LA Times—For many unemployed workers, jobs aren’t coming back
Posted by Kendall Harmon

The U.S. economy will eventually rebound from the Great Recession. Millions of American workers will not.

What some economists now project — and policymakers are loath to admit — is that the U.S. unemployment rate, which stood at 9.6% in August, could remain elevated for years to come.

The nation's job deficit is so deep that even a powerful recovery would leave large numbers of Americans out of work for years, experts say. And with growth now weakening, analysts are doubtful that companies will boost payrolls significantly any time soon. Unemployment, long considered a temporary, transitional condition in the United States, appears to be settling in for a lengthy run.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Economics, Politics • Economy • Corporations/Corporate Life • Labor/Labor Unions/Labor Market • Personal Finance • The Credit Freeze Crisis of Fall 2008/The Recession of 2007-- • The U.S. Government • Politics in General • House of Representatives • Office of the President • President Barack Obama • Senate

September 6, 2010 at 10:02 am - 0 comments - [link] [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]

Martin Rubin (WSJ) review’s Tony Blair’s new Memoir
Posted by Kendall Harmon

Mr. Blair has a pleasing capacity to take us with him into privileged places, whether it's upstairs at the White House (where, over dinner, he finds Mr. Bush "unbelievably, almost preternaturally calm" before his major speech to Congress after 9/11) or to Balmoral itself, where he must dash down long corridors to the toilet facilities, which are both remote and old-fashioned— Victorian water closets. He gives a frank account of how hard it was, in his early years as prime minister, to get on with Queen Elizabeth, who treated him with "hauteur."

Not surprisingly, Mr. Blair offers a robust defense of his role in taking Britain into the Iraq war, though he agonizes over the invasion's violent aftermath. To this day he sees the overthrow of Saddam Hussein as the one true course for his country (and ours). More surprisingly, he notes that his close relations with the U.S., despite the war's unpopularity, gave him increased stature with other world leaders, who assumed that he had Mr. Bush's ear.

As for the joint U.S.-British decision to seek (in vain) United Nations approval for the Iraq invasion, Mr. Blair has no apologies. He reveals that although Vice President Dick Cheney was adamantly opposed to involving the U.N., Mr. Bush did not take much persuading. In any case, the U.N. declined to authorize the use of military force, and the invasion went ahead anyway. Clearly, for Mr. Blair, it was better to have tried multilaterally and lost than never to have tried at all.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Books • * Economics, Politics • Foreign Relations • Iraq War • Politics in General • * International News & Commentary • America/U.S.A. • England / UK

September 5, 2010 at 12:45 pm - 1 comments - [link] [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]

Religion and Ethics Newsweekly: the Islamic Center Controversy
Posted by Kendall Harmon

[DAISY] KHAN: The extremists have defined the agenda for the global Muslim community, and we wanted to amplify the voices of the ordinary Muslims who are, you know, law-abiding citizens, and it was my way of, like, helping rebuild by building a center that would create a counter-momentum against extremism.

[SALLY] REGENHARD: I want to make it clear that I and my—members of my group do not have anger towards Muslims. But it’s too close, it’s too painful, it’s too soon. I’m still trying to find remains of my son.

[MICHAEL] BURKE: It amounts to an insult. It comes across as intentionally provocative.

[BOB] FAW: Proponent Khan, though, has drawn a line in the sand, arguing that being forced to move the site elsewhere amounts to “surrender.”

KHAN: I think it would be un-American to ask anybody to leave the neighborhood. We’re part of the neighborhood. I don’t think anybody should be driven out of their neighborhood. It’s about acceptance. Muslims are not being accepted as equals in this country yet.

Read or watch it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • History • Law & Legal Issues • Religion & Culture • * Economics, Politics • Politics in General • City Government • Terrorism • * Religion News & Commentary • Other Faiths • Islam

September 4, 2010 at 1:38 pm - 0 comments - [link] [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]

The Economist: How the threats to the internet’s openness can be averted
Posted by Kendall Harmon

Three sets of walls are being built. The first is national. China’s “great firewall” already imposes tight controls on internet links with the rest of the world, monitoring traffic and making many sites or services unavailable. Other countries, including Iran, Cuba, Saudi Arabia and Vietnam, have done similar things, and other governments are tightening controls on what people can see and do on the internet.

Second, companies are exerting greater control by building “walled gardens”—an approach that appeared to have died out a decade ago. Facebook has its own closed, internal e-mail system, for example. Google has built a suite of integrated web-based services. Users of Apple’s mobile devices access many internet services through small downloadable software applications, or apps, rather than a web browser. By dictating which apps are allowed on its devices, Apple has become a gatekeeper. As apps spread to other mobile devices, and even cars and televisions, other firms will do so too.

Third, there are concerns that network operators looking for new sources of revenue will strike deals with content providers that will favour those websites prepared to pay up.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Blogging & the Internet • --Social Networking • Globalization • Law & Legal Issues • * Economics, Politics • Economy • Consumer/consumer spending • Politics in General

September 4, 2010 at 1:14 pm - 1 comments - [link] [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]

Thomas Straubhaar (Der Spiegel)—America Has Become Too European
Posted by Kendall Harmon

The Obama administration and the Federal Reserve want to fix the United States economy by spending more money. But while that approach might work for Europe, it is risky for the US. The nation would be better off embracing traditional American values like self-reliance and small government.

There's no question about it: The 20th century was America's era. The United States rose rapidly from virtually nothing to become the most politically powerful and economically strongest country in the world. But the financial crisis and subsequent recession have now raised doubts about its future. Are we currently witnessing the beginning of the end of the American era?

Read it all.

Filed under: * Economics, Politics • Economy • Consumer/consumer spending • Corporations/Corporate Life • Credit Markets • The 2009 Obama Administration Bank Bailout Plan • The 2009 Obama Administration Housing Amelioration Plan • The Banking System/Sector • The Credit Freeze Crisis of Fall 2008/The Recession of 2007-- • The Fiscal Stimulus Package of 2009 • The Possibility of a Bailout for the U.S. Auto Industry • The U.S. Government • Federal Reserve • Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner • Politics in General • Office of the President • President Barack Obama • * International News & Commentary • America/U.S.A. • Europe • Germany

September 4, 2010 at 12:00 pm - 2 comments - [link] [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]

Syria’s Solidarity With Islamists Ends at Home
Posted by Kendall Harmon

This country, which had sought to show solidarity with Islamist groups and allow religious figures a greater role in public life, has recently reversed course, moving forcefully to curb the influence of Muslim conservatives in its mosques, public universities and charities.

The government has asked imams for recordings of their Friday sermons and started to strictly monitor religious schools. Members of an influential Muslim women’s group have now been told to scale back activities like preaching or teaching Islamic law. And this summer, more than 1,000 teachers who wear the niqab, or the face veil, were transferred to administrative duties.

The crackdown, which began in 2008 but has gathered steam this summer, is an effort by President Bashar al-Assad to reassert Syria’s traditional secularism in the face of rising threats from radical groups in the region, Syrian officials say.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Religion & Culture • * Economics, Politics • Politics in General • * International News & Commentary • Middle East • Syria • * Religion News & Commentary • Other Faiths • Islam

September 4, 2010 at 10:00 am - 1 comments - [link] [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]

Liz Wolgemuth (US News and WR)—5 Key Lessons in August’s Jobs Report
Posted by Kendall Harmon

Slow growth will have Washington seeking stimulus. This may be a better-than-expected jobs report, but the job growth is still very small. The economy needs to be adding hundreds of thousands of jobs every month to absorb new people entering the job market and put the unemployed back to work. So lawmakers may be looking for more stimulus. "There is a good chance that the Obama Administration will introduce a set of targeted economic stimulus programs," [Sung Won] Sohn says. "Payroll tax relief to encourage new hiring for small businesses is a good possibility. State and local governments are laying off employees as revenue falls. Some assistance from Washington could stem job losses here." Shortly after the release of the August jobs report Friday, President Obama encouraged lawmakers to pass a $55 billion bill that would provide additional loans to small businesses. Housing stimulus may also be coming--along with more unemployment benefit extensions, Sohn says.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Economics, Politics • Economy • Corporations/Corporate Life • Labor/Labor Unions/Labor Market • The Credit Freeze Crisis of Fall 2008/The Recession of 2007-- • The U.S. Government • Politics in General

September 3, 2010 at 5:14 pm - 0 comments - [link] [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]

South Carolina panel urges tax shake-up
Posted by Kendall Harmon

Every gallon of gasoline you pump would cost you 5.5 cents more.

You'd pay 19 cents more each month to run the water from your tap.

The medicines you take to treat your illnesses would cost an additional 88 cents a month.

Turning on the lights and the television would help run up an additional 79 cents a month on the electricity bill for the typical South Carolina household.

You would have to open your wallets for new taxes at the grocery store and get used to paying for sales taxes on more of the services you buy, such as home pest control treatment, pampering at the beauty salon and a storage unit to stash your stuff.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Economics, Politics • Economy • Consumer/consumer spending • Corporations/Corporate Life • Taxes • The Credit Freeze Crisis of Fall 2008/The Recession of 2007-- • Energy, Natural Resources • Politics in General • State Government

September 3, 2010 at 4:25 pm - 19 comments - [link] [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]

A Local newspaper Editorial: Grade teachers on performance
Posted by Kendall Harmon

Mr. [Arne] Duncan joined Ms. [Michaelle] Rhee in advocating the use of student test scores as a measure of teaching ability and paying teachers for performance. Ms. [Randi ] Weingarten agreed that teacher performance should be measured, but objected to the recent publication of teacher evaluations by the Los Angeles Times, calling that particular evaluation system flawed. Mr. Duncan, in contrast, praised the publication.

Meanwhile, teacher union leaders in Los Angeles have urged a boycott of the Times and asked union members to suspend their subscriptions. So much for thoughtful discourse.

On this issue Ms. Weingarten and the teacher unions are fighting a rearguard action. A recent Gallup poll found, unsurprisingly, that 72 percent of public school parents believe teacher pay should be based on performance.

That's a reasonable expectation, since the future of their children is at stake.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Education • * Economics, Politics • Politics in General • City Government

September 3, 2010 at 10:36 am - 11 comments - [link] [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]

New Yorkers Want Islamic Center Moved, Poll Finds
Posted by Kendall Harmon

Two-thirds of New York City residents want a planned Muslim community center and mosque to be relocated to a less controversial site farther away from ground zero in Lower Manhattan, including many who describe themselves as supporters of the project, according to a New York Times poll.

The poll indicates that support for the 13-story complex, which organizers said would promote moderate Islam and interfaith dialogue, is tepid in its hometown.

Nearly nine years after the Sept. 11 attacks ignited a wave of anxiety about Muslims, many in the country’s biggest and arguably most cosmopolitan city still have an uneasy relationship with Islam. One-fifth of New Yorkers acknowledged animosity toward Muslims. Thirty-three percent said that compared with other American citizens, Muslims were more sympathetic to terrorists. And nearly 60 percent said people they know had negative feelings toward Muslims because of 9/11.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Law & Legal Issues • Religion & Culture • * Economics, Politics • Politics in General • City Government • * Religion News & Commentary • Other Faiths • Islam

September 3, 2010 at 6:00 am - 8 comments - [link] [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]

CNS—Speakers of various faiths offer perspective on N.Y. mosque controversy
Posted by Kendall Harmon

Jewish, evangelical and Catholic speakers, some with backgrounds in national security and interfaith relations, called the controversy over plans to build an Islamic community center and mosque a few blocks from ground zero in New York "contrived" and likely to help those who would recruit potential terrorists.

"The individuals and organizations who are contriving this controversy seem to will that (a war with Islam) will come into existence," said Andrew Bacevich, a retired Army officer and professor of international relations at Boston University, in a Sept. 1 teleconference organized by the group Faith in Public Life. "It is absolutely imperative that we act together to deny them this."

Meanwhile, in an interview with the Wall Street Journal the same day, New York Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan said he was working with Jewish and Muslim religious leaders to identify clerics and laypeople to invite to interreligious discussions to work out conflicts as they occur.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Law & Legal Issues • Religion & Culture • * Economics, Politics • Politics in General • City Government • Terrorism • * Religion News & Commentary • Other Faiths • Islam

September 2, 2010 at 3:56 pm - 4 comments - [link] [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]

Elaine Chao (WSJ)—Another Unhappy Labor Day
Posted by Kendall Harmon

This coming Monday marks the second Labor Day of the Obama administration, and the American work force has little to show for it other than higher unemployment, stagnant wages, last year's $1.4 trillion federal deficit, this year's $1.3 trillion deficit, and next year's anticipated $1 trillion-plus deficit. Oh, and a slew of new federal regulations and programs—like ObamaCare—that will make it even more expensive for businesses to retain current workers, much less create new jobs.

No wonder American confidence in the future is evaporating. And when confidence crumbles, consumers won't spend, lenders won't lend, investors won't invest, and businesses won't hire.

Today we see businesses husbanding cash rather than hiring. Nonfinancial S&P 500 companies are sitting on a record $837 billion. Personal savings are increasing dramatically, to over 6% of income today compared to barely 1% in 2005. Those small businesses still willing to take on more debt to expand are having tremendous difficulty finding credit.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Economics, Politics • Economy • Corporations/Corporate Life • Labor/Labor Unions/Labor Market • The Credit Freeze Crisis of Fall 2008/The Recession of 2007-- • The U.S. Government • Federal Reserve • Politics in General • House of Representatives • Office of the President • President Barack Obama • Senate

September 2, 2010 at 7:30 am - 0 comments - [link] [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]

James Pethokoukis: Tax Cuts considered—Obama’s September surprise?
Posted by Kendall Harmon

2) Payroll tax cut is not a bad idea for stimulus, but U.S. has longer-term job and growth problem that needs to be addressed.

3) Payroll tax cut for $400 billion in early 2009 would have been better than Obama’s $862 billion plan.

4) Any short-term tax cut should be coupled with long-term deficit reduction plan.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Economics, Politics • Economy • Consumer/consumer spending • Corporations/Corporate Life • Housing/Real Estate Market • Labor/Labor Unions/Labor Market • Taxes • The U.S. Government • Politics in General • Office of the President • President Barack Obama

September 1, 2010 at 5:48 pm - 0 comments - [link] [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]

David Leonhardt—Tax Cuts That Make a Difference
Posted by Kendall Harmon

...the most effective tax cut for putting people back to work quickly is one that businesses and households get only if they spend money. Last year’s cash-for-clunkers program was an example. So was a recent bipartisan tax credit for businesses that hired workers who had been unemployed for months. Perhaps the broadest example is a temporary cut in the payroll tax for businesses, which reduces the cost of employing people.

Any of these steps would increase the budget deficit, obviously. But relative to the multitrillion-dollar, Medicare-driven, long-term deficit, a temporary tax cut costing a couple of hundred billion dollars isn’t significant. The more pressing problem today, by far, is the weak economy.

The great historical lesson of financial crises is that governments are usually not aggressive enough in responding. That was Japan’s mistake in 1990s, Herbert Hoover’s in the early 1930s and even Franklin Roosevelt’s in the mid-1930s.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • History • * Economics, Politics • Economy • Consumer/consumer spending • Corporations/Corporate Life • Housing/Real Estate Market • Labor/Labor Unions/Labor Market • Personal Finance • The Credit Freeze Crisis of Fall 2008/The Recession of 2007-- • The U.S. Government • Politics in General • House of Representatives • Office of the President • President Barack Obama • Senate

September 1, 2010 at 5:38 pm - 0 comments - [link] [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]

A Local newspaper Editorial: Post-Lockerbie shame
Posted by Kendall Harmon

The "compassionate release" of a convicted PanAm bomber in 2009 was an affront to justice and to the families of the 270 people who died in Lockerbie, Scotland, on Dec. 21, 1988. It looks even worse given the perspective that the following year has provided....

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Law & Legal Issues • * Economics, Politics • Foreign Relations • Politics in General • Terrorism • * International News & Commentary • Africa • Libya • America/U.S.A. • England / UK • --Scotland

September 1, 2010 at 5:18 am - 3 comments - [link] [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]

David Brooks: Nation Building Works
Posted by Kendall Harmon

Iraq ranks fourth in the Middle East on the Index of Political Freedom from The Economist’s Intelligence Unit — behind Israel, Lebanon and Morocco, but ahead of Jordan, Egypt, Qatar and Tunisia. Nearly two-thirds of Iraqis say they want a democracy, while only 19 percent want an Islamic state.

In short, there has been substantial progress on the things development efforts can touch most directly: economic growth, basic security, and political and legal institutions. After the disaster of the first few years, nation building, much derided, has been a success. When President Obama speaks to the country on Iraq, he’ll be able to point to a large national project that has contributed to measurable, positive results.

Of course, to be honest, he’ll also have to say how fragile and incomplete this success is. Iraqi material conditions are better, but the Iraqi mind has not caught up with the Iraqi opportunity.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Economics, Politics • Defense, National Security, Military • Foreign Relations • Iraq War • Politics in General • * International News & Commentary • America/U.S.A. • Asia • Afghanistan • Middle East • Iraq

August 31, 2010 at 7:51 am - 5 comments - [link] [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]

Mark Helprin (WSJ): The World Trade Center Mosque and the Constitution
Posted by Kendall Harmon

Mosques have commemoratively been established upon the ruins or in the shells of the sacred buildings of other religions—most notably but not exclusively in Cordoba, Jerusalem, Istanbul, and India. When sited in this fashion they are monuments to victory, and the chief objection to this one is not to its existence but that it would be near the site of atrocities—not just one—closely associated with mosques because they were planned and at times celebrated in them.

Building close to Ground Zero disregards the passions, grief and preferences not only of most of the families of September 11th but, because we are all the families of September 11th, those of the American people as well, even if not the whole of the American people. If the project is to promote moderate Islam, why have its sponsors so relentlessly, without the slightest compromise, insisted upon such a sensitive and inflammatory setting? That is not moderate. It is aggressively militant.

Disregarding pleas to build it at a sufficient remove so as not to be linked to an abomination committed, widely praised, and throughout the world seldom condemned in the name of Islam, the militant proponents of the World Trade Center mosque are guilty of a poorly concealed provocation. They dare Americans to appear anti-Islamic and intolerant or just to roll over.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Law & Legal Issues • Religion & Culture • * Economics, Politics • Politics in General • City Government • Terrorism • * Religion News & Commentary • Other Faiths • Islam

August 30, 2010 at 6:41 am - 30 comments - [link] [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]

Bankers Told Recovery May Be Slow
Posted by Kendall Harmon

The American economy could experience painfully slow growth and stubbornly high unemployment for a decade or longer as a result of the 2007 collapse of the housing market and the economic turmoil that followed, according to an authority on the history of financial crises.

That finding, contained in a new paper by Carmen M. Reinhart, an economist at the University of Maryland, generated considerable debate during an annual policy symposium here, organized by the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, which concluded on Saturday.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • History • * Economics, Politics • Economy • Consumer/consumer spending • Corporations/Corporate Life • Housing/Real Estate Market • Labor/Labor Unions/Labor Market • Personal Finance • The Banking System/Sector • The Credit Freeze Crisis of Fall 2008/The Recession of 2007-- • The U.S. Government • Politics in General

August 30, 2010 at 6:00 am - 4 comments - [link] [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]

Policy Options Dwindle as Economic Fears Grow
Posted by Kendall Harmon

It increasingly seems as if the policy makers attending like physicians to the American economy are peering into their medical kits and coming up empty, their arsenal of pharmaceuticals largely exhausted and the few that remain deemed too experimental or laden with risky side effects. The patient — who started in critical care — was showing signs of improvement in the convalescent ward earlier this year, but has since deteriorated. The doctors cannot agree on a diagnosis, let alone administer an antidote with confidence.

This is where the Great Recession has taken the world’s largest economy, to a Great Ambiguity over what lies ahead, and what can be done now. Economists debate the benefits of previous policy prescriptions, but in the political realm a rare consensus has emerged: The future is now so colored in red ink that running up the debt seems politically risky in the months before the Congressional elections, even in the name of creating jobs and generating economic growth. The result is that Democrats and Republicans have foresworn virtually any course that involves spending serious money.

The growing impression of a weakening economy combined with a dearth of policy options has reinvigorated concerns that the United States risks sinking into the sort of economic stagnation that captured Japan during its so-called Lost Decade in the 1990s.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Economics, Politics • Economy • Corporations/Corporate Life • Credit Markets • Housing/Real Estate Market • Labor/Labor Unions/Labor Market • Stock Market • The Credit Freeze Crisis of Fall 2008/The Recession of 2007-- • The U.S. Government • Budget • Federal Reserve • The National Deficit • The United States Currency (Dollar etc) • Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner • Politics in General • House of Representatives • Office of the President • President Barack Obama • Senate

August 29, 2010 at 6:11 pm - 6 comments - [link] [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]

(New Vision) African Bishops told to boost development
Posted by Kendall Harmon

President Yoweri Museveni on Wednesday evening hosted the visiting African and foreign Bishops to a dinner at State House Entebbe. The prelates are here for the second All Africa Bishops Conference in Entebbe at Imperial Resort Beach Hotel which ends tomorrow.

As they arrived atop the hill at snail pace in three minibuses, many were awe struck by the breath taking beauty of the palatial structure, imposing majestically over Entebbe town. They ate and drank, with the President who called on them to champion social economic transformation.

“It is very important that the church leaders, political leaders and traditional leaders understand that social-economic transformation is the main problem in Africa”, the President said.

Read it all

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Church of Uganda • * Economics, Politics • Economy • Politics in General • * International News & Commentary • Africa

August 29, 2010 at 1:03 pm - 0 comments - [link] [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]

Struggling Cities Shut Firehouses in Budget Crisis
Posted by Kendall Harmon

Fire departments around the nation are cutting jobs, closing firehouses and increasingly resorting to “rolling brownouts” in which they shut different fire companies on different days as the economic downturn forces many cities and towns to make deep cuts that are slowing their responses to fires and other emergencies.

Philadelphia began rolling brownouts this month, joining cities from Baltimore to Sacramento that now shut some units every day. San Jose, Calif., laid off 49 firefighters last month. And Lawrence, Mass., north of Boston, has laid off firefighters and shut down half of its six firehouses, forcing the city to rely on help from neighboring departments each time a fire goes to a second alarm.

Fire chiefs and union officials alike say it is the first time they have seen such deep cuts in so many parts of the country. “I’ve never seen it so widespread,” said Harold A. Schaitberger, the general president of the International Association of Fire Fighters.

Read it all from the front page of yesterday's NY Times.

Filed under: * Economics, Politics • Economy • The Credit Freeze Crisis of Fall 2008/The Recession of 2007-- • Politics in General • City Government

August 28, 2010 at 12:40 pm - 0 comments - [link] [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]

AP—Imam behind NYC mosque faces divisions over center
Posted by Kendall Harmon

Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf has long worked to bridge divisions, be they fissures between interfaith husbands and wives or political chasms separating the United States and the Muslim world.

The 61-year-old clergyman is now in the midst of a polarizing political, religious and cultural debate over plans for a multistory Islamic center that will feature a mosque, health club and theater about two blocks north of ground zero. He is one of the leaders of the Park51 project, but has largely been absent from the national debate over the implications of building a Muslim house of worship so close to where terrorists killed more than 2,700 people.

Though Rauf has said the center, which could cost more than $100 million, would serve as a space for interfaith dialogue, moderate Muslim practice and peaceful prayer, critics say it will create a base for radical, anti-American Islam. Some critics have also asked where the funding for the center might originate and whether it may come from sources linked to Muslim extremists.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Religion & Culture • * Economics, Politics • Politics in General • City Government • * Religion News & Commentary • Other Faiths • Islam

August 28, 2010 at 12:00 pm - 2 comments - [link] [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]

A Terrific NBC Video Report on the Transformation of New Orleans’ Schools
Posted by Kendall Harmon

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy



As far as I am concerned, Tulane University President Scott Cowen is a national hero--someone needs to give the man a medal--KSH.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Education • Hurricane Katrina • * Economics, Politics • Politics in General • City Government

August 28, 2010 at 11:29 am - 3 comments - [link] [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]

AP: Snapshot of U.S. Economy about to get a lot bleaker
Posted by Kendall Harmon

"The economy is going to limp along for the next few months," said Gus Faucher, an economist at Moody's Analytics. There's even a one in three chance it could slip back into recession, he said.

Many temporary factors that boosted the economy earlier this year are fading. Companies built up their inventories after cutting them sharply in the recession to match slower sales. The increase provided a boost to manufacturers, but now many companies' stockpiles are in line with sales and don't need to grow as much. In addition, the impact of the government's $862 billion fiscal stimulus program is lessening. That leaves the private sector to pick up the slack. But businesses are cutting back on their spending on machines, computers and software, according to a government report earlier this week. And the housing sector is slumping again after a popular home buyer's tax credit expired in April.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Economics, Politics • Economy • Consumer/consumer spending • Corporations/Corporate Life • Credit Markets • Housing/Real Estate Market • Labor/Labor Unions/Labor Market • Personal Finance • Stock Market • The Credit Freeze Crisis of Fall 2008/The Recession of 2007-- • The Fiscal Stimulus Package of 2009 • The U.S. Government • Federal Reserve • Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner • Politics in General • House of Representatives • Office of the President • President Barack Obama • Senate

August 27, 2010 at 6:00 am - 6 comments - [link] [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]

Looking at Islamic Center Debate, World Sees U.S.
Posted by Kendall Harmon

Across the world, the bruising struggle over an Islamic center near ground zero has elicited some unexpected reactions.

For many in Europe, where much more bitter struggles have taken place over bans on facial veils in France and minarets in Switzerland, America’s fight over Park51 seems small fry, essentially a zoning spat in a culture war.

But others, especially in countries with nothing similar to the constitutional separation of church and state, find it puzzling that there is any controversy at all. In most Muslim nations, the state not only determines where mosques are built, but what the clerics inside can say.

The one constant expressed, regardless of geography, is that even though many in the United States have framed the future of the community center as a pivotal referendum on the core issues of religion, tolerance and free speech, those outside its borders see the debate as a confirmation of their pre-existing feelings about the country, whether good or bad.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Globalization • Religion & Culture • * Economics, Politics • Politics in General • City Government • * Religion News & Commentary • Other Faiths • Islam

August 27, 2010 at 5:19 am - 6 comments - [link] [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]

Anthem Blue Cross is allowed to move ahead with rate hikes in California
Posted by Kendall Harmon

California insurance regulators cleared the way Wednesday for Anthem Blue Cross to implement scaled-back rate hikes after a previous increase was canceled amid an uproar over its size.

Anthem said it intends to put the new rates — averaging 14% and as high as 20% — into effect Oct. 1 for nearly 800,000 individual California policyholders.

Regulators also allowed one of Anthem's nonprofit competitors, Blue Shield of California, to move ahead with rate increases — averaging 19% and as high as 29% — for 250,000 individual policyholders.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Health & Medicine • * Economics, Politics • Economy • Consumer/consumer spending • Corporations/Corporate Life • The Credit Freeze Crisis of Fall 2008/The Recession of 2007-- • Politics in General • State Government

August 26, 2010 at 4:02 pm - 4 comments - [link] [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]

(Miami Herald) Miami pastors pray, strategize over inner-city violence
Posted by Kendall Harmon

The wake-up call comes after a series of police-involved shootings since early July that have left four men dead and a community asking hard questions.

On July 5, a rookie police officer shot and killed DeCarlos Moore in Overtown as Moore disobeyed an order and returned to his car. He had no weapon.

The most recent case involved Tarnorris Tyrell Gaye, 19, who was shot and killed last Friday by the same officer who shot and killed a man during a sting-gone-bad nine days earlier.

That day, police say, 16-year-old Joell Lee Johnson was killed during an undercover police operation involving holdups of fast-food deliverers after the teen pointed a gun at the officer.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Christian Life / Church Life • Parish Ministry • Ministry of the Ordained • * Culture-Watch • Religion & Culture • Violence • * Economics, Politics • Politics in General • City Government

August 26, 2010 at 11:30 am - 0 comments - [link] [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]

Wisconsin’s Holy Apostles Episcopal Church Locked in a debate with their town over property taxes
Posted by Kendall Harmon

It's church versus state in a local taxation battle.

Episcopal church officials say the property tax assessment on land next to Holy Apostles Church on the Oneida Indian Reservation is unlawful because it's designated a cemetery.

Village of Hobart assessor Mike Denor says 23 acres that have a 2010 property tax obligation of about $600 are mostly woods, and even calling it a cemetery "is kind of a stretch."

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Episcopal Church (TEC) • TEC Parishes • * Christian Life / Church Life • Parish Ministry • * Culture-Watch • Law & Legal Issues • Church/State Matters • * Economics, Politics • Economy • Taxes • Politics in General • City Government

August 25, 2010 at 11:34 am - 2 comments - [link] [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]

Intel CEO: U.S. faces looming tech decline
Posted by Kendall Harmon

[Paul] Otellini singled out the political state of affairs in Democrat-dominated Washington, saying: "I think this group does not understand what it takes to create jobs. And I think they're flummoxed by their experiment in Keynesian economics not working."

Since an unusually sharp downturn accelerated in late 2008, the Obama administration and its allies in the U.S. Congress have enacted trillions in deficit spending they say will create an economic stimulus -- but have not extended the Bush tax cuts and have pushed to levy extensive new health care and carbon regulations on businesses.

"They're in a 'Do' loop right now trying to figure out what the answer is," Otellini said.

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Globalization • * Economics, Politics • Economy • Corporations/Corporate Life • Labor/Labor Unions/Labor Market • The U.S. Government • Politics in General • House of Representatives • Office of the President • President Barack Obama • Senate

August 25, 2010 at 11:20 am - 0 comments - [link] [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]

David Brooks: A Case of Mental Courage
Posted by Kendall Harmon

This [19th century] emphasis on mental character lasted for a time, but it has abated. There’s less talk of sin and frailty these days. Capitalism has also undermined this ethos. In the media competition for eyeballs, everyone is rewarded for producing enjoyable and affirming content. Output is measured by ratings and page views, so much of the media, and even the academy, is more geared toward pleasuring consumers, not putting them on some arduous character-building regime.

In this atmosphere, we’re all less conscious of our severe mental shortcomings and less inclined to be skeptical of our own opinions. Occasionally you surf around the Web and find someone who takes mental limitations seriously. For example, Charlie Munger of Berkshire Hathaway once gave a speech called “The Psychology of Human Misjudgment.” He and others list our natural weaknesses: We have confirmation bias; we pick out evidence that supports our views. We are cognitive misers; we try to think as little as possible. We are herd thinkers and conform our perceptions to fit in with the group.

But, in general, the culture places less emphasis on the need to struggle against one’s own mental feebleness. Today’s culture is better in most ways, but in this way it is worse.

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Education • History • Philosophy • Psychology • * Economics, Politics • Politics in General • * Theology • Ethics / Moral Theology

August 25, 2010 at 4:41 am - 4 comments - [link] [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]

Can Oregon downsize state government?
Posted by Kendall Harmon

Despite years of talk by Democrats and Republicans about the need to control spending, farm out work to private businesses and make government finances more transparent, the opposite has occurred.

Rather than becoming leaner, the state work force increased by 7.1 percent since 2005 -- outpacing Oregon's population growth.

The number of top state employees earning more than $100,000 a year more than doubled during the past decade.

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Filed under: * Economics, Politics • Economy • Consumer/consumer spending • Corporations/Corporate Life • Credit Markets • Housing/Real Estate Market • Labor/Labor Unions/Labor Market • Taxes • The Credit Freeze Crisis of Fall 2008/The Recession of 2007-- • Politics in General • State Government

August 24, 2010 at 11:27 am - 6 comments - [link] [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]

Today’s Quiz—The New Whig Party—a Party for the Mild-Mannered—Where are their poll Numbers?
Posted by Kendall Harmon

Here is the way the WSJ front page article on the new party opens--

This year, an anti-Washington mood is opening doors to novice candidates from right and left who speak to the ire coursing through the electorate. The Modern Whigs, a start-up party with a venerable name, are trying to tap an even more elusive force: the angry moderate.
.

Here is the question: Jeff Vanke, the new Whig candidate running for Congress in Roanoke, Virginia, is how far behind the Republican incumbent at present? Please guess without peaking.


Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Psychology • * Economics, Politics • Politics in General • House of Representatives • * International News & Commentary • America/U.S.A.

August 24, 2010 at 6:26 am - 11 comments - [link] [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]

WSJ: CIA Man Is Key to U.S. Relations With Karzai
Posted by Kendall Harmon

The Obama administration has turned to the Central Intelligence Agency's station chief in Afghanistan to troubleshoot Washington's precarious relationship with President Hamid Karzai, propelling the undercover officer into a critical role normally reserved for diplomats and military chiefs.

The station chief has become a pivotal behind-the-scenes power broker in Kabul, according to U.S. officials as well as current and former diplomats and military figures. In April, when Mr. Karzai lashed out against his Western partners, it was the station chief who was tapped by the White House to calm the Afghan president.

Read more...

Filed under: * Economics, Politics • Defense, National Security, Military • Foreign Relations • Politics in General • Office of the President • President Barack Obama • War in Afghanistan • * International News & Commentary • Asia • Afghanistan • Pakistan

August 24, 2010 at 5:01 am - 0 comments - [link] [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]

WSJ Front Page—Facing Budget Gaps, Cities Sell Parking, Airports, Zoo
Posted by Kendall Harmon

Cities and states across the nation are selling and leasing everything from airports to zoos—a fire sale that could help plug budget holes now but worsen their financial woes over the long run.

California is looking to shed state office buildings. Milwaukee has proposed selling its water supply; in Chicago and New Haven, Conn., it's parking meters. In Louisiana and Georgia, airports are up for grabs.

About 35 deals now are in the pipeline in the U.S., according to research by Royal Bank of Scotland's RBS Global Banking & Markets. Those assets have a market value of about $45 billion—more than ten times the $4 billion or so two years ago, estimates Dana Levenson, head of infrastructure banking at RBS. Hundreds more deals are being considered, analysts say.

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Filed under: * Economics, Politics • Economy • The Credit Freeze Crisis of Fall 2008/The Recession of 2007-- • Politics in General • City Government • State Government

August 23, 2010 at 6:39 am - 5 comments - [link] [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]

Time Magazine Cover Story: Does America Have a Muslim Problem?
Posted by Kendall Harmon

(Make sure to view the actual cover there).

You don't have to be prejudiced against Islam to believe, as many Americans do, that the area around Ground Zero is a sacred place. But sadly, in an election season, such sentiments have been stoked into a political issue. As the debate has grown more heated, Park51, as the proposed Muslim cultural center and mosque two blocks from Ground Zero is called, has become a litmus test for everything from private-property rights to religious tolerance. But it is plain that many of Park51's opponents are motivated by deep-seated Islamophobia.

Read it all.


Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Religion & Culture • * Economics, Politics • Politics in General • City Government • * Religion News & Commentary • Other Faiths • Islam

August 22, 2010 at 1:00 pm - 22 comments - [link] [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]

Monty Knight: Proposed Islamic Center is challenge for Christians
Posted by Kendall Harmon

Our Constitution may or may not be more concerned with justice than sensitivity. Interestingly, there is a portion of Scripture that addresses this. In both chapters 6 and 10 of Paul's letter, First Corinthians, he instructs his fellow Christians with this admonition: "All things are lawful, but not all things are helpful." In that context, if Paul is urging Christians in a pluralistic society to be sensitive to others whose views and values may be different from theirs, he is also urging those same Christians to not be overly sensitive when their sensibilities are offended. Indeed, it is a Christian ethic that admonishes both offender and offended alike.

My life has been enriched by relationships with people different from myself, religiously or otherwise -- enough, in fact, for me to conclude that the surest way to rob any of us of our humanity is to pay too much attention to how we have been labeled. The First Amendment reflects the highest and noblest vision of our great nation. And for many of us, at least, that means we are most Christian when we understand, accept and respect those who aren't.

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Religion & Culture • * Economics, Politics • Politics in General • City Government • * Religion News & Commentary • Other Faiths • Islam

August 22, 2010 at 12:38 pm - 15 comments - [link] [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]

Local Paper front Page: The face of the newly poor
Posted by Kendall Harmon

Every day, an average of 112 people -- most of them the newly poor -- sign up for free government health care in South Carolina.

Since the recession officially hit in December 2007, some 3,300 people a month, on average, have signed up for Medicaid in a state that outpaces the nation for poverty, obesity and diseases such as diabetes. Yet, South Carolina's political leaders have been among the most vocal in the country in opposition of the new health care law....

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Health & Medicine • --The 2009 American Health Care Reform Debate • Law & Legal Issues • Poverty • * Economics, Politics • Economy • Housing/Real Estate Market • Labor/Labor Unions/Labor Market • The Credit Freeze Crisis of Fall 2008/The Recession of 2007-- • The U.S. Government • Politics in General • State Government • * South Carolina

August 22, 2010 at 6:00 am - 9 comments - [link] [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]

WSJ Weekend Interview: America’s Insurgent Pollster Scott Rasmussen
Posted by Kendall Harmon

Mr. Rasmussen has a partial answer for ...[White House Chief of Staff Rahm] Emanuel's question, and it lies in a significant division among the American public that he has tracked for the past few years—a division between what he calls the Mainstream Public and the Political Class.

To figure out where people are, he asks three questions: Whose judgment do you trust more: that of the American people or America's political leaders? Has the federal government become its own special interest group? Do government and big business often work together in ways that hurt consumers and investors? Those who identify with the government on two or more questions are defined as the political class.

Before the financial crisis of late 2008, about a tenth of Americans fell into the political class, while some 53% were classified as in the mainstream public. The rest fell somewhere in the middle. Now the percentage of people identifying with the political class has clearly declined into single digits, while those in the mainstream public have grown slightly. A majority of Democrats, Republicans and independents all agree with the mainstream view on Mr. Rasmussen's three questions. "The major division in this country is no longer between parties but between political elites and the people," Mr. Rasmussen says.

His recent polls show huge gaps between the two groups. While 67% of the political class believes the U.S. is moving in the right direction, a full 84% of mainstream voters believe the nation is moving in the wrong one.

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Education • Media • Psychology • * Economics, Politics • Economy • The Credit Freeze Crisis of Fall 2008/The Recession of 2007-- • Politics in General • House of Representatives • Office of the President • President Barack Obama • Senate

August 21, 2010 at 2:57 pm - 3 comments - [link] [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]

NY Times Week in Review: Over Time, a Same Sex Marriage Groundswell
Posted by Kendall Harmon

Gay marriage is not going away as a highly emotional, contested issue. Proposition 8, the California ballot measure that bans same-sex marriage, has seen to that, as it winds its way through the federal courts.

But perhaps the public has reached a turning point.

A CNN poll this month found that a narrow majority of Americans supported same-sex marriage — the first poll to find majority support. Other poll results did not go that far, but still, on average, showed that support for gay marriage had risen to 45 percent or more (with the rest either opposed or undecided).

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Law & Legal Issues • Marriage & Family • Psychology • Religion & Culture • Sexuality • Civil Unions & Partnerships • * Economics, Politics • Politics in General • House of Representatives • Office of the President • President Barack Obama • Senate • State Government • * Theology • Anthropology • Ethics / Moral Theology

August 21, 2010 at 1:57 pm - 4 comments - [link] [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]

Eden Martin (WSJ)—Unfunded Public Pensions—the Next Quagmire
Posted by Kendall Harmon

The consequences of doing nothing would be painful. But they would be far less harmful than the consequences of an unconditioned federal bailout, which would mean massive new fiscal commitments at the federal level.

Unfortunately, leaders in Illinois and elsewhere are now talking quietly about the possibility of a federal bailout. Such speculation undermines state and local efforts to reform pension systems or make other hard choices. Why agonize over unpopular budget cuts or tax increases if the feds will ride to the rescue?

Bailing out state pensions would be astronomically expensive. According to a Pew Foundation estimate this year, the total unfunded liabilities of the 50 states' pension funds amounted to about $1 trillion in 2008. Another recent study, by Josh Rauh of Northwestern and Robert Novy-Marx of the Chicago Booth School of Business, estimated that the unfunded liability was closer to $3 trillion. Adding the liabilities of municipal pension funds makes the total even larger.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Economics, Politics • Economy • Personal Finance • Pensions • Taxes • The Credit Freeze Crisis of Fall 2008/The Recession of 2007-- • The U.S. Government • Politics in General • City Government • State Government

August 20, 2010 at 4:29 pm - 10 comments - [link] [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]

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