in which things of absolutely no interest to anyone but me (and even that is debatable) are discussed
Friday, October 03, 2008
Is this week over yet?
It's not been a good week. Youngest Daughter has had some bad things happen to her this week, and on top of it all has a sinus infection. I wrote down the wrong time for a key meeting. My classes did badly on their midterms. Today in my campus mail I got a fat letter from the mid-tenure committee with three pages of things I have to provide them--by November 7.
An ACORN Falls from the Tree A congressional outrage.
By Ken Blackwell
As negotiations over Congress’s emergency rescue bill continued over the weekend, repeated rumors leaked out that the Democrats were trying to funnel money to a hyper-partisan organization involved in criminal voter fraud. I’m speaking of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now — known by its acronym, ACORN. Although ACORN was cut from the final legislation, it’s important to understand this organization and its long history with, of all people, Barack Obama. And it’s important to see how partisan this emergency legislation has become.
As the weekend progressed, reports were constantly emerging of the sticking points preventing a final agreement. One of these reputed points of contention was whether 20 percent of the profit proceedings for asset sales in the future would go to what is called the Housing Trust Fund, subsidizing certain groups for ostensibly nonpartisan activity. One of these groups that this trust supports is ACORN.
ACORN has often been in the news since 2004. Officially, they work to register voters and support housing. In reality, everyone in public life knows that they are hardcore supporters for the Democratic Party, and employ bare-knuckle tactics. Their organization is plagued by repeated investigations of voter fraud and other crimes.
In Ohio, where as secretary of state I oversaw elections for eight years, ACORN has been busy. One ACORN man in Reynoldsburg was indicted on two felony counts of voter fraud, and another was indicted in Columbus. Other such problems surfaced in Cuyahoga County, where criminal investigations are ongoing.
It’s not just Ohio. ACORN personnel are facing criminal charges in over a dozen states. In Washington State, for example, seven ACORN leaders had felony charges filed against them for voter fraud.
And there’s an unexpected twist. One of the organizations accused of pushing banks into making many of the unwise loans at the heart of the current crisis is … ACORN. Now that’s ironic. An organization that possibly contributed to our current financial profits is now being considered to make money off of it. And by “money,” I’m referring to your tax money.
Twice already this year Congress has funneled money to ACORN. Some report that February’s economic stimulus included funds for ACORN, as did the bill to help people struggling with mortgages passed this April.
What deserves closer scrutiny is Barack Obama’s history with ACORN. Obama cites Saul Alinsky, a self-acknowledged radical who advocated extreme acts to achieve social goals, as one of his inspirations. ACORN follows the Saul Alinsky model. After Obama graduated from Harvard, he went to work for ACORN in Chicago. Mr. Obama then became a trainer for ACORN, teaching others how to employ ACORN tactics in voter registration drives.
This ACORN involvement coincides with the increasing partisanship of this situation.
Congressional Democrats, and specifically Mr. Obama, are now saying that the problem underlying all this is “deregulation,” pushed by the Republicans. There are two fundamental flaws with this allegation.
First, this is not deregulation. This is not the private sector. Fannie and Freddie are government creations, that pay their executives millions of dollars but are shielded with your tax money from suffering the downside risk of the market. Engage in racetrack-style financing, they must be strictly controlled. Deregulation is about keeping government from hobbling the private sector and hamstringing its ingenuity and productivity. Deregulation does not apply.
Second, Republicans have tried to rein in Fannie and Freddie. Republican attempts to reform them in 1999 failed. In 2003, when Alan Greenspan testified about how Fannie and Freddie’s loose practices could endanger our financial system, it was Democrat Barney Frank who said these institutions were fundamentally sound, and should be more aggressive in getting loans to low-income people. In 2005, a Republican reform passed the Senate Banking Committee on a party-line vote, only to be blocked by Democrats from passing the full Senate. And in 2006 when John McCain spoke on the Senate floor of the need to reform Fannie and Freddie immediately, Democrats (including Barack Obama) would not respond.
You can also see where Fannie and Freddie look for protection by where they direct their money. Public records show that the top two recipients of Fannie/Freddie campaign contributions are Sens. Chris Dodd and Barack Obama, taking $165,000 and $126,000, respectively. Dodd, who chairs the Senate Banking Committee, and Mr. Obama, who says he’s going to remedy the whole situation.
It suddenly seems so clear why Democrats want ACORN to get some of the taxpayers’ money. I have unapologetically criticized Republicans, some by name, for out-of-control spending, lack of accountability, and other inexcusable actions that have tarnished the GOP and disserved the nation. And there are other issues that are either both parties’ fault, or no one’s fault.
But here, the Democrats are squarely to blame. They have resisted all attempts at reforming Fannie and Freddie, and pushed those organizations to become ever more reckless in their policies. This made the investments on Wall Street carrying those tainted mortgages go from bad to worse, and now we’re in a crisis and on the verge of a meltdown.
This is inexcusable. And if independent voters figure this out, their outrage over this situation will suddenly be directed against the party that pushed these disastrous policies. So Democrats want ACORN to get as much funding as possible, because they might need some new votes in their column on Election Day.
Voter fraud is in one sense the worst crime against democracy. The sole means of democratically choosing leaders is through voting. Every voter gets an equal vote. Every citizen who is a law-abiding adult has an equal voice in who will govern us. Our vote is sacred. Those engaging in voter fraud are in one sense no different than who intimidated voters at the polls in years past. Voter fraud may not be attended by the suffering that accompanied the beatings and water hoses of those days, but the assault on democracy is no less real.
ACORN is a discredited organization, and far too many of its leaders and workers have been prosecuted for felonies against democracy. The idea that a single dime of taxpayer money would ever go to such a group is an outrage.
And Mr. Obama needs to explain his involvement with them. — Ken Blackwell, a former Ohio secretary of state, is a senior fellow at the American Civil Rights Union. He has also served as an undersecretary at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
First and foremost, my friend A has just found out that her job is gone after Friday. She works for a major American automaker, and they are in trouble. A is one of the reasons I will never ever buy a non-American automobile. We have lost too much of our manufacturing capability to Japan and China. I don't want us to lose this too.
Please remember A in your prayers, that she will find a new, better, and more stable job quickly. In HomeCity, that's a tall order but God can provide.
Second, I watched this yesterday. I don't begrudge any American their Constitutional right to express their opinions. I am sure the same thing happens to the opposition (I would hope not; I would hope we are better than that, but I also know human nature). But that one question at the end, after seeing the ferocity of the reactions, struck me. Indeed, how far is it from the open hand to the middle finger?
However, if you look back over history, politics has been contentious from the start. This polarization is nothing new. I think it feels worse because we've removed a lot of safeguards from society. We've become more rude, more coarse, more confrontational in everyday small things.
Missives from the provost and dean are coming nearly every day. All of them involve tenure. It's getting very annoying.
The rumors that were flying last week are partly true and partly not. No, we don't have to submit reviews from publications. Yes, we have to have someone external to the Uni review our tenure packets. The last e-mail from the provost laid out a long list of requirements for the tenure review, from examining syllabi and graded exams to ranking outlets for publications. We are assured that ranking isn't going to take place yet, but already the provost tried to make a blanket statement that conference papers won't count. Deans from fields where the conferences are more selective than journals protested, and the provost backed off.
More worrisome is the new dean's failure to fight for people currently up for tenure who don't fit the new paradigm of Ph.D. holder with a research background. So, this new policy, which we were told wouldn't apply to anyone past the mid-tenure review, is indeed applying to those who went up this year. It's nuts. Those past mid-tenure who don't have the required publication numbers have to scramble in the next three years to get papers out. With the long publication cycle of paper journals, these people don't have time to go the traditional route. They are being advised to submit to online journals, who have a shorter review time. BUT--online journals are not highly regarded, and too many online journal papers will get a negative review from an external person. It's a vicious circle.
Another annoyance is tuition exchange. I'm in my fourth year at this school. At five years, my daughter would get free tuition (currently, she gets 75% free). She is heading to college full time next year, and I won't be at the five year mark yet. If she goes to a school in our tuition exchange program, we will have to pay the full weight for her first year. Argh.
I've checked my TIAA-CREF account to see if the banking situation has impacted my tiny retirement fund any. I saw some loss in the stocks section but gains in other areas. I've got an aggressive plan, because I have to make up for 13 years of stay-at-home-mom pay, so I was worried that I'd go backwards with my fund. Right now I have enough in there to last, oh, one year. Then it's eating cat food, lol, because my Social Security fund is just as tiny as my TIAA-CREF amount.
Oh well. I can't think about all that stuff now. I have two or three sets of homework assignments to grade, and three midterms to write. I've got a paper I want to get out by the end of October. My condo bedroom is messy and I need to organize it better. Youngest Daughter needs new jeans and is contemplating making them herself, which means I get to make them because she doesn't know how to sew yet. So it's time to stop worrying and get to work.
Still sick. Still sneezing loud enough to scare the cats, still runny-nosed, and now coughing. Fun, wow.
So, I made myself some Cream of Wheat with toast and sat down to watch my Team. Ahhhh. At this point, we are behind 3-0 but the game is young.
Yesterday's game didn't turn out so well, Alma Mater U's poor football team got creamed. They hung in there for quite a while, though, before the opposing team just steamrolled them.
I made African sweet potato stew in my slow cooker yesterday and it was very very yummy. Today I started a batch of chili so Youngest Daughter has a choice of food for dinners and I have something hot to take for lunch/dinner at work. I've got a nice pot roast I'll pop in the oven after the football game and that will be yet another choice for us this week.
When I went to stir the chili, I noticed a funny kind of plastic-cooking smell (amazing I could smell at all, let alone pick out that scent from the general chili-aroma). I think the countertop is cooking. I put a tempered-glass cutting board under the slow cooker and now I don't notice the smell. Yikes! Yesterday I had that slow cooker on high for four hours, right in that exact spot. I guess I'd better keep it off the counter from now on.
Sadness, I am almost out of Russian Caravan tea, my mainstay for when I have a cold. Time to order some more. I think I have enough for one more pot.
Stupid runny nose. Stupid sneezing. Stupid swollen glands. And, I have no chicken soup and I am out of Puffs Plus.
Anyway.
Alma Mater U's football team, which went Division 1 a few years ago, has had an exciting season so far. Last week's game was a nail-biter with a fabulous ending (for us, not for the opposing team). I am looking forward to listening to them play this afternoon (no TV coverage, too bad).
I've decided I have to take at least one day off every week from academic stuff or I will just be completely unable to come up with viable research ideas. My brain needs a rest! So, I've taken up an old hobby and am working on a number of special presents. They are not going to be finished quickly, as I haven't got tons of time to work on them, but I'm enjoying myself immensely. So, while I'm listening to AMU's game on the Internet, I can work on Best Friend's present.
The big news is really big, size-wise. Spouse bought me a 46" high-def LCD television for the condo, replacing my little 13" Sharp. It comes Thursday. Dad is going to condo-sit until it gets here, as I have two back-to-back MS defenses to attend. Football and hockey are going to be FANTASTIC on that thing. Wow. Can't wait!
