Archive for December, 2008
December 9th, 2008
Yep, it’s time for Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich to resign. Eight hours and change since the feds picked him up this morning shortly after 6 a.m., I’ll add my vote to the long “he’s gotta go” list. But, I’m not going to hold my breath. A reasonable man, one who sincerely has the best interests of the state at heart, one who knows when the time is right would already have stepped down. Blogo is not a reasonable man.
He’s more likely to go ahead appoint himself Illinois’ U.S. senator to replace President-elect Barack Obama. He could do that, you know. He could do a lot of things, from executive orders to Senate appointments. He’s still the governor, in jail or out.
Since the governor is both arrogant and smart, he’s not going to resign. And, since he shows all the symptoms of a megalomaniac-cum-bipolar, resigning isn’t going to be at the top of his to-do list.
Blago needs help getting to that resignation. Time for the state legislators to earn their keep. Off to Springpatch you must go. Get Blago the mental health assistance he needs (assuming he hasn’t cut those services so deeply that they can’t even help the gov), and get him the heck out of the office. Time’s awastin’.
December 8th, 2008
If you put aside greedy flippers who got in over their heads and probably deserve the foreclosures they face, two things are almost guaranteed to lead to losing your house: (1) you lose your job; or (2) you face a catastrophic expense, like a whopping medical bill.
So, it stands to reason that if one can keep a decent job with medical benefits, one might be able to keep paying the mortgage — even if it’s an expensive or weird one. That’s probably pretty simplistic thinking, but I have to believe it makes sense for government to create jobs itself and to create the climate in which private industry can create jobs — rather than spend a ton of time and resources modifying current mortgages.
This Associated Press story out of Washington today adds credence to the “create jobs” idea: “More than half of all homeowners who had their loans modified to make the payments more affordable in the first half of the year are already in default again, banking regulators said Monday.The new data raise questions about whether government money may be better spent on creating jobs, rather than averting foreclosures, said John Reich, director of the federal Office of Thrift Supervision office at a housing industry forum sponsored by his agency.”
I suspect we also need some modifications in the mix, too, but creating and stabilizing jobs has got to be, well, as Ford used to say “Job One.”
December 5th, 2008
Note to Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., and House Financial Services Committee chair: On Jan. 20, 2009, Barack Obama becomes president of the United States. Not on election day. Not today.
Restless politicians and, frankly, restless everyday people want the president-elect doing presidential stuff right now. Earlier this week, Frank, who is at the center of the bailout maelstrom for months, said he wanted Obama to get into the trenches now, clarifying policy and making decisions that will affect and shape the economy of the country — and, eventually, the world.
To paraphrase Frank in a quote to consumer advocates Thursday: Bush isn’t being the president; time for Obama to step in.
I can understand Frank’s frustration. We’re all tired of watching our political, business and financial leaders wander around in the lameduck desert. Nothing’s getting done, ideas float and flop; for sure, no business can do much 2009 planning because there’s so little we know about what the early Obama administration do. We can all read some tea leaves, but until Obama pulls his hand off that Bible on Jan. 20 and is officially POTUS, we won’t know for sure which plan to pull out of the drawer.
If it’s tough for us peons to wait, those frustrations are multiplied billions of times over among the financial, manufacturing and political world leaders. At the risk of being simplistic, it doesn’t matter which president is in charge, as long as one is. Then we can go about adjusting and adapting. Right now, we’re all sitting in a debilitating vacuum.
Most of the time, these lame duck weeks election and inauguration mean little. The soon-to-be-retired president decorates the White House, parties with friends (and pardons others) and generally packs up for the movers. The incoming president catches up on some desperately needed sleep, parties with friends, offers jobs to a few and generally packs up for the movers. There’s usually so little that needs to be done to ensure an orderly transition.
Once in a long while, it’s different. FDR got two extra terms during World War II pretty much just because no one wanted to deal with the nightmare of getting a new president up to speed. Today, the world is in such an undefined, but clearly imploding, mess and the lack of a highly visible, competent leader at the head of the presidential table is frustrating.
We’re all sitting around saying some version of “just do it for heaven’s sake.”
Sorry, Rep. Frank. As much as I, too, wish there were someone in charge right now, that Obama were officially calling the shots and getting done what needs done, that’s not the way it works. The weeks between early November and late January are there to ensure an orderly transition. And, pulling a coup-like move as you’re somewhat suggesting, is neither Obama’s way nor the American way. Cool it. We can hold on until Jan. 20.
December 5th, 2008
And you say there’s no good news: Since 1971, the Rockford Register Star’s Excalibur award for community service has recognized men and women who change for the better the world in which we live. Excelsior, which joined Excalibur in 1979, recognizes an organization that protects and defends those who cannot do so for themselves.
And, for one hour each year the business, media, political, cultural, religious, governmental and financial leaders of the Rock River Valley remember why doing the right thing must be the cornerstone of what we do the other 8,759 hours of the year.
On Thursday night, the Register Star presented its annual Excalibur award to Dick Kunnert and its Excelsior award to the Barbara Olson Center of Hope. For that one hour competitors put aside their differences and celebrated the people who do good. Invitations to the reception, which admittedly tends to stretch to two-and-half hours because guests come early and stay late, are rarely turned down, are generally coveted and are always guaranteed to bring out a crowd. This year with more than 500 was, if not a record-breaker, among the top three.
So, why? What makes this reception so different from the dozens of other community service award recognitions? Let me offer a handful of thoughts, some pragmatic, some philosophical.
First, these two awards are capstones and winning one doesn’t come easily. It can take a decade of nominations — and years of being a finalist — before one walks to the podium to accept it. Second, you don’t win the award for doing your job exceptionally well; you win the award for a life of multifaceted caring that goes beyond what even the most dedicated of community servants and services accomplish. When you win one of these two, you are, indeed, the best.
It can be discouraging to be a repeat finalist and never the winner; yet every finalist knows — in head and heart — that the winner deserved it no matter how disappointing it is to “lose.” One can never lose with this award; being a finalist is to reach the pinnacle. That means doors open, phone calls are returned, and fund-raising is successful — and that, in turn, means these men and women go on to do even more in and for their community.
The Register Star does not choose the finalists nor the winners. Those choices are made by an independent panel of judges, none of whom have ever been identified. The only thing I know, even after almost 20 years, is that some of the judges are former winners.
I accept that some folks show up because the food and drinks are free, because they know their absences would be noticed, because it’s the official start of the Christmas season, or just because they think they have to. This year the casual conversation was often about how tough things are right now, and many wondered aloud in some grateful surprise that we would even have the reception. It is a costly event; we could have saved more than a few bucks by scaling back or ditching it altogether.
There are some things, and this reception is one of them, that make a difference no matter the political or economic climate. For one hour each year, Excalibur and Excelsior remind us there are good people doing good things for the right reasons. That these people take care of those who cannot care for themselves. That they give voice to the voiceless. That they put others before themselves. That they do the right things.
And, for that one hour, each of us knows we, too, can do so. God bless you and Merry Christmas.
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