative that most certainly would have passed with bipartisan support. Reid's job is to be sure of the votes he has attained to pass such legislation for the American people, not to make a bold stand against the opposition.

Welcome Back Bubba!: Clinton takes Obamas Place at the Podium

President Obama invited former President Bill CLinton into the White House press conference early this evening. Does this not seem like a big deal to anyone!? Basically, what started off as a dual address by the two presidents about the tax cuts with Clinton putting his hand on Obama's shoulder, even though in 93% Clinton took a more progressive approach and raised taxes, polar opposite of Mr. Progressive Obama.

Basically Obama spoke briefly about the Senates decision to move forward with the tax cuts proposed by himself and minority leader Mitch McConnell. He then in an act of encouragement, even maybe endorsement himself, patted Clinton on the back and said he had to leave to a Christmas party.

Clinton remarked according to an article in Reuters while speaking, "I feel awkward being here and now you're going to leave me all by myself?" Why dont we just but Bubba back in charge?

Harry Reid Announces Senate Tax Cut Bill

Harry Reids office submitted a proposal for immediate release late last night in efforts to have a vote on the floor this coming Monday. As expected from his support of this week of the bill, stating merely "this is the best we can do," the bill has not changed much. ALL of the Bush Tax cuts will be extended, yes, including the top 2% for the next two years. In the Press release by Bloomberg this morning the CBO has scored the bill at a market price of $857Billion over the next ten years. It is likely that the majority of this money will be spent over the next two years, we could however see a recovery and the total addition to the deficit does not consider the positive benefits that could come. Below are the addition provisions in the bill to help out the middle class. To me it looks good, even college students are getting some relief

- Extends by two years the current tax rate for middle class families.

· Includes a $120 billion payroll tax reduction for workers.

· Extends unemployment insurance benefits for 13 months, providing a safety net that Nevadans need while they look for work.

· Extends the American Opportunity Tax Credit (college tuition), the Child Tax Credit and the Earned Income Tax Credit.

· Allows businesses to deduct 100% of certain investments in the first year.

· Extends for two years the state and local sales tax deduction.

· Extends Alternative Minimum Tax relief for two years.

If you are more into the real deal, here is the full literature on the bill.

Fight for Dont Ask Dont Tell

Early this morning I received one of the many emails I get from Obama's crew. This one was from Organizing for America. Yesterday the Don't Ask Dont Tell bill put in place by Bill Clinton in the 90's keeping men and women from being openly homosexual within the military, was voted down 57-40 in the Senate. The lone wolf on the Republican side was Senator Susan Collins who serves on the armed services committee.

According to the Huffington Post a lot of republicans went back on their word. Even Scott Brown who has voted partly on both sides of the isle since his election in Mass, a historically liberal state, decided to filibuster rather than repeal.

Also, the not so united Democratic Party broke through again. Senator Joe Manchin was the only democrat who voed against the Defense Authorization Bill repealing DADT.

"Lieberman said after the vote that he'd introduce stand-alone legislation with Susan Collins, cosponsored by Harry Reid, who promised to give it a vote during the lame duck. If it fails, Obama could simply not appeal the decision calling it unconstitutional or issue an executive order suspending enforcement."

This is all pointless when if Obama really wanted he could exercise his authority and appeal this immediately, but it may not go over well with his buddies in the south.

Unemployment Insurance FOR REAL.

Alright, I do not understand some of the self-righteous discussion about limiting unemployment benefits because it is only going to slackers. This is ridiculous. We are on the cresting of a recession toward a recovery. In this recession, millions lose their jobs. People that have worked all their lives to find a fat-daddy pink slip and a notice that their pension is gone. Sweet. Now they get sick and their insurance plan gives them a hefty Fudge Up. Nice 50 g you have to spend for a broken arm while looking for a job, which the unemployment caveat entails you must do. These are the types of people unemployment benefits are supporting. Check your facts before grouping this onto some defunct program.

Obama, Get Your House Under Control

According to Bloomberg Press, Senate Majority Leader Harry Read (D-NV) is predicting that the final vote for the tax cut deal with be held on Saturday the 11th and that opposition by the house Democrats should not delay their vote. House democrats are more or less aggravated due to be held in the dark on this deal, consisting of backroom meetings between Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Mitch McConnell. Most are not even arguing the content!

Rep. Gregory Meeks of NY is arguing that the deal breaker for him is the estate tax. The estate tax is a tax that we were not even relying on over the past year and thus can have no negative effect in the budget deficit, it is the least of the concerns in the bill. It is clear to me that Democrats are simply arguing just to be heard, probably an effort to make it look like they gave up a fight, but why? Most of them already lost their seats this past election.

In an interview yesterday, Reid replied that "he hopes the bill will pass," and it looks to. The bill has most of the republican support lagging only from those who believe the cuts should be permanent, along with Democratic support from Senate leaders such as Senator John Kerry (D-MA).

We will have to see the policy our representatives craft in the coming week to determine the absolute specifics of the deal and which sectors will be impacted. Regardless of speculative alternative solutions, the hard fact is that a deal has been made and we will work with it. Democrats have begun warming to the compromise as the White House figure, though generally more optimistic, claims that the GOP-Obama compromise will provide 2.2 million jobs. Some are calling this the next stimulus, which is what Obama was looking for anyway. Good deal.

What is more important: Instant Gratification, or Long Term Job Creation?

Compromise is good, but how about the right compromise? Let's avoid getting too long winded with theory and focus on some facts. Little has been done to abate the unemployment issue concerning the United States that rose to an obscene 10.4% in September. The Department of Labor shows that it now stands at a still staggering 9.8% and is inherently going to be the largest issue for the 112 Congress in January.

The Center for American Progress put out a great analysis of the current tax cut deal between Obama and McConnell. Below show two options. The option on the left would put more money in the economy, and is the proposed option extending tax cuts to ALL Americans and costing $594m with a net gain of 2.17m jobs. Not bad as long as the rich don't stash their money in banks.

The alternative option on the right eliminates the tax cuts for the top 2% and costs the government an extra $13million but creates 500k more jobs, which comes out to about 26 bucks a job. Quite a small price to pay for something that will inevitably help the economy out and the struggling middle class. Tax cuts would still be awarded to those families between the $250k-1million annual income level.
I do have more trust that studies have shown in the past that the rich will spend the money they get back in tax cuts over the next two years and money will circulate rather than accumulate in offshore accounts, but is it a risk that we can take?

As long as people are not dying more than usual this year I don't see the change in the Estate Tax either crippling nor correcting the budget deficit.It all comes down to if we want instant gratification(surplus of money dispersed over all income levels) or if we want to create more jobs and watch the spending within the economy go up over the nest 5-10years once the newly employed get on the right track.

Lucid compromise.

I would not say both sides are in arms. Progressives feel betrayed. Arch-conservatives are having tickle fights. Though there has been excessive name-calling from spineless to sanctimonious, I think what Barack Obama did this week was sit a bunch of nanny-nanny-boo-boos down and show them that he is just a guy that wants to do the right thing for America.

There has been talk about concession and breaking promises; compromise has developed a negative connotation. On the contrary. Obama bet the sharp trading chip he held because he was dealt a hand he needed to play. He was in vice choice between his ideals and his country: he did his job. What was conceded was 2% tax cuts to the bourgeoise. What was gained was continuation of most unemployment benefits, and confirmation of hope for the future. Where conservatives have shown their steadfast stubbornness, something was created out of nothing. There could have been nothing at all. There is now a pathway towards pragmatic change with both parties involved. Rather than a shut-down beat-em-up, we have had our first sit-down-talk-it-out. Perhaps this may lead to something more?

Obama was right to get brisque with liberals. He's been doing work so that he can get things done altogether as Americans, and people still want to play Eagles vs. Hawks. I don't see many others rolling up their sleeves to do the same.

What's important:

Unemployment benefits will be extended for another 13 months. The beneficiaries are generally not lazy people. Many to most are breadwinners and single mothers. Aside from the emotional crush of a cold Christmas, without money for purchases; paying their insurance, housing and other bills, the noble unemployed would become a liability to American economy by default or inactivity. Without unemployment benefits, workers spend less time looking for jobs that fit their abilities, getting placed in work they cannot do efficiently, creating another divot in the workforce.

Tax rates
Payroll tax will be decreased and bush tax cuts will be continued, giving people more money to spend which intuitively is our economy. Though just a two year extension would sit another $700 billion on our deficit the tax cut package with conservative concessions are an investment in the present to provide means to handle the future. Corporations are sitting on a cool $1 trillion and are nervous about what new fines and taxes they will have to pay for the new sweeping legislation (health care and financial reform) taking effect. This is a way to create incentive for them to hire. They need some cashmoney to pump out the jobs.

We can now have a discussion in politics about fiduciary duty. If this compromise had not been made, we would be poking each others eyes out in the next two years. Progressives, do not get all nuts. We are moving toward the right place.

What is this guy talking about? Money in economy=Jobs

Why are Democrats Being So Unreasonable?

The past two day shave brought the only excitement to this lame-duck session of congress. Upon action of extending the Bush Tax Cuts, both sides are up in arms. I would venture to say that the Democrats are more vocal about it, but is that not always the case? The Obama-McConnell Tax deal was a compromise with two highlights:

1. 2 year extension of Bush Tax Cuts
2. 13 month extension of unemployment benefits.

The democrats are the largest critic here, crunching numbers and showing that the top 1% will receive an additional 20,000 worth of tax credits annually while the middle class (55,000) household median will only receive about 2,700 in cuts. To me that just seems proportional. You make more, you get taxed more. When tax cuts occur, the more you are usually taxed, the more of a reduction you will receive.

In addition, if this deal does not pass and Jim DeMint and Bernie Sanders filibuster it as they have threatened, the low low class (those making under 20,000 or unemployed) will receive no extension on their unemployment benefits and just wash away. Take a compromise for what it is! Your president is actually trying to reach across the isle and save you.